Champ Trail - August 23, 2016

  This coming week starting on Wednesday, Aug 23 will be a four day stretch of non-stop racing in southern New England. Thompson Motorsports Park starts it off on Wednesday with PEPSI BACK TO SCHOOL NIGHT FEATURING. SUNOCO MODIFIED TWIN 25'S. Thurs, the action switches to the New London-Waterford Speedbowl for the 100 lap Tri-Track Series. Friday the action moves to Stafford for the LINCOLN TECH BACK 2 SK®OOL BLITZ; On tap will be SK Modified® (40laps), Late Model (30laps), SK Light (20laps), Ltd. Late Model (20laps), DARE Stock (15laps)and Legend Cars (20laps). The four day marathon ends at the New London-Waterford Speedbowl and at the Seekonk Speedway. On tap at Waterford, PRO-4 SPECIAL, SK, SKLites, Limited Sportsman, Mini Stocks plus Thursday night divisions. At Seekonk its the Pro Stock Triple Crown finale plus their regular divisions.

  The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour Series traveled to the high banks at the Bristol Motor Speedway in Tennessee Combined with the Whelen Southern Modified Tour, the event drew 37 cars. Todd Szegedy of Ridgefield, CT in the 15-40 Construction Chevrolet set fast time this afternoon earning his 11th career NWMT Coors Light Pole award, his first here at Bristol Motor Speedway. The time of 14.425 seconds around the high banked, half mile oval becomes the new NWMT track record, besting the time set by Woody Pitkat on August 19, 2015 of 14.654 seconds.
  The event started under shaky weather conditions and was eventually red flagged after 55 laps because of rain and TV time for the Camping World Trucks. Up until that point the event had been a battle between Szegedy and Justin Bonsignore. During the rain delay and the truck event it was announced that the event would be shortened to 100 laps.
  Based on the final results one would have to consider Eric Goodale a "Night Owl". The race resumed at about 11:20pm with 60 laps completed when the field went green. Goodale passed Todd Szegedy for the lead on lap 71 and led until he momentarily lost it to Szegedy on lap 83. A race ending Green-White-Checker at ten minutes to midnight saw Goodale outgun Szegedy to sprint home with the victory. Szegedy hung on to finish second with Donny Lia, third. Patrick Emerling and Doug Coby rounded out the top five. Sixth thru tenth were Ryan Preece, Bobby Santos, Ron Silk, Kyle Ebersole and Jeff Goodale.

  At the Stafford Motor Speedway on Friday night NASCAR Whelen All-American Series racing action with Xtra Mart Convenience Stores Xtra D feature events for the SK Lights and DARE Stocks were run as part of Call Before You Dig 811 Night. Taking down Xtra D wins were Joey Ferrigno in the SK Light feature and Dan Dembek in the DARE Stock feature while Eric Berndt won the SK Modified® feature, Tom Fearn won the Late Model feature, Paul Arute won the Limited Late Model feature, and Noah Korner won the Legend Cars feature.
  In the SK Modified 40 lapper, with 10 laps to go, Mike Christopher, Jr. was tracking down Eric Berndt for the lead while Ron Williams, Dan Avery, and Todd Owen were in the top-5. The caution came out with 35 laps complete for spins in turn 3 by Cam McDermott and Bob Charland to set up a 5-lap dash to the finish.
  Berndt took the lead with Williams pulling alongside Christopher, Jr. for second. Williams took second with avery now challenging Christopher, Jr. for third with 3 laps to go. Berndt led Williams to the checkered flag to pick up his second win of the 2016 season with Avery, Christopher, Jr., and Owen rounding out the top-5. Thirteen of the original 22 starters were running at the finish. A huge wreck following a restart on lap 8 eliminated many of the top runners.

  The New London-Waterford Speedbowl presented another exciting night of auto racing. Keith Rocco continued to build on his legend as he won two of the three events he entered. Rocco got his sixth SK Modified NASCAR Whelen All-American Series SK Modified feature win of the season in the second 35-lap feature of the night for the division and got his third consecutive Late Model victory and sixth overall in 2016 at the shoreline oval. Rocco's wins bring his track win total to 132 wins. The wins also took Rocco over the top to a career overall total of 230 wins which also include victories at Thompson and 42 at Stafford Speedway.
  Tyler Chadwick got his third victory of the season in the first 35-lap NASCAR Whelen All-American Series SK Modified feature which was left over from an early season rain-out. Chadwick went pole to pole. Joe Gada finished second with Todd Owen, Somers, third. Rounding out the top five was Dennis Perry and Rocco. Rocco won the second SK Modified feature of the night after taking the lead shortly before the half-way mark. Tom Abele Jr ended up second with Matt Galko, third. Tyler Chadwick and Ted Christopher rounded out the top five.
  In other racing at the Speedbowl, Cory DiMatteo won the SK Light Modified feature, Chris Meyer scored victory in the Limited Sportsman feature and Charles Canfield won the Mini Stock feature.
  Racing resumes at the shoreline oval this Thursday, Aug 25 with the 100 lap- $10,000 to win Tri Track Modified Series.

