SHELBY KIMBALL TAKES SERIES TROPHY

Danielle DeLuck of Hampden won her second feature of the season Wednesday night at Speedway 95 after leading from the start in the third race of the Ladies three race series, and holding off Winterport’s Rhonda Lyford in a green, white checker dash to the finish. Although Lyford finished second on the track, her car failed post-race inspection and she was disqualified from the event. Becky Elston of Carmel was awarded the second place finish, followed by Cornville’s Shelby Kimball in third. Kimball’s third place finish wasn’t an easy one, as she had to start at the rear of the field twice due to pit stops during caution periods. Nicole Smith of Clifton caused three cautions, which kept the field bunched up on the restarts. The third place finish gave Kimball the overall win in the three race series points chase. Pole sitter Kayla Allen of  Bucksport finished fourth with Amy Houde of Howland in fifth. Kayla Allen won the qualifier, which sat her on the pole for the feature.

Darren Durrell returned from his tough loss last week to lead the caution free Little Enduro feature from pole to checkers. Although it took three tries to get the race started, once it got going it didn’t stop again until it was over. Durrell easily threaded through traffic enroute to his victory, but had to watch Milo’s Mike Witham, who chased him for the entire race. Andrew Crosby of Hermon ended up finishing second following Witham’s disqualification in post race inspection. Witham was found to have “gutted” his hood, which is an infraction of the rules. Chris Carroll of Greenbush then took home the third place trophy, his first top three for the season. Fourth went to Newport’s Mark Lane, and Paul Higgins of Newburgh finished in fifth. Higgins won one of the qualifiers and Orrington’s Donnie Blanchard won the other. With just one week to go, Higgins leads Blanchard in the point chase in the division by about 30 points.

Roger Smith Jr. picked up where he left off last week and led the Big Enduro feature from green to checkers to post his second win in a row. Ricky Palmer of Winterport, who had won three in a row earlier in the season, finished second, blaming himself for being lazy and not touching his car all week. In his first appearance of the season, Alvin McNevin of Holden brought his Ford LTD home in third. McNevini explained he had been sidelined this season with a leg injury, but was ready to go now, and proved it with his top three effort. Shawn McNevin of Hudson finished fourth with Robert Caruso of Kenduskeag finishing fifth in his first attempt in the Big Enduros.

In the last appearance of the season for the Stars of Tomorrow, Cole Robinson of Clinton made it three in a row by passing early leader Brett McCullouogh of Kenduskeag on the fourth lap of the 10 lap feature for the 11-14 year olds. Hermon’s Ryan Modery finished in second, and McCullough finished third following a last lap altercation with Cornville’s Matt Kimball. Kimball went into turn one on the last lap and made a charge up the inside of turn one, forcing Modery into McCullough and spinning both cars out. Modery and McCullough recovered, and Kimball was relegated to a last place finish for rough driving. Robinson also won the qualifier earlier in the evening.

Jim Carr of Clifton made it 10 in a row in the pick up truck division as he took the lead from Winterport’s Mike Lynch on the 8th lap of the 20 lap caution free event by running the inside groove as he does so successfully each week. Dana Harlow of Bucksport again finished in second after passing Lynch late in the race. Lynch held on to finish third, driving a truck owned by Harlow. Hermon’s Brett Crosby took fourth followed by his son, Andrew, also of Hermon, who posted a fifth place finish for the night. Carr made it a sweep by also winning the 10 lap heat race for the division.