Column By: PHIL SMITH / RPW – WESTERLY, RI – Sixty five years ago in 1953 rain cancelled Wednesday night racing at the New London-Waterford Speedbowl. The Modifieds had Saturday night off. Bud Matter won a special event for the non-Fords.
Sixty years ago in 1958 Ray Moran won a Thursday night Fourth of July Special Modified event at the New London-Waterford Speedbowl. Dick Beauregard was the non-Ford winner. Red Foote was the Saturday night Modified winner at the Connecticut shoreline oval. Charlie Webster was the 25 lap non-Ford winner and Ed Moody was the Bomber winner.
Fifty five years ago in 1963, Area Auto Racing News reported that Dennis Zimmerman led the charge of the Eastern Bandits at Old Bridge, NJ where he won the Sunday night Modified feature over Frank Myroncuk and Joe Kelly. Eddie Flemke finished seventh in a borrowed car. Al DeAngelo was the Modified winner at the Islip Speedway on Long Island. On the Connecticut shoreline at the New London-Waterford Speedbowl a special Fourth of July racing program was run on Wednesday night which was highlighted by twin 25-lap Modified features which were run with Joe McNulty and Don Collins taking the wins. Jerry Dostie, recently transplanted from the Maine woods, won the 15 lap Bomber feature. On Saturday night at the Speedbowl Hank Stevens took the Modified feature while Walt Dombrowski took the Bomber main. Local favorite George Janoski was the Modified winner on the dirt at the Stafford Springs Speedway.
Fifty years ago in 1968, modified action started on Thursday night at Catamount Stadium where Bugsy Stevens took the win. Stevens carried his winning ways over to Stafford on Friday night where he beat out Fred Harbach for the win. Smokey Boutwell, Fred DeSarro and Frank Faria rounded out the top five. At the Albany-Saratoga Speedway, Lou Lazzaro out dueled Phil Spiak for the win. Jerry Cook finished third with Ken Canestrary and Pete Corey rounding out the top five. Lazzaro made it two for two on the weekend as he also won at Fonda on Saturday night over Cook and Dave Lape. Roland LaPierre Sr. was the Saturday night winner at Norwood Arena. and Lee Osborne was the winner at the Fulton Raceway. At the Waterford Speedbowl Dick Caso won a Wednesday night Fourth of July Special Modified event. Newt Palm was the winner of the Modified event held on Saturday at the Bowl. Bill Sweet won Late Model Daredevil events on both nights. Bugsy Stevens won twin 25’s at Thompson on Sunday and at Utica-Rome, Dick Fowler took the win over Robbie Kotary, Sonny Seamon, Dick Clark and Bernie Miller.
Forty five years ago in 1973, Fred DeSarro started the weekend off with a win at Malta on Friday night. Denis Giroux finished second with Jerry Cook, Richie Evans and Ronnie Bouchard, following. Bouchard was not to be denied on Saturday at Stafford as he took the hotly contested 35 lap main. A second 35 lapper was run but Bouchard had to settle for third behind Eddie Flemke and Bugsy Stevens. Charlie Jarzombek won at Islip and at Tioga; Geoff Bodine took the win over Evans and Dick Fowler. Dick Watson, a legend at the New London-Waterford Speedbowl, won the Tuesday night Fourth of July Modified Special at the Waterford Speedbowl. George Allum won a held over Modified event from the previous week. Ron Cote and Dick LaFlesh were the Late Model Daredevil winners. Rounding out the weekend was a 100 lapper at Utica-Rome, which was won by Evans over Stevens, Lou Lazzaro, Jerry Cook and Fred DeSarro.
