Column Compiled By: PHIL SMITH / RPW – WESTERLY, RI – Seventy five years ago in 1948 the Norwood Arena in Norwood, MA opened.
The Midgets were the headline division. Johnny Bernardi was the inaugural winner. The Midgets were also the headline division at Seekonk where Rex Records took the win.
Seventy years ago in 1953, the New London-Waterford Speedbowl staged events on Sunday, Wednesday and the following Saturday. Joe McNulty was the Sunday winner while Red Foote won on Wednesday and Cy Yates won on Saturday. Modified stock cars replaced the Midgets at Seekonk where Babe Broulette took the win.
Sixty five years ago in 1958, Red Foote was the Saturday night Modified winner at the New London-Waterford Speedbowl. Dick Beauregard was the Wednesday night Non-Ford winner while Hank Stevens won on Wednesday. At Seekonk, Ralph “Hop” Harrington took the win. Bob Malzohn took the feature at Old Bridge.
Sixty years ago in 1963 Ernie Gahan won the 25 lap NASCAR Sportsman 25 lap feature at the Utica-Rome Speedway. Bob Zeigler finished second with Jim Luke, third. New York Big Gun Pete Corey was the winner on the Dirt at Stafford. Ted Stack was the Modified winner at the New London-Waterford Speedbowl. Ed Gladue was the Bomber winner. Fresh out of the service, Bugs Stevens took the feature win at Seekonk. Eddie Flemke took the Saturday night win at Norwood. Rain washed out the action at Fort Dix.
Jersey hot shoe Joe Kelly was three laps shy of winning a 200 lapper at Old Bridge Stadium when he ran out of gas. Ed Ortiz from upstate New York inherited the lead and the eventual win. Bob Rossell finished second with Ernie Gahan, third. Eddie Krause and Mario Fats Caruso rounded out the top five. Down in the southland at South Boston, Ray Hendrick won a 50 lap Modified event.
Racing news and gossip was hard to come by. There was little or no coverage in daily papers unless there was a fatality. Many race fans and competitors got their news from either National Speed Sport News or Illustrated Speedway News. On June 14, Len and Maude Sammons brought a new dimension to covering weekly racing news with the birth of Area Auto Racing News, which provided much needed coverage of racing in New York, New Jersey and New England. National Speed Sport News and Illustrated Speedway News are long gone. Area Auto, now under the guidance of Lenny Sammons has survived with their up to date coverage and weekly columns. A tip of the hat to Lenny and his staff!
Fifty five years ago in 1968, Don Wayman was the Friday night winner at the Albany-Saratoga Speedway. Richie Evans finished second and was followed by Dave Gaul, Ray Sitterly and Ken Canestrary. Bugsy Stevens put the mighty No.3 of Len Boehler in victory lane at Stafford. Don MacTavish finished second with Eddie Flemke, Holly Wildler and Mario Fats Caruso rounding out the top five. Saturday night action at Norwood saw Fred DeSarro in the winners circle. The Waterford Speedbowl ran their 50 lap Spring Championship Modified 50 lapper which was won by Newt Palm. Johnny Tripp took top honors at Seekonk. At the Fulton Raceway Bob Merz scored his first of ten features he would win in three years of competing at the track. Rene Charland was the top banana at Fonda as he beat out Ed Pieniezek for the win. Sunday action at Utica-Rome and at Thompson rained out.
Fifty years ago in 1973, the Albany-Saratoga Speedway in Malta, N Y. ran a 100 lapper that saw Richie Evans take the win over Fred DeSarro, Jerry Cook and Bugsy Stevens. Saturday night at Stafford, there was no stopping Bugsy Stevens as he won the 30-lap feature going away. Eddie Flemke finished second and was followed by Bobby Santos and Ray Miller. Henri “Red” Barbeau took the checker at Seekonk. Down on the Connecticut shoreline at the Waterford Speedbowl Bill Scrivener was the winner of the 30 lap Modified feature. Roger Charbonneau was the Grand American Late Model winner. It rained on Long Island, washing out a 100 lapper at Islip. Tioga ran with George Kent taking the win. Sunday at Lee, NH saw Ernie Gahan take the top spot over Jim Landry and Ed Yerrington. Evans scored his second win of the weekend on Sunday night at Utica-Rome. Sonny Seamon finished second with Jerry Cook, third.
