Column Compiled By: PHIL SMITH / RPW – WESTERLY, RI – Seventy five years ago John Bernardi won the season ending Midget event at Seekonk.
Seventy years ago in 1953, Fred Luchesi took the top spot in the final Saturday night Sportsman event that was run at the New London-Waterford Speedbowl. Tom VanEpps was the non-Ford winner. The Thompson Speedway held a 200 lap Sportsman (Modifieds without fuel injection) event, Ralph “Hop” Harrington was the winner
Sixty five years ago in 1958, rain washed out all racing at the New London-Waterford Speedbowl. Pete Frazee was the winner at Old Bridge.
Sixty years ago in 1963, the Speedbowl was again awash. Bobby Sprague was the Class A winner at Seekonk.
Fifty five years ago in 1968, Fred DeSarro won the season ender at the Norwood Arena. Leo Cleary, driving for Joe Brady sewed up the track championship. Little did anyone know there would only be one more year of open wheeled modified competition at the famed Massachusetts oval. Daring Dick Caso dazzled the troops at the New London Waterford Speedbowl where he won the 36 lap Modified feature. Matt Tinker was the Daredevil winner. George Summers made it two in a row at Seekonk. At Thompson, on Sunday, Don MacTavish took the feature win. The Thompson win ended up being his last, as he would lose his life in February 1969 while competing in Daytona during the Permatex 300.
Fifty years ago, in 1973, the annual Race of Champions was run at Trenton on the mile and a half kidney shaped speedway. Richie Evans took the win and was followed by Eddie Flemke and Roger Treichler. It was also on this day that a then unknown driver by the name of Brian Ross got a big break. Dick Armstrong had brought two Modifieds to Trenton. Ray Hendrick drove one of them and Fred DeSarro convinced Armstrong to put Ross in the seat. Ross put on quite a show and was running in the top ten when he was called in for a driver change as Hendrick had lost an engine. Armstrong should have left well enough alone because shortly after, Hendrick blew up the engine in the other car too. Ross, none the less, got to show his stuff and went on to become one of the top drivers in the modified division. Waterford ran on Saturday night with Dick Dunn taking the Modified win. Big Mike Daignault was the Late Model Grand American winner. Dunn wrapped up his second of four in a row Modified Championships that he earned driving for Al Gaudreau.
Forty five years ago this week, in 1978, At Monadnock on the same afternoon, Geoff Bodine took a 100-lap win over Reggie Ruggiero, Punky Caron, Bob Karvonen and Allen Whipple. Ronnie Bouchard won the season ender at Seekonk..
Forty years ago in 1983, the Oswego Speedway ran their season ending 35 lap-modified event. Reggie Ruggiero took the win over George Kent, Richie Evans and Doug Hewitt. At Waterford, Bob Potter won the season finale. Glynn Shafer finished second with Don Bunnell, third. Brian McCarthy was the late model winner. Alan Johnson won the DIRT Syracuse 200.In Winston Cup action at Charlotte; Tim Richmond took the Busch Pole with Benny Parsons on the outside. Richard Petty took the win. A post race inspection revealed that Petty’s engine was illegal and his tires were also illegal. Petty was not stripped of the win but was fined $35,000.
Thirty five years ago in 1988, Ricky Fuller, driving the Bob Sterns U2 scored his first Modified Tour Series win as he won the modified portion of the annual World Series at Thompson. Fuller took the lead from Tom Bolles on a lap 26 restart and paced the field for the remainder of the 50-lap contest. Bolles finished second and was followed by Brian Ross, Mike Mclaughlin, Jeff Fuller and Doug Hevron. Bob Potter was the winner of the companion SK modified event.
Thirty years ago in 1993, Jeff Fuller was the Thompson World Series winner. Fuller took the lead from Jan Leaty on lap 45 and held it until pitting on lap 62 for tires and fuel. Fuller was first out of the pits and led the rest of the125 lap distance. Mike Stefanik started dead last in the 32-car field and finished second. Satch Worley finished third and was followed by Leaty, Jamie Tomaino, Ricky Fuller and Tony Ferrente. Lloyd Agor took the checker in the SK modified 30 lapper but was disqualified due to illegal heads. Tom Tagg got the win with Richie Gallup, second. Brett Hearne won the Syracuse 200 and in Winston Cup action at Charlotte, Ernie Irvan cleaned house.
