THOMPSON, Conn. — Ronnie Williams found some late magic to win the Truly Lemonade Hard Seltzer Midsummer 75 at Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park on Wednesday.
Williams took the lead from Jon McKennedy with 17 laps remaining and got stronger as the race wound down to grab the $5,000 victor’s paycheck for the Outlaw Open Modified Series.
The multi-time SK Modified champion started on the outside pole after both he and Keith Rocco earned three passing points in their qualifying heat. However, Williams spent the first portion of the event running in the second pack as Rocco, Ryan Preece, and Matt Swanson set a torrid pace.
After Rocco led the first 13 laps, Preece was on the good end of a crossover three-pack to nab the point entering turn one.
Preece started to pull away around the halfway mark while McKennedy went on the march. McKennedy started at the back after failing to finish his qualifying heat but was up to the third spot with less than 35 laps to go. Just as McKennedy reached Rocco’s rear bumper with 46 laps complete, Andrew Charron and Brett Meservey got wadded up in turn two to bring out the race’s only caution flag.
All lead-lap cars went to the pits during the yellow for a fresh right rear tire and adjustments. McKennedy’s team was one of those that also switched the left front and left rear tires with each other. This dropped them back to fifth on the restart behind Preece, Rocco, Chris Pasteryak, and Eric Goodale. Williams was alongside McKennedy in sixth place.
When the green flag came back out, both McKennedy and Williams went right to work. McKennedy rumbled to third within a lap and spent several circuits inside Rocco with Williams knocking on the door. After McKennedy finally cleared Rocco, he set his sights on Preece, dipping below him entering turn three on the 55th circuit to take over the lead.
However, McKennedy’s time on top was short-lived. The Gary Casella team had made the right moves for Williams during the pit stop, and he couldn’t be stopped. Williams drove below McKennedy to get the lead on lap 58 with McKennedy unsuccessfully trying to cross him over in turn one.
From there, Williams went into beast mode. As Preece dropped back with an ill-handling car, Williams went into overdrive, running his fastest lap of the race on lap 64. With no spins or other speed bumps to slow him down, Williams marched to the $5,000 payday in front of an impressive crowd.
McKennedy kept Swanson at bay over the final laps to finish second. Rocco ended up fourth followed by Pasteryak, Goodale, Preece, Tyler Barry, Paul LaPlante, and Charron.
Mark Jenison went pole-to-pole to capture the $1,200 top prize in the 25-lap Thompson Late Model feature.
Ryan Waterman took a different course than his norm en route to the Vandi Auto Supply Limited Sportsman feature win. The man known for late-race charges instead wen to the front early, diving underneath Johnston, RI’s Jeffrey Van Pelt to take the lead four laps into the 20-lap feature.
Paul “Buddy” Charette went back-to-back in the SK Light Modifieds.
Paul Newcomb put on a clinic to win his second 8-Cylinder Street Stock Open event. Jared Roy picked up his second win of the year in the Thompson Mini Stocks.