Forty five years ago in 1978, Geoff Bodine made it six in a row at Stafford. At Waterford, George “Moose” Hewitt took the win over Joe Tiezzi, Glynn Shafer and Jerry Pearl. At Seekonk it was George Summers and at Westboro it was Freddie Schulz. Reggie Ruggerio beat out Richie Evans and Jack LeCuyer and at Islip; Greg Sacks took the top spot over Charlie Jarzombek and Fred Harbach. On Sunday at Thompson, Ronnie Bouchard trimmed the field. Leo Cleary finished second with Bugsy Stevens third. Maynard Troyer won at Fulton and Evans won at New Egypt.
Forty years ago in 1983, Brett Bodine was the Friday night winner at Stafford. Bugsy Stevens finished second and was followed by Brian Ross and Kenny Bouchard. At Waterford on Saturday, Donnie Fowler held off Dale Holdredge to take the win. Ted Christopher finished third. Reggie Ruggiero was the main man at Riverside as he beat out Jack LeCuyer and SJ Evonsion. The SKs ran at Seekonk with local favorite Eddie StAngelo taking the win over Kerry Malone and Richie Gallup. Other weekend winners were George Kent at Tioga, Richie Evans at Spencer, Tony Siscone at New Egypt, Bill Park at Islip and George Brunnhoelzl at Riverhead. In Winston Cup action at Pocono, Darrell Waltrip was the pole sitter and Bobby Allison was the race winner.
Thirty five years ago in 1988, Stafford ran twin SK modified events. Jeff Barry and Bo Gunning took the wins. Reggie Ruggerio took the win at Riverside with Charlie Pasteryak a close second. Ted Christopher won at Waterford and at Tioga, Rod Spaulding took the win over newcomer, Tim Connolly. Eddie Brunnhoelzl beat out Fred Harbach at Riverhead.
Thirty years ago in 1993, Ted Christopher recorded his 26th career win at Stafford. Bo Gunning finished second with John Anderson third and Bob Potter, fourth. At Waterford, Bert Marvin beat out Jim Broderick and Tom Jensen for the win. At Riverside Park, Reggie Ruggerio took yet another win as he led Stan Gregger and Chris Kopec across the stripe. Thompson ran a non-tour-modified event, which drew only 22 cars and a light crowd. Ruggerio took the win over Carl Pasteryak, Jan Leaty, Tom Baldwin and Tony Forente. In Winston Cup action at Pocono, Ken Schrader took the pole and Kyle Petty, the win. Jeff and Ward Burton finished one-two at Myrtle Beach. In Busch Grandnational North competition at Jennerstown, Dick McCabe was the winner over Jeff Barry and Mike McLaughlin.
Twenty five years ago in 1998 rain played havoc in the northeast the entire weekend. Mike Stefanik flew to Jennerstown Penn. after the Beech Ridge Busch North event rained out. Needless to say, Stefanik continued his domination in the Modifieds as he won the event over Mike Ewanitsko, Reggie Ruggiero and Tim Connolly. In Winston Cup action at Michigan, Mark Martin took the win over Dale Jarrett.
Twenty years ago in 2003, the Thompson Speedway began their summer series, Thursday night Thunder. Rain and showers were in Connecticut all day but the speedway management held fast and the event was run. Being in the right place at the right time was a definite factor for Ron Yuhas Jr. Yuhas was running second to Bobby Santos III when the third generation racer spun in turn four on lap 22 of the scheduled 30 lap feature. Santos and Yuhas tangled but officials felt it was a racing accident and didn’t penalize Santos. Three laps later, the skies opened up and the event was declared completed with Yuhas the winner. Twenty-eight Sunoco SK type modifieds went to post with Todd Ceravolo on the pole and Santos on the outside pole. Ceravolo jumped out to an early lead, opening up a wide margin on Santos. Ted Christopher, who started fifth, began his march to the front and by lap 12 had moved into second spot. Bo Gunning, who started deep in the field, also moved into the top five. The complexion of the event took a drastic change during a caution period on lap 14 when Ted Christopher and Bo Gunning got together and ended up in the turn two wall and out for the night. Ceravolo continued to lead until lap 16 when he spun in turn four. Officials felt that Ceravolo got help from Bert Marvin and place the pair in the rear for the re-start. Santos assumed the lead at that point. With all the scrambling at the end, Jeff Malave ended up second with Matty Adanti, third. Ceravolo recovered from his spin and finished fourth. John Brouwer Jr. finished fifth with Bert Marvin, sixth.
Other opening night winners included Jeff Connors in the Pro Stocks, Woody Pitkat in the Late Models, Glenn Boss in the Limited Sportsman and Andy Publicover in the Mini Stocks.
