Champ Trail - August 11, 2015

  The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour Series was at the Stafford Motor Speedway on Friday night for the Call Before You Dig 150. Twenty six cars were on hand. Ryan Preece took the lead from Ted Christopher on lap 81 and went on to record the 150 lap win. Doug Coby finished second and was followed by Woody Pitkat, Christopher, Justin Bonsignore, Patrick Emerling and Timmy Solomito. Eric Goodale, Bobby Santos and Chase Dowling rounded out the top ten.
  Among the missing from the Whelen Modified field was Keith Rocco and the Robert Our #22. Rocco, who suffered a broken bone in his hand felt he could not go 150 laps and he felt it was unfair that he couldn't give a 100% effort and it wasn't fair for Our to spend the money to get the car to the track and enter it.
  Earlier in the evening Emerling scored his first ever pole position when he toured the half mile oval in 18.739 seconds. There were six cautions for 33 laps. The first yellow was displayed on lap two for excessive dirt on the racing surface. The second caution was displayed on lap 13 when Donnie Lia came to a halt on the track with a flat right front tire. The third caution, on lap 42 was for debris and liquid on the track and the fourth caution was for Troy Talman who crashed hard in turn one. The fifth caution resulted into a red flag condition after Ken Heagy, Jamie Tomaino and Wade Cole tangled on the backstretch. The sixth and final caution came when Brendon Bock crashed into the wall in turn one.

  In other Friday night action at Stafford, Rowan Pennink took the win for the sixth time this season in the SK Modified® feature, Michael Bennett was also a winner for the sixth time this year in the Late Model feature, Daniel Wesson won the second race of his rookie season in the SK Light feature, Andrew Hayes won his third consecutive and fifth overall feature of the year in the Limited Late Model feature, Alexandra Fearn won for the third time in the DARE Stock feature, and Devin O’Connell scored his Stafford Speedway leading seventh feature win of the year in the Legend Cars feature.
Bennett's win in the Late Models was an emotional one. Missing from the celebration was his three-year old son Chace, who was diagnosed with Leukemia at the beginning of the week. Bennett left the speedway following his victory and went directly to the hospital to deliver his trophy and checkered flag to his son.

  Tom Rogers Jr. of Riverhead swept the Sunoco Race Fuels night NASCAR Modified Twin 49's Saturday at Riverhead Raceway to score his fifth and sixth wins of the 2015 as well. Twin 49's were run in honor of recently departed Riverhead competitor Chris Young.

  Down in the southland at the Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem NC Jason Myers continued his winning ways, and Lee Jeffreys won his first race in more than four years in the two 25-lap Modified Division races on Saturday night. Myers started on the pole for the ninth time this year and won his sixth race of the year. Since June 20, he’s won five races. And for Jeffreys, he won his first race since June 2011.

  The Valenti Modified Racing Series visited the New London-Waterford Speedbowl on Saturday night. At 57 years of age, Ted Christopher still has the fire in his belly and the desire to win races as he took a last lap victory in a 100 lapper at the shoreline oval. Christopher passed early leader Rowan Pennink on the second lap and was on cruise control with his Joe Brady #00. Chris Pasteryak made an outside move on lap 93 which displaced Christopher to second. After taking the one to go white flag Pasteryak saw his hopes for a victory grow dim. With a green-white-checker in place to finish out the race Christopher went for broke and coming out of the fourth turn took over the lead and the win. Pasteryak settled for second with Anthony Nocella, third.
  Christopher's glory turned to glum when he was told by series officials Sunday morning that he had been disqualified from the victory for having illegal fuel. The Valenti Modified Racing Series rulebook states that Sunoco Race Fuel purchased through New England Racing Fuel is the approved fuel for the division and that: “Sunoco Standard Purple 110 Leaded and Sunoco Supreme Blue 112 Leaded are only fuels allowed at all MRS events.” Chris Pasteryak was awarded the win with Nocella moved up to second. David Schneider finished third with Norm Wrenn and Todd Szegedy rounding out the top five.

  In regular weekly action at the Speedbowl, Tyler Chadwick fought off pressure from Joe Gada, Kyle James, Keith Rocco and Ted Christopher to win the 35-lap SK Modified feature. Paul French went pole to pole for an apparent win only to see it vanish when it was discovered he had an illegal transmission. Josh Galvin was awarded the win. Seth Carlson was the NEMA Midget winner and Anthony Payne was the winner in the NEMA Lites. Mike Lichty was the SuperModified winner.
  The Speedbowl's Late Models, Limited Sportsman and Mini Stocks had the night off.

