SK Lights Do Thompson - Round II

Last year, it was determined that the SK Lights would be allowed to compete at the World Series of Speedway Racing at Thompson. After that race, they were invited back to race again. Not going to run down the whole finishing order, but Thompson does have a finishing order here if you wish to look at it.

National Championship in Connecticut

The first champion of the 2010 season has been announced. No, it is not a track champion. Although give it time; I'm sure that before the Fall Final, there will be at least one champion crowned before the season officially ends. I'm talking about a national champion.

How about for the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series? I like that idea. And the winner is... Keith Rocco.

Remember his win in the second of two SK Modified races? Well, that was win #17 in the quest for a perfect season in 2010. A perfect season, as already referenced, is 18 wins with at least 20 cars starting a top division. At the three Connecticut tracks, the top division is a Modified. He had two wins at Thompson (although the car counts have been slacking this season and when 20 cars did show up, he wasn't), eight wins at Stafford (counting Friday's win) and before Saturday night, only nine wins at Waterford. That totaled 17 wins with a full field.

Saturday night, Rocco was able to win the SK Modified feature at Waterford and finish the goal. He has 810 points, and even if someone else were to make it to 18 wins, it would be for second in the overall standings - the tiebreaker, according to the Courant's racing blog - is that the first person to reach 810 points would automatically become the champion.

Congratulations, Keith.

(EDIT: Here is a story from Stafford's site.)

And Now, for Something Completely Different.

I said I was going to get this out on Thursday, but an early Friday morning post must be a lot better. As most of you know, last Saturday was the first Whelen Modified Tour/K&N Pro Series race at Lime Rock Park. I was there and took a few photos and videos for you. First up, here's the video in three parts.







And for the pictures, here are a few of them for the time being. All of them can be found on my Webshots account.




The event will be seen on Speed channel on the 24th of July. (Of course, this will be edited if I forgot the date and it's wrong.)

Thursday News

This is what we call "the calm before the storm". When you wake up in the morning, you will be prepared for two days of racing action. There is some pre-weekend news for you before things get a bit crazy at SMS.

+ There's a very interesting trophy waiting for the winner of the May 7th Late Model 100. What is it? It's a hood from a passenger car that will be airbrushed by students from Lincoln Tech Institute. If you'd like to take a look at it, it will be on display at their booth on the midway before the evening's event gets going.

+ On the second week of racing action, welcome Darrell Yarborough Nationwide Insurance to the contingency list. They've hooked up with the SK Light division, giving $50 to the third place finisher in each race on the schedule.

+ Spend $59 on events at Charlotte Motor Speedway and/or zMAX Dragway, and get a $10 voucher to get into your favorite local short track. NASCAR affiliated.

+ And for those of you who are going to vote on the Craftsman Mechanic of the Year, please look at the following image (courtesy of the Stafford website):

Versus Announces Modified Tour TV Schedule

Stafford is getting a little air time this season, and it's more than you'd expect.

Two of the four Whelen Modified Tour races are confirmed to be a part of the package of races seen on Versus this upcoming season. In a press release from NASCAR (and reported the day before by the Courant), the Town Fair Tire 150 and the Fall Final will be seen on Versus in 2010.

Both races, along with seven others from both the Whelen Modified Tour and the Whelen Southern Modified Tour, will be shown twice after the event has concluded; the exception is the Bowman Gray Southern Tour race on the 7th of August.

The schedule is as follows (Stafford dates in italics):

July 31: WMT at Riverhead (August 4 @ 7pm and August 8 @ 11pm)
August 6: WMT at Stafford (August 11 @ 7pm and August 15 @ 11pm)
August 7: WSMT at Bowman Gray (August 18 @ 7pm and August 22 @ 11 pm)
August 12: WMT at Thompson (August 25 @ 7pm and August 29 @ 12am)
August 28: WSMT at Caraway (September 1 @ 7pm and September 5 @ 11 pm)
September 4: WSMT at Langley (September 8 @ 7pm and September 12 @ 11 pm)
September 15: WSMT at Tri-County (September 29 @ 7pm and October 3 @ 11 pm)
October 3: WMT at Stafford (October 6 @ 7pm and October 10 @ 11 pm)
October 17: WMT at Thompson (October 20 @ 7pm and October 24 @ 11 pm)

The good news is that Versus and DirecTV have indeed made nice, so you will be able to watch these events if you are a DirecTV customer.

