JOEY JARVIS WINS LAFONT MEMORIAL THRILLER AT CLAREMONT

Claremont Motorsports Park August 7 event story

By Gary Dutton

            CLAREMONT, N.H. – It couldn’t have been scripted better. Joey Jarvis, with competitors draped all over him, won Friday night’s Cody Lafont Memorial Race at Claremont Motorsports Park, earning the 35-lap Pure Stock victory behind the wheel of Lafont’s own car.

            Aaron Fellows kept his unblemished track record intact, topping the LMS feature, while Joe Tetreault won a nail-biter in the Street Stocks, Nick Skillings held brother Desmond in his shadow in the Mini Stocks, and Jeremy Blood took his old car out of storage and sped to victory in the Six Shooters.

            Amy Jaycox and Doug Nelson led the 31-car Pure Stock field to the green as the 35-lap Cody Lafont Memorial Race went green. With a whopping $1,200 winner’s purse and piles of incentive cash up for grabs, the fifth running of the Lafont race was going to be a dandy.

            Jaycox led the first six go-rounds, with former Modified kingpin Joey Jarvis, firing from row three, pulling alongside her as lap six went in the books. In the car raced by Lafont before his tragic passing five summers ago, Jarvis was on a mission.

            But if Jarvis had the big prize in sights, so too did last week’s winner Dylan Adams, coming fast from row five, and even farther back the father/daughter duo of Dave and Alexis Aiken. Jarvis took control on lap seven and was under constant enemy fire until the checkers waved.

            Adams looked high, low, and in between for a path to the front, with Dave Aiken then taking up the top pursuit spot, actually passing Jarvis at one point but losing the gained position to a caution. In the end, it was Adams with his second big outing in as many weeks earning the deuce, with Alexis Aiken at his bumper for third.

            Tyler Lescord and Alexis Aiken split $400 in hard charger money, each gaining a dozen positions in the 35-lapper

            Joe Tetreault won his first Street Stock feature of the season, winning a crowd-pleasing 25-lapper that was up for grabs until the final flag. Briana Akusis led the first eight go-rounds, with Tetreault glued to her bumper until taking the lead.

            The rest of the way, it was Tetreault under constant assault from hard-charging Cody Schoolcraft. Top points man Dave Greenslit recovered from an uncharacteristic early bobble to finish third.

            Rocket low into turn one, complete the pass, and then drive away. Aaron Fellows used the old formula to pass Joe Brown on lap five of the LMS feature, then quickly social distancing himself from the pack to stay undefeated in two seasons at CMP.

            It was Fellows’ sixth win of the summer at the third-mile speedplant. Brown was second, and Ben Poland came home third.

            Defending Six Shooter champ Jeremy Blood hadn’t put a strong run together in weeks. His new car, in fact, hadn’t lived up to expectations.

            Friday, Blood pulled his champ car out of mothballs, started up front, and blew the field away for his third win of the summer. Fellow three-time winner Paul Colburn was second, and points leader Dustin Thibodeau came home third.

            The Skillings brothers, Nick and Desmond, raced glued together for 25 laps in the Mini Stock main, with Nick prevailing for his second win of the season. Hometown ace Hayden Grenier was third, Matt Sonnhalter fourth and, celebrating his 17th birthday with a fifth place run, Cale Skillings completed the family trifecta.

            A pair of Bay State racers topped the STAR events. Joe Keefner, of Housatonic, won the 13-car Sportsman feature, with Greg Massini powering his way to victory lane in the Mods.

Next Friday, August 14, Claremont Motorsports Park will host a special round of spectator races and drags, along with a full night of oval track racing including the third Modified event of the summer.

CMP AUGUST 7 TOP TENS:

PURE STOCK CODY LAFONT 35: Joey Jarvis, Dylan Adams, Alexis Aiken, Dave Aiken, Robert Shaw, Bruce Adams, Randy Phillips, Justin Prescott, Clark Brooks, Jim Carley.

LATE MODEL SPORTSMAN: Aaron Fellows, Joe Brown, Ben Poland, Robert Hagar, Camdyn Curtis, Ryan Bell, Jack McClay, Andrew Martell, Bucky Demers.

STREET STOCK: Joe Tetreault, Cody Schoolcraft, Dave Greenslit, Randy Town, Kyle Buck, Kenny Thompson, Raven Streeter, Jimmy Zullo, Briana Akusis, Chris Emerson.

MINI STOCK: Nick Skillings, Desmond Skillings, Hayden Grenier, Matt Sonnhalter, Cale Skillings, Eric Banks Jr, Camdyn Curtis, Tom Engelhart, Joe Olmstead, David Pratt III.

SIX SHOOTER: Jeremy Blood, Paul Colburn, Dustin Thibodeau, Ray Luce, Dakota Lanou, Todd Smith, Keith Martin, John Voorhees, Todd Maguira, Chooch Snide.