Kyle James celebrates in victory after the SK Modified feature Saturday at the Waterford Speedbowl (Photo: Mark Caise/Waterford Speedbowl)

The Ashaway, R.I. driver started last in the 23-car NASCAR Whelen All-American Series SK Modified field, but when all the wrecking was done – and there was plenty of it – James was the one celebrating victory in the 35-lap feature.

“It was a mess,” James said. “Especially starting from the back, but we kind of needed it. We just needed to stay clean but get enough cautions to bring everyone back together and get up front.”

Todd Ceravolo of Gales Ferry was second and Ed Puleo of Branford third.

It was the third career victory for James and first of the 2013 season.

James had power steering issues in practice and during his heat race, which forced him to start last in the field.

But when the wrecking started, it was James deftly avoiding mess after mess.

“That’s pretty much been the norm around here lately, just people driving way over their heads way too early,” James said. “Hopefully that starts calming down pretty soon.”

James was up to third behind Puleo and Ceravolo in first and second respectively with 11 laps remaining. On a lap 11 restart, James went by Ceravolo for second and then he used a lap nine restart to go past Puleo for the top spot for good.

“I needed 10-12 laps under green for the car to really get going,” Ceravolo said. “Three lap sprints were really killing me.”

Puleo led for most of the event.

“Obviously there’s no question in how hard my crew works,” Puleo said. “… I’m a little heartbroken, I’m a competitor, I wanted to win that race.”

Bruce Thomas Jr.

It was the first win of the season for Thomas, of Groton, who is running a part time schedule this year.

Keith Rocco of Wallingford was second and Moltz, of Waterford, third.

With three laps remaining, Thomas got under Moltz going into turn one. Heavy contact between the two ensued, sending both sliding into turn one. Thomas was able to save his sliding car quicker.

Rocco moved past Moltz for second after Moltz had the contact with Thomas.

In the SK Light Modified division, the reigning champ was back on his throne as Paul French won.

French, who has won the championship in the division the last two years, went under Glen Griswold for the lead with six laps to go. Griswold, of Vernon, was second and Randy Churchill Jr. of Oakdale was third.

Ryan Waterman picked up his first career victory in the 25-lap Street Stock feature. Chris Meyer of North Franklin was second and Joe Arena of Bristol third.

Ken Cassidy Jr.

Superman seemed invincible. In 2013 it has seemed someone found a way to hide some kryptonite within Cassidy’s chassis.

Saturday, in the sixth event of the season, the Lisbon driver finally shook the early season demons, rolling to victory in the 25-lap Mini Stock feature at the Waterford Speedbowl.

“It’s about time,” Cassidy said. “My guys work so hard. We’ve been struggling with some stupid stuff here. We didn’t do too bad tonight with a bent rear and a sticky throttle. … What an awesome night.”

Bill Leonard of Charlestown, R.I. was second and Garrett Denton of Hope Valley, R.I. third.

Last year Cassidy finished the second with a division record 12 victories in 21 starts, on the way to his fourth track championship and his first NASCAR Division IV short track national title.

Over the first five events this year Cassidy had two seconds, two thirds and a 13th place finish.

“I think last year we did a little too good,” Cassidy said. “To meet the standards this year, seconds and thirds just weren’t doing it for us. I was getting down on myself a little bit. Going home and working on the car was the only thing we could do.”

Cassidy went to the outside of Leonard in a battle for the lead and took that lead with eight laps left. The side-by-side battle continued until Cassidy cleared Leonard off of turn two with three laps remaining.

“The throttle was sticking on me,” Cassidy said. “The return spring broke. So when I lifted the throttle stayed on and I’d have to pull it up with my foot. That kind of scared me a little bit so I was kind of floating it in there a little easy.”

Said Leonard: “That was a great battle with Kenny. It’s always fun to run side-by-side with him And when you’re running side-by-side you know you’re doing pretty good because obviously Kenny does well here.”

Rowan Pennink

“We definitely had a car to win,” said Pennink, who rallied to a ninth place finish last week.

Friday, Pennink made up for opportunities lost, and did it in dramatic fashion.

Pennink held off the charges of Sean Foster over the final 20 laps to win the 40-lap NASCAR Whelen All-American Series SK Modified feature Friday at Stafford Motor Speedway.

It was the first career SK Modified victory at Stafford for Pennink, who was making his third start for car owners Bob and Kelly Hitchcock. Pennink, of Huntingdon Valley, Pa., also runs full-time on the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour and the Valenti Modified Racing Series.

“I knew the team with Bob and Kelly and [crew chief Jimmy Fuller] was a strong team, but with me not running SK’s for a while and us being new to each other, I figured it might take a little longer than three races to end up in victory lane,” Pennink said. “But I’ll take it.”

Foster, of Ellington, was second and Glen Reen of Wilbraham, Mass. third.

Pennink went to the lead past Michael Gervais at the start and immediately showed he had the car to beat.

The race was slowed on the second lap when about half the field was caught up in a backstretch wreck. Included in the wreck was Ryan Preece, who had won the first two features of the season.

On a lap 13 restart, Foster went from fourth to second and set in motion a duel that would rage for the remainder of the event.

Lap after lap Foster desperately looked for any way by Pennink at the front. Numerous times Foster ducked low into the corners under Pennink but couldn’t make the moves work. Then Foster tried the high lane to get around but was stymied there too.

On the final lap Foster made a diving move off of turn four and got a wheel under Pennink but that was as close as he would get coming to the checkered flag.

“It was a tough race there,” Pennink said. “Sean had a really good car there behind me. I had to work my butt off to keep him there. … I was just driving the best I could defensively to keep him behind me.”