SK Lights Do Thompson

Thompson's World Series program was supposed to be run last weekend. But the rain/snow hybrid postponed the event and moved it to this weekend. And while Saturday looks kind of evil in terms of weather, Friday looked fine and, as promised, the SK Lights took to the track to run their first ever event.

I wasn't there, but I can give you abbreviated results.

Brit Andersen took down the win. Kyle Spencer finished second with Erica Santos in third. This was after Andersen passed Spencer on lap-14 restart (a redo after the first attempt was deemed as a false start).

The rest of the top-five was Earl Pelletier and Raymond Grassetti. This was because SK Light points champion Michael Gervais, Jr originally finished fifth, but was removed from the fifth finishing spot because something on the car had violated the rules.

Information on Thompson's Friday results can be found here and here.

SK Lights to Debut at World Series

In a couple of weeks, racing at Thompson will end for the year. It will not go out without a bang.

Thompson has included a new division for the now 15-division program (including the Whelen Modified Tour, ISMAs, NEMAs, and the track's own weekly divisions). Cue the SK Lights of the Stafford Motor Speedway.

Or, as Thompson will be calling them, the SK Sunoco Light Modifieds.

The popularity to get the SK Lights to Thompson has been high. According to Don Hoenig, people have asked Thompson if they would accept the SK Lights at the track. This year, they will be making their track debut.

All rules that apply to SMS will be applied (.pdf file) to Thompson. The only difference is that the chip may be changed. Besides that, nothing.

The SK Lights will be running a 20-lap feature on Saturday, October 17.

Quite a Few Things; All Fall Final Related [FF MEGAPOST]

Whoops. Where has the year gone! I can remember coming on here to post news about the start of the season, and we're already at the end of September. I can't imagine what has happened. Looks like time does fly fast when you're having fun.

I've got a few stories to post for you, so let's do that before I procrastinate any longer than I already have been.

SCHEDULE RELATED
One race to go. One last link to post here (I hope). The schedule for the CARQuest Fall Final (part the 37th) can be found if you either click here or if you go off to the sidebar and look for all of the helpful links in regards to this weekend. There have been rumors of a rain date -- the weekend afterward, October 9-11, with maybe Columbus Day just in case -- but there may or may not be a need for that now since Sunday looks like it's going to clear up. Who knows? We'll find out when Saturday and Sunday get here.

DRIVER ROSTER RELATED
I've posted these with the schedule as well, over on the side in the sidebar. There are two driver rosters you have to be concerned about. They belong to the Whelen Modified Tour, which makes the final of four appearances this year, and the Mini Stocks, which are coming from just about all over the New England region. 41 Mini Stocks are expected to show up, including three guaranteed entries through qualifiers over the summer.

NEWS ARTICLES
A few stories you should brush up on between now and this weekend:

+ Ryan Preece is in third place in points coming into this weekend's event. He's 12 points behind Ted Christopher. A win in this could certainly shake up the championship battle as Thompson still looms over the horizon.
+ The winner of the last two Fall Final events at Stafford (WMT-wise)? Mike Stefanik. He's looking to win his third Fall Final event in a row. Eight of Stefanik's 20 career WMT wins at Stafford have come via way of the Fall Final.
+ Richie Pallai, Jr is hoping two things happen: First, that he wins the SK Modified race (he won the race during Spring Sizzler weekend). Second, he'd really like to start the WMT race. He missed the field last time by .004 seconds.

LATE MODEL NEWS
And to finish things up in a megapost of epic proportions, a quick sidenote that CoCo Key Water Resort will be sponsoring the #51 Late Model, owned by Guy Beaudoin.

Thursday News and Rumors

A few things on the docket on this beautiful Thursday afternoon.

+ We're trying to run the second of two Late Model 100s on Friday. The schedule's been up for a while now. The Late Models will close out the program. If you have a rain check from either the August 21 or August 28 program, feel free to use it.

+ According to the NASCAR Home Track's Twitter page, the new age limit for support and entry-level divisions at Whelen All-American Series tracks is 14. Will 2010 be the Year of the Youth Movement at Stafford? Only time will tell before we know for sure.

+ Finally, from the "rumor mill" files: Heard that Stafford is in the process of adding more races to the schedule. They'll be pushing back the Fall Final to Halloween weekend if that happens. If that happens, I've got two words for you. Bundle up.

