Tony Membrino Jr. (center) celebrates in victory lane Saturday at Thompson Speedway (Photo: Thompson Speedway)
THOMPSON – Tony Membrino Jr. kicked off his 2016 racing season exactly how he closed out 2005: In victory lane at Thompson Speedway.
Membrino, of Plantsville, scored victory in the 20-lap SK Light Modified feature Saturday at Thompson.
Membrino was also the winner of the SK Light Modified feature at the season ending World Series of Speedway Racing last October.
Corey Barry of Plainfield was second and Marcello Rufrano of North Haven, making his SK Light Modified debut, was third.
Joe Arena of Bristol opened defense of his 2015 North East Street Stock Tour championship by opening the season with victory in the division’s 20-lap feature.
Corey Hutchings of Salem was second and Steve Kenneway of Lowell, Mass. was third.
Bert Ouellette III of Ellington won the 20-lap Truck race. Dan Cugini of Marshfield, Mass. won the 20-lap NEMA Lite feature.
3 trucks, 9 lites- less people in the stands. Sad. Might as well add a few more divisions
3 trucks, 8 Sk lites, and just awful car counts across the board for Saturday. That makes Thompson one of the biggest ripoffs in short track racing simply because they don’t offer a 1 day ticket.
Hey Andy Boring, maybe the mamby pambies who were crying on here about the temp and weather scared people away, last check it might hit 50 today, they should have cancelled the race!!!!! As for the SK lights, who cares; isn’t this the division that bitched they were removed from the schedule last year? I say bring in the Pro 4 Modifieds. Again, for a two day event with no charge for parking and I can bring my own food is a decent price.
I believe there should be a Saturday ticket for the fans, $10 , pit addmission for Saturday divisions should b half price (6 per car). Or eliminate Saturday divisions and just have Sunday
Hey Chris….was there and it is much more enjoyable when it is a bit warmer…..Racing and baseball should not be played in the northeast until the end of April…….jmo.
It was more the price than the temps for me. See you at the World Series, gotta start saving my pennies now. And if The Speedbowl continues to imitate Thompson with their concession prices those lines will be ever shorter.
How can you call it a 2 day show when the biggest feature on Saturday only had about 10 cars in it?
The Pro 4 cars are almost as dead as that truck series is, and the Pro 4s were there but you probably didn’t notice them Chris because there were only 12 out on the track (two divisions combined of course).
Waterford and Thompson both have their own truck division now. Did the truck tour series disband? At least they aren’t coming back to Thompson till the world series. The speedbowl does have them on the schedule for a number of times throughout the season. As for the lites Thompson has gotten rid of them once already. Why they’re bringing them back is beyond me. Hopefully they do everyone a favor and run them last at least. And I must say whoever came up with the design of the pace car must have been smoking some funny stuff. First of all you can hardly read what it says on the car but one side says Thomson, the other Speedway. I thought the pace car is suppose to be highly visible and all they got is a little flashing light on top. Easily the worst pace car I have ever seen.