RPW Exclusive: Looking Back: Third Week Of March
Column Compiled By: PHIL SMITH / RPW – WESTERLY, RI – Sixty years ago in 1964 Don Collins won the Easter Sunday opening 25 lap Modified event at the New London-Waterford Speedbowl. Collins drove the Billy Simons #9 Excavator Special. Bob Tetreault was the Bomber winner.
Forty five years ago in 1979, a late winter snowstorm cancelled a scheduled modified event at the Franklin County Speedway in Callaway, VA. The event was not rescheduled. Despite the success of the 1978 season at the Waterford Speedbowl under the Dick Williams’ Coastal Racing League, Harvey Tattersall Jr did not renew their lease and once again took over the day-to-day operations of the Speedbowl under his United Stock Car Championship banner. Race Director Bill Slater & Chief Starter Dick Brooks left with Williams.
Forty years ago, in 1984, Eddie Flemke, a modified legend in his own time, passed away. Flemke had put in a long day plowing snow and had come home to rest. When he failed to come into his house his wife went to check on him, as he had not exited his vehicle. Mrs. Flemke sadly discovered that her husband had suffered a heart attack and had passed away at the age of 53. During his career Flemke won over 600 features and played a vital part in the development of the racing careers of Pete Hamilton, Dennis Zimmerman, Richie Evans and Ronnie Bouchard. Flemke was one of the great thinkers of the sport. He would study his competition and then figure out what their weaknesses were and beat them. He was also an accomplished racecar designer and fabricator.
Two days later, Riverside Park opened for the season with Richie Evans taking the win and promptly dedicated it to his deceased friend and mentor. Eddie Flemke was one of the greatest drivers of all time. At Riverside, Marty Radwick finished second and George Kent was third. In Winston Cup action at Bristol, Ricky Rudd was the pole sitter. Darrell Waltrip took the win. Ronnie Bouchard qualified 13th and finished third.
Thirty five years ago in 1989, the Riverside Park season opener was a test of man and machine as only six cars were left running at the finish of the 100 lap grind. Taking the win was John Zavisa, who started on the pole. Prerace favorite Reggie Ruggiero wrecked during warm-ups and was unable to start the feature.
Thirty years ago in 1994, Chris Kopec benefited from Reggie Ruggiero’s misfortune and went on to win the season opener at Riverside Park in front of a packed house. Ruggiero had been leading until his brakes went away in the late stages of the event. Jamie Tomaino finished second and was followed by Tom Cravenho, Dan Avery and Ruggiero. In Busch Grandnational action at Darlington, Mark Martin started on the pole and won the no contest event over Larry Pearson and Randy LaJoie. In Winston Cup action, Bill Elliott was the pole sitter but the day belonged to Dale Earnhardt.
Twenty five years ago, in 1999, the Featherlite Modified Tour Series started on a wet note as the season opener at Riverside Park rained out. Qualifying was done on Saturday. Bob Polverari was the Busch Pole sitter and David Berghman was second fastest. The rained out event was rescheduled for April 18, which would put it head to head with Waterford’s opener.
