July 21, 2017 |
Sixty five years ago in 1952 Billy Tibbert was the Wednesday
night Sportsman winner at the New London-Waterford Speedbowl. Charlie
Webster was the Claiming Car winner. The Sportsman had Saturday night off at
the Speedbowl and it was just as well as the Claiming Car feature fell
victim to rain after 17 laps with Jack Stansell being declared the winner.
Sixty years ago in 1957, Red Foote
made it three in a row in Sportsman action at the New London-Waterford
Speedbowl as he won on Wednesday night. Irwin Fox was the non-Ford winner.
Don Collins brought a halt to Foote's win streak as he won the 50 lap
Sportsman feature at the shoreline oval on Saturday night. Ted Stack was the
non-Ford winner. Over on the Island at Islip Al DeAngelo beat out Johnny
Coy.
Fifty five years ago in 1962, Ron
Narducci was the Modified winner on the dirt at the Stafford Springs
Speedway. Rain prevailed at the New London-Waterford Speedbowl on Saturday
night.
Fifty years ago in 1967, Fred
Harbach scored his first and only win at Stafford on Friday. Dick Watson
finished second with Leo Cleary, Fred DeSarro and Bill Slater rounding out
the top five. Harbach, one of the top guns from Long Island, raced at
Stafford, Norwood and Thompson throughout 1967.Rene Charland was the winner
of a 40 lapper at the Albany Saratoga Speedway. Bill Wimble finished second
with Lou Lazzaro, third. Jerry Cook and Ernie Gahan rounded out the top
five. Charland made it two for two as he won a 100 lapper at Fonda on
Saturday night. Wimble and Gahan followed. Bill Scrivener took the Modified
win at Waterford. Gene Bergin was the Saturday night winner at Norwood and
Dutch Hoag won again at Fulton. Sunday action at Thompson and Utica-Rome
rained out
Forty five years ago in 1972, Bugsy
Stevens beat out Long Islander Dan MacNamara at Seekonk on Friday night.
Many of the big guns were at Malta for a 200 lapper where Eddie Flemke
prevailed in the Frank Vigliarlo No.34 (formerly the Bob Judkins 2x) Bob
Santos finished second and was followed by Ron Bouchard, Richie Evans,
Maynard Forette and Fred DeSarro. Saturday night at Stafford saw Santos
score another runner-up with Ronnie Bouchard taking the top spot. Fonda ran
a double points event with Ralph Holmes taking the win over Ron Narducci and
Andy Romano. Asphalt racer Bernie Miller tried his hand on the dirt and
finished 15th. Angie Cerese was the Modified winner at Waterford. At Islip
it was Jim Hendrickson over Charlie Jarzombek and George Tet and at
Utica-Rome on Sunday night, it rained.
Forty years ago in 1977, Thompson ran
a mid-week open competition event. Richie Evans took the top spot over Geoff
Bodine and Eddie Flemke. At Stafford on Friday night, Bodine held off Bugsy
Stevens and Dick Caso. Local favorite Bob Polverari took the top spot at
Riverside over Bodine while at Seekonk; Corky Cookman took top honors with
Jim Wilkins, Bugsy Stevens and Eddie StAngelo, following. Veteran Joe Tiezzi
was the main man at Waterford. Jerry Pearl finished second with Moose
Hewitt, Dick Ceravolo and Gene Bergin, following. Richie Evans invaded Islip
for a 150 lapper and walked away a winner over Greg Sacks, Wayne Anderson
and Fred Harbach. At Westboro, Mike Weeden won out over George Savory and
Joe Howard. Thompson closed out the weekend with Fred DeSarro taking the win
over Bodine and Bouchard.
Thirty five years ago in 1982,
Stafford had scheduled Modified Madness for Tuesday but rain prevailed. On
Wednesday night, Thompson ran the Thompson 300 outside pole qualifier.
