Late Model 100 and the Extreme Tuesday That Was

Well, gee. Again I decide to put this off until Thursday. I must be having the worst luck this season. Oh, well. I brush off my keyboard and I shall bring you action from the Late Model 100 and other features that took place on July 6. Let me tell you now that the only ones who had qualifying heats were the Late Models, only because the weather was sort of stinky earlier in the day. It rained for a good hour, starting at around 3:00pm, and then went on and off until about 5:30pm. There were no other major problems that happened during the three heats and practice, so let's get right to the action.

We started with the SK Lights, who before their feature had been told that they were going back to racing 20-lap features due to good behavior. For the most part (and I don't know if I should really be using that term lightly), it was a pretty good race. The first five laps of the race were clean, but as the cars were coming around to finish the sixth lap, there was an incident. I don't remember who or what caused this to occur, but in the end, five cars were involved in a turn four and frontstretch accident. Those involved were Matt Gallo, Heather DesRochers, Josh Sylvester, Michael Lane, and Mark Bakaj. The cleanup, courtesy of the Super Clean Safety Team (which irks me just typing that), took a couple of laps to get everything off the track. Once all of the accident was safely behind pit wall, the race resumed. Lap after lap ticked off until lap-17, when Tony Santangelo spun in turn one, bringing out the caution again. After the caution was when things really started to pick up. It was almost assumed that Chris Matthews was going to drive off into the sunset, but coming up through the field like a spitball was Brit Andersen. When Andersen caught up to Matthews, the two of them had an intense battle that lasted until the final lap of the race. The finishing order was decided in the last turn, down the frontstretch, and across the finish line as Andersen beat out Matthews by near centimeters. Glen Reen and Joe Allegro, Jr rounded out the top-four finishers.

The next feature to roll off was the Limited Late Models, who also ran a 20-lap feature. Luckily for them, they managed to get all of their cautions out of the way before the first half of the race expired. The first two cautions of the race took place on the opening green flag. The first of which was for Darrin Havanec, Sean Foster, and Shawn Thibeault, who were involved in a first turn accident. When the tried to start the race again, Foster and Havanec spun in about the same location as the accident. When the track was cleared, the race resumed. And wouldn't you know it... The third time was the charm. Unfortunately for them, they only got a full lap in before the next incident. That time, it was for Ed Charette, Jr who spun in turn two. (At this time, in the kitchen, there is a bunch of screaming that'll soon get put to a stop. Excuse me if I suddenly have an attitude for the rest of this entry.) Now where was I? Oh, yes: Only four more laps were completed until Thibeault spins in turn one. So now that the cautions for this event were out of the way, there was some actual racing for about fourteen laps. And unlike the race before this one, the lead never changed hands. Bill Davis lead every lap imaginable to score his first feature win of the season. Andrew Durand came in second, followed by Charie Newman and Kevin Gambacorta.

I'm sorry, but before you can breathe easy, we had the SK Modifieds on the track next. Forty laps of action with a couple of cautions sprinkled in, mixed with some intense battles for the lead equals a good preview for the main event, in my honest opinion. We'll start five laps into the race, when Willie Hardie, Wade Mattesen, and Jeff Baral get tangled up in turn three, bringing out the first caution of the event. Hardie's problems would continue on the restart, as he spun in the infield as the green was barely put away. Needless to say, the yellow was brought back out. Up front, there was a good battle for the lead on the third try to restart the race, with Kerry Malone up front and Bo Gunning trying to take the spot away from him. On lap-7, however, both of them would end up in a turn four and frontstretch accident. Lloyd Agor and Eric Berndt were the other cars involved. This put Keith Rocco in the lead. He would dominate the race until lap-30, as Woody Pitkat and Jeff Johnson were involved in an accident in turn two. A false start proved to be the case on the original restart, and when the green flag proved to be successful on the second attempt, Ted Christopher made a charge. Lap-31 gave us our third leader of the race, when Christopher finally made the move around Rocco to take the lead. Rocco would soon end up in some hot water when on the next lap, him and Brad Hietala came together and went up into the turn three wall, collecting John Cleary and Todd Owen as well. Christopher would dominate on the restart, and the laps ticked down until there wasn't any time left. He claimed his first win of the season and first since the 2006 Spring Sizzler. Rounding out the top-four were Pitkat, Gunning, and Zach Sylvester.

