BELL SCORE FIRST IN SPEEDWAY SUPER STREETS SEPT. 14 AT CLAREMONT

 By Gary Dutton
 
CLAREMONT, N.H. – Ryan Bell was on a rail Friday, September 14, at Claremont Speedway, topping the R.E. Hinkley Super Street feature and, with his first career victory in the highly competitive division, becoming the ninth different Super Street winner this summer.
           
NEMST star Emerson Cayer was the night’s big money winner, earning more than $3,000 for his victory in the Four-Cylinder Nationals 100-lapper, but Street Stock star Bryan Town scored a victory of his own.
           
Town’s big night came without benefit of a victory, as the hometown speedster was able to combine his own strong runner-up outing with Chris Riendeau’s misfortune to move back atop the Pepsi Street Stock point standings. With only two events remaining in the 2018 season, Town now leads his division by 11 points.
           
The Red Neck Enduro made its speedway debut, with former Wildcat winner Kyle Buck topping the 36-car field in an adventuresome 35-lapper. Unity’s Bruce Adams earned the runner-up hardware in the no-caution-flags event, and long-ago Street Stocker Todd Maguira came home third.
           
Tyler Searles, the only Green Mountain Boy in the starting field, set fast time the first trip around in the Super Street 40-lapper, but Charlestown’s Ryan Bell – firing from row two – then took charge and never looked back en route to his first stop in Daddy’s Pizza Victory Lane.
           
Iron man Jack McClay got up for second on lap four, bringing points leader Ricky Bly with him into the top three but, with the final 37 laps run caution free, Bell was never challenged, taking the checkers eight lengths ahead of McClay.
           
Bly’s third-place run gave him a small but important boost in the championship points race. Mark McClay was fourth on the night, and Dylan Bodreau came home fifth, ending the night 18 points behind Bly. Craig Smith, who had a violent meeting with the backchute wall in his heat race, came back to finish sixth in the main event.
           
Stevens High School sophomore Briana Akusis was fast in the Pepsi Street Stock feature, hitting the stripe even with Chris Colburn as lap one went into the books and then taking charge and leading the pack the next 18 go-rounds.
           
Dave Greenslit, strong all night, grabbed the lead on a lap 18 restart bringing Bryan Town with him. That caution – the first of the race – was important, as the yellow waved when points leader Chris Riendeau coasted to a stop on the backchute. With Town in second, and Riendeau reduced to spectator status in the pits, the points pendelum that had clobbered Town on the last lap a week earlier, swung back his way Friday.
           
Greenslit’s win was his third of the summer. Lenny Silver earned the third-place hardware, and Akusis’ impressive run netted her the fourth-place finish. Joe Tetreault came home fifth.
           
Emerson Cayer got to the front in the NEMST 100-lapper on lap 34, battled back and forth with Matt Kimball for ten laps, and then led the rest of the way to earn more than $3,000. Hometrack hot shoe Kodi Sabins was second on the night, Bay State veteran Louis Maher came home third, and Cliff Bennett – making the haul all the way from Pleasant Lake, Indiana – finished fourth.
           
Former Mod champ Joey Jarvis set fast time in a round of mid-show radar runs around the fast third-mile.
           
Next Friday, September 21, Claremont Speedway will host its annual Race Against Cancer event, giving fans a chance to meet their favorite drivers up close and personal, as the speedway community comes together to help the Friends of Norris Cotton Cancer Center.
           
The R.E. Hinkley Super Streets, Pepsi Street Stocks, and T-bird Mini Mart Wild Cats will all be in action in their 20th racing event of the summer, and children are advised to bring their bicycle helmets so they can participate trackside in the summer’s last outing of the Kiwanis of Claremont Big Wheel races. Post time is 7 p.m.
           
For more information, please visit www.claremontspeedway.net or stop off at the speedway’s face book page.
 
CLAREMONT SPEEDWAY SEPT. 14 TOP TENS:
SUPER STREET: Ryan Bell, Jack McClay, Ricky Bly, Mark McClay, Dylan Bodreau, Ben Poland, Craig Smith, Alex Poisson, Tyler Searles, Ken Fowler.
STREET STOCK: Dave Greenslit, Bryan Town, Lenny Silver, Briana Akusis, Joe Tetreault, Robbie Streeter, Chris Emerson, Lucas Wheeler, Chris Colburn, Chris Riendeau.