George Summers in the Art Barry no.21 took the 40 lap win over Greg Sacks,
George Kent and Kenny Bouchard. Sacks made it two in a row at Stafford on
Friday night. Kenny Bouchard, in the Ted Marsh No.55 ran a strong second
with Bob Polverari, Reggie Ruggiero and Mike McLaughlin rounding out the top
five. At Waterford on Saturday night, Don Fowler held off Don LaJoie and Joe
Tiezzi. Promoter Dick Williams announced that Randy LaJoie would be in
competition in the upcoming Busch North Series event that was coming up at
the Speedbowl. Riverside Park ran a 200 lapper that saw Richie Evans in a
class by himself as he won the event over George Kent, SJ Evonsion and Bob
Polverari. Evans made it two in a row as he won at Thompson on Sunday.
George Summers finished second with George Kent, third. Other weekend
winners were George Kent at Spencer, Tony Siscone at New Egypt, George
Brunnhoelzl at Riverhead, Gomer Taylor at Seekonk, Doug Hewitt at
Shangri-La, John Blewett Jr. at Islip and Roger Treichler at Perry. In
Winston Cup action at Pocono, Bobby Allison took the win. Ron Bouchard
finished fourth.
Thirty years ago in 1987, the weekend
was marred by the death of Corky Cookman at the Thompson Speedway on Sunday
night. Cookman, a quiet but well liked driver, hit the turn three wall a ton
on lap 5 of the 75 lap event and was killed almost instantly. Cookman was
transported to a local hospital as the race resumed. Reggie Ruggiero ended
up with the win with Jim Spencer, second. In Late Model action, Ricky Shawn
made it two in a row and in SK Modified action, Bo Gunning took the win. A
few days after the death of Cookman, NASCAR announced that the 390
carburetor with unaltered boosters would be the only one allowed in the
division. Bo Gunning was the Friday night winner at Stafford. Richie Gallup
finished second. Waterford ran twin features on Saturday night with Ricky
Young and Harry Rice taking the wins. Bob Potter finished second to Young
with Dickie Doo Ceravolo, Ed Flemke Jr. and Bob Gada following. Following
Rice were Dale Holdredge, Gada and John Anderson. Wayne Anderson ruled the
roost at Riverhead despite pressure from Don Howe and Tom Baldwin in the
closing laps. At Riverside Park, Wade Cole got a surprise win over Mike
McLaughlin and Reggie Ruggiero. In Winston Cup action at Pocono, Tim
Richmond was the pole sitter but the race belonged to Dale Earnhardt Sr.
Twenty five years ago in 1992, the
NASCAR Featherlite Modified Tour was at Stafford for a 150 lap event. Reggie
Ruggiero in the Ed Cloce No.69 took the win over Doug Hevron in the Boehler
No.3 and Jeff Fuller. Tom Tagg was the SK-Modified winner. At Monadnock,
Marty Radwick scored a win over Jerry Marquis and Rusty Ball. Marquis, in
the Bobby Judkins 2x, scored his seventh win of the season at Riverside Park
on Saturday night. At Waterford and Riverhead, it was a night for the
rookies. At Waterford, Scott Poirier scored his first ever win as he held
off Mike Christopher and Bob Potter and at Riverhead, John Fortin beat out
Tom Tillotson and Mike Ewanitsko.
Twenty years ago in 1997, it was a
big week for Reggie Ruggiero at Riverside Park as he recorded his 90th
career win at the amusement park oval when he beat out Dan Avery and Mike
Stefanik to win the Wednesday night NASCAR Featherlite Modified Tour Series
150.Ruggiero backed it up with his 91st career victory on Saturday night
over Richie Gallup and Ted Riggott. At Stafford on Friday night, Ted
Christopher garnered his 46th career victory. Jim Broderick, Bo Gunning and
Bob Potter followed. Broderick settled for second again on Saturday night at
Waterford as Scott Spaulding took the win. Todd Ceravolo finished third.
Spaulding took the lead from Broderick with five laps to go. In Winston Cup
action at Pocono, Dale Jarrett took the win. In other news, the
International Speedway Corporation added Phoenix International Raceway to
its war chest of speedways
.
Fifteen years ago in 2002, the
scheduled NASCAR Featherlite Modified Tour event at Chemung was cancelled.