Then it was time for the main event... The 13th annual DiGiorgi Roofing and Siding Late Model 100. For the first three laps of the race, the field was under green flag conditions. This was until on lap-4, when Mark Lewis, Tom Fearn, and Tom Butler were involved in an accident in turn three. Butler was on and off pit road for most of the caution so that his crew could duct tape his car together because the caution was that bad. On the restart, the caution came back out again. This time, it was for a reason I couldn't spot in time (or it wasn't mentioned -- I don't know). In this race, the third time showed a spin, courtesy of Billy Snow, Jr, on the frontstretch. Around this time, Mother Nature was starting to play tricks on us. She would become the suspect on lap-6 when a number of cars were collected as part of a backstretch accident. There were nine cars involved, all of which had some form of damage to their cars or another. Woody Pitkat, who had finished second in the SK Modified race, had to get the right side of his car welded... Well, in two shifts. The rain started to come down heavier, and the drivers were instructed to bring their cars down to pit road. The race was red flagged. Crew members were allowed to head back into the paddock area to retrieve car covers and tarps, and a good majority of them had covered the cars before the rain got slower and slower until it had went away without hassle. The track was dried, thanks for the safety team and tire brigade, and the red turned to yellow. The yellow would not be seen again until lap-14, when David St. Amant spun in turns three and four. Then there happened to be a long green flag session, lasting from the restart to lap-33. Again, St. Amant brought out the caution after he spun in about the same place in three and four. There happened to be another long green session, coming to a little over halfway. Picking up a $100 bonus for leading at the halfway mark was Jim Mavlouganes, and he led until lap-55 as Jim Peterson took over the leading duties. Also at that point, Michael Bennett had a meet and greet session with the frontstretch wall, causing the yellow to come back out to visit the field. The next caution would not come until the 77th lap of the race when -- how appropriate was this -- Ed Ricard (driving #77) spun in turn four. Take two of the lap-77 restart gave us the first and only false start of the entire event. Only two laps of green were run before Ryan Posocco and Tony Lafo brought out the caution on lap-79 via a fronstretch accident. A quartet's worth of laps ticked by before Butler and Scott Cook were invoved in a turn one incident. Two laps before this one, Mike O'Sullivan secured the lead over Peterson after Peterson apparently had problems. The final caution occured on the 89th lap of the race when Scott Foster, Jr and Doug Blowers, Jr got caught up in a two-car accident on the backstretch. With that in the books, O'Sullivan just took control of the race and claimed it as his own, winning the longest race of the season for the Late Models. Completing the board were Peterson, Mavlouganes, and Corey Hutchings.

Although it was now 11:26pm, the DARE Stocks closed the night with plenty of time to spare. There was only one caution in the entire race, and that belonged to Steve Berardi spinning on the frontstretch on lap-10. Other than that, it was nice and quick: The quickest race of the night (12 minutes). Bill Dunn really didn't have to worry about the caution too much, as with less than a lap to go, he passed Rob Lawrence for the lead and the win. Lawrence would finish in second, followed by Megan Bienkowski and Barry Fluckiger. Post race inspection would put a damper onto someone's parade. That someone was Lawrence. His car had more than 23 percent of the weight on the left side of the car, so he was disqualified from second place.

I shouldn't forget what happened Tuesday night -- the CARQuest Extreme Tuesday program took place. Winning there was Rob Summers in the ISMA Supermodifieds, Erica Santos with the NEMA Midgets (becoming the first girl to win in the division), and Jeff Zuidema in the Pro-4 Modifieds.

Now then, to this week's story: It's a regular night of racing, boys and girls. It's also known as "Town Fair Tire Summer Heat", whatever that means. I'm thinking it's just a fancy way of saying that it's a regular night. The feature order starts with any last chance qualifers, if any; followed by the five divisions in the following order: DARE Stock, SK Lights, SK Modifieds, Limited Late Models, and Late Models. And for those of you who have a youngster in the Kids Club, be sure to remind them that there's a meeting tomorrow. I would wish that the track had a list of drivers who would show up to visit, but I'd probably be following them if I found out along with you. So... Yeah. Okay, that's it for now. It's 5:30pm here, and I'm done. So until tomorrow, I bid you good evening.