Okay, here's what you've been waiting for now since I posted my other entry: The police blotter! I know, it doesn't like much, but it's really going to be something because it's the last thing you expect to hear. And with the night that went on Friday, trust me... There might be people reading this that have a different opinion. I don't know if you want to turn this into a huge conflict, but as long as I get this out of the way, I'm not the one who's going to be sticking my nose further into the situation. But here we go:
Lloyd Agor has been suspended for Friday night's event for unsportsmanlike conduct and due to the fact that he hit another car under the caution. (Here is a fan's take on the situation.) But on the other side of the spectrum, there is a familiar face to all of this. You should all know this name, boys and girls. Remember a man by the name of Chris Jones? Yes, he was the one who was escorted across the track during last season's Fall Final after a heated infield discussion. He returned, but he had someone else piloting the black #39. (The driver -- Todd Szegedy -- was just an innocent bystander.) But back to Jones... Just like last season, he had to be escorted across the track by a member of the security team. His slap on the wrist? He is indefinitely suspended from the paddock area and infield.
If you need to see the full detail, don't hesitate to see the rest of the police blotter.
Until the schedule for the July 27 event is posted, have a nice day.
After my hiatus since May, I've decided on a new lease on life. I've re-emerged from the dark layers of hell with a new location for all things VFT1.
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
A Rollercoaster Ride Worth Fifty Miles
Okay! Welcome to the fabulous world of a Tuesday afternoon at downtown "Small Town" Connecticut! I've been pretty lazy and/or willing to put off my entry until Thursday, but I wanted to give myself some ample time so that I wasn't on my butt trying to get the latest entry done on the last possible day. So with that said, I'm doing it three days before the next event. Unfortunately, I'll have to do a second entry right after this one so I can tell you all about what happened on the penalty notice sheet. There were a couple of bad boys during this heated night. For now, sit down, relax, sip some soda or whatever it is you drink at whatever time you're here, and listen as I tell the tale of the SK Modifieds going 100 laps... Plus four other features in the Whelen All American Series.
We started the night out with some full fendered action; more specifically, the cars of the Limited Late Models. Last time, their 20-lap feature ended up having four cautions in the middle of the action. We'll fast forward through the first fifteen laps of the race, telling you in the process that the race began with Sean Foster taking the lead and dominating up until the first caution on lap-16. That was when Barry Thompson spun in turns three and four. On the restart, Foster had the lead and didn't look like he was going to lose it. It appeared as though he would cruise to the win on the final lap, but as the white flag came out, the yellow was put into its place as Darrin Havanec spun in turn four, bringing out the caution to set up what looked like to be a green-white-checkered finish. Unfortunately for the field, their first attempt at the situation came up about one-and-a-half laps short. On the backstretch, Rick Lanagan ended up with the worst damage of a three car mess, with the end result being his car up against the wall going the other way. I'm looking at pictures of the night right now, and the press release on the track's site also agrees with the pictorial evidence: Paul Conte wanted to go airborne. (Let me be happy to say that it wasn't too bad and he was able to not destroy the car.) So now, there was a second attempt at a restart which proved to be the key to winning the race. Foster once again took control, and Charlie Newman followed him around the now third-place Andrew Durand. Newman tried to make a comeback, but it would be too late. Foster crossed the line first, scoring his second win of the '07 season. Newman, Durand, and Michael Nadeau finished off the scoreboard for this event.
The Limiteds exited the track via turn one, and in their place walked crew members, bringing out tools and other necessary equipment for 30-laps featuring the Late Models. Would you believe me if I told you that the Late Models and Limiteds finished their races in seventeen minutes each? I cannot tell a lie. That's exactly how it went. Here's extensive proof of what took place. Ed Ricard led the first two laps of the race, but whatever lead he had was short lived when Doug Blowers spun in turn four, bringing out the first caution of the event. When the green came back out, Ricard led until lap-3. And then, there was a lead change. Woody Pitkat became the new leader. And things were going on behind him. On lap-12, the cars of JJ Hill, Bobby Leone, and Rick Charette end up giving the field the second caution of the event. Charette looked like he backed up into the turn one wall, and Hill and Leone got together. Again, the green came back out. And again, Pitkat took control. The lead would only last for a couple more laps, however, because it was caution time once again. Turn one would be the scene of a two-car accident, and the two cars involved in this one belonged to Ryan Posocco and Jim Peterson, who are still tied for the all-time win lead as of the 20th. On the restart, Pitkat gave himself the lead again, and this time, nobody seemed as though they could have anything for him. He put on a show for the fans on the frontstretch as he crossed the finish line, claiming his first win of the (Late Model) season. Yes, I honestly thought he won more races in a fendered car. Finished in the top-3 a couple of times, but never had a win. Okay, the rest of the top-four: Jim Mavlouganes, Tom Fearn, and Corey Hutchings.
And now, things shift around. The full fendered automobiles take a little rest, and we drop the help on the infield for a race. This is open-wheeled competition with the sophomore season of the SK Lights. You might have heard what happened two weeks ago... They get five laps back, but they also have a time limit of twenty solid minutes to finish their race. Last week, things didn't fare too well. They went fifteen minutes over. Could the Lights rebound from the bad luck night of the 13th? I think the first lap told the entire story. A false start on the opening green flag bunched everyone up so that about a dozen of them could wreck in turns three and four as the second attempt almost became a possibility. You had the top-three drivers in the point standings involved in that (Chris Matthews, Glen Reen, and Brit Andersen), and just about everyone who was starting in the back. Needless to say, the race was red flagged with no laps on the board. Some of the cars involved got their cars moving so they could continue on with the race, while others -- like Glenn Griswold -- weren't so fortunate and had to be towed off and into the infield. Restart time comes, and Josh Sylvester assumes the top spot. The lead would have to be pulled back to the Earth's surface on lap-2, when Fred Nees, Jr winds up on the frontstretch in a solo-car accident. Sylvester would re-take the lead on the restart, but he would have a contender on his heels: Alan Provost. On lap-16, the lead changed hands when Provost snatched the lead away from Sylvester, and that would become the move of the race. Provost notched his first win of the season and of his career. Sylvester would come in second, followed to the line by Aaron Goff and Mark Bakaj. Length of race: Twenty-two minutes. They came close, I tell you.
Then it was time. The time of times! It was finally time to have the main attraction of the night. It was the 34th annual Coors Light SK Modified 100. A grand total of 28 cars started the feature, but only one could claim immortality... And a guaranteed spot in the SK-type portion of this year's North South Shootout at the Concord Motorsports Park. Who would win? The questions in the last entry would be answered in a total time of one hour, twenty-one minutes from the start of the race. The race would be Willie Hardie's from the opening green, even in the midst of three cautions between the first and 28th lap. The cautions would start coming like the plague on lap-14, when Shelly Perry brought out the first yellow flag with a spin in turn four. It was a minor incident; she drove off and it was a short caution. On the restart, Hardie took control again, but that lead only lasted three more laps as a second caution occured. Last year's winner of the event, Todd Owen, would be the next car to have problems on the night, almost as if he lost a tire and just sailed straight into the outside barrier. It would be assumed that the defending winner would not be able to defend the race successfully, handing over the title to another driver. But before we go too far ahead of ourselves, let's go back to the lap-17 restart. Again, you had Hardie taking the lead, and that would last for only four laps. Mark Anderson was the one who brought the caution out this time because he spun on the backstretch. This was a quickie caution, and the green would come back out probably less than a minute later with Hardie still in control. On lap-29, the car of Brad Hietala would experience heartbreak when he ended up in a solo-car accident in turn four. After cleanup commenced, the green came back out and it was Hardie leading the way. But now, however, Keith Rocco was coming up behind him and on lap-35, Rocco would help Hardie spin coming out of turn two. It was a four-car incident, including Jeff Malave, Richie Pallai, Jr, and Kenny Horton. Rocco would get black flagged for helping out with the caution, giving the lead to the all-time win leader period, Ted Christopher. But Christopher's lead was short lived. On the restart, Woody Pitkat stormed in front of Christopher and assumed the position of leader, even when there happened to be debris in turn four (this happening on lap-48). Pitkat went back into the lead, but it was only a lap until the next caution occured; this one being for Jim Larsen who spun in turn two. The next caution wouldn't come for a while, but there was still action. Christopher gained the lead back on lap-52, and Pitkat started to just slip back spot after spot until he really wasn't in contention anymore. Hope would seem lost for Pitkat until lap-79. Keith Rocco, who was black flagged earlier in the race, was now out of the race because his motor let loose in turns three and four, bringing out the caution. This allowed Pitkat to come to pit road and let his crew change tires. This would prove to be a very smart move for both him and his team. But at the moment, it was still Christopher out in front. The lead was erased once again when Larsen spun on lap-92 in turns three and four, setting up a crucial restart with Christopher still out in front. Pitkat was making a charge, however, and he would be back in contention on lap-95 when a series of problems occured. You had Hardie and Pallai spinning on the frontstrech, followed by Zach Sylvester in an accident in turns three and four, then Pete Pavone, Jr had his motor die on him on the frontstretch as the second restart bowed upon the field. The third test at the lap-95 restart would be a test of who would be able to get the better jump. The inside row had the advantage, but instead of Christopher pulling away, it was Pitkat going around TC. Another caution came out on lap-97 when Larsen was in a third caution along with Scott Bennett. So now, it came down to the final restart. Pitkat versus Christopher. Pitkat got the jump on Christopher, and while Christopher was falling back a couple of car lengths, it was Pitkat doing the daily double, winning both the Late Model feature and now the SK Modified 100. Christopher came in second, keeping Frank Ruocco in third and Kerry Malone in fourth.
Last, but certainly not least, there was a DARE Stock 15-lap feature to be run. Unlike the rest of the races on the program, this one actually went caution free. And there was only one leader in the entire event. Not bad for at least ten minutes of work. (Honestly, I don't think it was ten minutes. It might have been less than that. I didn't write a finish time to that.) What I can tell you was that the one and only leader to the event was Matt Chiarizio, who took down the win, his first of the '07 season and his career, on his birthday. Coming in behind him were Dan Flannery, Jim Brice, and Vince Gambacorta.
