08/30/2003
WALKOWIAK AND
RAIN VISIT RIVERHEAD RACEWAY VICTORY LANE
Only
Tommy Walkowiak of Middle Village could beat mother nature
this past Saturday night in NASCAR Dodge Weekly Series action
at Riverhead Raceway when he won his second Blunderbust
feature of 2003. The Charger, Late Model, NASCAR Modified and
Figure Eight features were all lost to a persistent light
rain.
Just as the Chargers lined up for
their 20-lap main event a light rain stopped by the Route 58
oval causing a nearly two hour delay. Just as the track was
dried and the Chargers came back out the rain returned forcing
track officials to start modifying the night's schedule. The
Monster Truck, Train race and Demolition Derby portion of the
show was presented while the stock cars will be making up
their features over the next two week.
The Fleet Bank 35 for the NASCAR
Modifieds will run at 4:00 pm this Saturday September 6th.
Once that is complete the regular show including a 75-lap time
trial event for the Modifieds, their final double point race
of '03 will be presented. The Late Model and Charger features
from this past Saturday will run September 13th at 4:00 pm.
The Chargers were slated to have that night off, while the
Late Models will then run a second feature later that night
which is the September 11th Memorial night. The Figure Eight
feature will have already been run Sunday August 31st as part
of the second half of the Labor day Weekend doubleheader.
In the 20-lap Blunderbust contest that
was completed before the rain hit "Jumping" Jack
Handley raced his way into the lead on lap 5 passing early
leader "Racing" Jason Carpenter for the top spot. In
tow behind Jack were Sean Byrne and Tommy "Wildchild"
Walkowiak and with just two laps to go things got hot at the
front of the pack. The end result saw Handley spin from the
lead and that set up a wild last lap finish among Byrne and
Walkowiak. At the finish it was the C&A Auto Parts entry
of Tommy Walkowiak the winner in what was indeed a wild
affair. Bobby Gardner of Westbury who ran fourth for a portion
of the race threw his hat into the ring and came away with
runner-up money in the N.Y. Metro Peterbilt Cadillac, while
Sean Byrne of Brentwood was third in the Countywide Collision
Ford.
Train race newcomers Miquel Roura and
Chris McKee of Shirley won their first ever Train Race feature
in a 12-lap affair. The duo took the lead on lap 5 when Peter
Bertuccio and Scott Schelin's train got together with Stan
Wangenstein and Kevin Clarke's train while dicing for the
lead. Roura and McKee race for Shirley based Cub and Boy Scout
Pack 559 and indeed carry that numeral on their winning train.
In one of the most hard fought and
intense Demolition Derby events over the last decade Bob
"Whiplash" Genovese of South Farmingdale took a well
deserved victory over Steve Rossicks of Brick, NJ Genovese in
the Quality Collision entry and Rossicks staged an all-out war
for the win, with the latter's car twisted like a pretzel.
Genovese would be the winner, while Rossicks won Judge's
Choice and Alex Illchert of West Islip was voted Fan's Choice.
Illchert races for Cub Pack 330 of West Islip.
Sources: Bob
Finan/Riverhead Raceway PR
Posted: September 6, 2003