The NASCAR Featherlite Modified Tour was at the Lake Erie Speedway in Pennsylvania on Saturday night. Todd Szegedy, in his sophomore season on the tour, got redemption for being snookered at Stafford on the last lap as he took the victory at the variable banked 3/8 mile oval. John Blewett III finished second with Eric Beers, Chuck Hossfeld and Ricky Fuller rounding out the top five. Jamie Tomaino started on the pole by luck of the draw. Ted Christopher was eliminated on lap two after a confrontation with Tony Hirschman. Tomaino led until a lap eight re-start when Eric Beers out powered him to take the lead. Beers held the point until Szegedy took command on lap 62. Close behind Beers at the time was Jerry Marquis who settled in, in second spot. Marquis held the spot until lap 100 when he dropped out with suspension problems. From then on it was Blewett casing Szegedy to the finish. Donnie Lia was the pole sitter and after drawing tenth, ended up 14th, one lap down. He had a strong run going until he tangled with Ed Flemke Jr and was put to the rear for rough riding after spinning Flemke out. Flemke, who started ninth, had a confrontation with officials over his pit road speed and ended up losing a lap. Flemke finished fifteenth. According to various reports the speedway did well as the grandstands were over 2/3 full.
For the fourth week in a row, rain washed out racing at the Waterford Speedbowl. Not since 1978 had the Speedbowl had this many rainouts.
The Labor Day weekend tradition at the Darlington Raceway came to an end as NASCAR announced that they had approved the request of the International Speedway Corporation to move the Labor Day Winston Cup date to the California Speedway. Darlington would still have two dates, as the speedway took a date formerly held by the Rockingham Speedway in North Carolina. In Winston Cup action at Michigan, Bob Labonte was the Busch Pole sitter. Kurt Busch took the lead from Jeff Gordon with 24 laps to go and went on to record his third win of the year. Bobby Labonte finished second and Jeff Gordon faded to third. It was announced that Jeff and Brooke Gordon had reached a divorce settlement rather than go to trial. Brooke got a reported $15.2 million.
Thompson Speedway owner Don Hoenig, on his way to get a fireworks permit, was involved in an accident, which destroyed his pace car.
Fifteen years ago in 2008, the Thompson Speedway’s Thursday Night Thunder program was cancelled due to wet conditions. The Stafford Motor Speedway fell victim to fog on Friday night.
The Waterford Speedbowl raced under clear skies and provided southeastern Connecticut race fans a full program of racing. The main event of the evening was a 100 lap American Canadian Tour contest that was won by tour regular Scott Payea. Waterford regular Bruce Thomas led the early going but in the end had to settle for second. Former Busch North Series regular Brad Leighton finished third with Ron Yuhas Jr and Nichloas Sweet rounding out the top five. Doug Coby was the SK Modified winner. Tyler Chadwick finished second and was followed by Dennis Gada, Jeff Paul, and Keith Rocco.
Other feature winners were Mark Hudson (Late Model), Brandon Plemons (Sportsman), and Lou Bellisle (Mini Stock).
The True Value Modified Series and the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour Series were enjoying their second “Spring Break of the season.
In a somewhat racing related manner, James Galante, a major Connecticut trash hauler at the center of a sweeping federal corruption probe of mob influence in the industry pleaded guilty on June 3 and agreed to surrender dozens of businesses worth more than $100 million. The New London Day reported that Galante of Danbury entered guilty pleas to racketeering conspiracy, conspiracy to defraud the Internal Revenue Service and wire fraud conspiracy. He faced 70 to 87 months in prison and a fine of up to $750,000. Galante sponsored and owned Ted Christopher’s racing endeavors from 1995 until June of 2006 when the Galante/Christopher race shop was raided by the feds who confiscated five complete Modified Type cars plus another one in the process of being built. One of the cars was a four-time winner at Loudon.
A 17 page indictment stated that Galante is “knowingly and willingly turning over to the U.S. Government”: “Six racing cars, marked with numbers 01 thru 06, on the front frame rails and one 1997 53 foot Featherlie Trailer.” Galante agreed to take all steps as requested by the United States to pass clear title to all of the assets listed over to the United States Government.”.
In NASCAR Nextel Cup competition at the Pocono Raceway, Kasey Kahne started from the pole, overcame an early pit road penalty that dropped him to 38th and led a race-high 69 of the 200 laps in his Dodge as he went on to take the win. Brian Vickers was second for his best finish since joining Red Bull Racing and Denny Hamlin was third to give Toyota two cars in the top three. Dale Earnhardt Jr. was fourth and appeared winded after racing more than four hours in temperatures that hovered around 90 degrees. Kyle Busch finished last, but became the first driver to compete in all three of NASCAR’s national series at three racetracks on the same weekend. Brad Keselowski raced to his first Nationwide Series victory Saturday night, passing Clint Bowyer with six laps to go and easily holding off his closest rivals in the Federated Auto Parts 300 at Nashville Superspeedway. Joey Logano won the pole during the day, but finished 31st after a crash on lap 89. He led the first 60 laps and 64 overall. David Stremme rallied to finish second, followed by David Reutimann and Bowyer.