So, those are all the notes I have for you this week. I will do a special secondary entry so you can see who's not going to be at the track on Friday. Here's a little preview: The result is the last thing you'll ever think of. (Or it will leave you questioning why. Don't know yet.) But before I get started on that next entry, here's a treat I know you'll enjoy: How about double Late Model features? That's right! You know that event on July 13th that ended up being a four-feature night? Breathe easy, Late Model fans! You'll get the end of the July 13 feature, starting from lap-3 when the rains started to come in... And you'll get a regularly scheduled 30-lap feature as well. Just think -- it's like you get two features for the price of one! (Or one-and-a-half. I'm not quite sure about that as well.) So just keep this page up and I will be right back with the extra special police blotter from the SK 100.
We started the night out with some full fendered action; more specifically, the cars of the Limited Late Models. Last time, their 20-lap feature ended up having four cautions in the middle of the action. We'll fast forward through the first fifteen laps of the race, telling you in the process that the race began with Sean Foster taking the lead and dominating up until the first caution on lap-16. That was when Barry Thompson spun in turns three and four. On the restart, Foster had the lead and didn't look like he was going to lose it. It appeared as though he would cruise to the win on the final lap, but as the white flag came out, the yellow was put into its place as Darrin Havanec spun in turn four, bringing out the caution to set up what looked like to be a green-white-checkered finish. Unfortunately for the field, their first attempt at the situation came up about one-and-a-half laps short. On the backstretch, Rick Lanagan ended up with the worst damage of a three car mess, with the end result being his car up against the wall going the other way. I'm looking at pictures of the night right now, and the press release on the track's site also agrees with the pictorial evidence: Paul Conte wanted to go airborne. (Let me be happy to say that it wasn't too bad and he was able to not destroy the car.) So now, there was a second attempt at a restart which proved to be the key to winning the race. Foster once again took control, and Charlie Newman followed him around the now third-place Andrew Durand. Newman tried to make a comeback, but it would be too late. Foster crossed the line first, scoring his second win of the '07 season. Newman, Durand, and Michael Nadeau finished off the scoreboard for this event.
The Limiteds exited the track via turn one, and in their place walked crew members, bringing out tools and other necessary equipment for 30-laps featuring the Late Models. Would you believe me if I told you that the Late Models and Limiteds finished their races in seventeen minutes each? I cannot tell a lie. That's exactly how it went. Here's extensive proof of what took place. Ed Ricard led the first two laps of the race, but whatever lead he had was short lived when Doug Blowers spun in turn four, bringing out the first caution of the event. When the green came back out, Ricard led until lap-3. And then, there was a lead change. Woody Pitkat became the new leader. And things were going on behind him. On lap-12, the cars of JJ Hill, Bobby Leone, and Rick Charette end up giving the field the second caution of the event. Charette looked like he backed up into the turn one wall, and Hill and Leone got together. Again, the green came back out. And again, Pitkat took control. The lead would only last for a couple more laps, however, because it was caution time once again. Turn one would be the scene of a two-car accident, and the two cars involved in this one belonged to Ryan Posocco and Jim Peterson, who are still tied for the all-time win lead as of the 20th. On the restart, Pitkat gave himself the lead again, and this time, nobody seemed as though they could have anything for him. He put on a show for the fans on the frontstretch as he crossed the finish line, claiming his first win of the (Late Model) season. Yes, I honestly thought he won more races in a fendered car. Finished in the top-3 a couple of times, but never had a win. Okay, the rest of the top-four: Jim Mavlouganes, Tom Fearn, and Corey Hutchings.
And now, things shift around. The full fendered automobiles take a little rest, and we drop the help on the infield for a race. This is open-wheeled competition with the sophomore season of the SK Lights. You might have heard what happened two weeks ago... They get five laps back, but they also have a time limit of twenty solid minutes to finish their race. Last week, things didn't fare too well. They went fifteen minutes over. Could the Lights rebound from the bad luck night of the 13th? I think the first lap told the entire story. A false start on the opening green flag bunched everyone up so that about a dozen of them could wreck in turns three and four as the second attempt almost became a possibility. You had the top-three drivers in the point standings involved in that (Chris Matthews, Glen Reen, and Brit Andersen), and just about everyone who was starting in the back. Needless to say, the race was red flagged with no laps on the board. Some of the cars involved got their cars moving so they could continue on with the race, while others -- like Glenn Griswold -- weren't so fortunate and had to be towed off and into the infield. Restart time comes, and Josh Sylvester assumes the top spot. The lead would have to be pulled back to the Earth's surface on lap-2, when Fred Nees, Jr winds up on the frontstretch in a solo-car accident. Sylvester would re-take the lead on the restart, but he would have a contender on his heels: Alan Provost. On lap-16, the lead changed hands when Provost snatched the lead away from Sylvester, and that would become the move of the race. Provost notched his first win of the season and of his career. Sylvester would come in second, followed to the line by Aaron Goff and Mark Bakaj. Length of race: Twenty-two minutes. They came close, I tell you.
Then it was time. The time of times! It was finally time to have the main attraction of the night. It was the 34th annual Coors Light SK Modified 100. A grand total of 28 cars started the feature, but only one could claim immortality... And a guaranteed spot in the SK-type portion of this year's North South Shootout at the Concord Motorsports Park. Who would win? The questions in the last entry would be answered in a total time of one hour, twenty-one minutes from the start of the race. The race would be Willie Hardie's from the opening green, even in the midst of three cautions between the first and 28th lap. The cautions would start coming like the plague on lap-14, when Shelly Perry brought out the first yellow flag with a spin in turn four. It was a minor incident; she drove off and it was a short caution. On the restart, Hardie took control again, but that lead only lasted three more laps as a second caution occured. Last year's winner of the event, Todd Owen, would be the next car to have problems on the night, almost as if he lost a tire and just sailed straight into the outside barrier. It would be assumed that the defending winner would not be able to defend the race successfully, handing over the title to another driver. But before we go too far ahead of ourselves, let's go back to the lap-17 restart. Again, you had Hardie taking the lead, and that would last for only four laps. Mark Anderson was the one who brought the caution out this time because he spun on the backstretch. This was a quickie caution, and the green would come back out probably less than a minute later with Hardie still in control. On lap-29, the car of Brad Hietala would experience heartbreak when he ended up in a solo-car accident in turn four. After cleanup commenced, the green came back out and it was Hardie leading the way. But now, however, Keith Rocco was coming up behind him and on lap-35, Rocco would help Hardie spin coming out of turn two. It was a four-car incident, including Jeff Malave, Richie Pallai, Jr, and Kenny Horton. Rocco would get black flagged for helping out with the caution, giving the lead to the all-time win leader period, Ted Christopher. But Christopher's lead was short lived. On the restart, Woody Pitkat stormed in front of Christopher and assumed the position of leader, even when there happened to be debris in turn four (this happening on lap-48). Pitkat went back into the lead, but it was only a lap until the next caution occured; this one being for Jim Larsen who spun in turn two. The next caution wouldn't come for a while, but there was still action. Christopher gained the lead back on lap-52, and Pitkat started to just slip back spot after spot until he really wasn't in contention anymore. Hope would seem lost for Pitkat until lap-79. Keith Rocco, who was black flagged earlier in the race, was now out of the race because his motor let loose in turns three and four, bringing out the caution. This allowed Pitkat to come to pit road and let his crew change tires. This would prove to be a very smart move for both him and his team. But at the moment, it was still Christopher out in front. The lead was erased once again when Larsen spun on lap-92 in turns three and four, setting up a crucial restart with Christopher still out in front. Pitkat was making a charge, however, and he would be back in contention on lap-95 when a series of problems occured. You had Hardie and Pallai spinning on the frontstrech, followed by Zach Sylvester in an accident in turns three and four, then Pete Pavone, Jr had his motor die on him on the frontstretch as the second restart bowed upon the field. The third test at the lap-95 restart would be a test of who would be able to get the better jump. The inside row had the advantage, but instead of Christopher pulling away, it was Pitkat going around TC. Another caution came out on lap-97 when Larsen was in a third caution along with Scott Bennett. So now, it came down to the final restart. Pitkat versus Christopher. Pitkat got the jump on Christopher, and while Christopher was falling back a couple of car lengths, it was Pitkat doing the daily double, winning both the Late Model feature and now the SK Modified 100. Christopher came in second, keeping Frank Ruocco in third and Kerry Malone in fourth.
Last, but certainly not least, there was a DARE Stock 15-lap feature to be run. Unlike the rest of the races on the program, this one actually went caution free. And there was only one leader in the entire event. Not bad for at least ten minutes of work. (Honestly, I don't think it was ten minutes. It might have been less than that. I didn't write a finish time to that.) What I can tell you was that the one and only leader to the event was Matt Chiarizio, who took down the win, his first of the '07 season and his career, on his birthday. Coming in behind him were Dan Flannery, Jim Brice, and Vince Gambacorta.
So, those are all the notes I have for you this week. I will do a special secondary entry so you can see who's not going to be at the track on Friday. Here's a little preview: The result is the last thing you'll ever think of. (Or it will leave you questioning why. Don't know yet.) But before I get started on that next entry, here's a treat I know you'll enjoy: How about double Late Model features? That's right! You know that event on July 13th that ended up being a four-feature night? Breathe easy, Late Model fans! You'll get the end of the July 13 feature, starting from lap-3 when the rains started to come in... And you'll get a regularly scheduled 30-lap feature as well. Just think -- it's like you get two features for the price of one! (Or one-and-a-half. I'm not quite sure about that as well.) So just keep this page up and I will be right back with the extra special police blotter from the SK 100.
Thursday, July 19, 2007
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.
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.
Thursday, July 12, 2007
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.
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.
Thursday, July 05, 2007
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.
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.
Tuesday, June 26, 2007
Early, But Came Prepared
Okay, I lied when saying that I would be back Wednesday with a schedule of events. It's actually Tuesday, and amidst the scorching temperatures that are plaguing the state of Connecticut, I have found the schedule for the postponed/cancelled (take your pick) program on Friday. Your feature order will be as follows:
- Last Chance Qualifiers (if any)
- Late Models
- SK Modifieds
- DARE Stocks
- Limited Late Models
- SK Lights
And like last week, there's supposed to be some fireworks above the sky as well as on the track. But I hope there's not going to be something that'll get in the way. You know -- that lovely stuff that caused those who were already at the track to mosey on out of there early? Yes, that stuff. I'll see you over the course of next week with highlights from this week's program and bonus coverage of the Whelen Modified Tour/NASCAR Busch Series races at Loudon. Until then, have a safe rest of the week.
