WINCHESTER, NH – Both Tommy Catalano and Cole Robie will long remember the night they had on Saturday at the storied high banks of Monadnock Speedway.
With a massive crowd on hand and a show to match, as JDV Productions, with major support of USNE Power, staged a show for the ages on day one of a NASCAR Whelen Modified series weekend doubleheader, each of the rising star series hot shoes earned his first career victory in the big leagues.
Both had to survive a late-race restart to score their wins, Catalano topping the Whelen 200-lap Duel at The Dog main event, while Robie won his first-ever GSPSS Pro Stock main atop the Keenparts.com Pro Stock 100-lapper. Each won a thriller on the record-setting day.
In support action Saturday, Ryan Kuhn raced to victory in the Pro Truck 55-lap feature race.
A blockbuster field of 25 Whelen Modifieds took the green as the day’s 200-lap main event lit up the high banks. Patrick Emerling, with a blistering lap of 11.487 seconds, had earlier set fast time in qualifying for the fourth annual Duel at The Dog biggie, with a redraw then putting Austin Beers and Kyle Bonsignore on row one.
Emerling, on a quick restart, jumped all over the opening lead, bringing Beers and Justin Bonsignore with him as the Mod Squad set a torrid pace. Ron Silk and then Luke Baldwin each did yeoman’s work in the top three, but this one looked like it had victory for Emerling written all over it.
A mass exodus to the pits on lap 165 put Balwin at the point and Catalano at his side for the restart. Catalano took charge five circuits later, with Kyle Bonsignore soon at his bumper. And then there was Emerling, back into the top three on lap 180.
A lap 193 caution sent this one into overtime, with Emerling getting the jump and rocketing on his way to victory, but a slight nudge in the final corner created a finish for the ages. Low-lining in the final charge to the checkers, Catalano took the win by a .007 second margin.
It was Catalano’s first career Whelen series victory, ironically scored in the same event his brother Trevor won Whelen win number one a summer ago in the JDV Duel headliner. It was the series’ eighth race of the season, producing its eighth different winner as the division readied for day two of the big weekend – the Cheshire County Clash – on Sunday afternoon.
With Emerling second in the near-photo finish, Kyle Bonsignore flew home in third, his cousin, Justin Bonsignore, a former Duel winner, was fourth, and Beers completed the top five.
Connor MacDougal and teen rocketman Cole Robie sat up front as the GDPSS Pro Stocks went green to start their evening’s Keenparts 100 main event. Robie had set a fast time with a 12.102 lap, and he and Eddie Macdonald had won the heats. And Robie showed no signs of slowing down in the main event,
Both series aces Cory Casagrande and Casey Call took their best shots at unseating Robie from the top spot, but the young hot shoe would have none of it. A lap 97 caution brought Call to his door – and the huge crowd to its feet – but Robie refused to waver, leading Call and Casagrande under the checkers in a thrilling blanket finish.
Randy Burr and Ryan Kuhn sat up front as the Evolve Pro Trucks began their 55-lap Saturday feature, with Burr rocketing to the lap-one lead and setting fast time the first 11 go-rounds. But when Burr pulled up lame to draw the event’s second caution, Kuhn took over and never looked back.
With Kuhn comfortably ahead at the checkers, Nick Frechette was a solid second, and Jason Paquette came home third. Evolve series points leader Duane Noll finished seventh.
The monster day’s three-division masterpiece concluded, and the large crowd sat back and enjoyed a huge JDV Productions aerial fireworks display.
DUEL AT THE DOG SATURDAY MONADNOCK SPEEDWAY TOP TENS
NASCAR WHELEN MODIFIED DUEL AT THE DOG IV 200: Tommy Catalano, Patrick Emerling, Kyle Bonsignore, Justin Bonsignore, Austin Beers, Tyler Rypkema, Luke Baldwin, Stephen Kopcik, Craig Lutz, Anthony Nocella.
GSPSS PRO STOCK 100: Cole Robie, Casey Call, Cory Casagrande, Eddie Macdonald, Ryan Green, Wayne Helliwell, Bobby Bailargeron, Evan Bealieu, Josh St. Clair, Tom Carey III,
EVOLVE PRO TRUCK 55: Ryan Kuhn, Nikolas Frechette, Jason Paquette, Dennis Charette, Todd Taylor, Bert Oulettte, Duane Noll, Adrian Paradis, Sean Caron, Chris Palamar.
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