Forty years ago in 1978,the Yankee All-Star League visited the Star Speedway in Epping, N.H. on Wednesday. Geoff Bodine continued his domination as he took the win. Bugsy Stevens finished second with George Savory, third. Plainville ran an open show on Thursday, which saw Brett Bodine take the win over Eddie Flemke, Ron Bouchard, Ron Wycoff and Ronnie Rocco. Stafford fell to rain on Friday. Riverhead went to Charlie Jarzombek and Maynard Troyer got his eighth at Spencer. Rain washed out Waterford and Seekonk on Saturday. Islip ran a 150 lapper that saw Richie Evans take the win over Jerry Cook and Don Howe. Mike Stefanik won the main at Riverside and Troyer continued his winning ways as he won at Lancaster. Leo Cleary won at Thompson on Sunday and at Monadnock, Geoff Bodine beat out Jack Bateman.
Thirty five years ago in 1983,Kenny Bouchard, in the Ted Marsh no.55 took the modified win at Stafford. George Summers finished second with Bugsy Stevens, third. Bo Gunning was the SK modified winner. At the Spencer Speedway, Mike McLaughlin beat out Richie Evans and George Kent. At New Egypt it was John Blewett Jr. over Tony Siscone. At Riverhead, Dan Jivenelli won the Thompson 300 qualifier. Saturday night at Waterford, he modified field was 38 cars strong. Mark LaJunesse took the win with Bob Potter and Jerry Pearl in tow. At Riverside, Brett Bodine took top honors. Other weekend winners were John Blewett JR at Islip, Eddie StAngelo at Seekonk and Tom Bolles at Thompson.
Thirty years ago in 1988, the Modified tour was at Riverhead on Wednesday for a 151 lapper. Mike Ewanitsko took charge and won the event. Reggie Ruggiero finished second with John Blewett JR, third. Ted Christopher won at Stafford on Friday and at Monadnock, Reggie Ruggiero took the checker. Lee ran a modified event, also on Friday, which was won by Tom Bolles. On Saturday at Waterford, Ed Flemke JR was the winner and at Riverhead, Dan Jivenelli took the win. Dick McCabe won the Oxford 250 and on Sunday, the mods went to Jennerstown where Bolles beat George Kent for the win.
Twenty five years ago in 1993, Ted Christopher was the Friday night winner at Stafford. Bob Potter finished second with Tom Tagg, third. The Modified Tour was at Loudon on Saturday for a 40-lap event, which saw 10 lead changes. Reggie Ruggiero was the eventual winner with Doug Hevron, Rick Fuller and Ed Flemke JR following. The Busch North cars were also on hand with Mike McLaughlin winning out over Kelly Moore. At Waterford it was Mark LaJunesse over Jerry Pearl. Other weekend winners were Richie Gallup at Riverside and Bob Park at Riverhead. In Winston Cup action at Loudon, Rusty Wallace started 33rd and took the win. One day later, on July 12, Davey Allison and Red Farmer were flying into the Talledega Speedway when Allison’s helicopter crashed. Farmer survived but Allison died one day later.
Twenty years ago in 1998, Stafford and Waterford rescheduled their race nights to accommodate those going to Loudon for the Winston Cup weekend. Stafford had planned on running on Tuesday but their event rained out. Waterford ran on Friday night and it was Dennis Gada taking the modified win over Jeff Pearl and Mark LaJunesse. The Modified Tour Series and Busch Grandnational North Series ran at Loudon on Saturday afternoon. Mike Stefanik scored his seventh mod tour win of the season in an event that saw 25 lead changes among seven drivers in 100 laps. Jan Leaty finished second and was followed by Reggie Ruggiero, Mike Ewanitsko and Ed Kennedy. Kelly Moore was the BGNN winner and was followed by Dale Shaw, Brad Leighton and Tom Bolles. George Brunnhoelzl ended a long dry spell as he won at Riverhead on Saturday night. Jeff Burton won the Loudon Winston Cup event after leading 191 of the scheduled 300 laps
Fifteen years ago in 2003, winner. In Saturday night Thunder action at Thompson, Todd Ceravolo ended a long dry spell as he took the win in the Sunoco Modified-SK Type modified feature that was run in conjunction with the visit of the Busch North Series. Ceravolo, driving a car owned by his dad, “Dickie Doo” Ceravolo, started on the pole and never looked back as he took the win in the 30 lap contest. Bo Gunning, who recovered from an early caution, came from the back of the pack to finish a close second. Matty Adante finished third and was followed by Eric Berndt and Jeff Malave. Tom Carey was the Busch North Series winner. Series point leader Andy Santerre finished second.
