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Forty years ago in 1970, the season came to an end with the
running of the Cardinal 500 for the NASCAR Modifieds and Late Model
Sportsman (Busch Grandnationals). Ray Hendrick was at the top of his
game as he cleaned house as he won both 250-lap events. In the
modified event, Jerry Cook finished second and was followed by Fred
DeSarro, Leo Cleary, Bugsy Stevens and Bernie Miller.
Thirty years ago in 1980, the Stafford Speedway held their
annual banquet. Honored were Richie Evans, the Modified champ, Jerry
Marquis, the Sportsman champ and Jim Ward, the Strictly Stock champ.
Mike Stefanik was awarded Rookie of the Year in the modifieds and
Dan Avery was the Rookie in the Sportsman. Most improved modified
competitor was Corky Cookman. Seymour the clown presented his own
version of year end awards including a do it my way award which
depicted a plaster a hand giving an obscene gesture which was
presented to NASCAR representative Bob Smith. When Seymour made the
presentation he remarked, "That’s what the Modifieds think of
NASCAR". Needless to say, Smith didn't see the humor in it!
Fifteen years ago in 1995, Flemington promoter Paul Kuhl
announced that the Race of Champions would not be welcome back at
the New Jersey oval. Many of those who raced in that final event
were paid with checks that bounced. The ROC has since been reborn at
the Oswego Speedway but has yet to achieve the status that the
previous event held.
Ten years ago in 2000, the Thompson Speedway announced that
the long awaited paving of the speedway surface would begin within a
week if the weather was decent. Jeff Burton won the NASCAR
Grandnational event at Phoenix. Steve Park finished 42nd as a result
of a broken axle. Burton also won the Winston Cup event after taking
the lead from Mark Martin with four laps to go.
Five years ago in 2005, the Third Annual North – South
Shootout in Concord, NC got top billing. In addition to the
Modifieds the SK Modifieds were added to the program this year.
Competitors and fans arriving on Thursday were greeted with
temperatures in the low 70’s. Among the early casualties was Bob
Polverari who crashed hard and tore his car apart during practice.
He hit the wall so hard he snapped the chassis up near the a-arm.
His crew had to replace the whole right side. Donnie Lia led a field
of 41 Modifieds to take the pole position. Zach Sylvester was second
fastest with Matt Hirschman, third. Rounding out the top five who
locked in their spots were Todd Szegedy and Jimmy Blewett. Four 20 –
lap Modified qualifying heats were won by Chuck Hossfeld, Doug Coby,
Eric Beers and Ted Christopher. A field of 41 SK type Modifieds was
on hand. Chuck Docherty was the fastest in time trials. Jimmy
Blewett was second fastest with Ronnie Silk, third.
Tom Fox, Frank Ruocco and Tom Rogers were the SK type Modified heat
winners.
John Blewett III didn’t qualify all that well but he more than made
up for it in the 100 lap Shootout that he won. Blewett slugged it
out with Doug Coby and Zach Sylvester in the late stages of the
event. Sylvester ended up third while Coby faded to fifth at the
finish. Southern Modified competitor Brian Loftin finished third
while pole sitter and bad boy Donny Lia finished fourth. Lia led the
early going but was never a factor after making a mandatory pitstop.
Lia did pit when the pits were closed and did receive a penalty and
had to restart the race at the end of the longest line. Sixth
through tenth included Jimmy Blewett, Todd Szegedy, Chuck Hossfeld,
Ted Christopher and Eric Beers.
Woody Pitkat took the win in the SK Type Modified event that was run
in conjunction with the Shootout. Jimmy Blewett finished second and
was followed by Tom Cravenho, Rowan Pennink, Ronnie Silk, Todd
Ceravolo, Richard Savary, Tom Fox, Rob Janovic and Earl Paulus.
It had taken many weeks to run because of foul weather and
conflicting race dates but the Town Fair Tire Fall Finale at the
Waterford Speedbowl was finally in the record books. Second
generation driver Chris Pasteryak took the win in the SK Modified
portion. Rob Summers finished second and wrapped up the division
championship. Dennis Gada, Dennis Charette and Ron Yuhas Jr. rounded
out the top five. Other winners were, Late Model – Charles Bailey,
Mark St. Hilaire won the Championship. Mini Stocks – Ken Cassidy,
Danny Field won the Championship and Sportsman – Joe Curioso . Mark
Bakaj of Farmington inherited the lead and then held off brother
Chris over the final five laps to win Saturday's 30-lap Legends
feature in the first day of the Town Fair Tire Finale at Waterford
Speedbowl. Jeffrey Paul, forced to pit while leading with eight laps
left, clinched the 2005 championship with a fifth.
Billy Decker dominated the final 148 laps of the rain-delayed Eckerd
200 DIRT Modified race at the New York State Fairgrounds in
Syracuse. Decker had started the originally scheduled Oct. 9 Super
DIRT Week race from the pole position and led the first 52 laps
easily before rain stopped the event. Following the scheduled 12:15
p.m. restart with an estimated 10,000 grandstand fans looking on,
Decker marched smartly into the lead with Danny Johnson and Todd
Burley following him as they moved away from the rest of the field.