Twenty five years ago, in 1998, the Thompson World Series and the D.Anthony Venditti Memorial at Seekonk were rained out. Despite rain, the DIRT organization got their Syracuse 300 in the record books. Billy Decker took the $50,000 win.
Twenty years ago in 2003, the NASCAR Featherlite Modified Tour Series Fall Final was supposed to go off on Saturday afternoon but rain interrupted the event at the completion of the preliminary late model event, which forced NASCAR and the Speedway management to use Sunday as a rain date. This created a confliction with the Waterford Fall Finale but because of the coming weeks schedule, NASCAR had little choice. The PASS event scheduled for Thompson on Saturday was also rained out and re-scheduled for Sunday. Three tracks within 50 miles of each other held races on Sunday. All three had poor crowds. It wasn’t meant to be that way but the New England weather has a nasty habit of letting it rain at the wrong time. Plus the fact the tracks were competing against the Winston Cup on TV, NFL Football and the baseball playoffs.
Jerry Marquis won the NASCAR Featherlite Modified Fall Final 150 at Stafford. Marquis, who started deep in the field, passed Tony Hirschman when he went high following a restart on lap 134. Hirschman had attempted to go the distance non-stop without a change of tires. Marquis pitted and had fresher tires. Hirschman held on to finish second and was followed by Chuck Hossfeld, Chris Kopec, Nevin George and John Blewett III. Mike Johnson was the Busch North Series winner. Jerry McCarthy finished second with Andy Santerre, third. Ed Flemke Jr., Ricky Fuller, Ted Christopher and Mike Stefanik rounded out the top ten in the Modified 150. Todd Szegedy, despite having motor problems and finishing 17th, continued to lead the point standings by 36 points over Chuck Hossfeld. John Blewett III sat in third, ten points behind Hossfeld.
The Stafford Speedway was able to get in their Late Model portion of the Fall Final before the rains came on Saturday. Tom Butler won his first feature in four years as he beat out Woody Pitkat for the win. Ryan Posocco started 12th and finished fourth. Ted Christopher, who ran in all three events, took his sixth win of the year when he won the SK-Modified event. Todd Szegedy finished second. Second generation driver Kerry Malone finished seventh and wrapped up the 2003 SK Modified Championship.
At the Waterford Speedbowl on Sunday Dennis Gada took the lead from Jeff Pearl following a restart and went on to record the win and the track championship, his fifth in a row. It all came down to a restart with two laps to go when Ron Yuhas and Gada made contact. Gada almost went into the fence but somehow held on. Ted Christopher, who arrived from Stafford just as the cars were called to post, finished third. It was Gada’s 42nd win in 120 starts over the last six years. Other Sunday winners at Waterford were Chris Burton in the Mini Stocks, Chuck Rogers in the Sportsman, Bob Santos III in the NEMA Midgets and Mark StHillaire in the Late Models.
The Elmira New York Savings and Loan started foreclosure action that could lead to the auction of the Chemung Speedrome as property owner and speedway promoter Bob Stapleton was two years behind in his payments. In Winston Cup action at Kansas City Ryan Newman scored his eighth win.
Fifteen years ago in 2008, The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour Series ventured to the Chemung Speedway in western New York. The 3/8 mile track, originally built by the Bodine family drew a sparse field of only 25 cars. The Chemung event with a somewhat reduced purse consisted of time trials, two 25-lap heats and a 120 lap feature that ended up finishing under caution. Matt Hirschman, who was the fastest on the clock, won his qualifying heat and after starting on the pole led wire to wire to win his second NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour win of the season. Hirschman entered the event 89 points behind Ted Christopher in the championship chase. With Christopher’s seventh place finish, Hirschman narrowed the gap to just 55 points with only the Stafford Fall Final and Thompson World Series weekends remaining.
Todd Szegedy dogged Hirschman for most of the event but settled for a runner-up finish and held up his spot in third in the season standings. Mike Stefanik finished third. Chuck Hossfeld, Ronnie Silk, Erick Rudolph, Christopher, Bobby Grigas III, Rowan Pennink and Woody Pitkat rounded out the top 10 finishers.
