On the lap 15 restart, Tony Hirschman once again bolted to the lead, with his son right behind, and they were followed by Jerry Marquis, Doug Coby and Donny Lia in a line. Behind the top 5, Jimmy Blewett was battling to hold off Mike Stefanik, who had Jimmy's brother, John Blewett III right on his tail. On lap 20, Stefanik saw an opening, shooting past Jimmy Blewett to take 6th. Meanwhile, up front, a hard charging Jerry Marquis got around Matt Hirschman to move up to 2nd, and a lap later, Coby and Stefanik both managed to get by Matt Hirschman, who dropped back to 5th. Donny Lia passed Hirschman a few lap later to take 5th and Blewett III moved up to take 6th spot, as Stefanik and Coby continued their battle for 3rd, with Coby doing a masterful job of maintaining his position. On lap 34, yellow flew again after contact between Jimmy Blewett and Tony Ferrante caused Blewett to crash in turn 2.

    Green flew again on lap 40, with Hirschman getting a huge jump at the start, as Stefanik got around Coby to grab 3rd, and John Blewett moved up to 5th, with Tony Ferrante now 6th. A crash off turn 2 involving Rene Dupuis and Matt Hirschman also involved Eric Beers and Jamie Tomaino, bringing the yellow out quickly on lap 41. Stefanik, Hirschman, Coby and Lia all pitted, but Jerry Marquis remained out and assumed the lead. Stefanik took 3 tires, the others only 2, and they all rejoined the rear of the field. With green out again on lap 51, Blewett shot into the lead, followed by Rick Fuller, but Marquis fights back to pass Fuller and retake 2nd, while Mike Christopher watches from 4th. On lap 57, Fuller's car suddenly slows on the front stretch, stacking up cars behind him, causing another caution as Ed Flemke Jr spins out trying to avoid it all.

   This time, Marquis, Ferrante, Ken Barry and Jeff Malave pitted. Green flies again on lap 61, with Blewett in the lead, followed by Mike Christopher, Zach Sylvester, Chuck Hossfeld, and Kevin Goodale. Sylvester gets by Christopher to take 2nd, but Blewett pulled away to a big lead. Lia has now made his way back to 5th, with Stefanik right on his tail, and the top 6 pull away from the rest of the field in a race of their own. Sylvester has caught up to Blewett once more, but can't find an opening to pass him. By lap 75, the top 2 have pulled further away from the rest, while behind them, Lia and Stefanik both get by Hossfeld, who falls back to 6th. On lap 81, Christopher spins in turn 2, bringing out another caution. During the caution, NASCAR penalizes Lia for contact with Christopher, holding him one lap in the pits. As the field came around turn 4 for the restart, Lia again comes to the pits, for yet another penalty (unexplained at the time), and loses yet another lap, as the field goes back under green on lap 86. Blewett again does battle with Sylvester, while Stefanik, Coby and Marquis contend for 3rd. On lap 90, Steve Whitt spins in turn 2, bringing out yellow once more. During the caution, it's reported that Stefanik has a broken shifter and is stuck in high gear. Blewett and Sylvester remain on the track, opting for track position instead of new tires, and the race resumes on lap 94. Blewett runs strongly out front, leading Sylvester by over 5 car lengths, and Sylvester has his hands full with Stefanik, who gets by to take 2nd spot on lap 99, as he is followed past Sylvester by Marquis and Sylvester now runs 4th. On lap 101, Stefanik catches Blewett, but they make contact and spin in turn 2, with Stefanik recovering to remain near the front as Blewett spins off the track and recovers, but he is now out of the top 7. Marquis, who inherited the lead by avoiding the mayhem, is now followed by Sylvester, Hossfeld, Coby and Stefanik, who recovered well enough to stay in 5th. Green flew again on lap 103, and Marquis gets a 3 car lead, as Hossfeld and Coby quickly get by Sylvester to run 2nd and 3rd. Charlie Pasteryak, running 6th, is looking for a way around Stefanik, and gets along side by lap 112, but Stefanik holds him off. Up front, Marquis now has a comfortable 10 car length lead over Hossfeld, who is also at least 10 car lengths ahead of Coby. Pasteryak finally gets by Stefanik and Sylvester, bringing Mike Christopher with him as Sylvester and Stefanik fade back in the field. Christopher gets past Pasteryak to take 4th spot, but there is no catching Jerry Marquis, as he has now stretched his lead to almost 20 car lengths as the checkered flag flies. Coby and Hossfeld are almost side by side as they cross the line, but Hossfeld takes 2nd by a nose over Coby, as Christopher finishes 4th and Carl Pasteryak 5th. Tony Hirschman finishes 12th, giving him his 5th WMT Championship.