Friday, June 22, 2007
Raindrops Keep Falling
...And for the time I was at the track, it was an on again, off again love affair with the wet stuff.
At about 6:15pm this evening, as the DARE Stocks were lined up in back for their qualfiying heats, the announcement was made for a cancellation. I never had a radar in front of me, but from what I've read, there was supposed to be more rain coming as the night progressed. So what happens now is that all tickets bought for the event tonight are good for next week's program. Those who did not come before the event was called will have to pay $14.00 and $5.00 for adults and kids respectively, but if the rain holds off next weekend, it'll be worth it. In regards to the schedule, I'll come back Wednesday with more.
Until next time, stay safe and dry.
At about 6:15pm this evening, as the DARE Stocks were lined up in back for their qualfiying heats, the announcement was made for a cancellation. I never had a radar in front of me, but from what I've read, there was supposed to be more rain coming as the night progressed. So what happens now is that all tickets bought for the event tonight are good for next week's program. Those who did not come before the event was called will have to pay $14.00 and $5.00 for adults and kids respectively, but if the rain holds off next weekend, it'll be worth it. In regards to the schedule, I'll come back Wednesday with more.
Until next time, stay safe and dry.
Wednesday, June 20, 2007
Summer Blast-off Schedule
Hello, there! I told you in my previous entry that if I find out the tentative order of features for Friday's event, I would come here early and post it here in a separate entry. Well, that's what I'm doing at this very point in time. Today's business at the track included getting a more updated schedule up for the upcoming program. And the race order is as follows:
- SK Lights
- Late Models
- SK Modifieds
- DARE Stocks
- Limited Late Models
And of course, there are fireworks during the evening.
So because this was the only order of business I had to conduct after the posting of my original blog entry, I bid you a good rest of tonight and Thursday. And for those of you who are making your way to the Travelers Championship this weekend, have a fun time! It should be easier getting in and out with a new access road leading towards parking, and other than that, things look mildly okay.
Until Friday, take care.
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Accidents Come in Mainly Twos (and Threes)
I admit, I've been slightly bored this past weekend. Sunday didn't do any justice (I had my mother in my bedroom, flipping back and forth between the NASCAR Nextel Cup race in Michigan and some Lifetime made for television movie or something like that). I think to make up for this emotion I'm having, maybe we should get this entry done and out of the way before I put it off until Thursday like I always do. That sounds like a good idea. I've got the highlights (and low points) of the June 15th "Allstate Night at the Races" program.
We started the night out with the DARE Stocks' 15-lap feature. This night looked to be shaky from the start, and on lap three, we get our first caution of the event when the cars of Duane Provost, Steve Berardi, and Dean Casagrande spin on the backstretch. They all drive away and it is a quick caution period. When the green flag comes out again, they're able to get in five more laps before the next incident occurs on lap-8: Melissa Blowers spins on the frontstretch. Again, a few laps are run under yellow. They try to restart the race, but it's a false start. Therefore, they must try again. The third time's a charm, and there's another three lap session before Albert Saunders spins while in turns one and two. A second false start later, and it's a four-lap race to the finish. Jeff Jolly and Norm Sears were engaged in a battle for the lead since the first restart of the race, and that lead went back and forth until around lap-12, when Jolly took the lead for good. The win was his second of the season. Sears, Casagrande, and Bill Dunn rounded out the top-4.
Then we brought out some of the open-wheel flavor with the SK Lights. All seemed nice and peachy until lap-10, when all chaos erupted. It took them four times to get the lap into the record books, with three accidents in the process. On the first time around, a six-car accident took place in the middle of turns one and two. Take two? Nope; didn't work out as well as most may have thought. As the green flag was still over the starter's stand, Mike Sweeney, Jr and Ray Griffen, Jr make contact and wind up in the grass over in turn one afterward. I honestly though that the third time would solidify this race, but the only thing it proved was that there was going to be another caution. This time, it was a multi-car incident in turn four. When the final caution of the race was cleaned up, driven off, and whatnot, Glenn Griswold obtained the lead and did not come across a challenge while picking up his first feature win of the season. Brit Andersen, Josh Sylvester, and Glen Reen finished out the board. (A side note here before I continue: The top five finishers in this race ended up in Tech for unknown reasons.)
The third race of the night had the warwagons and teams of the Late Models parade across the track for 30 laps of action. Six laps into the race, Doug Blowers, Jr spun in turn three, giving us the first caution of this feature. A half dozen laps later, on lap-12, there's caution number two: David St. Amant spins in turn four. And then four laps later, Tom Butler, JJ Hill, and possible other drivers are involved in a backstretch accident. The action on lap-16 would continue as Jonathan Smith's car meets the frontstretch wall and two wreckers afterward. Only three more laps were completed after the next restart, because on lap-21, Billy Snow, Jr spun in turn three, bringing out the sixth caution of the event. Again they went back to green, but on lap-24, the final caution of the event occured when Tony Lafo and Jim Mavlouganes wrecked on the backstretch. Meanwhile, Ryan Posocco took over the show and made it to the front with plenty of laps to spare. He would take down his first win of the season, followed by Jim Peterson, Woody Pitkat, and Corey Hutchings. Posocco's win in the feature tied him with Peterson for the all-time Late Model win record. (As a second side note: The top five cars were brought into Tech.)
After switching up warwagons and teams, the SK Modifieds were now the dominant division on the track. Luckily, they weren't trying to conduct a repeat of last week's one hour marathon session. I think because their first caution was a good 14-laps into the race, courtesy of John Cleary and Kerry Malone, who were involved in an incident in turns one and two, this race was going to be a pretty smooth one. Just try telling that to the drivers. Lap-24 was a pretty chaotic lap, starting when Malone seemed to stall in turn three. As the Mods attempted to try the lap again, Curt Brainard and Jeff Johnson wrecked in turn two. Thankfully, the third time was indeed successful. Yet it was only a lap before Ted Christopher spun in the first and second turns. It was a quick caution, and the green came back out. On lap-34, Eric Berndt spun in turn four, sending the cars under the yellow once again. After yet another quick caution, the green was released upon the field, three more laps were completed, and then... Bo Gunning wrecked in turn two, which set up another restart. Actually, there were two false starts in a row, bunching the field up for the final restart of the race. A battle between Woody Pitkat and Willie Hardie came down to the absolute final lap, where Pitkat bumping Hardie just enough to get by. This was Pitkat's second win of the season. Christopher, Hardie, and Jeff Malave finished in the top-four.
The final race of the night was focused on the Limited Late Models. The only major problems occured on lap-13. First off, Bill Davis spun on the original attempt of the lap. And on the restart, Lori-Jo Rzeszutek spun in turn one. At the front, it appeared as though it was Andrew Durand leading the parade. He crossed the line in first, but Tech had news for him: The left side of his car was too heavy, and he was disqualified from the finishing order. This gave Rick Lanagan his second win of the season. Rounding out the board were Joey Ferrigno, Kevin Gambacorta, and Corky Hinze.
Okay, so now that we've gotten that squared away, I'd like to tell you what's coming up next on the docket. It's a regular week, with all five of Stafford's weekly divisions running normal-length features. Let me also say that it's the Summer Blast-Off/CARQuest Dealer night. All general admission and reserved seating prices are lowered for this event. Anyone under the age of 14 will get into the track for no charge at all with a parent or guardian alongside. This is a great night, as there are fireworks at some point after dark. At this point in time, the schedule for the event says that "feature events begin" around 7:30pm with "fireworks after dark". If this is not changed before Friday, I will mention what the order is in the next entry. So until then, I would like to remind all of you to stay safe throughout the week, and congratulations to the class of 2007. May you have a bright and healthy future.
We started the night out with the DARE Stocks' 15-lap feature. This night looked to be shaky from the start, and on lap three, we get our first caution of the event when the cars of Duane Provost, Steve Berardi, and Dean Casagrande spin on the backstretch. They all drive away and it is a quick caution period. When the green flag comes out again, they're able to get in five more laps before the next incident occurs on lap-8: Melissa Blowers spins on the frontstretch. Again, a few laps are run under yellow. They try to restart the race, but it's a false start. Therefore, they must try again. The third time's a charm, and there's another three lap session before Albert Saunders spins while in turns one and two. A second false start later, and it's a four-lap race to the finish. Jeff Jolly and Norm Sears were engaged in a battle for the lead since the first restart of the race, and that lead went back and forth until around lap-12, when Jolly took the lead for good. The win was his second of the season. Sears, Casagrande, and Bill Dunn rounded out the top-4.
Then we brought out some of the open-wheel flavor with the SK Lights. All seemed nice and peachy until lap-10, when all chaos erupted. It took them four times to get the lap into the record books, with three accidents in the process. On the first time around, a six-car accident took place in the middle of turns one and two. Take two? Nope; didn't work out as well as most may have thought. As the green flag was still over the starter's stand, Mike Sweeney, Jr and Ray Griffen, Jr make contact and wind up in the grass over in turn one afterward. I honestly though that the third time would solidify this race, but the only thing it proved was that there was going to be another caution. This time, it was a multi-car incident in turn four. When the final caution of the race was cleaned up, driven off, and whatnot, Glenn Griswold obtained the lead and did not come across a challenge while picking up his first feature win of the season. Brit Andersen, Josh Sylvester, and Glen Reen finished out the board. (A side note here before I continue: The top five finishers in this race ended up in Tech for unknown reasons.)
