Forty years ago in
1969, Stafford ran a 100 lapper with Nathan "Smokey" Boutwell in
the Garuti-Arute No.14 taking the win. Bob Santos in the Art Barry 909
finished second and was followed by Jerry Cook, Freddie Schulz and Jim
Hurtibuis in the Bob Judkins 2x.At the Albany-Saratoga Speedway, Maynard
Forrette took the win over Lou Lazzaro and Ron Narducci. Saturday night at
Norwood saw Freddie Schulz in the Dick Armstrong No.14 take the win. Bob
Melnick finished second. Daring Dick Caso made it two in a row in Modified
competition at Waterford. Wayne “Mysterious” Smith was the Daredevil winner.
At Fonda, Jerry Cook got a win. Lazzaro finished second and was followed by
Rene Charland and Kenny Shoemaker. At Islip it was Lou Hennessy over Jim
Hendrickson and at Airborne Park it rained. Boutwell made it two for two on
the weekend as he won at Thompson on Sunday night. Fred DeSarro in his own
No.00 finished second with Leo Cleary in the Koszela 15, third. Double
points were on tap at Utica-Rome on Sunday and Lazzaro was there to take the
gold. Bugsy Stevens finished second with Dick Clark, third.
Thirty five years ago in 1974,
Riverhead ran on Thursday with Charlie Jarzombek taking the win over Fred
Harbach. Racing at Freeport on Friday, rained out and on Saturday at Islip,
Lou Hennessy again finished ahead of Hendrickson. Stafford ran a 100-lap
double point event on Saturday night with Ronnie Bouchard in the Bob Johnson
17 beating out Bugsy Stevens in the Koszela 15. Dick Watson won the 30 lap
Modified main at Waterford. Ron Cote was the Grand American late model
winner. Shangri-La also ran a 100 lapper and it was Richie Evans over Dave
Nichols. Utica-Rome ran a Trenton qualifier and it was Geoff Bodine taking
the top spot with Evans settling for second.
Thirty years ago in 1979, Geoff
Bodine was at Stafford, on Friday night, in the Lee Allard No.99 and cleaned
house. Dick Caso finished second with Ed Flemke, third. Bodine had also won
two nights earlier as he beat out Charlie Jarzombek and Jeff Fuller. New
Egypt also ran on Wednesday. Jerry Cook turned the tables on Richie Evans as
he took the win. Like Bodine did in New England, Cook repeated on Friday
night as he won at Spencer. Maynard Troyer finished second with Doug Hewitt,
third. At Seekonk on Saturday night, Ronnie Bouchard took the top spot over
Eddie StAngelo. Charlie Jarzombek took the win at Islip and Ronnie Rocco
made it two in a row at Plainville. Other weekend winners were Reggie
Ruggiero at Monadnock, George Kent at Shangri-La, Jack Bateman at Claremont,
Rick Donnelly at Waterford and Ronnie Bouchard at Thompson. As a side note,
during the running of the strictly stock feature at Monadnock an out of
control competitor with a stuck throttle flew through the pit area and did
considerable damage to a truck owned by Brian Ross.
Twenty five years ago in 1984,
the Thompson Speedway ran their 300 outside pole qualifier on Wednesday
night. George Kent took the win over Richie Evans and Jim Spencer. Stafford
ran a 100 lapper on Friday night, which saw Mike McLaughlin get the best of
Reggie Ruggiero for the win. At Spencer it was Doug Hewitt and at Riverhead,
Don Howe won a 75-lap Circle of Champions event over Jim Spencer and Bill
Park. Waterford hosted twin 25's on Saturday night with Bob Potter and
Dickie Doo Ceravolo sharing the top spot. Also on Saturday, a 150-lap Circle
of Champion’s event was run at Islip. Tiger Tom Baldwin used his home track
advantage and took the win. Bob Park was second with Wayne Anderson, third.
Twenty years ago in 1989, Teddy
and Mikey Christopher finished one-two in SK modified action at Stafford on
Friday night. Dan Avery won at Monadnock over Dwight Jarvis. The mod Tour
was at Riverside with Ruggiero taking the win over Mike Stefanik and at
Riverhead, Bill Park took the win over Chris Young.
Fifteen years ago in 1994, John
Sneade was the Wednesday night SK winner at Thompson. Scott Poirier and Mike
Christopher followed but were disqualified because of illegal cylinder
heads. At Stafford on Friday night, Mike Paquette took the win over Bo
Gunning and Steve Chowanski. The Mod Tour Series was at Holland on Saturday
night and it was Jeff Fuller taking the top spot. Mike Ewanitsko finished
second and was followed by Bruce Dell, Steve Park and Ricky Fuller.