At the Waterford Speedbowl it was good news and bad news. The good news was that competitors received their checks that had been held back. The bad news was that they were told not to cash them until Monday. One competitor thought he would pull a fast one and attempted to cash his check at the bank where the check was issued. He was told there were insufficient funds in the account to cover the check.
The shoreline oval ran their season ending Fall Finale, a two day event, last weekend On Saturday three SK Modified qualifying heats were run. Taking the wins were Shawn Monahan, Dennis Gada and Jeff Paul. In other Saturday action Jason Palmer won the 25-lap Legends Town Fair Tire Finale feature while it was Shaun Buffington scoring the 2008 Saturday Night Legends championship. Other feature winners were Norm Wrenn (Pro-4 Modifieds), Todd Bertrand (NEMA Lites), Glenn Boss (N.E Sport Modifieds), Corey Hutchings (Outlaw Stocks), David Flammia Jr. (X-Modified),Steve Barrett (Super-X Cars), Buddy Strede (X-Cars), Kathy Civardi (Women On Wheels Super-X), and Stephanie Bennett (Women On Wheels X-Car).
Sunday dawned in typical Waterford fashion. It was raining cats and dogs. Shortly before noon a strange thing happened, the rain stopped and the sun came out. It was too late; the cards of the fans had been dealt. Apparently many of them had made other plans as the vintage grandstand at the shoreline oval was all but empty when racing finally started. Because of the adverse weather the scheduled pit party was cancelled. The actual racing started about two hours late with Ken Cassidy coming from a dead last start to win the Mini Stock event. Randy Cabral won the NEMA Midget event and Brandon Plemmonds won the 50 lap Sportsman event. Things were looking up, the SK Modifieds were on the track for a tire heating session when the red flag was displayed bringing everything to a screeching halt. Evidently a bad accident on nearby Route 85 deemed it necessary for the Speedbowl’s ambulance to leave. Per state law, once the ambulance leaves the property all racing stops. After a little over a half hour an ambulance appeared and racing resumed. The 100 lap Modified event was a typical Waterford slam-bang event with survival of the fittest the order of the day. Diego Monahan led a large portion of the race untilbe dislodged by Keith Rocco and Rob Janovic. Both had a war of their own when on a late race restart Rocco didn’t go which resulted in Tyler Chadwick and Monahan hitting the front stretch wall. To make matters worse, at ten after nine, the fog started rolling in. At 9:20pm fans and competitors breathed a sigh of relief when the checkered flag was dropped on the event. Keith Rocco took the win and was followed by Rob Janovic, Ron Yuhas JR and Dennis Gada. For Gada it was monumental as he was now in a league of his own as he is the only seven time champion in Speedbowl history.
In True Value Modified Series action at the Lee USA Speedway Jon Mckennedy took the win over Jimmy Kuhn, Les Hinkley, Ed Dachenhausen and Mike Holdredge.
In Sprint Cup action, Tony Stewart ended his winless season at Talladega Superspeedway when NASCAR ruled Regan Smith’s last-lap pass was illegal. Smith was in second and trailed Stewart for the final three laps around Talladega. The rookie made one desperate attempt for his first career victory by ducking inside the two-time champion to attempt a pass. Stewart blocked him, and Smith went below the yellow out-of-bounds line. After he beat Stewart to the finish, NASCAR reviewed the move, a driver is allowed to pass if officials believe he was forced under the line, and declared it illegal. The ruling gave Stewart his first win of the season and snapped a 43-race winless streak dating to Watkins Glen last year. It also was his first career Cup win at Talladega, which has taunted him for 10 years as he finished second a maddening six times. Paul Menard was a career-high second and was followed by rookie David Ragan and Chase drivers Jeff Burton and Clint Bowyer. Smith was dropped all the way to 18th. The race had a NASCAR-record 31 lead changes.
Ten years ago in 2013, It appeared that the transition from the Thompson Speedway as we knew it to the Club at Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park would create a playground primarily for the wealthy. It had already been said that the oval track would host the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour at least three times in 2014, with events at the Icebreaker, the World Series and an event at some time during the summer.