At Thompson on Thursday night the fans came out in droves as the 5/8 mile
speedway was almost packed as Bert Marvin won his fourth feature of the
season. Bo Gunning finished second followed by Ron Yuhas Jr. and Ted
Christopher. The Busch North Series visited Stafford on Friday night. Andy
Santerre was leading the 150 lap event with two to go when he found himself
planted in the wall after Dale Shaw hit Dale Quarterly who was running
second who in turn hit Santerre. Shaw was not penalized for his actions and
went on to take the win over Matt Kobyluck and Tracy Gordon. Billy Anderson
won the 50 lap SK-Modified feature over Kerry Malone, Ron Silk and Lloyd
Agor. Rob Janovic was the Saturday night winner at Waterford but it was one
of the Rocco twins who stole the show when he borrowed one of Joey
Chitwood’s stunt cars and put on a smoke show for the crowd. JR Bertuccio
took his sixth win at Riverhead over Tom Cravenho who was in the Eddie
Partridge modified. Peter Daniels made it seven in a row at Claremont and at
Wall Township, Tom Farrell took the win. In Winston Cup action at Pocono,
Bill Elliott won out over Kurt Busch and Hank Parker Jr. won the Busch
Series event at Pikes Peak in Colorado. On a sad note, Booker T. Washington
Jones passed away after a battle with cancer
Ten years ago in 2007, the Waterford
Speedbowl, thanks to the non payments of property owner Terry Eames, was
scheduled to go up for foreclosure on Saturday, July 28. A sign posted on
the property frontage indicated that the sale would take place at high noon.
Anyone interested would need a $300,000 bank or certified check to
participate. In 2006 the Washington Mutual Bank filed a lawsuit claiming
that the track's owner, Terry Eames, had failed to make payments on a $1.7
million loan held by the Seattle-based savings bank. The lawsuit, Washington
Mutual vs. 1080 Hartford et al., continued through this year, with several
legal motions occurring during April and May. Eames had also failed to pay
the town of Waterford more than $185,000 in taxes owed dating back to 2003.
Eames was smart as he had shielded himself by an LLC titled 1080 Hartford
Road LLC, a reference to its street address. In other words if he did lose
the property he could walk away and thumb his nose at those he owes.
Eames, who bought the race track in 2000 had all but run the facility into
the ground when he leased the track to a new company called The New
Waterford Speedbowl LLC, which ran the day-to-day operations. Bill Roth
served as its general manager and Jerry Robinson was its president. Both
Roth and Robinson had made an honest attempt to bring the track back as they
had made numerous improvements. They still faced the stigma created by Eames
as they had had problems securing any credit for their business venture.
Eames claimed he was about to sell eight acres in the northwest corner of
the property to Harvey Industries, a Massachusetts-based window manufacturer
that also distributes other building products.. Eames insisted that he had
the necessary finances in place, which would lead one to ask how come he had
not made any payments in the previous 18 months.
The Seekonk Speedway, located just over the Mass. Line on the way to Cape
Cod had Open Wheel Wednesday Modified Madness $10,000 to win scheduled for
last Wednesday but heavy rain forced a cancellation to September 22.
The 2007 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour continued on their summer break.
The True Value Modified Racing Series traveled to the Oxford Plains
Speedway in Maine. Kirk Alexander started 15th in the 100-lap feature and
took the lead for the eventual win with only five laps remaining. Les
Hinkley, who started dead last in the 24 car-starting field, finished
second. Dwight Jarvis, Pete Jarvis and Lisbon, Ct’s Chris Pasteryak rounded
out the top five.
In regular Thursday Night Thunder action at the Thompson Speedway the
rains prevailed.
In NASCAR Whelen All-American Series action at the Stafford Motor
Speedway Woody Pitkat scored a one-two punch, cleaning house as he won the
Coors Light SK Modified 100 and the 30 lap Late Model feature. Alan Provost
scored a first career victory in the 20-lap SK Light Modified feature, Sean
Foster took down the 20-lap Limited Late Model feature, and Matt Chiarizio
scored his first career win in the 15-lap DARE Stock feature. In the 100 lap
SK Modified feature Pitkat battled back after changing tires with 22 laps to
go. Pitkat outdueled Ted Christopher in the closing stages. Willie Hardie
took the lead from the pole, and he led the first 34 laps before contact
with Keith Rocco sent him spinning from the lead. Rocco was black flagged
for rough riding, which handed the lead of the race to Christopher. Pitkat
took the lead from Christopher on the restart, and held the lead until
lap-52, when Christopher moved back out front. Pitkat slowly began to lose
positions as Christopher began to build a large lead over Eric Berndt, who
was now running second. A caution with 79 laps complete erased Christopher's
large lead and brought Pitkat to pit road for fresh tires. Pitkat then
worked his way back through traffic and avoided several wrecks to find
himself in third place behind Christopher for a lap-95 restart. Pitkat moved
past Christopher on the restart and then drove away to score the win.
