A Night to (Semi)-Remember

Okay, so again I've put this off until the absolute last day. (Though this time, with the amount of material I'm covering, it could have been worse. I could be writing this before the time I usually seclude myself and get ready for our next event.) But breathe easy, readers, as I uncover the mysteries, secrets, and scandals that was the June 8 event at the Stafford Motor Speedway... Which in turn included the first and only appearance for the Busch East Series, and that in turn gave fans their only opportunity to see some of the top developmental drivers racing for the major NASCAR Nextel Cup teams. Stars and cars all around, and not a second's worth of time to waste. So let's get to the action!

We started the night with thirty cars taking two laps of time each. Because sitting in the stands and trying to listen to all of the times was going to be quite difficult, I gave myself ample time and grabbed some pavement over by the time trial board towards the end of their session. There, I got a good look on how they do things: More organized than any other touring series I've seen in my life. (And I haven't seen too many.) Due to this prim and proper style of getting things done, I found that finding the fast time was going to be easy. And it was... Your fast time was 19.573 seconds (translating to 91.963 miles an hour), and it belonged to Sean Caisse. Regardless of where anyone qualified, there was no redraw. So where they qualified was where they would start in the feature later on in the night.

And now, we jump to our local part of the program. Since all weekly drivers in the top-18 in points were qualified into their respective features, there happened to be no last chance qualifiers. At about 7:30, we went from awards and the opening ceremonies to the SK Lights and their 15-lap feature. Their race started slow as on the opening lap, Aaron Goff spins in turn one. When officials wanted to try again, the cars of Harry Wheeler, Rich Hammann, Scott Nordman, and Ray Griffen, Jr were all involved in an accident that happened at the end of the frontstretch and into turn one. The third time was a charm, and they went a whole five laps before the caution flew again. This time, the wreck took place in the middle of the first and second turns. Involved in this melee were Brit Andersen, Chris Matthews, and Josh Sylvester. After that, it was smooth sailing to the finish. Matt Gallo held off a charge from Raymond Grassetti to score his first victory of the season. Grassetti came in second, followed by Kyler Cafro, Glenn Griswold, and Mark Bakaj.

For the second feature, it was time to bring out the warwagons. We were going racing with fenders, because the Late Models took to the track. Everything was fine from the drop of the original green flag to around lap-13, when Doug Blowers spun on the backstretch. After he drove off, we were back to good, clean racing for the most part. But this all changed on lap-24 when it looked like someone's engine expired on them. The Super Clean Safety Team was on the case, applying speedy dry onto the track, starting in the vicinity of turn two. Of course, this race just wouldn't be complete without one more caution, and on the final lap, we got it. Blowers spun again -- this time, on the final lap -- in turn four, sending the boys into a mode of green-white-checkered. At the front of the pack, it was an intense two-lap battle, with Scott Foster, Jr and Jim Mavlouganes battling for the win. But Foster held Mavlouganes off and scored his second win of the season. Ryan Posocco and Jim Peterson rounded out the top-4.

Our third race of the night belonged to the Limited Late Models. They couldn't get one lap in before the first caution of the event flew. It was for Joey Ferrigno and David Capriati, who got into an accident over in turn four. When they were able to get the race "underway", they only got three laps in. On lap-4, Charlie Newman spun in turn four, which brought out yet another yellow. The second chance to get that lap into the record books didn't fare so well, as Peter Martin and Rick Lanagan were involved in an accident on the backstretch. Up front, however, it was all Andrew Durand. It was like a celebration lap as he claimed his third win of the '07 season. Darrin Havanec, Sean Foster, and Kevin Gambacorta finished off the board.