The Featherlite NASCAR Modified Tour Series went to Maine that weekend to the Beech Ridge Speedway on Saturday night. Todd Szegedy led from start to finish to record his second victory of the year in the series. Tony Hirschman and Chuck Hossfeld staged a serious battle to take the top spot but Szegedy kept his cool and never faltered. Ricky Fuller finished fourth with John Blewett III rounding out the top five. Thirty-two modifieds were on hand for the 150-lap event that carried a purse of $67,475. Not making the starting grid were Carl Pasteryak and Jake Marosz. Twelve cars finished on the lead lap. Ted Christopher, Chris Kopec, Jim Broderick, Kenny Barry and Bob Polverari. rounded out the top ten. There were five caution periods for 36 laps
It wasn’t dull by any means as Rain played havoc at the Stafford Speedway last Friday night forcing officials to red flag the SK 150 lapper at the lap 18 mark. The event would resume on August 1. Mike Quintiliano was the late model winner.
At the Waterford Speedbowl last Saturday night in a race against time, Jeff Pearl went pole to pole to take the win. It was the Speedbowl’s intention to get their program in the books in order for fans to be able to view the fireworks in New London or head up to Thompson for the Busch North Series event. Eddie Reed Jr. finished second with Dennis Cherette, third. The event had to be red flagged after Jay Miller took a hard shot into the second turn. Miller was taken to the Backus Hospital for observation. NEAR Hall of Fame Inductee Ray Miller stated that his son suffered a fracture of the C2 vertebrae plus a swollen hand Miller will be out of action the rest of the year. Zach Sylvester will fill his seat at Waterford for the remainder of the year. John Brouwer Jr. and Chris Pasteryak rounded out the top five.
Ten years ago in 2008, the True Value Modifieds made their second visit to the Monadnock Speedway in Winchester, NH. Kirk Alexander managed to successfully maneuver through lapped traffic in the last 10 laps of the 100 lap event and Dwight Jarvis’ #28 began to fade. Alexander would take the win, his 30th in the True Value Modified Racing Series. Dwight Jarvis held on to second while Jack Bateman finished third. Jon McKennedy and Rob Goodenough rounded out the top five. Pre-race favorites Ted Christopher, 17th, Les Hinkley, 18th, and Dave Pinkham, DNS, failed to finish.
The Thompson Speedway’s Thursday Night Thunder program avoided the rain gods and welcomed an almost full crowd to the double feature program for the Sunoco Modifieds. Jimmy Blewett scored back to back Sunoco Modified victories while Randy Cabral enjoyed an emotional NEMA Midgets victory for one of his fallen comrades. In a touching tribute, Cabral left his car in turn three where his fallen friend, Shane Hammond, lost his life in April. Derek Ramstrom continued his domination of the Pro Stock ranks with his third-straight feature win, Leo Oliveira celebrated with a victory in the biggest event of the season for the TIS Modifieds along with Limited Sportsman competitor Ernie LaRose and Mini Stocker Tim Taylor of each visited victory lane.
The Stafford Motor Speedway celebrated the fourth of July holiday with a multimedia fireworks display set to music. The fireworks on the track were provided by Frank Ruocco, who won the SK Modified feature, Ryan Posocco, who won his 30th Late Model feature, Chris Matthews, who won the SK Light Modified feature, Charlie Newman, who won the Limited Late Model feature, and Dan Flannery, who won the DARE Stock feature.
