Crafty: Jon McKennedy Tops Monaco Modified Tri-Track Series Opener At Thompson Icebreaker 

THOMPSON – It’s fair to say Jon McKennedy has hit on something of late at Thompson Speedway. 

Last year McKennedy won all three Thompson Open Modified events that he competed in at the historic facility. 

Saturday he carried that streaking momentum to another victory. 

After a feisty battle for the lead with Mike Christopher Jr., McKennedy drove away from Christopher on a late restart to win the Monaco Modified Tri-Track Series season opening Propane Plus Heating & Cooling 75 Saturday at Thompson Speedway. 

It was the fourth career series victory for McKennedy, of Chelmsford, Mass., who was beginning defense of his 2025 Monaco Modified Tri-Track Series championship. 

“Overall it was a great day,” McKennedy said. “We had speed all day. Fastest in practice, fastest in group qualifying. Started the race ninth. Awesome car, we have a really good package here. … Just a really good car. Awesome setup. I’ve got a good group of guys behind me. They did really good on the pit stop. … Just overall it was a really good day, really a picture perfect day.” 

Christopher, of Wolcott, held on for second. 

“Jon is really good at his craft,” Christopher said. “He knows what he wants in a race car and it shows there. I tried to make it difficult on him. He passed me super clean. I did not, and he got back by me. At the end of the day like that, the [lap 72] restart at the end I knew was going to be an issue because I killed the tires trying to get back to him. From where we were last year the last time we raced this thing, this is a much better result.” 

Patrick Emerling of Orchard Park, N.Y. was third. 

“We had a really good car all day,” Emerling said. “The USNEPower No. 1 was … I probably wouldn’t want to show up with the engine package we showed up with again. We had the spec [motor] in today. The build [motor] was probably better. The spec motor seemed to really struggle today.” 

Jake Johnson and Ronnie Williams rounded out the top five respectively. 

Williams jumped out to the lead at the green flag. On lap three Eric Berndt went by George Bessette Jr. for second place. 

Paulie Hartwig III went to the pits under green on lap five. 

On lap 17 Berndt went by Williams to take over the top spot. McKennedy was able to overtake Williams for second on lap 21. 

The first caution of the event flew on lap 37 when Chase Grennan spun and ended up in the turn two wall.

The entire field headed to pit road under caution. Williams, who went to the pits in third, came off pit road in the lead with McKennedy coming off second. Trevor Catalano went from ninth to third and Emerling from 11th to fourth. Berndt fell to 15th. 

On the restart Catalano went to work hard on Williams with Christopher jumping to third. Christopher got by Catalano for second on lap 39 then made a diving move into turn three to overtake Williams for the lead on lap 40. 

On lap 42 McKennedy found the lane under Williams to move back to second as Catalano faded to fifth. 

By lap 45 Christopher and McKennedy had opened up a significant gap on  third place Williams. 

On lap 47 McKennedy made a move to get under Christopher in turn three, but Christopher fended off the attempt. 

McKennedy fought to the low lane through turns three and four again on lap 53, briefly taking over the top spot on lap 54. But Christopher fought back in turn four on lap 54 to regain the lead. Behind the leaders, Emerling was pushing hard on Williams in the battle for the third. 

On lap 58 McKennedy used a stout run off of turn two to get under Christopher into turn three and come off turn four with the lead. 

“We’re trying to win,” McKennedy said. “You may not notice it a few hundred yards away watching, but these cars at the end of these races are on the ragged edge of out of control. You just kind of over drive the corner and misjudge it by that few feet and you’re in a vulnerable state sliding. At the end of the day we all control our own cars. At the end of the day it was good hard racing. He did get into me a little bit, but there was still plenty of laps left and I just wanted to get back by him clean. I think at the end he showed that respect back.” 

On lap 60 Emerling used a run off of turn four to move to third past Williams. McKennedy found some breathing room on Christopher by lap 65, but couldn’t fully shake him in second. 

By lap 70 McKennedy had opened up a three-quarters of a second lead on Christopher. With McKennedy leading, Christopher in second and Emerling third, caution flew for the second time on lap 72 when Joey Cipriano spun in two. 

On the restart McKennedy got the jump on Christopher into turn one, leaving Christopher to battle Emerling for third. Emerling briefly took second from Christopher on lap 72, but Christopher fought back to get back to second on lap 73. In front of them McKennedy checked out.