WATERFORD - Jeff Smith drove away from Vin Esposito after the final restart and rolled easily to victory in the 25-lap Late Model feature Saturday at the Waterford Speedbowl.

It was the second career victory for Smith, of Old Lyme.

"The car was pretty consistent the whole night," Smith said. "It was a little bit tight in the center [of the corners] so I put a couple rounds of rear brake in to free it up and it was pretty good. I wasn't really concerned with restarts."

Smith, who sits second place in the standings, won his first career event on June 26.

Esposito, of Seymour, was second and division points leader Tim Jordan of Plainfield was third.

"I didn't get any practice today," Esposito said. "I broke an axle and actually ripped apart half of the rear end in the car. The last five laps that thing was making all kinds of noises. I was just hoping it would stay together."

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WATERFORD - Al Stone III held off Ronnie Oldham Jr. to win the 25-lap Street Stock feature at the Waterford Speedbowl Saturday.

It was the fourth consecutive victory for Stone, of New Haven, who sits second in the division standings.

It was the sixth win of the season for Stone, who also has four second place finishes and 15 top-5's in 19 events in 2010.

"This car is just awesome," Stone said. "We've really come on lately. The handles on this thing are just great."

Oldham, of Westbrook, was second and Norm Sears of Andover third.

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WATERFORD - For any driver strapping into a brand new car, there's always the worry if the new piece will have what it takes to get the job done.

It seems Jon McKennedy has little worry about his new ride.

McKennedy made the maiden voyage of his new Saturday at the Waterford Speedbowl a victorious one, driving away from the field over the final quarter of the race to win the 100-lap Modified Racing Series feature.

It was the second victory of the season for the division's points leader and defending champion from Chelmsford, Mass.

"Special thanks to [Ed Flemke Jr. and Reggie Ruggiero from Raceworks Chassis], they worked pretty hard to get this chassis done for me," McKennedy said. "I've got to thank my crew. It's been a long week, fifteen, sixteen hours in the garage every day. We finished it up last night. But it all paid off. The car ran awesome."

Chris Pasteryak of Lisbon was second and Steve Masse of Bellingham, Mass. third.

McKennedy took the lead from Geoff Gernhard on lap 33 and led the rest of the way.

"I wish I could have made it a better show but Jon had us covered tonight," Pasteryak said.

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WATERFORD - As he drove away from the field over the closing laps Todd Ceravolo feared what has become seemingly inevitable this year for him on the track.

Week after week this year at the Waterford Speedbowl, Ceravolo has consistently had one of the best cars in the field, but every chance he's had to win has been swept away either by a wreck or mechanical issues.

"Our luck has been god awful terrible," Ceravolo said. "What keeps our heads up is that week in and week out we have a strong car here.

"We race from the back to the front. I really don't care a whole lot about finishing second. I just want to have a strong race car every week and just race my heart out every week. I'm not a settler. I just haven't had the luck this year."

Saturday Ceravolo didn't have to worry about fighting to the front and the bug of bad luck finally gave him a break for the first time in 2010.

Ceravolo, of Gales Ferry, led every lap on the way to victory in the 25-lap NASCAR Whelen All-American Series SK Modified feature at Waterford.

It was his first victory of the season.

Jeff Pearl of Salem was second and Rob Janovic Jr. of Waterford third.

Ceravolo easily pulled away from the rest of the field after each restart. After the final restart,with 11 laps remaining, Ceravolo went into conserve mode in an effort to ensure that disaster wouldn't strike again.

"I told my [spotter Tim Jordan], when I get to a four or five car length lead, I'm comfortable, I'm going to let the car come in high [into the corners] and save the tires and worst case scenario was to have a [late caution] and have a dogfight at the end," Ceravolo said. "I just took it easy and got the job done. I hate starting up front like that. Everybody here knows me, I like coming from the back. I like to make a big show. Win or lose, I like things to be exciting."

Pearl was a distant second at the checkered flag.

"[Ceravolo] was really strong," Pearl said. "I want to congratulate him for finally having some luck goes his way. We had a good car, we were off just a little bit. I'm real happy with second place, we've been struggling a little bit, but we're back with a podium finish and I'm pretty happy."

