Forty years ago in
1969, the Norwood Arena, long a part of the tri-track-modified
circuit in New England ran its last Modified event. The track would continue
for a couple more years but would run only late models. Roland LaPierre Sr.
won the final event. He was followed by Eddie Flemke, Fred DeSarro, Bugsy
Stevens, Bob Melnick and Billy Schulz. Freddie Schulz was the final modified
driving champion and Dick Armstrong was the final modified championship
owner. An industrial park now sits on the former site of the high banked 1/4
mile speedway in Norwood, Mass. The Norwood Arena Speedway was the fastest
1/4 Mile NASCAR stock car racing track in the 1960's. The Modifieds ran
their final event of the year at Stafford on Sunday. Leo Cleary, driving the
Sonny Koszela No.15 took the win over Smokey Boutwell, Ed Yerrington, Bill
Slater, DeSarro and Flemke. Airborne Park in Plattsburg, N.Y. ran a double
point event also on Sunday. Jerry Cook took the win over Dick Fowler and
Bugsy Stevens. Stevens was trying to overcome a 441 point deficit that Jerry
Cook held for the NASCAR Modified Championship.
Thirty five years ago in 1974,
Stafford's Fall Final featured 80 lap events for the Modifieds and 80 laps
for the Busch North division. Bugsy Stevens took the modified win over
Richie Evans, Geoff Bodine and Jerry Cook. Bob Dragon was the late model
winner.
Twenty five years ago in 1984,
the Oswego Speedway closed out their season on Saturday with the Modifieds,
which saw Jim Spencer take the win over Richie Evans, Brian Ross and Roger
Treichler. Stafford ran their Fall Final on Sunday with Reggie Ruggiero
taking the win. Richie Evans finished second and sewed up the Northeast
Regional and Nascar National Modified Championship. Mike McLaughlin finished
third.
Twenty years ago in 1989, the
Modified Tour Series was at the Shangri-La Speedway. Jeff Fuller, driving
for Art Barry, took the win. Steve Park finished second and was followed by
Rick Fuller and Satch Worley. Also on tap that weekend was the Fall Finale
at Waterford where Dennis Gada took the win.
Fifteen years ago in 1994,
Waterford ran their Fall Finale. Todd Ceravolo took advantage of a blown
engine in leader John Anderson’s modified and walked off with the season
ending win. Ceravolo started on the pole and led the early going until
getting passed by Anderson. Rob Janovic, driving the Mike Gada no.21 drove a
very competitive race and finished second. George "Moose" Hewitt finished
third and was followed by Jerry Pearl, Scott Spaulding, Phil Rondeau and Jim
Broderick. Jay Stuart won the Late Model main. In Winston Cup action at
Charlotte, Dale Jarrett took the win after a dominant Geoff Bodine blew a
head gasket. Terry Labonte was the Grand National winner.
Ten years ago, in 1999, the
Thompson World Series and the D. Anthony Venditti Memorial at Seekonk rained
out. Fifty-eight Modifieds were at Thompson with Tony Hirschman taking the
pole. It was damp but not raining up in central New York State. The Race of
Champions was run at Oswego with 53 entries. Chuck Hossfeld took the win
over Mike Muldoon and Lee Sherwood. Ted Christopher was a pre race favorite
but crashed out of the event. The big event of the weekend was the annual
DIRT-Eckerd 300 K at Syracuse. Kenny Tremont took the lead from Vic Coffey
on lap 115 of the 188-lap event and went on to record the biggest victory of
his career. Tremont received $86,525.Ken Brightbill finished second and
pocketed $31,200.Also on this weekend it was announced that NASCAR had
awarded a weekly racing sanction to Claremont Speedway for 2000. RJ Reynolds
announced that they were discontinuing sponsorship of NASCAR's weekly racing
series because of results of tobacco litigation. Chrysler announced that
they would be returning to Winston Cup racing with Ray Everham one of the
key players. Michael Waltrip scored a Busch Grand National win at Charlotte
after Mike McLaughlin ran out of gas on the last lap while leading. Jeff
Gordon won the rain delayed Winston Cup event that had to be run on Monday.
Five years ago in 2004, the
Thompson Speedway had released their final point standings for 2004. Todd
Ceravolo, with five wins included with 16 top 5’s was the Sunoco SK-type
Modified Champion. Ceravolo won a close battle over Jeff Malave. Malave
scored two wins included with 15 top 5’s. Ted Christopher, with four wins,
ended up in third spot. Kerry Malone and Eric Berndt rounded out the top
five. Corey Hutchings, with nine wins, took the Late Model Championship.