Waterford ran a 125 lapper with Jeff Pearl scoring a big win over Todd
Ceravolo, Dave Gada and Mike Gada. On lap six of the event, Jim Broderick
and Vinnie Anglace tangled, collecting Larry Lanphear and
Dennis Gada. Gada's gas tank was ripped open and a bad fire erupted. No one
was hurt but the cars of Lanphear and Gada were destroyed in the fire. Lou
Lazzaro got his 112th career win at Fonda and Tom Tillotson went pole to
pole at Riverhead. Riverside saw Chris Kopec in victory lane.
Ten years ago, in 1999, Curt
Brainard made it two in a row at Stafford. Tommy Fox finished second. At
Waterford Dennis Gada won the feature over Ed Dachenhausen. The action was
just as hot off the track as it was on as race director Tony Lecky walked
out after a difference of opinion could not be settled between himself and
track operator, Terry Eames. At Riverside it was Jim Broderick over Ricky
Miller. The Featherlite Modified Tour was at Loudon along with the Busch
North Series and Craftsman Trucks. The mods and BGN's drew 19000 while the
trucks had a real light crowd. Tony Hirschman took the lead from Jan Leaty
with 11 to go and went on to take the 100-lap victory. Ted Christopher
finished second with Mike Ewanitsko, third. Tom Carey was the Busch North
winner.
Five Years ago in 2004, the
NASCAR Featherlite Modified Tour was at the Seekonk Speedway on Saturday
night. For the better part of the 2004 season Chuck Hossfeld had been in a
slump. Hossfeld broke the chain on Saturday night as he won the Coca-Cola
150 at the track known as the cement palace. Hossfeld qualified fourth
behind Busch Pole sitter Don Lia. Hossfeld re-drew third and after following
early leader Eric Beers for 67 laps took the lead and went on for the
eventual win. Beers faded to fourth at the finish as Don Lia and Dick
Houlihan moved into the top three. Jeff Malave rounded out the top five. The
event, the only one at Seekonk for 2004, drew 39 Modifieds and an almost
packed house. Championship contender Eddie Flemke Jr. suffered a major
setback after being involved in two separate incidents. The second one, on
lap 102, did him in as he hit the wall and ended up exiting the track on the
business end of a wrecker. Flemke ended up in 26th spot.
Tony Hirschman, who had been chasing Flemke all season, survived an
early race tangle and came back to finish 10th and gained enough points to
take the lead. Flemke led the troops as the tour prepared to head to Long
Island. Rick Fuller, John Blewett III, Ted Christopher, Bob Santos III and
Hirschman rounded out the top ten at the finish of the event. Four caution
periods for 27 laps kept the average speed at 62.243 mph.
The Busch North Series was at the Adirondack Speedway in up state
New York Saturday night. Matt Kobyluck took the win over defending series
champion Andy Santerre.
In Thursday night Thunder at the Thompson Speedway Kerry Malone made it two
in a row in the Sunoco SK-type modified division. Malone took the lead after
an early restart and despite a lot of pressure from Ted Christopher and Bo
Gunning was able to cruise to the win. Christopher was a little down on
power and put most of his efforts into racing with Gunning who ended up
settling for third. Christopher finished second. Bert Marvin and Jeff Malave
rounded out the top five. Todd Ceravolo, who was contending for the point
lead, suffered a setback as his engine blew mid-way in the event. Joe Lemay
held off David Berghman to won the Pro Stock feature and Larry Barnett took
the top spot in Limited Sportsman action. Corey Hutchings won his fourth
Late Model feature and Scott Michalski was the top dog in Mini-Stock
competition.
Ted Christopher continued his hot streak as he won the 31st annual
Coors Light 100 at Stafford on Friday night. Christopher, who now had four
in a row at Stafford, drove a somewhat conservative race as he took the lead
from pole sitter Steve Chowanski on lap 56. James Civale, who had been the
only driver to break Christopher’s win streak in the last seven events
finished second. Willie Hardie finished third with Chuck Docherty and Woody
Pitkat rounding out the top five. Chowanski ended up 23rd and defending race
winner Eric Berndt ended up 24th. Chris Matthews was the late model winner
and Eric Grant won the 15-lap Dare Stock feature.
It was Nostalgia Weekend at the Waterford Speedbowl on Saturday
night. Many big names from years gone by were on hand. A tip of the hat to
Tom Ormsby and Pete Zanardi who spent countless hours putting the program
together. In racing action at the shoreline oval Ron Yuhas Jr. ended a long
dry spell as he garnered his first SK Modified feature win of the year. It
wasn’t easy as it took close to an hour to run the 35-lap feature that was
slowed numerous times for various wrecks and spins. In the end Yuhas
endured. Jim Civale, who led until lap 23, finished second. Dennis Gada, Rob
Janovic and Jeff Pearl rounded out the top five. Larry Goss of North Windham
won the Late Model feature over Corey Hutchings and Jay Lozyniak was the
victor in the Sportsman division. A new competitor by the name of Mike
Manifold outpaced Richard Brooks to win the Mini-Stock feature. Many were
wondering if Manifold was a relative of Rex Kahrs or Will Fade!
