Hot Racing on a Beautiful, Cool Night
by Tracy Chirico
The stands were packed tonight at Riverhead, as
many came out to enjoy the Labor Day weekend festivities, as some of the
regular Saturday night divisions kicked off the double-header weekend of
racing. Following the National Anthem, the track presented the first of
several displays by Michael Lee, an escape artist.
The first feature to take to the track was the
Blunderbust race. Rookie Jessica Cohan in the American Old Fashion Ice Cream
#8 sat on the pole with Scott Sepe’s SPONSORS WANTED #6 on the outside. Sepe
shot out to an early lead, while Mike Rommeney in the C & A Auto Parts #11
moved into second on the first lap. There was a pile-up coming out of turn 2
on the second lap, and Artie Pedersen Jr.’s Sherwin-Williams Paints #1 was
airborne for a brief moment. Pedersen would go to the pits, as would the #27
Baysides Bar & Grill Chevy of his brother, Scott Pedersen. The #27 would
return to the track, but the #1 was done for the evening with a bent rear,
as well as other damage. The officials deemed that Scott Sepe in the #6
jumped the restart and the field would have to make another attempt. This
time, Rommeney would grab the lead. By lap 6, Rommeney had built a
comfortable lead, while last week’s winner Chris Busick in the Mike Coll
sponsored #61 pulled off the track. Caution would fly again as the #8 of
Cohan spun, collecting several cars. It was ruled that the caution was
solely for the #8, and all other cars would get their spots back. Defending
Blunderbust champion Scott Maliszewski, however, would go to the pits with
his SPONSORS WANTED #22, as would Eddie Mistretta with the BAM’s Auto Body
#32. Both cars would return as the Ability Appliance #28 of Dennis
Cunningham and the SPONSORS WANTED #88 of Ralph Corsini were both pushed off
the track. The Exclusive Tire #01, being driven by Tom Sullivan, was also
sent to the pits by officials after being stopped in the white box between
turns 3 and 4. Rommeney would have another good restart. On lap 15, the
SPONSORS WANTED #43 of Bill Portney Sr. would go around, but did not draw
the caution. It looked like Rommeney was about to collect his first
Blunderbust feature win until a last lap pile-up in turn 4 collected a
number of cars, including Rommeney. Jay Hulse, driving the Robert’s Express
Fuel Oil #19, would dive low to avoid the wreck and would end up the winner.
Second would go to Bill Wegmann in the Crackerjack Auto Supply #79, while
Ray Shannon would finish 3rd in the Centereach Transmissions #64.
The Chargers were up next, with the P&M Door #96 of
Frank Scimeca Jr. and the Sandy Shore Building #51 of Alan Reeves on the
front row. At the drop of the green flag, the #51 would apparently not come
up to speed, and a chain reaction crash involving a number of cars would
actually draw the red flag. Among those involved were the Neat & Complete
Drywall #99 of Kevin Orlando, the Mike’s Place #23 of Tom Anderson and the
Eastern Long Island Automotive #07 of Robert Durand. Perhaps suffering the
most damage would be Charlie Rittenhouse in the SPONSORS WANTED #25, who was
making his first start of the 2007 season. When the clean-up was complete,
the field was relined, with Scimeca on the pole and the Loebs & Gordon
Poolcraft #48 of “Slim Jim” Donaldson to the outside. Caution would follow
again quickly, as the Tarr Home Improvements #30 of Daryn Miller went up to
the wall and the SPONSORS WANTED #88 of Frank Scimeca Sr. would end up on
the infield. The race would resume again, and Chris Turbush in the Spano
Floors #81 would waste no time moving into the lead. Following Turbush
around the #96 of Scimeca Jr. would be Shawn Solomito in the Riverhead
Building Supply #66, who took over 2nd place. On lap 13, the caution would
wave for the #23 of Tom Anderson, who was being black-flagged by officials
prior to his spin. On lap 15, Eric Lutz would retire the Marjam Supply Co.
#36 to the infield. The last two laps of the race saw a battle heat up
between Solomito and McGuire, but McGuire would be unable to get past
Solomito. Turbush would cross the finish line first, and – of course – he
would climb the fence, to the delight of his fans and the crowd in turn 2.
Solomito would finish 2nd, with McGuire coming home 3rd.
The next feature would be the Late Models, with a field
of 11 cars. The Schlaugies Fuel Oil #00 of Mike Bologna would start the race
from the pole, with the Metzger Racing #23 of Kevin Metzger on the outside.
Fans were treated to several laps of the two running side-by-side, but
Metzger would fall off the pace, and would end up getting shuffled back to
5th. Meanwhile, Roger Oxee in the Dave Brigati-owned #1x would move into
2nd, and the J&R’s Steakhouse #72 of Greg Kleila would run 3rd. Bologna
would take advantage of the battle for 2nd between Oxee and Kleila. By lap
20, there was a 4-car breakaway at the front of the field consisting of
Bologna, Oxee, Kleila and the New York Metro Peterbilt #34 of Ken Matlach.