In a somewhat related matter, Josh Vanada of Walpole, MA was been named General Manager of the Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park. His responsibilities would include the renovated 1.7 mile road course that will open along with the historic 5/8ths mile oval track. Vanada had been part of the Thompson Speedway operational staff for five years and served as the Director of Motorsports Operations. His new duties would include oversight of the day-to-day operations of both race tracks.
Two big season ending events were held in southern New England this past weekend, the D.Anthony Venditti Memorial at the Seekonk Speedway and the Fall Finale at the Waterford Speedbowl.
The Valenti Modified Racing Series was at the Seekonk oval for a 100 lapper. The event, which saw Anthony Nocella score his first ever VMRS win, drew 32 cars. Nocella, who started 13th, inherited the lead following an incident between Chris Pasteryak and Tommy Barrett on lap 71. Pasteryak was leading when Barrett made a move on him. Contact was made and Barrett spun with a flat left rear tire. Pasteryak was sent to the rear of the pack for contact with Barrett which officials felt that caused him to spin. Steve Masse ended up in second spot at the finish. Les Hinkley finished third. Rounding out the top five were Rowan Pennink and Dwight Jarvis.
Todd Annarummo led from the drop of the green until displaced by Pasteryak after a restart on lap 30. Annarummo attempted to retake the lead on lap 32 but ended up in the wall with a trashed car. Annarummo said he missed the shift on the restart and his left rear tire went up over Chris Pasteryak’s right front. The car was launched up in the air at a sharp 90 degree angle and he hit the right front very hard into the front stretch wall right near the started stand. Where he hit the car was right on the right front corner and the car was crushed . He was credited with 24th spot at the finish. Barrett ended up 19th and Chris Pasteryak, 14th.
Fourteen of the original 24 starters finished on the lead lap. The Valenti Modifieds head next to the Lee USA Speedway this coming weekend for another 100 lap modified race. In other Seekonk action a 100 lap Pro Stock event was won by Tom Scully Jr.
Over 200 race cars turned out for Waterford Speedbowl’s Finale Weekend, the annual close to the racing season at the shoreline oval.
In Saturday action at Waterford, Glenn Griswold captured the first Whelen All-American Series feature of Finale Weekend when he won the 25-lap SK Light Modified race. Other Saturday night winners were Kenny Johnson (NEMA Lights), Duane Noll (New England Truck Series), Waterford’s Dan Butler (Super X-Cars), Dave Gargaro Jr. (X-Cars), Oakdale’s Derek Debbis (Bandoleros) and Salem’s Corey Hutchings (Outlaw Stocks).
Keith Rocco would have to wait another week before making history at the Waterford Speedbowl as the Sunday feature race program was suspended on lap 34 of the 50 lap Late Model feature because of heavy mist. Rocco is attempting to make history in the category of season total for victories. He had his 11th victory of the season in the Late Model division Saturday, Sept 28 and has 22 wins overall at the track this year. Don Collins set the track’s record for wins in a season with 23 in 1960. In what turned out to be a long day, At 4:50pm the plug was pulled. Sunday winners included Mini Stock 50 – Ken Cassidy Jr., NEMA Midgets 25 – Winner: Bethany Stoehr and Legend Cars 25 –Dylan Izzo.
In NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour action, Seuss won his third straight race, Andy Seuss scored his 15th career tour win at the Southern National Speedway in North Carolina. He previously picked up wins at Caraway Speedway in Asheboro, N.C., on Sept. 8 and Sept. 28. The first victory broke a winless streak that extended almost a year. He hasn’t stopped winning since. George Brunnhoelzl III finished second to extend his lead to 32 points over Kyle Ebersole, who finished fourth, with one race remaining. The season finale is Thursday, Oct. 10 on the quarter-mile on the frontstretch at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Burt Myers was third, followed by Ebersole and rookie Luke Fleming.
Matt Kenseth picked up his second NASCAR Nationwide Series victory of the season Saturday at Kansas Speedway during the Kansas Lottery 300. In Sprint Cup racing at Kansas, Kevin Harvick pulled away from Kurt Busch and Jeff Gordon on a late restart to win a wreck-filled race over the recently repaved track,
Five years ago in 2018, On the Connecticut shoreline at the New London-Waterford Speedbowl Todd Owen was the SK Modified winner over Kyle James, Rob Janovic, Andrew Molleur and Timmy Jordan.