The Nextel Cup and the Busch Racing Series divisions of NASCAR were
in action. The Busch Series visited the Pikes Peak Raceway in Colorado and
the Nextel Cup division was at the Pocono International Raceway in
Pennsylvania. Greg Biffle raced in both events. At Pikes Peak he went from
last to first as he recorded a win. At Pocono in the Nextel Cup Pennsylvania
500 Biffle settled for fourth. Jimmie Johnson dominated the event as he won,
hands down. Mark Martin finished second but had nothing for the winner.
Kasey Kahne finished up in third spot.
On the speedway stock market scene, the big news was that Boundless
Motorsports settled their differences with former World of Outlaws President
Ted Johnson and that Boundless had finally closed the deal for complete
ownership of the DIRT organization. Boundless Motorsports shares closed out
the week at 3.50.
Last Year, 2008, The third
event of the four race WaterSnoGo Modified Showdown took place on Saturday,
July 26 at the All-Star Speedway in Epping, NH. With no other major Modified
event scheduled for the weekend, a large number of entries were received for
the prestigious event. The race was 125 green flag laps in length, paying
$5,000 to the winner. Matt Hirschman won his fourth race in a row after he
led the race from start to finish. Jon McKennedy finished second and was
followed by Chris Pasteryak, Jimmy Kuhn, Jr and Ryan Preece. Sixth through
tenth were Ken Barry, Mike Ordway Jr., Jimmy Blewett, Ronnie Silk and Mike
Stefanik.
The Thompson Speedway’s Thursday Night Thunder program was
cancelled as heavy rains and severe thunderstorms caused the management of
the Thompson International Speedway to pull the plug as the speedway complex
was all but flooded out.
In the Sunoco Modifieds Kerry Malone was the current point leader.
Malone led Todd Ceravolo by 10 points. Six points behind Ceravolo was Danny
Cates who had begun to make his mark at Thompson. Cates held a 20 point edge
over Jimmy Blewett. Rounding out the top five was Bert Marvin. Fred Astle JR
led Norm Wrenn, Derek Ramstrom and Mike O’Sullivan for Pro Stock honors.
Other division point leaders were Jeff Zuidema in the Late Models, Kurt
Vigeant in the Thompson Modifieds, Scott Sundeen in the Limited Sportsman
and Danny Field in the Mini Stocks.
The Whelen All-American Series NASCAR race event at Stafford Motor
Speedway featured the 5th Annual CARQUEST SK 150. Woody Pitkat scored the
$4,000 winner's check by coming back from a flat tire, which put him two
laps down at one point with a late race pass for the win. Joe Rzeszutek
wired the field in the 30-lap Late Model feature for his first win of the
2008 season, Harry Wheeler became a first-time career winner in the 20-lap
SK Light Modified feature, Andrew Durand nailed down his second feature
victory of the 2008 season in the 20-lap Limited Late Model feature, and
Jeff Jolly scored his first win of the 2008 season in the 15-lap DARE Stock
feature event.
In the 150-lap SK Modified feature event, Todd Owen took the lead
from the pole and led the first 9 laps before giving way to Chris Jones on
lap-16. Jones led to lap-27 when Frank Ruocco took over the lead. Ruocco
then led to lap-54 when Keith Rocco took the lead on a restart, but Ruocco
would retake the lead on lap-56. Ruocco remained out front until lap-93 when
Ronnie Silk moved to the point. Silk then held the lead up to lap-102 when
Ruocco went back out front. Ruocco held the race lead until Silk beat Ruocco
back to the start/finish line on lap-124 with the caution coming out one lap
later.
Silk held the point through lap-138. On a restart on lap-139, Rocco
charged into the lead with a great move in turn 3, but a determined Silk
moved back to the point several laps later on lap-141. Woody Pitkat, who had
earlier spun with a flat tire and lost two laps, gained his two laps back
with lucky dog awards and was now in the thick of the mix for the race lead
and the battle for the win. Pitkat moved to second on lap-142 and he took
the race lead for the first time on lap-143. Ruocco got back to second, but
it was too late for him to catch Pitkat, who took down his third feature
victory of the 2008 season. Ruocco came home second, with Rocco, Kenny
Horton, and Jeff Malave rounding out the top-5. Pre-race favorite Ted
Christopher, who was celebrating his fiftieth birthday, finished 23rd.