Ten years ago in 2013, It had been in the making since Memorial Day weekend as the Stafford Motor Speedway finally got to run their TSI Harley-Davidson 125 presented by G-Oil NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour Series event. There were 27 cars on hand. Bobby Santos scored his 10th career pole award and started in the front row along side Ryan Preece
On the initial start, Preece had the misfortune of getting a flat tire which caused him to spin. Preece and Santos made contact shortly afer taking the green with a cut tire resulting. Preece restarted in the rear and after a determined march to the front took the lead from Ron Silk who led the first 106 laps.
Preece, second fasted in qualifying, began the race in the rear after cutting a tire prior to the official start of the race. He watched Ron Silk dominate the field for the first 106 laps before moving past the leader and holding on through the final 18 laps. Silk finished in the runner-up spot – followed by Rowan Pennink, Donny Lia and pole winner Bobby Santos. Doug Coby, Justin Bonsignore, Mike Stefanik, Jimmy Blewett and Woody Pitkat completed the top 10.
It was Preece’s second come-from-behind win of the evening. In a Whelen All-American Series SK Modified event earlier in the evening, Preece found himself behind the rest of the field after spinning out in lap two. In similar fashion, he worked his way back up to the front, capturing the lead in the final laps.
Todd Szegedy was a pre race favorite but ended up 13th as his bad luck continued. Szegedy got up into second spot when the right rear went flat. He then spun out and got hit in the left front. That ended his chance for a good finish. Ted Christopher, another pre race favorite, had worked his way to sixth when he was sent to the rear for over aggressive driving. In the end he was 14th.
The Thompson Speedway didn’t carry their luck over from June 6 when they just barely beat the rain as the Sunoco Modified feature ended. With a heavy downpour forecast by meteorologists throughout New England, Thompson Speedway pulled the plug just before noon on Wednesday for the Thursday Night Thompson Thunder race program.
With three events in the books Keith Rocco led the Sunoco Modified (SK type) standings with a two point edge over Woody Pitkat. Two points behind Pitkat was Ryan Preece. Rocco had two wins and Preece, one. Kerry Malone and Dennis Perry rounded out the top five. Other division leaders included Rick Gentes, Late Model, Keith McDermott, Lite Modifieds, Larry Barnett, Limited Sportsman and Louis Belisle, Mini Stock.
The highly touted open competition SBM 125 at the Star Speedway was run under cool and clear skies last Saturday night. With an excess of $45,000 on purse money the event drew 32 modifieds. Matt Hirschman was the quickest in time trials as he toured the 1/4 mile speedway in 12.347 seconds. Qualifying heat winners were Hirschman, Jon McKennedy, Les Hinkley and Ron Silk. Josh Cantara was the consolation winner. Non-qualifiers were Ken Barry, Lou Mechalides, Chris Ross, George Sherman, Jim Boniface, Chris Bolton and Russ Wood. The top 8 redrew for the feature start. Max Zachem drew the pole and Hirschman drew the outside pole.
Hirschman jumped out from his starting spot and led the entire 125 lap distnce and collected $9,595.64 in winnings. It was no cake-walk as Hirschman survived numerous cautions and a lot of pressure from numerous second place runners to take the win. Les Hinkley ended up second with Ryan Preece, third. Steve Masse and Richard Savory rounded out the top five. Among those who were in contention was Tommy Barrett who had worked his way into the second spot by lap 96 only to experience radiator problems which caused him not to finish. Mike Stefanik and Ted Christopher also had their problems and finished out of the top ten.
Sixth through tenth were Todd Patnode, Andy Seuss, Jacob Dore, Zane Zeiner and Austin Kochenash.
The event was deemed a rousing success as the grandstand was full and the draw of cars was ample.
Defending champion Tyler Chadwick won the slam-bang 35-lap SK Modified feature on Saturday night at the Waterford Speedbowl. Jeff Smith won the Bob Valenti Auto Mall Late Model race. Each
notched their second wins of the year. New faces visiting Victory Lane included Corey Barry and Al Stone, winning the SKLight Modified and Street Stock races respectively to each pick up their first wins of 2013. Ken Cassidy Jr. continued his hot streak and took his third win in the past four Mini Stock events, while Corey Hutchings was a surprise winner in the visiting New England Truck Series race.
