Thompson Speedway finally saw the sun come out for the running of the main portion of it’s Icebreaker weekend. With bad weather Friday and Saturday forcing a rearrangement of their schedule, they fit all events in nicely for the weekend, and capped it off with the running of the Icebreaker 150 for the Whelen Modified Tour. The weather cleared enough for them to get some of their divisions ‘twin race’ events in on Saturday night, and Sunday the sun shown down on the 5/8’s oval as a day of great racing was run.

After running the Mini-stock, Thompson Modifieds, and Sportsman races, the Pro-Stocks took to the track for their 30 lap event. Our Riverhead Late Model entrants put on a great effort, but were at a disadvantage from the get go to their slightly more powerful Pro-Stock cousins. At the drop of the green, Todd Owen held the initial lead, with yellow flying on lap 4 for a spinning Jarrod Hayes. Racing resumed with Owen in the lead, battling hard still with Joe LeMay, as Fred Astle ran in 3^rd. On lap 12, Astle lost a tire going into turn 4, and crashed hard into the wall. When racing resumed again, Owen held the lead as LeMay and Bassett battled hard for 2^nd. On lap 14, Chris Mangels brought out a yellow with his lone backstretch spin. With the green back out, Owen and Lemay resumed their battle, with Lemay grabbing the lead going into turn 1. On lap 22, Jim Silvia spun in turn 4, bringing out the yellow again. On the restart, LeMay either missed a shift, or had momentary mechanical trouble, but Owen took off, holding a decent lead over Bassett right to the checkered flag. Buzzy Eriksen finished 11^th, Jarrod Hayes 12^th, Dave Macomber 14^th, Chris Mangels 18^th , and Dennis Krupski, who made a few pits stops along the way, 22^nd.

On to the main even of the day, the Icebreaker 150. Jerry Marquis (4), the fast qualifier in time trials, started on the pole after the redraw, followed by Steve Whitt (06), Donny Lia (18), Jimmy Blewett (12), Zack Sylvester (15), and Mike Andrews (36). Marquis and Whitt ran side by side until Marquis pulled out front off turn 2, and the top six starters fell into a single file. On lap 8, a pile up in turn 1 & 2 involving Blewett III (66), Goodale (58), Storace (47), Beers (3), M. Hirschman (59), Tyler (8), and Summers (1) brought out the first yellow. Blewett III, Tyler, and Beers had to leave on the hook, while the others rejoined the field.

On the restart, Whitt led at the line, but Marquis retook the advantage off turn 2, as Jimmy Blewett got around Lia for 3^rd spot, and Andrews moved up to 5^th. On lap 22, Todd Szegedy (2) spun, but no yellow as he was off the track, and he returned, but pitted immediately for tires. Marquis and Whitt were now pulling away from the rest a bit, bumping side by side at times as they battled for the lead spot, as Blewett and Lia battled side by side for 3^rd by lap 40. Andrews suddenly began to fade back to 17^th spot by lap 45, as tires seemed to be the issue. On lap 46, Marquis suddenly seemed to have a tire go down entering turn 1, and crashed heavily into the wall, stopping way into turn 2, and a small fire broke out in the front of the car. As the red flag flew, the track crew responded quickly and extinguished the fire and got Marquis, uninjured, out of the car.

When the yellow came out, many drivers took the opportunity to pit for tires and fuel, and when the green flew again on lap 54, Whitt , who didn’t pit, had the lead, but he bobbled off turn 4, and Lia, Stefanik, and Ruggiero (41), all of whom stayed out, went by him. Sesely (11), Sylvester , Coby (77), and Silk (19) also got by him the next lap, dropping Whitt to 8^th spot. Up front, Stefanik looked high and low, but Lia held on to the lead. Sylvester worked his way to 4^th, and Coby was putting pressure on Sesely for 5^th, as Ruggiero was now looking to get around Stefanik to take 2^nd. The top 4 now had pulled a few car lengths away from the pack, as on lap 70, Whitt finally had to pit for tires. At lap 75, Lia led Stefanik, Ruggiero, Sylvester and Coby. Just then , yellow flew again as Rene Dupuis's (90) spun in turn 2. All the leaders pitted on lap 77, with Ruggiero getting out 1^st, followed by Sylvester, Coby, Stefanik, and Lia.