In the 40-lap SK Modified feature event, Frank Ruocco drove to his first feature win of the 2008 season by out dueling Keith Rocco over the final laps. Doug Coby took the early race lead and held the top spot from the green flag to lap-22, when Ruocco overtook him on a restart. Rocco moved by Coby for second place on lap-27 and brought Ted Christopher with him past Coby. Christopher and Rocco would swap the second position several times over the final laps through several restart situations, with Rocco taking the spot on the final green white checker restart. Rocco stayed glued to the back bumper of Ruocco, but couldn’t make a pass for the win. Rounding out the top-5 behind Ruocco and Rocco was Tom Bolles, Christopher, and Jimmy Blewett.
At the Waterford Speedbowl it was the annual Pepsi 300. A major water main break closed a good portion of the lower section of Route 85 but it didn’t hold back the competitors or fans. Jeffrey Paul took advantage of Doug Coby’s misfortune as he scored the biggest win of his young career as he won the 100 lap SK Modified portion of the Pepsi 300. With less than 10 laps to go, Coby missed a shift on a restart and all but handed the win to Paul. Coby had passed Keith Rocco for the lead just beyond the halfway-point and looked to be on cruise control, headed for victory. Pole-sitter Tyler Chadwick led the early going of the 100-lap SK feature before he was passed by Keith Rocco. For several laps the leader was pressed by Coby, Dennis Gada, and Paul. On lap ninety-three, Frank Ruocco and Rocco made contact, the latter slamming into the back-stretch wall, with Ruocco sent to the back for rough-riding. The resultant restart saw Paul bolt into the lead, passing Coby. Coby held-on for the runner-up spot followed by Rob Janovic Jr., Ron Yuhas Jr., and defending champion and current point-leader Dennis Gada. It was the first win of 2008 for Paul.
Other feature winners were Bruce Thomas Jr. (Late Model), Al Stone III (Sportsman), and Danny Field (Mini Stocks).
In the 100-lap Late Model feature it was defending champion Bruce Thomas Jr. scoring victory in round-two of the Triple Crown series. Starting in the second-row and passing Ron Yuhas Jr. for the lead on lap forty-two, Thomas motored to a dominating twenty-seventh career triumph over Tim Jordan, Yuhas, Vin Esposito, and Diego Monahan.
Al Stone III kept his Triple Crown expectations alive with a victory in the 50-lap Sportsman feature and scoring the 50-lap Mini Stock main event by an ever-so-slight margin was Danny Field.
Denny Hamlin held off teammate Kyle Busch to win Friday night at Daytona International Speedway and extend Joe Gibbs Racing’s dominance in the Nationwide Series. Hamlin had a comfortable lead over Busch as they headed toward the last lap, but rookie Colin Braun spun out to bring just the third caution of the race. NASCAR reset the laps to create a two-lap sprint to the finish. Hamlin got a great jump on the restart and Busch couldn’t challenge him as Hamlin drove to his third Nationwide Series win of the year. Busch bested Carl Edwards in a race that ended under caution with Busch earning his Sprint Cup-best sixth victory of the season. Busch and Edwards were racing side by side with a little over a lap remaining when a multicar accident brought out the caution behind them. The field was frozen, and while Edwards was pretty sure Busch was a nose ahead, no one was 100 percent certain. Edwards finished second and was disappointed not to have one last lap.
Five years ago in 2013, the Thompson Speedway Thursday Night Thunder Series resumed under threatening skies. John Lowinski-Loh, Steve Kenneway and Chad Baxter all captured their first season wins on Whelen Engineering night in Thursday Night Thunder at Thompson (TNTT). Other NASCAR Whelen All-American Series winners included Keith Rocco in the Sunoco Modified division with his fourth victory of the season and John Studley in the Lite Modifieds.