Twenty years ago in 2004 after many months of waiting the Northeast-racing season finally began under less than ideal weather conditions at the Waterford Speedbowl. Thirty-one SK Modifieds were on hand at the shoreline oval on Saturday for qualifying. Outsiders Ronnie Silk and Doug Coby were the top time trialers. Silk toured the 1/3-mile oval in 14.482 seconds and Coby turned a lap in 14.503 seconds. James Civale was the top regular with a time of 14.598 seconds. Defending track champion Dennis Gada was 11th fastest with a time of 14.796 seconds. In what had to be one of the most wreck strewn events ever seen, James Civale turned a pre race misfortune into a victory as he won the 150 lap SK-Modified portion of the Waterford Nationals. As the cars circled the 1/3-mile oval in a warm-up prior to the start of the event it was discovered that his scoring transponder wasn’t working. Civale stopped at the pit gate where his pit crew got it operating. Speedway officials treated the incident as if he had pitted and forced him to start at the rear of the 31 car-starting field. Upset at the time, starting at the rear proved to be an omen as most of the wrecks and spins involved those who started at or near the front. Civale managed to avoid trouble and took the lead on the 57th lap and went on to hold off Ted Christopher for the win. Christopher, who was considered one of the pre-race favorites, made numerous pit stops, as he was involved in many of the 11 caution periods that consumed 66 laps. Christopher moved into second spot with 11 laps to go but couldn’t muster the needed steam to make the pass for the win. Pole sitter Ron Silk got collected in the first caution on lap three and suffered sufficient damage to keep him out of contention. The blustery cold weather was a definite factor, as the hard compound track tires could not generate enough heat to provide the needed traction. The wrecks and spins got so bad that single file restarts were mandated shortly after the half way mark of the event. With the exception of Civale and third place finisher Jay Miller the entire field showed scars of battle. Defending division champion Dennis Gada and previous years runner-up Ed Reed Jr. were taken out of contention because of wrecks as were Rick Young, Tom Fox and Jeff Pearl. Rob Janovic finished fourth with Chris Pasteryak, fifth. Dennis Gada finished sixth, one lap down. Corey Hutchins won the Late Model 50 lapper in an all but no contest event. Mark StHillaire finished second with Jay Stuart, third. Second generation driver Keith Rocco was the Limited Sportsman winner and Tim Jordan won in the MiniStocks.
NASCAR announced that they had a new weapon to use to detect cheaters, especially those who use tire softeners. The Irwindale Speedway in California engaged the use of a retired bomb-sniffing dog to detect tires that have been altered with chemicals. It seems that when the animal is walked up and down pit road it will stop and sit next to tires that have been treated. Tire soaking has taken place at all levels of racing, in fact it got so bad in the NASCAR Featherlite Modified Tour Series a year ago that NASCAR mandated that all competitors buy their tires on the day of the race. It had also been announced that the NASCAR TV ratings took a dive after recent boring events at Las Vegas and Atlanta. FOX’s season ratings after three Nextel Cup events have fallen 9%.
In Nextel Cup action at Bristol, Tennessee, Ryan Newman captured his third Busch Pole of the year on Friday. The Busch Racing Series ran on Saturday with New Jersey native Martin Truex Jr. getting his first ever Busch Series win. Truex is a former competitor in the Busch North Series and a former weekly competitor at the Wall Township Speedway in New Jersey. Kurt Busch gambled when he chose not to pit for fresh tires late in the Bristol 500 and beat a frustrated Rusty Wallace to the finish line. It was Busch’s third victory in a row at the ultra fast high-banked half-mile oval.
It appeared that the anti-trust suit filed by Speedway Motorsports stockholders Francis Ferko and Rusty Vaughn against NASCAR may be headed for an out of court settlement. It had been strongly rumored that the International Speedway Corporation, which is owned by the France family that also owns NASCAR, would sell speedways in Darlington, South Carolina and Rockingham, North Carolina to Speedway Motorsports who in turn could move two of the three Nextel Cup dates that go with those speedways to Texas and Las Vegas. The remaining date would alternate between Darlington and Rockingham. In a non-related matter, the International Speedway Corporation and its subsidiary, Southeastern Hay and Nursery bought 168 acres of land for $5.5 million.
On a sad note, Nolan Swift, eight time Oswego Speedway track champion, died at the age of 81. Swift was considered the father of the Supermodifieds.
Ten years ago in 2014, the powers that be at Waterford would have to do some scrambling if the speedbowl was to open on schedule. Back in January a Judge set an October 18 foreclosure auction date for the Connecticut shoreline oval. The ruling gave track owner Terry Eames some extra time to find funding to continue as owner of the track or find a buyer. The judge also ruled that the track management complies with state and town officials who have mandated that the grandstands be repaired. A re-construction project of the under pinnings of the grandstands was begun in 2013 and was not completed leaving large sections uninhabitable and covered over with tarps and danger tape. The extreme hard winter has all but halted any work that had been planned.
The NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour visited the Southern National Motorsports Park in North Carolina last Saturday. George Brunnhoelzl, III recorded the fastest time and earns his 22nd career pole award on the NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour. Brunnhoelzl was the top dog of the 18 cars on hand at the 4/10 mile oval. Kyle Ebersole was second fastest with JR Bertuccio, third.
