Bobby Santos, 17, wins his first ISMA race and pockets $10,000.
By Kalle Oakes
Sports Editor

OXFORD – Bobby Santos III is a lot like any other 17-year-old. Ask him a question and he’s likely to respond with a self-conscious shrug and a softly spoken sentence that includes the words awesome and unbelievable.

There’s one difference, of course. While most kids in Franklin, Mass., his age were probably taking in a movie or enjoying a late-summer bash at the beach Saturday night, Santos steered a 700-horsepower International Supermodified Association machine around 3/8-mile Oxford Plains Speedway in excess of 100 mph.

He probably also was the only youngster in town to return home with $10,000 in his pocket. Santos scored his initial ISMA victory in the fourth-annual LST Landscaping and Property Management Maine Classic, leading all but the first nine laps and outrunning veterans Dave McKnight of Ontario and Chris Perley of Rowley, Mass., after three late restarts.

“I’m just a kid, and this team took me in this year and treated me like one of the guys,” said Santos, who drives for car owner Howie Lane.

There were four lead changes in the first 10 laps, with Jamie Timmons, Lou Cicconi and Mark Sammut each briefly setting the pace before Santos worked his way to the inside lane around Sammut on lap 10.

What followed was a lengthy, uninterrupted stretch of methanol-powered teenage angst, with Santos turning laps in the vicinity of 13.5 seconds as he accumulated a half-lap lead.

McKnight made overtures to the outside after restarts on laps 77, 83 and 88, but Santos silenced the challenge on each occasion and enjoyed a two-second cushion at the checkers.

“I tried and tried and tried, but it just wasn’t meant to be,” said McKnight, a repeat runner-up in the short history of the Classic. “I’m the king of seconds.”

Perley padded his ISMA point lead by finishing third, with Santos’ teammate Randy Ritskes and Pat Abold rounding out the top five.

Although the anticipated time-trial “Run For the Record” was cancelled due to threatening late afternoon skies, Cicconi, one of three heat winners, turned an unofficial fast lap of 12.8 seconds in his prelim – six-tenths of a second faster than Ritskes’ three-year-old track standard.

Santos’ overpowering effort punctuated a night of open-wheel power at the Plains. Kyle Carpenter of Gloucester, Mass., dominated the 25-lap Northeast Midget Association co-main event.

Carpenter cruised to his first NEMA victory of the season, leading wire-to-wire with only lapped traffic and a lap 23 caution for fluid from the car of Lee Bundy to slow his progress.

“You don’t know how much this means to me,” said Carpenter, who entered the race 13th in NEMA points and finished third in his heat race. “My dad and I cut this car apart and put it back together the last two weeks. My dad is a genius at this stuff.”

It wasn’t far from being a Santos family sweep. The late resumption cost Bobby’s older sister Erica second place, as Randy Cabral snuck to the low side to seize the spot with a lap-and-a-half to go. She held on for third, followed by Joey Payne and Sean Caisse at the front of the 17-car field.

Youth also made a stand on the local level. Jeremie Whorff, a 19-year-old Pro Stock rookie from Topsham, highlighted a full slate of weekly series features with his first-ever win.

Ricky Morse (Late Model Stock), Dana Grover (Limited Sportsman), Dale Brackett (Strictly Stock ‘A’), Keith Stuart (Strictly Stock ‘B’) and Larry Melcher (Mini Stock) each prevailed in OPS weekly features. Stuart and Melcher each carried the checkered flag for the first time ever, while Brackett took the victory lap for the first time since 1989.

Whorff, who never drove a stock car before this season, has survived three major wrecks in his rookie campaign, including one in which rescue workers needed the jaws of life when the crash left him trapped in his crumpled car during True Value 250 qualifying.

It was no surprise, then, to see the persistent Whorff overcome a restart with five laps to go and the aggressive challenge of Frank Snow to join his father, current point leader Billy Whorff, as an OPS feature winner.

The teenager kept his car facing forward after two separate attempts by Snow to nose underneath him on laps 33 and 34. A four-car crash as the white flag appeared partially blocked the track in turn three, but speedway rules in that situation dictate racing back to the checkered flag. Whorff took a leisurely line through the mess, emerged unscathed and won the sprint back to the stripe.

That’s when a third bump from Snow sent Whorff’s car for a 360-degree spin. Driver and car were unharmed. Snow, however, was disqualified for the action, boosting Mickey Green to second and Jeff White to third.

Poncho Darveau finished fourth, while Alan Wilson, who started to Whorff’s outside after the second and final caution period, ran fifth.

“I guess I’d better go back and pat (my father) on the back for showing me the ropes of racing,” Whorff said.

Billy Whorff now leads Ricky Rolfe by six points with three races remaining in the regular season.

Morse won his division-best fifth LMS feature and first since June 7 by one-third of a lap, but Travis Adams may have been the biggest winner of the night. Although Adams was involved in an early crash with closest championship pursuers Ron Henry and Jerry Harrison, he rallied to finish second. Adams leads new runner-up David Raymond, who finished third Saturday, by 12 points.

Grover led the final 10 laps of his 25-lap event after early leader Troy Morse spun wildly off the backstretch. Tommy Ricker settled for second after two straight wins, followed by Doug Poland, Terry Merrill and point leader Carey Martin.

Brackett swapped the lead with Gerry Freve twice before scoring his win.

“I’ve been through three cars this year, and I think I’ve finally got this one figured out,” said Brackett, who held off Gerry Freve and Matt Williams.

Stuart accomplished what he was unable to do the last two weeks – lead the final circuit of his 20-lapper. With no mechanical problem or spin to slow him down on the white-flag lap, Stuart held off Guy Childs and Ben Tinker on a restart with three laps to go for his first career triumph.

Melcher led all but the first lap of a caution-free four-cylinder finale, one-third of a lap in front of Wayne Parkin and Mark Collins.

koakes@sunjournal.com

Copy the Story Link