Rocco used a late-race restart to take down his fourth victory of the 2013 season as he held off Ryan Preece and Todd Ceravolo for the win. A caution flew at lap 28 for a car in the turn three wall setting up a two-lap dash to the checkers. Rocco drove to the front again with Ceravolo and Preece battling for the second spot right behind him. Preece took the second spot with Woody Pitkat taking over third before the checkers fell. Ceravolo ended up fourth with Kerry Malone, fifth.
At the Stafford Motor Speedway on Friday night held a special Girls Night Out program featuring each division racing an extra two laps as part of the 5-Star Series Mid-Season Stretch. Keith Rocco scored his first victory of the 2013 season in the 42-lap SK Modified® feature, Tom Fearn picked up his third win of the 2013 season in the 32-lap Late Model feature, Chase Dowling scored his second consecutive victory and fourth overall win of the 2013 season in the 22-lap SK Light Modified feature, Josh Wood picked up his third win of the 2013 season in the 22-lap Limited Late Model feature, and Jeremy Lavoie took down his third win of the season in the 17-lap DARE Stock feature.
In the SK Modified race, Rocco led Todd Owen back to the checkered flag to pick up his first victory of the 2013 season. Eric Berndt finished third, with Rowan Pennink and Woody Pitkat rounding out the top-5. In postrace inspection, Pennink’s car was found to have illegal brake components and he was dropped to the 20th (last) place position in the running order.
The Waterford Speedbowl did not race on Saturday night as they gave way to New London’s Sailfest and Fireworks. On Friday evening the shoreline oval hosted the inaugural Belltown Tire Service Center Little Guys 200, putting four of the track’s support divisions into the spotlight. Open competition Mini Stock and Street Stock events paid each winner $1,000.00. Corey Hutchings was the Street Stock event winner and Glen Thomas Jr. took the checkered flag in the night’s Mini Stock race. Giovanni Giarratana won his third INEX Legend Cars event in the last four at the track and Brad Voglesong won the X-Car race. Belltown Tire Service Center put on a Pit Crew Challenge on the track’s front chute between races, won by the team of Glen Thomas Jr.
The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour Series headed to the New Hampshire Motor Speedway for the Town Fair Tire 100. The event drew 32 cars for 36 open starting positions. Jimmy Blewett secured his first pole at the “Magic Mile” on his first lap of qualifying at 29.691 seconds (128.281 mph), but his No. 76 John Blewett Incorporated Chevrolet wrecked hard into the wall in the second circuit. Blewett hit a batch of dirt on the track that had not been cleaned up by the track crew. Blewett stated as he was coming around turn two he cut a right front tire in the dirt from the Global Rally Cars that had raced on Thursday night.
Ted Christopher qualified second-fastest at 29.783 (127.885). Bryon Chew joined him on the qualifying podium with a fast lap of 29.806 (127.786) around the 1.058-mile oval. Rounding out the top five were Bobby Santos and Eric Goodale.
Defending series champion Doug Coby nipped Ted Christopher by .153-seconds to score the win in Saturday’s Town Fair Tire 100 at the New Hampshire one-mile oval. It was the eighth career win for Coby but the first since last September, also at New Hampshire. It was a redemption of sort as Coby was a victim of a stuck throttle at Riverhead Raceway on Long Island which resulted in his car being trashed in a violent wreck. Coby started 15th and worked his way to the front. He drove the No. 52 Furnace & Duct Supply/Seekonk Grand Prix Chevrolet of Wayne Darling past Ryan Preece with four laps to go to take the lead and eventual win. Preece faded to third as Ted Christopher put Ole Blu in the runner-up spot on the closing moments.
During the first half of the event Christopher and Rowan Pennink put on a brilliant and very competitive show of their driving skills as they swapped the lead at high speed numerous times. Pennink was robbed of a good finish as his car developed front end problems and after being put to the rear, finished 15th, two laps down. Andy Seuss and Ryan Newman rounded out the top five at the finish. Sixth thru tenth were Woody Pitkat, Eric Berndt, Chuck Hossfeld, Richie Pallai,, Jr and Jamie Tomaino.