A new face appeared in victory as J.R. Bertuccio earned his first trip to Victory Lane the hard way. The 32-year-old from Long Island, N.Y., had to hold off four-time NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour champion George Brunnhoelzl III on a green-white-checkered finish to win Saturday’s Southern National 150. The win came in Bertuccio’s 28th career start. He had three previous top fives with his best finish coming at Caraway Speedway with a third-place run in the 2014 season opener. Bertuccio took the lead from Brunnhoelzl III, who started from the pole, on lap 11 and held on for the remainder of the evening. He survived five restarts, including the final one which set up the green-white-checkered finish.
While Bertuccio held on to the top spot for the better part of the evening, the second through fifth-place spots remained an open game for a handful of drivers. On the final restart, Kyle Ebersole managed to slip past Brunnhoelzl to take second, forcing the defending tour champion to settle for a third-place finish. An unfortunate turn of events for Brunnhoelzl III, who seemed on his way to seriously challenge Bertuccio for the lead. A green-white-checkered finish extended the race to 155 laps. Overall, there were five cautions for a total of 20 laps. Andy Seuss and Jason Myers crossed the line fourth and fifth respectively. They were followed by Luke Fleming, Gary Putnam, rookies Joe Ryan Osborne and Spencer Davis, and Bryan Dauzat to round out the top 10.
The Stafford Motor Speedway clubhouse was the scene of a tire seminar presented by Hoosier Racing Tire and spokesperson Irish Saunders. Topics included Tire management, performance tips, tire sizing, tire break-in, how tires are made, quality control and explaining making tires repeat. A packed house was on hand.
Big news for race fans. The Sid’s View webisode series which had done a fantastic job of video recording the racing programs at the Waterford Speedbowl will be expanded in 2014 to include the 7 oval track events scheduled at Thompson Speedway.
In another big announcement, racing fans received access to a lot more content this past Wednesday in the form of FansChoice.tv, a live streaming platform that will broadcast races under the NASCAR Home Tracks, IMSA and AMA banner. FansChoice.tv will be the official home for AMA Pro Road Racing and AMA Pro Flat Track events in 2014. The site also will provide coverage of selected IMSA and NASCAR’s touring and weekly series events.
It means access to broadcasts for select live events from the K&N Pro Series, Whelen Modified Tour and Whelen Southern Modified Tour banner. FansChoice.tv will also become the home for numerous off-track NASCAR events, including the championship banquets for the NASCAR All-American Series and the various NASCAR regional and touring series.
Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway had a little bit of everything. Rain delays, bizarre crashes, tire problems and a mystery caution flag with three laps left followed by even more rain allowed Carl Edwards to score his first victory of the 2014 season.
Edwards had a comfortable lead of more than two seconds with just three laps left when suddenly several caution lights around the track came on. While NASCAR was trying to fix the problem that caused the caution lights to come on, Mother Nature made her third and final visit to Bristol for the day. With rain now pouring down and the track lost, NASCAR officials opted to wave the checkered flag and declare Edwards the race winner. Ricky Stenhouse was able to get around Almirola’s Richard Petty Motorsports Ford in the closing laps to finish second, giving Roush Fenway Racing a sweep of the first two positions.
It was later revealed by NASCAR officials that the actual cause of the final caution flag was an error by the flagman. He had evidently leaned on the manual override switch in the flagstand, causing the caution lights to come on.
Kyle Busch held off Kyle Larson during a late-race restart before pulling away to his seventh NASCAR Nationwide Series win.
Fifteen years ago in 2009,, In the never ending soap opera at the Waterford Speedbowl there was some good news and some stability for the shoreline oval. Track owner Terry Eames announced on Thursday, March 19 that its affiliation with NASCAR will continue in 2009. The Speedbowl’s SK Modified®, Late Model, Street Stock, and Mini Stock divisions would all participate in the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series and be eligible to earn NASCAR points
In regards to money being owed to competitors from the 2008 season, Jason Christley who works in the public relations department at NASCAR told the Hartford Courant that NASCAR did guarantee the NASCAR point fund to the Waterford Speedbowl. That guarantee stands regardless of things that might occur like the track closing or the promoter failing to meet obligations. In reality, that money came from Whelen Engineering which sponsors the Weekly Racing Series. Evidently NASCAR had changed its way of thinking as far as protecting drivers from unscrupulous promoters and track operators. In other words, even though a racer has a NASCAR license and races at a NASCAR sanctioned track there is no guarantee that he will be paid unless NASCAR has a sponsor who will supply the money. Bill France Sr founded NASCAR to protect drivers from shady promoters and track operators who ran off with purse money without paying drivers. He must be rolling over in his grave!
