Champ Trail - July 11, 2016

  The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour is winding up a late spring break. Next up on the schedule is the Whelen Modified Tour All-Star Shootout this coming July 14 followed by the Nor’easter 100 the next day, both at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
  Among those who have been missing from the Whelen Modified Tour Series this year is car owner Bob Garbarino and his Mystic Missile. As part of the Whelen Engineering All-Star Shootout at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, the famed yellow and black machine will appear on the track for the first time this season with Preston, Connecticut driver Max Zachem behind the wheel. Zachem will have the chance to compete with some of the best the Whelen Modified Tour has to offer in the 35-lap shootout while sitting behind the wheel of the symbolic ride.
  "The opportunity to drive for Bob Garbarino, for me -- it's like winning the lottery," Zachem said. "The iconic v4 with the beautiful yellow and black paint -- there's just no better icon in all of modified history."
  For those who will not make it to Loudon this weekend NBC Sports Net will show the Friday event on Thursday, July 20 at 4:30pm and the Saturday event on Thursday, July 20 at 7:00pm.

  The Stafford Speedway beat the rain with the running of the 3rd Annual NAPA Auto Parts SK 5k, which paid the winner $5,000 out of a purse of over $27,000. With the Dunleavy’s Truck and Trailer Sales Gambler’s Challenge bonus of $5,300 and a total heat race bonus of $2,000 from Wheelers Auto of Hamden, the total posted awards were over $34,000. The Gambler’s Challenge was voted on by the fans on how it would be paid out and the top-3 choices were put into a hat in victory lane with Doug Dunleavy pulling a chip with the winning formula on it. Dunleavy pulled the split among the 6th through 10th place finishers chip, giving Chase Dowling a total payday of $5,325 in purse and contingencies. In other feature action, Michael Bennett won the Late Model feature, Wesley Prucker was a first time winner in the SK Light feature, R.J. Surdell was a first time winner in the Limited Late Model division, and Vince Gambacorta won the DARE Stock feature for his first Stafford victory since the 2006 NAPA Fall Final.
  Dowling held off Ryan Preece in the closing laps to score his biggest paying victory of his Stafford career. Rowan Pennink finished third with Todd Owen and Keith Rocco rounding out the top-5.

  The Valenti Modified Racing Series returned to where it all started, at the Claremont Speedway in New Hampshire. Long-time New Hampshire racer Russ Hersey accomplished what he set out to do 14-years ago, to win a Valenti Modified Racing Series race and it finally happened Friday night, July 7, at historic speedway.
  Hersey started 15th in a 15-car field and didn’t make a run to the front in the early going. Pole sitter Mike Willis Jr. led the first seven laps until Dylan Rock, got by and led the field for the next 30-laps.
  Rock, age-17, was knocked from the lead when Sammy Rameau, age-15, battling for the top spot, made contact with the leader. Both cars were relegated to the rear of the field. On the ensuing restart Hersey took command and led the race to the finish.
  Dana Smith ran a steady race and finished a solid second with Anthony Nocella, third.

