SHAW WINS 125-LAPPER, CROWD WOWED BY CLAREMONT FIREWORKSClaremont Motorsports Park July 5 event story

        CLAREMONT, N.H. – This one will be talked about for years. The large crowd on hand for Claremont Motorsports Park’s Friday night Independence Day Weekend spectacular was treated to a classic.
        While the storied Thrasher Road speedplant has been long hailed for its huge holiday weekend events, Friday’s just may be the best ever.
        Along with an amazing Noise R Us aerial fireworks display, the on-track competition was incredible. The night’s $5,000-to-win main event was decided by fewer than six inches, racing was often three and even four-wide, both a first-of-season and first-of-career winners were celebrated, and one of the oval’s most popular drivers, trashed a week earlier, triumphantly returned to win a thriller.
        DJ Shaw won the night’s Fisher/Federated Auto Parks GSPSS 125-lap main event, but his margin of victory was so slim even the computer wasn’t sure for a moment. Robbie Streeter soared to victory in the Super Street feature, winning his first of the summer, ironically on the same night as his team car fell from the points lead, and Outlaw Guy Caron rocketed to victory in the nightcap feature event.
        Keegan Tabor moved closer to the top of the Pure Stock points parade with his convincing Friday victory, while Erin Aiken went from wreckers to checkers in the Six Shooters. Nolan McClay won a tight one in the Mini Stocks, and Seth Drown won his first career CMP feature in the Ridge Runners.
        Shaw and Casey Call led the GSPSS Pro Stocks to the green in the main event. Call quickly took charge, with Shaw content to ride in second in the early going, a choice that would pay huge dividends on lap 58.
        A looping lapper drew Call into a turn two brush-up, sending the leader pitside for a new right front shoe and moving Shaw to the point. Sixty-six laps later, the Center Conway star would nearly suffer the same fate.
        With the white flag in the air, another turn two spinner drew the caution, setting up a furious two-lap charge to the checkers, and nobody was more prepared for it than Jeremy Sorel.
        Sorel, who’d fired from row four 123 laps earlier, stormed around the top of the third-mile to lead by a wheel with the white flag again in the air. Shaw, though, wasn’t done either. Drag racing Sorel down the final frontstretch, he won by inches. Joey Pole, strong all night, came home third. Friday’s $5,000 victory was Shaw’s fourth CMP win.
        Robbie Streeter, a force all summer, put it all together Friday, wining the RE Hinkley Fuels Super Street feature by a country mile.

But Streeter’s big win wasn’t the only story in this one. His second car, frequently dominant this year with Brandon Gray at the wheel, found the turn-three wall in qualifying, forcing the East Thetford, VT star to watch pitside as Matt Sonnhalter charged to third and, with it, past Gray to the top of the points chart. And then there was upstart Ryan Farewell.
Farewell won his heat and led the first 12 laps of the feature. But if anyone thought he’d politely pedal backwards, they were completely wrong. Giving up the top spot to Streeter, Farewell then held strong to finish second, ahead of Sonnhalter, Chris Lindquist and Joe Tetreault.
Keegan Tabor, from row two, led all the way to win the LaValley Building Supply Pure Stock 25-lapper, keeping Carlos Grenier at his bumper to top the Independence Day weekend feature. Andrea St. Amour finished a distant third, but it was good enough to keep her 18 markers atop Tabor in the championship points race.
With Tabor and Grenier far ahead, St.Amour, Adrian Smith, and David Smith battled fender-to-fender for third. Adrian Smith, victorious a week earlier, matched Tabor for fast lap on the night, but had to settle for fourth.
Guy Caron romped to victory in the Outlaw Late Model main event. George Helliwell and Ben Poland, both refiring deep after a lap-nine booboo, charged back through the field to finish second and third.
Second-generation hot shoe Nolan McClay led all the way in the Mini Stock feature. Points leader Kyle Templeton, who found the top of the track extremely narrow on a few trips around, was strong in second, and Bob Williams impressed in third,
Fan favorite Erin Aiken took the top spot from Ryan Partridge on lap 18 of the Avery Insurance Six Shooter feature and then held him in her shadow to score the win. Brady Lamotte was third in the caution-free event, and top points man Steve Miller Sr. came home fourth.
Seth Drown, aboard his Bobby Turner tribute ride, took the lead from Aiden White on lap eight of the Race Day TV Ridge Runner feature and sped off to his first career CMP victory. White was second, and Richie Marrocco third.
Claremont Motorsports Park will return to action next Friday, July 12, when McGee Toyota presents the Dean Smith Memorial 52-lap Tour-Type Late Model main event, along with Super Street, Mini Stock, Pure Stock, and Six Shooter racing, and a Four-Cylinder Enduro.

CLAREMONT MOTORSPORTS PARK JULY 5 TOP FIVES
GSPSS PRO STOCKS: DJ Shaw, Jeremy Sorel, Joey Pole, Casey Call, Ryan Green.
SUPER STREETS: Robbie Streeter, Ryan Farewell, Matt Sonnhalter, Chris Lindquist, Joe Tetreault.
OUTLAW LATE MODELS: Guy Caron, George Helliwell, Ben Poland, Aaron Fellows Jr., John Meany.
MINI STOCKS: Nolan McClay, Kyle Templeton, Bob Williams, Colton Hull, David Pratt II.
PURE STOCKS: Keegan Tabor, Carlos Grenier, Andrea St. Amour, Adrian Smith, David Smith.
SIX SHOOTERS: Erin Aiken, Ryan Partridge, Brady Lamotte. Steve Miller Sr., Paul Colburn.
RIDGE RUNNERS: Seth Drown, Aiden White, Richie Marrocco, Jim Rhodes.