Forty five years ago in 1963 it rained at
the Utica-Rome Speedway.
Forty years ago in 1968,
Jerry Cook took the win at
the Albany-Saratoga Speedway on Friday night. Dave Kotary finished
second with Ron Narducci, Dave Lape and Eddie Pieniezek rounding out the
top five. At Stafford, Eddie Flemke made it two in a row despite a lot
of pressure from Bugsy Stevens, who finished second. Fred DeSarro
finished third and was followed by Sal Dee and Lou Toro. Bugsy Stevens
made it two in a row at the Norwood Arena on Saturday night. At Fonda it
was Lou Lazzaro over Ed Pieniezek and Dick Clark. Sunday racing at
Thompson and Utica-Rome rained out.
Thirty five years ago in 1973, Modified action began
on Friday at the Albany-Saratoga Speedway in Malta, N.Y. Fred DeSarro
took the opening night 100 lapper over Leo Cleary, Bugsy Stevens, Paul
Radford and Lou Lazzaro. Ronnie Bouchard made it two in a row at
Stafford on Saturday night. Bugsy Stevens headed for Tioga where he won
a 100 lapper and at Islip, Jim Hendrickson beat out Tom Baldwin and
Charlie Jarzombek for the win. On Sunday, Lee raceway ran a 30-lap event
with Bob Santos taking the win over Freddie Schulz and on Sunday night,
Richie Evans won a 100-lap event at Utica-Rome. Bernie Miller finished
second.
Thirty years ago in 1978,Geoff Bodine won the Friday
night opener at Stafford over Ron Bouchard and Bugsy Stevens. Bouchard
made it three in a row at Waterford on Saturday and at Riverside, Richie
Evans took a hard-earned victory over Bob Polverari and Reggie Ruggiero.
George Savory made it two in a row at Westboro and at Islip; Charlie
Jarzombek beat out Bill Park and Tom Baldwin. Events scheduled on Sunday
at Thompson and Oswego rained out. At Monadnock, Bouchard took the
checker over Bugsy Stevens and Ollie Silva.
Twenty five Years ago in 1983, Greg Sacks made it two
in a row at Stafford. Kenny Bouchard, with a strong run in the Ted Marsh
No.55 finished second with Richie Evans, third. At Riverside, Evans took
the top spot over Reggie Ruggiero and at Islip, Don Howe took the top
spot. Other weekend winners were Jamie Tomaino at Wall and George Kent
at Tioga. In Winston Cup action at Nashville, Darrell Waltrip took the
pole and the win. Ron Bouchard finished ninth and Geoff Bodine finished
twentieth.
Twenty Years ago in 1988 Friday night racing at
Stafford rained out. At Waterford on Saturday, Richie Gallup got his
second win of the year. At Riverside, Reggie Ruggerio picked up his
third win with Mike Stefanik, second. Tony Hirschman went two for two at
Tioga and at Monadnock, Stefanik and Ruggiero flip-flopped with Stefanik
taking the win.
Fifteen Years ago, in 1993 Mike Paquette won the
Friday night Winston Racing Series SK Modified feature at Stafford and
was disqualified with an illegal engine. Dennis Gada was awarded the
win. Jerry Pearl took the win at Waterford on Saturday after Bert Marvin
tangled with Bob Potter and Ted Christopher in the late going. Ronnie
Rocco finished second. Chris Young went pole to pole at Riverhead and at
Riverside, Reggie Ruggiero took the victory. At Fonda Speedway in
upstate N.Y., Legend Lou Lazzaro got his 110th win at the historic
track. In Winston Cup news, Geoff Bodine became a car owner as he
purchased Alan Kulwicki's race team.
Ten years ago, in 1998, Bo Gunning was the 50 lap
SK-Modified winner at Stafford. It was no cakewalk as some hot company
in the form of Bob Potter, Mike Ewanitsko, Ted Christopher and Eric
Berndt followed. Stafford also announced the results of their 50
Greatest Drivers who would be honored during the year. Waterford,
Riverside and Riverhead rained out. The Busch North Series and the Busch
Grandnationals were at Loudon. Kelly Moore took the BNS victory over Tom
Carey and Brad Leighton. Mike Stefanik and Ted Christopher were in the
hunt during the early going but blistered tires and a pit stop kept them
out of the top ten. Buckshot Jones was the Busch Grand National winner.
