Column Compiled By: PHIL SMITH / RPW – WESTERLY, RI – Seventy five years ago in 1948 the Thompson Speedway ran their first stock car event which was a 20 lapper that was won by Chet Gibbons. Seekonk Speedway was scheduled to open but a drivers strike put a damper on all racing there.
Seventy years ago in 1953, Melvin “Red” Foote was the 50 lap Modified winner at the New London-Waterford Speedbowl. Bud Matter was the non-Ford winner. Seekonk fell victim to rain
Sixty five years ago in 1958, rain prevailed at the New London-Waterford Speedbowl and at Old Bridge in New Jersey..
Sixty years ago in 1963 it rained at the Utica-Rome Speedway. It remained dry at the New London-Waterford Speedbowl where Charlie Webster took the 25 lap Modified win. Walt Dombrowski, who eventually become a Modified standout, was the Bomber winner. Billy Clarke was the Class A winner at Seekonk. Rene Charland was the winner at Fort Dix in New Jersey. Wild Bill Slater put the V-8 in victory lane at the Norwood Arena. He repeated the next day at Old Bridge. Ray Platt was the NASCAR Sportsman winner at South Boston in Virginia.
Fifty five years ago in 1968, Jerry Cook took the win at the Albany-Saratoga Speedway on Friday night. Dave Kotary finished second with Ron Narducci, Dave Lape and Eddie Pieniezek rounding out the top five. At Stafford, Eddie Flemke made it two in a row despite a lot of pressure from Bugsy Stevens, who finished second. Fred DeSarro finished third and was followed by Sal Dee and Lou Toro. Bugsy Stevens made it two in a row at the Norwood Arena on Saturday night. George Summers scored at Seekonk. At Fonda it was Lou Lazzaro over Ed Pieniezek and Dick Clark. At Lancaster Bill Rafter won a 30 lapper. Sunday racing at Utica-Rome rained out. Eddie Flemke won two at Thompson. Newt Palm, who would become one of the all time greats at the New London-Waterford Speedbowl, won the 36 lap Modified feature at the shoreline oval. Butch Reed was the Late Model Daredevil winner. Ray Hendrick was the Sportsman winner at South Boston.
Fifty years ago in 1973, Modified action began on Friday at the Albany-Saratoga Speedway in Malta, N.Y. Fred DeSarro took the opening night 100 lapper over Leo Cleary, Bugsy Stevens, Paul Radford and Lou Lazzaro. Ronnie Bouchard made it two in a row at Stafford on Saturday night. Bugsy Stevens headed for Tioga where he won a 100 lapper and at Islip, Jim Hendrickson beat out Tom Baldwin and Charlie Jarzombek for the win. On Sunday, Lee raceway ran a 30-lap event with Bob Santos taking the win over Freddie Schulz and on Sunday night, Richie Evans won a 100-lap event at Utica-Rome. Bernie Miller finished second. Dick Dunn was the Modified winner at the Waterford Speedbowl. Dick Laflesh was the Late Model Grand American winner. Leo Cleary won a 100 lapper at Seekonk.
Forty five years ago in 1978,Geoff Bodine won the Friday night opener at Stafford over Ron Bouchard and Bugsy Stevens. Bouchard made it three in a row at Waterford on Saturday and at Riverside, Richie Evans took a hard-earned victory over Bob Polverari and Reggie Ruggiero. George Savory made it two in a row at Westboro and at Islip; Charlie Jarzombek beat out Bill Park and Tom Baldwin. Events scheduled on Sunday at Thompson and Oswego rained out. At Monadnock, Bouchard took the checker over Bugsy Stevens and Ollie Silva.
Forty Years ago in 1983, Greg Sacks made it two in a row at Stafford. Kenny Bouchard, with a strong run in the Ted Marsh No.55 finished second with Richie Evans, third. At Riverside, Evans took the top spot over Reggie Ruggiero and at Islip, Don Howe took the top spot. Other weekend winners were Jamie Tomaino at Wall and George Kent at Tioga. In Winston Cup action at Nashville, Darrell Waltrip took the pole and the win. Ron Bouchard finished ninth and Geoff Bodine finished twentieth.
Thirty five Years ago in 1988 Friday night racing at Stafford rained out. At Waterford on Saturday, Richie Gallup got his second win of the year. At Riverside, Reggie Ruggerio picked up his third win with Mike Stefanik, second. Tony Hirschman went two for two at Tioga and at Monadnock, Stefanik and Ruggiero flip-flopped with Stefanik taking the win.