    In the Busch North Series race that followed, a great 4 car battle took place between #4 Sean Caisse, who sat on the pole, Eddie MacDonald, the outside pole sitter, and Mike Olsen and Mike Stefanik, as the four of them battled through a mostly caution free race. An early race tangle in the rear of the field brought out an early caution, but for 50 laps after that, it was exciting side by side, or nose to tail racing amongst the top 5 or 6 cars. Eddie MacDonald dominated most of the first half of the race, doing battle at various time with Caisse, Stefanik, or Dave Dion. A lone car crash by Laine Chase on lap 54 brought the field under yellow. During the cleanup and realignment of the field, at lap 63 there was a power failure, dousing all the lights around the track and bringing out a red flag. It was announced that is was a small technical difficulty and would be fixed in a few minutes. After about 15 minutes, the lights came back on, and the race resumed on lap 70, until lap 74, when another brief caution slowed the field. Back to green on lap 79, MacDonald was leading, but Stefanik got it away from him after 3 laps, only to have MacDonald take the lead again 3 laps later. A crash on lap 96 brought out a red flag, with NASCAR wanting to finish the race under green. After a 5 lap cleanup, a green-white-checker finish was set up, as MacDonald held off Stefanik's challenge to win the race, and by virtue of his 13th place finish, Andy Santerre held off 2nd place (race finisher) and points man Mike Stefanik to win the Busch North point championship.

   The International Super Modifieds had their usual exciting race, but it was dominated by Chris Perley, who once he got the lead, ran away from most of the rest of the field, with the exception of Pat Abold, who finished second in the race, but first in the ISMA points championship. But as always, no matter what the outcome, these cars are just awesome to watch circle the 5/8 mile raceway, with their wings providing stability on the straightaways and braking in the corners, they are a thrill to behold. If you've never seen this division race, you are in for a treat the day you do finally get to see them.

   News and Notes: Arriving late Friday afternoon, it was windy and cold at the track, probably a good thing there was no racing that night, no one would have lasted long in the stands...while Saturday started out looking good with sun and chilly temperatures, about 2:30 in the afternoon the clouds rolled in, and it was completely overcast by 3:00, with light rain starting about 3:45, quickly picking up and mixing with SNOW! That pretty much put an end to the racing day schedule for Saturday, pushing all the features back to Sunday's program. At least time trails had been completed and all divisions had gotten some practice to work on their set-ups...Good to see fellow Long Island race fans at the race, too numerous to mention them all...Sunday weather milder than most remember it being that late in October at Thompson in many years, a nice reward for all who stuck it out through the many week(end)s of rain delays...IMPORTANT: upcoming weeks will see meetings held to determine if the proposed racing/entertainment complex gets approval to be built at Yaphank. (There is a schedule on a post on the message board, check there for dates and times.) We in the racing community need to get to any and all of these meetings we can to show the people holding them that there are SUPPORTERS for this project, not just screaming NIMBY's, who are usually the only ones to show. Let's change history and get behind this, it's for the good of racing and can only benefit all involved...one more race for me to cover this season, the exciting North/South Shootout next week at Concord Motorsports Park in N.C. I'll try to file as much info as possible from there as soon as we have it together, so keep an eye on the JAM for frequent updates and a final report when we can put it together...until next time, live well and be safe.