Racing resumed on lap 83, with a new leader, Chuck Hossfeld (79), with Tomaino (99) T. Hirschman (48), and Ted Christopher (13) making up the top 4. On lap 93, Jimmy Blewett spun in turn 3 alone, in a big cloud of smoke, and yellow flew again. Blewett was able to continue, and green flew again on lap 98, with Hossfeld now being hounded by T. Hirschman. But one lap later, a huge crash took place just off turn 4, involving Sylvester, Fuller (00), Barry (21), Sesely, Sammons (0), Berndt (64) and Storace. Red was thrown again, as the track was blocked, and cars were on top of other cars. Only 16 of the original 37 starters were now on the lead lap. Yellow came out, and on lap 100, many once again pitted for tires and fuel, as the officials called for a single file restart.

Green came out on lap 102, with Hossfeld still in front of Hirschman, but DuPuis hit the wall in turn 2 hard, and yellow flew immediately. She was removed from the car uninjured, and after cleanup, racing resumed again on lap 110, with Hossfeld holding off Hirschman as Stefanik moved into 3^rd, and Christopher to 4^th. On lap 115, Tomaino (99) spun, bringing out the caution once more.

Racing resumed on lap 120, with Hossfeld holding on over Hirschman, who was being pressured by Stefanik. With the lapped car of Flemke running behind Hossfeld, Hirschman and Stefanik have to get by him, and as they do, Stefanik and Christopher both get by Hirschman, and Stefanik gets the nose of his car under Hossfeld, but Hossfeld holds him off as Christopher tried the high side. On lap 127, Stefanik finally gets under Hossfeld and passes him, with Christopher following by also. Hossfeld hung onto 3^rd spot, as Christopher started looking for a way to get by Stefanik. On lap 138, Lia slowed a bit on the front stretch, and got hit and spun into the infield. He was able to keep rolling, but was reported to be out of fuel. On lap 139, Hossfeld caught and passed Christopher to retake 2^nd spot, with Ruggerio now pressing Christopher for 3^rd. Ruggiero finally got by Christopher on lap 142 to get 3^rd spot, as Hossfeld mounted one more try to pass Stefanik. That attempt resulted in the two coming together slightly and bobbling off turn 4 on the final lap, but both recovered to finish 1 -2, as Ruggiero came in 3^rd, Christopher hung on for 4^th, and Tony Hirschman for 5^th. James Civali (28) 6^th, Mike Andrews, 7^th, Jamie Tomaino 8^th and Dick Houlihan (46) 9^th, were the only cars on the lead lap at the finish.

News and Notes. Nice to see so many Long Islanders at the race... Mike Andrews looked sharp in his new ride and uniform…Glenn Tyler happy to have qualified well for the race, as he used his Riverhead motor, since Big Sal isn’t quite finished with the Tour Engine yet. His early race incident didn‘t let him find out how good it was, unfortunately…Ken Heagy and Joe Hartmann obviously disappointed not qualifying, but with practice rained out, there was only a tire scuffing session in which to shake down their cars…Cool, breezy morning turned into a mildly warm afternoon, making a more comfortable than usual atmosphere to watch this traditionally chilly race, and a large turnout of fans attested to that fact…Wished Joe Larsen a (belated) Happy Birthday, even though he didn’t really LOOK that much older…Next WMT race in 3 weeks (April 30^th) at Stafford Motor Speedway…Thompson flew the flag at half-staff to honor Jack Arute’s passing earlier in the week…Long Islanders Al Mandarino and Rick Giannino ran twin Late Model races, but unfortunately, neither scored a top ten in either race….2 other races added to WMT schedule, Jennerstown and Holland, bringing the schedule up to 16 races so far….That’s all for now, be safe and live well, and I’ll be back with an opening night report from Riverhead, May 6^th.

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16 79 41 13 48 28 36 99 46 73 19 33 55 14 18 77   2 10 54 12   3 11   6   1 47 90 00 15 21 64   0 06   4 58 59 66   8

Mike Stefanik Chuck Hossfeld Reggie Ruggiero Ted Christopher Tony Hirschman James Civali Mike Andrews Jr Jamie Tomaino Dick Houlihan Jon McKennedy Ronnie Silk Wade Cole Ron Bouchard Mike Christopher Donny Lia Doug Coby Todd Szegedy Eddie Flemke Jr Dave Etheridge Jimmy Blewett Eric Beers Anthony Sesely Ron Yuhas Robbie Summers Jim Storace Renee Dupuis Rick Fuller Zach Sylvester Ken Barry Eric Berndt Danny Sammons Steve Whitt Jerry Marquis Eric Goodale Matt Hirschman John Blewett III Glenn Tyler