Champ Trail - August 25, 2015

  The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour Series was in Bristol, TN last week for the Bush Beans 150. The event, a combination North-South divisions race drew 41 cars. On a night that saw rain pause, and ultimately shorten the Bush’s Beans 150, Ryan Preece grabbed the lead on Lap 75 just before the midway break and held the position during a subsequent caution on Lap 96. As rain and severe thunderstorms loomed during track clean-up, NASCAR officials threw the yellow-checkered flag on Lap 103, sending Preece’s No. 6 TS Haulers/East West Marine Chevrolet to Victory Lane.
  The Bush’s Beans 150 originally went green as scheduled just after 6 p.m., but a Lap 2 accident that took out three potential checkered flag contenders in Justin Bonsignore, Doug Coby and Todd Szegedy proved to be the first hurdle of the evening. While under caution for clean-up, rain arrived, which forced the resumption of the Bush’s Beans 150 to after the conclusion of the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series event. The Whelen Modifieds re-started five hours later just after 11 p.m.
  The lap 2 crash was a devastating one for Coby and Szegedy who were in the thick of the point battle. In a recorded interview, Coby stated that his car got away from him, causing the accident. Coby's crew and Szegedy's crew were unable to make repairs as the ended up finishing 34th and 35th respectively. Justin Bonsignore's mount was also damaged extensively as he ended up dead last in 36th spot.
  Coors Light Pole Award winner Woody Pitkat finished second after leading the majority of the first half of the race and Donny Lia joined him on the podium in third. Ryan Newman and Bobby Santos brought home the top five. Andy Seuss, Jeff Goodale, Chase Dowling, Timmy Solomito and Patrick Emerling completed the top 10. Seuss was the highest-finishing Whelen Southern Modified Tour entry, and received credit for a victory for that tour.
  There were seven cautions for 45 laps. As previously mentioned the first yellow flew on lap two when Coby lost it and collected Szegedy, Bonsignore, Gary Putnam and Jason Myers. A long red flag period ensued to past 11pm because of an interruption of a scheduled truck race and more rain. The second caution waved on lap 29 for Bob Measmer who bounced off the wall. The third caution flew on lap 36 when Gary Putnam and JR Bertuccio tangled in turn one. Kyle Ebersole brought out the fourth caution on lap46 when he spun between turns three and four. The fifth caution flew on lap 69 when Shawn Solomito and David Calabrese spun between turns one and two. The half way competition caution flew on lap 78. The seventh and final caution flew on lap 96 when Kyle Ebersole blew his engine. While the field was under caution the decision was made to stop the event because of impending rain.

  At the Stafford Motor Speedway last Friday night rain prevailed. The fireworks that were supposed to accompany the on track action will be postponed to Sept. 18th, the Final Friday Night Shoot-Out.

  In NASCAR Modified action at the Long Island east end oval John Fortin scored his third win of the season over Tom Rogers Jr and Ryan Preece.

  Down in the southland at the Bowman Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem NC word comes that northern fans can enjoy the antics at the Mad House on a weekly basis next year as Racefan.TV has indicated that races will be televised live on the web site.
  Jason Myers won his seventh Modified race of the year as racing concluded for another year as the stadium will now be converted to hosting football games. Tim Brown, who will be out of a job when Michael Waltrip Racing shuts down at the conclusion of the NASCAR Sprint Cup season, captured his 10th Bowman Gray Racing Modified Division points title in an illustrious career. He did so by holding off rivals and brothers Jason and Burt Myers. Brown finished with 808 points, 24 ahead of Jason Myers. Burt Myers started the night second, 19 points behind Brown. But Burt Myers had to leave the race with seven laps left and finished 14th. That gave Burt Myers third, 55 points behind Brown after double points in the 150-lap finale.
  Jason Myers, who has never won a points championship, also had a tremendous year. In addition to his seven wins, had 10 poles, 13 top-five finishes and 21 top-10 finishes. Brown had four wins, 17 top-5s and 23 top-10 finishes.
  Burt Myers, who has won six points titles, spoke with a sour grapes attitude after how the year finished. His car sputtered with seven laps, and he said it was a fuel pickup problem. He came back at lap 149, but it was too late. Myers blamed the handicapped system in the draws, the inverts and it being more about entertainment than racing and said he cherish championships at other places more than he did at Bowman Gray.
Lee Jeffreys finished second with Dean Ward, third. Jonathan Brown and Tim Brown rounded out the top five.

