Franklin County was well represented in Victory Lane at Monadnock Speedway last weekend.
Four county drivers won their respective features, with three of them prevailing for the first time this season at the Winchester, N.H., bullring.
Deerfield’s Ben Byrne triumphed in the NHSTRA Modifieds, Turners Falls’ JD Stockwell earned his first career Pure Stocks win and Gill’s Owen Zilinski won for the first time in the Young Guns division. Only Orange’s Cole Littlewood in Late Model Sportsmen was a repeat winner this season.
Byrne’s win ended the hot streak of Hatfield’s Tyler Leary, who had won three straight features heading into last weekend. Leary posted the fastest time in qualifying but only managed a fifth-place finish. Byrne led the whole way in the 40-lapper and held off a challenge from Palmer’s Brian Chapin over the closing laps to score the victory and close the gap to only two points behind Leary.
Littlewood also led from green to checkered, fending off several challengers in the 25-lap race, including his brother Justin, to take down his third straight victory. Justin Littlewood fell back to fifth.
Stockwell secured his first career win at Monadnock after a pair of victories earlier this season at Claremont (N.H.) Motorsports Park. Looking to build on a second-place finish two weeks earlier, Stockwell took the lead from Millers Falls’ Dominick Stafford on lap 2 of 25. Stockwell drove away from Kyle Robinson Newell, a three-time victor this season, to score the win. Zach Zilinski of Gill finished sixth, while Stafford wound up 10th in the 20-car field.
Owen Zilinski, 11, joined his older brother Zach as winners in the Young Guns this season.
Also victorious last Saturday were Chris Lindquist in Street Stocks and Chris Sontag in Mini Stocks.
Racing returns to Monadnock on Saturday, highlighted by a 50-lap Mini Stock feature as part of the NHSTRA Battle for the Belt series. The action starts at 6 p.m.
Jason Remillard is a copy editor and page designer at the Recorder. He can be reached at jremillard@recorder.com and followed on Twitter @racinwithjason