Right Place: Blake Barney Tops Wildly Dramatic Monaco Modified RaceChoice 125 At Star 

EPPING, N.H. – It’s fair to say, with nine laps remaining in the Monaco Modified Tri-Track Series RaceChoice 125 at Star Speedway Saturday, ninth place running Blake Barney probably wasn’t the guy too many people were picking to win. 

And then, in the words of Barney “[we] put ourselves in the right position so that when all hell did break loose that we were up there.” 

Barney inherited the lead after a feisty Jake Johnson/Jon McKennedy battle for the lead, then held off Teddy Hodgdon by a bumper at the finish in a two-lap side-by-side battle to the checkered to win the Monaco Modified Tri-Track Series RaceChoice 125 Saturday at Star Speedway. 

It was the first Monaco Modified Tri-Track Series victory for Barney, of Jackson, N.J., who was making his 10th series start.

“We never give up, we persevere,” Barney said. “It’s awesome to be in victory lane today. Just never never give up and things will happen. It got quite crazy there at the end but we got all the right breaks. 

“We got really messed up track position. On our pit stop our lug nuts fell off. So we went back. But the luck that we had didn’t really show how good of a car that we had tonight. But, at the end of the day that’s sometimes what you need in racing. You need things like that to happen because track position is tough to come by, especially where we were. We came out 14th with 50 [laps] to go and had a good enough car to get by some guys and put ourselves in the right position so that when all hell did break loose that we were up there.” 

Hodgdon, of Danbury, was second. 

“I’ve known Blake for a long time, I knew he’d race me fair and clean and hard,” Hodgdon said. “We’re going to rub nerf bars and be aggressive at the end. It’s been such a brutal year. … We’ve had a lot of setbacks, a lot of wrecks. The crew that’s behind me is unbelievable and they’d do anything for me. We worked on this car until 10 o’clock last night putting a clip on it and getting it ready. The truck actually broke down this morning too, so we had to get a second truck too. It’s just been a long year and to be able to have speed and be able to show for it is nice. It’s really gratifying.” 

Jeffrey Battle of Dunstable, Mass. was third. 

Barney became the 23rd different Monaco Modified Tri-Track Series winner over 64 series events since 2014. Barney became the second first-time winner on the series this year, joining Austin Beers, who scored his first series victory at Thunder Road on May 25.

The two-lap showdown for the win was setup by a fiery battle at the front between Johnson and McKennedy that ended with McKennedy spinning out of the lead and Johnson getting penalized for overaggressive driving. 

A lap 116 restart saw Johnson take control through turns one and two over then second place running Matt Hirschman. McKennedy found the lane under Hirschman to take over second. On lap 120 McKennedy went to the outside of Johnson, but the move was thwarted by a caution for the spinning car of Stephen Kopcik in turn two. 

On the lap 120 restart, McKennedy stayed to the outside of Johnson. The side-by-side battle at the front continued on lap 121 and lap 122. 

On lap 123 McKennedy got by Johnson slightly off of turn four, but contact between the two sent McKennedy spinning at the start/finish line, also collecting third place Hirschman. Johnson drove away from the incident unscathed but was black flagged for aggressive driving, moving Barney into the lead, Hodgdon to second and Battle to third. 

“Pretty simple, Jake Johnson does Jake Johnson things,” McKennedy said. “I don’t know if it’s cause his eyes are crossed … cross-eyed or what. [He] bounces off of everybody. The kid gave it to me a few times last year, I kind of let it go. Got beside him a few times there at the end. Ran me in the wall, three laps in a row. Kept bouncing off the side of me through [turns] one and two. Then I finally clear the kid and the kid fucking spins me out. The kid just … if he ain’t winning nobody’s winning. He’s just a spoiled little bitch.” 

Said Johnson: “I think they made the right call. I don’t think I dumped Jon by any means, but I can also see myself being on the outside on that last lap and make the same move that he did. When you’ve got about a foot on the inside and you’re spotter yells clear you’ve got to make that move. I understand it. Unfortunately it ended up with one of us spinning. I drove the thing down to the infield to avoid it from happening. I’ve also been in his shoes, I’ve been in my shoes. I wouldn’t change anything I did and if I was him I probably wouldn’t change anything that he did either. I agree with both things. As a series I think they made the right call by throwing me to the back. You have to have some sort of consistency among it. Even though maybe it wasn’t my fault … whatever it is, I was the car that was in contact with him when he spun so if that’s their ruling that’s their ruling and they are consistent with it so therefore I’m not upset by it by any means. It’s just part of racing. You can’t win every race.” 

At the start McKennedy controlled from the pole with Hirschman slotting into second place. 

The field strung out single-file by lap 15 with McKennedy leading Hirschman, Brett Meservey in third and Chris Pasteryak in fourth. 

With McKennedy out front and Hirschman in second, the first caution of the event flew on lap 38 for the smoking car of Walter Sutcliffe in turn one. 

McKennedy quickly went back into control out front on the lap 38 restart with Johnson moving from fifth to third. 

Caution returned on lap 49 for the slowing car of previously 10th place running Ronnie Williams in turns one and two. 

McKennedy once again got the jump on the restart. Behind him Johnson moved past Hirschman into second. 

On lap 52 Woody Pitkat got under Hirschman to move into third place. 

Caution flew for the third time for the spinning car of Pasteryak on lap 70. Under caution everyone in the field headed to the pits besides Stephen Kopcik, Hodgdon Noah Korner and George Bessette Jr. 

McKennedy won the race off pit road, with Hirschman coming out second and Johnson third. 

Kopcik got away at the front on the restart. On lap 73 Johnson got under Hirschman to take over fourth place. On lap 75 Hodgdon stalked all over the bumper of Kopcik at the front. The top four cars of Kopcik, Hodgdon, Bessette and Johnson were running nose-to-tail on lap 82. On lap 84 Johnson found the lane under Bessette to move into third. In front of him, Hodgdon continued to pester Kopcik. 

On lap 99 McKennedy got by Bessette to move to fourth. 

Johnson dipped under Hodgdon into turn three on lap 102 and completed the pass for second on lap 103. McKennedy followed to third place a lap later. 

With Johnson all over Kopcik’s bumper in the battle for the lead, caution flew on lap 111 for the spinning car of Matt Swanson. 

On the lap 111 restart, Johnson used the outside lane to move past Kopcik for the lead off of turn two. On lap 112 Hirschman followed past Kopcik to take over second. 

The spinning car of sixth place running Pitkat in turn two on lap 114 brought the caution back out. 

Hirschman hung to the outside of Johnson for two laps following the lap 114 restart. The side-by-side battle for the lead was stopped though when Kopcik went spinning from fourth place in turn four on lap 116.