Motor Sports

HERMON – Last weekend’s Strictly Street results from Speedway 95 in Hermon have been made official and two disqualifications have greatly affected the season points race.

The cars of Clifford Buzzell, Hermon, and Mike Harnish Jr., Winterport, the top two feature-race finishers, were found to be illegal under Speedway 95 rules and disqualified.

Harnish was fourth in the points (50 out of first) and Buzzell was sixth. Under track rules, any car found to be illegal loses all of its season points.

Ron Porter of Winterport, who finished third, was awarded the victory while Mike Thomas of Brewer was second and Tim Guptill of East Machias was third.

According to a Speedway 95 press release, “The decision to question the disqualifications came not so much from the fact that the parts in question were illegal, but the drivers were concerned that they were being treated differently than drivers in the Late Model Sportsman division.”

Two weeks ago, three LMS cars, found illegal by the tech man, were overuled by track owners.

The owners officially listed the reasoning for the move as, “in the LMS controversy, the same engine builder had built all of the engines in question…. without knowing that it was not within allowable tolerances.”

Hence, the difference in the two cases, according to the release, were the street stock engines, “were entirely different, built by different people, and the parts in question were assumed to have been installed with the knowledge that they failed to meet specifications.”