|
07/31/06
MR. AUGUST, DONNY LIA HOPES TO CONTINUE
RIVERHEAD STREAK
Donny Lia of Jericho undoubtedly comes to Saturday night’s Miller Lite 200
NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour event at Riverhead Raceway as the driver to beat
after winning the past three August races at Barbara and Jim Cromarty’s
historic oval. Twenty-seven other drivers will attempt to halt Lia’s August
win streak in WMT races at Riverhead Saturday evening.
Dubbed “Mr. August” on the merit of the Riverhead Raceway
August win streak, the budding superstar always gets pumped-up about racing
on the quarter mile where Lia began his NASCAR Modified efforts as the 2001
Rookie of the Year. Lia started his August hot streak in August of 2003, his
first season in the Whelen Modified Tour when he also won Rookie of the
Year. Lia then backed-up the 2003 Riverhead Raceway WMT victory with wins in
the 2004 and 2005 races.
Aside from the usual motivation any racecar driver has going
for him, Donny always looks forward to racing at Riverhead in front of
family, friends and employees of the family owned auto dealership Huntington
Honda who always turn out in numbers to root their driver on. Aside from his
three WMT triumphs Lia has also authored two NASCAR Modified wins at
Riverhead.
“Mighty” Mike Stefanik comes to the Miller Lite 200 Saturday
as the leading active driver as far as WMT wins go at the Long Island speed
plant with 6 trips to victory lane with his first coming back to July of
1986 driving for car owner Clint Hanks. Stefanik in the Flamingo Racing #16
will be a threat to end Lia’s win streak.
The only other active WMT drivers entered for the Miller Lite
200 that have visited victory lane are Jerry Marquis and Ted Christopher who
have both driven to two wins each and indeed could claim number three
Saturday. Other WMT drivers to watch in the Miller Lite 200 are defending
WMT champion Tony Hirschman, Eric Beers, Jamie Tomaino, Jimmy Blewett, Chuck
Hossfeld, Eddie Flemke Jr. and Todd Szegedy.
The famed Long Island gang will be ready to try and grab
their first win since 1995 when Ed Brunnhoelzl Jr. won the Miller Lite 200.
Leading the list of Riverhead Raceway regulars will be defending track
champion Bill Park and three time feature event winner in 2006 J.R.
Bertuccio. Howie Brode, Ken Heagy and Joe Hartmann all of whom have raced at
Riverhead in 2006 will also be gunning for the Miller Lite 200 gold.
The Miller Lite 200 will be joined by 30-lap feature events
for the Chargers and Blunderbusts, with their qualifying at 4:30 pm and the
WMT time trials set for 5:45 pm. The Charger and Blunderbust main events
will follow time trials with the 200-lap Miller Lite event to follow.
For further information please call 631-842-RACE or visit our
web page at
www.riverheadraceway.com.
Source:
Bob Finan/Riverhead
Raceway PR
Posted:
July 31, 2006 |