Dual Batch of Fireworks

Today, there's no time for unnecessary chit-chat. I've been a part of a fairly good hot streak recently, getting my entries in before Thursdays. (I'm trying not to do these things on the absolute last day I possibly can.) Will the hot streak continue? Nope. I'm posting this on a Thursday. It looks like the streak has been broken. Anyway, there were five features and one LCQ that went on Friday night, so without further ado... I bring you the events of June 29: The second attempt of the Summer Blast-Off night.

We started the night off on the right foot when the non-qualified Late Models were brought out onto the track for their final chance to make the show. Sixteen laps of action, and no cautions to boot. When I said we were starting the night off on a good note, I really mean that. Anyway, taking down the win was Scott Cook, and he was followed by Jim Mavlouganes, division newcomer Dillon Moltz, and Mike Quintiliano. They would be racing right after the Limited Late Models ran their feature...

...And that was the first feature event of the night. Unfortunately, unlike the one and only last chance qualifier that ran previous to this race, the Limited Late Models began the night filled with cautions on just the second lap out of twenty. Now please excuse me for my poor taste in judgment regarding this caution, but the incident occured in turns three and four and for some reason, I just couldn't pinpoint about half of the cars in this. I know for a fact that two of the cars involved belonged to Andrew Durand and Pete Cayer, but there was a white car that was also a part of this and also a car that drove off and joined the group before I could tell what the number was. (So again, I dearly apologize.) Getting back to the action, however -- a grand total of only two more laps were run under green before the next caution came out. This time, it was for Jeff Hubbell who spun/wrecked in turn three. On lap six, Ed Charette, Jr spun on the backstretch, bringing out the third caution of the first feature. For some reason, cautions coming on every two laps were getting to be the next best thing, as two laps later, Paul Conte and Charette spin in turn four. After a quick caution, the green was back out. And this time, more than two laps were run under the green... They got five laps in before Darrin Havanec and Kevin Gambacorta get together in turns three and four. Luckily, this was the final caution of the feature, and the remaining seven laps were all run cleanly. Up front, Rick Lanagan was bound to make it two in a row by any means, and after holding off the challenge of Sean Foster, he would make it so. It was his third win of the season. Rounding out the top-four were Foster, Bill Davis, and Corky Hinze.

The warwagons and crews of the Late Models came out for their feature next, and they seemed to have a pretty decent race. The only two mishaps that occured came on lap-25. The first time, it was for a multi-car accident on the backstretch. The restart on the same lap bunched the cars back up because it was a false start. Other than that, it was pretty much caution-free. Tom Fearn didn't mind the two caution flags, it seemed, because his car seemed to have it all. He beat Corey Hutchings, Woody Pitkat, and Jim Peterson to the line to score his first win of the season.

Then, there was the traditional "beginning of summer" fireworks display. The people who were sitting around me at the time (and I don't think I could have counted all of the people before the lights were turned off) were really getting into the music; singing along and everything. It was just one of those laid back moments where I could remove myself from the book and focus on other things. Joyous occasion. Of course, the lights regained their power afterwards, and during the course of the brief intermission, drivers were starting to make their way from all places just to line up behind the backstretch. We still had three features to run.

