KEITH ROCCO BACK ON TOP IN SK MODIFIEDS; LINEHAM DOMINATES TRUCK 50

WATERFORD – A chaotic start to the SK Modifieds® saw Justin Gaydosh as the early race leader while Adam Gada got shuffled into traffic. A couple early cautions sent Todd Owen to the rear, but that isn’t the end of his story. Eric Berndt worked by Gaydosh on lap 7 but a caution erased his brief moment at the helm. Berndt took the next opportunity to cross over for the lead but contact ended his time at the front. Gaydosh had the lead on lap 12 but shortly after Tim Jordan was the first to get by. Andrew Molleur, Keith Rocco, and Owen all made quick work of Gaydosh until just after halfway when he went around. Jordan and Molleur engaged in a brief battle but Rocco had other plans this evening. With 10 to go Rocco crossed Jordan over and took off. As the laps ticked down Owen would work back into second with Molleur right behind him. Rocco’s win would be his first since 2021 and 94th in his career.

After quite some time off due to weather and scheduling, the Late Models came back to put on a show. Kyle Gero shot off the line and began his strongest run of the season with Shawn Gaedeke right behind him, leaving Mike Benevides in their tire tracks. Andrew Johnson went around on lap 4 bringing out the yellow. Gaedeke fought hard on the high side but the story stayed the same even after most of the field went around after contact between Benevides and Doug Curry. Gero’s strong run ended a few laps later when he went around, giving Gaedeke the front row with Derryck Anderson Jr. Gaedeke left the field in his dust leaving the field to sort themselves out. Jason Palmer who was involved in the earlier incident rallied back to fourth with 17 to go, third shortly after, and second with 9 to go. He ate away at Gaedeke’s straightaway lead but time ran out. Gaedeke enjoyed his first win in the Late Model division since moving up from Street Stocks.

Steven Midford, fresh off a heat win, and Matt Brewer took off at the head of the SK Lights but they couldn’t enjoy the top spot for long. Tyler Chapman and Nickolas Hovey who were both involved in heat race altercations rebounded and were charging through the field. Chapman took over the lead at halfway, but the pace was slowed by a caution. Brewer didn’t fare well when his car took a sharp turn towards the wall removing him from the equation. Hovey and Evan Bourgeois picked Midford off and while Hovey ran off to safety, contact between Midford and Bourgeois sidelined the latter. From 5 laps to go and to the finish, Chapman and Hovey traded blows at the head of the field. After a few cross-overs contested, Hovey secured his sixth win of the season.

The Trucks had their big 50 lap main event this week and Ryan Lineham had a lot of work to do to hold on to this one. A chaotic lap 1 didn’t get in his way to move into the lead just 3 laps later. Brad Caddick held the initial lead but would have to watch as Lineham took off. By lap 15, the lead he had built up amassed about a half of a track over Caddick. A caution around the mid point of the race set up for some incidents that bent up some sheet metal and sidelined a few competitors. But even after those restarts Lineham was able to hold off strong challenges on restarts to maintain his lead and pick up his third win since debuting the Truck.

Charles Canfield took to the lead in the Mini Stocks but was soon locked in with Bill Sylvia in a side by side battle. Ray Christian III quickly worked up to their bumper biding his time while Sylvia edged ahead. It was at this point that Christian began his own side by side battle, where he would get by Sylvia and hold control of the race with 14 laps left. The field fell in line until a caution with 6 to go set the field up for an opportunity. Sylvia dropped out of line on the restart giving Chris Garside and Andrew Krzeminski a chance at the lead. Krzeminski and Canfield worked by Garside on another late race restart but another yellow with three to go shook the field up once more. Christian launched from the outside groove this time and while Canfield fought hard, Garside was able to work his way back into second while Christian won his sixth race of the season.

A season-high car count of Crown Vics assembled with some help from our friends to the north. Jake Caprio took the early lead with Austin Erickson breathing down his neck. On lap 7 Erickson was able to work his way into the lead, but that wasn’t the end of Caprio’s story. He kept the pressure on for the remaining 18 laps getting all the way into Erickson’s bumper time and time again but didn’t have the momentum to complete or even begin a pass. Erickson kept his cool and was able to pick up back to back wins, his third of the season.

The Wild ‘n Wacky Wednesday Bandoleros concluded their season in a rescheduled event. Luka Dib took the lead early after a couple attempts at starting the race. Allyha DeSomma moved into second while point leader David Bernier slid towards the back. The middle of the pack fought hard for position among themselves that saw Connor Doyon work all the way up into second from the rear of the field after a lap 8 spin. DeSomma rallied back with a pass down low on Doyon moving him into a battle with Elias Dib. Disaster struck on the final lap and the two got hooked together straight into the wall. Luka Dib and DeSomma ran in an intense green-white-checker finish where DeSomma picked up the win by 0.011 seconds at the line. Bernier was able to score back to back championships by only one point with his fourth place finish.

