Column Compiled By: PHIL SMITH / RPW – WESTERLY, RI – Forty five years ago in 1984, Darrell Waltrip was the pole sitter at Richmond but it was Ricky Rudd coming back from a violent wreck at Daytona to take the win.
In victory lane Rudd showed signs of his violent wreck as he still had two black eyes. Ronnie Bouchard was the second fastest qualifier and after running in the lead pack, lost an engine and finished 29th.
Thirty years ago in 1994, Ward Burton won the 200-mile Grandnational event at Rockingham. Bill Elliott, driving the Junior Johnson No.11 was the Winston Cup winner.
Twenty-five years ago, in 1999, the cup cars and Grandnationals headed west to Las Vegas. Mark Martin was the BGN pole sitter and Dale Jarrett did likewise in the Winston Cup portion. Jim Spencer took the lead with 25 laps to go and went on to win the Grandnational event. Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished second. A fourth turn wreck on the last lap saw Randy LaJoie finish the event on his roof. It was also after the completion of the event that Jeff Fuller was fired and replaced by Kevin Lepage. Mark Martin took the Winston Cup win over Jeff Burton and Rusty Wallace. Jarrett lost an engine.
Twenty years ago in 2004, the experts’ spoke in a poll conducted by NASCAR as far as who would win the NASCAR Featherlite Modified Tour Series title in 2004. Chuck Hossfeld, who was driving for Mystic, Connecticut car owner Bob Garbarino received the most votes as being the most likely to take the 2004 series title. Hossfeld finished second to Todd Szegedy in 2003. John Blewett III who was driving for Curt Chase, from Willimantic, Ct. was also considered to be a top contender. Rounding out the top five of those receiving the most votes were Szegedy, Ted Christopher and Jerry Marquis. Mike Stefanik was expected to make an announcement pertaining to his plans for the NASCAR Modified Tour Series but it never came. Rumor had it that he would drive the Bear Motorsports No.14 or the Flamingo Motorsports No.16 that had been driven by Chris Kopec. Stefanik was committed to a full schedule on the Busch North Series and would compete in the Modifieds when his schedule permits. Stafford Speedway announced that late model competitor Woody Pitkat had added his name to the SK-Modified roster for 2004. Pitkat, who had four late model wins at Stafford in 2003, was also one of the top runners at Thompson. Jim Broderick, who was hobbling around after hip replacements said he was all healed and had a very busy schedule planned for 2004. In what may be his last year, the Brookfield Connecticut driver will be running the full NASCAR Featherlite Modified Tour Series schedule plus will be a regular in the SK-Modified ranks at Stafford. Broderick also plans a few special events at Waterford. Speedway Motorsports announced that they had record revenues and earnings for the fourth quarter and year ending 2003. Compared to 2002, total revenues increased 16% or $11.5 million to $84.6 million. Forth quarter 2003 net income increased 30% or $2.6 million to $11.1 million. Because of the fact that it was leap year NASCAR’s NEXTEL Cup and Busch Racing Series got a weekend off.
Fifteen years ago in 2009, Thompson Speedway owner Don Hoenig shifted gears again at the northeastern Connecticut oval. In 2008 the Speedway hosted two Thursday night dates for the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour Series in addition to his traditional dates. For 2009 he announced that he was dropping the June event and replacing it with an open competition non-sanctioned Modified event. After much thought, Hoenig has decided to drop the idea of an open event and has replaced it with the True Value Modified Series and his regular Thursday Night Thunder Series divisions. Founded by Jack Bateman, the True Value Series runs at just about every track in New England.
Word had it that Donnie Lia would be back in the Mystic Missile for 2009. Through no fault of his own, Lia lost his full time truck ride due to the downturn on the economy. Chuck Hossfeld says he would run his own equipment in the New York area. In addition to the possibility of Hossfeld not being on the Whelen Modified Tour Series it looked like Matt Hirschman would also be missing from the line-up as he had not secured a ride as yet.
The Waterford Speedbowl property continued to be a hot topic especially with a foreclosure looming in the near future. As of 2/24, six days remained before the shoreline oval was scheduled to be on the block. Years ago when the Arutes leased the Speedbowl, Ed Yerrington, who was the General Manager stated that the Speedbowl kept Stafford afloat while the track was rebuilding their weekly program after tossing out the Modifieds in favor of the SK Modifieds.
