Waterford — During the first half of Saturday night's 40-lap SK Modified feature at the New London-Waterford Speedbowl, Kyle James of depended on his overpowering car. During the second half of the race he needed to depend on his driving skills to hold off a hard-charging Todd Owen.

It all added up to a victory for James, his fourth of the season in six races to highlight the action at the Speedbowl.

In other action, Jason Palmer and Ryan Morgan posted Late Model victories, Shawn Gaedeke made an impressive move midway through the race on his way to a Sportsman win and Charles Canfield chalked up a win over Doug Curry in the Mini Stocks.

Jonathan Puleo continued his amazing season in the SK Lite Modifieds, charging past Keith Caruso for his fourth win in five races. Peter Bennett pulled off a come-from-behind win in the Legends while Duane Noll was a winner in the Speedbowl Trucks after apparent race winner Tom Metcalf was disqualified following a post-race inspection.

James was the dominant factor in the early laps of the SK Modified feature. He took the lead on lap 5 and quickly blistered his way to a huge advantage.

After a caution flag came out in the middle of the race, however, James’ car suddenly lost its edge.

“For whatever reason, the car got crazy, crazy loose,” James said. “From then on, Todd had the better car. But we had the lead, and I had to protect it,”

Owen tried to dive-bomb underneath James several times over the final 10 laps, but couldn’t complete the move to get by.

“After the caution came out, we definitely had the better car,” Owen said. “But the deal at Waterford is that whoever is on the bottom has the preferred line and you either have to pass him or go around him. And he had a good enough car to stay ahead of us.”

There was plenty of contact over the final laps, an indication of how determined James and Owen were to get the victory.

“There was nothing that we couldn’t handle,” James said. “It was fun racing him. He didn’t wreck me.”

Palmer used his expertise on the Speedbowl’s outside groove to hold off Morgan over the final laps en route to a victory in the first of two Late Model features.

Palmer had the lead for most of the race, but Morgan challenged him late, especially during a green-white-checker finish over the final two laps.

Palmer elected to re-start on the outside lane and it turned out to be the right call as he nosed out Morgan at the finish.

“It’s always good to go on the top groove,” Palmer said. “That’s the fastest way around.”

Morgan made some adjustments to his car between features and they paid off as he dominated feature No. 2.

“The adjustments turned out to work pretty good,” Morgan said. “We had a good car tonight.”

He also was in the safest place on the track — in the lead — when a mid-race accident took out half the cars in the field, including Palmer, the first-race winner.

Anthony Flannery was able to hang on to finish second.

Morgan, thanks to his second- and first-place finishes, was able to take over the point lead.

A bold mid-race move by Gaedeke, blurring from third to first, overtaking both Adrien Paradis and Phil Evans, turned out to be the difference as Gaedeke grabbed his third Sportsman win. In eight races this season, Gaedeke, the point leader, has finished no worse than fourth place.

Jordan Hadley made a late move to finish second.

Canfield was at his unpredictable best on the restarts during the Mini-Stock feature. He elected to take the inside lane on one restart and the outside lane on two others. The strategy worked perfectly, however, as he fought off Curry to get to the winner’s circle.