Invasion of the Mini Stocks

In the eight full years I have been going to Stafford on a regular basis (I'm not counting 2000, when I started to go in the middle of the season, nor this season because it's not over as of yet), I have never seen a Mini Stock division race at the track. The closest I've gotten to seeing them is at Thompson and Waterford, as they have a regular division.

At the Fall Final this year, Stafford is allowing Mini Stocks from the other two Connecticut tracks, plus out of state tracks, to race in a 15-lap feature. It'll be an invitational-like process, where there will be qualifying races in the weeks leading up to the event (the winner of the August 8 race at Monadnock will get an automatic invite to the show), and other drivers can register through August and September. After September 28, there's an inspection fee of $20. Anyone who registers before that time pays no fee.

Since Stafford doesn't have their own Mini Stock division, teams will have to follow their home track's rules.

Registration forms are found on the home page of Stafford's site.

EDIT: As of August 6, there is now an entry list up on the track's site with a short but available list of drivers entered for this race.

View From Turn Four: '09 Bud Mod Nats

With the rainout on Friday (which I shouldn't even call a rainout), the plan for Saturday was to go to the Waterford Speedbowl for the second night of the Budweiser Modified Nationals. Now, keep in mind that qualifying for this event took place around the end of March. Yet the Sunday of the event was a rainout, and Waterford eventually rescheduled the event to May 30.

The trip was a plan with a purpose: I was there to track the progress of a group of drivers that I shall call the SMS Eight. Seven SK Modified drivers and one in the Street Stocks. Even if I had to stay there for the entire night, it was well worth it.

In pre-SMS attendees news, the action before the main event -- the SK Modified 150 -- was highly interesting. Pro-4 Modifieds had some guy blow his motor with about two laps to go and he actually finished the race... In third. I thought someone should have thrown the caution as soon as they saw the smoke, but two laps around Waterford in a Modified doesn't take long at all. And in the Late Model race, there was a red flag with 11 laps left in the race.

We finally get to the SK Modified 150. There were seven SMS reps in this event, including three track champions of the half-mile's SK class. The drivers who made the trip to the shore were, in order of finish:

• Doug Coby, finishing 2nd
• Keith Rocco, finishing 3rd
• Mark Bakaj, finishing 6th
• Frank Ruocco, finishing 10th
• Corey Hutchings, finishing 16th
• Ted Christopher, finishing 20th
• Kenny Horton, finishing 21st

Semi-related in regards to the results of the race -- Ron Yuhas, Jr became the first driver to win all three extra-distance races that the Speedbowl has over the course of the season.

Last up was the Street Stock feature. Kevin Gambacorta was the SMS rep in this race, finishing 16th.

All in all, a good night for racing. Five good features, and no rain in sight.

Speedway EXPO Pictorial

Here are some of the pictures I took while I was at Speedway EXPO today. Yes, they're more Stafford-centric, with a looksee into the future.

Keith Rocco's SK Modified.

Ted Christopher's SK Modified.

Norm Sears's Limited Late Model.


Jay Goff's SK Light.

The #92 Late Model. Currently on Stafford's site, the driver is TBA.

The Late Model that Ted Christopher will be driving for a few races this season.

Okay, so this was from the Lime Rock Park display. But this was cool looking.

The End of a Touring Era?

Here's a good piece from Shawn Courchesne of the Hartford Courant, in regards to short track touring series and their death from Connecticut tracks. It didn't just begin to dwindle with the sucking economy. This has been like this for a while now.

They've tried flash races. Didn't work.

They've tried massive weekend shows with numerous divisions. Yet it doesn't seem to work.

Who knows what might happen past 2009? The future of short track touring series is in serious Jeopardy.

[The Backstretch/Hartford Courant]

2008 Champ Goes WMT

I take it that the command to start engines for a Whelen Modified Tour race wasn't good enough for Keith Rocco.

He adds his name onto what is the largest entry list of the season for Thompson, joining 41 other drivers at the World Series of Speedway Racing this weekend. He'll drive the #00 machine owned by Joe Brady.

This is confirmed through both The Republican out of Springfield and Thompson's WMT entry list.

At a Loss For Words, Really.

I really don't know how to word this entry. These kinds of things are the hardest entries I write about, because it's hard to choose the right words. No matter what, the right thing to do is pull through.

I come with the saddening news that former Stafford Pro Stock and SK Modified driver Jay Miller died earlier this week at the age of 35.