Cue up the other bunch of crews and equipment for the SK Modifieds. Forty laps of racing pretty much saw a couple of false starts within a ton of cautions mixed in. (Or was it the other way around?) The action in this race started on the absolute first lap of the race, as the flagman didn't even have the green flag out of the way before the first yellow came out. It was for a multi-car accident that took place in the first and second turns. Pretty much everyone who was involved in that was able to drive off. The next three attempts to start the race gave us false start after false start. The fifth time was the one that sealed the deal, and the race was finally counting down laps. There were only three laps counted before the first caution. On lap-4, Jimmy Smith spun on the backstretch, giving the field their second (accident/spin related) caution. It was a quick yellow flag session, and about two to three pace laps later, the green was back out. Lap-7 was the next moment of gold when Richie Pallai, Jr spun in turns one and two. Again, minimal pace laps were run before the green was once again shown to the field. When lap-16 rolled around, the yellow was back out. This time, it was for a two-car accident coming out of turn two. (The numbers of the cars involved are unknown.) Debris remained, and clean-up commenced. After the clean-up session ended, it was time to get the show rolling once more. Unfortunately for the field, the caution came out one lap later, when Shelly Perry hit the outside retaining wall in turns three and four. The retry lap wasn't successful, as there was yet another false start to hinder the field. Four more laps were completed under green before Pallai and John Cleary were involved in a frontstretch incident. On the very next lap, the caution string continued to unravel when Curt Brainard spun/was in a solo-car incident on the backstretch. The field got seven laps in before the next caution period occured, starting on lap-28 when Bo Gunning -- who was driving a backup car provided to him by Frank Ruocco -- gave us yet another caution by hitting the wall in turn four. Speaking of Ruoccco, the next caution came out a lap later after he spun in the frontstretch grass. The next time there was a back-to-back caution session was on laps 36 and 37. The former was for Scott Bennett, who spun in turns three and four. The latter was for a multi-car accident coming out of two and ending up on the backstretch. The lap-37 accident happened to be the last caution of the event, meaning it was a race to the finish line. Zach Sylvester and Woody Pitkat battled each other for the win, and it looked like Pitkat had Sylvester a couple of times. But in the end, Sylvester won his first feature in seven years. Pitkat came in second, followed by Keith Rocco and Ted Christopher.

The life and times of the extra support from the inside-the-track pits soon faded, and the DARE Stocks took to the track for the first of the two 15-lap features of the night. The first caution flew on lap-6 when Melissa Blowers spun in turn four. On the restart, Steve Berardi and John Kasper were involved in a turn-two accident, bringing the caution out yet again. Once that was cleaned up, a couple of pace laps were run and the green was brought back to the field. Fortunately, a dozen laps were run under normal, fast-paced conditions. Of course, there was always a catch to the matter. That was that after those six laps were run, Rob Lawrence spun in the middle of turns one and two, making the flagman wave the yellow for a third time. Only two laps after the spin, a five-car accident on the backstretch had the cars parade around the track for more pace laps. The cars involved were Lawrence, Robert Thompson, Jim Sullivan, Tom Stirk, and Duane Provost. The final caution of the event occured on the original white flag lap, when a multi-car caution occured on the frontstretch. Now with the cautions out of the way, the race belonged to Dean Casagrande. He scored his first win of the season, and he was followed by Norm Sears, Vince Gambacorta, and Bill Dunn.

The final race of the night belonged to the SK Lights. And unlike previous episodes, they managed to have a fairly clean race. All in all, there were three cautions: The first of which was on the opening lap of the race when Scott Nordman, Kyler Cafro, and Mike Sweeney, Jr collected each other on the frontstretch. I believe it was Nordman and Sweeney's cars that needed to be pulled apart. The good part about it was that both cars were finally unhooked from each other, yet both would be done for the night. On lap-9, Alan Provost spun in turn three, bringing out the second caution of the race. And finally, Aaron Goff was involved in a solo-car accident on the backstretch on lap-11, ending the night filled with cautions. Glen Reen, who had been out in front since around the time the second caution occured, never lost the lead to anyone and took down the win. This was his second win of the season. Rounding out the top-four were Brit Andersen, Chris Matthews, and Matt Gallo.

And now, before I cut you loose for the remainder of the night, some highlights from Loudon and the Saturday filled with open wheels and the stars and cars of the Busch Series. Donny Lia won his third race in a row and fourth out of the six races run so far after taking down a shortened feature event. After a lap-36 caution had to be red flagged, the fine folks from NASCAR realized that if the Tour continued into the planned start of the Camping World 200, those who came for the second race wouldn't be too happy. So the race was cut from 100 laps to only 85. In the Camping World 200, it came down to a showdown between Kevin Harvick and Carl Edwards... Which ended with Harvick just squeaking out the win. When I get the photos developed, I will share them with you.

That's it. We are done. I would like to remind all of you that the next event at Stafford will be the 13th Annual DiGiorgi Roofing and Siding Late Model 100. You heard me -- 100 laps for the Late Models and regular distanced features for the other men and women (weather permitting). It looks okay for now, with a 30 to 40 percent chance of rain throughout the late afternoon and evening. So until tomorrow, stay dry and safe; and I hope to see you then.