In the SK Modified feature, Chadwick took the lead from Nichole Morgillo following a lap 15 restart, passing her on the outside of turns one and two. But he had to survive five more caution flags, including three on lap 29. After the final yellow flag, Chadwick held off Todd Ceravolo over the final six laps. It was Ceravolo’s fourth straight second-place finish while Morgillo wound up third.
At the Riverhead Raceway on Long Island, Tom Rogers took the win.
Down in the southland at the Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, NC five-time Modified champion Burt Myers, already enjoying a healthy lead in the season standings, racked up a division-leading fourth victory in a 100-lap main event. He battled past up-and-comer Tony Black for the lead and held it against younger brother Jason Myers for his 54th career victory.
Tommy Baldwin Racing announced that NASCAR Next driver Ryan Preece will make his NASCAR Nationwide Series stock car debut at New Hampshire Motor Speedway (F.W. Webb 200) in July.
Preece, the grandson of NEAR Hall of Fame Car Owner Bobby Judkins, was selected as one of the 2013 NASCAR Next drivers. The NASCAR Next program began in 2011, and is a way to help spotlight up-and-coming drivers from around the world. This year’s elite drivers range from ages 15-24 and represent three different countries. Preece was chosen, by a voting panel for the great achievements in his young racing career thus far.
It appeared that someone was trying to put the screws to the Lee, New Hampshire Speedway and its owner Red MacDonald. Town officials and the owners of the Lee USA Speedway were working diligently to resolve issues that caused the town administrator to revoke the operations license for the business.
“There were some issues of concern at the Lee USA Speedway that the town felt were important to address,” Julie Glover, town administrator, said. During a May 28 selectmen’s meeting, Fire Chief Peter Hoyt, had said there were no violations at the Speedway. Despite that, the state fire marshal and electrical inspector had been called and the speedway has been shut down since. MacDonald and his staff were optimistic that the dispute with the town would be resolved.
In some sad news, Jason Leffler was driving a sprint car at the Bridgeport Speedway dirt track in New Jersey last Wednesday night when it flipped on the track’s front stretch and hit a wall, according to USA Today. He was extracted from the wreck by rescue personnel and airlifted from the track in a helicopter.
Leffler, 37, drove in NASCAR Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series events.
Greg Biffle raced to his second consecutive Sprint Cup win at Michigan International Speedway, easily holding off Kevin Harvick in the Quicken Loans 400 after points leader Jimmie Johnson smacked the wall in the final laps. It was the 1,000th victory for Ford Motor Company across NASCAR’s three national series, Cup, Nationwide and Trucks.
In Nationwide Series racing at Michigan, Regan Smith, the Nationwide series leader, held off Kyle Larson in the final 10 laps after taking the lead with 13 laps left when Parker Kligerman had to pit. Kligerman led for 13 laps toward the end, but the rain that might have helped him didn’t start in time.
Five years ago in 2018, The New London-Waterford Speedbowl SK Modifieds suffered their fourth rain-out in a row on June 2. That being said, track management made the decision to include the open wheelers in their Wacky Wednesday program on June 6. Kyle James took full advantage of the opportunity and came from a lap down to record the victory. David Yardley III won the Super X feature. Eddie Loomis was the winner of theX-Car feature, Mike Blaskey won the Legend car feature and second-generation driver Brody Monahan was the winner of the Bandolero feature.
In the SK Modified feature, Todd Owen took the lead from Dylan Izzo on lap 22 and appeared to be headed for victory. A late caution, however, forced a double-file restart with five laps to go. On the restart, Owen was hit from behind by Izzo and was headed to the wall, taking Andrew Molleur, who was running second, into the wall with him, sidelining both cars. Izzo was penalized for over-aggressive driving. Cory DiMatteo was moved into the lead, but surrendered the top spot quickly when James out powered him on the restart. Izzo finished third and veteran Wendell Dailey was fourth. Joey Ternullo, in his first-ever SK start at the Speedbowl, rounded out the top 5.
The action moved to the Thompson Motorsports Park on Thursday. After Mother Nature sidelined the Limited Sportsman Long Distance & Military Night presented by Pepsi event in May, oval racing action finally returned to the Big-T for the second time in 2019 with a large local crowd turning out for the rescheduled races. The annual showcase of local racing’s biggest stars honored veterans and members of the military while also putting track divisions front and center as the race for Thompson championships heated up.