Said Foster: “It’s incredible how far we’ve come with this racecar, especially this year. We’ve made so many improvements, we’ve worked really hard this year. The car was just missing a little bit in the turns. … It had the power down the straightaways, but just a little more off the turns and we could have gotten him. We gave it all we had.”

After the race, while Adam Gray celebrated a bruising victory, Fearn remarked that the fastest car doesn’t always win.

Friday, Fearn showed that speed does eventually pay off.

Fearn held off the charges of Gray and Woody Pitkat to win the 30-lap Late Model feature Friday at Stafford. It was the first victory of the season for Gray of East Longmeadow, Mass.

“The last few weeks we were winning warmups but not the features,” Fearn said. “Today we struggled a little in warmups. We ran good in the heat [race] but we found a bent spindle and changed that for the feature. I guess that was just the little bit we needed.”

Pitkat, of Stafford, was second and Gray, of Belchertown, Mass., third.

Fearn moved to second on a lap three restart and then went by Kevin Gambacorta for the lead on lap lap.

Gray challenged Fearn for the lead on lap 13, but ended up losing second place to Pitkat on lap 14.

Tony Membrino Jr. celebrates an SK Light Modified victory Friday at Stafford Speedway (Photo: Stephanie Kimball/Stafford Speedway)

Friday night Membrino made sure there would be no such dramatics.

Membrino, of Plantsville, drove away from the field on the way to his first victory of the season in the 20-lap SK Light Modified feature.

The party will continue for Membrino Saturday when he graduates from Central Connecticut State University with a degree in mechanical engineering technology.

“This is going to be one hell of a weekend,” Membrino said. “We’ve been knocking on the door all year. We had a chance to win [the first two races of the season], but that’s racing. We’ll take what we can get and I’ll take this any day of the week.”

Ronnie Williams of Tolland was a distant second to Membrino. Jay Goff of Stafford came back from a heat race crash to finish third.

David Arute (Photo: Stafford Motor Speedway)

Arute took the lead on lap 15 and then sailed away, rolling easily to the win in the 20-lap Limited Late Model feature.

It was the second career victory for Arute, from Tolland. He won his first event on Aug. 3, 2012.

“The car was great all day. I can’t thank my crew enough for working so hard,” Arute said. “… We had a long winter and I’m happy to reward the team with this win.”

Don Wood of Palmer, Mass. was a distant second and Duane Provost of Springfield, Mass. third.

Jeremy Lavoie celebrates his second consecutive DARE Stock victory Friday at Stafford Speedway (Photo: Stephanie Kimball/Stafford Speedway)

This year Lavoie is eating up the competition in the DARE Stock division.

Lavoie won the 20-lap Xtramart Xtra D Dare Stock feature Friday at Stafford Motor Speedway.

It was the second consecutive victory for Lavoie, of Windsor Locks. Lavoie had his first and only victory before this season on Sept. 7 last year.

Johnny Walker of Ludlow, Mass. was second and Kris Fluckiger of Enfield third.

Lavoie lost the lead on a lap 11 restart to Walker, but fought back to regain the lead on the same lap and then never trailed again.

“Starting 10th I knew I was going to have my hands full, but I knew I had a good racecar under my feet,” Lavoie said. “Like I said last week, we worked all winter to get this thing the way we wanted it, and it seems like we hit it and we hit it again week number two.”

Said Walker: “It was a really tough night. We popped the radiator on the last lap. Thank god it came toward the end of the race.”

NASCAR announced Friday that the Whelen All-American Series awards banquet and the Night of Champions Touring Series awards banquet will be held Dec. 13 and 14 respectively at the NASCAR Hall of Fame and Charlotte Convention Center.

The Whelen All-American Series banquet will honor champions from the the 55 NASCAR sanctioned short tracks across the United States and Canada.

On Dec. 14 honorees from the from the K&N Pro Series East and West, Whelen Modified Tour, Whelen Southern Modified Tour, Canadian Tire Series, Mexico’s Toyota Series and Euro-Racecar Touring Series will be celebrated.

“Holding our two NASCAR Home Tracks awards ceremonies at the NASCAR Hall of Fame is the perfect setting to recognize the soul of NASCAR,” George Silbermann, NASCAR vice president of regional and touring series said in a release. “Celebrating the young talent whose passion build this sport over these two events are highlights each year.”

Both the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series Awards and the NASCAR Night of Champions Touring Series Awards will be streamed live on NASCARHomeTracks.com.

Dick Trick (center) with former Charlotte Motor Speedway general manager Humpy Wheeler (right) in 2006. (Photo: Chris Trotman/Getty Images for NASCAR)

Trickle was 71 years old.

Trickle’s body was found in the Forest Lawn Cemetery in Boger City, N.C. at about noon Tuesday.

WBTV reported: “The Lincoln County Communications Center received a call apparently from the victim that ‘there would be a dead body and it would be his.’ Communications Center workers tried to place a return call to the number but did not get an answer.”

Trickle’s legend was earned on the short tracks of his native Wisconsin and throughout the ranks of Midwest short tracks. He ran occasionally in NASCAR’s national ranks through the 1970’s and ‘80’s.

In 1989 he ran full-time for the first time in NASCAR’s highest level, Sprint Cup Series, then known as the Winston Cup Series.

He stopped running full-time in the series after the 1998 season. He made his last Sprint Cup Series start at Dover International Speedway on June 2. Over a 24-year span from 1970 to 2002 he made 303 Sprint Cup Series starts and recording 15 top-five finishes in that span.

Trickle made 158 starts in what is known today as the Nationwide Series, recording two career victories.

“Dick Trickle taught me to be me,” longtime NASCAR competitor Kenny Wallace posted on Twitter this afternoon. “He taught me to Justify things my way and said ‘Kenny keep laughing loud cause that’s who you are’”