Thirty Years ago, in 1993 Mike Paquette won the Friday night Winston Racing Series SK Modified feature at Stafford and was disqualified with an illegal engine. Dennis Gada was awarded the win. Jerry Pearl took the win at Waterford on Saturday after Bert Marvin tangled with Bob Potter and Ted Christopher in the late going. Ronnie Rocco finished second. Chris Young went pole to pole at Riverhead and at Riverside, Reggie Ruggerio took the victory. At Fonda Speedway in upstate N.Y., Legend Lou Lazzaro got his 110th win at the historic track. In Winston Cup news, Geoff Bodine became a car owner as he purchased Alan Kulwicki’s race team.
Twenty five years ago, in 1998, Bo Gunning was the 50 lap SK-Modified winner at Stafford. It was no cakewalk as some hot company in the form of Bob Potter, Mike Ewanitsko, Ted Christopher and Eric Berndt followed. Stafford also announced the results of their 50 Greatest Drivers who would be honored during the year. Waterford, Riverside and Riverhead rained out. The Busch North Series and the Busch Grandnationals were at Loudon. Kelly Moore took the BNS victory over Tom Carey and Brad Leighton. Mike Stefanik and Ted Christopher were in the hunt during the early going but blistered tires and a pit stop kept them out of the top ten. Buckshot Jones was the Busch Grandnational winner. Tony Stewart finished second.
Twenty years ago in 2003 Stafford got to beat the rain as they began their regular Friday night racing series. Scott Foster took the SK-Modified 50 lapper over Jeff Baral and Frank Ruocco. The NASCAR Busch North Series ran a 150 lapper with Curtis Truex going pole to pole. Andy Santerre finished second. The NASCAR Featherlite Modified Tour Series visited the Waterford Speedbowl on Saturday. It was a major milestone for Jamie Tomaino as it was his 400th Modified Tour start. Chuck Hossfeld took the Busch Pole and led the first 27 laps before blistering a tire. Waiting in the wings was Rick Fuller who took advantage of Hossfeld’s miss-handling machine. Fuller led from lap 28 to the finish. Ted Christopher finished second with Jerry Marquis, third. Todd Szegedy and Rob Summers rounded out the top five. Hossfeld hung on to finish sixth. Because of the fact that previous Mod Tour Series rainouts had shuffled the schedule, Waterford was forced to run their Nationals event on the same weekend. Dennis Gada took the win over Jeff Pearl and Ron Yuhas Jr. During the running of the event Bo Gunning was leading and appeared to have victory in sight when Ted Christopher spun him out. Gunning was so incensed that he went after Christopher and attempted to hit him head on but stopped short before contact was made. Gunning then parked it for the day. Christopher was put to the rear and worked his way back to sixth spot before cutting a tire. Christopher ended up 16th in the final rundown. In other weekend action Dave Michael won at Wall Township and JR Bertuccio made it two in a row at Riverhead. It was also announced on this weekend that Steve Park had been fired out of his Winston Cup ride at Dale Earnhardt Inc. and was replaced by Jeff Green. The Winston Cup Series was off because of Mother’s Day. The Busch Racing Series was at the Gateway Speedway where Scott Riggs took the win.
Fifteen years ago in 2008, Jerry Marquis, one of the best in the business, officially announced that he had retired as a driver. In a racing career that started in a Figure 8 car in 1973 at the now closed Riverside Park Speedway in Agawam, Mass, Marquis had chalked up 22 Track titles plus a NASCAR Modified Tour Series title and two NASCAR Regional Championships. Marquis’ final ride was at the Thompson Speedway in the 2007 World Series.
The Stafford Motor Speedway fell victim to the elements as their scheduled Friday night opener was cancelled due to rain. Racing will resume this coming Friday, May 9 featuring the 14th Annual New England Dodge Dealers 100 along with the regular bill of fare which includes the SK Modifieds and DARE Stocks.
The Waterford Speedbowl managed to avoid impending rain as they got their entire racing program in the books before the rains fell. Keith Rocco used an extremely wide car to hold off Dennis Gada for his first ever SK Modified win at the shoreline oval as an extremely sparse crowd looked on. Rather than take a chance on being “stuffed” Gada held off and settled for second. Ron Yuhas Jr finished third. Ron Silk and Rob Janovic Jr. rounded out the top five the top-5. Other feature winners were Ed Reed Jr. (Late Model), Chris “Moose” Douton (Sportsman), and, Jeff “Soup” Civardi (Mini Stock).
