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03/18/11
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March 18, 2011 |
Thirty
five years ago in 1976, Ray Hendrick had a lap on the field at
Martinsville when he crashed and handed the victory in the Dogwood 500 to
Jerry Cook. Brian Ross finished second and was followed by Charlie Glazier,
Harry Gant, Melvin Chilton, Jerry Dostie, Chuck Ciprich and Wayne Anderson.
Thirty years ago in 1981,
Martinsville was the scene of one of the wildest finishes ever seen in a
modified event. Arch rivals Richie Evans and Geoff Bodine banged wheels and
bumpers for most of the 250-lap event. A restart, with three laps to go, set
the stage for one of the most spectacular Modified race finishes ever seen.
With Bodine leading, Evans was on a mission and pulled out all the stops.
After taking the white flag, Evans wailed Bodine in the rear hard enough to
get him squirrelly and was able to take the lead going down the backstretch.
Coming out of turn four, Bodine attempted to retake the lead when the two
tangled coming down for the checker. Bodine crashed into the wall as Evans
took the checkered flag in mid air. Bodine managed to finish second with
John Blewett Jr, third. Blewett’s day was not without incident. During a
caution on lap 234 Jamie Tomaino pulled along side Blewett to express his
displeasure over a previous incident. Much to Tomaino's surprise, Blewett
turned right and planted Tomaino in the wall. Following Evans, Bodine and
Blewett at the finish were Jerry Cook, Maynard Troyer and Roger Treichler.
Bodine was the Late Model (BGN) winner over Sam Ard.
Twenty five years ago in 1986,
the season got its start in Rougemont, N.C. Charlie Jarzombek in the
Wilsburg No.5 took the win over Satch Worley in the Speedy Thomas No.07.
Carl Pasteryak finished third and was followed by Corky Cookman, Jamie
Tomaino and Jim Spencer.
Twenty years ago in 1991, there
was no modified action as Martinsville ran on March 9.
Fifteen years ago in 1996, the
action was at Atlanta. Terry Labonte was the Busch Grand National winner and
in Winston Cup action, Dale Earnhardt beat Labonte by a half a straightaway.
Ten years ago in 2001 the
Thompson Speedway Ice Breaker was cancelled due to the fact that four inches
of ice and snow covered the speedway. In Winston Cup action at Darlington,
Steve Park dominated until lap 279 when Dale Jarrett took the lead after a
pit stop. Park ended up second. Jeff Green was the Busch Grand National
winner.
Five years ago in 2006 In
NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour Series news, car-owners Dennis Charette and
Chris Drouin announced that they would field the # 03 Chevrolet on the
Whelen Modified Tour in the 2006 season. Charette, a Waterford Speedbowl
regular and six-time winner, would pilot the car in a 10-race schedule.
Embroidery Works of Berlin, CT will serve as primary sponsor. It looked like
the recently married Reggie Ruggiero would again run a limited schedule. His
first race for 2006 would be the 35th annual Spring Sizzler at the Stafford
Motor Speedway.
The Nextel Cup cars were in Las Vegas where Jimmy Johnson took the
win. Kasey Kahne was the Busch Series winner.
Last year, 2010, The NASCAR
Whelen Southern Modified Tour Series held their season opening event at the
Atlanta Motor Speedway ¼ mile flat track on Friday night. Twenty three
Modifieds were on hand for what was supposed to be the first of ten taped
delayed televised events.
Third generation Corey LaJoie, in a car owned by Roger and Sandra
Hill, drove like a veteran in his first career NASCAR Whelen Southern
Modified Tour start. Using lapped traffic to get by Tim Brown, the
18-year-old driver then held off a furious challenge from Brown over the
closing laps to capture the Atlanta 150. The race was the first for the Tour
held on the track's flat, quarter-mile front stretch oval. The setup is
similar to Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, N.C., where Brown is an
eight-time champion in the track's NASCAR Whelen All-American Series
Modified division.
He battled back from an early mistake that put him in the back of
the field. While battling for the fifth-place position on the backstretch of
the tight oval, LaJoie wound up driving into the infield. He was able to
keep his momentum, cutting through the grass, and re-enter the track in Turn
4. But the miscue put him near the back of the running order. He slowly
picked his way back through, moving past Fleming for the No. 2 spot with 30
to go.