The third race of the night had the warwagons and teams of the Late Models parade across the track for 30 laps of action. Six laps into the race, Doug Blowers, Jr spun in turn three, giving us the first caution of this feature. A half dozen laps later, on lap-12, there's caution number two: David St. Amant spins in turn four. And then four laps later, Tom Butler, JJ Hill, and possible other drivers are involved in a backstretch accident. The action on lap-16 would continue as Jonathan Smith's car meets the frontstretch wall and two wreckers afterward. Only three more laps were completed after the next restart, because on lap-21, Billy Snow, Jr spun in turn three, bringing out the sixth caution of the event. Again they went back to green, but on lap-24, the final caution of the event occured when Tony Lafo and Jim Mavlouganes wrecked on the backstretch. Meanwhile, Ryan Posocco took over the show and made it to the front with plenty of laps to spare. He would take down his first win of the season, followed by Jim Peterson, Woody Pitkat, and Corey Hutchings. Posocco's win in the feature tied him with Peterson for the all-time Late Model win record. (As a second side note: The top five cars were brought into Tech.)
After switching up warwagons and teams, the SK Modifieds were now the dominant division on the track. Luckily, they weren't trying to conduct a repeat of last week's one hour marathon session. I think because their first caution was a good 14-laps into the race, courtesy of John Cleary and Kerry Malone, who were involved in an incident in turns one and two, this race was going to be a pretty smooth one. Just try telling that to the drivers. Lap-24 was a pretty chaotic lap, starting when Malone seemed to stall in turn three. As the Mods attempted to try the lap again, Curt Brainard and Jeff Johnson wrecked in turn two. Thankfully, the third time was indeed successful. Yet it was only a lap before Ted Christopher spun in the first and second turns. It was a quick caution, and the green came back out. On lap-34, Eric Berndt spun in turn four, sending the cars under the yellow once again. After yet another quick caution, the green was released upon the field, three more laps were completed, and then... Bo Gunning wrecked in turn two, which set up another restart. Actually, there were two false starts in a row, bunching the field up for the final restart of the race. A battle between Woody Pitkat and Willie Hardie came down to the absolute final lap, where Pitkat bumping Hardie just enough to get by. This was Pitkat's second win of the season. Christopher, Hardie, and Jeff Malave finished in the top-four.
The final race of the night was focused on the Limited Late Models. The only major problems occured on lap-13. First off, Bill Davis spun on the original attempt of the lap. And on the restart, Lori-Jo Rzeszutek spun in turn one. At the front, it appeared as though it was Andrew Durand leading the parade. He crossed the line in first, but Tech had news for him: The left side of his car was too heavy, and he was disqualified from the finishing order. This gave Rick Lanagan his second win of the season. Rounding out the board were Joey Ferrigno, Kevin Gambacorta, and Corky Hinze.
Okay, so now that we've gotten that squared away, I'd like to tell you what's coming up next on the docket. It's a regular week, with all five of Stafford's weekly divisions running normal-length features. Let me also say that it's the Summer Blast-Off/CARQuest Dealer night. All general admission and reserved seating prices are lowered for this event. Anyone under the age of 14 will get into the track for no charge at all with a parent or guardian alongside. This is a great night, as there are fireworks at some point after dark. At this point in time, the schedule for the event says that "feature events begin" around 7:30pm with "fireworks after dark". If this is not changed before Friday, I will mention what the order is in the next entry. So until then, I would like to remind all of you to stay safe throughout the week, and congratulations to the class of 2007. May you have a bright and healthy future.
Thursday, June 14, 2007
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...
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...
Thursday, June 07, 2007
Since I've Been Gone... [6/1 Winners]
This is going to be quick, as I have no notes. Remember, I couldn't make it due to commitments that my brother had made two weeks before June 1st.
Here are the winners from the June 1 program:
Here are the winners from the June 1 program:
- SK Modifieds: Woody Pitkat
- Late Models: Scott Cook
- SK Lights: Brit Andersen
- Limited Late Models: Sean Foster
- DARE Stocks: Carla Botticello
And before I forget, we have some Busch East cars arriving tomorrow at around 8:30am EST (yes, that early) for the 17th annual TSI Harley Davidson 150. In case I didn't do this before, I would like to present to you an entry list for your perusing pleasure. Luckily for the track divisions, there will be no qualifing heats. Features are supposed to start around 6:15pm EST, beginning with any last chance qualifiers. If we don't need LCQ's, we'll begin with the SK Lights.
Stay safe, and I'll give you all of the information regarding what happens in the next entry. Until next time... See ya...
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Tour Boys Back in Town
Oh, I'm so sorry this is done the day before our next event, but I've been busy preparing for a visit from my aunt and cousins who are coming up from Florida. My room has been a disaster zone for so long, and I had to get it cleaned up so my brother could camp in with me while our company sleeps in his. So with that said, let's get this entry started.
As you may already know, last Friday night saw the second of four appearances of the Whelen Modified Tour run rampant all over the half mile. And, as usual, we had our five weekly divisions in action as well. Because this was a Friday night event for the Tour Modifieds, our usual customers had no qualifying races to run. Everyone made it into the show. Speaking of the Tour, there were time trials to have. And your fast timer was Tony Hirschman, coming in with a time of 18.147 seconds.
With that order of business done and out of the way, we came to the portion of the evening where the first weekly feature would appear on the track. On this night, we started with the SK Lights. Now, they're known for running 20-lap features on a daily basis. But starting this week, and combined with all of the cautionfests they've had this year alone, track management decided to shorten their races by five laps. So with their first 15-lap race ahead of them, the Lights took the green flag to begin the evening. The first caution occured on lap 5 when David Webb spun on the frontstretch, while Ray Griffen, Jr and Kyle Spencer got together in turns one and two. There may have been others who were involved in this incident. Three laps later, there was a four car accident in turn two. Involved in this were Heather DesRochers, Joe Allegro, Jr, Josh Sylvester, and Kyler Cafro. I think they had a thing with threes, because after a three lap green flag period, we had a third caution. This time, the cars of Brit Andersen, George Nocera, Jr, Raymond Grassetti, and Scott Nordman provided us with a turn one accident. Now with the final yellow out of the way, the Lights could finish the final four laps without interruption. At the front of the field, however, it was a two car battle for the win. Glen Reen tried to get around Chris Matthews using just about all he could use, but it was no match. Matthews collected his third win of the season, followed by Reen, Matt Gallo, and Rich Hammann.
Next, we brought out the older siblings to the SK Lights... The SK Modifieds. They had a fairly clean race, with only two cautions throughout the entire session. Five laps in, Jim Larsen clipped the wall good enough to bring out the yellow, and we wouldn't see another caution until lap 38, when Jeff Johnson spun in turn two. Other than that, the fans saw a good battle for the lead and win. Bo Gunning and Curt Brainard fought for a good portion of the race until Ted Christopher overpowered Brainard and started to work on Gunning. But Gunning had too much for both contenders and claimed the victory. Christopher, Brainard, and Todd Owen rounded out the top-four.
In the Limited Late Models, tempers started to flare up a little. It was seven laps before they had their first caution, with David Capriati and Lori-Jo Rzeszutek spun in turn four. On the very next lap, Charlie Newman also spun, again in the turns three and four area. And two laps after that, there was a three car incident on the frontstrech, including Glenn Bartkowski, Michael Chaves, and Paul Conte. Things seemed to be fine here, but the caviar dreams seemed to disappear on lap 19. Andrew Durand had been leading at the time, and Rick Lanagan was trying to take the lead away from him. Unfortunately, he had made contact with Durand, sending Durand spinning in the middle of turns one and two. Lanagan was black flagged for overaggression on the race track, causing both first and second to move to the end of the pack. The new leader was Michael Nadeau, and he would lead the rest of the way to claim his first win of the season. The rest of the top-four were Sean Foster, Bill Davis, and Joey Ferrigno.
Then we came to the Late Models. Things didn't look too good and were bound to be like what had happened two weeks ago when an eight-car melee occured in turn one on the original drop of the green flag. Wiping the slate clean, we were destined to redo the start... Which, of course, didn't fare too well either as a false start bunched everyone up for a third try. And since that's usually a charm, we got the race underway. They were only green for nine laps as Tom Butler spun in turn one to bring out the yellow for the third time in the race. Luckily for the field (and perhaps the fans as well), every lap between laps 10 and 24 were green. On lap 25, there was a piece of debris on the backstretch -- right across from where I sit on a weekly basis. When the field was given the green flag on the restart, well... There was a second false start. So once again, the field was bunched back up. Luckily, this race had intentions of being a good one from the start, and it certainly proved so. On this night, we had a new Late Model all-time winner, and that would have been Jim Peterson. This was his 24th win of his career, and he was followed to the line by Mark Lewis, Woody Pitkat, and Jim Mavoulganes.
Now we came to the focal point of the evening: The Whelen Modified Tour's Connecticut Classic 150. Without going into too much detail (and like the last time the Tour was at Stafford, I didn't take notes because of possible confusion), I can tell you that the first half of the race was a fairly clean one. After that, it started to get a bit hectic. From what I can tell you, Donny Lia picked up his second win of the season and made it two in a row at the half-mile, with James Civali, Eddie Flemke, Jr, Zach Sylvester, and Todd Szegedy rounding out the top-five.
Finally, we come to the DARE Stocks. Now knock on wood, but for the past three events, they've raced caution free races. Could they add another 15 laps onto that streak? Not quite. They only managed five laps under green before the first incident occured. Jeff Jolly caused an accident in turns one and two, which brought the final caution-free lap total to fifty laps in four events. But the caution periods wouldn't end there, and they wouldn't be that easy to clean up, either. On lap 14, the car of Kyle Nosal spun on the frontstretch, bringing out another caution. But what he didn't know was that Barry Fluckiger was fast approaching. Without notice, Fluckiger nailed Nosal's car on the passenger's side, leaving both cars totaled. Officials at this point had no choice but to end the race under a red-checker combination. This meant that Steve Berardi would win the race, slowly followed by Dan Flannery, Carla Botticello, and Todd LaPorta.
Now that it's taken me a whole three hours to finish this, and seeing that it will be Friday morning in about 36 minutes, let me tell you that I will not be at the track tomorrow as my brother has a banquet for school. In the event that rain does not interfere with the program, I will bring you a quick entry sometime Saturday -- if I am not disrupted by our company who is about 70 miles from Washington, DC. With that said, have a safe tomorrow, and I will hope to be with you in two weeks as the Busch East Series makes its one and only visit to Stafford. Remember, gas pedal's on the right...