Christopher finished second, with Frank Ruocco, Kerry Malone, and Curt
Brainard rounding out the top-5.
In NASCAR Whelen All-American Series action at the Waterford Speedbowl
Shawn Monahan passed his brother Diego with 9-laps to go in the 35 lap SK
Modified feature. The Monahans then set up a moving wall, which shut out
Zach Sylvester and Dennis Gada in the closing laps. Other feature winners
were Ed Reed Jr. (Late Model), Dwayne Dorr (Sportsman), Danny Field (Mini
Stocks), and Steven Intravaia (USAC Ford Focus Midgets).
The Nextel Cup competitors had the weekend off. Reed Sorenson earned his
first victory in two years, avoiding the pitfalls of a cautioned-filled
Busch Gateway 250 Saturday night in Madison, Ill.
Sorenson, who hadn't led any part of a race this season, passed David
Reutimann on lap 159 moments after the eighth yellow flag was lifted. He
survived the ninth and final caution with a strong restart to distance
himself from Reutimann, who was third.
Scott Wimmer earned his first pole position in 136 races and led the
first 53 laps before a right flat tire forced him into the pits. He stayed
near the front of the pack most of the race and finished second. Jason
Leffler and David Ragan rounded out the top five.The cautions were five off
the track's record of 14. Of 44 cars that started, 26 finished. The yellow
flag was out for 43 of 200 laps. Sorenson, who had the second-fastest
qualifying time, led 93 laps. The victory marked his third overall.
Five years ago in 2012, Internet
news site RaceDayCt reported that the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour Series
took a big hit when car owner Ed Whelen decided to shut down his operation
and sell his equipment and long time car owner Bob Garbarino indicated that
he was fed up with the way NASCAR treats the Modifieds and hinted that he
may also be packing it in in the not so distant future. Whelen owned the
cars driven by Ted Christopher. Whelen didn't like the way NASCAR was
heading as far as lack of television support, sub standard purses and the
fact that the sanctioning body's attempt to "save the car owners money" is
nothing more than a sham to get competitors to use the same "spec" engine.
The NASCAR rule makers had all but ruined the Sprint Cup and Nationwide
Series divisions with their IROC type Cars of Tomorrow. Next will be the
Modifieds or what's left of them. Long time car owner Bob Garbarino also
voiced his displeasure with the way NASCAR has treated the division.
Chad Little, the Whelen Modified Tour Series director continued to paint
a pretty picture that NASCAR was doing everything it can to make it better
and more affordable for the car owner. Former New England Speedway official
Tony Leckey said it best when after reading Little's statement said the way
it came across was "The door is open and I’ll listen to their comments all
the time but at the end of the day we’re going to make a decision and
sometimes they like it and sometimes they don’t.” That tells you everything
you need to know about how much NASCAR values your input. All Chad did was
validate what Bob Garbarino said. The promoters and local officials bear the
wrath for this but at the end of the day, NASCAR could care less.
Thursday night Thunder at Thompson saw Keith Rocco earn his second
victory of the season after taking the lead from Kerry Malone on a restart
at lap five. Malone took the early lead with Rocco and Dennis Perry on his
bumper. Malone had just pulled away when the first caution of the night flew
for Perry, who lost the right front on his machine. Malone and Rocco brought
the field back to green on the restart with Rocco taking the lead out of
turn one. Malone, Ryan Preece, and Ted Christopher rounded out the top-four
as they all pulled away from the rest of the field. On lap eight, Preece
dove to the bottom groove heading into turn one and drove by Malone, who was
left to fend with the challenges of Christopher. Preece set his sights on
Rocco, who had pulled ahead to a comfortable five-car length lead as
Christopher drove by Malone for the third spot. Rocco greeted lapped traffic
at the halfway mark with Preece closing up some of Rocco’s lead, but it was
still all Rocco up front. The race went caution-free as Rocco drove to the
checkers unchallenged. Following Rocco and Preece were Ted Christopher,
Kerry Malone and Richie Gallup.