The main event of the night was the marquee race of 2019 for Thompson’s Limited Sportsman division, the 30-lap long distance race. Ryan Waterman charged his way to victory leading the bulk of the final 20 laps of the feature and fought off a hard comeback charge from Shawn Monahan who recovered from a crash to finish second after passing Larry Barnett in the closing laps. Waterman also won the 2017 long distance event after the initial winner Brent Gleason was disqualified following post-race inspection, but in 2018 Waterman did it his way and took the victory through effort and execution.
The Sunoco Modifieds turned into a war of attrition for some of the divisions biggest stars. Ryan Preece began the event out front and battled series regular Woody Pitkat and reigning champion Keith Rocco throughout the opening laps. Things got interesting as the battle got even more heated 11 laps into the race and Rocco made a power move for the lead. In an attempt to regain the top spot Preece made his own bold move out of turn four resulting in both leaders spinning into the infield and Pitkat inheriting the lead.
Things didn’t let up as a massive multi-car pileup on the restart brought out the red flag after Timmy Jordan spun in front of the second half of the field resulting in an incident that saw Matt Gallo ride the top of the outside wall. All drivers walked away from the wreck without injury, but it wouldn’t be the final caution of the night. In total six caution flags flew before the halfway point of the feature and seven were flown in the event overall. When things settled in Pitkat resumed the lead, but Rocco would make a comeback working his way through the field in mere laps to take the lead by the halfway point. Despite a hard charge from Pitkat, Rocco held on for his second win of the season putting him once step closer to yet another Sunoco Modified title at Thompson. Steve Masse finished third and was followed by Marcello Rufrano and Troy Talman. Wednesday night Waterford winner Kyle James has taken over Ceravolo ride at Thompson and finished a respectful seventh.
Finally, the night closed out with the Late Model division with a 25-lap feature. It all came down to a pair of cautions in the final five laps. After leading much of the race Ernie LaRose found himself at a disadvantage during the first restart when Ryan Morgan took the lead. A quick caution stacked up the field again and Morgan was able to muscle his way forward for a second time while Larose found himself on the receiving end of a bump that sent his car around and hard into the turn three wall, ending his day two laps short of the finish. Morgan had a third great restart and took home his second victory at Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park.
Racing resumes at Thompson this Wednesday, June 13 when the track welcomes back the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour for the Thompson 125 where Justin Bonsignore hopes to extend his points lead and add to his win total after conquering the Icebreaker event at Thompson April and crossing the line first as Seekonk earlier this month.
Hopefully NASCAR will show some respect for its Modified competitors as they need to black flag some of the slow turtles.
The Stafford Motor Speedway ran their regular Friday night program along with their Twisted Tea Open Modified 80 program. Ronnie Williams took the SK Modified® feature, Tom Fearn, the Late Model feature, Bryan Narducci, the SK Light feature, Ryan Fearn Limited Late Model feature, Brandon Michael the Street Stock feature and Tommy Barrett, the Open Modifieds. In the SK Modifieds, Glen Reen finished second with Dan Avery, Michael Gervais, Jr. and Matt Galko rounding out the top five.
Tommy Barrett, Jr. used an early pit stop to gain track position when the majority of the cars came to pit road at the halfway point of the race and he led 38 of the final 40 laps to win the Twisted Tea Open Modified 80. Barrett led Chase Dowling to the checkered flag to take the victory. Dave Etheridge finished third with Rowan Pennink and Woody Pitkat rounding out the top-5. Twenty cars were in competition for this event.
Kyle James backed up his Wednesday night SK Modified win at the New London -Waterford Speedbowl with another win on Saturday night at the shoreline oval. James came from dead last in the 14-car field to record the repeat win. Rob Janovic finished second with Dylan Izzo, third. Todd Owen and Corey Dimatteo rounded out the top five. Other Saturday night winners were Jason Palmer in the Late Models, Shawn Gaedeke in the Limited Sportsman, Charles Canfield in the 50 lap Mini-Stock event, Jonathan Puleo in the SK Lites and Duane Noll in the trucks. Doug Curry ended up being the 50 lap Mini Stock feature winner! Doug battled all day long, and after post race tech saw Charles Canfield DQ’d.
Across the big pond on Long Island, David Schneider executed a late race pass with just over two laps remaining after chasing race leader Brand Van Houten for 17-laps of the 40 circuits that made up the NASCAR Modified feature at Riverhead Raceway Saturday night in the event to score his first win of the 2018 Whelen All American Series at the historic quarter mile oval. In the IGA Food Markets Allan Cantor Memorial for the NEMA Midgets Avery Stoehr of Lakeville, Ma. led all 25-laps to take home the win leading two teammates to the checkers in the process.
