01/07/2003

DOWN THE BACKSTRETCH
by Peter Milano

It's a new year, new beginnings and for some it's just going to feel like another year has passed and nothing has changed, while others keep passing them with new technology and better equipment. Seems like many people are moving up and onward at the Head, while others keep saying their moving ahead but seem to come to a stalemate each and every year. Seems we can accept to hear that so and so has plans of moving to bigger and heavier division this year, only to kick himself in the teeth for saying that same comment. Could this year be a year that we see each division grow in numbers?

As far as the midseason of the break, I'm hearing few rumblings of drivers moving to other divisions, but I'm actually starting to feel the rumblings of those newcomers in each class. It's only January and it seems the Blunderbust, Chargers, Late Models, Modifieds and actually the Figure 8's could be looking at healthy fields in car counts come opening night. Am I in a haze of bliss just thinking that maybe we could have heats for the Figure 8's sometime this season? Right! Only division that seems to have slipped is the Truck class.

With Ronnie Humes leaving the division last season as the strongest runner, this season leaves this group even less competitive. With the untimely death of Larry "King" Costa, his son Lenny is looking to claim a championship in his father's memory. His strongest foe on the track is defending champion Danny Grennan who just took about the whole season without a problem. But with Lenny taken the #46 that his father was so known for, how strong will he be able to run? Lenny is switching to the body style of a GMC from the current Dodge body. This could possibly be the season we get to see the full potential of his craft. Unfortunately the switch came because of his father's death, and one thing I have to ask myself is; "Where will his mind be when he's out on the track?". I know we would all love to see him take the championship for his father, but will his head be 100% clear? With the season Danny Grennan had last year, we can only expect to see the same thing happen this year.  We have come to see Lenny improve his skills over time, let's just not hope this will become a stumbling block in his mind, but who could forgive him if such a thing would happen. With the guys from Golden Auto body working on the truck, Lenny will be a must watch this season to come and hopefully very encouraging to this young talent.

Now what will the truck count look like this racing season? Who knows, right now it's kind of dwindled over the years, but hopefully clean and good competitive running will attract some drivers into this class. We did see some good runs by Grennan in the #38 and Costa in the #46, but what over shadowed this class was the bumping and banging that seemed a bit too rough for the officials. Although John Denniston did show brilliance here and there through out the year, he looks to improve in the 2x, the question for me leads to ask; "how much time and effort will he place into the Chargers?"  I've got to say one thing about this kid; he puts a lot of time into practice and tried hard to understand the mechanics and handling of the truck and car. Whenever there was a practice session open, there would be one truck headed out to track most of the time and it was the #2x of Denniston. From what I've been told, John will be racing both classes with a huge effort placed upon the Charger division, but how could he deny the strength of his truck. He could look for lots of seat time and more experience from the trucks then in the full class of Chargers.

Lou Maestri's #1 had two really impressive wins this season, Lou is coming off a nice season for himself and will debut a new body and motor package for the 2003 year. Lou will be a strong runner as he looks to gun down Grennan for title. The #7 of Rich Giordano will look to improve his very respectable fourth place finish in points. With himself, Denniston, Maestri and Larry Costa there was only a 16 point difference between them at the end of the season and it seems we could have another big battle for points at the end of the year, but then again Grennan had a 50 point lead ahead of Costa who sat in second at season end.

With a few races under his belt last season Bryan Sescila is moving full time into the truck division, while his whole Blunderbust package is up for grabs for the right money offer. Also this season the addition of the son of Frank Dumicich, Frank Dumicich Jr., as he will be looking for a lot of teaching on and off the track. Both father and son have been working on a new chassis for the youngster and should hopefully have a strong engine program to boot. Can we look towards Brian Schwarz in the 11x improving in the trucks? Tony Giarraputo's #36 sat out the entire 2002 because of a blown motor, with a new package, how strong will he run after sitting out last year? Dave Koenig in the #97 looks for a full schedule this season also, as will Troy Ferdinando, he'll have to see what his bride says come the summer months! Of course that was a joke, but Troy is tying the knot, here's to the best, Troy!

There's seems to be a lot equipment for sale still amongst the ranks of the trucks. Jay Sierra bought the best truck for sale last year, but he had to place the truck back on the market due to unknown reasons. Jay bought Ron Humes old #12, worked on the truck for a good portion but came to halt and is now for sale again. If anyone is looking for a good truck try to get a hold of Jay, because this was one of the best trucks ever to grace the track. Another good truck is the #55 of Lenny Costa, the former championship winning truck of George Taylor. The #02, Luke Ferland is headed to Atco Raceway in New Jersey to go drag racing as he seemed to really enjoy the straight-aways at Riverhead, but they were way to short for him. Also gone is "Turbo" Tom Fleming in the #31 as he heads down south to Mooresville, North Carolina to take a position with Brunnhoelzl Pit Jacks, good luck Tom, welcome to race city!  The #42, Mike Jurkowski is another talented truck driver leaving the Truck ranks.  Jurkowski has his Truck and Charger up for sale.  If neither goes, Jurkowski plans to run a limited Charger schedule.

The only down part I saw about the Trucks besides the lack in numbers of drivers, was that they were placed many days on Sunday afternoon with the Enduro cars, missing many Saturday night action, this season they get the nod twice on Sunday to go green. I will explain this further in a future article because the Blunderbust division will also see green twice this season on a Sunday afternoon instead of a Saturday night. There are pros and cons as to why I see it this way. I hope this has brought you up to date with the Truck division at the Head. Next article I will go in-depth and talk about the coming season with Blunderbust division, so till then, God Bless.

Sources:  Peter Milano/LongIslandJam.com
Posted:  January 7, 2003