Other winners in NASCAR Whelen All American Series action included Jason
Chicolas who added his name to this season’s win column in the Limited
Sportsman division, Tommy O’Sullivan in the Late Models, and Mike O’Sullivan
in a special 50-lap Super Late Model race. Jay Sundeen won an exciting
contest with John Lowinski-Loh, Jr. that resulted in both drivers coming
across the finish line sideways in the Thompson Modified feature. Cam
McDermott and Dave Trudeau were winners in their divisions.
There were nine Sunoco (SK) Modifieds on hand for the event.
At the Stafford Motor Speedway on Friday night rain prevailed and wiped
out the SK Modified twin 75's until this Friday night, July 27.
In Saturday night action at the Waterford Speedbowl Shawn Monahan picked
up his first win of 2012 by getting the best of Keith Rocco in a spirited
duel over the final 15 laps. Monahan started from the pole and led all but
one lap. Tyler Chadwick was able to get by Rocco to finish second. Rocco
came home third and was followed by Diego Monahan and Tom Abele. Corey
Hutchings won his third Street Stock feature on the year while Wayne
Burroughs picked up an exciting first-ever win in the Mini Stock division.
Corey Barry won his second consecutive SK Light Modified race, Dana Dimatteo
won his second Saturday Series Legend Cars event of 2012 and Chris Garside
took a hometown win in the Saturday Series for the X-Car division.
In NASCAR Southern Modified action at the Bowman Gray Stadium in
Winston-Salem NC points leader Tim Brown edged Burt Myers in the first
25-lap Modified race, and Austin Pack bumped leader Chris Fleming around
Turn 2 of the last lap in the second race and went on to a victory.
In NASCAR Modified action at the Riverhead Raceway on Long Island Ryan
Preece won the Tom Baldwin, Richie Evans, Charlie Jarzombek Memorial 77
lapper. NASCAR's Jerry Cook presented the trophy.
American-Canadian Tour late-model star Joey Polewarczyk, Jr. dominated the
39th annual TD Bank Oxford 250 at Oxford Plains Speedway Sunday.
The ACT veteran wheeled his Ford-powered Pole’s Automotive machine to one of
the biggest paydays in Oxford 250 history, earning $45,500 after leading
more than 200 laps
Elliott Sadler held off a charge by Ricky Stenhouse Jr. on a
green-white-checker finish to win the NASCAR Nationwide Series race at
Chicagoland Speedway. The NASCAR Sprint Cup division had the weekend off.
Last year, 2016, The New Hampshire
Motor Speedway took center stage last weekend for the All Star Shootout and
the New England 100 for the Whelen Modifieds. Bobby Santos took the lead on
the last turn of the last lap to record the win. In Santos' own words Woody
Pitkat and Todd Szegedy got together while fighting for the lead and Eric
Goodale drifted high which allowed the third generation racer to make his
move and solidify the victory. Goodale recovered to finish second with Ron
Silk, third. Ryan Preece and Doug Coby rounded out the top five.
Doug Coby led the final six laps and crossed the finish line .037 seconds
ahead of Donny Lia to win the New Hampshire 100. Coby led eight times for 55
laps in a race that featured 22 lead changes among four drivers. Lia led 25
laps. Patrick Emerling finished third. Ron Silk, who won the Coors Light
Pole Award earlier in the day, was fourth and NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
driver Ryan Newman came home fifth. Ryan Preece, Woody Pitkat, Justin
Bonsignore, Eric Goodale and Todd Szegedy completed the top 10.
The race was slowed by caution only once, for the halfway break. There
were 33 cars on hand for the event.