Up next on the docket, The Finale: 2025. Saturday October 4th and Sunday October 5th we will wrap up our points season and crown our champions. Saturday’s event will be full of qualifying and headlined by the 85 lap Bob Horn Memorial for the Modified Racing Series. Sunday will be a $5,500 to win 100 lap SK Modified® main event. To keep up with the Speedbowl, please visit our website at www.SpeedbowlCT.com, follow us at The New London-Waterford Speedbowl on Facebook, or @SpeedbowlCT on Instagram and X.

Unofficial Results (9/20/25)

SK Modifieds® (35 Laps): 1. 09-Keith Rocco[10]; 2. 81-Todd Owen[7]; 3. 35-Andrew Molleur[4]; 4. 47-Timmy Jordan[3]; 5. 9-Paul Buzel[9]; 6. 0-Joe Gada[11]; 7. 11CT-Eric Berndt[5]; 8. 47Z-Zachery Sangermano[12]; 9. 15-Jeff Fialkovich[14]; 10. 52-Anthony Forino[15]; 11. 94-Justin Gaydosh[1]; 12. 81X-Joshua Zentek[13]; 13. 27-Adam Gada[2]; 14. 51-Rob Janovic Jr[8]; 15. 25-Anthony Flannery[6]; 16. 22RI-Carl Kivisto[16]; 17. 39-Paul Varricchio[17]

Late Models (30 Laps): 1. 09-Shawn Gaedeke[3]; 2. 17-Jason Palmer[6]; 3. 50RI-Michael Benevides[2]; 4. 15X-Andrew Johnson[8]; 5. 19CT-Kyle Gero[1]; 6. 2-Derryck Anderson Jr[7]; 7. 39-Douglas Curry[4]; 8. 64-Devin Deshaies[5]; 9. 32-Jason Williams[10]; 10. 9CT-Robert Stirk III[12]; 11. 0X-William Kuhn[11]; 12. 0-Joey LeMay[9]

SK Lights (25 Laps): 1. 16-Nickolas Hovey[11]; 2. 07-Tyler Chapman[6]; 3. 11-Robert Bloxsom III[7]; 4. 10-Kevin Davis[15]; 5. 76-Edward Gomarlo[17]; 6. 3-Steven Midford[2]; 7. 12X-Bob Charland[13]; 8. 21X-Will Anderson[12]; 9. 14-Kali Trapp[5]; 10. 19-John Brunelle[4]; 11. 15-Ryan West[8]; 12. 79-Adrianna Kimmer[16]; 13. 28-Eddie Schutze[10]; 14. 18-Anthony Raccio[1]; 15. 4-RJ Surdell[14]; 16. 78-Evan Bourgeois[9]; 17. 51-Matt Brewer[3]; 18. (DNS) 18X-Tyler Barry

Trucks (25 Laps): 1. 19-Ryan Lineham[9]; 2. 29-Jaysin Beal[7]; 3. 2-Duane Noll[13]; 4. 99-Milania Shilosky[8]; 5. 6X-Andrew Pellegrini[11]; 6. 54-Cameron Varricchio[4]; 7. 90-Allen Coates[10]; 8. 07-Austin Long[12]; 9. 66-Jon Porter[14]; 10. 30CT-Dylan Cabral[2]; 11. 25-David Venice[16]; 12. 00-Ryan Bannister[1]; 13. 30-Charles Beal[15]; 14. 16-Brad Caddick[5]; 15. 84JR-Brad Strickland[3]; 16. (DQ) 33-Jake Coutu[6]

Mini Stocks (25 Laps): 1. 93-Ray Christian III[6]; 2. 83-Christopher Garside[8]; 3. 25-Charles Canfield[1]; 4. 53-Andrew Krzeminski[10]; 5. 50-David Lee[5]; 6. 92-Sean Olden[9]; 7. 16-Tim Dorr[4]; 8. 28-Erica Canfield[11]; 9. 9-Rick LaFlesh[7]; 10. 6-Nicholas Pappacoda[12]; 11. 73-Eric Julian[13]; 12. 23-Matt Pinson[15]; 13. 88-Bill Sylvia[2]; 14. 81-Stacey Zentek[14]; 15. 11-Jason Kokoszka[17]; 16. 05-Randy Churchill Jr[3]; 17. 72-Jeffrey Lee[16]

Crown Vics (25 Laps): 1. 32-Austin Erickson[3]; 2. 03-Jake Caprio[1]; 3. 52-Jack Emerson[2]; 4. 01-Bryson Robidoux[5]; 5. 04-Keith Wilton[6]; 6. 12MA-John Dulac[4]; 7. 77MA-Callie Osborne[7]; 8. 24-Gregg Prevost III[8]; 9. 67-Robert Jones[9]; 10. 3-Nick Lecuyer[11]; 11. 9-Tyrese Mello[10]

Bandoleros (20 Laps): 1. 10-Allyha Desomma[4]; 2. 13-Luka Dib[2]; 3. 13X-Ryder Aguiar[6]; 4. 30-David Bernier[3]; 5. 22-Brooke Meyer[8]; 6. 15-Mackenzie Cloutier[1]; 7. 19-Connor Doyon[5]; 8. 17-Elias Dib[7]

(IMG-Images by TK Race Photo)