Surprise, surprise! In the never-ending soap opera or shall we call it the Eames Gong Show, the master of deceit had done it again and dodged another bullet. When Rocco Arbitell got the word that Terry Eames’ lawyer had got an extension to the scheduled foreclosure and had it moved out to July, he was livid. With the foreclosure in July the earliest date for an auction or sale of the property could be in September or October. In the meantime, Eames was continuing to try to sell the property to Ted Parker who he reportedly owed $800,000. Speaking of owing money, Eames owed Shawn Monahan $47,000. In lieu of paying, Eames has made the loan into a partial sale as the real estate transactions in Friday’s New London Day indicated that 1080 Hartford Road LLC (Eames) had conveyed property to Monahan for $47,000. In another tid bit, it was learned that the reason that all those who had applied for season passes or numbers using their Visa and Mastercards had not received anything is because Eames did not possess a machine to do the transactions. Visa and Mastercard do not give machines to businesses or individuals who have bad or no credit.
The sounds of the open-wheel Modifieds returned to Orange County Speedway in North Carolina for the first time in over 15 years and despite cold weather and snowy conditions the teams in attendance knocked off some very competitive laps in preparation for the March 6 & 7 Frost Bite Modified Winter Nationals” at the Orange County Speedway in Rougemont, NC.
Temperatures in the low 40’s and blowing snow did little to dampen the spirits of those on hand for the test and lap times were about a second a lap quicker than the regular OCS divisions. Ronnie Silk in the Hillbilly Racing #79 was the quickest of the group with laps in the 13:40 second range. Jay Foley wasn’t far behind in his Foley Machine Chevy with laps in the 13:60 bracket and Jason Myers in the Tranthem/Moorefield, Myers Racing Ford turned laps in the 13:80’s. Silk and Foley tested the softer M-20 and M-30 combination and Myers ran the set-up with the harder M-45 compound on the right rear. “The OCS track record for the Modifieds was 12:92 when we ran here last’, said Gary Myers, owner of the Jason Myers ride. The track is located on NC Hwy 57 half-way between Hillsborough and Roxboro, NC.
Kyle Busch did something Saturday that no NASCAR driver had done in the sanctioning body’s top divisions, won twice in the same day. Busch added a dominating NASCAR Nationwide Series victory under the lights to a similar Camping World Truck Series win earlier in the day at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, Calif. Busch led 95 of 100 laps in winning the truck race on the 2-mile oval, then was in front for 143 of 150 for his 22nd Nationwide victory. Kevin Harvick was second and Middletown native Joey Logano, Busch’s Gibbs Racing teammate, was third. Carl Edwards beat Busch out of the pits on the last stops by the leaders Saturday night, but Busch took the lead on the restart 16 laps from the end and pulled away. Despite leads of up to 11 seconds at times, it came down to the restart on lap 135 after Edwards beat Busch out of the pits by the length of his hood.
In Sprint Cup action, Matt Kenseth went the distance this weekas he won the Auto Club 500 on Sunday. Kenseth, who won a rain-shortened Daytona 500 a week ago to open the Sprint Cup season, had to endure four short rain delays in the season’s second race. But with the help of his pit crew, which several times got the No. 17 Ford off pit road first, Kenseth became the first driver since 1997 to win the season’s first two points races. The last driver to start with two victories was Jeff Gordon, who fought furiously to deny Kenseth but settled for second. Middletown native Joey Logano finished 26th. Gordon, trying to snap the longest winless streak of his career at 42 races, passed Kenseth for the lead on lap 196 but lost the race off pit road on a caution 12 laps later and couldn’t catch Kenseth.
Gordon got almost to Kenseth’s rear bumper on lap 232, but Kenseth held on for his 18th career victory. Kyle Busch, who made NASCAR history by winning both the truck and Nationwide races on Saturday, came up short of a weekend sweep, finishing third.
