On Saturday night at Beech Ridge, Steve Coffin won the caution-free Wildcat Division 50-lap race for the first time in his career.
Other feature winners in the NASCAR Whelan All-American Series races were: Bill Rodgers in the Pro Series, Jason Larrabee in the Sport Series and Brian Beaulieu in the Road Runner Division.
Steve Coffin started on the outside pole position and beat Lyman McKeage to the first turn to take the lead at the drop of the
green flag. McKeage and Ron Corbeil settled in to run second and third through the early laps of the race. It only took seven circuits for the leaders to catch slower traffic as Coffin, McKeage and Corbeil carved their way through those cars with no incidents.
Things stayed calm until lap 33 when Corbeil moved around McKeage to take second place and two laps later David Wildes moved to third place. The final few laps saw Corbeil make a late charge at Coffin as the white flag waved for the final lap.
Coffin ran a smooth groove and Corbeil did not have any time left as they sailed under the checkered flag nose to tail. Wildes finished third with McKeage fourth and Scott Berry fifth.
The 40-lap Pro Series main event had the only caution flag of the night. Bill Rodgers, who earlier in the afternoon had loaded his car into the trailer due to poor handling issues, took the lead at the start of the race.
The caution flag was out on lap four when several cars spun in turn four where Bub Bilodeau almost launched over D.J. Shaw’s car. When racing resumed, it was Rodgers as the class of the field leading the remainder of the laps for the win. Dan McKeage was second with Tim Brackett a solid third. Bobby Babb and Steve Carrier were fourth and fifth at the finish.
Jason Larrabee won his second Sport Series feature race of the season Saturday night. Larrabee took the lead from Travis Buzzell on lap 13 and never looked back as the 35-lap green to checkered race found many of the point leaders left far behind. Frank Wear finished a distant second with Buzzell getting a career best third place. Jeff Cannell was fourth and Russ Morse fifth.
Brian Beaulieu returned to victory lane at the completion of the 20-lap Road Runner feature race. Dan Bernier led the opening laps until Beaulieu decided it was time to go and took the lead position. This race also went caution-free as Beaulieu sailed home for an easy win over Tim Caswell in second and Bradley Babb third. Bernier and Patrick Thorne were fourth and fifth place finishers.
The NASCAR Whelan All-American Series returns on Saturday night with the first of two autograph sessions and a visit from the New England Antique Race Cars. There will also be an appearance of the Whiz Kidz with over 50 registered entries for this season that kicks off Saturday at 6:30 p.m.
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