September 21, 2024
AUTO RACING

St. Clair’s strategy leads to win at ’95’ Veteran driver wins Limited Sportsman

HERMON – In a Limited Sportsman 50-lap feature that included a 16-year-old and a 15-year-old, it was a wily 55-year-old veteran who took the checkered flag.

Liberty’s Dave St. Clair passed Corinna’s Paul White on the outside on a lap 46 restart and won the feature by six car-lengths over White.

Winterport’s Ryan Deane finished third.

It was the first of a three-race series in the Limited Sportsman division.

St. Clair had started 10th but methodically worked his way through the field and avoided any major wrecks.

St. Clair and White swapped some paint on a restart with five laps to go but both were able to save their cars from spinning out and being put to the back of the pack.

But Mike Thayer of Hudson and his 16-year-old cousin, Jason Thayer of Hermon, got tangled up on the front stretch during a multi-car crash which resulted in the sixth and final caution.

On the restart, St. Clair sailed around White.

“Right from the start, my car had been skipping. I don’t know if I had a distributor going bad or what,” said White. “I saw [St. Clair] coming up me on the restart and I had nothing on the restarts because my car was skipping so bad. So I just let him go and took second.”

“The win is great,” said St. Clair. “We came for the win. I was pretty sure we could get him [White] on the last restart because the outside was the faster groove. Whoever was on the outside had the advantage. It’s just the way the track is.”

He said White “helped me out” when they bumped on the lap-45 restart.

“If he had hit the brakes instead of hitting me, I’d probably have been spun,” added St. Clair.

Mike Pepin of Farmington finished fourth and 15-year-old Rodney Brooks of Thomaston, who led the points entering the race, finished fifth.

Brooks ran in the top two for 41 laps before spinning out on lap 42.

In the Pro Stock feature, Surry’s Dwayne Overlock collected an unexpected win when race leader Duane Seekins of Stockton Springs had his engine blow up on the final turn, causing a multi-car wreck.

“I was just riding because I knew Duane had the faster car,” said Overlock. “He blew up, I went around him and we all got into each other. I figured I’d go to the high side. If I made it, I made it. If I didn’t, I didn’t. This was my first win in a brand new car [Monte Carlo]. It’s awesome.”

Town Hill’s John Phippen Jr. finished second and Tim Allen of Mount Desert was third.

“Duane’s car stopped in a hurry. I know that,” said Phippen. “My car was awfully slow. It had some push to start with and then got better at the end. Maybe the driver was getting more used to it. It was working a little on the inside at the end of the race.”

Corinth’s Jeff Bean won the Super Street race by 12 car-lengths followed by Frankfort’s Ross Robinson and Glenburn’s Steve Moulton.

“The car got going pretty good. We did a little tinkering on it during the week,” said Bean.

“The 21 car [Bean] was real good today,” said Robinson.

Hermon’s Eric Tatro, whose engine blew up last week, returned with a “junkyard engine that had less power” and won the Strictly Street feature.

Winterport’s Mike Lynch was second and Corinna’s Andy Migliore was third.

Hermon’s Tim Richardson won the Sport Four race with Frankfort’s Chad Ashey finishing second and Winter Harbor’s Justin Twombly in third.

Richardson was driving a Toyota Celica.

“We just bought it for a spare and it has been awesome car,” said Richardson, who is still repairing his troublesome Ford Mustang that he raced to a second-place finish in the points last year.

Ashey said, “I’m lucky to finish second. I only had second gear today.”

Orrington’s Jay Robichaud cruised to his third straight win in the mini-trucks with Hermon’s Kris Watson and Bucksport’s Mike Golding taking second and third.

Correction: Another version of this article ran in the State edition.

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