  There was no racing at the New London-Waterford Speedbowl on Saturday night due to the SailFest Fireworks display in New London harbor. As a result the Thompson Motorsports Park Speedway ran a Throw-Back event for the NASCAR K&N series. The paltry field consisted of numerous series regulars and a few drivers familiar with Thompson Speedway looking to make their own mark by using their experience on the historic oval to their advantage. The day started with a new track record as Chase Purdy topped Martin Truex, Jr’s previous record of 20.200 with a lap time of 20.197 in group qualifying, nabbing Purdy his third consecutive pole. Purdy would lead the first few laps of the night’s main event, but eventually found himself under attack by Todd Gilliland, son of NASCAR driver David Gilliland, who started on the outside pole and had a dominant car for much of the event.
  Despite Gilliland’s dominance however, the last 25 laps saw another generational driver rise to the top and find his way to victory lane. Harrison Burton, son of NASCAR staple Jeff Burton, was able to wrestle the lead away in the final quarter of the event after racing side-by-side with Gilliland for nearly five laps before finally completing a pass and never looking back. The win was Burton’s fourth of the season, and fourth in the last six races, building on his points lead as he continues to make his mark on the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East Division.
  The Sunoco Modified Series ended the night with the points leaders all having trouble in a caution littered first half of the 30-lap feature. Points leader Ryan Preece as well as his closest challengers for the title, Keith Rocco and Woody Pitkat, all experienced setbacks in different incidents over the course of the first half of the race while veteran racer Ted Christopher returned to a familiar position atop the leader board, leading much of the second half of the event. Christopher held off numerous challengers, including several charges by Todd Owen on numerous restarts. Is wasn’t until the final restart of the night that Owen managed to beat Christopher to the punch when Christopher took the outside line after having found success on the bottom groove all night, allowing Owen the chance to gain the momentum he needed to capture a win at Thompson.
  Christopher ended up second with Troy Talman, third. Other winners were Wayne Burroughs, Jr.in the Mini Stocks, Brent Gleason in the Limited Sportsman, Matt Lowinski-Loh in the Late Models and Glenn Korner in the Lite Modifieds.
  Next up for the Thompson Speedway will be the Whelen Modified Tour making its third stop at the Big-T in 2017 with the annual Bud 150 on Wednesday, August 9. The night will feature the biggest stars in open wheel racing looking to edge closer to a series title at the World Series in October while Thompson’s track division drivers will also take center stage as their own points battles become even more heated as the summer begins to wind down.
  Out on the east end of Long Island at the Riverhead Raceway Tom Rogers strapped into his family owned car for the second week in a row promptly steering the car to victory in the annual Baldwin Evans & Jarzombek 77. The victory was the 45th of Tom's career as he closes in on Jim Malone Sr. (50) for second on the all time win list at the track.
  Prior to the feature racing Ed Brunnhoelzl Jr. of Levittown a 22 time NASCAR Modified winner at Riverhead along with former three time Figure Eight champion Tom Kraft of Mastic Beach who won 29 times in his driving career and Danny McNamara of Water Mill the leading all time INEX Legend Race Car winner were all inducted onto the Cromarty Wall of Champions. Track owners Eddie & Connie Partridge and Tom Gatz debuted a new Cromarty Wall of Champions housed at the turn three entrance gate for all to enjoy.
  At the drop of the green to start the 77 it would be Chris Young motoring out front with Steuer tucking into second and Shawn Solomito who started fourth settling into third. Solomito on lap 4 made his way by Steuer for second and just three laps later was able to work his way by Young for the lead on lap 7. Solomito once to the lead starting to get away from Steuer who himself completed a pass of Young for second on lap 8. Steuer would soon be entrenched in a fight for second a third of the way through the race with Tom Rogers Jr who started the contest in 6th.
  After testing Steuer for several laps Rogers was able to slip by the teenage sensation on lap 34. Rogers then quickly turned his attention on catching race leader Solomito who was seeking his third win of 2017. Once he got to the back bumper of race leader Solomito little time was wasted by Rogers making a bid for the top spot as he raced his way under Shawn entering the third turn on lap 48. Just laps later Solomito's race would end with a spin off turn two with his team pointing to a broken wheel as the culprit. A highly motivated Eddie Brunnhoelzl III made his way to second on lap 53 and for a spell seemed poised to make a run at Rogers for the win. However as the race hit it's final stage Brunnhoelzl would actually try to fend off John Fortin Sr. for second allowing Rogers to pull away. Fortin was able to get by Brunnhoelzl for second with five laps remaining in the race.
  Down in the south land, rain washed out action at the Bowman Gray Stadium

  On the speedway stock market scene, all three speedway stocks were down for the week. The International Speedway Corporation dropped 3.60 to 33.95 while Speedway Motorsports dropped 0.68 to 17.59 and Dover Entertainment dropped 0.05 to 2.05. NASCAR cup sponsor Monster Beverage went 1.02 to 50.70 and NASCAR tire supplier Goodyear went up 0.51 to 35.47 while NASCAR fuel supplier Sunoco (Energy Transfer) dropped 0.19 to 20.20. The auto manufacturers had a positive week. Toyota went up 3.45 to 108.47, Ford went up 0.07 to 11.26 and General Motors went up 0.01 to 34.94. In the home improvement sector, Home Depot dropped 1.17 to 152.23 and Lowes dropped 0.48 to 77.15. With the exception of Fedex and McDonalds, the big team sponsors stocks were on the negative side. Fedex went up 1.18 to 218.51 and McDonalds went up 3.11 to 156.27while Coca-Cola dropped 1.91 to 226.96, Target dropped 1.22 to 51.07 and Aarons Rentals dropped 1.06 to 37.84.

  On the tube this week:

  Thursday, July 13
7:00 PM, NASCAR K&N Pro Series East Thompson, CT, NBCSN

  Friday, July 14
11:30 AM, Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series New Hampshire practice, NBC Sports App
12:00 PM, MENCS New Hampshire practice, NBCSN
1:00 PM, NASCAR Xfinity Series New Hampshire practice, NBCSN
3:00 PM, NXS New Hampshire final practice, NBCSN
4:00 PM, NASCAR America, NBCSN
4:30 PM, MENCS New Hampshire qualifying, NBCSN

  Saturday, July 15
10:00 AM, MENCS New Hampshire practice, NBC Sports App
11:00 AM, NXS New Hampshire qualifying, CNBC
12:30 PM, MENCS New Hampshire final practice, NBCSN
1:30 PM, NASCAR Scan All Special: Talladega, Kansas, Charlotte, NBCSN
3:30 PM, NXS Countdown to Green, NBCSN
4:00 PM, NXS New Hampshire race, NBCSN

  Sunday, July 16
12:00 PM, NASCAR RaceDay, FS1
12:30 PM, MENCS New Hampshire qualifying re-air, NBCSN
1:30 PM, NASCAR America Sunday, NBCSN
2:30 PM, MENCS Countdown to Green, NBCSN
3:00 PM, MENCS New Hampshire race, NBCSN
6:30 PM, MENCS Post-Race Show, NBCSN

  Monday, July 17
7:00 AM, NASCAR Scan All Special: Texas, Bristol, Richmond, NBCSN
2:30 PM, NASCAR 120: MENCS New Hampshire 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: July 11, 2017