Jesse Gleason celebrates in victory lane at Thompson Speedway without his car after running out of fuel following his Limited Sportsman division win
THOMPSON – Rolling their car into victory lane is ultimately what every driver is looking for when they arrive at Thompson Speedway.
Wednesday at Thompson it was horsepower that carried Jesse Gleason to victory, but it turned out to be a golf car that took him to celebrate that victory on the frontstretch.
Gleason, of Lisbon, had just enough fuel to get to the finish and win the 20-lap Limited Sportsman feature Wednesday at Thompson.
Larry Barnett of Moosup was second and Scott Sundeen of Douglas, Mass. third.
Gleason’s car ran out of fuel before he could get to victory lane at the track.
“I asked my brother to put some fuel in the car before we went out but it must have slipped his mind,” Gleason said. “So we had just enough to finish.”
Josh Wood was leading on lap six, but got sideways by himself in turn four, allowing Gleason to go low to take over the top spot and take Barnett with him into second.
Barnett stalked Gleason for the rest of the feature, with Gleason deftlying wrangling a wiggly car over the final 10 laps.
“She was a handful,” Gleason said. “She was a little tight and loose. I was just trying to save the tires. I could see other guys were burning them off about lap 11 or 12. So I would try to get a little distance [on Barnett] and every time I did I’d get a little wiggly loose. If I could just keep it straight in line it seemed like it would do everything by itself. Thank god there was no cautions.”
Marc Curtis of Spencer, Mass. drove away at the start and went unchallenged on the way to his second victory of the season in the 25-lap Late Model feature.
Jeff Rocco of Wallingford was second and Keith Rocco of Wallingford third.
In post race inspection Curtis was found to have illegal fuel and was disqualified from the victory. The disqualification gave the win to Jeff Rocco.
Eric Bourgeois of Haddam won the 15-lap Mini Stock feature.
Thank you Shawn for the write up. Seems the Norwich Bulletin would rather glorify Michael Ross with their front page article keeping his notoriety going that is exactly what these guys that kill people who demand attention wanted! They covered the stupid segment race for the modifieds but not a word about those other support divisions.
Keep up the good work you know you are appreciated.