The Valenti Modified Racing Series was at the Canaan Fair Speedway in New Hampshire. With the field at 27 cars strong Tom Barrett scored his second win of the season. Barrett started on the pole but did not have an easy time of it as he swapped the lead on numerous occasions with the likes of Richard Savory and Chris Pasteryak. Pasteryak ended up second with Anthony Nocella, third. Rob Goodenough and Charlie Pasteryak rounded out the top five. Sixth through tenth were Savory, Louis Mechalides, Rowan Pennink, Todd Patnoad and Todd Owen. Two days later Pennink saw his finish turn from an eighth to a 13th when his team was assessed a one-lap postrace penalty for an unapproved tire change during the event.
The intense heat on Long Island brought out some short tempers at the Riverhead Raceway. To start, there were 2 cautions before a lap could be completed, eliminating three of the original 15 starters. On the restart after the 3rd caution, officials determined that the #0 of Tommy Rogers jumped the start and he was sent to the rear. Rogers took a hissy fit as he did not agree and showed his displeasure by spinning the car around in front of the officials to discuss it with them.
After the next caution flew, it got nasty. Tommy Rogers lost his temper and decided that he was going to end Kevin Orlando’s evening. Unfortunately, Tommy didn’t think he did a good enough job and returned to the track after pitting, coming out with the only intention to wreck Kevin Orlando’s car. To do what was done put many people in danger, both on the track and in the pits, and is unacceptable. It will be interesting to see what action will be taken by track and NASCAR officials.
After the dust settled, the #96 of Howie Brode set the pace and was never headed.
Down in the southland at the Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, NC Jason Myers went pole to pole to win the scheduled 100 lapper that 121 laps because of cautions. Intermittent rain made a long night longer. Myers hung tough through it all and won for the 13th time in his career, holding off Danny Bohn, Jonathan Brown and Junior Miller.
Jason’s brother Burt, the Modified points’ leader, finished fifth. He did some excellent driving, moving up after drawing the 17th starting position, and still leads the standings by 30 points, ahead of his younger brother. Tim Brown, the defending division champion and a nine-time season champ, had his mechanical problems on lap 99 and wound up 16th.
In Nationwide Series racing at Loudon, Kyle Busch needed to drive 213 laps of a scheduled 200-lap race to win his seventh race of the season. He snapped a four-race winless streak and won his 58th career Nationwide race. Brian Vickers ran out just as he crossed the finish line in second spot. Vickers scored an upset victory in Sunday’s Sprint Cup event at Loudon.
Last year, 2017, The NASCAR Whelen Modified converged on the New Hampshire Motor Speedway for two events, the Whelen Modified All-Star Shootout (non-points) and the Eastern Propane and Oil 100. The event drew 31 cars, not including back-ups.
In a move he may come to regret, Ryan Preece “moved” Ryan Newman on the last lap in order to win the Shootout. Behind the wheel of his No. 6 Simoniz Wax Chevrolet, Preece used a last lap pass of Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series driver Ryan Newman in turn one of the white-flag lap to take down the win after a hard charge from the back of the field.
In a random draw for starting positions Preece drew 19th, which put him in the last row for the 35-lap main event. That gave him an uphill battle to make it to the front. By the competition caution at lap 20, Preece had climbed inside the top 10. Then, shortly after the green at the restart, Preece worked his way into the top two and began to close on Newman, who had pulled out front. He hit the back bumper of the leader with just eight laps to go and haunted the No. 77 Chevrolet all the way until they hit the line with two laps to go.
As they went into Turn 1 on the final lap, Preece pulled out to the bottom and drove in under Newman. The two made slight tire contact, Newman went up the track, and Preece went on to pull away and roll into Victory Lane. Newman, who won the inaugural All-Star event in 2014, crossed the line second at the finish. Patrick Emerling, who made his first Whelen Modified Tour start of the season on Friday, finished third. Former champions Andy Seuss and Doug Coby rounded out the top five.