LaJoie used lapped traffic to take the lead from Brown on Lap 131.
Brown took the top spot back with eight to go with a move inside going into
Turn 2, but LaJoie again took advantage of lapped traffic a lap later to
reclaim the lead. Over the final five laps, Brown was all over LaJoie's
bumper but was unable to rattle the rookie. Brown bumped Lajoie coming out
of turn 4 and dove inside to try to make a pass. He got halfway up Lajoie's
door as they ran wheel to wheel across the line.
Frank Fleming finished third, followed by David Brigati and Brandon
Hire. James Civali, Jason Myers, Zach Brewer, John Smith and Buddy Emory
rounded out the top 10. Pre-race favorite Burt Myers finished 17th, six laps
down. Andy Seuss was the only northerner in the field. He finished 12th, one
lap down.
Congratulations were in order to Stafford Motor Speedway Late Model
competitor Dillon Moltz who was selected to be part of the Richard Petty
developmental driver program. The program will select a total of 12 drivers
from across the United States to compete in a combine where the winner will
receive a one-off race deal to drive an ARCA car in the ARCA Pocono 200 at
Pocono Raceway on Saturday, June 5th.
NASCAR announced that its Modified touring divisions would now award bonus
points for its races, starting last weekend with the NASCAR Whelen Southern
Modified Tour race at Atlanta Motor Speedway. In order to reward drivers for
running up front and to provide a further incentive to race for the lead,
NASCAR instituted lap-leader bonus points for the first time to the Whelen
Modified and Whelen Southern Modified Tours.
Five bonus points will be awarded to each driver and car owner
whose car officially leads a lap during a race and five additional bonus
points will be awarded to the driver and car owner leading the most official
laps in an event. This will bring the maximum number of points a driver can
earn in a race to 190, with 180 awarded for first place.
The Waterford Speedbowl management announced that work on a
construction project to upgrade the track’s retaining wall has begun. The
Speedbowl was one of ten facilities selected in 2010 to receive funds
through NASCAR’s Capital Improvement Grant program. The grant, coupled with
a matching investment from the Speedbowl, would allow for installation of
concrete walls lining the front and back chutes of the track. It replaces
the armco barrier retaining wall currently in place in those areas. This is
the first major change to the wall structure since the armco was installed
prior to the start of the 1988 season. That replaced an antiquated wooden
beam wall system.
In some sad news, it was the announced that the Adirondack
International Speedway regrets there would not be competition at the track
during the 2010 season. The speedway is located in New Bremen, NY which is
near Watertown. The speedway was built in 2000. The closure was based on
financial difficulties arising from unresolved property tax issues,
operational losses, health department requirements, and other pressures
facing the local racing industry.
In other sad news items National Speed-Sport News scribe Gary
London sent along word that retired Islip (Long Island) Speedway driver
Artie Tappen passed away and Pete Zanardi sent word that Gene Angelillo, a
14-time Northeastern Midget Association owners champion, died after a short
illness at l. Angelillo, 74, also had an ARDC championship on a 30-year plus
resume that included over 112 victories, 107 of them in NEMA.
Kurt Busch won the NASCAR Sprint Cup race at the 1.54-mile Atlanta
Motor Speedway for the second year in a row, beating Matt Kenseth to the
line by nearly half a second in the Kobalt Tools 500. Juan Pablo Montoya was
third, followed by Kasey Kahne and Paul Menard.
Phil Smith has been a
columnist for Speedway Scene and various
other publications for over 3 decades.
This week are several vintage racing photos
Courtesy of SpeedwayLineReport.com & Dave Dyke's Racing ThroughTime.com
Click on Photo for Full Sized
Leo Cleary
Danny Gallulo
Ed Patnode
Billy Harman
Don MacTavish
Sal Dee
All photos courtesy of Tom Ormsby and
VintageModifieds.com
Looking Back Archive
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Source: Phil
Smith / Looking Back A Bit
Posted: March
18, 2011 |
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