08/03/2003
BOTT EARNS FIRST CAREER
ENDURO WIN
Budd Lake New Jerseys'
Howie Bott, driver of the #75 NEETS Pro-Enduro car, was
the man to beat at last weeks Tioga Watersports 100 spanking
the field until a overheating problem sent him to the pits.
Howie, better know as "DR. Destruction" showed them
that he cured the problem and went on to win in the rainy
Mountain speedway double point NEETS Mid-Season Championship
150 lap race.
It was a photo copy race
from the week before at Tioga. It started raining in the first
few laps after the green flag and continued on throughout the
entire race with intermittent down pours. Enduro races will go
on...rain or shine and rain it did for the 56 minutes it took
to complete the 150 laps.
From the start the #14 of Phil Lomonaco and the
familiar #43 of Richard Petey leading the way with Petey
pulling ahead to take command and leading most of the race
until the hard charging cars of 3 time NEETS winner 16x Ray Fitzgerald
from his last starting position and #75 Howie Bott starting
from the 9th position, were catching and sometimes taking the
lead. The #43 fought a hard battle in the closing laps with
#16x and #75. They were running in a 3 car pack even passing
the 4th place car of, always fast, Racin' Rich Johnson and 5th
place of #14 Phil Lomonaco. In the battle with only a few laps
remaining, Howie found his line, passed the #43 with Ray in
third waiting for those guys to make a mistake. At the
checkered it was #75 and #43 with another side by side up out
of your seat finish with "Dr. Destruction" being
awarded the win by Mountain speedways transponder score
system.
This was Howie's first
ever Enduro win. Howie has raced Flemington Enduros in it's
closing years and MVS Enduros the last few seasons until
the track dropped the class last year and he decided to
join Billy Bartley's NEETS tour.
Fans cannot ask for
better finishes like we have been having the entire first half
of the NEETS Pro-Enduro tour season. Every race has seen 3,4
or even 5 cars battling on the last lap with side by side
finishes at the line.
The 100 lap 4cyl Enduro
was won by #5 Kevin (Troublekowski) Truszkowski but the
competitive Verwy's family of racers didn't make the task
easy for him. Again the #18 of Patrick Verwys dominated the
first half of the race lapping most of the field and looking
like an easy victory until Kevin charging up the pack
ever so smoothly overtook Pat and went on to win. The top
5 showed the only one that was not a Verwys was Kevin.
#18 Pat finished 2nd with 08x his brother Bill in 3rd
followed by #24 his dad, Bill Sr.4th and youngest brother
Peter 5th.
Laura White, wife of
NEETS # 9LI Pro-Enduro driver, Jim White from Long Island won
the 30 lap Ladies Enduro with another side by side finish with
Holly Blessing wife of NEETS Pro driver #443 Bill Blessing.
Cindy Bott, wife of the Pro race winner and usually a great
driver on dry pavement, could not get a grip on the wet track
and put the beautiful #75 into the frontstretch wall sustaining
major damage to the car causing her to get the BV Sprinklers
"Rough ride of the Day Award".
PRO TOP 10: 75 BOTT, 43 Petey,
16x Fitzgerald, 1 Johnson, 14 Lomonaco, 55 Shafnisky, 41
Gentile, 443 Blessing, 51 Burd, 9 LI White
4CYL TOP 10: 5 Truszkowski, 18
Pat Verwys, 08x B.Verwys Jr, 24 B.Verwys Sr, 8 Peter
Verwys, 18 Boehm, 57 Ciampi, 44 Garris, 21 Dotzel
For all information on the
NEETS tour go to www.speedwaytech.net
or e-mail tour series promoter Billy Bartley at billyb@speedwaytech.net.
Sources: NEETS PR
Posted: August 6, 2003
