From NEMA
Waterford, CT — (May 10, 2014) — “I really needed that caution. I couldn’t have caught Ryan without it,” was winner Paul Bigelow’s (#31) reaction in victory lane Saturday night at the Waterford Speedbowl after claiming his first Northeastern Midget Association Lite checkered flag of the young season. Finishing second after leading the most laps was Ryan Krachun (#29). R.J. Tufano (#39) was third.
From the drop of the green, Tufano lead the field until lap six when Krachun took over followed by Tufano and Scott Bigelow (#32). Scott then powered into second by lap eight but would drop out soon after with mechanical issues.
After dropping back at the start due to heavy traffic, Paul Bigelow maneuvered his way into third on lap ten, then slipped by Tufano for second on lap thirteen. The running order would remain Krachun, Bigelow, Tufano for a number of laps until a lap twenty-two caution for Logan Rayvals (#94) who stalled in turn four.
Bigelow, not knowing how his overheating machine would respond on the restart, went for broke and powered low under Krachun entering turn one and made the final lead change of the race down the back straight. Krachun was able to hold off Tufano second. DJ Moniz (#18) and Jamie Falconi, (#4) completed the top five.
The Bigelow #31 Lite, a newly acquired Beast chassis, was on its first run with the team and was “fantastic” according to Paul. “It loves the top of the track, I just couldn’t get there at the start.”
Young Krachun had mixed feelings post race as he “felt great leading all those laps but not feeling well about the caution coming out. We’re happy with second.”
“The car was going away as the race went on”, third place finisher Tufano would state later. “I picked up a bad vibration after the caution and just hung on, happy to finish third.”
The next stop on the NEMA schedule takes the winged rockets to Evans Mills Motorsports Park in upstate NY for a Saturday, May 24th show. The full NEMA and Lites divisions are on the card for a night that will challenge the teams as this is a new venue for NEMA. The Motorsports Park and NEMA have partnered for a driver meet-and-greet autograph session as well as some fan giveaways.