It almost happened for Paul Smith.
The Athol resident had the lead in the Street Stocks feature last Saturday at Monadnock Speedway in Winchester, N.H. He was running strong, but unfortunately, Belchertown’s Chris Buffone was stronger in the exciting, caution-free affair. He passed Smith in the closing laps and held on for his second win of the young season. Tim and Nate Wenzel of Granby were third and fourth.
Buffone isn’t the only Monadnock driver who has two wins already. Matt Kimball secured his second in the NHSTRA Modified division, Gordon Farnum reached two in Mini Stocks and Cam Curtis crushed the field for the second time in Late Model Sportsmen.
Todd Patnode finished second to Kimball for the second time this season. Kimball, of Bennington, N.H., reeled in pole sitter J.T. Cloutier on lap 12 of 40 and fended off the veteran Patnode for the checkered flag. Palmer’s Brian Chapin and Deerfield’s Ben Byrne were third and fourth, respectively.
Lap 12 was the lucky number for winning passes, as Farnum captured the top spot after a dozen circuits. Coming from row 5, he brought Ray King with him, and the duo survived numerous cautions to finish 1-2.
Curtis, not to be confused with twin rivals Jaret and Chase Curtis, took the lead on — you guessed it — lap 12 and breezed to victory. The Curtis twins had nights to forget and Chase lost the top spot in the standings.
In the night’s Young Guns 15-lapper, Eddie Petruskevicius cruised to his first career victory.
The Late Model Sportsmen will highlight Saturday’s card with the 52-lap Dean Smith Memorial Race. Qualifiying will be done by time trials with an invert. The race will also be the first in the NHSTRA Race for the Ring series.
Stop me if you’ve heard this before. Christopher wins a Modified race at Stafford (Conn.) Motor Speedway.
Following in the footsteps of his late uncle Ted, Mike Christopher Jr. took the top spot in the Call Before You Dig Open Modified 81 last Friday at the famed half-mile. Christopher, driving the No. 7 NY for Tommy Baldwin Racing, took the lead from NASCAR Cup Series regular Ryan Preece on lap 50 and hung on to score the $5,000 winner’s check.
After years of watching Preece and Justin Bonsignore, among others, win at Riverhead Raceway, Doug Coby finally scratched the Long Island bullring off his bucket list last Saturday in the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour Miller Lite 200.
The six-time Tour champion picked up his 30th career victory but just his first in 20 starts at the Head. Coby, sponsored by Mayhew Tools of Turners Falls, drove his No. 10 car to victory by more than three seconds over co-points leader Patrick Emerling.
The Tour’s next race is May 29 at Jennerstown (Pa.) Speedway. The series returns to Riverhead on June 19.
Jason Remillard is a copy editor and page producer at the Recorder. He can be reached at jremillard@recorder.com and followed on Twitter @racinwithjason.