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WATERFORD - The rumbling of features came early Saturday at the Waterford Speedbowl for the track's annual Thunder on the Sound card.

With eight divisions on the card, including a 100-lap feature from the Modified Racing Series, festivities kicked off early.

And opening the show with another in a long line of victories this year was Anthony Flannery of East Hampton, who paced the field in the 25-lap Legends feature.

It was another regular visitor to victory lane in the second race of the night with Allen Coates scoring victory in the 25-lap Truck feature.

Heat races have been completed for the Modified Racing Series with Geoff Gernhard of Salem, Jon McKennedy of Chelmsford, Mass. and Les Hinckley III of Windsor Locks winning in their respective events.

Also on the card tonight are 25-lap features for the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series SK Modifieds, Late Models, Street Stocks, Mini Stocks and Allison Legacy cars.

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Last year Waterford Speedbowl Late Model driver Tim Jordan called getting invited to race in the inaugural American-Canadian Tour Invitational the chance to live a dream by getting the opportunity to compete at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

This year reality will likely trump dreaming for the Plainfield racer.

On Monday Jordan was one of 20 drivers on the initial list of invitees for this year's event at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, which is scheduled to be run Sept. 18.

Thursday Jordan said he will likely decline the invitation.

Jordan said financially his team, which is essentially funded out of pocket by himself and his father, can't afford to make the trip.

"It's a choice between finishing up my season at Waterford on our racing budget or doing that race," Jordan said. "We've pretty much funded this whole season out of pocket already. We literally have no sponsors other than family and friends. I can't burden them again to do that. We're already at the max. I know every racer is at that point, I don't want to make it sound like I'm any poorer than anybody else, everybody else is in the same boat. I guess this is why we race locally. It's never affordable, but in the big scheme of things we just can't afford to be racing on a tour and this is like going to a tour race."

Jordan, the current Late Model division points leader, said between travel costs and equipment and fuel costs, participating in the event would cost his team $3,000.

"There's a difference between your personal budget and your racing budget," Jordan said. "The minute you cross the line is the minute you need to evaluate everything you're doing. It's just too much money for us to get there. You get $1,000 for last [place in the event], but you've still got to come up with the money to get there and I really don't want to use plastic to get there. Maybe that's an un-racer thing to say, I don't know."

Jordan and Bruce Thomas Jr. of Groton, who has won the last three Late Model division championships at the Speedbowl, were both invited to compete in the inaugural event. Jordan had mechanical issues in last year's race and retired after 25 laps. Thomas finished ninth.

Jordan participated in an ACT test session at NHMS on Aug. 17 and was one of the top-5 cars on the speed charts for much of the day.

Thomas was also invited to test last month but did not participate, which means he likely will not be invited. The American-Canadian Tour is expected to announce the remainder of the 43 invitees for the event on Sept. 6 and Sept. 13.

"I don't know what the costs are involved or what the commitment is," said Waterford Speedbowl owner Terry Eames. "In general we hope that our guys would want to compete with anything that the [American-Canadian Tour] did. ... It's a shame." 

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THOMPSON - Ryan Preece left Thompson International Speedway on June 24 wondering what went wrong after he finished eighth in the track's first Tour Type Modified Shootout event of this season.

Thursday he came back with the game figured out.

Preece, of Berlin, held off Ron Silk over the closing circuits to win the third 40-lap Tour Type Modified Shootout of the season Thursday at Thompson International Speedway.

"I had an awesome car," Preece said. "We've been rubbing our head from the first time when we came here. We just fell off and we did our homework and we came here and man this car was perfect. I can't thank my team enough."

Preece did not compete in the second Tour Type Shootout event on July 1. The final Shootout will be held Sept. 26.

Silk, of Norwalk, was second and Mike Stefanik, of Coventry, R.I., third.

Preece passed Silk on a restart on lap 30 and then held off the charges of Silk on a lap 34 restart.

"I think I saved more tires in this race than I ever have before my life," Preece said. "I finally got a win this season. Hopefully we got the monkey off our back."

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