Speedway 95 – Saturday July 20 [RESULTS]

Mother Nature "behaved" and there was a full night of racing at Speedway 95 in Hermon on Saturday, July 20th. Here are the results.

Mike Hopkins of Hermon took a big win at Speedway 95 Saturday night when he won the 125 lap $5000.00 to win Granite State Pro Stock Series event, the first of 2 to be held at the track this season.

Hopkins started 3rd in the 14 car field that took the green flag. He planted his car on the bumper of pole-sitter Evan Beaulieu of Durham, Maine and stayed there until he and Beaulieu tangled coming out of turn four on the 49th lap. In his post-race interview, Hopkins took the blame for the incident, saying that he anticipated when Beaulieu would begin accelerating coming out of the turn, but his estimate was wrong and he hit the rear of Beaulieu’s car, causing it to spin. Both drivers took their cars to the pit for repairs, so restarted at the rear of the field. Hopkins worked his way back through the field, battling for position with Josh St. Clair of Liberty, taking the second spot on lap 100. He was following Nick Jenkins of Brownville, who had led the field from lap 69 until the yellow flag canceled his 3.75 second lead on lap 89. Jenkins was again leading Hopkins by .986 seconds as Hopkins was embroiled in a battle for position with St. Clair when he went wide in turn 4 on lap 117 and spun his car on the frontstretch. Hopkins retained the lead, beating St.Clair on the restart and remaining there to the finish. St. Clair finished second, with Travis Benjamin recovering from an incident on lap 64 that put him to the rear of the field finishing third. Bryan Lancaster of Skowhegan and Evan Beaulieu rounded out the top 5.

Jordan Pearson of Thorndike grabbed the lead in the Casella Waste Systems Street Stocks on lap 30, when he and leader Bob Seger Jr. encountered lapped traffic, with Pearson coming out of the incident in the lead, and staying there until the checkered flag fell on lap 50, earning him the $1500.00 first place prize. Seger finished the race in the second spot, with Matthew Bourgoine of Stetson in third. Garett Hayman of Milford finished fourth in the only Ford in the field, with James Goodman of Carmel finishing fifth.

Horace Crawford of Troy led the Coca-Cola Company Cage Runner feature from the green to the checkers, but had to work for it every lap with Derek Smith of Bangor glued to his bumper until a mechanical problem slowed Smith just enough to allow Crawford a little relief in the final laps. Smith finished second, with Jeffery Burditt of Otis in third. Erik Worster of Hampden and Nick Bickford of Etna were fourth and fifth.

QUICK RESULTS:

GRANITE STATE PRO-STOCK SERIES 125 LAPS:

1. 15 Mike Hopkins, Hermon

2. 14 Josh St. Clair, Liberty

3. 7 Travis Benjamin, Morrill

4. 81 Bryan Lancaster, Skowhegan

5. 56 Evan Beaulieu, Durham

CASELLA WASTE SYSTEMS STREET STOCKS 50 LAPS:

1. 3 Jordan Pearson, Thorndike

2. 51 Bob Seger Jr. Frankfort

3. 8 Matthew Bourgoine, Stetson

4. 21 Garett Hayman, Milford