The True Value Modified Series made its first visit of the season to the shoreline oval. Among the missing was defending series champion Kirk Alexander who got skunked by a bad weather forecast and stayed home. David Pinkham, who had been running second in points to Alexander, took advantage of Alexander’s absence as he won the 100 lap contest which also put him in the point lead. Among the surprise entries was Jimmy Blewett. Blewett probably wished that he had stayed in New Jersey as he was the victim of a nasty wreck on lap 35. For the second week in a row the Jersey racer got airborne. Blewett rode over a wheel, flipped on his roof and hit the turn four wall. Quick action by the track’s crew removed him to safety and luckily with no injuries. Just before the half way mark, lap 42, Ed Dachenhausen and Les Hinkley tangled while fighting for the lead. Both were sent to the rear. Dwight Jarvis inherited the lead at that point. A restart on lap 78 proved his undoing as Pinkham powered into the lead and remained in the front spot for the remainder of the event. Jarvis hung on for second and was followed by Les Hinkley, Chris Pasteryak and Vinny Annarummo Jr. Ted Christopher was in the field but was never a factor as his mount suffered from fuel starvation problems.
Denny Hamlin used a late pit stop for tires to foil the strategy of Kevin Harvick and Carl Edwards to win the Nationwide Series race Friday at Richmond (Va.) International Raceway. In the Richmond Sprint Cup event Denny Hamlin appeared headed toward an easy victory. Then, Dale Earnhardt Jr. seemed poised to snap his two-year losing streak.In the end, Clint Bowyer celebrated in Victory Lane, stealing a victory Saturday night at Richmond International Raceway that ended in wild fashion. Hamlin, the hometown favorite and pole-sitter, led a record 381 of the 400 laps in search of his first Cup victory at Richmond. Nobody came close to challenging him until a leaking right front tire allowed Earnhardt and Kyle Busch to catch him. The two drivers split Hamlin as they moved past him, with Earnhardt emerging as the leader with 18 laps to go. Hamlin’s tire finally failed with eight to go, and NASCAR accused him of intentionally bringing out the caution that regrouped the field.Earnhardt and Busch staged a strong battle for the lead when the race resumed, but Busch and Earnhardt made contact in turn 3 that sent Earnhardt into the wall. Without seeing a replay, Earnhardt guessed that it wasn’t deliberate. But as his winless streak reached 72 races on the two-year anniversary of his last victory, he wondered if Busch would need security help exiting the track amid angry Earnhardt fans. Bowyer used the opportunity to slide past Earnhardt and Busch and into the front for the first time all night. Bowyer then held off Busch on a final restart to score his first Cup victory of the season, second of his career. Busch finished second, then was confronted on pit road by his former crew members at Hendrick Motorsports. Mark Martin finished a season-best third and was followed by Tony Stewart, Martin Truex Jr. and Carl Edwards. Earnhardt finished 15th, Hamlin 24th.
Racing returned to the Rockingham Motor Speedway in North Carolina after a four-year absence and Joey Logano beat a field of Automobile Racing Club of America cars in the Carolina 500. Driving a Chevrolet that Denny Hamlin once drove in Sprint Cup competition, the 17-year-old Logano from Connecticut nearly lapped the field in his ARCA debut. Logano’s team saved a set of tires in case there was a late caution on the track’s notoriously abrasive racing surface. That’s what happened, and Logano gave up the lead to get those tires for a restart with five laps to go. But it only took Logano about half a lap to come from fifth back to first and get the victory. NASCAR veteran Ken Schrader finished second with Ricky Stenhouse Jr., a driver in Roush Fenway Racing’s developmental program, third.
As for the first race since NASCAR left this track in 2004, new track owner Andy Hillenburg said he was proud to successfully stage an event just six months after completing the purchase from Speedway Motorsports Inc. Hillenburg said he sold out more than 4,000 seats in the track’s suites and estimated grandstand ticket sales in the 12,000 range. “We had enough people here to pay a record purse for ARCA and pay the bills,” he said.
Ten years ago in 2013, The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour Series had been on Spring Break since the running of the Spring Sizzler at Stafford on April 28. Modified Tour racing was slated to return with the running of an event at the Monadnock Speedway in Winchester, NH on Saturday but an impending forecast for heavy rain forced Speedway officials and NASCAR to postpone the event until July 27. The next event for the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour Series would be the 23rd ANNUAL TSI HARLEY-DAVIDSON 125 PRESENTED BY G-OIL at the Stafford Motor Speedway on Friday, May 24.