In other action at the Speedbowl, Jonathan Puleo wracked up his second consecutive victory and sixth victory overall in the 25-lap SK Light Modified feature. Anthony Flannery took his third consecutive win and sixth victory overall in the 30-lap Late Model feature. Shawn Monahan won the 30-lap Sportsman feature. In the Mini Stocks, Charles Canfield made it nine out of 16 starts in the 25-lap and Randy Cabral swept both the 25-lap NEMA and 25-lap NEMA Lites features.
Rain wreaked havoc at the Octoberfest event at the Lee USA Speedway in New Hampshire. Woody Pitkat was declared the winner of the Valenti Modified Racing segment. Mike Willis was second with Kirk Alexander, third. Rounding out the top six were Richard Savory, Brian Robie and Jacob Perry. Brandon Barker was the PASS Super Late Model winner.
Norm Wrenn and his staff made a valiant effort to complete the program before Mother Nature won out.
In Super Dirt competition at the Oswego Speedway in upstate New York, Fulton Speedway champion Larry Wight came from third to first in two laps to take the lead with 20 laps to go and held off multi-time 200 winner Stewart Friesen for the win. Jimmy Phelps looked to be the race winner, but he chose to stay out and not pit which eventually was his downfall. Phelps led until 20 laps to go, fell back to second when Wight passed him and then ran out of gas with four laps to go.
The Seekonk Speedway ran their D.Anthony Venditti Memorial on Saturday night Wayne Helliwell Jr won the 150 lap Pro Stock contest. Jake Johnson was the Late Model winner
On a sad note, Peter Caron, son of Janice Boehler and step son of the late Len Boehler passed away last week. Peter and Michael Boehler grew up along side of their dad’s famous Ole Blu.
Christopher Bell won his sixth Xfinity Series race this season in the playoff race Saturday at Dover International Speedway, setting the rookie record for victories in a season. Ryan Preece finished fourth.
In NASCAR Monster Cup racing, Chase Elliott pulled away to win in overtime Sunday at Dover International Speedway for an automatic berth into the next round of the NASCAR Cup playoffs.
Elliott was the surprise winner in a race that had been dominated by Stewart-Haas Racing drivers until a pair of wrecks over the final laps jumbled the field and set the stage for Elliott. He kept his No. 9 Chevrolet off pit road and drove into victory lane.
Last year, 2022, The Stafford Speedway wound up its 2022 season Friday night with Champions Night. For over 40 years under the direction and promotion of the Arute family Stafford has set the benchmark in both competition and fan appeal. High car counts, a great fan support plus excellent live streamed coverage by FloSports made the 2022 season one of the best.
Scoring feature wins on the night were Ronnie Williams in the SK Modified® feature, Wayne Coury, Jr. in the Late Model feature, Tyler Chapman in the SK Light feature, Alexandra Fearn in the Limited Late Model feature, and Bobby Stirk, III in the Street Stock feature. With NAPA Championship Night serving as the final race of the 2022 season, track championships were clinched by Tyler Barry in the SK Light division and Rich Hammann in the Limited Late Model feature as Todd Owen, Adam Gray, and Travis Hydar clinched the SK Modified®, Late Model, and Street Stock championships respectively a week ago.
In the 40-lap SK Modified® feature which went non-stop without a caution, Tyler Leary led the field to the green flag and he took the lead on the opening lap. Behind Leary, Ronnie Williams, who started fifth, took second from Michael Gervais, Jr. and he took the lead from Leary at the line as they completed the second lap. Williams cleared Leary on lap-3 with Troy Talman and Gervais wheel to wheel for third and Todd Owen, who started tenth, in fifth.
By lap-9, Owen had worked his way through traffic to move up to second behind Williams with Marcello Rufrano up to third, Leary fourth, and Bryan Narducci in fifth. Narducci took fourth place from Leary on lap-12 while Owen was still trying to close down the gap to Williams for the race lead. Rufrano looked to take second from Owen on lap-17 but he got sideways, which slowed him enough to allow Narducci to catch him and take over third place on lap-19. Michael Christopher, Jr. took fifth from Leary on lap-20 while Williams was still leading Owen at the front of the field.
Owen was starting to slowly reel Williams in with 10 laps to go, but he ran out of time and came up just short as Williams took down his third win of the 2022 season. Narducci finished third with Rufrano and Christopher rounding out the top-5.
