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Epping, NH: Joey Payne of Fairlawn, NJ, struck early and never looked back in the Northeastern Midget Association (NEMA)’s race number two at All-Star Speedway during Memorial Day Weekend in Epping, NH. After the field had an extremely hard time getting underway, having run over 50 caution laps before two green flag laps were complete, Payne battled Erica Santos and Pete Pernesiglio for the lead and led the final 22 circuits of the event.

Payne started the feature event from the sixth spot. Shortly, he advanced into the third spot in dogged pursuit of both Pernesiglio and Erica Santos. When the lap two restart-fest was over, it was Payne charging to the front past Santos. Payne withstood multiple restarts throughout the race with strong initial challenges from Ben Seitz, but pulled away each time before heading on to victory.

The 25 lap event, initially scheduled for 30 laps, was marred by seven caution flag periods on lap two. Erica Santos and Pete Pernesiglio held the top two spots for the first four restarts, before Pernesiglio went off the track on one of the restarts sending his machine to the rear. Another top runner, Randy Cabral in the Bertrand Motorsports entry had the same misfortune on the last of the seven restarts.

When the race finally resumed, Payne struck on Santos moving quickly into the lead. At this point, Ben Seitz in the Cape Cod Aggregates machine had also bounded to the front and settled in behind Santos.

Seitz dove under Santos on a lap seventeen restart as the previous event’s winner “Liquid” Lou Cicconi Jr. also placed his cards on the table after charging from the tenth spot to fourth. Payne comfortably out front and Seitz settled in second paced ahead of the field as Cicconi began to apply pressure to Santos.

A restart with five laps to go saw Payne at the point followed by Seitz, Santos, Cicconi, Shane Hammond in the MJ Motorsports #4 and Randy Cabral, who had charged back to the front from twenty fifth spot. Payne would once again pull away as Cicconi advanced around Santos, whose car was beginning to run low on fuel.

A restart with two laps to go saw no position changes as Payne would go on to take down his first win of the 2007 season followed by Seitz, Cicconi, Hammond and Cabral. Pernesiglio would finish in sixth as Santos slipped to seventh, barely finishing on fuel, rookie Chris Leonard, B.J. Macdonald and Ryan Dolan.

An elated Payne celebrated with friends and crew at the conclusion of the feature event.

The Northeastern Midget Association resumes the battle on June 9th when the club makes its first visit to Monadnock Speedway in many years .