And Then There Was One

Ladies and gentlemen, we have officially reached the final race of the 2006 Stafford Motor Speedway season. After sixteen races and plenty of rainouts, the regular Friday night portion is over and only the Fall Final is in front of us. Who will be running for the track championships on Saturday and Sunday? We'll find all of this out -- including the regular bits of information -- in this week's entry. But before we begin, we had some interesting news coming from the pits and the track itself. First off, Ted Christopher was back in the #81 SK Modified after a few weeks' absence from the track. Also, track safety personnel needed time to fix the wall in turns three and four after incidents throughout the night put a beating towards it. One of the smackdowns was during the second DARE Stock qualifying heat when a group of cars were collected in a mid-race accident. The second cause of concern is coming up right about...now with our first race recap.

Feature-wise, the first race was the SK Lights. Shelly Perry had two weeks to rest up her broken wrist from the crash from Modified Mania weekend, and she was one of the stories from the feature, going on to finish all 20 laps with a 9th place finish. Another interesting moment was on lap-10, however, when Kyler Cafro nailed the turn three wall. (Surprise, surprise. There's the second cause and concern moment.) The red flag was brought out so the wall could be repaired and replaced and was removed from the track about ten minutes later. The wall beating was over for the night, but the cautions weren't. On lap-18, Chris Matthews spun in turn four, bringing out the second and final caution in the event. So with the two yellows out of the way, it was all down to a green-white-checkered situation. Brit Andersen powered to the front in a major way earlier on in the race and survived this three lap showdown to claim his fifth win of the season. Following him to the line were Glen Reen, Wade Mattesen, and Mike Lane. In the battle for the SK Light track championship, it's all coming down to the Fall Final. A four-way tie is what's holding Andersen, Perry, Matthews, and Richie Pallai, Jr all with 660 points.

The Late Models were next, and that was a completely wild feature. Lap-5 showed Mike O'Sullivan spinning in turn three. The very next lap had a multi-car accident in the same corner of the track. Both I believe were minor cautions (I know that the O'Sullivan spin was minor), so the race continued on. The caution flew again on lap-18 when O'Sullivan spun yet again, this time on the backstretch. (He would finish 10th, by the way.) And then... Prepare for the lap-19 moment of misery. The original time, the caution came out for debris in turn three. (I don't remember what it was or who it was from.) Then on the restart, Mark Lewis's car didn't come up to speed, resulting in a false start and a restart redo. Take two proved to be much better for Lewis, and he held off a charge from Woody Pitkat to take his first win of the season and his career. Pitkat was in second followed by Jim Peterson and Scott Foster, Jr. With one race to do in the Late Model championship, it's down to Pitkat and Peterson racing for the title. Both of them have 700 points to their credit.

Third on the docket was the Limited Late Models, and this was probably the quickest feature of the night. The only caution was on lap-16 when Kevin Gambacorta nailed the wall in turns one and two. Before this incident, however, Corky Hinze was controlling the field after an early race lead, but Andrew Durand was able to yank it away and drive off with it into the sunset. This resulted in Durand's fourth win of the season. Hinze, Sean Foster, and George Nocera rounded out the other finishers from the scoreboard. With the race for the Limited Late Model championship closing down, Gambacorta has a ten point lead over Nocera, 652-642. Bill Davis is third and 22 behind, Foster is fourth -- 24 behind, and Durand rounds out the top five and is 34 back behind the leader.

Next we had yet another insane feature with the SK Modifieds. It took four green flags to get the first lap in the books. After two false starts and one multi-car accident including Todd Owen, Brad Hietala, and Aaron Goff, the race went onto smooth sailing. That was, however, until lap-3. Kirk Zervas had a solo accident in turns three and four, bringing out the fourth caution in three laps. Between then and the next caution period on lap-19, Chris Jones was leading the pack all over the place. But three laps after the lap-19 accident in turn four, including Bo Gunning and possible others, Jones would come to find out that his lead was about to go away. A powering Frank Ruocco zoomed past Jones on lap-22 and held off Willie Hardie to take his first win of the 2006 season. Hardie would finish second, followed by Woody Pitkat and Jones. With the win and thanks to others' misfortunes, Ruocco now holds an 18-point lead over Hardie going into Fall Final weekend. Eric Berndt and Todd Owen are both 50 points behind, and they can fall out of championship contention when Ruocco takes the green flag in the feature.

The DARE Stocks were the final division to race Friday night, and they had a crazy feature as well. On the opening lap, there was a multi-car accident in turn two, bringing out the first caution flag of the race. Two laps later, Norm Sears spun in turn four, and the restart didn't fare too grand either. Debris in turns one and two was possibly spotted and hence the caution was out yet again. And then what do you know... Another debris caution, again in turns one and two -- on the very next lap, no less. So in the first four laps of the feature, there were four cautions. Thankfully, everything went smooth from then on in. It was very smooth for Jeff Jolly, who took the lead early on in the feature and remained up front through all of the caution situations so he could win his second race fo the season. Bill Dunn, Sears, and Josh White rounded out the top-four. In the DARE Stock championship situation, Sears has a 50-point lead over the next closest competitor, Tom Stirk. This means that no matter how Stirk does, Sears clinches by starting the feature on Saturday.

So this means that the Fall Final is next up on the schedule. Five divisions will have track champions, each champion different from the year before. But there will be more coming your way throughout the course of the weekend. The Whelen Modified Tour will be on hand for a 150-lap race on Sunday with qualifying the day before. Also on Sunday, there will be the ever famous and ever popular CARQuest Pit Party from 11:00am EST to noon EST. If you take a look at the schedule, you'll see that the SK Modifieds and the Late Models will be adding ten laps to their features. Please don't miss it for what it's worth, and I'll see you this weekend starting on Saturday.

More to come within the course of the week.