As you may already know, last Friday night saw the second of four appearances of the Whelen Modified Tour run rampant all over the half mile. And, as usual, we had our five weekly divisions in action as well. Because this was a Friday night event for the Tour Modifieds, our usual customers had no qualifying races to run. Everyone made it into the show. Speaking of the Tour, there were time trials to have. And your fast timer was Tony Hirschman, coming in with a time of 18.147 seconds.
With that order of business done and out of the way, we came to the portion of the evening where the first weekly feature would appear on the track. On this night, we started with the SK Lights. Now, they're known for running 20-lap features on a daily basis. But starting this week, and combined with all of the cautionfests they've had this year alone, track management decided to shorten their races by five laps. So with their first 15-lap race ahead of them, the Lights took the green flag to begin the evening. The first caution occured on lap 5 when David Webb spun on the frontstretch, while Ray Griffen, Jr and Kyle Spencer got together in turns one and two. There may have been others who were involved in this incident. Three laps later, there was a four car accident in turn two. Involved in this were Heather DesRochers, Joe Allegro, Jr, Josh Sylvester, and Kyler Cafro. I think they had a thing with threes, because after a three lap green flag period, we had a third caution. This time, the cars of Brit Andersen, George Nocera, Jr, Raymond Grassetti, and Scott Nordman provided us with a turn one accident. Now with the final yellow out of the way, the Lights could finish the final four laps without interruption. At the front of the field, however, it was a two car battle for the win. Glen Reen tried to get around Chris Matthews using just about all he could use, but it was no match. Matthews collected his third win of the season, followed by Reen, Matt Gallo, and Rich Hammann.
Next, we brought out the older siblings to the SK Lights... The SK Modifieds. They had a fairly clean race, with only two cautions throughout the entire session. Five laps in, Jim Larsen clipped the wall good enough to bring out the yellow, and we wouldn't see another caution until lap 38, when Jeff Johnson spun in turn two. Other than that, the fans saw a good battle for the lead and win. Bo Gunning and Curt Brainard fought for a good portion of the race until Ted Christopher overpowered Brainard and started to work on Gunning. But Gunning had too much for both contenders and claimed the victory. Christopher, Brainard, and Todd Owen rounded out the top-four.
In the Limited Late Models, tempers started to flare up a little. It was seven laps before they had their first caution, with David Capriati and Lori-Jo Rzeszutek spun in turn four. On the very next lap, Charlie Newman also spun, again in the turns three and four area. And two laps after that, there was a three car incident on the frontstrech, including Glenn Bartkowski, Michael Chaves, and Paul Conte. Things seemed to be fine here, but the caviar dreams seemed to disappear on lap 19. Andrew Durand had been leading at the time, and Rick Lanagan was trying to take the lead away from him. Unfortunately, he had made contact with Durand, sending Durand spinning in the middle of turns one and two. Lanagan was black flagged for overaggression on the race track, causing both first and second to move to the end of the pack. The new leader was Michael Nadeau, and he would lead the rest of the way to claim his first win of the season. The rest of the top-four were Sean Foster, Bill Davis, and Joey Ferrigno.
Then we came to the Late Models. Things didn't look too good and were bound to be like what had happened two weeks ago when an eight-car melee occured in turn one on the original drop of the green flag. Wiping the slate clean, we were destined to redo the start... Which, of course, didn't fare too well either as a false start bunched everyone up for a third try. And since that's usually a charm, we got the race underway. They were only green for nine laps as Tom Butler spun in turn one to bring out the yellow for the third time in the race. Luckily for the field (and perhaps the fans as well), every lap between laps 10 and 24 were green. On lap 25, there was a piece of debris on the backstretch -- right across from where I sit on a weekly basis. When the field was given the green flag on the restart, well... There was a second false start. So once again, the field was bunched back up. Luckily, this race had intentions of being a good one from the start, and it certainly proved so. On this night, we had a new Late Model all-time winner, and that would have been Jim Peterson. This was his 24th win of his career, and he was followed to the line by Mark Lewis, Woody Pitkat, and Jim Mavoulganes.
Now we came to the focal point of the evening: The Whelen Modified Tour's Connecticut Classic 150. Without going into too much detail (and like the last time the Tour was at Stafford, I didn't take notes because of possible confusion), I can tell you that the first half of the race was a fairly clean one. After that, it started to get a bit hectic. From what I can tell you, Donny Lia picked up his second win of the season and made it two in a row at the half-mile, with James Civali, Eddie Flemke, Jr, Zach Sylvester, and Todd Szegedy rounding out the top-five.
Finally, we come to the DARE Stocks. Now knock on wood, but for the past three events, they've raced caution free races. Could they add another 15 laps onto that streak? Not quite. They only managed five laps under green before the first incident occured. Jeff Jolly caused an accident in turns one and two, which brought the final caution-free lap total to fifty laps in four events. But the caution periods wouldn't end there, and they wouldn't be that easy to clean up, either. On lap 14, the car of Kyle Nosal spun on the frontstretch, bringing out another caution. But what he didn't know was that Barry Fluckiger was fast approaching. Without notice, Fluckiger nailed Nosal's car on the passenger's side, leaving both cars totaled. Officials at this point had no choice but to end the race under a red-checker combination. This meant that Steve Berardi would win the race, slowly followed by Dan Flannery, Carla Botticello, and Todd LaPorta.
Now that it's taken me a whole three hours to finish this, and seeing that it will be Friday morning in about 36 minutes, let me tell you that I will not be at the track tomorrow as my brother has a banquet for school. In the event that rain does not interfere with the program, I will bring you a quick entry sometime Saturday -- if I am not disrupted by our company who is about 70 miles from Washington, DC. With that said, have a safe tomorrow, and I will hope to be with you in two weeks as the Busch East Series makes its one and only visit to Stafford. Remember, gas pedal's on the right...
Friday, May 18, 2007
Water, Water, Everywhere...
...And not a race to be run.
Yesterday, Stafford management decided to cancel the program orignally planned for tonight due to the showers that had poured into the state early this morning. That left me, not feeling all too good, waking up at around 3:30 this afternoon. I was greeted to the world by an e-mail from my mother indicating that the event had been cancelled. (Well, that gave me my first crack at ABC's National Bingo Night along with the other viewers who decided to tune in as well. Both Mom and I won nothing. Thank you for asking.)
Okay, that leaves us with the Tour approaching the track next week at full speed. This is their second trip to the half mile this season. So if you're looking for something to do (outdoors, I hope), this is a good plan within itself. Let's hope we can get the rain out of the forecast for that. Until then... Gas pedal's on the right.
Yesterday, Stafford management decided to cancel the program orignally planned for tonight due to the showers that had poured into the state early this morning. That left me, not feeling all too good, waking up at around 3:30 this afternoon. I was greeted to the world by an e-mail from my mother indicating that the event had been cancelled. (Well, that gave me my first crack at ABC's National Bingo Night along with the other viewers who decided to tune in as well. Both Mom and I won nothing. Thank you for asking.)
Okay, that leaves us with the Tour approaching the track next week at full speed. This is their second trip to the half mile this season. So if you're looking for something to do (outdoors, I hope), this is a good plan within itself. Let's hope we can get the rain out of the forecast for that. Until then... Gas pedal's on the right.
Wednesday, May 16, 2007
Storms in Forecast -- Stormy Night at Track
Welcome to this edition of The View From Turn One. Instead of pushing this entry to the day before the event, we've got a nice line of storms (and possibly a tornado or two) heading our way. And that's the reason as to why I'm getting this done now instead of later. Okay, so where did we leave off since the last time we met? Ah, yes... The usual five divisions of racing. And unlike the previous two events, all drivers at the track were qualified for their respective features. So before this evil weather gets here, let's check up on the Stafford boys.
We started the feature portion of the evening with the Limited Late Models. Yet they didn't start out too proper themselves. After a false start on the opening lap, the second take proved successful. From where I had been sitting at that time (close to the start/finish line), I had a great view of a lap 10 crash that sent one of Pete Cayer's tires down the frontstretch and into the second turn. Needless to say, technical difficulties would end his night. (So sorry with the television reference here.) Immediately after I noted this accident, I headed down to my usual spot where I would witness the second and final caution of the event. On lap 19, Ed Charette, Jr spun in the turns one and two area, setting up a still dominating victory at the end of the race. Yes, we had our first repeat winner in any division when Andrew Durand crossed the line. Rick Lanagan, Sean Foster, and Paul Conte rounded out the top four cars.
Then we had the SK Modifieds take to the track. I think this race had a caution bug bite before the race began. (The bug was a tad bit smaller than the one that came around before the Late Model race. Stay tuned for that coverage as soon as I finish with this race.) We'll start with a lap 11 spin in the turn two area courtesy of Shelly Perry, who would spin later in the race but still managed to finish 17th. Six more laps would run under green before Scott Bennett brought out the first of his two cautions. The first caution would be for a spin on the frontstretch, but later on, he wouldn't be so lucky. Okay, so now we get one more fast lap before a seven car caution occurs on the backstretch. Announced in the caution were (and I take a deep breath here): Frank Ruocco, Jeff Baral, Bo Bunning, Zach Sylvester, Richie Pallai, Jr, Jeff Malave, and Ken Barry. And, exhale. That was quickly cleaned up because the majority of those involved were able to drive off under their own power. Finally, they were able to run a good distance under the green before a lap 31 incident including Bennett's #47 on the frontstretch not only brought out the caution, but the red flag as well. He had to leave the track via an ambulance, apparently because he was shaken up and possibly due to the fact that the hand impact might have injured him. Nothing has been reported further. But back to the action on hand. Our final caution with this group was on lap 37 when Shelly Perry spun on the frontstretch. Another green-white-checkered situation occured, with the winner emerging as Keith Rocco, followed by Willie Hardie, Woody Pitkat, and Kerry Malone.
