Fireworks both On and Off the
Track on I Love America Night
by
Walter Johnston
A beautiful summer’s day
ended with two brief rain showers, but Riverhead officials
worked around the inconvenience of it, and managed to run all
scheduled events, and put on a beautiful fireworks show on
I LOVE AMERICA NIGHT. It ran later than anyone expected, but
produced some interesting racing for the huge crowd in
attendance.
In the 35-lap Bank of
America Night Modified feature, #0 John Denniston and #93 Sal
Accardi, Jr. started on the front row, but right at the start,
yellow was out as Denniston got into Accardi and thus Accardi
into the front stretch wall at the drop of the green, destroying
the right front of Accardi's car, as his whole suspension was
ripped from the car and went bouncing dangerously back
throughout the scrambling field of Modifieds behind them. #17x
Rusty Turbush's car was also damaged in this incident and unable
to continue. Fortunately, no one was hurt in the incident and
after Accardi's car was removed on a rollback flatbed tow truck
racing resumed. With the green back out, #36 Dave Sapienza
wisely got the jump on Denniston to avoid a repeat of the
previous incident and Sapienza took the immediate lead with #85
Lenny Fischer and #12 Dan Jivanelli following him through as
Denniston quickly dropped to fourth position. Another yellow was
out quickly as #05 Joe Hartmann spun in turn 4 after contact
with #5 Jimmy Blewett. When green flag racing resumed, it was
Sapienza out front again, as Jivanelli and Fischer ran side by
side battling for second. Jivanelli won that contest, and set
his sights on Sapienza to take the lead. On lap 7, Jivanelli got
past Sapienza, who would hold onto second spot, as the field was
now running mostly single file through fifteenth place Denniston.
Noticeably moving up for position at this point was #11x Chuck
Steuer deftly passing on the outside when he was able to, and
#33 Ken Heagy, last week’s winner who was also passing cars to
advance his position. With 2 laps to go, contact between #20
Bill Park and #10x Mike Andrews, Jr. resulted in Park spinning
to the infield, which he recovered from to rejoin the race, but
many positions back from the sixth place he'd been running in.
This resulted in Park now being in a virtual tie with Chuck
Steuer for the points lead. Meanwhile, Jivanelli, in the #12
Dunkerley’s Office Products Chevrolet, who'd built a commanding
lead through all this, sailed under the checkered flag for his
first victory in almost 2 years. Dave Sapienza and the #36
SPONSORS WANTED Dodge held on for an impressive second place
finish, and was followed by Lenny Fischer in the #85 SPONSORS
WANTED Dodge, #96 Petro Fuel Oil Chevrolet of Howie Brode, and
Jimmy Blewett and #5 TS Haulers Chevrolet to round out the top
5.
In Donaldson's Volkswagen
25-lap Late Model competition, #88 Shawn Patrick and #91 Jeremy
McDermott started up front and at the green Patrick grabbed the
lead, but got loose off turn 2, giving McDermott the lead, with
#1x Dave Brigati getting into second. Yellow came out as #99
Jack Orlando came to a stop in turn 4. With green out again,
McDermott got the lead over Brigati and Patrick slipped by to
take second spot with Brigati holding third and #42 Billy
Wheeler in fourth. Patrick got by McDermott to regain the lead,
as Brigati got by in second, and Wheeler moved into third, with
McDermott now slipping back in the field. Yellow flew again as a
mid-field skirmish left #35 Kenny Alfano sitting in turn 1 with
a left front flat. On the restart, Patrick again held the lead,
but Brigati got under him coming out of turn 4 and the two ran
side-by-side until Brigati pulled away with the lead a lap
later. On lap 19 a huge pileup in turn 1 shuffles the field, as
the track is blocked by at least 8 cars stopped in various
positions, but most pulled away under their own power with the
exception of #8 Sean Patterson and #14 Mike Mortimer, with
Patterson's hood under the rear of Mortimer's car. The track
crew did a nice job of separating the two, whom pulled away
under their own power to go to the pits for minor repairs. With
the top five now Brigati, #01 Rob Tribuzio, #10 Scott Kulesa,
#28 Glenn Tyler and #39 Roger Oxee, green came out once more,
quickly followed by yellow as #08 Jarrod Hayes stopped in turn
4; he was given a one-lap penalty for purposely drawing a
caution. Green once again waved, with a slight amount of rain
coming down, and Brigati pulled away with Tribuzio right on his
bumper. Tyler got around Kulesa to take third spot, with Oxee
getting by 1 lap later, as Brigati held on for his first Late
Model win of the season in the #1x White Post Wholesale Growers
Dodge. It was a well earned victory for Brigati, after two
devastating crashes earlier in the season caused his team to
perform major rebuilds on both of his Late Model cars. #01
Riverhead Trailer Pontiac of Rob Tribuzio would finish runner-up
with the #28 Spring & Summer Activities Pontiac of Glenn Tyler
rounding out the top three.