At the Waterford Speedbowl Doug Coby and Tyler Chadwick won the
Town Fair Tire Night twin 35-lap SK Modified features. Other feature winners
were Tim Jordan (Late Model), Al Stone III (Sportsman), Ben Bargnesi (Mini
Stock), and Max Zachem (Legends).
In the first of two 35-lap SK Modified features, pole-sitter Doug
Coby battled with Jeff Paul during the opening stages. Upon a restart with
fifteen circuits remaining the leader faltered, causing a chain-reaction
that damaged several top cars, most able to return after going pitside.
Entering the midway point, it was again Coby and Paul, with Rob Janovic Jr.
closing quickly. During the final laps, Coby took total command.
Rounding-out the top-5 was Paul, Janovic, Jeff Pearl, and Shawn Monahan.
Starting from the pole, young Tyler Chadwick led the entire measure
of the caution-filled SK Modified nightcap to snare his first-ever victory.
Not an easy feat, he held-off the advances of some of the Speedbowl’s best
including Doug Coby, Jeff Paul, and defending champion Dennis Gada during
several tense late-race restarts. Following the winner was Paul, Coby, Gada,
and Jeff Pearl.
The foreclosure issues at the shoreline oval are once again in the
news. Currently somewhere in the neighborhood of around $22,000 in property
taxes have not been paid. Rocco Arbitell who holds the mortgage on the
Speedbowl property said it’s the responsibility of Terry Eames. Eames claims
it’s the responsibility of track operator Jerry Robinson The issue has
become a war of words between the two. The outcome will be decided in court
at a future date.
Kyle Busch led all but three laps Saturday night to win the Kroger
200, his sixth NASCAR Nationwide Series victory of the season. Busch's win
was Toyota's 15th in 22 Nationwide races, but the first event since NASCAR's
mandate Wednesday to cut down the horsepower in Series engines knocked 15
horsepower out of Toyota's engines. NASCAR changed the parameters after
rival teams complained, even though Toyota was within the rules. Busch also
won the event at O'Reilly Raceway Park in 2004. Polesitter Colin Braun
finished second Saturday, and Mike Bliss moved up from 17th to finish third.
Jimmie Johnson celebrated his second Sprint Cup victory at
Indianapolis Motor Speedway with a burnout. Appropriately, one of his tires
exploded. He was lucky he made it that long Sunday. Tire troubles derailed
the Allstate 400 at the Brickyard when Goodyear's product wasn't durable
enough to withstand more than 10 or so laps at a time. It created a chaotic
and confusing caution-filled race that ended when Johnson outran Carl
Edwards in a seven-lap sprint to the finish. Goodyear and NASCAR were left
to explain why the 400-mile race became a debacle.
The tire issue cropped up Saturday, when drivers learned during the
first practice they could only last three to 10 laps before the rubber wore
down to the cords. NASCAR and Goodyear hoped the conditions would improve as
it has in years past, once enough rubber was laid on the track. But the
first-time use of the Car of Tomorrow prevented any improvement. The lack of
downforce on the car, combined with a higher center of gravity, created
conditions that made it very hard on the right side tires. There were 11
yellow flags, and NASCAR had to throw six competition cautions to force
teams to pit and change tires. It meant the longest green-flag run was an
embarrassing 12 laps, causing teams to fear both tire failures and a
possible supply shortage. Johnson fretted the final two stops, unsure what
the right strategy would be. He took two tires on his final stop to emerge
from pit road as the leader, then held off Edwards and Denny Hamlin over a
final seven-lap green flag run to the finish line. Sprint Cup points leader
Kyle Busch finished 15th. Busch was coming off a win Saturday night in the
Nationwide Series Kroger 200 in Clermont, Ind. The win gave Toyota its 15th
victory in 22 Nationwide races this season. It was Busch's 15th win of the
season spanning NASCAR's three series, breaking the record of 14 set by
Kevin Harvick in 2006.
That’s it for this week from 11 Gardner Drive, Westerly, RI, 02891.
Ring my chimes at 401-596-5467. E Mail smithpe_97_97@yahoo.com.
This week are several photos courtesy
of photographer Steve Kennedy
from last weeks Nostalgia Weekend at the Waterford Speedbowl.
Many of these same cars will be on hand when the Thompson Speedway holds
its annual Vintage Antique Racers Extravaganza on Saturday August 22nd
from 9:00 A.M. to 3:00 P.M. with admission only $10.00.
. All other photos courtesy of Tom Ormsby and
VintageModifieds.com Phil Smith has been a
columnist for Speedway Scene and various
other publications for over 3 decades.