The caution bug was back, but it had grown since the SK feature. It took five takes for the opening lap to run fully under green. The first time around, Doug Blowers spun in turn one. On the second attempt, something broke on Scott Cook's car, sending him nose first into the safer barrier. Take three showed us Wayne Coury, Jr spinning in turn one. Of course, the fourth time was not the charm when Ryan Posocco and Tom Butler got into a minor fender bender in -- you guessed it -- turn one. After the fifth time proved lucky, there were seven laps until John Warren was caught up in an accident in turns three and four. Eight laps later, Billy Snow, Jr is involved in a backstretch incident. Scott Foster, Jr would bring out the next caution on lap 20 when he spun in turn two. Snow would spin on the backstretch on lap 25 and a three car accident in turn four one lap later would prove to be the end of the elongated bug. Tom Fearn missed catching the bug and would finish first among all cars. Mike Quintiliano, Tom Butler, and Jim Mavloganes finished on the board as well.
Next were the SK Lights, who were the second division to provide the fans with a false start on the very first lap. Luckily for them, they were able to get all of their cautions out of the way early... More specifically, on lap 3. Two cautions would go hand-in-hand with each other. The first of them was for Kyler Cafro, who spun on the backstretch on the original lap. Then on the potential restart, a four car incident would bring out the caution again. Cars I could see in the accident were both Mark and Chris Bakaj and Matt Gallo. The other car was a white one (sorry, I couldn't catch the number of it). After this was cleared, the rest of the race ran under green. Chris Matthews would come through with the win, becoming the second driver in all divisions to repeat. He was followed to the line by Glen Reen, Glenn Griswold, and Brit Andersen.
Finally, we had the DARE Stocks. In the past two races, every lap was run under green. Could they come up with a trifecta of clean raced 15-lappers? The answer was yes. Bill Dunn fought hard with Tom Stirk until about midway though the race, when he had totally commanded the rest of the field. He would go on to win, followed by Jim Brice, Stirk, and Gil Main.
So now that I'm done with this entry, I need to get the heck off of the computer. Those storms I told you about earlier on? Coming quick. Oh, yeah. Those winds are picking up as I speak. Okay, next race is supposed to celebrate NASCAR Day. I think that'll have to be postponed as there's a 50 percent chance of rain in two days. I'm not sure what the track management'll do before then, but if we do end up meeting, stay safe. And I really mean stay safe today. Until next time...
We started the feature portion of the evening with the Limited Late Models. Yet they didn't start out too proper themselves. After a false start on the opening lap, the second take proved successful. From where I had been sitting at that time (close to the start/finish line), I had a great view of a lap 10 crash that sent one of Pete Cayer's tires down the frontstretch and into the second turn. Needless to say, technical difficulties would end his night. (So sorry with the television reference here.) Immediately after I noted this accident, I headed down to my usual spot where I would witness the second and final caution of the event. On lap 19, Ed Charette, Jr spun in the turns one and two area, setting up a still dominating victory at the end of the race. Yes, we had our first repeat winner in any division when Andrew Durand crossed the line. Rick Lanagan, Sean Foster, and Paul Conte rounded out the top four cars.
Then we had the SK Modifieds take to the track. I think this race had a caution bug bite before the race began. (The bug was a tad bit smaller than the one that came around before the Late Model race. Stay tuned for that coverage as soon as I finish with this race.) We'll start with a lap 11 spin in the turn two area courtesy of Shelly Perry, who would spin later in the race but still managed to finish 17th. Six more laps would run under green before Scott Bennett brought out the first of his two cautions. The first caution would be for a spin on the frontstretch, but later on, he wouldn't be so lucky. Okay, so now we get one more fast lap before a seven car caution occurs on the backstretch. Announced in the caution were (and I take a deep breath here): Frank Ruocco, Jeff Baral, Bo Bunning, Zach Sylvester, Richie Pallai, Jr, Jeff Malave, and Ken Barry. And, exhale. That was quickly cleaned up because the majority of those involved were able to drive off under their own power. Finally, they were able to run a good distance under the green before a lap 31 incident including Bennett's #47 on the frontstretch not only brought out the caution, but the red flag as well. He had to leave the track via an ambulance, apparently because he was shaken up and possibly due to the fact that the hand impact might have injured him. Nothing has been reported further. But back to the action on hand. Our final caution with this group was on lap 37 when Shelly Perry spun on the frontstretch. Another green-white-checkered situation occured, with the winner emerging as Keith Rocco, followed by Willie Hardie, Woody Pitkat, and Kerry Malone.
The caution bug was back, but it had grown since the SK feature. It took five takes for the opening lap to run fully under green. The first time around, Doug Blowers spun in turn one. On the second attempt, something broke on Scott Cook's car, sending him nose first into the safer barrier. Take three showed us Wayne Coury, Jr spinning in turn one. Of course, the fourth time was not the charm when Ryan Posocco and Tom Butler got into a minor fender bender in -- you guessed it -- turn one. After the fifth time proved lucky, there were seven laps until John Warren was caught up in an accident in turns three and four. Eight laps later, Billy Snow, Jr is involved in a backstretch incident. Scott Foster, Jr would bring out the next caution on lap 20 when he spun in turn two. Snow would spin on the backstretch on lap 25 and a three car accident in turn four one lap later would prove to be the end of the elongated bug. Tom Fearn missed catching the bug and would finish first among all cars. Mike Quintiliano, Tom Butler, and Jim Mavloganes finished on the board as well.
Next were the SK Lights, who were the second division to provide the fans with a false start on the very first lap. Luckily for them, they were able to get all of their cautions out of the way early... More specifically, on lap 3. Two cautions would go hand-in-hand with each other. The first of them was for Kyler Cafro, who spun on the backstretch on the original lap. Then on the potential restart, a four car incident would bring out the caution again. Cars I could see in the accident were both Mark and Chris Bakaj and Matt Gallo. The other car was a white one (sorry, I couldn't catch the number of it). After this was cleared, the rest of the race ran under green. Chris Matthews would come through with the win, becoming the second driver in all divisions to repeat. He was followed to the line by Glen Reen, Glenn Griswold, and Brit Andersen.
Finally, we had the DARE Stocks. In the past two races, every lap was run under green. Could they come up with a trifecta of clean raced 15-lappers? The answer was yes. Bill Dunn fought hard with Tom Stirk until about midway though the race, when he had totally commanded the rest of the field. He would go on to win, followed by Jim Brice, Stirk, and Gil Main.
So now that I'm done with this entry, I need to get the heck off of the computer. Those storms I told you about earlier on? Coming quick. Oh, yeah. Those winds are picking up as I speak. Okay, next race is supposed to celebrate NASCAR Day. I think that'll have to be postponed as there's a 50 percent chance of rain in two days. I'm not sure what the track management'll do before then, but if we do end up meeting, stay safe. And I really mean stay safe today. Until next time...
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Opening Night and End of Month Entry List
Again, pardon the lateness of this entry. I only have my forgetful habit and the fact that it's 82 degrees as I'm starting to write in the living room. So with that said, let's get to the action from the May 4th program. It was the first Friday night program of the 2007 Stafford Motor Speedway season, and our usual five track divisions were on hand. We started with the Late Model 16 last chance qualifier, and we also opened with a caution. On the opening lap of the event, Doug Blowers spun on the frontstretch. His night would just get worse after that. Lap 7 would provide us our second caution of the event when David St. Amant spun somewhere in the middle of the third and fourth turns. Blowers's cautionfest would continue on lap 9 when he spun once again, this time in turn two. Three laps later, Blowers brought out the yellow for the third time in the event after spinning in turn one. NASCAR officials had enough of this and decided to have him park the car after his three mishaps. The night would be over for the #2, but at the front of the field, Corey Hutchings's night would continue on when he picked up the win. Mike Quintiliano, Tom Fearn, and Don Acker, Jr rounded out the numbers on the board.
Then we went to the first of our regularly scheduled features of the evening, featuring the entry level DARE Stocks. This race would be caution free from start to finish, although there was a lot of action at the front of the field. Jesse Hinze and Robert Thompson fought lap after lap for the lead, and it eventually came down to a last-lap dash between the two of them and Norm Sears, especially when Sears went three wide to move around Hinze for second. Though in the end, Sears could not catch up to Thompson, and he took down the win. Sears, Hinze, and Barry Fluckiger were the rest of the top four. But our friends in technical inspection shook the top four even more when both Thompson (illegal rims) and Hinze (car too light) were disqualified. This gave Sears the win, with Fluckiger, Rob Lawrence, and Matt Chiarizio the new top four.
Crews would bring out the war wagons, tires, and other necessarities when the SK Modifieds took to the track for their feature. Boy, I thought half of the field would be left standing when the race actually ended. On lap 2, Richie Pallai, Jr apparently stalled in turns three and four, bringing out the first caution. Two laps later, Zach Sylvester and Bo Gunning would spin starting on the backstretch and around the start of the turn three area. The field would be caution free until lap 11 when Woody Pitkat, Eric Berndt, Jimmy Smith, and Jeff Johnson create an accident in turn one. Brad Hietala would spin in turn three on lap 18, bringing the caution out once again. Then we had a string of green flag laps... Until lap 27, when Jeff Malave, Pitkat, Sylvester, and Willie Hardie wrecked on the backstretch. This would nearly set up a three lap dash to the finish. Key word there is "nearly", because the restart on lap 27 was a false restart and they had to redo it. In the end, the last laps would go without problems. Frank Ruocco held off all challenges by Todd Owen in the first twenty laps and Kerry Malone to win his first feature of the season. Malone would finish second, followed by Owen and Keith Rocco.
Then we had the SK Lights, who put on the wreckfest of the night. Not even halfway through the opening lap of the race, there was an accident in turn two involving Brit Andersen, Kyle Spencer, Raymond Grassetti, and Wayne Robillard. They went three laps without wrecking each other until lap 4 when Michael Lane and Chris Bakaj were in an accident on the backstretch. The very next lap, a bunch of cars came together. Again, this was on the backstretch. Then they were fine, but only for the next eleven laps. That's when more cautions occured. On lap 16, Spencer spins in turn four. When the field attempted a restart, it didn't work out. At least five cars, including Grassetti, Matt Gallo, David Webb, Fred Nees, Jr, and Mark Bakaj were involved in a frontstretch incident. Before things were all said and done, the next lap proved costly for Lane, Gallo, Rich Hammann, and Scott Nordman piled up around the turn two area. NASCAR officials had enough of the wreckfest, so they threw a yellow-checkers on the field. At the front of the group was Glen Reen, and he was followed (slowly) to the line by Chris Matthews, Mike Sweeney, Jr, and Josh Sylvester.
