RIVERHEAD RACES START NIGHT OFF RIGHT, BUT END UP WRONG
by Walter Johnston
If you were not at Riverhead Raceway tonight,
you missed the most..er, interesting night of racing there in quite some
time. Perfection from some, something else way short of that from some
others. What started out as a good night of racing suddenly took a turn
for the worse. There’s a movie title that fits perfectly. “The Good, The
Bad and The Ugly. Read on and I’ll explain.
The first feature race was the Super Pro Truck
race, and before the first lap was done, #66 Mike Albasini and #44 Jason
Agugliaro tangled, with Albasini spinning into the infield while
everyone else got by. Albasini recovered, rejoining the race. Agugliaro
then held the lead until #45 Bobby Gardner passed him on lap 5. From
there, it was Gardner’s race all the way, with little happening behind
the leader, as Bobby Gardner won the caution free race.
The next feature was the Charger race. #73 Brian
Doyle and #99 Kevin Orlando started on the front row, with Orlando
grabbing the advantage immediately. Doyle and #10 Brad Van Houten then
contended for 2nd , side by side, as #44 Mark Gibbs and #00
Mike Bologna battled for position behind them. By lap 6, the front 6 had
settled into a single line, as #5 Jeremy McDermott and #22x Justin
Bonsignore battled for the 7th spot. The field remained
pretty much this way until #27 Jimmy Donnelly spun off turn 2 on lap 17,
bringing out the only caution of the event. The restart saw Orlando get
a terrific jump and he held on for the win, but behind them, there was
mayhem. Bologna and #05 Eric Goodale got together coming off turn 4, and
the field split to get by them , resulting in a mess of spinning cars
at the finish.
Now came the Late Model 50 lap race, and it was
a beauty. #72 Greg Kleila set fast time in time trials, but on the
redraw, #14 Mighty Mike Mortimer got the pole, with #28 Glenn Tyler on
the outside. Kleila started 4th. At the drop of the green,
Mortimer jumped into the lead, but by lap 2, Tyler had caught him and
passed for the lead. Kleila followed through for 2nd, while
#42 Billy Wheeler came along into 3rd. Further back, #39
Roger Oxee was sizing up the field and started his move up from 9th
starting position. The top 3, Tyler, Kleila, and Wheeler pulled away as
the rest of the 6 cars behind them started to have to contend with
lapped cars. On lap 27, Oxee started to make his move, as he got around
#10 Scott Kulesa for 6th spot. One lap later, Oxee passed #8
Sean Patterson for 5th spot. Oxee worked his way to Mortimer
on lap 33, and moved into 4th. Meanwhile, the top 3 were a
good distance ahead of all this, running like a train around the track.
Suddenly, Tyler bobbled a bit, and Kleila shot past his for the lead,
with Wheeler following into 2nd spot. Now with just 2 laps to
go, Wheeler was looking everywhere he could think of to get past Kleila,
but Greg held on for the win with Wheeler 2nd, Tyler 3rd,
Oxee 4th and Mortimer holding on for 5th.
So much for the GOOD part.
Now comes the bad, or let’s say not as good,
which happened in the Figure 8 feature. #29 Will ‘The Thrill’ Farrell
led the charge to the green, but was quickly overtaken by #58 Kenny Hyde
. On lap 3, #3 Ken Darch and #13 Mike Mujsce got together, and the field
behind them had no where to go, resulting in a 4 car crash which sent
#28 Roger Maynor to the pits with left front damage and a flat. Maynor
returned and the race restarted Yellow was back out immediately as #8
Tom Kraft spun in turn 1. On the next restart, Hyde held his lead over
Farrell, but #10 George Sprague soon overtook Farrell for second and set
his sights on the lead. A lap later, at the X, as Hyde hesitated for a
lapped car, Sprague shot into the lead #47 Slim Jim Donaldson and
Maynor were now battling side by side for 3rd, with Maynor
coming out in 3rd, and he set his sights on getting to the
front. On lap 18, Maynor caught Hyde and passed him, and moments later,
Kraft spun again, this time into a concrete block on the south end of
the course, necessitating a red flag. TK sat in the car while officials
and the ambulance personnel looked after him, but he was well enough
after a few minutes to want to continue racing. His car was not, so he
retired for the night, walking off under his own power. When racing
resumed, Sprague maintained his lead, with Maynor right on his bumper
for the final 6 laps, but Sprague, with some very good driving, held
Maynor off to take the win.