Ted Christopher made the trip down south to the Concord Speedway worth his while. Christopher, driving for Joe Brady, passed Burt Myers on the opening lap and led wire-to-wire to win the Capital Bank 150 in the NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour season opener. It was his third career NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour race and the first Tour event held at the half-mile, tri-oval. Rowan Pennink followed in second. George Brunnhoelzl III came through the field to finish third after starting last because of engine problems. Myers, who won his series record 18th Coors Light Pole Award earlier in the day, finished fourth and Erick Rudolph completed the top five.
Among the Whelen Modified Tour cars and competitors on hand for shakedown runs at the Thompson Speedway were Eric Beers, Mike Stefanik, Chris Pasteryak, Rob Summers, Carl Pasteryak, Richard Savory, a new Ole Blu with Ryan Preece, Jimmy Blewett and Glen Reen. There were quite a few SKtypes too. Participants included Tom Cravenho, Bert Marvin, Tim Sullivan, Keith Rocco, Todd Ceravolo, Ricky Shawn, Woody Pitkat, Kerry Malone and Josh Sylvester. Sylvester hit the wall a ton and did a lot of damage to his mount.
Congratulations went out to Keith Rocco who was recognized by Connecticut Governor Jodi Rell at the state capitol in Hartford. In winning the Connecticut State Championship Rocco had 11 wins, 32 top fives and 38 top 10s racing at three Connecticut short tracks: Stafford Motor Speedway, Thompson International Speedway and the Waterford Speedbowl.
In Sprint Cup racing, Kyle Busch was furious when his pit crew cost him a win at Bristol Motor Speedway, where he angrily ditched his car on the race track and walked to his motor home. The following day, he drove to Victory Lane, averaging 92.139 mph. Busch bounced back from one of his many Bristol heartbreaks with a win Sunday, leading 378 of 503 laps for his second Sprint Cup Series victory of the season. Teammate Denny Hamlin was second, 0.391 of a second back, and Jimmie Johnson third.
Kevin Harvick proved just how strong his organization is Saturday by winning the Nationwide Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway in his own race car. Harvick led 44 laps in his Kevin Harvick Inc.-owned Chevrolet, his first victory in a car fielded by the race team he built with his wife. Carl Edwards finished second and Clint Bowyer was third.
Ten years ago in 2014, the powers that be at Waterford would have to do some scrambling if the speedbowl was to open on schedule. Back in January a Judge set an October 18 foreclosure auction date for the Connecticut shoreline oval. The ruling gave track owner Terry Eames some extra time to find funding to continue as owner of the track or find a buyer. The judge also ruled that the track management complies with state and town officials who have mandated that the grandstands be repaired. A re-construction project of the under pinnings of the grandstands was begun in 2013 and was not completed leaving large sections uninhabitable and covered over with tarps and danger tape. The extreme hard winter has all but halted any work that had been planned.
The NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour visited the Southern National Motorsports Park in North Carolina last Saturday. George Brunnhoelzl, III recorded the fastest time and earns his 22nd career pole award on the NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour. Brunnhoelzl was the top dog of the 18 cars on hand at the 4/10 mile oval. Kyle Ebersole was second fastest with JR Bertuccio, third.
A new face appeared in victory as J.R. Bertuccio earned his first trip to Victory Lane the hard way. The 32-year-old from Long Island, N.Y., had to hold off four-time NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour champion George Brunnhoelzl III on a green-white-checkered finish to win Saturday’s Southern National 150. The win came in Bertuccio’s 28th career start. He had three previous top fives with his best finish coming at Caraway Speedway with a third-place run in the 2014 season opener. Bertuccio took the lead from Brunnhoelzl III, who started from the pole, on lap 11 and held on for the remainder of the evening. He survived five restarts, including the final one which set up the green-white-checkered finish.