Ten years ago in 2014, based on his performance and skill at the Modified Battle at the Beach Doug Coby definitely had a leg up on the competition as the Modifieds closed in on their season opener at Thompson on April 6. Car owner Mike Smeriglio and crew chief Phil Moran had two complete cars with motors ready to go. Coby was cool as a cucumber as he survived a last lap Jason Myers punt as he closed in on his Daytona victory. With the absence of Mike Stefanik and Ted Christopher only Jamie Tomaino remains from the “Old Guard”. It has been said that Tomaino will be relocating to North Carolina once his New Jersey home is sold. Jason Bonsignore is also one to watch. A young member of the Long Island Gang, Bonsignore is now equipped with a SPAFCO chassis and is hot to trot for a Whelen Modified Tour Series win and title. They will get plenty of competition from Donnie Lia and Ron Silk. Tommy Barrett went to New Smyrna and Daytona with a potentially winning car and a proven winning crew chief. He showed flashes of speed but in the end didn’t produce. His luck wasn’t the greatest so its too early to pass judgement.
It had been reported that this year’s Battle at the Beach had a lot better attendance this year than last. AREA AUTO RACING NEWS reported that the backstretch grandstands at the Daytona Speedway will not come down until 2015. After that, options for the race location include the Daytona infield road course, a yet to be built track on the Daytona front chute, New Smyrna or none at all.
Kevin Harvick charged to the front early and dominated the rest of the way Sunday for his second straight Sprint Cup victory at Phoenix International Raceway. Daytona 500 winner Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished second, pole sitter Brad Keselowski was third and Penske Racing teammate Joey Logano fourth. Jeff Gordon rounded out the top five on a warm and partly cloudy day.
Kyle Busch took an early lead and was still out front when the Nationwide Series race was halted with 32 laps left in the 200-mile race around Phoenix’s odd-shaped mile oval. After a delay of more than two hours, the race was called, giving Busch his series-record 64th Nationwide victory.
Busch led 155 laps for his 10th overall victory, seven in Nationwide, at PIR and the fourth straight Nationwide win for Joe Gibbs Racing at the track. It also was the fourth straight win at PIR for Busch’s crew chief Adam Stevens, who was at the helm when Joey Logano won for JGR in the 2012 fall race. Kevin Harvick finished second and pole sitter Brad Keselowski was third, followed by Kyle Larson and Matt Kenseth.
Five years ago in 2019, In some big news from NASCAR, FansChoice.TV announced on Friday, Feb 22 that the streaming digital platform will air the entire NASCAR regional series schedule live in 2019.
They would air the complete NASCAR K&N Pro Series East and West schedules, including the two summer combination races as well as the 17-race schedule for the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour.
FansChoice.TV aired the season-opener for the K&N Pro Series East on Sunday, February 10 at New Smyrna Speedway. They also aired all nine nights of the 53rd annual World Series of Asphalt Stock Car Racing at New Smyrna.
Fans would be able to watch K&N Pro Series West drivers open their season on Thursday, February 28 at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway Dirt Track, before watching Whelen Modified Tour teams kick-off 2019 at South Carolina’s Myrtle Beach Speedway on March 16. The next time the K&N Pro Series East hits the track is at Bristol Motor Speedway on April 6.
With the entirety of each schedule airing, fans can watch champions be crowned in all three divisions. The K&N Pro Series East season ends at Dover International Speedway on October 4, while the Whelen Modified Tour crowns their champion at Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park on October 13. The K&N Pro Series West returns to Arizona and ISM Raceway on Saturday, November 9 to crown their new title holder.
Most important is now team owners can tell sponsors and potential sponsors that their advertising will be streamed world wide on the internet. This is indeed, a big deal! A tip of the hat to NASCAR.
Bob Finan sends word that a hefty $32,650 purse will be on the line Saturday June 15th, 2019 as Riverhead Raceway presents the 3rd annual Islip 300 with the winner netting a rich $7,000. So far Dillon Steuer and Ryan Preece have enjoyed the big payday, who will take the big prize in 2019? Second through tenth pay: $2,500, $2,250, $2,000, $1,750, $1,500, $1,400, $1,300, $1,200 & $1,100. The 11th and 12th place finishers earn $1,000 each and the race pays $600 to start.
