Thirty years ago, in 1978, the Spring Sizzler at Stafford drew
111 Modifieds. Maynard Troyer scored
the win and led a top three sweep of New York drivers. Richie Evans
finished second with Geoff Bodine, third. Bugsy Stevens and Fred DeSarro
rounded out the top five. Kenny Bouchard led the early going until being
passed by Geoff Bodine on lap 8. Bodine led until lap 44 when Troyer
brought the crowd of 13,000 to their feet as he took the lead John
Rosati won the non-qualifiers event over Eddie St Angelo, Jim Tyler and
Jerry Bartlet.
Twenty five years ago, in 1983, Gil Hearne won his
69th career victory at the Wall Stadium in New Jersey. Tony Hirschman
finished second with Jerry Cranmer, third. In Winston Cup action at
Darlington, Harry Gant took the lead after Darrell Waltrip was forced to
back off because of ignition problems. Geoff Bodine finished ninth after
leading most of the laps run.
Twenty years ago, in 1988, Reggie Ruggiero took the 50
lap win at Riverside on Saturday night. Jerry Marquis finished second
with Bruce D’Alessandro, third. Al Hill was the modified winner at North
Wilkesboro. The Winston Modifieds (Featherlites) were at Thompson for
the Ice Breaker. Mike Ewanitsko took the win in the 75 lapper after Tom
Baldwin was parked by George Kent with two laps to go in the 75 lap
contest. Mike McLaughlin finished second with Doug Hevron, third.
Rounding out the top five were Kerry Malone and Jeff Fuller. Baldwin
ended his day in tenth spot and was ultimately fined $200 for fighting
with Kent after the event was completed. It was also opening day at
Seekonk where Johnny Tripp took the win over Bugsy Stevens.
Fifteen years ago in 1993, it was all quiet for the
Easter weekend with the exception of the Busch Grandnationals who were
at Hickory for a Saturday afternoon event which saw Steve Grissom take
the win over Ricky Craven and Joe Nemachek. It was also on this weekend
that NASCAR announced that they had entered into an agreement to run a
400 mile event at the Indianapolis, Speedway.
Ten years ago in 1998, Richie Gallup won the Saturday
night 50 lapper at Riverside Park over Ted Riggott, Rob Summers, Eddie
Spiers and Dan Avery. The Winston Cup was off for the Easter weekend.
The Busch Grandnationals ran at Hickory, N.C. where Ed Berrier took the
win.
Five years ago in 2003, rain threatened to put a
damper on the IceBreaker for the second week in a row but as it turned
out the sun came out on Sunday and the entire two-day event was run in
one day. With 43 Modifieds on hand, Zach Sylvester took the pole. Tony
Hirschman drew the pole for the start and led the first four laps of the
150-lap contest. John Blewett III led from lap 5 until lap 35 when he
gave way to Nevin George. George led from lap 36 until lap 60 as Chuck
Hossfeld turned up the wick and powered his way into the lead. Hossfeld
and George swapped the lead until lap 99 when Hossfeld took it for good
and led the rest of the way to the checker. Blewett ended up second and
was followed by Charlie Pasteryak, Mike Stefanik and Sylvester. Twin
SK-Modified events were run with Jeff Malave and Eric Berndt taking the
wins. In Busch Racing Series racing at Nashville David Green took the
win over John Sauter and Ashton Lewiss. In Winston Cup action at
Martinsville, pole sitter Jeff Gordon gave Bobby Labonte the bumper,
with 36 laps to go, to take the lead. Dale Earnhardt Jr. took second
spot.
Last year, the 2007 NASCAR Whelen Modified
Tour Series was slated to begin with the running of the Ice Breaker at
the Thompson Speedway but Mother Nature won out as she swamped the
entire northeast with rain and sleet on Sunday. Speedway officials and
NASCAR made a joint announcement postponing the event on Saturday
evening. With fuel prices being what they were it was a wise decision.
The speedway was quite busy on Saturday as qualifying was
completed for the Modifieds along with the tracks weekly divisions.
Features were also run for the Sunoco (SK type) Modifieds and Late
Models.
Forty eight NASCAR Modifieds were on hand for practice and
qualifying. Reggie Ruggiero and Richard Savory were early casualties as
their cars suffered severe damage. Ruggiero’s mount had a water hose let
go which dumped water on the track, causing him to lose control and hit
the wall. Savory, who is driving for Preston, Ct car owner Art Barry
this year spun in the water and landed on top of Ruggiero’s car. Both
drivers escaped unhurt but both cars were damaged severely and had to be
withdrawn. Barry had a back-up but Ruggiero didn’t as his car owner,
Dick Barney was forced to return to his shop in New Jersey to make
repairs and hope for a provisional starting spot which he eventually
got. Todd Szegedy broke the Modified track record set by Bob Polverari
in 2001 as he toured the 5/8 mile oval in 18.457 seconds as he won the
Busch Pole. Second fastest was former series champion Tony Hirschman.
Zach Sylvester made a fine showing for himself in his first outing in
the Curt Chase No.77 as he qualified third fastest. Rounding out the top
ten were Donnie Lia, Ted Christopher, Richard Savory, Matt Hirschman,
Mike Stefanik, Bobby Santos III in the Boehler Racing No.3 and Danny
Sammons. A re-draw inverted the top six for the main event. Later in the
day after the Ice Breaker was postponed NASCAR impounded four motors,
the Chevrolets of Lia and Tony Hirschman and the Fords of Szegedy and
Stefanik. They were taken to NASCAR’s R & D center in North Carolina for
examination.