Donny Lia, Ted Christopher, David Sapienza, Timmy Solomito and Max Zachem rounded out the top 10.For Preece it ended up being a career signature weekend as he also recorded runner-up finishes in the Whelen Modified Tour and Xfinity series events.
In the Whelen Modified Tour 100 Bobby Santos ended a long dry spell as he took the win. In the closing stages Santos was locked in a four-race battle for the lead with Doug Coby, Ryan Preece and Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series driver Ryan Newman. Newman and Coby got together with two laps to go when Newman tried to split the difference between Coby and Santos and take second. The caution pushed the race to 105 laps and gave Santos the opportunity to make a run at Preece, who won Friday’s 35-lap non-points Whelen All-Star Shootout.
On the final green flag, Santos’ No. 44 Tinio Racing/ImperialCars.com Chevrolet powered by Preece from the bottom lane and drove away in the final two circuits. Santos led just those two laps. He started second, but dropped back early and had to work back through the traffic in the middle of the race. Preece, who led a race-high 54 laps, settled for second. It was the fifth top-five in six races for the Berlin, Connecticut driver and helped him close the gap to just 39 points to the top of the championship standings despite missing a race.
David Sapienza also made a late charge through the field and finished third, giving him his second straight podium finish on the Whelen Modified Tour. Brendon Bock scored a fourth place finish while Chase Dowling rounded out the top five. Andy Seuss was sixth, followed by Ted Christopher, Max Zachem, Rowan Pennink and Shawn Solomito. Christopher drove almost the entire race with a broken hand suffered in an early race accident,
Timmy Solomito, who entered the weekend as the points leader, was involved in a multiple-car crash at Lap 20 that took him out of the race. Pennink moved into first by seven over Timmy Solomito, with Eric Goodale 22 points behind. Max Zachem and Justin Bonsignore round out the top five, while Preece is sixth. There were 16 lead changes among four different drivers.
The Stafford Speedway suffered its fifth rainout in the past 11 weeks.
There was no racing at the New London-Waterford Speedbowl on Saturday night or was there? Rumor had it that Keith Rocco got another win but that’s only a rumor and rumor had it that Jacob Perry won in the Mini Stocks. No info was released by the track.
Out on the east end of Long Island at the Riverhead Raceway the Modifieds had the night off but there was no lack of action at the tight quarter mile oval. It was Monster Truck Saturday at Riverhead Raceway with a large crowd on hand on a warm & pleasant evening. In the headlining 50-lap Late Model feature event Chris Turbush of Wading River rewarded his hard working team who burnt the midnight oil during the week to repair a heavily damaged car by making a last lap pass of Kyle Soper of Manorville to claim the win. Rookie driver Michael Rutkoski of Mattituck scored his first career Eagle Auto Mall Modified Crate victory when he topped their non stop 30-lap main event.
Down in the south land, at the Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem NC, Burt Myers, the defending champion, drew first and led start to finish in the 100 lap Modified feature as he cruised past Brandon Ward. Danny Bohn was third, Myers’ brother Jason was fourth and Chris Fleming was fifth.
In NASCAR cup racing at Loudon, Denny Hamlin held off Kyle Larson over the final laps Sunday to send Joe Gibbs Racing to victory lane for the first time this season. One of the top organizations in NASCAR, JGR had yet to have any of its four drivers win until Hamlin took the lead with 33 laps left and held off the hard-charging Larson on the final lap.
Kyle Busch dominated yet again to win the NASCAR Xfinity Series race Saturday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. He won for the third time this season and 89th time in his career in the second-tier series. On Saturday night, he told SiriusXM NASCAR Radio that he plans to retire from the Xfinity Series when he gets to 100 victories.
That’s about it for this week from 11 Gardner Drive, Westerly, RI