He had been racing at Waterford for the past few seasons and had won his first career SK Modified race at the Bowl this year a little under three weeks ago. At Stafford, he won one Pro Stock race; that coming on July 7, 2000. (And as far as past track programs are showing, at least one SK Modified "21 Means 21" race the following year.)

Sorry for giving you the basics, but like I said above, I don't really know what to say. Rest in peace.

Quick WMT News

It's sort of off topic, but because they were only at Stafford less than a week ago, it's only fitting.

I am extremely saddened to pass on the news of events occuring as part of the August 16, 2007 New England Dodge Dealers 150 from the Thompson International Speedway.

On a lap-107 restart, a battle between the Blewett brothers, John III and Jimmy turned ugly. The two cars got together, sending the drivers into turns one and two, eventually ending with Jimmy's #12 on top of John's #66. Jimmy quickly exited his car and got the track crew's attention by flailing his arms. Clearly he was concerned for his older brother. As the crowd of about eight grand fell silent, the track crew went to the crash site, where they would have to cut the #66's car to get John out.

John was taken to Hubbard Regional Hospital in Massachusetts where he was pronounced dead. He was only 33. To read more, please read this article from the Hartford Courant.

Boy, What a Week

If you're a die hard race fan, you'd probably enjoy going to four events in four days. And at four tracks, too. But not all was scheduled on the appropriate day when threats of wet stuff came crashing down on Friday. This cancelled any plans of going to Stafford and therefore no regular entry for you this week. But no fear. Read on, faithful followers.

We'll start with Wednesday night and the second annual Seekonk (MA) Speedway Open Wheel Wednesday program. It was $10,000 to win and a grand total of 40 Modifieds tried their luck on the track. Of course, there happened to be a hint of controversy as I read that the Whelen Tour drivers got stuck racing in a heat together. Now what's up with that I don't know, but that really cheesed off a few people including last year's winner Donny Lia. He was in that eventful second heat along with a pack of Tour drivers including Chuck Hossfeld, Ted Christopher, Matt Hirschman, and even our Stafford representitive Frank Ruocco.

Before you say anything, let me tell you that I've read numerous opinions on this subject and I can't deny any and all words spoken. What I can tell you is this: When Hossfeld spun in the heat, Lia attempted to check up to avoid being a part of what was destined to be a wreck. When I say "destined to be", however, is when things really get going. Once Lia tried to check up, he got "run over" (using terminology from an article from Speed 51) by Ruocco. This was literally all that she wrote for Lia as he wasn't going to be around to defend his title from the previous year.

Of course, this is after running a consi with a field that was also packed with Whelen Tour drivers. How can you blame the luck of the draw? When you think it's fixed, of course. And people were really pointing fingers when True Value Modified Series driver Kirk Alexander won the race and the ten grand at the end of the night. Two more of the TVMS gang finished second and third, shaking the rattles of the WMS boys some more. Yet they calmed down some when Hossfeld became the only member of the crew to finish in the top-five, finishing fourth in a night deemed as controversial.

Another night that was in my mind was Friday and what little was run at Stafford. That night got rained out and was called off for good when a nice line of thunderstorms came across the state at around the four o'clock hour (Eastern Standard Time) and didn't wear off until about six o'clock. I was positive that the management was going to call the race earlier on in the day, but why push your luck when you've already got guys signed in and practicing? God only knows, and he won't tell answers. So we'll push this aside. We know now that another night has been called due to rain.

But things cleared up for Saturday when it was a Waterford night. And because of the previous night's rainout, Mom and I decided to go. Once again, prepare for a quick entry of "The View From Turn Four", the companion to "The View From Turn One". Now, this'll be a bit different than what I usually do for Stafford because I've used up all of my brain energy with going over Seekonk. But I can give you some winners. Sound good to you? Good! Here they are--the winners of the Bowl event of July 29th.

• SK Modifieds: Jeff Pearl
• Late Model: Tim Jordan
• Sportsman: Ron Oldham, Jr
• Mini Stock: Ken Cassidy
• Legends: Mark Bakaj (National Qualifier)

And who could forget all of the information regarding the night in question?

Other than that, I have nothing else to report on. Until Friday, can we all keep dry for a change? Thank you, and have a sweet rest of the weekend.

Whoa...Crazy Weekend

Yep, it's going to be insane this weekend. Stafford actually has a good enough weekend to get their regular Friday night installment done! Celebrate good times, come on! (Okay, I'll quit singing. Besides, my abilities suck anyway.) And after that, we get to make up a Whelen Modified Tour race. Doesn't that sound fun to you? Of course it does!

