Hopkins claims Sport Four win at Speedway 95 Phippen Jr. wins Pro Stock feature

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HERMON – Hermon’s Mike Hopkins isn’t running for points in the Sport Four class at Speedway 95 this season. He’s just going to run selected races. That’s good news for the rest of the division.

The 21-year-old Hopkins won his third consecutive Sport Four feature as he started on the pole and never gave up the lead, impressively surviving eight cautions to beat Hampden’s David Green by 51/2 car lengths.

The Sport Four feature was a 35-lapper and was the first of a three-race series.

Belfast’s Spencer Garvin was third with Dixmont’s Lewis Batchelder and Brownville’s Steve Heath rounding out the top five in the 17-car field.

“The car was on a rail. My father-in-law, Randy Gardner, helped me out a lot,” said Hopkins, who drove a 1980 Ford Mustang. “We worked on the car all week long. I used my notes from last year. I did my homework better than anybody else, I guess.”

Hopkins always selected the faster outside groove on the re-starts – race leaders can select the inside or the outside groove on restarts – and he took full advantage of it.

“I usually get up on the outside groove as much as I can,” said Hopkins.

Green, who has now finished second three times this season, said he couldn’t seriously challenge Hopkins “because my tires went away on me bad.”

Garvin said Hopkins is “real consistent. He’s a good driver.”

John Phippen Jr. of Town Hill won his second straight race at Speedway 95 in the Pro Stock division when race leader Paul White of Corinna got tangled up with a lapped car with 10 laps remaining.

White tried to get around Glenburn’s John Higgins on the outside groove but Higgins’ car slid up the track and the two cars bumped.

White’s car slowed down dramatically, enabling Phippen and Hermon’s Dale Swoboda to slip by him on the inside.

Swoboda wound up second, 20 car-lengths behind Phippen, with White coming in third. Newport’s Jeremy Frye and Stockton Springs’ Duane Seekins finished fourth and fifth, respectively.

“[Higgins] decided he wanted the high groove,” said an irate White. “You take some and give some, I guess.”

Phippen said “every win is a good win. It was Paul’s race to win. But I’ve been in lapped traffic before and given races up.”

In the Limited feature, Steuben’s Brent Parritt bumped Bradley’s Deane Smart out of the way with eight laps remaining and pulled away to take the checkered flag.

Frankfort’s Bobby Seger Jr. wound up second after leading several laps and Smart finished third.

Seger appeared to be en route to the victory when a caution enabled Parritt and Smart to move around him.

“We’ve had carburetor issues for the last four or five weeks and the car skips every time on restarts,” said Seger.

Parritt was stuck on the inside groove but he was able to move Smart up the track when they swapped paint. Seger also got past Smart but couldn’t challenge Parritt.

“Bobby had a good car all day long and Deane had the win if I hadn’t driven my car in too deep and gotten up into the side of him,” said Parritt.

“He drove it in a little hard,” agreed Smart, who took the bump in stride. “You can see his tire mark on my door. Racing is racing.”

Glenburn’s Joe Allard and Unity’s Frank Moulton wound up fourth and fifth, respectively.

The Super Street feature was very competitive as Milford’s Joe Legere, Hermon’s Kris Watson, Holden’s Steve Moulton and Hudson’s Keith Peirce were bunched together fighting for the lead in the latter stages of the race.

Peirce looked as though he had the race won but he slid off the track on turn two of the final lap and Legere went on to take the checkered flag.

Watson was second, Moulton took third, John Kalel II of Orrington finished fourth and completing the top five was Kevin Colson of Frankfort.

It was Legere’s third straight win.

“[Peirce] had been getting real loose and then on the last lap, he pushed right up in the center of the track. He drifted out of the groove. I don’t know why he pushed. I took advantage of it,” said Legere.

Watson said Peirce had “the [steering] wheel cut all the way to the left and his car was going right.”

Legere said his 1979 Chevy Camaro was “great.

“It was the best car I’ve ever had,” said Legere.

In the Strictly Street feature, Clifton’s Jim Carr Jr. led from start to finish in his 1981 Chevy Malibu to post his second win of the year.

Ellsworth’s Brad Norris was second followed by Bangor’s Shawn Hamel, Hermon’s Shawn Sperrey and Lamoine’s Derek Mingo.

“The car went good the whole race,” said Carr. “It stuck right down on the track.

“The car was better than last week when I crashed it,” added Carr, who benefited from a caution-free race.

“We didn’t need cautions. Cautions cause crashes,” grinned Carr.

Norris said his car was loose.

“I had nothing for [Carr]. I probably could have caught him but I never could have passed him,” said Norris.