The Green Mountain Gear-Heads Sprint Cars of New England returned to Bear Ridge Speedway for the final time in 2019, as part of the NE Dirt Track Championship Weekend on Saturday, September 21st . The race format for the evening was very different than the normal procedure as the cars and stars of the Sprint Cars of New England ran two 20 lap Races and inverted the field after the first event with the overall winner being determined by the best combined finish of the two events. Time Trials were used to set the starting order of the first 20 lap event.
Clay Dow set fast time in Time Trials and therefore started the first 20-lap event on the pole with Kurt Conklin on the outside of the front row. When the green flag flew Clay Dow immediately burst out to an impressive lead with Kurt Conklin settling into second with John Scarborough third. By lap four Chris Donnelly had worked by Scarborough into third and then started to track down the second running Conklin. While Clay Dow continued to build his impressive lead Donnelly was challenging Conklin for second and finally executed the pass to claim the spot with thirteen laps complete in the fast paced event. By lap fifteen Dow encountering lapped traffic which slightly slowed his pace and allowed Donnelly to close the gap between the two some but without any cautions to tighten the field up Clay Dow took the impressive win in the first 20 lap event. Chris Donnelly was second with Kurt Conklin third , John Scarborough fourth and Will Hull completed the top five .
When the second 20 lap event came to post it was Travis Billington and Mike Kondrat on the front row with Billington getting the jump to bolt into the lead when the green flag racing commenced. Kevin Chaffee was on the move, flying to the front from his fourth starting spot to claim the lead with four laps in the books. His lead was very short lived however as just two laps later Will Hull after starting sixth blasted by Chaffee and took the top spot. At the halfway mark of the event it was Will Hull with the lead, Kevin Chaffee was second with Travis Billington third. Just a lap later however Jake Williams flew by Billington to garner third and two laps later made a slick move to get by Kevin Chaffee for second. With five laps to go Clay Dow also worked by Chaffee to take the third spot and that is how they finished the caution free event. Will Hull took the win with Jake Williams second and Clay Dow third, Kevin Chaffee was fourth with Travis Billington claiming fifth.
When the finishes were combined from the two caution free 20 lap Features the overall winner was Clay Dow with Will Hull second, Jake Williams was third with Chris Donnelly fourth and Kevin Chaffee fifth.
With the Second place finish Will Hull cemented his second consecutive Bear Ridge Speedway Sprint Car Title .
The next event on the Green Mountain Gear-Heads Sprint Cars of New England schedule will be Saturday , October 5th at the RumTown Speedway in Wentworth, NH and will complete the 2019 season.
Green Mountain Gear-Heads Sprint Cars of New England Unofficial Overall finish - Bear Ridge Speedway September 21st 2019 ( 2 - 20 lap Segments )
1st 58 Clay Dow
2nd 61 Will Hull
3rd 73 Jake Williams
4th 24 Chris Donnelly
5th 8 Kevin Chaffee
6th 61s John Scarborough
7th 45 Kurt Conklin
8th 88 Travis Bilington
9th 5 Mike Kondrat
10th 603 Troy Comeau
11th 41u Rick Stone
Fast Time Clay Dow 12.696
Segment one winner Clay Dow
Segment two winner Will Hull
- Ron Giroux on Sep 23, 2019
- Article Date: 9/23/2019 by Alan Ward