Winchester 100 Recap: Chase Pinsonneault Clinches the Turn One CRA Pro Series Title
By Biography Photography | Motorsport photography from Winchester 400 weekend
Some nights, a motorsport photographer's job is simply to be in the right place. Other nights, it's to be in the right place with a camera up at the exact moment a season gets decided. Friday, October 9 at Winchester Speedway was the second kind.
The Turn One CRA Pro Series came to the Indiana half-mile for its 2026 season finale, the Winchester 100, and I was there for it, camped at the speedway and shooting for Chase Pinsonneault and his No. 14 team as he chased a championship. Here's how the night played out, from the lens of a motorsport photographer on the ground.
Why the Winchester 100 Matters
Winchester isn't a normal stop. It's a high-banked half-mile with a reputation, and the Winchester 100 kicks off the big Winchester 400 weekend, one of the biggest events on the short track calendar in the Midwest. Drivers don't just show up and run laps here. The track punishes anyone who is even a little off the pace, and the margin between hero and parked is razor thin.
This year the stakes were higher because the series championship was still on the line.
The Championship Fight Heading Into Friday
Chase had been the man to beat in the Turn One CRA Pro Series all season. He took wins at Flat Rock and Toledo, where he set a track record and swept practice, qualifying and the feature, and he stacked up consistent top-five finishes that built his points lead.
But Blake Rowe was charging. Rowe won back-to-back races at Berlin and at the Owosso Nationals, where he took the lead from Chase on lap 33 and drove away. I was at Owosso photographing Chase that night, so I knew the points gap was shrinking and what Friday meant. Defending champion Billy VanMeter was also still in the picture and fast everywhere he went.
And Chase had history at Winchester that he wanted to put behind him. As a rookie in 2024, he went into the Winchester 100 still mathematically alive for the title before Rowe took it. In 2025, he led the first 92 laps of the Winchester 100 before losing power under caution with eight laps to go, finishing eighth as VanMeter clinched the championship. Two seasons in a row, this track had been the place where a title got away.
How the Winchester 100 Played Out
Billy VanMeter, in the No. 23, set the early tone. He led 47 of the first 70 laps in a car he later said felt so strong in practice that he simply trusted it. But J.P. Crabtree charged to the front with 30 laps to go, and for a moment it looked like Crabtree had the race in hand.
VanMeter chased him down. The two ran side by side for the better part of four laps before VanMeter cleared Crabtree for good with 13 to go.
Behind them, the night was all about patience and precision. Chase worked his way around Crabtree to take second, and that runner-up spot was all he needed. By his own account, he held a little in reserve for the long runs, but the real priority was restarts. He nailed them all night. Blake Rowe came home third, admitting this isn't his favorite track but that he found the right level of aggression to race wheel to wheel with VanMeter, Crabtree and Chase without wrecking anybody. Crabtree faded to fourth, and Kevin Cremonesi rounded out the top five.
The race wasn't without attrition either. Three cars were done within the first 13 laps, a reminder of how quickly Winchester can end a night.
VanMeter dedicated the win to longtime Winchester Speedway owner Charlie Shaw, who passed away in September. It added real weight to a Friday night victory at a track VanMeter grew up racing at.
Chase's Night: Second Place and a Championship
Chase finished 1.326 seconds behind VanMeter, and in that moment, second place was the best result he could have asked for. It locked up the 2026 Turn One CRA Pro Series championship.
After a season of consistent finishes, near misses at this very track and a late-season push from Rowe, it all came together on a night where he executed from green flag to checkers. In his own words afterward, "This means everything to me." You could see it. When you spend the season photographing a driver, you start to recognize the difference between a good night and the night they've been working toward since January.
It's also the second year in a row I've been trackside at Winchester for a championship clinch, this time with a different team than the year before. I don't take that lightly. It's an honor to be trusted with moments like these.
Behind the Lens: Shooting the Winchester 100
Friday at Winchester was a full day of motorsport photography. I was shooting for multiple Late Model and Modified teams and drivers across the weekend, and I mounted in-car cameras for Chloe Mazzagatti for the Winchester 100. She finished 12th in a 19-car field, running all 100 laps.
Between sessions I was editing and delivering images from my phone, so teams and drivers had fresh photos as the night went on, not days later. Star-rating keepers on the back of the camera, sending them to my phone, applying a preset and getting them out the door takes a minute or two, and for teams who want content in the moment, that speed matters.
The full gallery from the weekend is here: Winchester 400 Weekend gallery.
Winchester 100 Unofficial Results
Billy VanMeter (No. 23) - 100 laps, winner
Chase Pinsonneault (No. 14) - 100 laps, +1.326 sec
Blake Rowe (No. 71) - 100 laps, +2.263 sec
J.P. Crabtree (No. 83) - 100 laps, +3.404 sec
Kevin Cremonesi (No. 28) - 100 laps, +3.571 sec
Albert Francis (No. 33) - 100 laps, +6.705 sec
Cassten Everidge (No. 63) - 100 laps, +10.009 sec
Chase Burda (No. 9) - 100 laps, +10.152 sec
Evan Varney (No. 22) - 100 laps, +12.496 sec
Jon Beach (No. 3b) - 100 laps, +14.245 sec
Chloe Mazzagatti (No. 87) finished 12th, one spot behind Gabrielle Grigsby (No. 711) in 11th.
What Came Next: The Winchester 400
The weekend wasn't over. The Winchester 400 was moved to Saturday evening, and I spent that day shooting for the Klingelhofer modified team with ride-along POV video as well. Carson Brown took the win. VanMeter, after swapping the engine in his Friday winner to run with the Super Late Models, finished third. Chase kept the momentum going with a sixth-place finish, the last driver in the field to complete all 400 laps.
A championship on Friday and a strong 400 on Saturday made for a pretty good weekend.
Read more about my full weekend as a professional motorsport photographer at Winchester Speedway, or just the Winchester 400 or the Modified Run for the Gun 40.
Need a Motorsport Photographer?
If you're a driver, team, track or series looking for a motorsport photographer who can deliver fast, shoot the moments that matter and show up for the long weekends, I'd love to work with you. Biography Photography covers Midwest short track racing, from Late Models and Modifieds to Traditional Sprints, with near-real-time image delivery, in-car video and victory lane coverage for tracks and series.
Book me for your next race: mike@biojpg.com
Sources for race details and results: Racing America's recaps of the Winchester 100 and Winchester 400, Speed Sport, and Racing America's coverage of the 2025 Winchester 100.
