07/10/2004

OXEE FINALLY GETS ELUSIVE 50TH WIN
by Walter Johnston

   With the Sun shining brightly, Riverhead ran it’s regular weekly program and Family Fun show this evening, and some very happy people won races and trophies for their hard work. Roger Oxee in the #39 Helman Group Pontiac finally achieved his goal of the elusive 50^th win at Riverhead, another record in the books for Oxee, but a personal goal for him and his team as well. As he said afterward, “Now we want to work on getting to 51.” The fans were also treated to a 75-lap, 34-car Grand Enduro race, run under the lights, and a School Bus Figure 8 race, along with a regular show of Modifieds, Late Models, Blunderbusts, and Super Pro Trucks.

 

  The race of the night turned out to be the Late Models, not for any other reason than that RJ Oxee picked up the win, his 50^th, and finally seems to have gotten all the gremlins out of his car. A more than full field of 22 Late Models was on hand for the event, and 20 qualified for the feature. Because of being late reporting for the race, Fast Eddie Stein in the borrowed #40 Chevrolet, was placed at the rear of the starting grid, moving everyone else up one, and putting RJ Oxee on the outside pole. At the drop of the green, he bolted away from pole sitter #35 Ken Alfano, and only had to watch what went on behind him, as he was never away from the lead again. That’s not to say no one tried, as during the course of the race, he was chased closely at times by #12 Dennis Krupski, and later, #98 Doug Wholey, who finished 2^nd. Then there were the yellows that bunched up the field, the most serious of which occurred on lap 5 in turn 3 and 4 involving 6 cars. Once that was cleared up, a few more cautions on lap 17 and lap 22 slowed the race, but the lead never changed hands. Point leader Glenn Tyler had a malfunction in his #28 Spring and Summer Activities Pontiac, which at first caused him to slow, and eventually leave the race a few laps later, so now the point chase in the Late Models is tightened up and getting interesting.

 

  The Modifieds ran a 35-lap feature, which was won by #05 Joe Hartmann, back from his long journey the day before to run in an open competition Mod race up in Lee, NH. Pole sitter Steve Tooker, looking better each week, held the lead for 15 laps, with outside pole sitter Hartmann along side and fighting to grab the lead away. On lap 16, Hartmann grabbed the lead, just as a heavy crash in turn 4, involving #74 Marisa Niederauer, #5 Mike Curtis and #49 Chris Young brought the race to a stop. A long yellow followed, as the 3 cars in turn 4 were delicately separated. When the race resumed, Hartmann resumed his pursuit of the win, with #12 Dan Jivanelli moving into second as Tooker faded to 3^rd place, and Mike Andrews moved up to 4^th. At the halfway mark, Andrews was still pressing to move forward and was being chased by last week’s winner and current point leader, #6 Tom Rogers Jr. Further back, things were happening that would not affect the outcome of the race, but did change the overall result of the finish. With just a few laps left to run, 4^th place Bill Park spun off turn 4 after contact with 2 other cars. No yellow was needed, and the race finished with Hartmann winning, followed by Andrews, Jivanelli, and Rogers.

 

  The Blunderbusts, after a shaky start when outside pole sitter #10 Bob Haeger suffered a flat left rear and spun in front of the field in turn 1. No damage was done, as everyone missed him, and left to repair the flat. A complete restart found the #69x of Paul Parisi in the lead at the green, which would end as he and the #6 of Scott Sepe collided going into turn 3, giving the lead to the #22 of Scott Maliszewski and moving the #27 of Scott Pederson into 2^nd, with the #61 of Chris Busick 3^rd and #14 of Mike Schwarz moving to 4^th. With a lot going on behind them, they motored away to the finish, the second of the season for Maliszewski. A late race tangle on the backstretch, involving the #23 of Eugene Malverty and a lapped car, gave #77 Jason Carpenter 5^th place.

 

   The Super Pro Trucks had an exciting race, as the #10 of Hank Hallock and #42 of Frank Dumicich Jr battled side by side for the first 6 laps, until Dumicich grabbed the lead for himself on lap 7. At the half way point, as the #38 of Dan Grennan and #66 of Mike Albasini battled for second, Dumicich enjoyed a comfortable lead. On lap 13, Albasini and Grennan collided going into the 3^rd turn. After the restart, the #98x of Dave Brigati was in second, and pressured Dumicich, until passing him on lap 17 and going on for the win, followed by #1 Lou Maestri in 2^nd , Troy Ferdinando in 3^rd and Dumicich finishing 4^th.

 

   The Grand Enduro cars showed up 34 strong, and ran their 75-lap race under the lights. As of press time, the results were not yet official, and can’t be posted here, but will appear elsewhere on this site later today. I can say it was a very exciting race, and fun to watch, too, as it wasn’t marred by any yellow flags, and even though it’s tough to follow who’s leading because there is so much going on, the eventual winner was not the first across the Start/Finish line, as these cars have to be teched after the race to be certified legal. At the conclusion of the race, the scorecards are polled to determine the top 5, and they are then inspected to make sure they fit the rules.  It is our understanding this resulted in a few disqualifications, for various reasons. As I said, the results will be posted her later today, but a big thanks to all competitors for a great race.

 

   Lastly, the School Bus Figure 8 race finished the night, with 5 of the 6 scheduled buses taking the green. Unusual for this race, the #444 of Bob ’Whiplash’ Genovese had no forward gears in his bus, so he started and ran the whole race in reverse, which added and interesting twist to the running of the race, as he always  seemed to be at the X as the others, who were running much faster, arrived there. Over 10 laps, they just missed his bus as they went everywhere to avoid him. While not a factor because of this, he did factor into everyone else’s strategy and tat probably affected the outcome. The race was run by the #69 of Ed ‘Speedy’ Jaeger, followed by the #47 of Slim Jim Donaldson in 2^nd, the #13 of Matt Brown in 3^rd, and Whiplash in 4^th, with the malfunctioning bus of Eugene Malverty finishing 5^th.

   That’s it for this week, see you all again next week, and DRIVE SAFELY please.

Sources:  Walter Johnston/LongIslandJam.com
Posted:  July 11, 2004