  The Valenti Modified Racing Series was at the Monadnock Speedway in Winchester, NH. Les Hinckley took the 100 lap win over Todd Patnode, Russ Hersey, Woody Pitkat and Todd Szegedy. Sixth through tenth were Chris Pasteryak, Dave Schneider, Matt Mead, Rowan Pennink and Carl Medeiros.
  Hinckley, who last won a series race in July of 2012, started on the pole and led the first 9-laps before Stafford Springs, CT, driver Woody Pitkat slipped by to take over top spot. Pitkat would hold the lead until lap 51 when Hinckley took it back and was never headed.
There were 26 race teams on hand for the 11th race of the season. All 26 drivers started the race. The event ran non-stop with the exception of a minor spin on lap 46.

  In regular weekly action at the New London-Waterford Speedbowl Ted Christopher continued his hot streak as he took the 35 lap SK Modified win over Keith Rocco and Joe Gada. Rocco, who recently fell behind in his quest for the NASCAR Weekly National driver championship, has been slightly off his game in recent weeks. Rocco won th 30 lap Late Model event. Rocco's win in the Late Model division at the shoreline oval brought his track win total to 117 wins. The win also took Rocco over the top to a career overall total of 205 wins which also include victories at Thompson and Stafford Speedways.
  Al Stone was the Limited Sportsman winner, Josh Galvin was the SK Light winner and Wayne Burroughs was the Mini Stock winner.

  Congratulations and Happy Birthday to George Summers who completed 80 laps last week. Summers is one of the all-time greats in New England Auto Racing.

  The New England Auto Racing Hall of Fame’s class of 2015 has been announced. Sam Posey, one of America’s top road racers, and Greg Sacks, the winner of the 1985 Daytona Firecracker 400, are part of the class that will be honored at the NEAR Hall of Fame 18th induction banquet Sunday, Nov. 8 at Maneeley’s in South Windsor, CT. The class also includes owner/driver Joey Laquerre, car owner the late Paul Dunigan and drivers the late Jim McCallum and Stan Greger, a quartet that collectively has 27 track championships. The multi-faceted Lew Boyd, presently a book seller and publisher, and Lee USA Speedway promoter Red MacDonald will also be inducted.

  On the speedway stock market scene last week all three speedway stocks were down for the week. Speedway Motorsports took the biggest hit as they dropped 1.79 to 18.43. The International Speedway Corporation dropped 1.53 to 31.76 and Dover Entertainment dropped 0.01 to 2.29.NASCAR cup sponsor Sprint went up 0.53 to 4.71 while NASCAR fuel supplier Sunoco (Energy Transfer) dropped 2.80 to 47.20 and NASCAR tire supplier Goodyear dropped 3.03 to 29.28. The car manufacturers were also down for the week. Toyota took the big hit as they dropped 9.14 to 119.05. General Motors dropped 1.89 to 29.60 and Ford dropped 0.92 to 13.86. In the home improvement sector, Home Depot dropped 3.59 to 116.16 while Lowes dropped 1.00 to 71.11. The big team sponsors stocks were also down except Aarons Rentals which went up 0.40 to 37.82. McDonalds dropped 2.14 to 97.13, Coca-Cola dropped 8.80 to 154.15, Target dropped 0.95 to 78.40 and Fedex dropped 8.78 to 156.03.

  On the tube this coming week:

  Thursday, August 27
2:00 AM, NASCAR Race Hub, FOX Sports1
6:00 AM, NASCAR America, NBCSN
7:00 AM, NASCAR America, NBCSN
4:30 PM, NASCAR America: The States of NASCAR, NBCSN
5:00 PM, NASCAR America, NBCSN
6:00 PM, NASCAR Race Hub, FS1

  Friday, August 28
2:00 AM, NASCAR Race Hub, FS1
6:00 AM, NASCAR America, NBCSN
7:00 AM, NASCAR America, NBCSN
2:30 PM, NXS Road America practice, NBCSN
4:00 PM, NASCAR America, NBCSN
4:30 PM, NXS Road America final practice, NBCSN
6:00 PM, NASCAR America, NBCSN

  Saturday, August 29
9:00 AM, Empty Cup: Quest for the 1992 NASCAR Championship, FS1
9:30 AM, NCWTS Canada practice, FS1
10:30 AM, Being: Stewart-Haas Racing, FS1
11:30 Am, NCSTW Canada final practice, FS1
12:30 PM, NXS Road America qualifying, NBCSN
2:00 PM, NASCAR America, NBCSN
2:30 PM, NXS Countdown to Green, NBCSN
3:00 PM, NXS Road America race, NBCSN
5:30 PM, NCWTS Canada qualifying, FS2

  Sunday, August 30
3:00 AM, NCWTS Canada final practice re-air, FS1
4:30 AM, NCWTS Canada qualifying re-air, FS1
1:00 PM, NCWTS SetUp, FS1
1:30 PM, NCWTS Canada race, FS1
11:00 PM, NASCAR Victory Lap, NBCSN

  Monday, August 31
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

   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 25, 2015