After two events Rowan Pennink and Ryan Preece were tied for the point lead. One point behind was Mike Stefanik. Rounding out the top five were Ted Christopher and Justin Bonsignore.
The Stafford Motor Speedway began it’s regular Friday night under the lights for the first time in 2013 with the Xtra Mart Late Model Xtra D program. Ryan Preece scored his second consecutive victory in the 40-lap SK Modified® feature, Adam Gray was the winner of the extra distance 35-lap Late Model feature, Troy Talman was the second consecutive rookie winner in the 20-lap SK Light Modified feature, D.J. Burnham was the winner in the 20-lap Limited Late Model feature, and Jeremy Lavoie drove to victory in the 15-lap DARE Stock feature.
Preece, who had settled into third spot behind Doug Coby and Rowan Pennink with ten laps to go in the 40 lap feature was handed a gift of the lead on a restart when Pennink was sent to the rear for dumping Coby. Behind Preece at the finish was Keith Rocco, Sean Foster, Todd Owen, and Frank Ruocco.
In Saturday night action at the Waterford Speedbowl, rain prevailed. Keith Rocco held a 17 point edge on Ted Christopher in the track’s SK Modified standings. Tyler Chadwick sat in the third spot. Long Island invader Craig Lutz continued to impress as his high finishes placed him in fourth. Rounding out the top five was Todd Ceravolo. In Late Model competition at the shoreline oval Dillon Moltz led Keith Rocco by one point. Jeff Smith was a distant third, 14 points out of the lead.
Rain also washed out racing at the Riverhead Raceway on Long Island and action south of the Mason-Dixon line at the Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, NC.
Matt Kenseth passed JGR teammate Kyle Busch with 13 laps left Saturday night to win for the first time at Darlington and third time in 2013. The latest win came with replacement crew chief Wally Brown, pressed into service because of the suspension of Jason Ratcliff. Kyle Bussch won the Nationwide Series race at Darlington.
Five years ago in 2018, The Stafford Motor Speedway started the weekend off with their Friday night program. Taking top billing were the Street Stocks with the Casagrande Builders Street Stock 25. Michael Hopkins took down the extra distance win while other feature winners on the night included Keith Rocco winning his 3rd race in as many starts this season in the SK Modified® feature, Darrell Keane was a first time career winner in the Late Model feature, Bryan Narducci was also a first time winner in the SK Light feature, and Ryan Fearn outdueled his sister Alexandra to win the Limited Late Model feature.
For Rocco, it was actually five wins in a row as he won the final two events at the track in 2017. Starting 14th, Rocco took the lead following a restart on lap 17. Eric Berndt and Mike Christopher Jr followed.
The New London-Waterford Speedbowl fell victim to rain. Impending rain forced the Riverhead Raceway on Long Island to pull the plug early Saturday morning.
Down in the southland at the Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, North Carolina two new faces sat in victory lane. Jonathan Brown and Bobby Measmer Jr. both scored wins for the first time this season. It was Brown’s 12th career win at the track, and a history-making night for Measmer as his first since starting his career on the Bowman Gray weekly series two years ago.
In the first Modified race, Brown qualified for second on the outside position next to Lee Jeffreys on pole. In the first lap, Measmer passed Jeffreys to take the lead briefly before Brown pushed past. Brown earned the checkered flag with Measmer taking second and Jeffreys coming in third, with just one caution on the 11th lap.
Following the race, the Madhouse Scramble was used to draw Brown’s starting position for the second Modified showdown. He drew a 10 for the additional 25-laps. Measmer qualified fourth for the first race, and then started ninth in the second. One week previous, he placed 13th in the Kevin Powell Motorsports 100-lap Modified feature race after qualifying for pole. Measmer becme the 135th driver after having won a main event in a feature division at Bowman Gray since racing began at the stadium in 1949. Measmer edged out Frank Fleming with Jason Myers coming in third.
Congratulations to Seekonk Speedway competitors Vinnie Annarummo and Eddie StAngelo who were voted into the Seekonk Speedway Hall of Fame.
