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Near perfect early summer weather greeted a
large and eager crowd at
Maine's
"Center
of
Speed"
for the running of the annual Coastal 200 and
Wiscasset Raceway's salute to the troops with
Operation Recognition. The program started with
special opening ceremonies honoring the men and
women of the military and their families, plus
recognizing the efforts of Operation
Recognition. When the dust cleared and the
marathon program ended, it was
West Bath's
Bill Whorff Jr standing in victory lane holding
the first place trophy and ready to cash the
$10,000 winner's check for winning the Coastal
200.
Whorff took advantage of a carefully
thought out pit strategy and
heavy attrition in the early going to win
the main event for the Smith Construction Late
Model Sportsman -- the biggest win of his racing
career and first ever at Wiscasset. "We decided
before the race we wanted to get to the 125 laps
and let everyone else pit early, which they
did," Whorff said. "We needed to wait for the
gas, to get the rear weight percentage we wanted
to get the car to go right." Whorff's #10
AAA
/ Whorff Excavation Ford Taurus was one of only
2 cars to finish on the lead lap of the race
which took nearly 2 1/2 hours to run and was
marred by 19 caution periods.
Darren Ripley of
Appleton finished 2nd and T.J. Watson of Harspwell was 3rd, one lap down, and one of only
12 of 31 starters running at the finish. Watson
was locked in a great battle over the final 20
laps of the race with Joe Dorion of Berwick and
Josh St Clair of Liberty for the final spot in
victory lane. Dorion would finish 4th and St
Clair 5th. Ricky Rolfe, Aaron Ricker, Erik Nash,
Chuck Colby and Scott Pooler completed the top
ten.
Whorff not only worked the long Coastal
200, but he'd also put in well over an hour in
the Clark's
Car Crushing Prostock feature earlier in the
afternoon. Twelve cautions thinned the field
through the first 114 laps. Whorff pitted for
the final time on lap 115 and had gobbled up
Ripley's straightaway lead in less than 10 laps.
He passed him for the point on lap 141. Ripley
then rode around trying to protect 2nd place. A
caution flew on lap 186 -- and Ripley hit pit
road for tires. Problem was, the only tires he'd
had left were old ones, taken off his car when
he mistakenly pitted on lap 54. His crew had
made an unfortunate miscalculation early in the
race, thinking the number of laps run was 82.
"We pitted real, real early," Ripley said. "We
made that mistake that way, but we put the
(first) tires on and that's all we had."
Whorff
said he radioed in and knew that Ripley had old
tires on his car when he lined up outside of him
on lap 185 and lap 196 restarts. "I really
didn't worry," Whorff said. "I knew that they
were
still 2 or 3-10ths slower than what we were
running, even on new tires. The car was just
clicking along so well." Ripley was happy with
2nd, though, coming into this year driving for
owner Bill Stilphen after a 6-year absence from
racing. "This was good," said Ripley, who owned
$4,000 for his runner-up spot. "I knew if I
stayed out of trouble -- no gambles -- we'd be
OK. The car looks pretty good for 200
laps."
Defending
LMS
champ Chris Thorne of
Sidney,
a pre-race favorite to win the Coastal 200 had
his share of the lead early in the race, leading
from lap 8 through lap 31 when he was forced to
the pits for a flat tire. He would work his way
back to the front and retake the lead from
Whorff on lap 81. Just 16 laps later Thorne
would drop out of the race with rear-end
problems. Race leaders included pole sitter Bill
Childs Jr, Eddie McDonald, Thorne, Ripley and
Whorff.
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In support action on the afternoon, 6-time track
champ Maurice Young of
Windsor
continued his dominance in extra distance races
for the Keystone Automotive Strictly Streets.
Young took the lead on lap 6 and covered the
final 44 on the way to the win in the $500 to
win 50 lap
qualifier. With the win, Young locks himself
into the starting grid for the 100 lap Street
Stock Nationals at Wiscasset Raceway as part of
Ray Haskell Ford "Fall Brawl" weekend October
4th and 5th. Durham's Larry Emerson finished a
distant second and Steve Pierpont of Cushing
took 3rd. Lisbon's Dave Brannon gave Young his
toughest challenge, chasing the leader within a
car length from lap 12 through 28 when he
dropped out with mechanical problems.
"Big" John Phippen of
Bar Harbor
picked up the win in the 40 lap feature for the
Clark's
Car Crushing Pro Stocks. Phippen took over the
lead following a lap 34 restart which involved
the lead pair of Bill Whorff and Tim Turner.
Jesse Smith ran his best race at Wiscasset,
picking up the 2nd place trophy after a run up
from 18th. Freedom's Randy Turner took
over the point lead in Wiscasset's top division
with his 3rd place finish.
Oakland's
Mike Landry won a caution filled 30 lap feature
for the Unicel / Budweiser Super Streets. For
Landry, a former champ at Beech Ridge, it was
his first win at Wiscasset. Shawn Austin of
Norridgewock backed up his first career win from
the previous week with a run from 13th to finish
2nd. Bryan Fortin of South China started 4th and
shook of some early race troubles to race his
way back up through the field to finish 3rd.
In
the 25 lap feature for the Aable Auto Part Mini
Stocks, point leader Mac Hannan made quick work
of the field of cars, moving up from 19th to the
lead by the halfway marker. From there, he drove
to his first mini stock win since his
championship season of 2002. Dylan Lancaster of
Skowhegan started 18th and notched his third
straight podium finish in 2nd. 2-time Mini Stock
champ Shawn Kimball filled out the top three.
Barry Poulin picked up his 2nd win of the season
in the 20 lap feature for the White & Bradstreet
Mini Trucks. Poulin was the opening day winner.
In Sunday's program he was joined in victory
lane by week two winner Jason Giggey of Unity
and Kevin Oliver of Gray.
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