8/16/2023
Hudson Speedway
Cookson Wins Gate City 100
Hudson, NH-
Mother Nature tried throwing a Curveball at The Original Family Fun track with a heavy rain that flooded turn 3 and parts of the pits but track owner Ben Bosowski and general manager Steve Gran lead a “we aren’t giving up attitude” that track crew, track sponsors, drivers and crews could get behind to work together to get the water taken care of with a slight delay in the racing program.
The MLM Diagnostic Services Pure Stocks took to the track for feature 1 of 2 with Leilei Daniels in the 40 and the 65VT “Shaggin Wagon” of Doug Nelson. Daniels took off into the lead as Nelson got sideways into turn one and the 21x of Mackenzie Belisle slowed as well. The race would stay green as Belisle was able to keep going and pull off the track ending her day. Daniels continued to lead as the battle for 2nd heated up between the 4 of Colton Martin and 16 of Chris Davis but they would stay single file and reel in Daniels and lap 4 Martin and Davis would get by Daniels. Davis would take the lead on lap 7 with the caution flying on lap 8 as the 01 of Jimmy Zellmann would go for a spin. Davis and Martin would restart on the front row. On the restart Martin would rocket back to the lead as Davis would miss a shift on the restart. Coming to 2 laps to go Davis was able to work his way back up to make the pass for the lead. Davis would hold on to take the win with Martin in 2nd, Nelson in 3rd, Carlos Grenier in the 1NH was 4th and “The Ogre” Jim Rhodes in the 38 rounded out the top 5.
The EVOLVE Pro Trucks were next for their 55 lap feature event. The 15 of “G-Rod” Gerald Giordano Jr set the fast time of 14.238 seconds and would start on the pole. G-Rod would lead green to checkered in a caution free event. Nick Frechette in the 01R ran 3rd for the first two laps before taking the 2nd spot where he would remain for the remainder of the event. Duane Knoll in the #2 truck would run 3rd for most of the event, including the most important lap the last one! For full results check out exitracing.com.
The New England Dwarf Car Series rolled into town for a make-up race going 25 laps. Justin Harris in the 29NH and Doug Dawkins in the 94 picked up heat race wins. With a 6 car invert Cody Hodgdon in the 31 and Duane Skofield in the 30 got to start on the front row. Cody Hodgdon and Skofield would race side by side as Stu McCormick in the 04, Jimmy Ryder in the 18 and Harris would be all under a blanket. Lap 3 would see the lone caution as the 12 of Sarah “Cupcake” Hodgdon would spin off of turn 4. Skofield and Cody Hodgdon would try the front row again but swapping lanes but the first attempted would be called back as Skofield would go a little high going into the restart zone drawing the displeasure of race control. They would do it one more time going side by side into turn 1. Skofield would take the lead on the backstretch with Ryder in tow. Harris would make the pass for the 3rd spot and would look to catch the top 2. 9 Laps in Harris would take the 2nd spot. The top 3 would be nose to tail slicing and dicing lap after lap. At halfway Harris would use a crossover move to take the top spot going into turn 1. Harris would capture his 4th win in a row with Skofield in 2nd, Ryder in 3rd, Cody Hodgdon in 4th, and McCormick in 5th.
The 2nd MLM Diagnostic Services Pure Stocks was next on the schedule going 20 laps. Daniels and Rhodes would start on the front row this time around. Daniels and Rhodes would go side by side into turn 1 with Daniels taking the lead out of turn 2. Grenier would get by Rhodes for 2nd going down the backstretch and would set his sights on the top spot. Going into turn 1 Grenier would make contact with the rear bumper of Daniels sending her up into turn 1 with Grenier right behind her. They would collect themselves and keep going but the field would go by. When the dust settled it would be Martin in the lead with Nelson in 2nd and Zellmann in 3rd. The battle for third between Zellmann and Davis would heat up at lap 7. At the halfway point Davis made the move for 3rd and would turn his attention to Nelson in 2nd. While all this was going on Martin used the time to check out. Then on lap 13 Davis took over 2nd but would he have enough time to catch Martin? Lap 16 Zellmann took the 3rd spot. Martin took the win with Davis in 2nd, Zellmann in 3rd, Nelson in 4th, and Grenier snuck in for 5th.
The Gate City 100 for the Rodfather Open Pro Stocks were next. Joey Polewarczyk Jr in the 97 or Joey Pole as everyone in the area knows him took the top spot with a qualifying lap of 13.164. Frankie Eldridge in the 09 would lead the first lap as racing action heated up throughout the field. 5 laps in and Jermey Davis in the 09x used the high side to get up to the 2nd spot. Eldridge would lead the first 15 laps before Mike Mitchell in the 40 was able to take the lead but would lose the spot after contact from Ryan Kuhn in the 72 sending them both to the back. Kuhn would have a flat tire from the contact. Pole would take the lead on the lap 19 restart, but on lap 34 Max Cookson took the lead. Caution on lap 37 for the 05 of Bobby Frappier spun out of turn 4. Cookson would jump right back out into the lead but Pole would sneak by to lead a lap for about 50 feet before Cookson took it back. Pole would try to make a move around lap 68 but lap traffic stopped his advance. Cookson would try to checkout but for the last 30 laps Pole would throw everything he could at Cookson except the kitchen sink lap after lap. Cookson would hold on for the win leading 65 of the 100 laps. Pole finished 2nd with Davis finishing 3rd, Skeeter Bearce kept his number 71 clean to finish 4th, and Kuhn was able to recover from the flat tire earlier in the race to round out the top 5.
Hudson Speedway is back in action this Sunday August 20th with an action packed schedule of racing action. The Northeast Auto Imports Late Models will be going 75 laps in the 25th Might Mike Lewis Memorial – NHSTRA Battle for the Belt race which is the last in the 4 race series. The MLM Diagnostic will be running the Hennessy Memorial Race going extra distance and will also be joined by the Black Flagged Podcast Ridge Runners, Hudson Heroes and the NELCAR Legends. We will be doing a backpack giveaway while supplies last and the Hudson Heroes back sale.
Article Credit: Ryan Lawliss
Submitted By: Mark Beaudry