October 2, 2021
ANDREW MOLLEUR TOPS MIKE CHRSTOPHER AT THE NEW LONDON WATERFORD SPEEDBOWL MICHAEL JAWORECKI // www.myracenews.com WATERFORD —It wasn’t Todd Owen’s best race of the year — just his most important one. “It wasn’t easy, but I kept my cool and got it done,” said Owen, after his sixth place finish in Saturday’s 35-lap SK Modified feature — the final SK point race of the season — enabled him to win his first Speedbowl SK championship. Owen’s sixth-place run, combined with a fifth-place effort by Cory DiMatteo, gave Owen an 8-point victory over DiMatteo in the standings. As far as the lead was concerned, Andrew Molleur pulled away from Mike Christopher after an early restart to rack up his third SK win of the season. In other action, Jason Palmer romped to his 10th Late Model win of the year and vaulted into the point lead by two points over second-place finisher Ray Christian. Ethan Durocher struck for the first time in the SK Lite Modifieds, Nickolas Hovey pulled down his first Street Stock win,. Charles Canfield roared to his second straight Mini Stock victory and John O’Sullivan rolled to his eighth Legends win of the season, putting a padlock on the track title one race ahead of schedule. Owen, meanwhile, knew he had to finish seventh or better to guarantee a track title “We didn’t have a great car tonight,” Owen said. “But it was good enough to get us where we needed to be.” Not even a flat tire suffered halfway through the race cut could dash his quest for the title. “We went in the pits, put on one of the oldest tires that we had and came back out,” Owen said. “And we moved into sixth, which is where we had to be.” DiMatteo was involved in some drama during qualifying when he blew the rear-end in his car and had to borrow the car usually driven by Bill Anderson, taking it to a fifth place finish. Molleur, meanwhile, carved by Christopher on an early restart and never relinquished his lead. “”I thought the inside groove was the place to be tonight,” Molleur said. “The car started loose, and then got better. I got some pretty good advice tonight from Buddy Charette, who drove in the SK Lights and told me what the track conditions were. Buddy was my buddy.” Owen, meanwhile, was the champ, his first since he won a Late Model title at Riverside Park Speedway in 1996. Owen also clinched the Triple Threat title Saturday. “I never dreamed of winning one title,” Owen said. “To win two in one night is unbelievable.” |
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