Controversy? Rain? Cautions? I Highly [Doubt] It

No time to sit and think of things. I'm late, I'm late... I'm late! (You can clearly tell that I haven't seen Alice in Wonderland in a long time.) But for the record, this is the third week now that I've brought you results on the absolute last day I can possibly get them to you by. So feel lucky that on last Friday night -- Friday the 13th -- you had your standard one after the other, four divisions of Stafford racing. Why I say "four divisions" will be explained in detail towards the end of this whole thing. So shall we pick things up at around 7:32ish with the double green flags to signify the start of the DARE Stock race? I thought you'd never ask.

So like I said previously: At around 7:32pm, the man on top of the starter's stand opened up the feature portion of the evening with dual green flags for the 15-lap DARE Stock event. Things looked to be perfect for the first twelve laps of the race, with Dan Flannery leading the first eleven of them before Carla Botticello took over. Unfortunately for her, that's when the cautions started to come out. There weren't that many of them. The first of them occured on lap-13 (whoa, how ironic) as Barry Fluckiger, Frank Thompson, and Jim Brice found each other up in turn four. Back to green, and Botticello seemed to pull away from the field. On the white flag lap, she almost had things wrapped up... Until the cars of Cliff Saunders, John Hurley (who I haven't seen in a DARE Stock since at least two years ago?) and Matt Chiarizio were collected in a turn three caution, setting up a green-white-checkered situation. On the restart, Dean Casagrande tried to overpower Botticello, but it was Botticello who overpowered the field, scoring her second win of the season. Casagrande was second, followed by Flannery and Bill Dunn.

For the next two races, the action went from full fender to open wheel, starting with the 20-lap SK Light feature. Now note that since they've gone switched back to 20-lappers, they still have a time limit of 20 minutes. And since the July 6th event, I've been keeping tabs on when a feature starts (green waves) and finishes (first car crosses the finish line). Let me tell you right now that this did not come out to anything less than or equal to their time limit. The action started on the very first lap of the race, courtesy of Ted Cain, who saw the Armco barrier in turn one up close and personal. Green comes back out, and Alan Provost gets out to the top spot early. But the lead would be short lived, in a sense, as on lap-2, there was a four car accident on the frontstretch. The drivers involved in that time-consuming accident were Brit Andersen, Glenn Griswold, Michael Lane, and Scott Nordman. It was a lengthy caution, as the fine folks of the Super Clean Safety Team were on the scene, removing cars and dumping speedy-dry all over the frontstretch where Lane hit the wall. Once the accident scene turned into clear race track, the race resumed. Provost takes over the lead again, but Glen Reen was coming up strong, and Reen became the second leader of the race on lap-6. On lap-7, Jason Moore spun on the backstretch, bringing out a quick caution. Thank goodness for quick cautions, because at least one of the next two wouldn't be quick by any one of the definitions of the word. Reen would take advantage on the restart, and now trying to move to the front of the field was Chris Matthews. Matthews would make the jump up to second before a lap-17accident in turns three and four sent the field back under the yellow, involving Moore, Kyle Spencer, Fred Nees, Jr, and Rich Hammann. You'd think by now, someone in race control would remind the starter that it had been over twenty mnutes since the first wave of the green, right? Well, not really. As the green came back out, the car of Heather DesRochers ended up in the frontstretch wall, right about where I had been sitting. This was the second long yellow flag of the event. Once again, the Super Clean Safety Team was on the scene, placing lots of speedy-dry around the car and where her Light had ended up. This also set up a four-lap dash between Reen and Matthews, which ended up being Reen's race. He won his third race of the 2007 season. Matthews, Provost, and Mark Bakaj rounded out the top four. In the wonderful world known as technical inspection, however, Provost's car did not meet the minimum weight requirement of 2600 pounds, so he had to give up third place.

