Rowan Pennink outdueled Bobby Santos on a restart with three laps to go and drove on to victory in the Icebreaker 150 at Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park.
Sunday marked the third career victory for Pennink, and first since the 2013 season, which also came at Thompson. It was also the first points race victory for the famed “Ole Blue” No. 3 Cape Cod Copper Chevrolet since 2009. The Boehler Racing team, which has six NASCAR Modified championships, is celebrating its 60th season.
“The guys gave me an unbelievable car, to get it out front and keep it out front the beginning half of the race,” said Pennink. “I wasn’t sure we were going to get a caution soon enough to be able to pit and get new tires. The guys got me a good stop. This thing was unbelievable on new tires.”
Coors Light Polesitter Timmy Solomito rallied in the closing laps to finish second and Max Zachem crossed the line third. Santos, who was leading the race on the Lap 147 restart, settled for fourth with Patrick Emerling fifth.
Eric Goodale, Matt Swanson, Woody Pitkat, Justin Bonsignore and Todd Szegedy brought home the top 10.
Pennink led a race-high 109 laps. The race was slowed by caution five times for 35 laps.
Solomito leads Pennink by four points (90-80) in the championship standings after two races, and Zachem is third — 10 points back of Solomito.
The Whelen Modified Tour will return to action April 30 at Stafford (Connecticut) Motor Speedway.
Race results
- Rowan Pennink
- Timmy Solomito
- Max Zachem
- Bobby Santos
- Patrick Emerling
- Eric Goodale
- Matt Swanson
- Woody Pitkat
- Justin Bonsignore
- Todd Szegedy
- Dave Sapienza
- Brendon Bock
- Ron Silk
- Kyle Ellwood
- Bryan Dauzat
- Andrew Krause
- Andy Seuss
- Calvin Carroll *
- Craig Lutz
- Wade Cole
- Brad Vanhouten *
- Walter Sutcliffe Jr. *
- Melissa Fifield
- Jimmy Blewett
- Chase Dowling
- Gary McDonald
- Rob Summers
- Ryan Preece
- Shawn Solomito
- Gary Byington *
- Doug Coby
Matt Weaver is the owner and founder of Short Track Scene. Weaver grew up in the sport, having raced himself before becoming a reporter in college at the University of South Alabama. He also has extensive experience covering NASCAR, IndyCar and Dirt Sprint Cars.