While Bertuccio held on to the top spot for the better part of the evening, the second through fifth-place spots remained an open game for a handful of drivers. On the final restart, Kyle Ebersole managed to slip past Brunnhoelzl to take second, forcing the defending tour champion to settle for a third-place finish. An unfortunate turn of events for Brunnhoelzl III, who seemed on his way to seriously challenge Bertuccio for the lead. A green-white-checkered finish extended the race to 155 laps. Overall, there were five cautions for a total of 20 laps. Andy Seuss and Jason Myers crossed the line fourth and fifth respectively. They were followed by Luke Fleming, Gary Putnam, rookies Joe Ryan Osborne and Spencer Davis, and Bryan Dauzat to round out the top 10.
The Stafford Motor Speedway clubhouse was the scene of a tire seminar presented by Hoosier Racing Tire and spokesperson Irish Saunders. Topics included Tire management, performance tips, tire sizing, tire break-in, how tires are made, quality control and explaining making tires repeat. A packed house was on hand.
Big news for race fans. The Sid’s View webisode series which had done a fantastic job of video recording the racing programs at the Waterford Speedbowl will be expanded in 2014 to include the 7 oval track events scheduled at Thompson Speedway.
In another big announcement, racing fans received access to a lot more content this past Wednesday in the form of FansChoice.tv, a live streaming platform that will broadcast races under the NASCAR Home Tracks, IMSA and AMA banner. FansChoice.tv will be the official home for AMA Pro Road Racing and AMA Pro Flat Track events in 2014. The site also will provide coverage of selected IMSA and NASCAR’s touring and weekly series events.
It means access to broadcasts for select live events from the K&N Pro Series, Whelen Modified Tour and Whelen Southern Modified Tour banner. FansChoice.tv will also become the home for numerous off-track NASCAR events, including the championship banquets for the NASCAR All-American Series and the various NASCAR regional and touring series.
Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway had a little bit of everything. Rain delays, bizarre crashes, tire problems and a mystery caution flag with three laps left followed by even more rain allowed Carl Edwards to score his first victory of the 2014 season.
Edwards had a comfortable lead of more than two seconds with just three laps left when suddenly several caution lights around the track came on. While NASCAR was trying to fix the problem that caused the caution lights to come on, Mother Nature made her third and final visit to Bristol for the day. With rain now pouring down and the track lost, NASCAR officials opted to wave the checkered flag and declare Edwards the race winner. Ricky Stenhouse was able to get around Almirola’s Richard Petty Motorsports Ford in the closing laps to finish second, giving Roush Fenway Racing a sweep of the first two positions.
It was later revealed by NASCAR officials that the actual cause of the final caution flag was an error by the flagman. He had evidently leaned on the manual override switch in the flagstand, causing the caution lights to come on.
Kyle Busch held off Kyle Larson during a late-race restart before pulling away to his seventh NASCAR Nationwide Series win.
Five years ago in 2019, In some great news, FansChoice.TV will air ALL 10 NASCAR events at Thompson in 2019, beginning with the 45th annual Icebreaker weekend! This includes all of our NASCAR Whelen All-American Series action, the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East, the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour & more!
Many are hoping Stafford and Waterford will follow their lead.
With the advent of FansChoice.TV competitors will have the advantage of showcasing their sponsors to the exposure they deserve and speedways will receive unlimited exposure of their facility which will entice new fans to attend their programs. Not to brag but the racing at Thompson and Stafford provides some of the best over-all competition in the country!
The Stafford Motor Speedway announced that Maybury Material Handling of East Longmeadow, MA had renewed their commitment to Stafford’s contingency program for the 2019 NASCAR Whelen All-American Series season. For the fourth consecutive year, Maybury Material Handling will supply a first place bonus of $150 to each SK Modified® feature winner and a $125 bonus to each SK Light feature winner. Maybury’s contribution to the contingency program brings the SK Modified® feature winner’s share up to $1,800 and it takes the SK Light feature winner’s share up to $600. Over the past three seasons, Maybury has delivered over $15,000 to SK Modified® and SK Light drivers at Stafford. The first Maybury Material Handling contingency bonuses of the 2019 season will be up for grabs during Stafford Speedway’s 48th Annual NAPA Auto Parts Spring Sizzler on April 27-28.
