The 2015 CSR East Coast Challenge Series returned to action traveling to Kingston, New Hampshire as part of the 9th Annual Kingston Fall Classic for the weekend of September 26 & 27th. With a history as one of the more popular race sites in the Northeast, the hopes for a great turnout were realized as early as Friday afternoon when the pits were almost full to capacity. By Saturday morning the pits were overflowing and the neighboring Congregational Church came to the rescue by allowing the overflow to utilize their parking lot. Among the eighty plus entries on the ten race program were nine CSR’s traveling to the event from Florida, Virginia, New York, Ontario Canada and all of the New England States. This was to be the largest field of CSR’s on record to compete on Greenwood Pond’s short tight course.

Saturday’s heat one race saw a continuation of the domination of Jesse Swain since the green flag dropped at the season opener at Hinton, W. Virginia. Swain has a history of doing well on the little bull ring race courses and has a knack for positioning himself well at the start to capitalized on his horsepower. As the nine CSR’s jockeyed for position in the milling area it was Howie Nichols in the purple haze screaming down lane one to the first turn. Two lanes over was Swain with Mike Akerstrom riding Swain’s rooster tail to the outside. After that it was anybody’s guess as a wall of water engulfed the remainder of the field. Heading up the backstretch Swain overtook Nichols heading into turn two and created enough space to allow Akerstrom to also squeeze by Howie at the buoy. Wild Bill Forster and newcomer to the series Jeff Main duked it out for fourth and fifth. The positions remained the same as the boats battled over the chop with Swain taking the checkers. Heat two was pretty much a replay of the first heat with Swain, Akerstrom and Nichols capturing the podium positions.

Sunday’s racing was run under near perfect weather conditions with crisp sixty degree temperatures, light wind, and bright sunshine. The field was diminished by one as Michael Rorke hit the road early for the return trip to Montreal. Once again it was a tightly bunched field on the way to the first turn with Swain and Akerstrom leading the pack. It was a real dogfight for third through fifth between Main, Forster and Nichols while Dan Shaver and Thom Noury battled for sixth with Tim Noury in a damaged hull rounding out the field. While Swain and Akerstrom demonstrated why they are the series points leaders, hydro driver Jeff Main held off the charging Forster who in turn kept Nichols at bay to finish out the top five. While Swain has now made it six straight wins in the series, Main was making his first podium finish.

The next stop in the series will be the Columbus Day weekend event in Millville, New Jersey. This race was added to the schedule to make up for the poor turnout at the Millville Spring event. Over $2,000 in cash and merchandise awards will be distributed at the Series finale in Tabor City, North Carolina on Halloween weekend. With just two weekends left of racing in the series, Jesse Swain continues to dominate as he has yet to lose a race.