Attention was now shifted from how Modifieds did on their own to how they'd fare if they had help via the infield pits, because it just so happened to be time for the 40-lap SK Modified feature. You can clearly tell that by now, there had to be something in the sky, because during this race, there was a lot of jumping from whomever was in the front row later on in the event. But we'll begin from the top as we usually do, starting on the opening lap. That provided the first caution, when Zach Sylvester, Willie Hardie, and Shelly Perry were involved in a turn three accident. After this, the field played their own version of Musical Chairs. On the restart, Kerry Malone took control of the race, but he'd only lead a lap as Brad Hietala would lead the second lap. Hietala's lead wouldn't last for long either, as a new leader emerged on lap-3: That being Frank Ruocco. The action in the front would start to die down for a little bit as some action in the back picked up from last time. On lap-7, there were at least four drivers who weren't really up to speed, sending the field into caution mode for the second time in the race. The drivers were Ronnie Silk (taking over the #15 ride for the remainder of the '07 season), Richie Pallai, Jr, Jeff Baral, and Kirk Zervas. There might have been another one or two cars in that, but I couldn't tell you. (Sorry.) All right, the race went back to green, keeping the lead in Ruocco's hands until lap-9. That's when Pallai was in his second accident along with Lloyd Agor, this time in turns three and four. And then, there was a long green flag session with a new leader that would have his own problems. Keith Rocco had suddenly become the fastest driver on the track, and he passed quite a few contenders before finally passing Ruocco on lap-31. I'm about to tell you that when I mentioned something about jumping restarts, you'd find plenty of that after the original attempt at getting lap-33 completed. The first time the caution was brought out, it was for Pallai, who couldn't keep his car going in one straight direction. His car was in a one car accident in turn four. Needless to say, he wouldn't be a factor in the decision. Meanwhile, up front, the field was about to do a little shuffling in the first two rows. The initial front row for the first two attempts at a redo were Rocco and Woody Pitkat, who had moved up to second in the two laps after the lead change. Attempt two: Rocco jumped the start. On the third and fourth attempts at a redo, the SK field brought to me: Pitkat jumping and having to get put back a row thanks to race control. This now had Rocco and Ruocco on the front row for the fifth try. As the green came back out, it seemed as though Rocco's #78 may have had a problem, and a multi-car caution ensued just behind him. Hate to admit it, but Ben Dodge and Matt Buckler said he had problems, I said he had problems... Heck, I think everyone knew that his car had a couple of problems. What does race control do? Changes things up yet again. Now you had the top-four as follows: Rocco, Ted Christopher, and a second row of Ruocco and Pitkat (which I couldn't remember who was where, thank you). All I remember was that the four of them were just battling it out for the spots, and it ended up being Keith Rocco scoring his second win of the season. The rest of the board was Christopher, Pitkat (who had no air filter), and Ruocco. Now usually, it's just the top-three winding up in technical inspection. But for some reason, all four of them were inspected. No positions were lost in this chaos, and strange enough, it only took 35 minutes to finish the race.

Okay, it was time to go back to some full fenders now, because the Limited Late Models were ready to chomp at the track. Kevin Gambacorta took the early lead, even when David Capriati and Paul Conte spun in turns three and four on the second lap of the race, bringing out the first caution. On the restart, it was Gambacorta again, and it seemed as though nothing could stop him... Until lap-8, when Michael Nadeau and Sean Foster were involved in a two-car accident on the backstretch. It was on the restart when Gambacorta lost the lead to Charlie Newman, who now dominated the race until a lap-15 caution: Conte spinning in turn two. Under the caution, trouble occured with Newman's car, and he had to end his race on pit road. This now gave the lead to Andrew Durand. Durand would take control when the green came back out, but the lead shrank on lap-16. Gambacorta and Jeff Hubbell were the next two to bring out the yellow as they were involved in an accident in turns one and two. It was Durand's show for the final five laps of the race, and he would just sail to his fourth win of the season. Bill Davis, Rick Lanagan, and Michael Chaves rounded out the top-four.

As for the Late Models, well... They did take the green flag. Mark Lewis and Steve McQuillan did end up wrecking on lap-3 (in turn three). And on the restart, there just so happened to be a false start. But it began to slowly rain on their parade for the second week in a row. This was about at 10:00pm, but could the track be saved once the rain started to fall heavily? Not a chance. The race had to be called. The other 27-laps of this race will be made up, starting where the race was left off, on July 27th. I cannot tell you who was in the lead at the time the race was halted, so you'll have to stay tuned to find out who wins this one.

But let's shift our attention back towards tomorrow night. You know how wild that Late Model 100 was two weeks ago? If you liked that, you'll definitely like what is planned for this week. Think open-wheeled excitement, mixed in with cash bonuses and possible pit road strategy. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the 34th annual Coors Light SK Modified 100. Last year, it was Todd Owen winning it all. Can he repeat the feat and go back to back? Will another driver do it if he can't? In a little more than a day, those questions should be answered... Weather permitting. I've checked a couple of news stations last night, and they claim that it's going to be morning rain. One station has some rain coming in later that night, but nobody's got it added on their "seven day forecast" or whatever. In the event of rain, I will report right here. So until tomorrow, stay safe and dry, and I will see you around.