Dennis Botticelo, with two wins, finished second. Ryan Posocco, with two
wins, ended up in third spot. Charles Bailey III, 3 wins, and Marc Palmisano,
2 wins, rounded out the top five.
The Waterford Speedbowl closed out their racing season with the
Town Fair Fall Finale. With numerous track division titles on the line
competition was intense to say the least. In addition to qualifying for the
track’s regular divisions on Saturday features were held for All Star Truck
where Chris Correll took the win. In the Legends Jeff Paul made it five out
of eight for the year, Pro Four Modifieds where George Sherman took the win
and two divisions of X-Cars where Brad Vogelsong and Chris Avery recorded
wins.
On Sunday, the NEMA Midgets started it off with a 25-lap feature.
Ben Sikes took the win after pre race favorite Bob Santos III dropped out
with a smoking engine. Next out was a 50 lapper for the Mini-Stocks. Richard
Brooks took the lead just past the half way mark and held off Joe Godbout
for the win. Glen Colvin was awarded the division championship. Following
the Minis were the Sportsman. Roger Perry became the surprise winner after
the front three, Ed Gertsch, Norm Root and Keith Rocco, got tangled up in
turn one with five laps to go. Gertsch and Root spun and were put to the
rear. Officials felt that Rocco was guilty of rough riding and put him to
the rear also. It was later learned that officials had made a bad call as
Gertsch had in fact suffered a flat tire, which caused him to check up.
Rocco did touch him slightly but should have not been put to the back. In a
determined bid, Rocco came from the rear of the field after the restart and
finished third and won his division title. Corey Hutchings had previously
sewed up the Late Model division title. Hutchings put icing on the cake as
he drove to a convincing win over Allen Coats and Ed Reed Jr.
Dennis Charette took the lead from Chris Pasteryak on a lap 51
restart and went on to take the win in the Modified 100. It was a game of
luck and wits between Dennis Gada and Eddie Reed Jr. to see who would become
the 2004 Modified Champion. Gada’s luck soured right from the start when he
developed a smoky power steering leak. After repeated pit stops while the
field was under caution for miscellaneous spins Gada’s crew was able to make
repairs and keep their driver on the lead lap. Gada later got collected in a
spin but didn’t do any damage. Reed, on the other hand, held a fair lead
going into the event and only had to stay out of harm’s way and finish to
garner his first title. Reeds luck began a downturn on lap 59 when his left
front tire was beginning to lose air. A caution on lap 65 allowed him to pit
and make a change. Restarting in the rear as the field took the green on lap
68 Reed got collected in a wreck triggered by Shawn Monahan whom bounced off
of Doug Coby. The wreck all but sheared off the right front suspension and
tire from Reed’s car. He somehow was able to drive to the pit area where an
army was on hand to assist the Gordon Rogers crew in making repairs. Sheer
determination on the part of his crew got him back in competition. In the
meantime Gada had worked his way back to the front and was on Charette’s
bumper at the finish. Reed was able to limp home and despite losing a lap in
the closing stages finished 17th to win the division championship. Ron Yuhas
Jr. finished fourth with Chris Pasteryak, fifth.
The Nextel Cup along with the Busch Racing Series were in Kansas
City last weekend. Joe Nemechek took the Busch Series event over Greg
Biffle. He carried his winning ways over to Sunday as he also won the Nextel
Cup event over Ricky Rudd.
Ted Christopher was among the missing at Waterford. Christopher
spent the weekend in Virginia at the Martinsville Speedway and at the
Concord Motorsports Park in North Carolina. Christopher started dead last at
Concord and took the win. At Martinsville he missed the qualifying cut.
Tim Fuller won the DIRT Eckered 200 at Syracuse. Fuller was running
third on the final lap when leader Kenny Tremont ran out of gas and second
place runner Matt Sheppard shredded a tire. Fuller collected $50,000 for his
efforts.
Last year, 2008, The NASCAR
Whelen Modified Tour Series ventured to the Chemung Speedway in western New
York last weekend. The 3/8 mile track, originally built by the Bodine family
drew a sparse field of only 25 cars. The Chemung event with a somewhat
reduced purse consisted of time trials, two 25-lap heats and a 120 lap
feature that ended up finishing under caution. Matt Hirschman, who was the
fastest on the clock, won his qualifying heat and after starting on the pole
led wire to wire to win his second NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour win of the
season. Hirschman entered the event 89 points behind Ted Christopher in the
championship chase. With Christopher’s seventh place finish, Hirschman
narrowed the gap to just 55 points with only the Stafford Fall Final and
Thompson World Series weekends remaining.