Down in the southland at the Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, twin 25’s were on tap for the Modifieds. Lee Jeffreys sat on the pole for the first 25-lap Modified race and was able to lead wire-to-wire. Despite three cautions, Jeffreys was able to hold off Tim Brown for the win. It was also his 20th win in his career. defeating Tim Brown. Burt Myers was third, and his brother, Jason, was fourth.
In the second 25-lap Modified race, Jonathan Brown won and defeated Jason Myers. Tim Brown was third and Burt Myers was fourth. The oddity is that the win for Jonathan Brown might not have happened without Tim Brown. Earlier in the evening Jonathan broke a transmission and it was Tim Brown who came to his rescue with a new one.
Clint Boyer was the NASCAR cup winner at Michigan. Austin Dillon was the Xfinity Series winner. Both events were rain shortened.
In some good news coming out of the Hartford Hospital, Jerry Pearl came through his heart operation with flying colors as the Doctor only had to do 4 by-passes. Everything went well. The 73-year old Pearl was the 1984 and 1985 SK Modified division champion at Stafford. In his honor, grandson Bryan Narducci won his second SK Lite feature at Stafford on Friday night.
Congratulations to Vinny Annarummo and Ed St Angelo on their Inductions to the Seekonk Speedway Wall of Fame.
Last year, 2022, The Stafford Motor Speedway started off the weekend with a full night of racing. With pump gas hitting $5.00 a gallon the head count didn’t appear to suffer plus the cars counts were also good. Twenty seven open tour type modifieds, 27 SK Modifieds, 29 sk Lites plus ample Late Models, Limited Late Models and Street Stocks were in the pit area. The night served as a debut for Jacob Perry in the Open Mods. Perry drove a family-owned entry. Driving a heads-up race, he avoided numerous wrecks and finished 18th.
Current point leader in the SK Modifieds, Bryan Narducci started 14th and went on to record the win after a wheel to wheel battle with Cory Dimatteo. Todd Owen finished third with early leader Mike Christopher Jr, fourth. Teddy Hogdon rounded out the top five. With only one good finish at Stafford this year Keith Rocco continues to have a monkey on his back. The former champion was having a good run when his luck ran out on lap 23 as he lost power and dropped out.
With 26 laps complete, Narducci took the lead on a restart with DiMatteo holding off Owen for second. Chistopher was back to fourth just in front of a side by side duo of Gervais and David Arute. Marcello Rufrano and Arute touched with both cars spinning in turn 4 to bring the caution back out with 35 laps complete and Narducci still leading DiMatteo, Owen, and Christopher.
Narducci again took the lead with DiMatteo in second on the restart. Owen maintained third place with Christopher fourth and Teddy Hodgdon up to fifth. DiMatteo couldn’t catch Narducci as Narducci scored his first win of the 2022 season.
Narducci’s grandmother Diane Pearl ended up being the big winner as she also had her other grandson, Alexander Pearl record a win in the SK Lites.
Woody Pitkat was the surprise winner of the Bud Lite Open 80 after second place runner Ron Silk spun leader Ron Williams on lap 67. Under the caution, Matt Galko’s car came to a stop at the entrance to turn 3, apparently out of fuel, and had to be pushed back to pit road. This put Dylan Izzo and Pitkat on the front row with Christopher and Chris Pasteryak in the second row for the restart.
Pitkat took the lead with a sideways drift in turn 3 while Izzo was able to keep Christopher from taking second. Christopher worked his way to the inside of Izzo on lap-69 and took over second place. Eric Goodale was now fourth with Chase Dowling in fifth. Dowling took fourth from Goodale on lap-70 and Teddy Hodgdon followed him by to take fifth and drop Goodale back to sixth place.
With 5 laps to go, the order was Pitkat, Christopher, Izzo, Dowling, Hodgdon, Goodale, DiMatteo, Dave Etheridge, Williams, and Silk. Pitkat led Christopher to the checkered flag to win the Bud Light 80. Izzo finished third with Dowling and Hodgdon rounding out the top-5. Sixth thru tenth included Goodale, DiMatteo, Williams, Silk and Dave Etheridge. It was the 79th career feature win overall at Stafford for Pitkat, a Stafford native. He sits second on the track’s all-time win list behind the late Ted Christopher who had 131 wins.
Pre-race favorite Ryan Preece was on hand with a new combination which included a Super Late Model Spec engine. Starting tenth, Preece worked his way to third by lap 26 only to drop out on lap 36 with a bad vibration.
Other Friday night winners at Stafford were Adam Gray for the second consecutive week in the Late Model feature, Devon Jencik in the Limited Late Model feature, and Bobby Stirk, III in the Street Stock feature.
