Island Insight
by
Greg
Berkowitz
On
Saturday, Riverhead Raceway held its first special event of the
season with the second annual Hall of Fame 100 Modified race.
The Riverhead faithful endured another night of frigid
temperatures and threatening weather to watch it as well as
Blunderbust, Charger, and Late Model features. It was all worth
it in the end as the night provided what may be one of the best
nights of racing in recent memory at the venerable quarter-mile
oval.
The night kicked off with a
Blunderbust feature. Coming into the night’s event, Tommy
Walkowiak seemed to be a lot like the Blunderbust’s version of
Grand-Am’s Scott Pruett. Like Pruett, defending series champ
Walkowiak was riding a winning streak that stretched well into
the 2010 and includes the first two events of the 2011 season.
In fact Walkowiak has dominated the series as whole, having won
the title four times in the past five years. But by the end of
the night, the streak had come to an end. Unsurprisingly, the
man to end the streak is Walkowiak’s unofficial teammate, Scott
Maliszewski. Maliszewski held off a hard charging Tom Pickerell
who is looking stronger than ever in his campaign to dethrone
Walkowiak as Blunderbust champion. In fact it was Walkowiak
himself who named Pickerell as a true championship threat
earlier this season. Walkowiak was hampered by a starting
position deep in the field but was still able to pull off a
top-five finish. Walkowiak is undoubtedly still the favorite to
win the 2011 championship, but his competition, especially Tom
Pickerell, is looking tougher than ever.
Chris Turbush would dominate and
win the Charger feature, helping to make up for a rough couple
of races to start the season off. Turbush gained ground in his
attempt to win his fourth consecutive championship. Turbush was
the victim of misfortune in the first two races of 2011, leading
to a pair of poor finishes. However, Turbush can never be
counted out especially when it comes to the Chargers. In 2010,
Turbush missed a handful of races, yet was still able to claim
the championship title. Much like Walkowiak in the Blunderbusts,
when it comes to the Chargers Chris Turbush, is the man to beat.
The Late Models continue their
resurgence at Riverhead Raceway. In recent years, the Late
Models suffered from poor car counts (at times less than double
digits). Rumors began to circulate that the division’s demise.
However, Late Models are a staple of short-track racing at many
tracks across the country and it would be hard to imagine
Riverhead without them. Fortunately, the drivers and crews of
the division fought hard to keep it alive. Drivers like Roger
Oxee helped get other drivers to bring their cars to the track
and up the car counts as well as help the drivers get their act
together on the track to provide a better product for the fans.
As a result, near the end of the 2010 season things started to
look up for the division. In 2011, the Late Models returned even
stronger. After an off weekend 14 cars showed up for Saturday
night’s event. While that may be low compared to the Legends or
Modifieds, for the Late Model it is a noted improvement over
2010. More importantly, the drivers continue to put on an
exciting show for the fans. Mike Bologna would win Saturday
night’s event.
The highlight of the night was
of course the Hall of Fame 100. Twenty-four cars would take the
green flag and write another chapter in Riverhead’s long history
of modified racing and it would be one for the ages. Coming into
the night, the big storyline was the bonus money raised by Jim
Schaefer, better known as the Long Island Mod Maniac. In
addition to the purse, Schaefer, through donations, provided an
extra $1,000 to the race winner, $1,000 to the highest finishing
Whelen Modified Tour driver, and $500 to the highest finishing
Riverhead regular. The added incentive helped attract over 30
cars to attempt to qualify for the event that was first run last
season to honor the newly constructed NASCAR Hall of Fame in
Charlotte, N.C.
Pre-race favorite and Long
Island native, Justin Bonsignore, won the pole. Defending
Riverhead Raceway Modified champion Tom Rogers Jr. returned to
Riverhead to qualify second. The race lived up to the hype,
providing an experience that exceeded all expectations.
Riverhead’s own Timmy Solomito made an impressive move to pass
leader Ronnie Silk (2010 Hall of Fame 100 winner) on the outside
after a series of cautions early in the race. Fittingly,
Solomito was challenged for the win by a fellow East End Kart
Racing graduate, Tour driver Justin Bonsignore. The two budding
stars battled nose-to-tail lap after lap for the remainder of
the race. Ultimately Solomito was able hold off Bonsignore and
take the win. Solomito was quick to credit Bongsinore for racing
him clean. The dogfight between the two former kart racers
became even more impressive when it was revealed that Bonsignore
may have broken his wrist at lap 10 in the race, meaning that he
not only ran 90 green flag laps with a injured wrist but ran
them competitively. Surely the second annual Hall of Fame 100 is
likely to be talked about for years to come.
Source: Greg Berkowitz/LongIslandJam.com
Posted: May
22, 2011
