CURTIS
WINS FIRST ONE OF 2004
by Walter
Johnston
On
a warm breezy night, Riverhead
held another combination race and family night, with racing
and thrills for all. Besides 3 regular weekly divisions, fans
were treated to a Saturday night 4/6-cylinder Truck Enduro,
motorcycle thrill rider Doug Danger, a bus and car crashing
demonstration, and a train race. With no rain in sight, racing
began, but before the end of the night, much moisture would
end up on the track.
In the Modified 35 lap feature, #5 Mike Curtis jumped
into the sole lead from his pole starting position, with #33
Ken Heagy gaining second as #07 Lew Hallock, outside pole
sitter, was involved in a first lap crash off turn 4. The
restart saw Ken Heagy in 2nd, followed by #20 Bill
Park in 3rd, and Lenny Fischer in 4th.
The top 4 would stay that way until lap 19, when the yellow
flew for oil and water spewing from Chuck Steuer’s #11x and
Dan Jivanelli’s #12, which both left the track for repairs.
The track crew spent the needed amount of time getting the
track back into shape, and to be sure, Bill Denniston decided
that the cars would run a few fast pace laps before going
green again to make sure the track was dry and safe for
racing. This gave Chuck Steuer’s crew the chance and time
they needed to get him back out, which was accomplished. The
running order remained the same after the race resumed, with
Heagy’s car seemingly coming to him near the end as he
closed in on Curtis, but the laps ran out and Mike Curtis was
the winner, Ken Heagy 2nd and Bill Park 3rd.
The
Late Model 25 lap feature started out much the same, as Fast
Eddie Stein back in his #5 started from the pole and jumped
into an early lead, with Kenny Alfano in the #35 right with
him. The yellow flew early on lap 4 as Kevin Metzger had a
tire go down and hit the wall in turn 4. On the restart, Stein
held the lead with Alfano still there, but 2 laps later #14
Mike Mortimer and #84 Andy Lokkeburg came together and had
difficulty getting their cars separated as they traveled down
the back stretch, allowing many cars to get by before they
finally untangled from each other. Right after that, the #35
of Alfano and #8 of Sean Patterson collided and spun off into
the back stretch infield. On lap 10, Doug Wholey’s #98 came
together with the #72 of Greg Kleila, bringing out the yellow.
By now, Glenn Tyler in the #28 had worked his way to 2nd,
which helped him move into first a few laps after the restart,
followed now by the #5, #88, and #01, all battling closely for
2nd. On lap 19, Tribuzio in the #01, took over sole
possession of 2nd place. One lap later, the #14 of
Mike Mortimer, and the #39 of Roger Oxee simultaneously both
erupted in steam, spreading water all the way around the track
before either could get off.
The track crew then began to dry the track as best they
could. Mortimer was able to fix his car, but Oxee’s was done
for the night, a victim of a broken fan having cut into the
radiator. When the race resumed, Tyler maintained his lead to
finish 1st, followed by Tribuzio in the #01, Scott
Kulesa in the #10, and Shawn Patrick in the #88.
The Charger 20 lap feature suffered from a miscue right
from the start, as #5 Jeremy McDermott, #21 Chris Beutler, and
#81 Chris Turbush all came together and spun off the track in
turn 1, and #65 Sean Byrne and #00 Mike Bologna suffered flats
in the crunch that ensued. Not a good way to start, but an
omen of things to come. Wreckers
were needed to gently separate the 3, and racing resumed. The
#57 of Thore Foss grabbed the lead, which he held through lap
6, as another wreck in turn 4 resulted from drivers avoiding
the spinning car of John
Wicks in the #55, which involved about 10 cars. Officials
ruled all but Wicks would get their spots back, as they were
just avoiding the spinning car. Back to green once again, and
the #75 of Steve Ratti grabbed the lead away from Foss as the
#27 of Jimmy Donnelly spun in turn 4, bringing out another
yellow. On the restart, some cars were fading back but others,
like Chris and Dan Turbush, were moving up through the field.
Up front, Steve Ratti was suddenly fading as the #36 of Eric
Lutz took over the lead on lap 11, with both Turbushs in
pursuit as Ratti faded to 4th. On lap 15, another
yellow came out as Ron Hlatky in the #44 hit the wall in turn
3 and flattened 2 tires, necessitating a two-wrecker tow to
the pits. After that was cleaned up, Eric Lutz found himself
hotly pursued by Chris Turbush, who then bobbled a bit coming
off turn 4 with 2 laps to go, which allowed his father Dan to
get to 2nd and chase Lutz until Turbush made an
amazing last turn dive under Lutz coming to the line and
nipped Lutz by a bumper to win, creating one of the most
thrilling and exciting finishes in quite some time in the
Charger division.
The
4/6-cylinder Truck Enduro came out to run their 40-lap feature
and thrill the crowd with ‘no yellow flag’ racing. They
ran very well in their Saturday night debut, with #59 John
Cozza surviving the bang-up race to take the win. A multi-time
winner, Cozza, a former Blunderbust competitor, drove a smooth
race to avoid various wrecks, and even avoid the anti-freeze
spilled in turn 4 by another competitor. Not everyone was so
lucky, as the #7 of Dan Jones was a victim of a spun out truck
against the wall off turn 4 while he was running second to
Cozza, and Jones finished his night with a head on hit into
that truck. No one was hurt, and it seemed everyone enjoyed
this unique feature.
Lastly
the train race was run with 5 teams in competition. Peter
Bertuccio and Todd Schelin were victorious once again when the
smoke cleared after a very exciting race, which saw one team
flip it’s middle car after taking a turn too tightly, and a
couple of near-misses at the X. Unfortunately, for many who
left early, they missed a good race.