Internet racing news site RaceDayCt announced that Norm Wrenn JR has partnered with Hudson (N.H.) Speedway owner Ben Bosowski to purchase Claremont (N.H.) Speedway. Wrenn purchased Lee USA Speedway in Lee, N.H. in February 2018 and closed on the purchase of Monadnock Speedway in Winchester, N.H. in December 2018. Bosowski purchased Hudson Speedway in early 2018.
Wrenn and Bosowski agreed to purchase Claremont from co-owners Phil Hayes and James Ambrose. Hayes will stay on at Claremont as the track’s general manager.
Wrenn Jr. had been in talks to purchase the New London-Waterford Speedbowl in the spring of 2017, but his attempts to acquire the shoreline oval from current owner Bruce Bemer fell short.
Christopher Bell routed the field at Atlanta Motor Speedway and led all but 20 laps to win the Xfinity Series race Saturday. Ryan Preece finished seventh.
Brad Keselowski won the Monster Energy cup event at Atlanta. Martin Truex Jr. was second and Kurt Busch, third. Ryan Preece started 25thin the Fold of Honor Quiktrip 500 at Atlanta and had crawled his way through the field and was running toward the back end of the top-10.
He was seventh in the running order with 54 laps remaining when he went to pit road during a round of green flag stops. After getting his car serviced Preece was coming out of his pit box when he crashed hard into the car of BJ McLeod, who was multiple laps down from the leaders and slowing to come into his pit box. Preece ended up 35th.
It was the second week in a row that McLeod has been involved in a pit road crash that took out lead laps cars while he was laps down. In the Daytona 500 McLeod and Cody Ware set off a chain reaction crash coming onto pit road that collected Jimmie Johnson.
Last year, 2023, Troyer Race Cars/ TFR Manufacturing announced some big news for their customers. Effective immediately, ALL UPSTATE NY customers would have access to their Rochester facility for parts pick up!!! It gets better!! Because all sales will go through their Distribution facility in MA, the purchase will be TAX FREE!! They will also throw in an additional 10% discount for all sales over 1000.00!!😲 So it’s simple, call TFR Distribution in MA where they have over 750K in Asphalt inventory which will soon be on their webpage, place your order, and they will ship direct to Rochester for pick up, or have your order manufactured as a priority job and assign a pick up date!!
Preparation for the 51st running of the NAPA Auto Parts Spring Sizzler® is in full swing at Stafford Speedway. To commemorate the history of “The Greatest Race in the History of Spring” Stafford will release season two of Sizzler Shorts, 2 minute videos highlighting each of the 27 different Spring Sizzler® winners. From Matt Hirschman to Fred DeSarro, Sizzler Shorts recaps the career of every driver to hoist the Spring Sizzler trophy.
Pro All Stars Series (PASS) and American-Canadian Tour (ACT) officials have announced the full schedule of events for the ten-division 49th Icebreaker Weekend line-up at Thompson Speedway. Often recognized as New England’s unofficial Lid Lifter for the year’s racing activities, the Thompson Icebreaker is once again highlighted by the PASS Super Late Model 75 on Saturday, April 1st and the $10,000-to-win Icebreaker 125 for the Thompson Outlaw Open Modifieds on Sunday, April 2nd.
The NASCAR Cup series paid its final visit to the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California. The track is expected to be torn up and replaced with a half mile track. Kyle Busch stormed up from the back after an early speeding penalty to earn his first victory for Richard Childress Racing, winning on this two-mile Southern California track for the fifth and final time. Busch held off Chase Elliott and Ross Chastain. It was not a good day for Ryan Preece who started 27th and finished 33rd as his car suffered a broken left rear toe link on his car’s chassis.
Bruce Cohen reminded us that last week marked the 55th anniversary of the passing of Don MacTavish, Many often ponder : “What if” His wit, charm, and friendship is still missed and revered after all these years. The former NASCAR Sportsman Champion lost his life after a horrific crash during the running of the Permatex 300.
That’s about it for this week from 11 Gardner Drive, Westerly, RI. 02891. Ring my chimes at 401-596-5467. E-mail smithpe_97_97@yahoo.com.
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).