Rowan Pennink Charges
to First Career NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour Victory in Riverhead
200
Rowan Pennink of Huntington Valley, Pa
finally grabbed the brass ring on the
NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour Saturday night. Pennink took the
lead of the
Riverhead 200 on lap 136 from local product, Kevin Goodale, to
score his
first career victory worth a cool $5,000.
George Brunnhoelzl III of W. Babylon won
the Coors Light pole award with a
lap of 11.814, just edging out Justin Bonsignore who joined
George on the
front row of the 28-car field. Both drivers are products of the
East End
Kart Racing club that runs at Riverhead Raceway on select Sunday
afternoons
and it must have seemed like old times for the duo as they led
the field to
the green flag. Bonsignore, the leading Rookie on the NASCAR WMT,
jumped out front to lead the first 25 laps of the race before
Brunnhoelzl held the
advantage for a lap on the 26th circuit. Bonsignore looped back
around
Brunnhoelzl for two laps (27 & 28), before George took back the
lead on lap
29. It was at this juncture of the race that Brunnhoelzl was
able to pull
away from the pack as Bonsignore battled for second with Kevin
Goodale and
others.
During an 80th lap restart the NASCAR
pace car made a late exit off the
track in turn four slowing the entire inside lane led by
Brunnhoelzl. That
allowed Kevin Goodale, who had raced by Bonsignore for second
just moments
before the caution flag, to race his way out front. Kevin then
enjoyed a
healthy 40 lap stint in the lead while drivers jockeyed for
second behind
him with Rowan Pennink taking over that position and Ryan Preece
coming to
third just laps later. Pennink chased down Goodale and on lap
136 he made
his way out front with Preece making his way to second.
The closing laps were classic short
track NASCAR Modified racing at its best
with Preece draped all over Pennink looking high and low for a
way by for
the lead. A late race caution flag set-up a double file restart
with four
laps remaining. Rowan Pennink was then able to weather that
final test to
drive his Monk's Mechanics Hand Cleaner Chevy to his first
career victory in
his 51st start on the NASCAR WMT.
"Wow, this is just awesome, I have to
thank my father for all he's done to
get me to this point" Pennink reflected afterwards. "Ryan was
giving me all
he could to try and get by, but he never used me up" Jim
Schaefer who along
with numerous other Modified fans raised over $13,000 for the
race handed
Pennink $2,100 in one hundred dollar bills in victory lane to
which Rowan
commented, "I have to give a big thank you to Jim, the
LIModmaniac for the
extra money, it just goes to show how great NASCAR Modified fans
really
are".
Ryan Preece of Berlin, Ct. threw all he
could at Pennink trying to win his
second consecutive Riverhead 200 in his Mizzy Construction
Chevy. "After our
first laps spin I thought we were in for a long night" Preece
noted. "We
gave it all we had and my congratulations go out to Rowan and
his team,
that's a great feeling over there"
Ronnie Silk of Norwalk, Ct was third in
the TS Haulers Chevy and was happy
with the result, "we were just too tight all race long, but
third here for
Connie Partridge's birthday is a good result".
"Mighty" Mike Stefanik of Coventry, RI
and George Brunnhoelzl III of W.
Babylon completed the top five.
Kevin Goodale of Riverhead after
surrendering the lead on lap 136 had his
tires go away dropping him to a 15th place finish in the JT'S
Lumber Chevy.
Justin Bonsignore was in the mix for a top five finish when he
accidentally
hit the kill switch on a double file restart. He finished 17th
in the M3
Technologies Chevy in the final rundown.
Dave Brigati of Calverton led the
Riverhead Raceway regulars with an 11th
place finish in his Integra Shocks Chevy after recovering from a
mid race
spin in the first and second corner. The three other Riverhead
drivers who
made the show had to drop out of the race with front end damage.
Chuck
Steuer of Bohemia was 26th, Frank Vigliarolo Jr. of Mt. Sinai
was 27th and
Howie Brode of E. Islip was 28th.
Riverhead 200: 1. Rowan Pennink 2. Ryan
Preece 3. Ronnie Silk 4. Mike
Stefanik 5. George Brunnhoelzl III 6. Eric Beers 7. Eric Goodale
8. Jamie
Tomaino 9. Bobby Santos III 10. Erick Rudolph 11. Dave Brigati
12. Ted
Christopher 13. Danny Knoll Jr. 14. Wade Cole 15. Kevin Goodale
16. Woddy
Pitkat 17. Justin Bonsignore 18. Ed Flemke Jr. 19. Tony Ferrante
Jr. 20.
Glenn Tyler 21. Chuck Hossfeld 22. Todd Szegedy 23. Richie
Pallai Jr. 24.
James Civali 25. Renee Dupuis 26. Chuck Steuer 27. Frank
Vigliarolo Jr. 28.
Howie Brode DNQ- Johnny Bush, Ken Heagy, Gary McDonald & Jake
Marosz
Source: Bob Finan/Riverhead
Raceway PR
Posted: August
2, 2010