End of the BAD or not so good part and now it
gets ugly.
The modified feature saw #68x Johnny Bush and
#15 Wayne Anderson on the front row. At the drop of the green, Anderson
swept past Bush to take the lead, with #05 Joe Hartmann coming along to
take 2nd and #12 Dan Jivanelli moving into 3rd,
with #5 Jimmy Blewett taking 4th as Bush dropped back into 5th.
Blewett almost immediately got by Jivanelli for 3rd. By lap
10, Blewett caught and passed Hartmann for 2nd and then
worked on catching and passing Anderson. On lap 15, yellow came out for
a wreck in turn 4 involving 4 or more cars. When officials worked on
realigning the field for a restart, a controversy started when Tom
Rogers disputed the call that he had stopped for the accident, and he
refused to give up his spot and move to the rear of the field as the
officials told him to. As a result, he was shown the black flag. He
dropped out of line, swung his car around and deliberately crashed into
the driver’s side of #3 John Denniston’s Mod. He backed up once, hit him
again, and then Denniston pulled out and started trying to smash into
Rogers. A tow truck finally got between the two and they both drove
their cars into the pit area, but veteran race fans and officials knew
this was far from over. Almost all officials converged on the pits,
necessitating a very long period of yellow while things got sorted out.
In the pits, officials calmly and politely asked Rogers to surrender his
NASCAR license, but he refused. They explained the ramifications of
that, but he still refused to give it up. Some yelling went on, and the
officials left to resume the task of realigning the field for a restart.
No penalty seemed to be forthcoming for Denniston, who after minor
repairs to his car, rejoined the field for the restart.
Back into the race, Anderson and Blewett were
again running nose to tail when suddenly Anderson spun off turn 2 into
the infield. Yellow came out, and the officials decided Anderson had
help, and put Blewett to the rear for rough riding. Joe Hartmann
inherited the lead on the restart, with #10 Mike Andrews Jr. putting the
pressure on him. On lap 27, Andrews got along side Hartmann, and
completed the pass one lap later. A lap after that, #96 Howie Brode
moved into 2nd, while on lap 30, Bush spun off turn 1,
bringing out another caution. On the restart, Andrews Jr. got a good
jump, with Brode hanging right with him, but suddenly on the
backstretch, Anderson and Blewett get together, bringing out a yellow.
Blewett bolted from his car and attempted to attack Anderson, with at
least 3 officials need to peel Blewett away from Anderson’s car. Blewett
was escorted on foot from the track while Anderson drove off into the
pits. This turned out a little better than the previous altercation, as
the officials kept the two apart, and the race resumed, with Andrews Jr
holding on over Brode and Hartmann for the win.
Pit notes: #68 Peter “Buzzy” Eriksen was in
attendance, but dropped out before the green flag with ignition trouble…
#33 Ken Heagy suffered much the same fate with motor problems reported
as he was about to take the green in his heat. Many different opinions
in the pits and stands about the goings on in the Mod race, but everyone
needs to think before they get too involved in this…Nice to see #98 Doug
Wholey back with us after a 4 week self imposed absence...Also good to
see #49 Jack Handley out, though his car was not quite right for racing
this night…Blunderbusts return next week, and to be honest I sort of
missed them tonight as they’re always fun to watch…Back from Dover just
in time to catch this “once in a season” (Hopefully!) show…see everybody
next week, and please be good, it’s a lot of reading that I have to do
as it is, LOL!
Source: Walter
Johnston/LongIslandJam.com
Posted: June
11, 2005
