Last year, 2007, it looked like former Whelen
Modified Tour Series Champion Tony Hirschman had lost his sponsor/car
owners as they told him they were retiring from the sport. Hirschman,
who was on the Gary Danko radio show, stated that the owners (the
Kehele’s) got the team together at the Stafford Fall Final and told them
they were retiring at seasons end. Hirschman, who had nothing left to
prove, could very well retire himself and devote his time to his son
Matt’s career. The younger Hirschman had recently scored an impressive
win in the North/South Shootout.
In other Whelen Modified Tour news it looked like Series Champion
Don Lia would be replacing Terry Cook on the Craftsman Truck series in
2008. If that was the case a strong rumor had Bob Garbarino retiring
from the sport. Tour regular Wade Cole scored a victory in Connecticut
politics when he was elected First Selectman in the town of Hartland.
The Riverhead Raceway on Long Island announced at their annual banquet
that they would host the Whelen Modified Tour on Saturday night, August
2. The Stafford Speedway was expected to announce their Tour dates at
their annual banquet.
It was announced that Preston, Connecticut Modified car owner and
builder Art Barry would join a select group when he would be inducted
into the New York State Stock Car Association's Hall of Fame on January
19, 2008. Barry's five-decade career as a NASCAR modified owner and
fabricator had seen him build scores of asphalt cars for himself and
others. He first came to the forefront of the New York racing scene at
the Albany-Saratoga, Airborne Park and Utica-Rome Speedways with a
winning coupe driven by Bobby Santos, grandfather of current NASCAR up
and comer Bobby Santos 3rd. Since that time, his own cars had been
wheeled by such notables as Leo Cleary, Bob Potter, Eddie Flemke, Brett
Bodine, George Summers, Jeff Fuller, Greg Sacks, his son, Ken and Mike
Stefanik, with whom he won the NASCAR national championship in 2000 and
2001. A tireless worker, Barry is also known for helping others perfect
their car's handling, whether or not they were customers of his
Spearpoint Auto fabrication business. Prior to teaming up with Santos at
the Norwood Arena in Massachusetts Barry fielded a Modified for Chapin,
CT’s Joe Trudeau.
Joining Barry as inductees would be drivers Buzzie Reutimann, "Barefoot
Bob" McCreadie, who has an amazing 507 documented feature wins at some
54 speedways from Canada to Australia, Maynard Troyer and the late Les
Deuel, a sportswriter, who covered the local racing scene for both the
Albany Times-Union and the racing trade papers.
The newest NYSSCA Hall of Fame members would be inducted at the
association's annual awards banquet, set for Saturday, January 19th at
the Polish Community Center on Washington Avenue Extension in Albany,
NY.
For the 2008 NASCAR Whelen All-American Series season,
Stafford Motor Speedway announced they would institute a tire rule for
its SK Modified and SK Light Modified divisions. The tire rule would
limit the number of tires that teams would be able to purchase each week
and use during the course of the 2008 season. SK Modified teams would be
allowed to purchase 2 tires each week at the track, while SK Light teams
would be allowed to purchase one tire each week at the track. The
Waterford Speedbowl management was looking at similar rules. This type
of tire rule is not new; in fact it was first used in 1978 when Dick
Williams leased the Waterford Speedbowl from the late Harvey Tattersall.
Connecticut native Joe Lewandoski, who at one time managed the now
closed Riverside Park Speedway in Agawam, Mass., resigned after three
years as general manager at the Lake Erie Speedway in Pennsylvania.
Lewandoski resigned less than two weeks after saying he planned to
return for the 2008 season. In that time, he discovered he needed a new
challenge in his racing career.
Kyle Busch's run of bad luck officially ended Saturday at Phoenix
International Raceway. Busch followed his Friday night Truck Series win
with a victory Saturday in the Busch Series, giving him a chance today
in the Nextel Cup event to become the first driver to sweep all three of
NASCAR's national series at the same track on the same But Kenseth, who
had no power steering, had nothing for Busch on the restart and he
jumped out to a lead of about six car-lengths and coasted toward his
fourth Busch Series win of the year. It was the final Busch Series race
of Busch's career at Hendrick. He's leaving the team at the end of the
season as it makes room for Dale Earnhardt Jr., and Busch isn't
scheduled to race next weekend in the finale at Homestead-Miami
Speedway.
Jimmie Johnson took command of the Nextel Cup championship Sunday,
winning at Phoenix International Raceway to open a daunting lead over
his teammate in the race to the title. It was his 10th win of the
season, most since Jeff Gordon won 13 in 1998 and barring a collapse in
next week's finale, Johnson will become the first driver to win
consecutive championships since Gordon did it in 1997 and 1998. Gordon
was off all day. He had a tire rub after making contact with Kevin
Harvick, and finished a disappointing 10th. Greg Biffle finished second
and Matt Kenseth, his Roush Fenway Racing teammate, was third. Tony
Stewart was fourth and was followed by Ryan Newman, Harvick, and Martin
Truex Jr. Kyle Busch, who was trying to become the first driver to win
three of NASCAR's national races at the same track on the same weekend,
finished eighth.
That’s it for this week from 40 Clark Street, Westerly RI 02891.
Ring my chimes at 401-596-5467. E Mail
smithpe_97_97@yahoo.com.
Phil Smith has been a
columnist for Speedway Scene and various other publications for over 3
decades.
This week are
several vintage racing photos from the Pete Zanardi collection of just
some
of the drivers who were behind the wheel of the Billy Simons owned #9
over the years.
Courtesy of
VintageModifieds.com
Dick Caso
Ernie Gahan
Gene Bergin
Ray
Miller
Stan Greger
Charlie Webster
The Chrome Horn
'Looking Back with Phil Smith' Archive
THE END