The money kept rolling in as Dunleavy’s Truck and Trailer Repair in Brookfield, CT returns for a 5th consecutive season, presenting first place contingency award of $150 to each SK Modified® feature winner and $125 to each SK Light feature winner. Over the past four seasons, Stafford SK Modified® and SK Light drivers have taken home over $11,000 in contingency awards from Dunleavy’s Truck and Trailer Repair and drivers will have 22 more opportunities to collect bonus money during the 2019 season. The 2018 season saw a total of 86 different drivers take to the track behind the wheel of a modified with 42 different SK Modified® drivers and 44 different SK Light drivers. Each division had a total of 8 different winners in 21 races, with Keith Rocco leading the SK Modified® division with 6 wins and Marcello Rufrano leading the SK Light division with 6 wins.
It won’t be the Mad House but it will be the House that Jack (Arute) built. Tom DiMaggio of Vault Productions has announced a new reality show that will follow four of Stafford Speedway’s SK Modified® weekly competitors on their journey through the 2019 race season. The reality series, dubbed “The Show”, has begun filming and will follow drivers Mike Christopher Jr, Keith Rocco, Ronnie Williams, and Glen Reen through the 2019 SK Modified® season at Stafford. An extended preview episode is airing on Vault Productions’ YouTube channel as well as Stafford Speedway’s and Vault Productions’ Facebook pages now.
The four drivers to be showcased in the series won a combined 16 SK Modified® races during the 2018 season with youngster Ronnie Williams winning his first SK Modified® track championship. The Stafford SK Modified® division, noted as one of the toughest weekly asphalt divisions in the country, had 7 different winners last season and 42 different drivers compete in an event. 2019 is shaping up to be more of the same with nearly all of the drivers finishing in the top-20 in points last season returning to weekly competition.
The web series is supported by local racing partners Waddell Communications, Hoosier Tire East, Sunoco Race Fuels as well as Stafford Speedway. “The Show” will air in January of 2020 and will begin filming at the 48th Annual Spring Sizzler. Hopefully Robert Bagot will continue his fine work of producing weekly events from Stafford as well as those from Waterford and Thompson.
In NASCAR Monster Cup racing, Brad Keselowski gave Team Penske and the new Ford Mustang its third Cup victory through the first six races of the season by routing the field at Martinsville Speedway.
Keselowski led 446 of the 500 laps around the shortest track on the NASCAR schedule and was only challenged a handful of times by Chase Elliott, the only driver to pass Keselowski on the track Sunday.
Although Elliott led 49 laps, a late caution sent the field to pit road and Keselowski beat Elliott back to the track.
Elliott could never get close enough to challenge Keselowski for the win again. Ryan Preece finished 16th.
Last Year, 2023, the SMART Modified Tour powered by Pace-O-Matic was supposed to be at the Lonesome Pine Motorsports Park in Virginia. Due to winter weather and a cold forecast, the has been postponed. A makeup date would be announced soon.
The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour returns to action a week from this Friday on March31 at the Richmond Int. Raceway. Among those on the entry list are Ryan Newman and Bobby Labonte. The two are racing as teammates this year for Sadler Stanley Racing, a team owned by two-time NASCAR Xfinity Series race winner Hermie Sadler and Virginia State Senator Bill Stanley.
One current NASCAR Cup Series driver is also believed to be considering an entry for the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour race at Richmond. That driver is Corey LaJoie, who claimed his first NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour triumph in October at Martinsville. LaJoie is far from being a polished driver especially after he bulled his way to victory last fall.
In addition to Newman, Labonte and LaJoie, the current stars of the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour are all expected to race at Richmond on March 31. They include six-time series champion Doug Coby, three-time series champion Justin Bonsignore, this year’s New Smyrna Speedway winner Ron Silk, defending series champion Jon McKennedy and Matt Hirschman, among others.
In NASCAR cup action Joey Logano won at Atlanta. Ryan Preece finished 28th.
Keith Rocco has entered the 51st Napa Auto Parts Spring Sizzler. In doing so, he hopes to continue to build on his record setting feature win total of 302 wins which include 154 victories at the New London-Waterford Speedbowl, 70 at Thompson and 78 at Stafford Speedway. Rocco will be looking to turn around his Sizzler luck after a crash in the duel’s last season which resulted with a DNQ.
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).
