Jon McKennedy’s career in motorsports straddles a divide. The Chelmsford, Mass. native is a regular on a the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour driving for team owner Tommy Baldwin Jr.
But his roots in racing go deep with SuperModifieds, especially at his home track of Star Speedway in Epping, N.H.
Last week McKennedy made the decision to skip Saturday’s Whelen Modified Tour Miller Lite 200 at Riverhead Raceway to chase a checkered in one of the biggest International SuperModified Association events annually.
Though rain in New Hampshire forced the postponement of the ISMA Star Classic Bob Webber Sr. Memorial 125 to Sunday morning, the decision paid off exactly as hoped for McKennedy.
McKennedy drove away from Chris Perley in the late stages to win the ISMA Star Classic Bob Webber Sr. Memorial Sunday at Star Speedway. The race was cut from 125 laps to 100 laps.
“I’ve raced a lot of tracks over the years, a lot of forms of race cars, the Star Classic man, is still No. 1,” McKennedy said. “Just feels great to be at home. A lot of fans. The whole environment is great. I love racing with ISMA. It’s an awesome car. It’s a big deal.”
Perley, of Rowley, Mass., was second, 2.6 seconds behind McKennedy. Ryan Locke of Raymond, N.H. was third.
It was the second consecutive victory in the Star Classic 125, third in the last four years and fourth overall for McKennedy.
“It’s a big group effort, all the guys that help me,” McKennedy said. “My car owner [Tim Lepine] has given me great equipment. I surround myself with good people. It’s the whole package man. I don’t know what to say, just unbelievable on a roll. I think it’s definitely a record here with the most consecutive wins. It just feels awesome to come back at home.”
It was the eighth consecutive win in ISMA starts for McKennedy dating back to the 2019 season. It was his fourth victory of the 2021 season. He also had wins at Seekonk (Mass.) Speedway (June 9), Monadnock Speedway in Winchester, N.H. (June 26) and Claremont (N.H.) Speedway (Aug. 20).
With four victories this year McKennedy now has 18 career ISMA SuperModified wins and sits tied with Dave McKnight for eighth place on the division’s all-time win list.
McKennedy gave credit in victory lane to his father Dennis, who passed away in September 2019.
“Big thanks to my dad,” McKennedy. “He was a huge part of my racing career getting me to this point. My biggest supporter, my biggest fan. I miss him, I love him.”
This race was an embarassment,first off the 2 headline races were rained out on Saturday Night because they ran the lower divisions first.Why promoters do that is beyond me.Then today,a couple of supers went home,Otto Sitterly had to drop out of the classic because his son was getting married in Albany.I think 8 cars finished and they cut the race from 125 laps to 100.Promoter is too greedy running too many divisions in 1 night.Terrible,terrible….
There was a choice for Nocella but McKennedy had no reason to be anywhere other then Star.
Nope still don’t get it try as I might. A good mid race battle between Perley and Locke but otherwise where’s the beef? A restart with 9 to go shapes up to be an exciting ending you’d think. Only 8 cars at the end and they spread out in the blink of an eye with no racing for position in sight. I can see why McKennedy favors supers. On the NWMT and opens he has to race and in the supers he’s so dominant it’s like a Sunday drive.
Push trucks for hot laps, push trucks for the start, push trucks after a red flag.
I get the Super Late Models, get the 350 supers, don’t get the ISMA supers. They’re too fast and have outstripped competitive racing.
26 cars for the MRS race with Nocella, Swanson and the 25 headlining a strong field. The MRS under the proper conditions is alive and well it would appear.
McKennedy’s car is in its own zip code once an isma race gets going. No rain in the forcast, so that was unexpected. Dont know why they shortened it on sunday. Would not have been much more time to run the full race. Never saw a super do donuts before!!
Congrats to Jon and his team for the win. Too bad both him and Nocella ended up missing the Tour race at Riverhead, but both ended up winning at Star.
The numbers were always great for the Classic , & Seekonk & Thompson , But Covid messed up our friends from Canada & also Ohio and Pennsylvania & Midwest cars were not allowed to travel due to Covid so the counts were down all Year and Last year also only had like 4 Races … Normally The Classic has plenty of Supers.. Covid screwed up many things including Racing and Traveling ….