Three Times Lucky for Sommerville!

Saturday night in the Geary woods was a thriller to say the least.  Twenty seven cars made their way to Speedway 660 to compete in the Parts for Trucks 100.  Chris Hughes and local native Matt Harris started on the front row of the 24 car field.  The race which was hampered by a lot of cautions during the first 50 laps improved in style with a thrilling finish involving four front runners.  Lonnie Sommerville, Shawn Tucker, Craig Slaunwhite and Shawn Turple were the players and the 1/3 mile oval was the field of play.  Sommerville had been sent to the rear of the field three times during the event while Tucker had been issued the same faith once himself.  Both drivers made their way to the front of the field with just 8 laps to go.    At lap 92 Turple had led over half of the race (67 laps) but on the restart on lap 92, Slaunwhite would take the lead.   The #99 of Slaunwhite seemed to be primed to take home the victory: Enter Lonnie Sommerville and Shawn Tucker.  After a caution with just 2 laps to go, Sommerville and Tucker sat 3rd and 4th behind Slaunwhite and Turple.   Sommerville dove to the inside off the restart and nestled himself right on the bumper of the #99 while Tucker was waiting patiently or not so patiently in the wings.   With 1 lap to go Slaunwhite and Sommerville were battling hard with Sommerville getting the 99 loose with just 2 turns to go.   Slaunwhite who was desperately trying to fight back left the door open for Tucker to slide into 2nd.   On the last turn Sommerville cleared the two and took the checker in one of the most thrilling finishes in recent tour events.   Finishing 2nd was a thrilled Shawn Tucker and a disappointed #99 Craig Slaunwhite finished a very respectable 3rd.   The top Speedway 660 car was #88 of Kevin Moore finishing in 8th place.   Other notables were Matt Harris in 11th, Jordan Gahan in 16th and Brian Gillespie in 23rd spot.

In the Leisure Family RV.com Street Stock division, the over 3500 race fans got to see Kevin McKeen take home his first checker of the year with an impressive run against the point leaders.  The win moves McKeen into sole possession of 4th place in the points race.  The surprise of the night though turned out to be the first podium finish for the rookie Devin Snell.   Snell in his #10 ride had always started towards the back of the field to date because of his rookie status but on this night Snell with five weeks of seat time under his belt was allowed to qualify with his handicap position.   That starting position just happened to be front row of the Leisure Family RV.com feature.  Snell led 15 of the 20 laps but on lap 16 the caution flew and the points leaders caught him.   Off the restart Snell would relinquish his lead but still finished a strong third place.   Rick Cashol finished a strong second and moved into sole possession of first place atop the points championship standings.  Another notable was Smokin Joe Albert who entered the night in the points lead and looked to expand on it only to be involved in a wreck late in the feature.  The wreck cost Albert five positions in the standings.

In the Martin’s Home Heating Sportsman division a 2010 record of 28 cars showed up to try and qualify for a spot in the 24 car field.   The 30 lap main event saw some great action going nearly caution free.   Randy Moore took the early lead until lap 9 when Saint John native Steve Halpin made the pass during green flag racing.  Halpin would lead the way from there and hold off the no 44 of George Jamieson and the 26 of Brent Roy.   Jamieson made several attempts to make the pass on the outside but Halpin held him off time and time again.   Brent Roy seemed to be satisfied with a solid 3rd place finish.   The points race tightened up significantly with many of the top cars figuring in the mix.

Speedway 660 has its mid summer break next week but returns on August 7th with the Sportsman 150.

For full details on Parts for Trucks 100 finish check out www.maritimeprostocktour.com