After the crash session had come to a close, the rest of the program went fairly smoothly. When the Late Models ran their feature, there happened to be one and only one caution in the entire event. Woody Pitkat's night continued to fall down the drain after he spun in turn four on lap 5. In the front of the field, however, Scott Foster, Jr was able to get around Ed Ricard on about the seventh lap, and he fought off Jim Peterson and Ryan Posocco to claim the victory. Following Foster, Peterson, and Posocco at the line was Tom Butler.
The final feature of the evening happened to be the Limited Late Models. Just like the DARE Stocks, that race was complete green flag racing straight through. At the beginning, it appeared as though Sean Foster would make it a daily double in victory lane, but Andrew Durand had other plans. He moved past Foster around lap 13 and had a commanding lead when he scored the win. Foster followed in second, and rounding out the top four were Rick Lanagan and Joey Ferrigno.
Checking the report on the Weather Channel website, we are looking at scattered thunderstorms for tomorrow night. This is 30 and 40 percents, so nothing can be postponed as of yet. I will come back tomorrow with a better forecast for you all to see.
Oh, by the way... On the last weekend of May, the Whelen Modified Tour returns to Stafford for the Connecticut Classic 150. I am providing the entry list for you guys now so I don't forget later on. Until tomorrow when I come back with your updated forecast, stay safe.
Then we went to the first of our regularly scheduled features of the evening, featuring the entry level DARE Stocks. This race would be caution free from start to finish, although there was a lot of action at the front of the field. Jesse Hinze and Robert Thompson fought lap after lap for the lead, and it eventually came down to a last-lap dash between the two of them and Norm Sears, especially when Sears went three wide to move around Hinze for second. Though in the end, Sears could not catch up to Thompson, and he took down the win. Sears, Hinze, and Barry Fluckiger were the rest of the top four. But our friends in technical inspection shook the top four even more when both Thompson (illegal rims) and Hinze (car too light) were disqualified. This gave Sears the win, with Fluckiger, Rob Lawrence, and Matt Chiarizio the new top four.
Crews would bring out the war wagons, tires, and other necessarities when the SK Modifieds took to the track for their feature. Boy, I thought half of the field would be left standing when the race actually ended. On lap 2, Richie Pallai, Jr apparently stalled in turns three and four, bringing out the first caution. Two laps later, Zach Sylvester and Bo Gunning would spin starting on the backstretch and around the start of the turn three area. The field would be caution free until lap 11 when Woody Pitkat, Eric Berndt, Jimmy Smith, and Jeff Johnson create an accident in turn one. Brad Hietala would spin in turn three on lap 18, bringing the caution out once again. Then we had a string of green flag laps... Until lap 27, when Jeff Malave, Pitkat, Sylvester, and Willie Hardie wrecked on the backstretch. This would nearly set up a three lap dash to the finish. Key word there is "nearly", because the restart on lap 27 was a false restart and they had to redo it. In the end, the last laps would go without problems. Frank Ruocco held off all challenges by Todd Owen in the first twenty laps and Kerry Malone to win his first feature of the season. Malone would finish second, followed by Owen and Keith Rocco.
Then we had the SK Lights, who put on the wreckfest of the night. Not even halfway through the opening lap of the race, there was an accident in turn two involving Brit Andersen, Kyle Spencer, Raymond Grassetti, and Wayne Robillard. They went three laps without wrecking each other until lap 4 when Michael Lane and Chris Bakaj were in an accident on the backstretch. The very next lap, a bunch of cars came together. Again, this was on the backstretch. Then they were fine, but only for the next eleven laps. That's when more cautions occured. On lap 16, Spencer spins in turn four. When the field attempted a restart, it didn't work out. At least five cars, including Grassetti, Matt Gallo, David Webb, Fred Nees, Jr, and Mark Bakaj were involved in a frontstretch incident. Before things were all said and done, the next lap proved costly for Lane, Gallo, Rich Hammann, and Scott Nordman piled up around the turn two area. NASCAR officials had enough of the wreckfest, so they threw a yellow-checkers on the field. At the front of the group was Glen Reen, and he was followed (slowly) to the line by Chris Matthews, Mike Sweeney, Jr, and Josh Sylvester.
After the crash session had come to a close, the rest of the program went fairly smoothly. When the Late Models ran their feature, there happened to be one and only one caution in the entire event. Woody Pitkat's night continued to fall down the drain after he spun in turn four on lap 5. In the front of the field, however, Scott Foster, Jr was able to get around Ed Ricard on about the seventh lap, and he fought off Jim Peterson and Ryan Posocco to claim the victory. Following Foster, Peterson, and Posocco at the line was Tom Butler.
The final feature of the evening happened to be the Limited Late Models. Just like the DARE Stocks, that race was complete green flag racing straight through. At the beginning, it appeared as though Sean Foster would make it a daily double in victory lane, but Andrew Durand had other plans. He moved past Foster around lap 13 and had a commanding lead when he scored the win. Foster followed in second, and rounding out the top four were Rick Lanagan and Joey Ferrigno.
Checking the report on the Weather Channel website, we are looking at scattered thunderstorms for tomorrow night. This is 30 and 40 percents, so nothing can be postponed as of yet. I will come back tomorrow with a better forecast for you all to see.
Oh, by the way... On the last weekend of May, the Whelen Modified Tour returns to Stafford for the Connecticut Classic 150. I am providing the entry list for you guys now so I don't forget later on. Until tomorrow when I come back with your updated forecast, stay safe.
Thursday, May 03, 2007
Spring Sizzler: *Add Clever Title Here*
I am so sorry for not getting this done sooner, but on top of the Rangers still in the hunt for the Stanley Cup and the fact that I had been out of the house one day this week already with another day gone for the computer being a major jerk, I had no time on my hands. And I just plain forgot to write up an entry. So today, I'll take the time to cover both days of the Sizzler. From qualifying to the features to the never-boring Pit Party, whatever I have in my notes (and what I get from the track site) is what you'll get. Let's get this season started, shall we?
First up on the docket, we had Whelen Modified Tour qualifying. A grand total of fourty-two cars took time on the half mile in hopes of getting the Bud Pole Award and possibly some time in the record book as the holder of a new track record. Two cars just couldn't make it out for time (including Mike Stefanik's #16, as there was some sort of problem that I couldn't make over the PA system), but amongst the other fourty cars, there happened to be a shattered record from one of them... Matt Hirschman in the #59 with an 18.009, translating to 99.950 miles an hour. The top eight qualifiers redrew later that day, and it would lead to Tony Hirschman and Reggie Ruggiero sitting on the front row when the race would run the next day.
With the Tour out of the way, qualifying and features for the five Stafford divisions could begin. After all divisions finished with their five, eight, or ten lap races, the stage was set for the first last chance qualifier of the season: The 21 Means 21 feature for the SK Modifieds. Fourteen cars, eight spots up for grabs through the race. There would be some beating and banging going on for them. Not too long after the green flag flew, we had our first feature caution. Kirk Zervas happened to bring out the yellow after he was involved in a single-car incident on the frontstretch. After the delicate cleanup by the "Super Clean" Safety Team (or something to the tune that), we went back to green. At first, one would likely say that Todd Owen would easily get into the feature through the LCQ, even though you couldn't tell that towards the end of the race, he started to have some car issues. On what was originally considered to be the final lap, Owen's car brought out the second and final caution flag of the race, with his car ending up close to the exit of the turn two wall. (Yes, he would be a part of the next day's feature, don't worry.) Now with him out of contention, this opened the door to Zach Sylvester, as he picked up the win. Following him to the line was Lloyd Agor, Dave Salzarulo, and Kerry Malone in a return appearance to Stafford just a few years after winning his track championship.
Now we got to our first official feature of the evening, which just so happened to be the SK Lights. I personally thought that a bunch of these guys weren't going to finish the race based on the number of early race accidents that had occured. The first caution happened on just the second lap of the race when Joe Allegro in the #08 and Paul Colla in the #86 busted their cars up a bit in the turns three and four area of the track. Two laps later, Ray Griffen in the #71 spins in turn four. And on the very next lap, Keith Franklin in the #97 spins (and possibly leaked some fluid in the process) in the first and second turns. At the front of the field, however, Chris Matthews was showing the field that his couple of wins in the season previous were no fluke. He was trying to hold off Glen Reen for the win, but on lap-19, Franklin wrecks his car in turn two, near where I had been taking the notes for this race. This set up a green-white-checkered shootout to the finish, which proved successful for Matthews. He was originally declared the winner with Reen, Brit Andersen, and Glenn Griswold rounding out the top-four. But in post-race inspection, Reen's Modified had illegal brake calibers. This moved Andersen up to second, Griswold up to third, and gave fourth place to Mark Bakaj in the #52.
Then it was time for the Late Model 16 race. It was all green flag racing and it all belonged to Ryan Posocco. He took down the win with Tom Fearn, Mark Lewis, and Scott Cook finishing the board off. I would say more about this, but I had been in a rush due to the fact that Stafford High School was hosting a track and field meet on that day and my mother took a group of students from our town to the event. So I missed the entire Limited Late Model feature. From what the website says, Rick Lanagan was declared the winner with Bill Davis, Charlie Newman, and Andrew Durand completing the top-four. The DARE Stock feature was supposed to go after this, but the rains came and the race was pushed back to Sunday's program.