Matt Kenseth survived multiple late-race restarts before eventually
pulling away to a comfortable victory in Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
New Hampshire 301 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. The competition had
nothing for Kyle Busch on Saturday afternoon as the driver of the No. 18 NOS
Energy Toyota drove off into the sunset in a dominant performance to win the
Xfinity series AutoLotto 200 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
At the Stafford Motor Speedway on Friday night Ron Williams had what he
thought to be a big night as he was the first across the finish line in the
SK Modified feature. Joy turned to frustration during a post race inspection
when Williams' car did not meet the minimum frame height requirement and he
was disqualified, making Todd Owen the winner. Following Owen after the
Williams disqualification was Mike Christopher Jr. Tom Bolles finished third
with Eric Berndt, and Matt Galko rounding out the top-5. Other feature
winners at Stafford on Friday night were Josh Wood in the Late Model
feature, Tony Membrino, Jr. in the SK Light feature, Bryan Narducci in the
Ltd. Late Model feature, Zack Robinson in the DARE Stock feature, and Teddy
Hodgdon in the Legend Cars feature.
Special congratulations to Bryan Narducci on his first ever win.
Narducci's paternal grandfather, Ron Narducci was a two-time Sportsman track
champion, 1960 and 1966 with nine wins on the dirt surface. Narducci's
maternal grandfather Jerry Pearl is a two-time SK Modified champion with 12
wins to his credit.
The temperature was in the low 90s and the humidity so thick you could
cut it with a knife but it didn't phase Keith Rocco as he blistered his way
into the lead with 11 laps remaining on his way to his fourth win of the
season in the 35-lap SK Modified feature Saturday at New London Waterford
Speedbowl.
Jacob Perry, a 14-year-old from Pawcatuck, Ct won his first 25-lap
Ministock feature while Chris Meyer and Monte Gibbs each captured 25-lap
Sportsman features. Chris Correll won his first SK Light feature, while
Cameron Morga, a visitor from New Mexico, was a winner in the 25-lap U.S.
Legends feature.
The SK Modified race was slowed by seven caution flags. Tom Abele Jr. led
for the first 20 laps, but spun out into the infield once Ted Christopher
passed him. He rallied to finish fourth, one sport behind Diego Monahan.
Dennis Perry rounded out the top five. Rocco also captured the mid-season
championship, making him a double winner.
Rocco continues to build on his record setting feature win total. Rocco's
win in the SK Modifieds brought his track total to 127 wins. The win also
took Rocco over the top to a career overall total of 223 wins which also
include victories at Thompson and Stafford Speedways.
Special congratulations to third generation racer Jacob Perry who recorded
his first ever win at the shoreline oval. Perry is the son of SK Modified
competitor Dennis Perry and retired Modified driver Roger Perry.
At the Riverhead Raceway on Long Island it was another night of racing
between the rain drops Saturday night and when the checker flag waved on the
40-lap NASCAR Modified main event Jason Agugliaro would go wire to wire in
the non-stop race to claim victory. Once again the staff of Riverhead NASCAR
Whelen All American Series officials did a stupendous job of getting all 140
laps of NASCAR feature event racing completed in just a tick over two hours
under threatening conditions as a near capacity crowd looked on.
In the NASCAR Modified 40 lapper, 14-year old NASCAR Modified rookie
Dillon Steuer and Jason Agugliaro made up the front row for the feature
event and when the green dropped the duo ran side by side for the first lap
before Agugliaro rode the outside lane to the race lead. Another impressive
NASCAR Modified rookie Cory Midgett made his way by Steuer on lap two to
come to second with Dillon settling in for third. With no yellow flags in
sight the top three strung out a couple of car lengths apart which was just
fine with leader Jason Agugliaro. The driver on the march during the caution
free affair would be Shawn Solomito who without the aid of any double file
restarts was methodically making his way to the front from a 8th place
starting berth. After disposing of Steuer for third Solomito the
championship leader made his way to second place Cory Midgett and with just
two laps remaining in the race made his way by the freshman driver for
second on lap 38. When the checker flag waved on the caution free race Jason
Agugliaro steering his Northeastern Bus Rebuilders Chevy who lay claim to
his third career NASCAR Modified victory. Shawn Solomito of Center Moriches
was runner-up
In Modified competition below the Mason-Dixon line rain washed out all
action at the Bowman Gray Stadium.
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. |
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Looking Back Archive
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Source: Phil
Smith / Looking Back A Bit
Posted: July
21, 2017 |
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