Mountain
Speedway held the second of their Enduro series races, playing in front
of a brave crowd on a cool Saturday afternoon, where $1 of each
admission was donated to The March of Dimes. 35 small cars and 33 6/8
Cylinder entrants made for 68 separate stories for the day, and we will
relate some of them here. Both events started with inverted fields, due
to both coin tosses coming up ‘tails’ at the driver’s meeting, to the
delight of some, and the groans of others. The weather cooperated, with
cloudy skies, but no precipitation during the events, though some of the
small amount of the snow left against the outside guard rail played into
racing in the large car event. More on that later.
The small cars
started things off, with Chris Siegel grabbing the early lead, but he
dropped out on lap 7 with mechanical trouble. Brian Brown then took over
the lead, but was soon replaced by Mike Mujsce, Jr. by lap 10. Jimmy
White, Jr., Jessica McGlynn, and Mike Dunn came together hard on the
front stretch on lap 12, but the race continued around them as they
ended up in the high groove, and the rest of the cars were able to get
by. By lap 20, with the field now about 30 cars, good racing was taking
place for position all around the track. By lap 30, Shawn Wanat led
Brian Brown and Bob Haeger, as Mike Mujsce, Jr. ran 4th. On
lap 35, a red flag was displayed to remove the only driver left in a car
from the earlier wreck, Jessica McGlynn, as she was left with the
driver’s side facing oncoming traffic. On lap 43, another red was needed
after one of the many #19’s in the race had hit the 77T of Terry Reed in
turn 1, and officials wanted to check on the conditions of both drivers.
At the halfway mark, there were still 28 cars running, as Wanat
stretched his lead out further, while Brown, Haeger, Mark Spencer and
Sam Ryan rounded out the top 5. Those five ran at a torrid pace, with
all lapping the rest of the cars to be on a lap of their own by lap 70.
On lap 77, Haeger moved past Brown to takeover 2nd spot, but
by this point, Wanat had a ½ lap lead over 2nd place, and was
running away with the race. One last red flag came out on lap 88 to
remove George Loux from his car, also because the driver’s side was
facing traffic. On the restart, Larry Fisher got by Haeger, who was held
up by a slower car, to take over 2nd, as Wanat sailed on to
the apparent win. Post race tech, however, found illegal parts on both
Wanat’s (aluminum pulley) and Fisher’s (illegal bushings) cars, and
Haeger was awarded the win.
The 6/8 Cylinder
Enduro was next up, and 33 vehicles took the green, with much contact on
the opening laps, but all were able to continue. Robin Schweire took the
early lead, followed by Phil Lomonaco, Rob McCormick, Tom Jensen, and
Jeff Walls. As Schweire pulled away, Lomonaco, McCormick, Jensen and
Walls battled it out bumper to bumper, mainly McCormick and Jensen
bumping and jockeying back and forth for 3rd spot. McCormick
finally took and held the spot on lap 37. Now McCormick set his sights
on Lomonaco for 2nd, catching and passing him on lap 37, as
Walls followed McCormick past Lamonaco also. Leader Schweire’s day ended
in a cloud of steam on lap 50 as he pulled into the infield, handing the
lead to McCormick’s truck, as Dominic Ranieri was now 2nd,
while Lomonaco hung in in 3rd spot, with Jensen and Walls
rounding out the top 5. On lap 38, Jensen spun off turn 4, losing 3rd
spot, but quickly recovered to stay in the top 10, as Keith Bissinger
took over 5th spot. By lap 65, McCormick held a 1/4 lap advantage over
Ranieiri, who himself had a 1/2 lap lead over Walls. Mccormick held the
low line around the track, making it easy to run fast, as the top groove
down the front stretch was now very wet from snow, which had been
knocked out at the finish of the small car race, beginning to melt and
create a very wet condition on the high groove of the track. By lap 80,
McCormick now had a 1/3 lap edge over Ranieri, and only about 20 cars
were still running. By lap 90, only McCormick, Bissinger, Ranieri, and
Walls were on the lead lap, as Lomonaco and Jensen ran a lap down in 5th
and 6th spots. McCormick went on to take the win, riding the
bumper of Wall’s car as they crossed the finish line, but post race tech
again eliminated some otherwise fine finishes, with McCormick, Bissinger
and Lomonaco DQ’ed over rules infractions, giving the victory to Dominic
Ranieri, who ran a fine race to get the victory in the red flag free
event.
News and Notes:
not all happy with the tech outcomes, obviously, but the rules are
posted for all to see, and some were just oversights on the part of the
teams involved. Try to remember that interpretation of the rules can
sometimes be seen two ways, and the track officials way is the final
judgment, no matter where you race…Mountain announced that a special, 4
Cylinder enduro will run the same day as the scheduled TQ Midgets
Spring Fling on April 14th. Race Director Mike Odwazny
stressed that he wants all 4 cyl. Enduro competitors to affix a wing of
some sort on their cars, be it a manufactured one or home made, or even
a Shark fin, to at least start the race, which will pay $747 to win…So
many #19’s in the small car race it was hard to tell who was who without
a scorecard AND binoculars…despite last weekends snow/ice storm, the
track was in very good shape for racing after a week long effort to get
it cleared for racing…not a great drive home in the rain for those who
had a long trip, like myself, as rain created the usual havoc with
traffic, and alternate routes had to be found to avoid some of the worst
backups…overall, it was a good day of racing, even with less cars than
would normally be expected…once again, if TQ Midgets are your thing, set
aside April 14th on your calendar (do your taxes early), and
make it to Mountains TQ Midget Srping Fling race, which will have a
$10,000 purse, and they expect upwards of 50 TQ’s to be entered, so
don’t miss this one. Look for a press release soon with all the
details…That’s it for me for now. As always, be safe and live well, and
we’ll be back soon with more exciting racing stories for you.