During the final 10 circuits of the mile-long track, Burley wound up
in the same place where he'd restarted the race, behind leader
Decker. Ronnie Johnson, who restarted in third place, also ended up
in that spot winning $15,000 with coaching from his dad, two-time
Syracuse 200 winner, Jack Johnson. Kenny Tremont Jr., the 1999 race
winner, finished fourth and Bobby Varin, finished fifth.
A fast pit stop helped Kevin Harvick grab an emotional victory
Saturday in the NASCAR Busch Series race at Texas Motor Speedway in
Fort Worth. Harvick, whose father-in-law died during the week week
after a long illness, took the lead with a pit stop of just over 17
seconds on lap 168 of the 200-lap O'Reilly Challenge. He then ran
off to his fourth victory of the season and 17th career win in the
Busch series. The part-time Busch Series driver beat fellow Nextel
Cup star Greg Biffle. Carl Edwards kept on charging Sunday at Texas
Motor Speedway, and his persistence was rewarded. Edwards, surged
back from a late pit stop that dropped him to sixth place and passed
Roush Racing teammate Mark Martin for the lead two laps from the end
of the Dickies 500 in Fort Worth. It was his second straight Nextel
Cup victory, thrusting the surprising Edwards into the battle for
the series championship with two races left.
Last year, 2009 the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour Series had
come to an end for another season. The final point standings for
2009 confirmed Donny Lia as the series champion. Lia entered the
entire 13-race season and amassed 2002 points. Lia won four events
for a season total winnings of $71,774. Ryan Preece, 16 points back,
finished second. Preece also ran 13 events, winning two and
collecting $51,721. Defending series champion Ted Christopher ended
up in third spot in the final standings with 1931 points to his
credit. Christopher won three times and had a season total of
$67,249. Rowan Pennick finished fourth with 1867 points. Although
winless, Pennick ran consistently up front, recording 11 top ten
finishes and a season total of $35,277. Rounding out the top five
was Todd Szegedy with 1823 points. Szegedy also had goose eggs in
the win column but his consistent finishes banked him $37,384. Sixth
through tenth for 2009 are. Chris Pasteryak, Mike Stefanik, Eric
Beers, Woody Pitkat and Eddie Flemke, Jr.
After the completion of its regular season as a clay track in
September, tht Albany-Saratoga Speedway in Malta, NY was converted
to an asphalt track, using blacktop that had been lying under clay
since 1977. Two race events were run on the asphalt in October. It
was announced that Malta would be repaved and reconfigured. Devil's
Bowl Speedway would be also be paved. The True Value Modified Racing
Series had already indicated that they will be racing in an event
there in 2010.
The True Value Modified Racing Series announced their Champion and
final point standings for 2009. Jon McKennedy, with 487 points was
the series champion. Rob Goodenough with 474 points finished second.
Third was Stephen Masse. Rowan Pennink and Chris Pasteryak rounded
out the top five. Sixth through tenth are Jack Bateman, Les Hinckley
III, Dwight Jarvis, Mike Douglas Jr. and Michael Holdridge.
The scheduled second annual foreclosure proceedings of the property
in which the Waterford Speedbowl is located was cut a day short as
Terry Eames and his “LLC” group have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy
protection. The New London Day reported that the scheduled
foreclosure auction scheduled for Saturday, October 31 had been
cancelled. What it means is that Rocco Arbitell and Peter Borelli
would be still holding the bag and would not receive the money they
loaned Eames when they bailed him out in July of 2007. Eames owed in
excess of $800,000. Eames said that racing will continue in 2010 at
the shoreline oval.
Dover Motorsports, Inc. announced that it was ceasing all operations
at Memphis Motorsports Park and that it would not be promoting any
events in Memphis in 2010. As previously announced, the Memphis
facility had been under an agreement of sale to Gulf Coast
Entertainment but Gulf Coast was unable to secure financing. NASCAR
has approved the realignment of their NASCAR Camping World Truck
Series and NASCAR Nationwide Series events from Memphis Motorsports
Park to the Nashville and Gateway facilities.”
In Sprint Cup action the Associated Press reported that NASCAR
demanded drivers be on their best behavior at Talladega
Superspeedway, where a ban on bump-drafting sanitized what's usually
one of the most spectacular races of the season. In the end, chaos
reigned, just like always. After 450 miles of what resembled a slow
Sunday drive, the action picked up and the outcome was much of what
everyone has come to expect out of Talladega: An unlikely winner,
two spectacular crashes and an army of drivers frustrated about the
unpredictability of restrictor-plate racing. In response, the 43-car
field spent much of Sunday in a single-file parade lap that almost
looked to be a conscious thumbing of the nose at NASCAR. Ryan
Newman's harrowing crash with five laps to go left him upside down
in the grass, and NASCAR needed a stoppage of almost 13 minutes to
cut him from the car. Outspoken in the wake of Edwards' April crash,
he was none too pleased to have spent almost 15 minutes trapped
inside his car. His crash set up two-lap sprint to the finish, and
that was halted when championship contender Mark Martin went
flipping across the track in his own spectacular crash. The race
ended under caution, with Jamie McMurray in Victory Lane.
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This week are several vintage racing
photos Courtesy of SpeedwayLineReport.com & Dave Dyke's Racing
ThroughTime.com
Click on Photo for Full Size |
That’s it for this week from 11 Gardner
Drive, Westerly RI 02891. Ring my chimes
at 401-596-5467. E-Mail is:
smithpe_97_97@yahoo.com |
