November 06, 2024
AUTO RACING

Coil wire doesn’t spoil Robinson’s afternoon Clinton man wins Unity Monster-Minis feature

UNITY – Clinton’s Tim Robinson thought he was having another frustrating afternoon at Unity Raceway on Saturday.

After winning the pole and leading the Monster-Minis feature for three laps, he lost power and went to the pits. His 1976 Ford Mustang had broken down last week.

“I thought I was done. But when we got to the pits, [we discovered] a coil wire had fallen off. We stuck it back on, the car came back to life and here we are,” said Robinson, who maneuvered his way from the back of the 17-car field to take the checkered flag.

He made his way up to third when a caution came out on lap 18, enabling him to pass Plymouth’s Derick Terrill and Clinton’s Lance Chapman over the final seven laps.

“We needed that yellow at the end. That was the key,” said Robinson. “[Without the yellow], I would have had a little run with my nephew Lance [Chapman] but I never would have caught Derick. He was going good.”

Robinson knew his car would run well once the coil wire was fixed “but I had to be careful going up through [the field] easy without hitting anything. It was pretty good. Everybody was racing clean. Nobody was pounding on each other.”

Terrill got a good jump on the restart but Robinson was able to pass Chapman quickly and he slipped past Terrill on the inside on lap 24.

“I was hoping for a caution-free race because I had a straightaway lead on the rest of them. I thought I was going to get my first win of the year,” said Terrill. “But my car was loose going into the corners and once that caution came out, I knew [Robinson] was going to get me.”

Terrill had a comfortable 25-car-length lead at the time of the caution.

“But I’m very happy with the finish,” said Terrill, who also drove a Ford Mustang and wound up second by four car lengths.

Chapman, who started 16th, finished third in his 1980 Ford Pinto. Rounding out the top five were Dixmont’s Lewis Batchelder and Winslow’s Paul Shorette.

In the Pro-Fours feature, Starks’ Steve Rackliff passed St. Albans’ Frank Brown on the inside on lap 14 and then held off several challenges by St. Albans’ Cary Davis over the final 11 laps to edge Davis.

“We thought the car was going to come in the more I drove it. That’s what we had planned on and that’s what it worked out to be,” said Rackliff. “The car got a little tight toward the end of it but we worked around it.

“Thank God the six [Davis] didn’t have any more for us,” added Rackliff.

Davis bemoaned his choice of tires.

“My biggest mistake was I bought a different kind of tires this week,” said Davis, who won last week’s race. “Wrong move. I lost about eight-tenths of a second. They were so soft compared to the ones I’m used to running. The car was like a washboard in the corners. It was very unpredictable.”

Davis also said he might have been able to force the issue a little more “but Steve is such a [good] friend, I wasn’t going to take a chance spinning him out.”

Rackliff was appreciative.

“Cary’s just about the cleanest racer we have out here. I knew I could count on him to not hit me,” said Rackliff.

Brown finished third with South China’s Greg Cummings and Parkman’s Bill Ellis taking home fourth and fifth, respectively.

In the 30-lap Super Streets feature, Palmyra’s Ajay Picard started on the outside pole and passed pole-sitter Mark Dodge of North Anson on the first lap and withstood several challenges from Dodge to take the checkered flag.

“We put a new setup on the car and it worked out good,” said Picard, who built a sizeable lead only to have a caution tighten things up and provide Dodge with some opportunities to pass on the inside.

“We had our spare motor in. I had to overdrive it to do as well as we did. The other motor will be back next week,” said Dodge, who didn’t have quite enough horsepower to get past Picard.

“If we would have rubbed, I could have gotten around him but I’d rather race clean. This was fun,” said Dodge.

South China’s Brad Bellows was third with Thorndike’s Donnie York fourth and Belgrade’s Hal Stratton fifth.

In the Wildcats race, Windsor’s Tim Hudson took the lead on the first lap and went on to collect the victory.

Madison’s Luke Rickards was second with Unity’s Dustin Hubbard, Dover-Foxcroft’s Shawn Racila and Auburn’s Mike St. Germain rounding out the top five.


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