You've seen all of the good, clean races that occured so far, right? Who would have thought that the race of the night, however, belonged to the next set of cars to run: The SK Modifieds. From what I've read, nearly every car in the field of 27 either dropped out of the race early due to some problem, or was a part of one of the thirteen cautions that they brought out. The action got started on the second lap of the event, as Richie Pallai, Jr spun in the second turn. Six laps later, we had caution number two when Scott Bennett spun in turn four. Three laps later, a black car (I believed it to be Bennett) spun again; this time on the backstretch. After he drove his car off, we had our longest green flag session of the entire race: A whole 16 laps were run under the green before Curt Brainard spun in turn four on lap-27. A false start proved to be the case the second time around, and the third time was not a charm this time as there was a multi-car accident in turn three. The Mods could only get two laps in during the next green flag period, as Keith Rocco, Ted Christopher, Eric Berndt, John Cleary, Scott Bennett, Rowan Pennink, and Curt Brainard were involved in an accident in turn four. (Thankfully, Ben Dodge provided us with a list of who was involved in that accident. I wouldn't be so lucky again.) When they tried to do the lap again, there was controversy afoot. Coming out of two, Willie Hardie appeared to be knocked from both the side and the back and nailed the backstretch wall, collecting Lloyd Agor and Wade Mattesen in the process. Fingers were being pointed at the two possible suspects who might have ended Hardie's night: Zach Sylvester, who was the leader at the time of the caution, and Frank Ruocco, who was behind Hardie. For both of them, they ended up on the safe end of the deal. No black flags were given during the duration of that caution period. All might have been safe for now, but only one lap was turned under green as Cleary and Pennink were involved in an incident on the backstretch. On the possible restart, there was another multi-car accident on the backstretch. It could have been worse, as nearly everyone who wasn't a part of the accident tried to steer clear of a spinning Frank Ruocco. There appeared to be no contact. After the cleanup commenced, we got three laps into the record books before Keith Rocco brought out another caution. This time, it was a cingle-car accident in turn three. Two more laps would be run under green before Todd Ownn and Agor would bring out the twelfth caution... An incident on the backstretch. More fingers were pointed at people after this was said and done, but it turned out that Owen had a problem with the car. Therefore, nobody was to blame for knocking out another two cars. But the restart? Well, that didn't bode so well for both Sylvester and Christopher. The pace car wasn't even safely off the track yet, and there was a multi-car caution on the frontstretch. I couldn't tell who or what caused this to occur, but it knocked a few contenders out of this event. It set up a six-lap dash to the finish, however, for those who were still able to get their cars around the track at a safe speed. Only two cars had a shot of winning the feature, from what I could tell... Ruocco and Berndt. Berndt tried his best to make a move, but it wasn't enough. After about one hour, thirteen minutes of dramatics, we finally had a winner in this collected pile of chaos. It would be Ruocco's second win of the season. Berndt would finish second, followed by Bo Gunning and Brad Hietala.

And now we shift our attention from something that took nearly forever to complete to something that took about three minutes out of my time. The last weekly division to go was the DARE Stocks. And after what had happened in the previous features, they ran yet another caution free event. Norm Sears would be your winner, taking his second win of the season. (For some reason, the track's site says that this win was his first. Last time I checked, he was declared the winner of the May 4th event. I do not have the information about the reasoning at my fingertips at this point in time.) The rest of the board had Vince Gambacorta second, Duane Provost third, and Matt Chiarizio fourth.

Now it leads us to the main point of the evening (though I've already mentioned which race was the race of the night). It was finally time for the TSI Harley Davidson 150. Unfortunately, I would leave the track a bit early. I don't think this race was up my alley, and perhaps it was because I wasn't willing to sit down to watch this. Though I can tell you that the winner of the event was Eddie MacDonald, who isn't running every race on the schedule this year due to sponsorship issues. Following him to the line were Mike Olsen, Matt Kobyluck, Marc Davis, and Bryon Chew.

Now that I've spent the time going over what was a wild night, I would like to tell all of you that we are racing tomorrow evening. We are going back to having qualifiying heats for the Stafford divisions because we have no major touring series here until July 10, which by my page is a Tuesday night. Sit back, relax, and have a nice, safe, rest of the day. I'll see you tomorrow night. Until next time, the gas pedal's on the right...