In the Late Model feature, Wayne Coury, Jr. led Tom Fearn to the checkered flag to pick up his first win of the 2022 season. Keane, Alexandra Fearn, and Gambacorta rounded out the top-5.
The 20-lap SK Light feature also went non-stop. With 4 laps to go, Tyler Chapman was in the lead with Tyler Barry and George Bessette wheel to wheel for second, Midford in fourth, and Derek Debbis and West wheel to wheel for fifth. Tyler Chapman led Barry to the checkered flag to notch his fourth win of the 2022 season. Barry’s second place finish was good enough to make him the 2022 SK Light champion. The Barry family has been a staple at Stafford since the track was paved in 1967. Bessette, Ron Midford, and Derek Debbis rounded out the top-5. A big shout -out to Megan Fuller who finished sixth.
The second generation female driver and daughter of Rick Fuller has developed into a force to be reckoned with. Likewise for Amanda West who showed a lot of class as she ran up front in the early going and at the checker finished seventh.
The Limited Late Model feature produced the heartbreaker of the night when Jeremy Lavoie spun in the middle of turns 3+4 to bring the caution out with 17 laps complete. Lavoie’s car appeared to break something in the rear end and he pulled behind the wall, done for the race. Lavoie came into the race with the point lead and was in position to claim his third championship, but his misfortune potentially took him out of championship contention.
Alexandra Fearn took the lead back under green when Gary Patnode didn’t come up to speed and he dropped back to ninth place as Jay Clement took second, Matt Clement third, Rich Hammann fourth, and Kevin Cormier fifth. Fearn led the field to the checkered flag to pick up her third win of the season with Jay Clement and Matt Clement behind her. Hammann finished fourth, which was enough to claim the championship by 2 points over Lavoie.
In the 20-lap Street Stock feature, Adrian Paradis took the lead from Bobby Stirk on the lap 18 restart with Travis Hydar in third. Stirk was able to pull back alongside Paradis on the final lap and he took the lead in turns 3+4 and led Hydar and Paradis to the checkered flag by a nose to take down his sixth win of the 2022 season. Hydar nipped Paradis at the line for second with Bert Ouellette and Ryan Waterman rounding out the top-5.
On a personal note, after writing a column and covering happenings at Stafford for 53 years I can honestly say that Jack Arute and his family have made the Stafford Motor Speedway a showcase of speed and competition second to none.
The Race of Champions Modified Series 34th US Open at the Lancaster Motorplex in western New York went to “Big Money” Matt Hirschman. Hirschman held off a hard charging Patrick Emerling and 2021 RoC champion Austin Beers to claim his 24th overall victory of the year. It was his sixth career triumph in the race, and 12th Lancaster Modified victory.
Congratulations to Mike Leaty on capturing the Race of Champions Modified Series championship for the 2022 season. Leaty scored back-to-back victories at Spencer Speedway and Lancaster Motorplex to start the season and used a string of consistent finishes to win his second RoC Modified Series title.
. It was announced that the Whelen Modified Tour Series would be returning to the Seekonk Speedway in 2023 on After three years away from the track, the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour will return to the cement palace in 2023 on Saturday, June 10. Seekonk has been in operation since 1946 and will be celebrating its 77th year under the guidance of the Venditti family.
Located at the Gateway to Cape Cod, the speedway last hosted the Whelen Modified Tour in 2019.
In NASCAR Cup action at Talledega. Chase Elliott made a last-lap pass to claim the NASCAR Cup Series YellaWood 500 victory. With two laps to go, Elliott pulled his No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet from the bottom lane to the top lane and got a huge push from behind by Petty GMS Racing driver Erik Jones — the momentum enough to edge fellow playoff competitor Ryan Blaney by a slight 0.046 seconds at the line.
The all new book, The Modified Years At Stafford, by the Grace of God and 600 hp, is gaining interest and has become a must have in race fans and competitors library. Race by Race, Year by Year, it’s all there. Read all about it! Books are now available on Amazon.com and Coastal 181 (877-907-8181 toll free) and are available thru Stafford’s web site in their store. Order yours now. Makes a great gift!
With the cooperation of the Arute family another 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).