Tony Stewart finished second.
Five years ago in 2003 Stafford got to beat the rain
as they began their regular Friday night racing series. Scott Foster
took the SK-Modified 50 lapper over Jeff Baral and Frank Ruocco. The
NASCAR Busch North Series ran a 150 lapper with Curtis Truex going pole
to pole. Andy Santerre finished second. The NASCAR Featherlite Modified
Tour Series visited the Waterford Speedbowl on Saturday. It was a major
milestone for Jamie Tomaino as it was his 400th Modified Tour start.
Chuck Hossfeld took the Busch Pole and led the first 27 laps before
blistering a tire. Waiting in the wings was Rick Fuller who took
advantage of Hossfeld’s miss-handling machine. Fuller led from lap 28 to
the finish. Ted Christopher finished second with Jerry Marquis, third.
Todd Szegedy and Rob Summers rounded out the top five. Hossfeld hung on
to finish sixth. Because of the fact that previous Mod Tour Series
rainouts had shuffled the schedule, Waterford was forced to run their
Nationals event on the same weekend. Dennis Gada took the win over Jeff
Pearl and Ron Yuhas Jr. During the running of the event Bo Gunning was
leading and appeared to have victory in sight when Ted Christopher spun
him out. Gunning was so incensed that he went after Christopher and
attempted to hit him head on but stopped short before contact was made.
Gunning then parked it for the day. Christopher was put to the rear and
worked his way back to sixth spot before cutting a tire. Christopher
ended up 16th in the final rundown. In other weekend action Dave Michael
won at Wall Township and JR Bertuccio made it two in a row at Riverhead.
It was also announced on this weekend that Steve Park had been fired out
of his Winston Cup ride at Dale Earnhardt Inc. and was replaced by Jeff
Green. The Winston Cup Series was off because of Mother’s Day. The Busch
Racing Series was at the Gateway Speedway where Scott Riggs took the
win.
Last year, 2007, The 2007 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour
Series was in the middle of their “Spring Break”. Jimmy Blewett, who
drives for Long Island car owner Eddie Partridge sat atop the point
standings with a 31 point lead over second generation driver Matt
Hirschman. In three starts Blewett had three top tens including one win.
Hirschman, the son of multi-time Whelen Modified Champion Tony Hirschman
also had three top tens but was winless. James Civali, who won the
Thompson Speedway Ice Breaker, sat in third spot, 49 points behind the
leader. Todd Szegedy and Chuck Hossfeld rounded out the top five. Sixth
through tenth were Donny Lia, Jerry Marquis, Ronnie Silk, Mike Stefanik
and Billy Pauch Jr. In three events, fifty one different competitors had
entered into competition.
Much had been said, both pro and con concerning the recent
“Flash Event” at the Wall Township Speedway. It was NASCAR’s intent to
make the Whelen Modified Tour Series more affordable to their weekly
tracks and make the events more exciting to the paying fan. In both
cases NASCAR needed to take a second look and maybe ask those involved
to give their constructive criticism. From this corner it appeared that
to keep competitors happy NASCAR needed to pressure promoters to get out
and sell their events in order to offset costs which come with special
events. To create excitement NASCAR should try to handicap the top 20
based on their last three performances and invert the field. To fill out
a 30-35 car starting field NASCAR needed to run a consolation event
which would afford some track time to those who need it.
