Waterford – Andrew Molleur won the 35-lap SK Modified race on Saturday night at the New London-Waterford Speedbowl.

Dana DiMatteo won the Monaco Modified Tri-Track series, which made its first visit to the Speedbowl since 2016. DiMatteo was the best of 44 cars that showed up to compete in the 100-lap main event, scoring his first tour-type modified win against the biggest names in the region.

Other winners before the capacity crowd were Jason Palmer in the 30-lap Late Model race, Kyle Gero in the 25-lap Truck race and PJ Evans in the 25-lap INEX Legends Race.

An opening lap crash in the SK Modifieds put Tim Jordan hard into the wall and removed Mike Christopher Jr. from competition in his return to the bowl this season. When racing resumed, DiMatteo took off to an early lead. Molleur, with Todd Owen directly behind him, was hot on DiMatteo’s tail. Molleur wasted no time getting by DiMatteo with a bottom shot move 10 laps in, Owen tried to follow but couldn’t complete the pass until 2 laps later. Molleur seemed unbeatable until a caution with 12 to go for a spinning Cody Rose re-racked the field. When the field went green Molleur took back his dominant position in the top spot and went on to score the win.

Charles Bailey III got the advantage over pole sitter Jason Williams who scored fastest time in qualifying in the Late Models. Williams immediately found himself under pressure when a failed 3 wide attempt shuffled the pack of cars including Palmer, Ray Christian III, Jordan Hadley, and more. Christian would eventually try to cross over Bailey in the corner but found that the opening available was much smaller than he needed, sending Christian around and to the rear on lap 9 of the 30 lap race.

Bailey and Palmer dueled side by side until the halfway point when Bailey would finally clear Palmer. Williams still in the mix tried to make an attempt on Palmer but Christian took to the outside to pass Williams when another caution flew with 10 to go. This time, Palmer was able to clear Bailey for the lead and Christian was in a hurry. The classic Palmer versus Christian on track battle took place once again, and with very minimal contact it was Palmer scoring his 89th career track win, putting him 5th on the Speedbowl’s all time win list.

One week removed from a thrilling 3 Truck battle for the win, Gero wasn’t going to be denied again. Gero worked his way into the lead on lap 7 and never looked back earning his second trophy of the season.

After a lap 1 melee in the Legend Cars, Evans launched into the lead and seemed to have the race win in his lap but he had some hurdles to clear. Lapped traffic played a part in his path to victory with 6 to go which put Dylan Freeman on his outside. A caution on the final lap for a car stopped just short of the finish line setup a green white checkered which allowed runner up Brody Monahan to put the bumper on Evans, but didn’t have enough time to make a move. Evans went on to win 2 in a row and the Regional Qualifier for INEX.