Owen outlasts Janovic in SK Modified feature

Waterford — Todd Owen kept digging and digging Saturday night until he finally struck gold.

Owen made several attempts to dive-bomb underneath Waterford's Rob Janovic Jr. during the first half of the 40-lap SK Modified feature at the New London-Waterford Speedbowl.

With 18 laps remaining, however, Owen got a dazzling run off turn 4 and swooped underneath Janovic in turn 1 to move into the lead. He maintained it the rest of the way to grab his second feature of the season.

Owen wasn't the only Speedbowl success story on Saturday night. Jake Christian nailed down the first 25-lap Mini Stock win of his career in a race rescheduled from June 2, while Bo Norman led from start to finish to capture his first 30-lap Sportsman race.

In other feature races, Ryan Morgan held off Anthony Flannery and Jason Palmer down the stretch for his second 30-lap Late Model win of the season while Charles Canfield fixed a broken steering rack and went on to win the regularly scheduled 25-lap Mini Stock feature, Brett Meservey dominated the 25-lap Ct. Pro 4 Modified race and Scott Dion won the Open Vintage Modified race.

The Owen-Janovic duel was the highlight of the SK feature. Janovic started third, but wasted no time to move into the lead, getting by Justin Albernaz on the inside.

Owen quickly scampered into second place and kept challenging on the inside until he finally blasted underneath Janovic. "Rob Janovic had a fast car, we always race well together," Owen said. "It wasn't easy to get by."

Owen was running the car he started the season with at Waterford that was wrecked in the season opener on June 6. When Owen won on June 23, he was using a car he had built for Thompson Speedway.

"It was nice to get this car back," Owen said. "The team worked hard on it and everyone did a good job."

"The faster car won tonight," Janovic said. "We had a great car, but we were just missing a little bit. It's tough. Kyle James was off tonight and we stayed ahead of him, but Todd had a great car and was better than we were."

James, who had won three of the first four races, climbed into third place, but never really was a factor.

"I think I have engine problems and that really concerns me," James said. "We may be running on only six or seven cylinders."

James still maintains a twopoint lead in the standings over Owen, with Janovic fourpoints behind.

For the second straight Late Model feature, Morgan, Flannery and Palmer hooked up in a 30-lap brawl.

Mike Benevides led the early laps of the race, however, and then Tyler Chapman took over the lead before Morgan zipped into the top spot on lap 10. He spent the rest of the holding off a hard-charging Flannery and Palmer.

"It's great that the three of us are duking it out all the time," Morgan said. "There was some beating and banging, but we also respect each other."

Norman thanked Sportsman competitor Al Stone for giving him the car to beat in the Sportsman feature. After Norman jumped on into the lead on lap 1, no one was able to flag him down.

"This car was on rails," said Norman, who has been racing at the Speedbowl since 2004. "Al told me that this was going to be my week and he was right."

The first of two Mini-Stock races turned into a dream come true for Christian, a second-year competitor. He started on the pole in a race that was postponed by rain on June 2 and led every lap.