Friday night is the annual Late Model 100--and I can hear the open-wheeled fans right now groaning over the fact that it could potentially be a snorefest. Well, considering the fact that the other four divisions have regular-distanced features, I don't think I can go wrong on the above statement unless the race in question has more crashes than an action movie. That's all going down with little to no rain. *stands up and dances*

Gasp! But wait, there's more!

The Whelen Modified Tour's coming back for their make-up date from back in May. What date is this going to happen? July 4. Or as I like to put it, Independence Day. If you haven't paid attention to the schedule of events for that whole day, let me tell you that the pit gates open at a mind-boggling 7:30am Eastern Standard Time and the general admission gates open at 11:30am Eastern Standard Time. (This sounds like the Spring Sizzler or Fall Final, doesn't it? Anyway...)

So until Friday, I'll let you decide on one event or the other. (Or if you'd prefer more SK Modified action, I'll recommend the Pepsi 300 at the Waterford Speedbowl. Yet I doubt anyone will attend all three events over the course of five days...) Until then, take care and put some sunscreen on!

Stafford/Seekonk News

(Note: I don't want anyone nitpicking over the contents of this entry. I heard that the first part was a rumor and a rumor ONLY. And I figured that both parts of the entry couldn't wait, so...yeah.)

If Friday does end up being a washout--and I can't complain if it is because I'm older and more mature than my last entry--I'd like to explain to you about what might happen at the Waterford Speedbowl the following day. Can you say "Stafford invasion"? Well, fasten those seatbelts, Bowl Mod drivers. Because it could be the case. It's a rumor that Stafford Mod drivers Lloyd Agor, Jeff Malave, Kenny Horton and Frank Ruocco could climb in their rides for the Saturday (6/10) night event. Now, I said this was only a rumor. Hell, I can even get down on my knees and beg to you that I only heard about this through the grapevine. You can thank Making Laps' message board for getting me more than excited than ever. (And for almost making me get down on my knees. You know I won't do that until it's more than needed...) Now what do I do? Do I pray to Mother Nature and ask her to stop the rain for a change? Or do I end up asking Mom if we can take a mini-vacation back to the shoreline? I can tell you right now I'll be happy if this accusation is truer than reality shows and their spoiler sites.

Before I get comments from the peanut gallery, let me also introduce valuable information about Seekonk (MA) Speedway's second-annual Modified Madness event. This takes place July 26th--that's a Wednesday for you diehard Modified fans--so plan accordingly. If anyone who races an open wheeler's reading this and is considering going, I encourage you to go. The first installment drew a good number of entries (including a few local guys from Stafford), so it wouldn't hurt to get something going. Get it in before July 21st, though.

Okay, must go as it's late. I'll post more information about the invasion either Friday or Saturday (depending on what happens).

Waterford Wonders and a Rumored Driver Change?

(I'd also like this to be called "The View From Turn Four" since I really wasn't sitting in the Turn One area tonight...)

Okay, you're hearing me right. Let's start with the first subject on the docket and move from there, shall we? First we'll discuss what happened at the Waterford Speedbowl as I made a special Saturday night appearance at the 3/8ths mile track near the shoreline. And for a one-word speech, I'd like to say "Wreckfest". The only feature that did not have a caution flag in it was the SK Modified feature. That was single file from green to checker and very boring. *yawn* And there were many pissed off people in everything inbetween from the Mini Stock feature (with a last-lap spinout in Turn Four) to a red flag moment in the ISMA Supermodified feature which happened right in front of my seat. Only problem was people who were sitting near the start/finish line obscured my vision very quickly and even standing on the bleacher seat didn't help matters. All in all, I have to give my kudos to the competitors for providing me with my first racing action since May 5th. (Photographic evidence will be here later in the week.)

Now onto a rumored driver change in the near future: Could it be true? Sources say that the driver of a new DARE Stock (#25) could flunk English for the year as he's a high school senior. On the top of the waiting list is a name that I'm all too familiar with...Sherry Bassett. Um, let me put it into Layman's terms for you: My mother. This could go into effect as early as the June 2nd Stafford event. If you are going to be in the area that weekend and I get full confirmation about this change, be sure to come to the Turn One area of the general grandstands and help cheer on a first-time stock car driver.

Other than that, I think I've made my point clear. Take care and stay safe, everyone. (I would tell everyone to stay dry, but I think you took me up on that offer.)