WEST HAVEN — Stock car drivers Todd Stone and Jessey Mueller won in convincing fashion on Carrara Masonry & Concrete “Hometown Heroes” Night at Devil’s Bowl Speedway on Friday, June 21. The pair split twin 25-lap features for the Bond Auto Parts Modified division during NASCAR Whelen All-American Series action.
In the nightcap, Middlebury driver Stone, the season’s points leader, claimed his third Devil’s Bowl victory in six 2013 races. Starting 15th, Stone lead a charge of drivers from outside the top 10 at the start to take the lead at lap 12, then withstood two late restarts for the victory.
Middlebury teen Hunter Bates, starting 14th, finished second, with Mueller, from 12th, finishing third. New York driver Ron Proctor drove from 11th to finish fourth, followed by Joey Roberts of Fletcher, who came from 16th to finish fifth.
Mueller of Olmstedville, N.Y., who graduated from North Warren Central School on Saturday, ran to his first Devil’s Bowl victory of the season in the first 25-lap race. Mueller worked his way from the fifth starting position into the lead and then ran away from the field. Stone drove from 12th to beat New York drive Ron Proctor by four-thousandths of a second — about three inches — for the runner-up spot. Bates and Alex Bell of Cambridge, N.Y.. completed the top five.
Chris Bergeron of Claremont, N.H., ran to his first Devil’s Bowl win in the 30-lap Late Model feature. Rookie Josh Masterson of Bristol was fifth in that event.
Robert Gordon of Milton took his second Renegade victory of the season after a tie-breaker in a two-segment feature event, the ninth of the defending champion’s Devil’s Bowl career.
Rookie Chuck Bradford of Addison was the winner of a wild 15-lap Central Vermont Motorcycles Mini Stock feature. The race was red-flagged with five laps complete after a multi-car incident involving five of the top seven drivers. When the race resumed, Bradford, in a Subaru, took the lead from Matt Monaghan with five laps remaining and drove to the first victory of his career.
Complete results for area drivers were:
•Bond Auto Parts Modified Feature No. 1 (25 laps):
2. Stone; 4. Bates; 7. Vince Quenneville Jr., Brandon; 15. Dave Snow, Brandon.
•Bond Auto Parts Modified Feature No. 2 (25 laps):
1. Stone; 2. Bates; 6. Quenneville; 11. Snow, Brandon.
•Late Model Feature (30 laps): 5. Masterson; 13. Tommy Eriksen Jr., Ferrisburgh; 15. Bates.
•Renegade Feature (12 laps x 2) 7. Ray Germain Jr., Bristol.
•Central Vermont Motorcycles Mini Stock Feature (15 laps):
1. Bradford; 6. Lacey Hanson, Orwell; 8. Lance Masterson, Lincoln; 9. Garry Bashaw, Lincoln.