  At the Riverhead Raceway on Long Island they could have run swamp buggies as the entire track was flooded by a surprise mid-afternoon storm.

  The Valenti Modified Racing Series stopped at the Monadnock Speedway on Saturday and raced in front of a full house of fans. Veteran New Hampshire racer Todd Patnode, of Swanzey, rolled to his first series win of the year, and his second Swanzey Oil sponsored ‘Victor Johnson Memorial 100’ victory in three years. Patnode chased early race leader Russ Hersey, also of Swanzey, before taking the lead on lap-71. Hersey jumped into the lead at the drop of the green flag and set a torrid pace until the first of 9-caution flags on lap-67 would change the race dramatically for half of the 24-car starting field.
  Drivers caught up in race accidents but able to return to competition, worked their way to respectable finishes. Richard Savary, of Canton, MA, finished runner-up. Ironically, Donnie Lashua, of Canaan, NH, and Chris Pasteryak, of Jewett City, CT, came together, pitted, rejoined the field, and raced to a solid third,

  In action at the Bowman-Gray Stadium in North Carolina, Burt Myers only had to finish in the top 18 to clinch his seventh Modified title. He finished fourth in the season ending 150 lapper. Brandon Ward was the race winner with Jason Myers, second. Tim Brown finished third.

  On the speedway stock market scene last week two of the three speedway stocks were down.Dover Entertainment showed a meager gain of 0.01 closing out the week at 2.13. Speedway Motorsports dropped 0.50 to 17.65 and the International Speedway Corporation dropped 0.09 to 33.79. NASCAR Cup sponsor Sprint dropped 0.14 to 5.93, NASCAR fuel supplier Sunoco (Energy Transfer) dropped 0.61 to 41.00 and NASCAR tire supplier Goodyear dropped 0.12 to 29.18. The car manufacturers had a positive week. Ford went up 0.06 to 12.39 while General Motors went up 0.26 to 31.83 and Toyota went up 1.83 to 119.62. In the home improvement sector Home Depot dropped 1.11 to 135.46 and Lowes dropped 3.90 to 77.82. In big team sponsors stocks, McDonalds dropped 4.51 to 115.01, Coca-Cola dropped 5.24 to 151.26, Target dropped 5.69 to 70.12 while Aarons Rentals went up 0.44 to 25.22 and Fedex went up 3.13 to 168.63.

  On the tube this week:

  Wednesday, August 24
3:00 PM, NASCAR The List - Dale Earnhardt Moments, NBC Sports Net
3:30 PM, NASCAR The List - Memorable Moments, NBCSN
4:00 PM, NASCAR The List - Rookie Seasons, NBCSN
4:30 PM, NASCAR The List - Iconic Cars, NBCSN
5:00 PM, NASCAR Race Hub, FOX Sports 1
5:00 PM, NASCAR The List - Texas Motor Speedway, NBCSN
5:30 PM, NASCAR The List - Best Daytona Moments, NBCSN
6:00 PM, NASCAR America, NBCSN

  Thursday, August 25
5:00 PM, NASCAR Race Hub, FS1
6:00 PM, NASCAR America, NBCSN
6:30 PM, NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Bristol race re-air, FOX Sports 2

  Friday, August 26
12:00 PM, NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Michigan practice, NBCSN
1:30 PM, NCWTS Michigan practice, FS1
4:00 PM, NCWTS Michigan final practice, FS1
5:00 PM, NSCS Michigan qualifying, NBCSN
6:30 PM, NASCAR XfinitySeries Road America qualifying, NBCSN
7:30 PM NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour Series Bud 150 Thompson Ct, NBCSN
8:30 PM NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour Series Bush Beans 150 Bristol Tn, NBCSN

  Saturday, August 27
8:30 AM, NSCS Michigan practice, CNBC
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 Road America race, NBCSN
11:30 PM, NCWTS Michigan race re-air, FS1

  Sunday, August 28
11:30 AM, NASCAR RaceDay, FS1
1:00 PM, NSCS Countdown, NBCSN
2:00 PM, NSCS Michigan race, NBCSN
6:30 PM, NASCAR Victory Lane, FS1

   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 23, 2016