...Which brings us to Sunday. After the hour that was declared the "CARQuest Belts and Hoses" Pit Party (why the name of that was made longer is anyone's guess) ended, the track was cleared for the first race of the afternoon. This happened to be the SK Modified feature. On the opening lap of the event, there was a three car incident on the backstretch, including Richie Pallai, Jr, Shelly Perry (both of whom graduated up from the SK Light division), and Fran Siana. Perry and Siana would continue the race, while Pallai's day would just go downhill from there, from the result of a caution later in the race. When the starter tried to start the race again, a false start occured, with the culprit being someone I totally don't remember off the top of my head. (Note to self: Write that down next time.) Back to the racing, the third start was a charm and they got four full laps done when the second caution of the race happened. This time, Keith Rocco, Ted Christopher (yes, in the familiar black, blue, and silver #13), and Scott Bennett caused an accident in turn one, sending a red #78 into the safer barrier. A nice cleanup session occured, and when the green flag dropped, a lap was completed before the starter put that away for the yellow. Jim Larsen, Willie Hardie, Wade Mattesen, and Shelly Perry were involved in an accident over in the vicinity of turn three. Everyone except for Larsen would finish the race. They would finally get a half-dozen laps in before the next caution period, which involved Richie Pallai, Jr and Todd Owen, whose weekend was just getting worse by the lap. They would get into an accident in turn one. Your final caution was on lap-25 when Brad Hietala spun in the backstretch grassy area and just didn't get the car started in time to keep the green flag out. Your original top-four at the checkered flag were Woody Pitkat, Lloyd Agor, Jeff Baral, and Jeff Malave. But during the magic that was post-race inspection, Pitkat's Modified was found to have an illegal rear spoiler. He was originally disqualified from the race, but upon further inspection, officials could not determine whether or not the modification could give the car an advantage. Thus he was dropped to the 20th finishing spot and will be handicapped outside of the top-18 for Friday's racing action.
And now, your feature presentation. It was finally time for the Whelen Modified Tour to perform in front of all the fans. I wasn't taking notes for this event, but I could tell you some of the highlights. They include Chuck Hossfeld's car looking like it was run over by an 18-wheeler about 25 laps into the race, courtesy of Frank Ruocco; a red flag to clean up an incident on the frontstretch a little more than halfway through; and Donny Lia holding off Todd Szegedy for the win. It was the first Spring Sizzler win for Mystic Missle car owner Bob Garbarino.
After the 200-lap showdown was over, the Late Models took to the track for their scheduled feature event. Wayne Coury, Jr led the first 14 laps of the race before he was challenged by former Waterford and Thompson driver Corey Hutchings for the lead. Coury relinquished the top spot halfway into the race, and Hutchings dominated the second half in style. He cruised to the win with Woody Pitkat, Mike Quintiliano, and Coury finishing out the board. The race was caution-free.
Finally, the DARE Stocks raced their feature that was supposed to be done the day before. This race, like the Late Models, also ran completely green flagged, but there was no lead change involved in the making of their 15-lap production. Jeff Jolly led every lap possible on his way to his first victory of the season. At the line behind him were Dean Casagrande, Vince Gambacorta, and Todd LaPorta.
With all of the racing action said and done, I officially declare opening weekend a success and over. This brings us to tomorrow night; the first Friday night of the season. All five Stafford divisions will be on hand. And I might bring a camera along with me to take pictures of the action and in the pits. So until we meet again, I bid you a safe rest of today and tomorrow.
First up on the docket, we had Whelen Modified Tour qualifying. A grand total of fourty-two cars took time on the half mile in hopes of getting the Bud Pole Award and possibly some time in the record book as the holder of a new track record. Two cars just couldn't make it out for time (including Mike Stefanik's #16, as there was some sort of problem that I couldn't make over the PA system), but amongst the other fourty cars, there happened to be a shattered record from one of them... Matt Hirschman in the #59 with an 18.009, translating to 99.950 miles an hour. The top eight qualifiers redrew later that day, and it would lead to Tony Hirschman and Reggie Ruggiero sitting on the front row when the race would run the next day.
With the Tour out of the way, qualifying and features for the five Stafford divisions could begin. After all divisions finished with their five, eight, or ten lap races, the stage was set for the first last chance qualifier of the season: The 21 Means 21 feature for the SK Modifieds. Fourteen cars, eight spots up for grabs through the race. There would be some beating and banging going on for them. Not too long after the green flag flew, we had our first feature caution. Kirk Zervas happened to bring out the yellow after he was involved in a single-car incident on the frontstretch. After the delicate cleanup by the "Super Clean" Safety Team (or something to the tune that), we went back to green. At first, one would likely say that Todd Owen would easily get into the feature through the LCQ, even though you couldn't tell that towards the end of the race, he started to have some car issues. On what was originally considered to be the final lap, Owen's car brought out the second and final caution flag of the race, with his car ending up close to the exit of the turn two wall. (Yes, he would be a part of the next day's feature, don't worry.) Now with him out of contention, this opened the door to Zach Sylvester, as he picked up the win. Following him to the line was Lloyd Agor, Dave Salzarulo, and Kerry Malone in a return appearance to Stafford just a few years after winning his track championship.
Now we got to our first official feature of the evening, which just so happened to be the SK Lights. I personally thought that a bunch of these guys weren't going to finish the race based on the number of early race accidents that had occured. The first caution happened on just the second lap of the race when Joe Allegro in the #08 and Paul Colla in the #86 busted their cars up a bit in the turns three and four area of the track. Two laps later, Ray Griffen in the #71 spins in turn four. And on the very next lap, Keith Franklin in the #97 spins (and possibly leaked some fluid in the process) in the first and second turns. At the front of the field, however, Chris Matthews was showing the field that his couple of wins in the season previous were no fluke. He was trying to hold off Glen Reen for the win, but on lap-19, Franklin wrecks his car in turn two, near where I had been taking the notes for this race. This set up a green-white-checkered shootout to the finish, which proved successful for Matthews. He was originally declared the winner with Reen, Brit Andersen, and Glenn Griswold rounding out the top-four. But in post-race inspection, Reen's Modified had illegal brake calibers. This moved Andersen up to second, Griswold up to third, and gave fourth place to Mark Bakaj in the #52.
Then it was time for the Late Model 16 race. It was all green flag racing and it all belonged to Ryan Posocco. He took down the win with Tom Fearn, Mark Lewis, and Scott Cook finishing the board off. I would say more about this, but I had been in a rush due to the fact that Stafford High School was hosting a track and field meet on that day and my mother took a group of students from our town to the event. So I missed the entire Limited Late Model feature. From what the website says, Rick Lanagan was declared the winner with Bill Davis, Charlie Newman, and Andrew Durand completing the top-four. The DARE Stock feature was supposed to go after this, but the rains came and the race was pushed back to Sunday's program.
...Which brings us to Sunday. After the hour that was declared the "CARQuest Belts and Hoses" Pit Party (why the name of that was made longer is anyone's guess) ended, the track was cleared for the first race of the afternoon. This happened to be the SK Modified feature. On the opening lap of the event, there was a three car incident on the backstretch, including Richie Pallai, Jr, Shelly Perry (both of whom graduated up from the SK Light division), and Fran Siana. Perry and Siana would continue the race, while Pallai's day would just go downhill from there, from the result of a caution later in the race. When the starter tried to start the race again, a false start occured, with the culprit being someone I totally don't remember off the top of my head. (Note to self: Write that down next time.) Back to the racing, the third start was a charm and they got four full laps done when the second caution of the race happened. This time, Keith Rocco, Ted Christopher (yes, in the familiar black, blue, and silver #13), and Scott Bennett caused an accident in turn one, sending a red #78 into the safer barrier. A nice cleanup session occured, and when the green flag dropped, a lap was completed before the starter put that away for the yellow. Jim Larsen, Willie Hardie, Wade Mattesen, and Shelly Perry were involved in an accident over in the vicinity of turn three. Everyone except for Larsen would finish the race. They would finally get a half-dozen laps in before the next caution period, which involved Richie Pallai, Jr and Todd Owen, whose weekend was just getting worse by the lap. They would get into an accident in turn one. Your final caution was on lap-25 when Brad Hietala spun in the backstretch grassy area and just didn't get the car started in time to keep the green flag out. Your original top-four at the checkered flag were Woody Pitkat, Lloyd Agor, Jeff Baral, and Jeff Malave. But during the magic that was post-race inspection, Pitkat's Modified was found to have an illegal rear spoiler. He was originally disqualified from the race, but upon further inspection, officials could not determine whether or not the modification could give the car an advantage. Thus he was dropped to the 20th finishing spot and will be handicapped outside of the top-18 for Friday's racing action.
And now, your feature presentation. It was finally time for the Whelen Modified Tour to perform in front of all the fans. I wasn't taking notes for this event, but I could tell you some of the highlights. They include Chuck Hossfeld's car looking like it was run over by an 18-wheeler about 25 laps into the race, courtesy of Frank Ruocco; a red flag to clean up an incident on the frontstretch a little more than halfway through; and Donny Lia holding off Todd Szegedy for the win. It was the first Spring Sizzler win for Mystic Missle car owner Bob Garbarino.
After the 200-lap showdown was over, the Late Models took to the track for their scheduled feature event. Wayne Coury, Jr led the first 14 laps of the race before he was challenged by former Waterford and Thompson driver Corey Hutchings for the lead. Coury relinquished the top spot halfway into the race, and Hutchings dominated the second half in style. He cruised to the win with Woody Pitkat, Mike Quintiliano, and Coury finishing out the board. The race was caution-free.
Finally, the DARE Stocks raced their feature that was supposed to be done the day before. This race, like the Late Models, also ran completely green flagged, but there was no lead change involved in the making of their 15-lap production. Jeff Jolly led every lap possible on his way to his first victory of the season. At the line behind him were Dean Casagrande, Vince Gambacorta, and Todd LaPorta.
With all of the racing action said and done, I officially declare opening weekend a success and over. This brings us to tomorrow night; the first Friday night of the season. All five Stafford divisions will be on hand. And I might bring a camera along with me to take pictures of the action and in the pits. So until we meet again, I bid you a safe rest of today and tomorrow.
Saturday, April 07, 2007
Spring Sizzler Hype Up
Though this is only the start of April, the hype of the Spring Sizzler is officially upon us. You have the five Stafford divisions racing in their first races of the season, but then you have the Whelen Modified Tour coming off of a nice event at Thompson. After an event like that, you question who's going to make the trip up to the half mile and race for more points. Well, now you don't have to ask. This week, the first of what could be fifty entries have been filed for the 36th annual CARQuest Tech-Net Spring Sizzler.
I'm a little preoccupied at the moment, so you can check out the ever updated list of potential winners here. Enjoy.
I'm a little preoccupied at the moment, so you can check out the ever updated list of potential winners here. Enjoy.
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