Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Beech Ridge ~ 9/17/11

reprinted from nelcar.net

Bourgoine Fights Back For 50 Lap Win At Beech Ridge

The Amsoil Nelcar Legends Tour was at Beech Ridge Motor Speedway for what is one of the biggest races on the Tour. 50 laps and $400 to win on the Pro All Stars Series PASS 400 weekend, it was set to be a great race as it always is. With drivers from as far away as New Jersey, the 23 car field took to the track knowing there was just two races remaining and time was running out to make a statement before the 2011 season is over.

Heat race number one started with the 10 of Ed Getty on the pole with the 8 of Matt Chagnot starting on the outside. Getty got the jump while the 88 of Steve Fox followed through to second. Just a few laps in, the 56 of Evan Beaulieu, the defending race winner, jumped to the outside and with a few laps remaining he grabbed the lead from Getty. Beaulieu took the heat win, with the 14 of Trevor Sanborn finishing second and the 38 of Matt Bourgoine finished third.

Shawn Buffington, who has dominated at New Hampshire Motor Speedway this season, started on the pole for the second heat race with the 25 of Larry Poirier on the outside. At the start, Buffington got the jump with the 51 of Todd McCollum finding his way to second. Just a few laps into the event, the 48 of Kendall Curit and Poirier made contact, resulting in a pile up of cars, but everyone continued on. For the restart, Buffington was able to get away and take the heat win over McCollum and the 27 of Kevin Hutchens.

For the 50 lap feature event, Beaulieu was on the pole with Buffington on the outside. On the start, Beaulieu got the jump with Sanborn following him into second spot. Those two got a healthy distance on the rest of the field as they dueled it out for the race lead. The first yellow came out 32 laps into the event for the 46 of Chad Harrington spinning after contact with Bourgoine. On the following restart, Beaulieu got the jump once again, and pulled away with the race lead as McCollum got around Sanborn for second with Hutchens and Bourgoine in tow. Beaulieu looked like he was cruising to another win when the yellow flag changed everything with just two laps to go for McCollum and Hutchens getting together with the 17 of Terry Kirk getting collected as well.

Beaulieu and Bourgoine were on the front row with a green, white, checkered finish before them. Beaulieu once again got the jump on the start, but Bourgoine drove the 38 car hard into the first turn and held strong on the outside. The two ran side by side, and Bourgoine was able to get enough of a run to take the checkered flag on the outside, his first win at Beech Ridge. Beaulieu, who dominated the race, had to settle for second with Sanborn finishing third. The 399 of Bob Weymouth quietly worked his way to fourth at the finish while McCollum finished fifth.

With the second place finish, Beaulieu is 119 points ahead of Bourgoine with just one points race left to go in the Amsoil Nelcar Legends Tour season. The next time the Tour hits the track though will not be for points, but it will be in front of a big crowd. Sunday, September 25th the Tour will be at New Hampshire Motor Speedway as the pre race event for the Nascar Sprint Cup Series Sylvania 300. The invitational only event will be a great race as the action starts at 10 AM. For more news, info and how you can get into a Legends Car, visit Nelcar.net.