Garrett Denton celebrates victory and his first Mini Stock championship at the Waterford Speedbowl Sunday (Photo: Mark Caise/Waterford Speedbowl)
WATERFORD – Garrett Denton made his farewell to the fans of the Waterford Speedbowl one to remember Sunday at the shoreline oval.
The 17-year old from Hope Valley, R.I. won the 30-lap Mini Stock feature Sunday at the Waterford Speedbowl Finale Weekend to clinch his first division championship.
Wayne Burroughs Jr. of Oakdale was second and Chris Ivory of Oakdale third.
Denton’s family had decided before the final event that they would sell their racing team as Denton prepares to head to the University of Northwestern Ohio next year.
Denton will participate in the racing program at UNOH.
“I’m going off to college in August so we wouldn’t be able to really finish a full season,” Denton said. “So we decided to put it away now and prepare for the next chapter of my life. I’m going to be working with the race team when I get out to Ohio so I’ll have plenty of racing still while I’m out there.
“I’ll probably be buying a season pass for next year [at Waterford] and I’ll still be here every Saturday night. This is something you can’t stay away from. Once you’re here it’s addicting, you have to come back.”
Denton started in the Mini Stock division in 2011 and at 14 years old became the youngest NASCAR weekly division winner in the country. Sunday he became the youngest NASCAR division champion in the 64-year history of the Speedbowl.
“It’s more than I could ever begin to imagine,” Denton said of winning the championship. “In a few weeks I’ll start to realize, ‘Wow, that was my last race, this is my last season.’ Maybe it will start to set in then. But right now, the win, the championship, it’s all just unreal to me. It’s awesome. It’s insane. When I first started four years ago I would have never thought that I would be where I am now. My goal my first year was to not wreck the car, just finish races.”
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