Solo Busch East Appearance (and Weekly Results)

It's been two days since I've posted a blog and it's also been that long since I remembered what the heck my password to Blogger was. I've succeeded in both tonight and therefore I bring you the events of June 16, 2006. This is also called the Busch East race from Stafford Motor Speedway. Speaking of the Busch East race, qualifying started at around 5pm Eastern Standard Time for the said series and Sean Caisse won it with a 19.796 time--which averages out to about 90.927 mile an hour speed. He also started on the pole after drawing it later on in the evening...but that's all I'm going to say about that for now. Let's get to the weekly portion of the night and I'll return later with more on the TSI Harley Davidson 150.

Unlike last week, we start out with the DARE Stock race and the first 15-laps of the night in terms of features. The first seven laps started out cleaner than a baby's diaper, and then from there it all fell apart. On the frontstretch, the race's big one occured when Jeff Hubbell, Melissa Blowers, and Lori-Jo Rzeszutek got into each other and sent themselves in both the wall and grass. All three of them were done for the event after that mess. As soon as the green flag came back out, another three car melee took place coming out of turn two. Once again, the caution came out but didn't last as long as the first one did. Those were the only two yellows of the race and that was all David Gambacorta had to face as he sailed to the finish line in first place.

Then it was the SK Lights and the 25-lap feature that they usually have. Phil Balmer decided that he would play dirty for a while and as he brought out a caution, he flipped off the officials at the pit gate near where I sit on a general admission basis. (Nice job, pal. I hope you get some time off to think about it. Can't wait for the police blogger.) The other main story of the race was Chris Matthews and his dominant performance. Methinks it was the right move to think that way because it was his second "dominant performance" of the season...he won the race and became the first SK Light driver to have more than one career win in the season.

After that, I decided not to write full recaps during the races as I needed to see what was going on rather than putting my eyes on my notes every five seconds. And with the 30-lap Late Model feature next, I knew it was a smart move on my part. Four caution flags flew in this race, all for minor accidents where all of the cars drove away on their own. But the story of the whole feature was Woody Pitkat. Could he win four features in a row? Not really. In the end, the Monson, Massachusetts native Jim Peterson took down his first feature win of the season in true fashion...a big lead at the end.

Speaking of big leads, the Limited Late Model 20-lap feature was the same story. A big lead was insurmountable for the rest of the field when Charlie Newman became the fourth different driver to win a race in this division in the 2006 season. (Let me tell you, it was better than the same two drivers winning every race last year...) There was only one caution, and it occured on lap-15. It was a minor spin inbetween turns one and two and that driver pulled away. But in the next feature, it was a different story...

The SK Modifieds took to the track for the final regular feature of the night...a 40-lap event. Unlike the previous week, there wasn't a controversial caution that took place. Yet there was a caution midway through when the leaders at the time (and I forget who they were) got together and caused a nice wreck on the backstretch. People were banging cars everywhere and one person even went airborne: A repeat wrecker from last time, Frank Ruocco. Lucky for him, he finished the race a few laps down. But coming down from the and landing on the track surface had to be a hard hit on the cracked ribs he suffered. (Oh, I'll stop for there. I really don't want to sound like a "homer" or anything...)

Finally, the event wrapped up with the TSI Harley Davidson 150 for the Busch East Series. (I admit to leaving early because it was sort of...well, getting boring for me. They aren't my favorite things to see in the whole world, but I did see enough to comment on it. Good for me.) What I didn't see though was a late race red flag. Apparently Rich Gould and Mike Johnson brought out the red for a full 22 minutes. Other than that, I didn't miss much. The race was a two-man show with Caisse and Matt Kobyluck leading every lap imaginable. In the end, the rookie took the lead and he took the race. Congratulations to Sean Caisse and the rest of his team. Two in a row is very impressive, and he could very well make it three when the group races again.