THOMPSON – It was a winless streak that Tommy Silva has been trying to shake since 2002.
Sunday a borrowed ride at Thompson Speedway finally broke the streak for the Gales Ferry driver.
Silva held off the charges of Charles Canfield to win the 15-lap Mini Stock feature Sunday at Thompson Speedway.
It was the first feature win in a local racing event for Silva since he won a Sportsman event at the New London-Waterford Speedbowl in 2002.
“I thought I sucked but I guess I don’t,” Silva said. … “It’s been quite some time. A little long overdue. It means so much, especially up here because up here is a track everybody wants to win. Not that you don’t want to win everywhere else, but Thompson is special. To be able to do it, it’s a dream come true.”
Canfield, of East Haven, was second and Russ Barboza of Griswold third.
Silva had started three of the first five events this year at Thompson with his own car. Before Sunday’s feature the Roy family offered Silva the ride normally driven by Glynn Roy.
“He’s got a hot rod there,” Silva said. “… He was kind enough to step away and let me get in it. It worked out great. It was the fastest car I’ve ever driven, handled great. It was a dream come true to drive a great car.”
Woody Pitkat of Stafford got his second consecutive victory in the 25-lap Late Model feature.
“They gave me a great car and again they gave me a great car,” Pitkat said. “My wife said she felt bad that she wasn’t here last week so she brough the kids today. I told her it was going to be tough to repeat after last week. We were close with the SK [Modified]. … But its nice to be able to be here in victory lane with my kids.”
Rick Gentes of Woonsocket, R.I. was second and William Wall of Shrewsbury, Mass. third.
On July 28 Bryan Narducci saw his perfect record in the SK Light Modified division at Thompson ended when he was intentionally spun out of the lead on the final lap of the division’s feature by Steven Chapman.
Sunday Narducci went back to chasing another winning streak.
Narducci, of Colchester, went from fourth to the lead in less than two laps then left the field deep in his wake in winning the 20-lap SK Light Modified feature.
It was Narducci’s ninth career victory in 10 starts in the division at Thompson dating back to 2017.
“Last week we were leading in turn four but we didn’t come out with it,” Narducci said. “The best thing to do is come back and win this week and we did that.”
Albert Ouellette of Ellington was second and Nathan Pytko of Oxford, Mass. third.
“I was kind of wishing that [Chapman] would come back so we could race it out clean, but, he didn’t come back so I had to race with what we had and had some fu.
Chris Douton of Niantic won the 20-lap Limited Sportsman feature. Kyle Gero of Norwich was second and Jason Chicolas of Sutton, Mass. third.
Hartwell Motorsports with Pitkat driving that 91 has been dialed in the last two weeks.
Speaking of Thompson Speedway- has anyone else had trouble finding complete finishing orders of this year’s events beyond the Top 10 running order? Their own site redirects me to an old race result from 2018.
Sean I don’t post often but wanted to know if anyone started out at Thompson and all of a sudden found themselves at Bowman Gray like I did.