Friday , September 23 , 2016 The Colebrook Chronicle Page 19
Sports
SPEEDWAY 51
The hard work of a grueling season culminated Saturday for six drivers and their crews as they were crowned Speedway 51 Track Champions . Defending champion Kasey Beattie ( 45 ) of St . Johnsbury can always be found with one of the biggest smiles at the racetrack , whether he ’ s behind the wheel or playing football with an empty water bottle in his race suit behind the bleachers . But the young wheelman trailed Garrett LaBounty ( 76 ) by 20 points with five races to go , that ’ s when he proceeded to win four of those final five races including the championship finale to retain his championship . LaBounty would finish second in the race and the championship after coming into the final weekend tied with Evan Hallstrom ( 1vt ) who finished third .
Kasey was as excited as any of our champions to win his second championship with the exception of perhaps our Schweppes Street Stock Champion Bunker Hodgdon ( 83 ). The Hardwick , Vt ., driver came into Saturday ’ s event 20 points ahead of Jarred Plumley ( 12 ) all while seeing his car flipped over smashed and crashed throughout a long season running two tracks full time . Saturday night would only add an exclamation point on the roller coaster adventure after the high peak of a second place finish in the first segment to the sudden drop as he was involved in a big accident in the second segment that sent him head on into one of the light poles in the infield . During a lengthy caution the 83 team scrambled with the help of no less then five different race teams to some how piece his car back together and salvage a eighth place finish in the segment which was good enough for third overall behind William Henneguin ( 47 ) and Brandon Gray ( 00 ) and a brand new championship . For Hodgdon it ’ s his third championship in ten seasons but he said of his first speedway 51 Championship , “ Saturday night at the track is a night and championship I will never forget !” and added , “ Now the Fall Brawl is next on my hit list .”
It was all smiles for Brendan Moodie ( 94 ) who celebrated a second straight championship in the Sign Depot Tiger Sportsman Division a week after clinching the honor . Moodie would finish second on the night behind Stephen Donahue ( 26 ) of Graniteville , Vt ., while Hardwick , Vermont ’ s Jaden Perry finished third in just his third start in a tiger . Brendan also drives full time at two tracks and nobody has done it better than him the past two seasons with less then a handful of finishes outside the top three and 14 wins at Speedway 51 . He was very thankful for the guys he races , “ This is a great group of guys , everybody races each other clean and I just have a lot of fun .” Moodie will go for his second straight Fall
The Colebrook girls squared off against Groveton during the Homecoming matchups this weekend . Charles Jordan photo .
Brawl victory Oct . 8 and 9 .
With his lead cut to twelve points with two races to go West Burke , Vermont ’ s Derek Ming ( 5 ) did what champions due , he closed it out . Ming won the heat and feature the final two weeks for the maximum points possible and leave no possibility of Shawn Swallow ( 04 ) catching him . For the North Country Ford Late Model Champion Saturday was his fourth win of the season finishing in front of Chris Pelkey ( 64 ) and Randy Potter ( 55 ). Ming celebrated with his family and crew .
The White Mountain Community College Pure Stock championship is staying in the family . 2015 champion Alan Derrington ( 75 ) presented the trophy in victory lane to son Todd Derrington ( 57 ). After Todd thanked his father he made sure to add , “ Last year he was driving my car so that one shouldn ’ t even count ,” which got a good laugh . Richie Veilleux ( 32 ) won qualifying and the feature for his first win of the season and put himself five points ahead of Kevin Keane ( 07 ) for second in the standings .
Milan ' s Chris Ouellette ( 81 ) took to the front of the field by the mid point of the 35 lap feature and then cruised to his second feature win of the year , capturing the inaugural Northeast Cyclone triple crown series championship . Ouellette outdueled rival Jason Kenison ( 03 ) who would end up second in the series followed by Matt Kopp ( 16 ) who didn ’ t finish outside the top 5 in the three event series .
That ends the regular season at Speedway 51 , but there is one giant event remaining on the 2016 calendar , that being the 2nd Annual Fall Brawl presented by Perras Ace Hardware , and Bruno ’ s Pizza . The event is a two-day show on Saturday , and Sunday , Oct . 8 and 9 . For more information on this event and others please visit the website at www . speedway51int . com , or call the Track hotline at ( 802 ) 479- 2074 . Speedway 51 is located on Brown Road in Groveton .
NORTH COUNTRY GO KARTS
The North Country Family Restaurant Go Karts held a fun fall event Saturday on the special built asphalt go kart track at
Speedway 51 with Aaron Smith at the wheel of the pace kart leading the drivers to the green flag . There was a full house of fans and karts at this beautiful fall weather event !
The rookie drivers showed off their continued growth of driving skills . Emily Laney of Stratford won both her heat and feature events and moved into the mini pro events as an extra bonus to her racing experiences . Following Laney for second was McKenna Merchant of Concord , Vt . and Brendan Moodie of Wolcott , Vt . rounding out the top 3 . Groveton ’ s Ashton Kenison also won his heat and feature events and moved into the mini pro class finishing second and fourth respectively on those events as he gains more experience and confidence . Finishing second to Kenison was Logan Herriott of Gorham and Logan Farnsworth of St . Johnsbury , Vt ., finished third . The mini pro class grew this week as former rookies moved into this division in preparation for 2017 . Kamryn Ledger of Lancaster set her goal of winning at the beginning of 2016 and made that goal today as she came home the winner in the mini pro event followed by Luke Shannon of Groveton and Paxton Call of Groveton . Shannon won the respective heat event . The big kid division had three new entries this week . Speedway 51 regular superstar Jason Kenison tried the karts for fun and won both the heat and feature events in his first try . In what looked like a fun event for these “ big kids ,” Christopher “ Cridda ” Shannon of Lancaster took second place as he moved in close to Kenison on the closing laps and Adam Jewell of Groveton came across the finish line third .
The next scheduled event for the North Country Family Restaurant Karts at Speedway 51 is Friday night under the lights on Oct . 7 . Post time is 6:30 p . m .
For more information for upcoming nonpoint events , contact Jack Call at 631-3233 , like the North Country Family Restaurant Go Karts at Speedway 51 page on Facebook , or go to www . speedway51int . com .