Fast Friday Recap...with Kyle Souza
This past Fast Friday, Chad Baxter spanked the field in the Pure Stock division. The extra distance 30 lap feature race as part of the Phil’s Propane Triple Crown Series was an impressive run for the RLS Performance, Richard Sprague prepared car No. 21. Baxter found himself quickly to the front of the field, took the lead, and then drove away from two former champions — Andrew Kun and Scott Cestodio in the final laps to get the big win.
Though Baxter was able to carry the checkered flag, the story of the feature was a couple of hard crashes. The first was a pileup down the backstretch on lap one, when multiple drivers tried to check up after Max Bergstrom got sideways at the front. Many gave their best shot but it was a racing chain reaction and multiple cars got together. The second crash was a scary one at the exit of turn four, when Melissa Charette got collected with Mike Hendriques and Charette went towards the turn four wall.
She slammed the wall head on with her No. 10 and completely destroyed the car. Charette luckily was able to walk away without any injury, but it was a tough break. That car will not be back on track probably at all — as it was extremely damaged.
In our 25 lap Nick’s Pit Stop Legends feature, Nick Lascuola took a borrowed ride into Everett’s Auto Parts Victory Lane for his second win of the season. Lascuola started from inside the top-five and quickly got to the lead early on and many thought that from there, it would be clear sailing for the Abington, Massachusetts driver. However, it was not. He was challenged over the final 15 laps of the feature by the man they call “Batman” — Brandon Martinez. He gave everything he had to get by Lascuola, cutting his way through traffic and getting to the back bumper of the No. 39.
Before long, Martinez slid by into the top spot, but then the car started getting loose. For those new to racing, loose means that the car wants to spin out, so Martinez had his hands full over the final 10 laps trying to seal the deal. In the end, Lascuola slid back by with a crossover move and grabbed the victory in the Marfeo Motorsports No. 39. Lascuola’s regular car had been crashed a few weeks ago and after they fixed it and returned to the track, the motor blew — so Marfeo has allowed him to pilot the ride for now. There is no better way to end the night other than victory lane.
In the SYRA 600 feature on Friday, Ava Chouinard finally captured the checkered flag after coming so close so many times this season. With her father Bill, a former Pure Stock champion beside her, Chouinard never gave in. She never gave up trying to get that win even though many times this season she had led the feature in the final laps and something had gone wrong. This time she was able to seal the deal and capture the win. Bill was emotional in victory lane and it was a surprise, since Bill is normally the quiet one who doesn’t show any emotion. Congrats, Ava. More wins are coming for sure.
Our other SYRA feature on Friday, the 750 class, was an impressive run to the checkered flag for Luke LeBrun. For the fourth straight week, LeBrun captured the checkered flag behind the wheel of his No. 27. The fourth straight win did not come as easy as the other three had — since this time, LeBrun had a heavy challenge from Colin McMullen, who was fighting hard on the bottom lane. He gave everything he had to get to the inside of LeBrun in the final two corners, but the power underneath the hood of the No. 27 was just too much — giving LeBrun another win.
The only other feature on Friday saw defending Sport 4 champion David Westgate capture the checkered flag behind the wheel of his No. 49. Westgate started deep in the field behind the wheel of his 4-cylinder ride and worked right through the traffic like a knife cutting through butter. He got to the lead and never looked back, finally returning to Everett’s victory lane after a long time away. Congrats to Dave and his entire TFB Racing team on a hard fought win.
Next Friday night, we hit the month of August and begin with round two of the Phil’s Propane Triple Crown Series for the SYRA divisions!