Todd Szegedy dogged Hirschman for most of the event but settled for
a runner-up finish and held up his spot in third in the season standings.
Mike Stefanik finished third. Chuck Hossfeld, Ronnie Silk, Erick Rudolph,
Christopher, Bobby Grigas III, Rowan Pennink and Woody Pitkat rounded out
the top 10 finishers.
At the Waterford Speedbowl it was good news and bad news. The good
news was that competitors received their checks that had been held back. The
bad news was that they were told not to cash them until Monday. One
competitor thought he would pull a fast one and attempted to cash his check
at the bank where the check was issued. He was told there were insufficient
funds in the account to cover the check.
The shoreline oval ran their season ending Fall Finale, a two day
event, last weekend On Saturday three SK Modified qualifying heats were run.
Taking the wins were Shawn Monahan, Dennis Gada and Jeff Paul. In other
Saturday action Jason Palmer won the 25-lap Legends Town Fair Tire Finale
feature while it was Shaun Buffington scoring the 2008 Saturday Night
Legends championship. Other feature winners were Norm Wrenn (Pro-4
Modifieds), Todd Bertrand (NEMA Lites), Glenn Boss (N.E Sport Modifieds),
Corey Hutchings (Outlaw Stocks), David Flammia Jr. (X-Modified),Steve
Barrett (Super-X Cars), Buddy Strede (X-Cars), Kathy Civardi (Women On
Wheels Super-X), and Stephanie Bennett (Women On Wheels X-Car).
Sunday dawned in typical Waterford fashion. It was raining cats and
dogs. Shortly before noon a strange thing happened, the rain stopped and the
sun came out. It was too late; the cards of the fans had been dealt.
Apparently many of them had made other plans as the vintage grandstand at
the shoreline oval was all but empty when racing finally started. Because of
the adverse weather the scheduled pit party was cancelled. The actual racing
started about two hours late with Ken Cassidy coming from a dead last start
to win the Mini Stock event. Randy Cabral won the NEMA Midget event and
Brandon Plemmonds won the 50 lap Sportsman event. Things were looking up,
the SK Modifieds were on the track for a tire heating session when the red
flag was displayed bringing everything to a screeching halt. Evidently a bad
accident on nearby Route 85 deemed it necessary for the Speedbowl’s
ambulance to leave. Per state law, once the ambulance leaves the property
all racing stops. After a little over a half hour an ambulance appeared and
racing resumed. The 100 lap Modified event was a typical Waterford slam-bang
event with survival of the fittest the order of the day. Diego Monahan led a
large portion of the race untilbe dislodged by Keith Rocco and Rob Janovic.
Both had a war of their own when on a late race restart Rocco didn’t go
which resulted in Tyler Chadwick and Monahan hitting the front stretch wall.
To make matters worse, at ten after nine, the fog started rolling in. At
9:20pm fans and competitors breathed a sigh of relief when the checkered
flag was dropped on the event. Keith Rocco took the win and was followed by
Rob Janovic, Ron Yuhas JR and Dennis Gada. For Gada it was monumental as he
was now in a league of his own as he is the only seven time champion in
Speedbowl history.
In True Value Modified Series action at the Lee USA Speedway Jon
Mckennedy took the win over Jimmy Kuhn, Les Hinkley, Ed Dachenhausen and
Mike Holdridge.
In Sprint Cup action, Tony Stewart ended his winless season at
Talladega Superspeedway when NASCAR ruled Regan Smith's last-lap pass was
illegal. Smith was in second and trailed Stewart for the final three laps
around Talladega. The rookie made one desperate attempt for his first career
victory by ducking inside the two-time champion to attempt a pass. Stewart
blocked him, and Smith went below the yellow out-of-bounds line. After he
beat Stewart to the finish, NASCAR reviewed the move, a driver is allowed to
pass if officials believe he was forced under the line, and declared it
illegal. The ruling gave Stewart his first win of the season and snapped a
43-race winless streak dating to Watkins Glen last year. It also was his
first career Cup win at Talladega, which has taunted him for 10 years as he
finished second a maddening six times. Paul Menard was a career-high second
and was followed by rookie David Ragan and Chase drivers Jeff Burton and
Clint Bowyer. Smith was dropped all the way to 18th. The race had a
NASCAR-record 31 lead changes.
This week are several vintage racing
photos from the Danny Pardi Collection,
courtesy of the
SpeedwayLineReport.com &
VintageModifieds.com. Lenny Cleaves
Rock Ludorf
Ron Wilson
Phil
SpiakR.C. RobbinsWendell Kilcollins
. 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.
