News Director 
Story By: MICHELLE CLOUTIER / MONADNOCK SPEEDWAY – WINCHESTER, NH – The Senior Tour Auto Racers (STAR) joined the NASCAR Whelen All-American series division at Monadnock Speedway this past Saturday night. The weather was on the cooler side but the action on the track was heating up as the summer approaches.
Tyler Leary has found a nice parking spot for his 11x Super Stock and that spot is in victory lane. Leary won his 3rd straight Super Stock feature. Cameron Sontag, James Nowakowski, Chase Curtis, and Isabella Minchella would find themselves taking the checkered flag in their respective features.
The Senior Tour Auto Racers would offer two different divisions of cars; Sportsman and Modifieds with a total of 21 cars. The Sportsman would take to the track first for their 15 Lap feature event. Rick MacDowell would put his 1968 Chevy Camaro into the lead early, but Arthur “Artie” Merchant would reel him in and make a late lap pass to capture the win in his 1936 Chevy Coupe. The modified division would roll out next for their 15 lap feature. Greg Massini would put his #19 Chevy Vega (1972) in the lead at the drop of the green; however he wasn’t able to hold on to the lead. Bob Donahue would put the newest car he built into victory lane. Bob would inform race fans that this was the first time he had this car on the track, and that one of the last times this chassis was at Monadnock Speedway it saw victory lane as it was being driven by Rob Goodenough.
Young Guns would be on the track next; as yet again no returning feature winner was in the field, which means someone new would be gunning for their first win of the season. Sammy Silva in the #28 would lead the field to the green, but coming around to complete lap one Silva would get a little lose and spin in the middle of 3 and 4. The #21 of Christopher Phelps would make hard contact with him (Silva) ending both of their days. Thankfully both drivers were okay. Isabella Minchella in the #99 would inherit the lead and would run away on her way to collecting the win. Chloe Wright in the #17 would finish 2nd and Phelps would be credited with the 3rd place finish. Minchella would comment on how great it feels to get a win after having very little luck last season.
The next feature on the track would be the Mini Stocks for their 25 lap feature. Rookie Chase Curtis would lead the field to green in his #88 and would manage to hold on to capture his first Mini Stock win. Louis Maher would try to take the win away from Chase Curtis but Maher just didn’t have enough at the end and would settle for 2nd place. Ethan Marsh would bring his #97 home with a 3rd place finish. Chase Curtis was really happy with his finish after leaving last week following a bad wreck. Chase wanted to thank his dad (Chris Curtis) for everything he does. He also wanted to thank his brother (Jarret Curtis) as they (the Curtis family) were unable to get Chase’s car fixed after the wreck last week and Jarret, also a driver in the mini stock division, offered his car to his brother.
Super stocks rolled out next for 25 laps. Cole Littlewood in the #12 would lead the field to the green and jump out to an early commanding lead, but at the halfway mark Tyler Leary had his #11x in 2nd place and started to work on reducing Littlewoods lead. At lap 15 Leary was knocking on the door for the lead, and on lap 18 he (Leary) would open the door on the inside of Littlewood going into turn 1 and would close the door coming out of turn 2 to take the lead. Leary would never look back as he would lead the rest of the way to score his 3rd straight victory. Joel Monahan would make a last turn pass to take 2nd place from Cole Littlewood. Littlewood would have to settle for 3rd place. Last week when I caught up with Leary he stated his goal was to win 3 in a row. This week when asked what the plan was after 3 in a row, he stated “4 in a row.”
The Thunder stocks thundered out next for 20 laps. James Nowakowski started on the pole with his #9 and would take the lead at the drop of the green. Nowakowski would set the #9 on cruise control to victory lane, as he would lead every lap on his way to his first win of the season. Frank L’etoile would make his return to Monadnock Speedway after winning opening night and L’etoile would manage to put his #33 machine across the line in 2nd place. Richard Vincent in the #4 would settle for 3rd place, as this is his third podium finish in a row after a rough opening night. Nowakowski was a man of few words after his win, but was pleased to finally be able to get back to victory lane.
The last feature of the night was the Sportsman Modifieds 30 lap feature. Rookie Cole Littlewood in the 5c and Cameron Sontag in the 13x would make up the front row. At the drop of the green Sontag would storm off into the lead. Lap 11 would bring the first caution for the 99 of Kim Rivet spinning coming out of turn 4, also during this caution the points leader heading into the nights event, Todd Patnode, would go pit side and not return. This time Sontag would be joined by the #03 of Joel Monahan on the front row for the restart. Sontag again would take off and set a blistering pace. The feature would be slowed by one more caution on lap 20 but that wouldn’t be enough to slow Sontag from collecting his first win of the season. Rookie Joel Monahan would hold on for 2nd place and Cole Littlewood would finish 3rd. For Monahan and Littlewood this would mark their best career finishes in the Sportsman Modifieds. In victory lane Sontag wanted to give special thanks to his Dad (Steve Sontag) for everything he does and Chris McTaggart for helping make adjustments to the car that have made a huge difference.
Next Event will be held Saturday, June 10th at 6PM featuring Act Type Late Models, Sportsman Modifieds, Pro 4 Modifieds, Super Stocks, Mini Stocks, Lightning Stocks, Young Guns & Ne Champ Karts!
SPORTSMAN MODIFIEDS – Cameron Sontag, Joel Monahan, Cole Littlewood, Ben Byrne, Nathan Johnson, Brian Chapin, Matt Kimball, Geoff Rollins, Kim Rivet, Brian Robie, Keith Carzello, Paul Smith, Todd Warren, Victoria Bergenty, Chris Ignazio, Eric Leclair, Todd Patnode, Jason Barden
SUPER STOCKS – Tyler Leary, Joel Monahan, Cole Littlewood, Justin Littlewood, Eric Pomasko, Mike McGoldrick, Nancy Muni, Mike Heffernan, Scott Beck
MINI STOCKS – Chase Curtis, Louis Maher, Ethan Marsh, Alexander Pearl, Pat Houle, Darren Jacobs, Kevin Mcknight, Kevin Pittsinger, Devin Guy
THUNDER STOCKS – James Nowakowski, Frank L’etoile, Richard Vincent, Jason Kozacka, Craig Chaffee, Jonathan Goddard, Bruce Clark, Stanley Kuklewicz
YOUNG GUNS – Isabella Minchella, Chloe Wright, Christopher Phelps, Sammy Silva
