Jake Trainor, John Zych, Paul Scally Capture NEMA Wins At Lee, Waterford And Monadnock

The Northeastern Midget Association had a busy stretch over the past eight days – as the club ran three events at three different racetracks – LEE USA Speedway, the New-London Waterford Speedbowl, and Monadnock.

The Lites started the stretch when they visited the LEE USA Speedway.  In the 50 lap special event, it appeared that Paul Scally was going to top the field, but he lost the lead in the late stages of the event to Jake Trainor driving the Seymour 29.  Trainor came from deep in the field, and passed Scally to take down his fourth victory of the year.  Scally was second followed by Joe Bailey in the Scrivani 21, Richie Coy, Kyle Valeri, Avery Stoehr, Jim SantaMaria, Randy Cabral, Chris Vose and Dylan Cotu. 

On Wednesday evening, the NEMA group visited the New-London Waterford Speedbowl for the first time this season.  After a long rain delay, when the green flag dropped, Doug Cleveland and Jake Trainor brought the field to the green flag. Trainor quickly got out into the lead, and Todd Bertrand in the Bertrand 47 overtook Cleveland on the outside to settle into second.  Further back, Randy Cabral was dicing his way through the pack in the Bertrand 74.  As the laps wound down, Bertrand could not muster up a charge on Trainor, as the 16 year old went on to win the event and become one of the youngest ever NEMA feature winners in the full NEMA division, dating back to Bobby Santos’ first win at 16 years old in 2002.  Bertrand was second followed by Randy Cabral, Avery Stoehr, Paul Scally, John Zych, Nathan Byrd, Doug Cleveland, Jeff Champagne and Matt O’Brien.

On Saturday evening, both NEMA and the NEMA LItes visited the Monadnock Speedway for the Iron Mike Scrivani Memorial.  One of the biggest purses of the year was raised to celebrate the long time car owner, Mike Scrivani Sr. of the famed “Mike’s Truckstop.”  Scrivani was a multi time champion across NEMA, ARDC, even competing and winning many USAC main events.

In the Lites division, Paul Scally jumped out into the lead from his outside pole starting position.  Quickly, Scally went to work, turning quick times, running in the 12.5/12.6 range.  Behind Scally, Randy Cabral in his own #26 Hawk chassis was trying to chase down Scally, but could not make gains.  Further back, Jake Trainor in the Seymour 29 was slicing his way through the pack, and moved into third on lap seventeen.  By lap twenty one, Trainor had moved into second, and Scally, fighting brake issues, had started to slow down.  Trainor began picking up the pace and would pull to within two carlengths of Scally with two laps to go, and was on his bumper at the white flag.  Trainor would pull even with Scally’s name plate off of turn four, but lose by a half carlength.  Scally would go on to win, with Trainor second, Randy Cabral, Joe Bailey, Richie Coy, Kyle Valeri, Mike Pernesiglio, Anthony Payne, Dylan Cotu, and Jordan Eldridge.

In the NEMA group, when the green flag flew, Doug Cleveland jumped out into the lead from the pole. Cleveland, in one of his best outings of the last decade, looked incredibly strong, running laps down in the low 12 second bracket.  Cleveland would lead the first 18 laps of the feature, in his own chassis, with John Zych stalking him lap after lap.  Zych would make a bid for the lead on lap 19, and Cleveland’s hopes for a win would subside.  Once in command, Zych would put on a blistering pace enroute to the Iron Mike Scrivani victory. Avery Stoehr finished second, followed by Alan Chambers, who also had an epic battle with Cleveland, to complete the podium.  Todd Bertrand, Jake Trainor, Cleveland, Matt O’Brien, Matt Merry, Mike Horn, and Kenney Johnson rounded out the top 10.