In the Donaldson's Volkswagen
Figure 8 main, 14 cars took the green, led by #81 Michael
Brigandi and #29 Will Farrell, which was followed by an
immediate yellow, as the front bumper of Brigandi's car fell off
and Farrell had to head to the pits to change a right front
flat. The field was quickly realigned and green was out once
again, with #63 Paul Specht grabbing the lead from Brigandi, and
#28 Roger Maynor getting by to take second spot. #14 Mike
Schwarz hit the turn 4 wall and yellow was out once more. On the
next restart Specht led, but was quickly passed by Maynor for
the lead, with Donaldson holding third and Baxter in fourth.
Position changes occurred quickly, and #74 Carl Baxter was now
running second, Specht third, and #85 Arne Pedersen fourth.
Maynor had a comfortable lead, leaving the next four in line to
battle it out for second spot. With the slim field spread out
over the figure 8 course, front runners were encountering other
cars at the X and #16 Tom Ferrara and #13 Mike Mujsce, Sr.
eventually had hard contact, bringing out the final caution of
the event, as Ferrara's front end sheet metal was spread all
over the X and Mujsce rear bumper was knocked half off. Ferrara
was towed to the pits, Mujsce went to the pits and fixed his
bumper, and the seven remaining cars went back to green flag
racing. Roger Maynor and the #28 Barrasso & Sons Mason Supply
Ford were unstoppable and after two really poor finishing weeks,
went on to take his third victory of the season. Carl “The Ax”
Baxter would once again have a strong run in the #74 Blast-It
Sandblasting Pontiac with a second and rounding out the top
three would be the #85 Maples Bar & Grill entry of Arne
Pedersen.
The 20 lap Donaldson's
Volkswagen Blunderbust feature had #20 Mike Rommeney and #09 Joe
Fischett on the front row at the drop of the green. Fischett got
a great jump on Rommeney and took a commanding lead. On lap 3,
#19 P.J. Vecchio spun in turn 4, collecting #67 Wayne Okula, #65
Don Doherty, and #1 Artie Pedersen bringing out the first
yellow. #79 Bill Wegmann's car was found to be leaking oil and
he retired from the event. A bit of a cleanup was required to
remove the oil from around the track and green flew once again.
Fischett held the lead, but #53 Dale Arnold was now right behind
him, with #69x Paul Parisi running third. Fischett and Arnold
broke away into their own separate race for a time, with Arnold
finally getting by Fischett as they were negotiating getting
past lapped cars. #27 Scott Pedersen was running a solid third,
with #3 Doug Watson having moved into fourth. Arnold in the #53
CustomVinylGraphics.com Chevrolet and Fischett in the #09
Hampton Coach Car Service Chevrolet were now running alone at
the front, having built a lead of over 12-car lengths by the
time Arnold took the checkered flag. Fischett, Pedersen, Watson,
and Parisi rounded out the top 5, as #7 Tom Sullivan came from
seventeenth to finish sixth, and #10 Racin' Rich Johnson, in
only his second Blunderbust race came from twentieth to finish
an impressive seventh.
News and Notes: Please, everyone
make a special effort to drop a donation into one of the Racing
ForA Cause containers, to help the family of Steve Cielatka,
recently diagnosed with Leukemia. The containers can be found at
the tire truck in the Riverhead pits, and the senior member of
the Larry & Larry show, Larry Murdock, has one near his seat in
the frontstretch. Let's show the community that we race fans
help our own, and drop some money into one of these containers.
Racing For A Cause is the brain child of Rusty Turbush's
modified car owners, Tom and Sharon Blydenburgh and spearheaded
by Annette Knotoff, who works on the crew... Think there is a
big rivalry among drivers? Think again. After suffering severe
damage to their race cars in the first Modified heat, #49 Chris
Young and #8x Eddie Brunnhoelzl III were assisted by #05 Joe
Hartmann, #93 Sal Accardi Jr, #15 Wayne Anderson, and members of
other pit crews to get the necessary repairs made for both to
make it to the consi race (A bit of stalling on the part of
track officials didn't hurt, either). A big salute from this
writer to all who helped and showed a true spirit of
sportsmanship to help a fellow competitor in time of need...
Accardi himself would need big help after hitting the wall hard
at the beginning of the Mod feature, causing major damage to the
right side of his car... On the other hand, there was some
season ending tensions, as a few drivers needed to be
restrained, in one case, even tackled, as emotions boiled over
from a few on track incidents. No doubt mounting bills from
weekly racing on many people's minds tend to amplify anger.
Let's hope this is the last we see of that for a while... Got to
watch a tape of the Rick Miller/Kevin Bacik cable race show and
they do a fine job of covering Riverhead weekly results. The
show can be found only on cable, channel 20, at 1:30 AM on
Mondays. Check your cable listings to be sure, but definitely
check out the show, there is some good footage and inside info
you won't find anywhere else about your favorite sport. If
you're missing News12's Trackside program after all this time,
this is a good fill in for the information and entertainment
value...Until next time, be safe and live well.
Source:
Only on LongIslandJam.com
Posted: August 28, 2005
