No Rain On Bourgoine’s Parade
For the first heat race, it was a pair of rookies with the 59 of Reid Lanpher and the 84 of Matt Grant were on the front row. On the start, it was Lanpher who took the early race lead with Grant falling in second. Coming from the third and fifth starting spots were the 399 of Bob Weymouth and the 56 of Evan Beaulieu were coming to the front. On lap four, the 49 of Pete Cannel went for a spin in turn one and brought out the caution flag. On the restart, Weymouthwas able to get the lead from Lanpher with Beaulieu following through into second place. Beaulieu then made the move on Weymouthand found the lead as he got the heat win over Weymouth and Lanpher.
For the second heat race, it was the 81 of Dan Winter and the 33 of Alan Smith on the front row. The action didn’t take long to come around, as contact on the second lap between the two leaders sent Smith for a ride into the turn three barrier, ending Smith’s race early. On the next restart, it was Winter and a new challenger with the 12 of Charlie Buxton, who is a past winner at Speedway 95. Coming in a hurry though was the 38 of Matt Bourgoine, and he overtook Buxton to take the lead. At the finish, it was Bourgoine winning heat two with Buxton in second and the 2 of Ryan Hammar in third.
It would be Evan Beaulieu leading the field to the green flag for the feature event with Bourgoine on his outside. Using the preferred outside groove, Bourgoine took the early race lead after Beaulieu put up a fight on the inside before falling in second spot. The first run was a long one, with Bourgoine and Beaulieu pulling away as they ran each other bumper to bumper. The first yellow came out on lap ten as the 96 of rookie Wyatt Alexander went for a spin in turn one. The first restart of the race had Bourgoine using Nelcar’s new “choose rule” which allows the race leader to choose which lane he starts in on the front row, to his advantage as he took off with the lead in the outside groove. There were many drivers wrapped under a blanket at the front of the field as Bourgoine held the lead. The second caution came out for Alexander finding more problems in turn one, only to find out later in the day he had a motor mount going bad making the 96 car hard to handle. The next restart was more of the same as Bourgoine held the lead in front of Beaulieu and Weymouth. Once again it was all Bourgoine and Beaulieu at the front of the field, as Beaulieu made a few bids for the lead to no avail. The races final caution flag came out as the 8 of Matt Chagnot went for a spin in turn four, but was able to continue. On the final restart, Bourgoine and Beaulieu drove into turn one side by side, and the two were fighting hard for the lead, but the hometown kid was able to get the lead once again, and hang on to get the win! Beaulieu finished second with Lanpher in third. Weymouth finished fourth and Matt Grant finished a career high of fifth.
The win was a popular one for Matt Bourgoine, who calls Speedway 95 his home track and had many of his family and friends there to watch him take the checkered flag. Along with the win, Bourgoine now holds a three point advantage over Beaulieu for the points lead. The Tour would like to thank BDS Waste Disposal, Dysart’s, Maine Equipment Company, Casella Waste and Chadwick-BaRoss for their sponsorship of the event. The Tour has next weekend off, but will be back in action on Thursday, June 14th for the first race in the Thursday Night Thunder series at Beech Ridge Motor Speedway. The popular ten race series is one of the most exciting nights in all of racing, and tickets are only $4 for grandstands, and $8 for the pits with racing starting at 7PM. For more news, info and how you can get into a Legends Car, visit Nelcar.net.
