Ben Ashline warned his rookie motive force over the group’s radio that one of Wiscasset Speedway’s most accomplished veterans was about to deliver a lesson.
Ashline became proper.
Four-time music champion Chris Thorne of Sidney wheeled around Whitefield’s Jake Hendsbee on a restart with nine laps closing. It held on for a season-opening victory in the forty-lap Late Model function on the track Saturday night time. Hendsbee, making his first profession as a Late Model start after jumping up from Wiscasset’s Outlaw Mini Stock division, finished 2nd.
“We’re on four new tires, so that’s a large assist,” Thorne said. “Whenever it’s cooler out, this car continually seems higher. It stayed suitable all last 12 months, which turned into the first time it changed into right during the entire summer season, so if we can keep that, we’ll be in the correct shape.
Josh St. Clair of Liberty was 1/3 while defending Late Model champion Andrew McLaughlin rallied to finish fourth after starting 20th inside the 21-automobile area. “We ran away with (the primary 1/2 of the race), and the warning changed into terrible for us,” stated Hendsbee, whose idea of completing second the primary time out changed into as properly as prevailing. “But I assume we might have gained it.
While he was cruising to a nearly straightaway lead over the primary 20 laps, Thorne, St. Clair, and Will Collins — former champions all — had been locked collectively in a tight conflict for the second spot. Thorne used the lapped car of D.C. Alexander to trap Collins low and take the second spot ten laps from the finish. St. Clair soon accompanied that pass into 0.33. But despite that bit of intriguing racing for the role, Hendsbee — under the steering of the 2018 Coastal 2 hundred winners Ashline as his spotter — threatened to scouse borrow the show. Unfortunately for him, while the warning flew for the second time on lap 31, it allowed Thorne to line up to Hendsbee’s outside with St. Clair tucked to the internal in third.
Thorne cleared Hendsbee by half of a car period on the begin-finish line on lap 32, and on lap 33, he dropped his No. 17 clean to the lowest with a comfortable lead. St. Clair tried to capture Hendsbee inside the center by pulling off a 3-huge flow to the internal on the backstretch that got her up short. They’re top,” Hendsbee stated of the competition at the restart. “I had a large communication from Ben about it. That turned into a huge issue for me.
I instructed him to hug the bottom, and if the one’s men were faster, they’d go around him (on the pinnacle),” Ashline stated. Another caution soon accompanied; however, Thorne’s veteran coolness at the restart allowed him to motor off to his 25th career Late Model win at Wiscasset. I become fortunate to get the bounce on him on the outside,” Thorne stated. “Thankfully, we could get the quick warning, so I became capable of staying ahead of him for multiple laps there.
I changed into combating in the back of Will and Josh, seeking to get via them (earlier). At that point, my automobile turned into getting real, real free. The warning helped me. Without warning, I probably might have been a third-location car at great. Collins exited the race for pit road under the warning flag while walking fourth and no longer returning to the race.
Thorne wasn’t the only motive force whose that the e had that third-place vehicle at the quilters. of
“We struggled the final 12 months, and this is a brand new ride to us,” St. Clair said. “We’re near, no longer a ways off. However, we have been free on the cease and fell short. I might preserve him at the lowest for the closing restart, but (Hendsbee) became brief. He did an awesome job. I had a third-place vehicle.”