  Belated Happy Birthday wishes to one of the elder statesmen of New England Auto Racing, Don Hoenig who turned his 84th lap last week. Hoenig owns the Thompson Motorsports Park and the Raceway Golf Course in Thompson, Ct.

  In some sad news, Buddy Baker, noted for a 34-year career in NASCAR's Cup series that produced 19 victories including the 1980 Daytona 500, died Monday morning from lung cancer. He was 74. The 6-foot-6 Baker, the son of NASCAR Hall of Famer Buck Baker, was known for his all-out style, one that allowed him to win four times at Talladega, four times at Charlotte, twice at Darlington and twice at Daytona. He ranks 14th in NASCAR history with 38 poles in his 700 career starts from 1959-1992. He had 202 top-fives and 311 top-10s.

  On the speedway stock market scene last week two of the three speedway stocks were down for the week. Dover Entertainment went up 0.04 to 2.35 while Speedway Motorsports dropped 0.09 to 20.86 and the International Speedway Corporation dropped 1.34 to 32.93. NASCAR cup sponsor Sprint showed a no-change at 3.37 while NASCAR fuel supplier Sunoco (Energy Transfer) dropped 4.33 to 46.89 and NASCAR tire supplier Goodyear went up 0.76 to 30.89. Two out of the three auto manufacturers were down for the week. Toyota dropped 4.21 to 129.25 and Ford dropped 0.03 to 14.80 while General Motors went up 0.23 to 31.74. In the home improvement sector, Lowes went up 0.17 to 69.53 while Home Depot dropped 0.10 to 116.93. In the area of big team sponsors stocks Coca-Cola went up 6.28 to 168.28 while McDonalds dropped 0.94 to 98.92, Target Department Stores dropped 2.87 to 78.98, Aarons Rentals dropped 0.30 to 36.68 and Fedex dropped 4.43 to 166.99.

  On the tube this week:

  Friday, August 14
6:00 AM, NASCAR America, NBC Sports Net
7:00 AM, NASCAR America, NBCSN
10:00 AM, The 10: NASCAR's Most Outrageous Moments, FOX Sports 1
12:00 PM, NSCS Michigan practice, NBCSN
1:30 PM, NCWTS Michigan practice, FS1
1:30 PM, NXS Mid-Ohio practice, NBCSN
3:00 PM, NCWTS Michigan final practice, FOX Sports 2
3:00 PM, NXS Mid-Ohio final practice, NBCSN
4:45 PM, NSCS Michigan qualifying, NBCSN
6:00 PM, NASCAR America, NBCSN

  Saturday, August 15
8:30 AM, NSCS Michigan practice, CNBC
9:00 AM, The 10: Greatest Truck Races, FS1
9:30 AM, NCWTS Michigan qualifying, FS1
11:30 AM, NSCS Michigan final practice, CNBC
12:30 PM, NCWTS SetUp, FS1
1:00 PM, NCWTS Michigan race, FS1
3:00 PM, NXS Countdown to Green, NBCSN
3:30 PM, NXS Mid-Ohi race, NBCSN

  Sunday, August 16
11:30 AM, NASCAR RaceDay, FS1
1:30 PM, NASCAR America Sunday, NBCSN
2:00 PM, NSCS Countdown to Green, NBCSN
2:30 PM, NSCS Michigan race, NBCSN
5:30 PM, NSCS Post Race Show, NBCSN
11:00 PM, NASCAR Victory Lap, NBCSN

  Monday, August 17
12:00 AM, NASCAR Victory Lane, FS1
3:30 AM, NASCAR Victory Lane re-air, FS1
6:00 AM, NASCAR Victory Lap re-air, NBCSN
7:00 AM, NASCAR Victory Lap re-air, NBCSN
8:00 AM, NASCAR Victory Lap re-air, NBCSN
12:00 PM, NASCAR 120: NSCS Michigan race re-air, NBCSN

   That’s about it for this week from 11 Gardner Drive, Westerly, and 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.
 

Source: Phil Smith / Champ Trail
Posted: August 11, 2015