Todd Ceravolo started his season off on the right foot as he
won the first of twin features scheduled for the Sunoco Modifieds. Rick
Gentes followed suit in the Late Models. Ceravolo, who won his
qualifying heat, led every lap to score the win in the first of twin
features scheduled for the Sunoco Modified division. Ceravolo jumped out
to the early lead but was immediately hounded by Keith Rocco who has
replaced Jeff Malave in the Interstate Diesel #6. Ceravolo maintained
his position as the top-four, which also included Tommy Cravenho and
Woody Pitkat, jockeyed for position. John Blewett, making his Sunoco
Modified debut at Thompson, ran alone in the fifth position. The first
driver to peek out of line was Cravenho to challenge Rocco for the
second spot. The two ran wheel to wheel for several laps. Pitkat
capitalized and was able to tail Rocco on the outside, moving Cravenho
back to fourth. Ceravolo never missed a beat as he entered lap traffic
at the halfway marker. Pitkat dove to the inside of Rocco on lap fifteen
and was able to make the pass stick taking over the second position
exiting turn four. Pitkat immediately set his sites on the leader
Ceravolo. Meanwhile, Jimmy Blewett had caught his brother John. The
action was halted when the first caution of the event flew on lap 20 for
a spin by Dan LaJeunesse. Ceravolo got a great jump on the restart to
maintain his lead on the field. Pitkat got racy with only a handful of
laps remaining. On Lap 22, there was contact between the leaders but no
change in position. Pitkat remained glued to his bumper. With the white
flag in the air, Pitkat got a run on the inside in turn two but had to
settle back in line. Ceravolo ran to the checkers just ahead of Pitkat.
Rocco came home third followed by Cravenho and Jimmy. Blewett, who
rounded out the top five. .
After his heat race victory, Corey Hutchings started the
25-lap Late Model feature from the pole. Hutchings capitalized and took
the top spot over Rick Gentes and Mark Jenison. In a distant third was
Steve Landry. The field was bunched up for a caution on lap six for a
spin by Jeff Hartwell. Under the caution, Jenison was forced to give up
third position with a flat tire. Hutchings maintained his lead on the
restart but had his hands full holding off Gentes. Jeff Zuidema moved
into the third spot. Gentes went low to get by Hutchings in turn two.
Hutchings got out of shape losing positions to both Zuidema and Landry.
At halfway, Gentes continued to show the way over Zuidema, Landry,
Hutchings and Conrad Cote inside the top five. Things settled down as
the laps wound down. Cote made a bid on Hutchings in fourth with two
laps remaining. Cote could get underneath Hutchings in the corners but
could not muster up enough steam to take the spot away. Gentes posted
the victory over Zuidema, Landry, Hutchings, and Cote.
The Waterford Speedbowl beat the impending rain on Saturday
night. Dennis Gada survived several late race restarts to claim the
35-lap SK Modified feature. The defending champion pulled ahead of
eventual runner-up Frank Ruocco for the final time with only three
circuits remaining. Rob Janovic finished third with Doug Coby and Jeff
Pearl rounding out the top five. Both Gada and Ruocco earned guaranteed
spots in this coming Saturday’s True Value Modified Series 100 at the
Speedbowl. Other winners were Allen Coates (Late Models), Ken Cassidy
Jr. (Mini Stocks), Chris Bakaj (Legends) and Dwayne Dorr (Sportsman).
At the Texas Motor Speedway Nextel Cup qualifying was rained
out. NASCAR set the field by current points which meant that Michael
Waltrip would miss his sixth straight race. The two-time Daytona 500
winner, in the first year with the Toyota team he owns, didn't have
enough season points to get in the 43-car field. The latest setback for
Waltrip comes less than a week after he was charged with reckless
driving and failing to report an accident after hitting a telephone pole
and rolling his SUV about a mile from his North Carolina home. Matt
Kenseth made the save, then picked up the victory Saturday in the
O'Reilly 300 Busch Series race at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth.
After pulling out of a spin without hitting the wall early in the race,
Kenseth ended Carl Edwards' two-race Busch winning streak, overtaking
Denny Hamlin with 11 laps left. Kenseth won by 0.128 of a second, the
closest margin in a Texas Busch race. Kenseth, running second when he
spun, got his second Busch win of the season and 10th top 10 in 12 Texas
races. Edwards was third. Jeff Burton passed Matt Kenseth on the final
lap Sunday of the Nextel Cup Samsung 500 to become the first repeat
winner at Texas Motor Speedway, winning 10 years after he won the
inaugural race. Burton didn't lead until he overtook Kenseth on the
backstretch coming out of turn 2 after more than 10 laps of trying to
get past him. It was Burton's 19th career victory.
ISC director Raymond K. Mason Jr gave himself a nice Spring
bonus of approximately $643,750 when he sold 12,500 shares for $51.50 to
$51.70 each. Company insiders are required by the Security and Exchange
Commission to report their transactions.
President and CEO Tom Deery, of DIRT MotorSports, Inc.
announced last week that it will change its corporate name to World
Racing Group, Inc. The Company will operate under the d/b/a World Racing
Group until the formal name change is voted on at the Company's upcoming
shareholder's meeting. Following the formal corporate name change, the
Company will also obtain a new stock symbol. Now based in Concord, N.C.,
the World Racing Group has unveiled an extensive television package
which will showcase their events on the Speed Channel and ESPN.
This week here are several vintage racing photos of Maynard Troyer
courtesy of
vintagemodifieds.com and John Bisci's Turn5 Photo & Video
Ring my chimes at 401-596-5467 E-mail:
smithpe_97_97@yahoo.com
The Chrome Horn
'Looking Back with Phil Smith' Archive
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