Belated Happy Birthday wishes to Henriette Koszela who turned 80 last week. The wife of championship car owner John “Sonny” Koszela and mother-in-law of multi-time NASCAR Modified champion Mike Stefanik went Zip Lining at Foxwoods Casino on her special day. Bugsy Stevens who drove for the Koszela family turned 84 last week. Bugsy was the NASCAR National Modified Champion in 1967-68 and 69.
On a couple of sad notes, condolences to the family & friends of New London-Waterford Speedbowl racer Eddie Bunnell who passed-away on April 30th following an extended illness. Eddie, part of a renowned local racing family, was a former Bomber class champion, a modified competitor and was named one of the Waterford Speedbowl’s “50 Most Popular Drivers” in 2000.
Modified racing legend Maynard Troyer died at the age of 79. Troyer, who was born in New York and raised in Ohio, won his first race after he bought a 1949 Ford for $50 and made it into a race car. After that first race in 1958, Troyer just kept on winning and became one of the best asphalt modified stock car drivers of his time.
After starting his racing career running late models at New York’s Spencer Speedway, Troyer quickly transitioned to modifieds. His familiar No. 6 Falcons and Pintos were well known throughout the East. Troyer was one of the big stars of the 1970s, racing against other modified legends such as Richie Evans, Jerry Cook, Geoff Bodine, Ray Hendrick, Ed Flemke Sr. and Bugsy Stevens. He won significant events, such as the 1976 Race of Champions at the 1.5-mile asphalt Trenton (N.J.) Speedway, as well as the event’s 1977 edition on the 2.5-mile asphalt triangle at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway.
Among his major short-track victories were three-straight (1977-’79) Spring Sizzler wins at the half-mile Stafford Motor Speedway in Connecticut.
Troyer also won the Atlantic Coast 300-mile NASCAR Modified race at the one-mile Dover (Del.) Int’l Speedway on Aug. 21, 1977, driving his No. 60 Nagle Ford Mustang. Then, on Sept. 19, 1977, he backed that victory up with a 150-lap triumph on the old half-mile Richmond (Va.) Int’l Raceway.
Troyer dabbled in NASCAR Cup Series racing, running 14 races between 1971 and ’73 and scoring a best finish of fourth. However, Troyer’s Cup Series career may be best remembered for the wild flip he endured on the 10th lap of the 1971 Daytona 500, which was his first Cup Series start.
He later opened Troyer Race Cars, designing and building revolutionary cars for both dirt and asphalt modified racing.
He retired from racing in 1982 and founded Troyer Machine, which built specialized racing parts.
Troyer is a member of the Eastern Motorsports Press Ass’n Hall of Fame.
Clint Hanks, a long time car owner at Riverside Park passed away.
ESPN reported that the France family, who owns NASCAR, has engaged investment bank Goldman Sachs to explore a sale of the sanctioning body, ESPN has confirmed.
Reuters news service first reported the potential for a sale, which has been rumored for more than a decade. Those rumors have increased over the past year amid NASCAR’s struggles to attract fans, both in-person and on television. The three public companies that own tracks where NASCAR races take place have reported a combined attendance revenue decline of 54 percent over the past decade.
NASCAR does not comment on its ownership structure, but according to court documents in various lawsuits, it is co-owned by Jim France, the one surviving son of NASCAR founder Bill France Sr., and Lesa France Kennedy, the granddaughter of France Sr. and daughter of Bill France Jr.
What would be included in any type of sale is unclear. Lesa spends much of her time focused on her role as CEO of International Speedway Corp., the publicly traded company that operates 12 racetracks. The France family, which includes Lesa’s brother Brian, who serves as NASCAR’s chairman and CEO, owns 74 percent of the company’s stock
Possible bidders include Marcus Smith, president of Speedway Motorsports Inc. Insiders say Smith wants to make his own legacy in sports, separate from his father Bruton. While the Smiths had interest in buying the Carolina Panthers, the $2 billion-plus price tag was too much for them to become majority owners. Comcast is also bound to come up, not only because of its sponsorship of the Xfinity Series, but because the idea of a media company buying a racing series for content is fresh in minds after Formula One was purchased by Liberty Media.
In NASCAR Monster Cup racing, Kevin Harvick surged past Martin Truex Jr. with one lap to go Saturday night at Kansas Speedway, winning for the fifth time in what has turned out to be a record-setting start to the year.