The excitement continues to build as only 200 tickets left for SRX Racing’s Return to Stafford Speedway on Saturday, July 2nd.
The Riverhead Raceway on Long Island ran a 50 lapper for the tour type NASCAR Modifieds. Dylan Slepian took the win. Justin Brown finished second with Chris Young, third. Dave Brigati and Chris Rogers rounded out the top five.
At the New London Waterford Speedbowl there is more than one path to get to the winners’ circle. Early moves paid off for Eric Berndt, Tony Macrino and Tom Silva. Late moves worked for Andrew Molleur, Evan Bourgeois and Zachary Martinez. All six drivers, however, had one thing in common — they posted victories Saturday night. Eric Berndt led 56 of the 60 laps to win the first Fast 3 Series race for SK Modifieds®. Anthony Flannery finished second with Todd Owen, third. Rounding out the top five were Cory DiMatteo and Timmy Jordan.
Evan Bourgeois won his first career victory in the 25-lap SK Light Modified feature. John O’Sullivan finished second and Tom Abele Jr. was third. In the Late Model division Andrew Molleur continued made it two in a row in the division’s 30-lap feature. Ray Christian III finished second and Charles Bailey III, was third.
Tony Macrino of Waterford won the 25-lap Street Stock feature.
Berndt started fifth in the 60-lap SK feature but needed only two laps to challenge Bill Anderson for the lead. Berndt blurred by Anderson and led the rest of the way, but it wasn’t an easy win. He was threatened repeatedly by Cory DiMatteo, Todd Owen and Anthony Flannery and had three restarts against Flannery down the stretch, but was able to hold everyone off.
Racing resumes Saturday with the SK Lights in the spotlight with a 50-lap feature.
Down in the southland at the Bowman Gray Stadium twin 25’s were held for the Modifieds. Jason Myers won the opener as another packed house of 10,000 looked on. Myers held off Chris Fleming to become the sixth different winner in the nine Modified races this season. Jason won his 36th career race and is 10th in stadium history, just two behind his father. Jason won the pole with the fastest qualifying time, and took advantage of starting out front.
In the second Modified race, which had an inverted starting order, Austin Pack pushed Lee Jeffreys into the wall hard on turn one on the first lap that forced Jeffreys out of the race. Jeffreys took the long walk back to the pit area some 120 yards through the middle of the infield but first tried to chase Pack on foot, then pointed at him before Jeffreys threw a cone at Pack’s car as Jeffreys continued to walk back to the pits.
Once Jeffreys’ car was towed off the track, it was the “Junior Snow Show.” All Snow, 26, did was win his first Modified race of his career, holding off Dean Ward, who was second. Zach Brewer was third and Burt Myers was fourth.
With the cooperation of the Arute family a book has been published with pictures and biographies of the 50 Greatest Drivers at Stafford.
The Stafford Motor Speedway had become the epicenter of NASCAR Modified racing in the northeast by the late 1980’s. From its dirt beginnings to its lightning-fast asphalt, Stafford had become the toughest and most gratifying track to score a victory. The Arute family which has owned and guided the destiny of the facility commissioned their thousands of loyal fans to name their favorite drivers. In alphabetical order so as not to offend anyone:
Tom Baldwin, Gene Bergin, Brett Bodine, Geoff Bodine, Ken Bouchard, Ron Bouchard, Mario “Fats” Caruso, Rene Charland, Ted Christopher, Leo Cleary, Tim Connolly, Jerry Cook, Corky Cookman, Pete Corey, Fred DeSarro, Richie Evans, Mike Ewanitsko, Ed Flemke, Sr., Jeff Fuller, Rick Fuller, Ernie Gahan, Bill Greco, Bo Gunning, Ray Hendrick, George “Moose” Hewitt, Tony Hirschman, George Janoski, Charlie Jarzombek, George Kent, Buddy Krebs, Randy LaJoie, Jan Leaty, Jerry Marquis, Mike McLaughlin, Ray Miller, Steve Park, Bob Polverari, Bob Potter, Brian Ross, John “Reggie” Ruggiero, Greg Sacks, Ollie Silva, “Wild” Bill Slater, Jimmy Spencer, Mike Stefanik, Carl “Bugsy” Stevens, George Summers, Jamie “The Jet” Tomaino, Maynard Troyer and Satch Worley.
Books are priced at $17.95 each and be purchased at the track at the Novelty Booth or at the Stafford Motor Speedway on line store. Books are also available at Amazon.com and at Coastal181 (877-907-8181).