In NASCAR Whelen All-American Series action at the Stafford
Motor Speedway Friday night second generation driver Keith Rocco
captured the 40-lap SK Modified feature, Rocco is the son of retired
driving great Ronnie Rocco. Tom Fearn won the 30-lap Late Model feature,
Chris Matthews the 20-lap SK Light feature, Andrew Durand, the Limited
Late Model feature, and Bill Dunn, the 15-lap DARE Stock feature. The
40-lap SK Modified feature event saw several drivers all take a shot at
Keith Rocco, but Rocco was able to fend off all challengers to pick up
his first feature win of the 2007 season. Rocco moved to the lead on
lap-5, passing early race leader Woody Pitkat. Pitkat would spend the
next 30 laps trying to get around Rocco, with several caution periods
slowing the action and giving Pitkat multiple opportunities to take the
lead back. Pitkat held tough on the outside groove, but was unable to
get around Ruocco. The final caution came out with 4 laps to go, setting
up a dash to the finish. Rocco again got the drop on the field, with
Willie Hardie moving past Pitkat for second. Rocco was able to pull away
from Rocco in the closing laps to take the win. Hardie finished second
with Pitkat, Kerry Malone, and Jeff Malave rounding out the top-5.
In NASCAR Whelen All-American Series action at the Waterford
Speedbowl Rob Janovic used a bottom-shot coming out of turn-four to pass
leader Doug Coby with eight circuits remaining to capture his second
consecutive 35-lap SK Modified feature at the Speedbowl on Saturday
evening. Other winners were Tim Jordan (Late Model), Dwayne Dorr
(Sportsman), Joe Godbout III (Mini Stock), and Norm Wrenn (Pro-4
Modified). Coby faded in the late going and was overtaken by Shawn
Monahan who ended up in second spot. Coby, Diego Monahan and Dennis Gada
rounded out the top five Sixth through tenth were Jeff Pearl, Kenny
Horton, Frank Mucciacciaro, Jeff Paul and Tyler Chadwick.
The Star Speedway in Epping, NH hosted a special Open
Competition Modified race that attracted only 19 cars. Ted Christopher
was in the lead with only eight laps remaining when he tangled with Andy
Seuss under caution and suffered a flat tire. Rob Summers ended up
taking the win over Jon McKennedy, Seuss, Ron Silk and Chris Pasteryak.
At the Riverhead Raceway on Long Island Bill Park took the
win over Tom Rogers and JR Bertuccio. In the RACE OF CHAMPIONS ASPHALT
MODIFIED TOUR event at the Oswego Speedway Matt Hirschman went pole to
pole to win the 75 lap event. Billy Putney finished second and was
followed by Lee Sherwood, Zane Zeiner, Earl Paules, Eric Beers and Rick
Zacharias.
In Nextel Cup action at the Darlington Raceway in South
Carolina Jeff Gordon overcame an overheating engine with five laps to go
to race to his third victory of the season Sunday, winning the Dodge
Avenger 500 at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway. Hendrick Motorsports has won
four straight races, eight of the last nine, and remained perfect in the
five Car of Tomorrow events. Denny Hamlin, who led a race-high 179 laps,
had a chance to win before his crew dropped a pair of lug nuts on a late
pit stop. Rain washed out the race Saturday night, making it the first
NASCAR race run on Mother's Day since 1986. Jimmie Johnson, last week's
winner, finished third for Hendrick. Dale Earnhardt Jr. was eighth,
capping a frenzied week that began when he said he's leaving DEI at the
end of the season. Denny Hamlin won the Diamond Hill Plywood 200 for the
second straight year Friday night, again surviving a wreck-filled Busch
Series event at historic Darlington Raceway. Hamlin, a Virginia native,
then paid tribute to the victims of the Virginia Tech massacre, taking a
school flag along for his victory lap
International Speedway Corp., the company that owns and
manages NASCAR race tracks, announced that they would partner with the
Cordish Co. to build Daytona Live, a mixed-use entertainment
destination, across from Daytona International Speedway. Daytona Live
will be built on 71 acres that currently are home to Speedplex Office
Park. The park houses ISC's and NASCAR's headquarters. The project is
expected to cost $250 million.
This week here are several vintage racing photos of 6-time
NASCAR National Modified Champion, Jerry Cook
courtesy of
vintagemodifieds.com
Ring my chimes at 401-596-5467 E-mail:
smithpe_97_97@yahoo.com
The Chrome Horn
'Looking Back with Phil Smith' Archive
THE END
