Twenty five years ago in 1985,
the cup cars of NASCAR were at Richmond, Va. Darrell Waltrip was the Busch
Pole sitter. Dale Earnhardt Sr took the win with Geoff Bodine, second.
Fifteen years ago in 1995,
Kenny Wallace was the Grandnational (Busch Racing Series) winner at
Richmond. In Winston (NEXTEL) cup racing Jeff Gordon was the Busch Pole
sitter and Terry Labonte was the winner.
Ten years ago in 2000,
the action was in Las Vegas, Nevada. Hank Parker was the pole sitter for the
Busch Series event and Ricky Rudd was the NEXTEL Cup pole sitter. Mark
Martin was the apparent Busch Series winner when Jack Sprague spun him with
four laps to go. Jeff Burton got lucky as he went low, avoided the wreck and
went on to take the win. Burton made it two for two as he also won the
NEXTEL Cup event. Burton had just taken the lead from Mark Martin when the
rains came. The event never restarted and Burton was declared the winner. In
other news, Thompson Speedway owner Don Hoenig was in the process of having
Butch Davis evicted from the speedway when he ran into a snag. The presiding
judge had been a lawyer for Hoenig in a past case.
Last
year, 2009, Thompson Speedway owner Don Hoenig shifted
gears again at the northeastern Connecticut oval. In 2008 the Speedway
hosted two Thursday night dates for the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour Series
in addition to his traditional dates. For 2009 he announced that he was
dropping the June event and replacing it with an open competition non
sanctioned Modified event. After much thought, Hoenig decided to drop the
idea of an open event and replaced it with the True Value Modified Series
and his regular Thursday Night Thunder Series divisions. The True Value
Modified Series had become a legitimate alternative for those who could not
afford the travel and associated expenses of racing on the NASCAR Whelen
Modified Tour Series. Founded by Jack Bateman, the True Value Series ran at
just about every track in New England. Notably absent from the True Value
Series Schedule was the Stafford Motor Speedway.
The Waterford Speedbowl property continued to be a hot topic
especially with a foreclosure looming. As of 2/24, six days remained before
the shoreline oval was scheduled to be on the block. It was a known fact
that Rocky Arbitell was a big race fan. Chances are he would buy the note
from himself and will own the Waterford Speedbowl, lock, stock and barrel
for $750,000. If he hireed the right professional people to run and promote
the track it could be put back on a profitable basis. Years ago when the
Arutes leased the Speedbowl, Ed Yerrington, who was the General Manager
stated that the Speedbowl kept Stafford afloat while the track was
rebuilding their weekly program after tossing out the Modifieds in favor of
the SK Modifieds.
Surprise, surprise! In the never ending soap opera or shall we call
it the Eames Gong Show, the master of deceit had done it again and dodged
another bullet. When Rocco Arbitell got the word that Terry Eames’ lawyer
had got an extension to the scheduled foreclosure and had it moved out to
July, he was livid. With the foreclosure in July the earliest date for an
auction or sale of the property could be in September or October. In the
mean time Eames is continuing to try to sell the property to Ted Parker who
he reportedly owes $800,000. Speaking of owing money, Eames owed Shawn
Monahan $47,000. In lieu of paying, Eames had made the loan into a partial
sale as the real estate transactions in the New London Day it was indicated
that 1080 Hartford Road LLC (Eames) had conveyed property to Monahan for
$47,000. In an other tid bit, it was learned that the reason that all those
who had applied for season passes or numbers using their Visa and
Mastercards had
not received anything as yet was because Eames did not possess a machine to
do the transactions. Visa and Mastercard do not give machines to businesses
or individuals who have bad or no credit.
When the Waterford Speedbowl gates open for the 59th consecutive
season on March 28-29 for the 13th annual Modified Nationals, Budweiser and
Levine Distributing would once again sponsor the 150-lap thriller. Boasting
$20,000 in prize money, the event was the first of its kind for the SK
Modifieds. The $5,000 winner’s share is the most lucrative in the region and
historically attracts a banner field of competitors vying for bragging
rights and the big payday.
The sounds of the open-wheel Modifieds returned to Orange County
Speedway in North Carolina for the first time in over 15 years and despite
cold weather and snowy conditions the teams in attendance knocked off some
very competitive laps in preparation for the March 6 & 7 Frost Bite Modified
Winter Nationals” at the Orange County Speedway in Rougemont, NC.
Temperatures in the low 40’s and blowing snow did little to dampen
the spirits of those on hand for the test and lap times were about a second
a lap quicker than the regular OCS divisions. Ronnie Silk in the Hillbilly
Racing #79 was the quickest of the group with laps in the 13:40 second
range. Jay Foley wasn’t far behind in his Foley Machine Chevy with laps in
the 13:60 bracket and Jason Myers in the Tranthem/Moorefield, Myers Racing
Ford turned laps in the 13:80’s. Silk and Foley tested the softer M-20 and
M-30 combination and Myers ran the set-up with the harder M-45 compound on
the right rear. “The OCS track record for the Modifieds was 12:92 when we
ran here last’, said Gary Myers, owner of the Jason Myers ride. The track is
located on NC Hwy 57 half-way between Hillsborough and Roxboro, NC.
Kyle Busch did something Saturday that no NASCAR driver had done in
the sanctioning body’s top divisions, won twice in the same day. Busch added
a dominating NASCAR Nationwide Series victory under the lights to a similar
Camping World Truck Series win earlier in the day at Auto Club Speedway in
Fontana, Calif. Busch led 95 of 100 laps in winning the truck race on the
2-mile oval, then was in front for 143 of 150 for his 22nd Nationwide
victory. Kevin Harvick was second and Middletown native Joey Logano, Busch's
Gibbs Racing teammate, was third. Carl Edwards beat Busch out of the pits on
the last stops by the leaders Saturday night, but Busch took the lead on the
restart 16 laps from the end and pulled away. Despite leads of up to 11
seconds at times, it came down to the restart on lap 135 after Edwards beat
Busch out of the pits by the length of his hood.
In Sprint Cup action, Matt Kenseth went the distance this week as
he won the Auto Club 500 on Sunday. Kenseth, who won a rain-shortened
Daytona 500 a week ago to open the Sprint Cup season, had to endure four
short rain delays in the season's second race. But with the help of his pit
crew, which several times got the No. 17 Ford off pit road first, Kenseth
became the first driver since 1997 to win the season's first two points
races. The last driver to start with two victories was Jeff Gordon, who
fought furiously to deny Kenseth but settled for second. Middletown native
Joey Logano finished 26th. Gordon, trying to snap the longest winless streak
of his career at 42 races, passed Kenseth for the lead on lap 196 but lost
the race off pit road on a caution 12 laps later and couldn't catch Kenseth.
Gordon got almost to Kenseth's rear bumper on lap 232, but Kenseth
held on for his 18th career victory. Kyle Busch, who made NASCAR history by
winning both the truck and Nationwide races on Saturday, came up short of a
weekend sweep, finishing third..
That’s about it for this week from 11 Gardner Drive, Westerly,
R.I.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 of some of the drivers of Hall of
Fame car owner Billy Simons # 9,
courtesy of
SpeedwayLineReport.com &
VintageModifieds.com.
Dick Caso
Ernie Gahan
Gene Bergin
Ray Miller
Ronnie Wyckoff
Charlie Webster
All photos courtesy of Tom Ormsby and
VintageModifieds.com
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