On the white flag lap, Kleila would pass Oxee for 2nd, and Matlach would
move into 3rd. The SPONSORS WANTED
#88 of Shawn Patrick and the #37 of Bob Baker would go up to the wall on the
final lap, but no caution was thrown, and Bologna would walk away
victorious. Bologna, however, would only take half a victory lap. Following
the Victory Lane interview, Bob Finan informed spectators that Bologna did
this because the car was overheating.
The final regular division feature for the evening was
the Modified race. The front row would consist of the Lakeland Landscaping
Supply #26 of Gary McDonald and the Buoy One #38 of Ken Heagy. The Lakeland
Landscaping Supply #16 of Sean McDonald would have no power on the hot laps,
and would be pushed to the pit area. When the green flag dropped, Heagy
would quickly move into the lead, with the Peter J. Dunn Attorney at Law #93
of Sal Accardi Jr. behind. In the following laps, Accardi and Heagy would
battle side-by-side, with Accardi taking the lead on lap 8. The field had
gotten relatively spread out, though the #6 of Tom Rogers Jr. and the
Smithtown Nissan #20 of Bill Park would wage a battle for 12th. J.R.
Bertuccio in the Gershow Recycling #2 would slip under Marisa Neiderauer’s
House of Cool #74 for 5th, and Neiderauer would hold off the Eastport Feeds
#15 of Wayne Anderson, who would attempt to follow Bertuccio under. On lap
29, the caution flag waved when the ADM Productions #21 of Chris Beutler
spun. Accardi would have a good restart, and Bertuccio would move into 4th,
passing the WPW Growers #3 of Dave Brigati. Accardi would win the race
followed by Heagy, with John Fortin finishing 3rd in the J. Murphy Cesspool
Service #84.
There were 14 cars on hand for the taxicab demo, and
all 14 opted to start along the backstretch. Shortly after the action
started, the #1313 of Tommy Ketcham flipped. Officials would attempt to
throw a red flag, but were having a hard time getting the attention of all
of the drivers. Ketcham had scrambled out of his car and was safely in the
infield, so the action was allowed to continue. The final battle would be
between Michael “Cheesebox” Rommeney and “Wildman Primmy” Jimmy Hummel.
Rommeney would collect the win, and in the process would clinch the 2007
Demo championship. Hummel would be credited with a 2nd-place finish, while
Ketcham would be awarded the Fans’ Choice Award.
The final event of the night was the full-size school
bus demo, which featured 5 buses. There were quite a few hard hits,
including one that saw the bus of the “Window Licker” fold. The final two
buses would be “Slim Jim” Donaldson and Timmy Farrell, and Donaldson would
nearly flip Farrell’s bus. In the end, “Slim Jim” would outhit the
competition and would walk away with the trophy.
News & Notes: Several Super Pro Trucks were on hand today, practicing
for tomorrow’s race. They included the SPONSORS WANTED #32 of Matt Odwazny
and the G-Force Collision #7 of Rich Giordano. A few Grand Enduro cars also
took advantage of the opportunity to turn a few laps. It was good to see
Roger Oxee still in action through the generosity of Dave Brigati and crew,
as Oxee’s car was basically totaled last week. Rough night tonight in the
Blunderbusts for Tom Sullivan. From what I understand, he blew a motor in
practice. He then qualified for the feature in Tom Pickerell’s #4, but that
was loaded on to the trailer prior to the feature with a blown head gasket.
Sullivan found a ride for the feature in the #01 of Matt Greenan (which was
qualified by Rich Giordano), but he left the track on lap 11 after the
officials called him to the white box. Following the Modified feature, Sal
Accardi Jr. was asked to pick the winning ticket for the bicycle being
raffled off by Twin Forks Bikes, sponsor of Donny Oliver’s #05 Blunderbust.
The winner was a young man by the name of Mike Corety. I’m not sure what
happened to the escape artist – I was under the impression that he was going
to put on 4 “acts,” but the crowd only saw 3…the one scheduled to take place
after the Modified race never happened. Hard to believe the final Modified
point race is next Saturday. It is the time for championships to be decided…
With two races left, Donny Oliver is leading in Blunderbust Rookie of the
Year points, followed by Rob Bader and Jessica Larsen. Thankfully, Walter
Johnston will be back next week to bring you the coverage you’re used to. I
have a whole new respect for him after spending a single night trying to do
what he does… As a reminder, next Sunday the track will be hosting a
motorcycle fair beginning at 10 am. With that, I’m going to wrap this up
with a sincere “Good Luck” to JA, who has made this site what it is for all
of us. Thanks JA, and best of luck to you!
Source: Tracy
Chirico/LongIslandJam.com
Posted:
September 2, 2007
