10/30/2004

RIVERHEAD'S SLEE LEAVE FRANKENDURO FIELD SCARED STIFF

 

  What do you get when you mix almost two hundred enduro participants, Mountain Speedway, Halloween weekend and a costume contest for the kids?  The latest of the NEETS Holiday Junk Car Series race, the Frankenduro, held this past Saturday.  Tom Slee, driving the #10 from Riverhead Raceway showed the huge crowd that he can not only win, but Tom did it in dominating fashion finishing two laps ahead of second place.  2004 NEETS 4 Cyl. Mini Series champion Peter Verwys, Jr. stole the lead from the #41J of Joe Jentile, the 2004 NEETS Tour Car Champion with two laps to go in the four-cylinder massacre.

 

   The day started out with much anticipation for “clean” enduro racing.  With rain over the past few days, the track infield was like a mud bog, but still used quite heavily.  Sarah Jane Hunt from Speed Channel started on the pole for the 100-lap four-cylinder feature event, but it didn’t take long for Joe “Millionaire” Jentile to take over the lead about 30 laps into the event.  Mayhem and dead cars is the only way to describe the obstacles the drivers had to endure.  The red flag was thrown occasionally for removal of vehicles “in the groove”.

 

   About midway through the event, the #12 of Pete Verwys put a charge on the leader, Joe Jentile.  On many occasions lapped traffic protected Joe’s lead and it looked as though the NEETS Tour car champ would be victorious, but the other NEETS champ (4 Cyl. Mini Series), Pete Verwys, Jr. made his move on the front stretch with the two lap to go sign.  

 

  At intermission children from the stands dressed in Halloween costumes were brought down to the track for a costume contest.  The judges were the four cylinder drivers.  Every driver received plenty of candy, and all received great prizes.  Drivers and officials donated all candy and prizes.  Some of the prizes were bicycles, karaoke players, Bionacle, and the overall prize was a Gameboy Advance SP.

 

   The big car race hosted 75 automobiles, which was a spooky sight for the Pennsylvania 1/3 mile speedway.  Howie “Dr. Destruction” Bott, driving the #75 car with a large spider on the roof took command on lap number one.  The race was surprisingly clean as the laps passed, with exception to a few red flags for drivers in unfortunate position on the racetrack.  Bott held the lead until a short while past half way, at times almost lapping second place.  During a red flag incident, Bott suffered rear end damage, dashing his hopes for the Frankenduro 131 win.  The lead was then handed to the #10 of Tom Slee.  Tom was never contested, lapping the field twice during his dominating performance. 

  

   The Ladies races were postponed dues to time constraints.

 

The next NEETS Holiday themed event is the “Mutha of all Enduros”.  Qualifying is November 20^th, and the feature events are the following day.  This jam-packed event pays $5000 to win for big cars, and $2500 for small.  For more info, visit www.neetstour.net.  We’ll see you there!

Sources:  Coyote Racing PR
Posted:  October 28, 2004