Last year, 2022, With the price of gasoline closing in on $4.50 a gallon and the price of heating oil over $5.00 per gallon many race fans and competitors are having second thoughts about attending races on a weekly basis. These prices affect all of us but there is a way of “having your cake and eating it too” It’s called live streaming of FloRacing. For a reasonable cost, $160 per year, you can access all racing live from the Stafford Motor Speedway on Friday nights, Riverhead Raceway and or Bowman Gray Stadium on Saturday night plus the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour Series where ever the race plus also all NASCAR Touring division races. For dirt track fans FloRacing covers weekly action at the Utica-Rome Speedway on Friday nights and weekly action at the Fonda Speedway on Saturday nights plus all the Short Track Super Dirt Series events. All events are archived for repeat viewing at your convenience. It’s the best deal in auto racing!
Stafford Speedway has canceled its Weekly Racing event scheduled for Friday, May 6th due to forecasted showers and rain. Stafford Speedway will return to racing action next Friday night, May 13 with a Weekly Racing Series / Kids Night program featuring the SK Modified®, Late Model, SK Light, Limited Late Model, and Street Stock divisions along with a Big Wheel race for kids 7 & under. Any tickets sold for the May 6 event will be honored next Friday night, May 13.
A little sunshine on a rainy day came in the form of some more good news for competitors at Stafford in that for the 7th consecutive season, Maybury Material Handling of East Longmeadow, MA, will be a first place contingency program partner at Stafford Motor Speedway. Maybury will present a bonus of $150 to each SK Modified® winner and a $150 bonus to each SK Light feature winner. Maybury’s bonus money pushes the first place winner’s check for SK Modified® drivers up to $1,975 and each SK Light feature winner’s check to $650.
An approaching coastal storm arriving on Long Island Friday that carried over to Saturday washed out the 2022 NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series season opener set for Saturday evening, May 7 at the Riverhead Raceway. While that is the bad news, the good news is the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour Northeast opening event, the Miller Lite 200 takes center stage at Riverhead, this coming Saturday night, May 14th. The opening night seven division slate of racing set for May 7th will move to May 21st with the Eddie Partridge Vintage All Stars also in action.
Riverhead native Eric Goodale and Tommy Catalano of Ontario, NY are tied for the lead in the early season championship standings with Tyler Rypkema of Owego, NY just one marker out of the lead. Drivers who complete the current top ten rankings, Jon McKennedy of Chelmsford, Ma, Ron Silk of Nowarlk, Ct., Jimmy Blewett of Howell, NJ, Craig Lutz of Miller Place, Austin Beers of Northampton, Pa, Justin Bonsignore and his Holtsville neighbor JB Fortin will all take a shot at winning the Miller Lite 200 Saturday.
The opening program for the New London – Waterford Speedbowl was also canceled as was the weekly racing program at the Bowman Gray Stadium.
In NASCAR Cup racing, Joey Logano bumped leader William Byron from behind on the next to last lap to win the Goodyear 400 at Darlington Raceway on Sunday. Logano, the pole-sitter, tracked Byron for about 25 laps until catching him and hitting him hard in the rear bumper turn three. Byron slid into the wall and Logano went on to his first win of the season. Tyler Reddick was second followed by Justin Haley, Kevin Harvick, Chase Elliott, Christopher Bell, Michael McDowell, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Austin Dillon and Daniel Suarez. Byron fell to 13th. Ryan Preece finished 42nd.
A big shout-out to Jacob Perry who scored his first ever win on dirt at the Lebanon Valley Speedway in West Lebanon, NY on Saturday night. Perry added his name to the record books at the historic facility by winning the 15-lap Limited Sportsman feature Saturday at the half-mile high-banked dirt circuit.
The life of Ron Narducci Sr was celebrated as his ashes were spread at the start/finish line at the Stafford Motor Speedway along with a final lap around the track. Narducci was one of the top runners at the track when it was dirt. In the coming weeks his ashes will also be spread at the Fonda Speedway Museum and at the Sampson Military Cemetery.
Get Well wishes to Carl “Bugs” who suffered a broken hip last week. The three time NASCAR National Modified Champion is tough as nails and won’t allow this little setback to slow him down. Stevens was operated on Sunday morning and came thru it with flying colors. With a little rehab he will be back to normal, what ever that is, in short order.
Drivers Matt Kenseth and Hershel McGriff and crew chief Kirk Shelmerdine were selected to the NASCAR Hall of Fame. Mike Helton was named the Landmark Award winner for outstanding contributions to the sport Wednesday during a ceremony at the NASCAR Hall of Fame. They will officially be inducted into the Hall of Fame on Jan. 20, 2023.