|
Race 14
Thompson International Speedway
The Xtra Mart
World Series
October 27, 2002
| 1 |
12x |
K. Carpenter |
Hard
Charger |
| 2 |
4 |
B. Santos III |
- |
| 3 |
50 |
P. Pernesiglio |
- |
| 4 |
44 |
E. Breault |
- |
| 5 |
45 |
R. Stoehr |
- |
| 6 |
17 |
B. Seitz |
- |
| 7 |
16 |
M. O'Brien |
- |
| 8 |
33 |
J. Libby |
- |
| 9 |
57 |
B. Bradbury |
- |
| 10 |
7x |
E.J. Douville |
- |
| 11 |
15 |
R. Dolan |
DNF |
| 12 |
35 |
R. Cabral |
DNF |
| 13 |
2 |
H. Bumpus |
DNF |
| 14 |
54 |
D. Fonoro |
DNF |
| 15 |
3 |
T. Spada |
DNF |
| 16 |
47 |
M. Buonomo |
DNF |
| 17 |
59 |
N. Fonoro |
DNF |
| - |
81 |
T. Heath |
DNS |
| - |
87 |
D. Cleveland |
DNS |
| - |
21 |
B. Kittredge |
DNS |
| - |
98 |
M. Roselli Jr. |
DNS |
| - |
77 |
M. Lugelle |
DNS |
|
Thompson,
CT – Kyle Carpenter’s strategy was not complicated |
“All I wanted to do was to get a
good start and see if I could hold these guys off,” he said. “The car was pretty
loose so I wanted to be real smooth, try not to get into the throttle too hard. Then, I
just put my foot it and held on.”
Inheriting the lead on lap 18, the 18-year old Carpenter “held on” to post his
first-ever Northeastern Midget Association win Sunday, capturing the 25-lap feature at
Thompson Speedway’s World Series. Carpenter is the 10th winner as NEMA completed its
Gold Anniversary season.
Fifth was more then enough for Russ Stoehr to capture the driver and owner championships
respectively for himself and Gene Angelillo, the duo running a streak to three. It was the
fifth straight for Angelillo.
Carpenter finished a car length in front of a fast-closing Bobby Santos III, the latter
driving the car usually driven by Bobby Seymour. It put an amazing cap on an event that
saw Carpenter inherit the lead when a Ryan Dolan-Santos duel ended in the fourth turn
– Santos in the wall and Dolan in the pits with a flat tire.
“I don’t know what happened,” said Carpenter, who was running “five
car lengths behind” in third. “All I saw was Santos spinning. I was trying to
save my right rear. I knew I had about eight laps left.”
On the yellow, Carpenter noticed Dolan’s right rear was going flat. “You’ve
got to go up and tell somebody if he’s got a right rear down,” he continued.
“So, I went up and told him. I actually got the lead on caution.”
Meanwhile, the Seymour crew got Santos back in the field. The first restart was called
back and, on the second, Carpenter pulled away from Pete Pernesiglio. Santos passed seven
cars in the final laps, closing to within a car length at the checkered.
Kyle “had no idea” of Santos’ progress but father Brad did. “One more
lap he would have had us for sure,” said the winning car owner. “If he
didn’t have that tangle, he was gone. We were lucky, no question about it.”
He wasn’t about to give it back however. “Brad drove the car well; he kept out
of trouble and it came to us tonight,” continued Brad. It was a popular victory.
Dolan, the Icebreaker winner at Thompson, had the lead by lap four. A circuit later,
Santos moved around Mark Buonomo into second and began closing in on Dolan. Buonomo, in
the Bertrand 47, slowed and Randy Cabral assumed third.
Caution flew when Cabral hit a caliper off Dolan’s car which split the oil tank.
“The car was flying at that point,” said Cabral, who (along with his father/car
owner Glen) wound up second in the point standings. “We would have been a
factor.”
On the green, leader Dolan and Santos got right back to it. Dolan got the jump but Santos
moved inside through one and two and they headed down the back straight side-by-side.
There was clearly contact in three as Santos, now on the outside, slid into the wall.
Santos’ final run included a brief side-by-side duel for third with fellow rookie Ben
Seitz, the latter sliding up into the cement in turn three on lap 22. Santos got by
Pernesiglio a lap later and then wiped away Carpenter’s half-straightaway edge over
the last two laps.
Pernesiglio held on for third followed by Ed Breault and Stoehr. Seitz recovered for sixth
followed by Matt O’Brien, Jim Libby, Bob Bradbury and A.J. Douville.
Stoehr and Angelillo ended up with a 1754-1639 edge on the Cabrals in the final point
standings. Drew Fornoro and owners the Capanale Brothers finished third with 1609.
Carpenter is the third member of the 2002 rookie class to win this year, joining Dolan and
Bertrand.
Results: 1. Kyle Carpenter, 2. Bobby
Santos III,
3. Pete Pernesiglio, 4. Ed Breault, 5. Russ Stoehr, 6. Ben Seitz, 7. Matt
O’Brien, 8. Jim Libby, 9. Bob Bradbury,
10. A.J. Douville, 11. Ryan Dolan, 12. Randy Cabral,
13. Howard Bumpus, 4. Drew Fornoro, 15. Tommy Spada,
16. Mark Buonomo, 17. Nokie Fornoro |
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|
Photos by
Norm Marx
nmarx-dtp@attbi.com
978-957-0877
Dracut, MA
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