Dave Brigati Drives New Team to Riverhead Raceway Victory
Lane
Dave Brigati of Calverton announced just
weeks before the 2011 NASCAR Whelen All-American Series opener
at Riverhead Raceway that he would be teaming up with John
Redding Motorsports at the quarter mile oval. In just their
fifth start as a tandem Brigati drove to victory in the 35-lap
New York State Fraternal Order of Police night main event
Saturday earning $1,450 in the process.
Eddie Brunnhoelzl III and Chris Young
tussled early on for the race lead, a battle that would find the
duo side by side during some double file restarts with Young
actually leading up to the 11th lap before Brunnhoelzl came back
to reclaim the top spot. As the race moved forward Brunnhoelzl
was able to pull away slightly as Young soon found himself
racing with Shawn Solomito for second in very close quarters.
Solomito tried an inside move on Young that found contact
between the two, sending Young spinning and Solomito having to
stop with no place to go.
That turn of events moved Dave Brigati
from fourth to second behind Brunnhoelzl and after trying him
several times after the green reappeared Brigati was able to
make his move by nudging Brunnhoelzl going into the corner in
turn three which opened the door for Dave to drive under. The
opening also allowed John Beatty Jr, the 2010 Rookie of the
Year, to race his way to second and in the closing laps John was
able to try and nudge Brigati from the lead, but Dave was able
to thwart the attempts by the sophomore talent.
At the checker it was Dave Brigati in
the JDL Environmental Chevy sitting in victory lane with his new
car owner, former driver John Redding. "I really wanted to get
John to victory lane" Dave admitted afterwards, "I saw Eddie
having trouble getting through the corner, I gave him a nudge,
nothing crazy, but hey I wanted to win too"
John Beatty of Valley Stream was
runner-up in the Precision Installations Chevy, with Justin
Bonsignore of Holtsville roaring back from an early race trip to
the pits to finish third in the M3 Technology Chevy. John Fortin
of Holtsville and Eddie Brunnhoelzl III of Levittown rounded out
the top five.
A few years back Eric Lutz of Miller
Place vacated the seat in both his Charger and Late Model
machines for young son Craig to take over. Well, Saturday night
was dad's turn to take back the wheel of the family Charger car
and the result was Eric taking a last lap win, his first since
2007. Chris McGuire set fast time in the pre-race qualifying
earning $50 from Brigandi Brothers Automotive for his lap of
13.563. Frank Dumicich Jr., who drew the pole for the race,
moved out front when the green light winked on with Eric Lutz
charging from third to second. For the entire distance of the
double point tilt Lutz would hound Dumicich for the lead,
spending most of the time tucked right under the back bumper of
the leader. The race boiled down to the white flag lap when
Lutz, exiting the second turn, got a run under Dumicich, who
attempted to throw a block going into turn three. Eric was
having none of it holding his ground, while Frank tried to hold
on in the outside lane, off the fourth corner. Dumicich couldn't
hang on and Eric Lutz was able to score his 10th career win in
the Cousin's Smoothies Chevy. Frank Dumicich of E. Quogue
finished the race backwards in second place in his Arenz Heating
and Air Conditioning Toyota, much to the delight of the fans.
Chris Turbush of Riverhead drove from 7th to third place money
in his Chris Mohr Landscasping Chevy.
Arne Pedersen of Mastic Beach notched
his second Figure Eight win in three starts when he won their
15-lap feature. Pedersen raced directly out front when the race
got underway and for the first 7 laps of the race was chased by
point leader Mike Mujsce. However during a yellow flag period on
lap 7 Mujsce was moved to the rear of the field for hitting a
cone that prevents drivers from cutting the infield, the cone
was one of two reasons for the caution. When the race resumed it
was all Arne Pedersen as he led the remainder of the race in his
BNR Home Improvements Dodge to notch his 6th career win. Tom
Ferrara of Holbrook saved the day for the Mujsce Race Team with
a runner-up showing in the Bill Beener Tree Service Chevy, while
Mike Mujsce of Westhampton Beach did a masterful job of racing
the D&D Auto Body machine back to a third place showing.
Defending Legend Race Car champion Kevin
Nowak of Medford continued his early season hot streak with his
second win of 2011 in a 20-lap event. Mike Malone led the first
dozen laps of the race with the likes of Jim Byrne, Chris Young
and Justin Strumpf all pursuing him at one time or another. On
lap 9 during a double file restart Nowak raced under Strumpf for
second.
Once by Justin it was time to challenge the race leader for the
lead and win. Racing off the second corner on lap 13 Kevin Nowak
moved his Racing Creations entry by Mike Malone for the top spot
and once out front he would never look back scoring the popular
win. Mike Malone of Mastic Beach was runner-up in the Malone
Racing machine, while Justin Strumpf of Selden placed third in
the Monsters Recycling mount.
A trio of drivers slugged it out for the
4-Cylinder Enduro and when the dust settled on the 50-lap
contest it was Anthony Pizzo of Lake Ronkonkoma scoring the win.
Pizzo along with Steve Trimboli and Dennis Nelson became the
three main combatants in the race, with Pizzo and Trimboli
swapping the lead more than once, with Nelson hot on their heels
the entire way. Trimboli actually led late in the race before
Pizzo in his STS Tire Stores racer got by for the win. Dennis
Nelson of Coram in the Repo Joe entry made a late race pass for
second, while Steve Trimboli of Freeport had to settle for third
in the Pit Bull Motors Mercedes.
NASCAR Modifieds 35-laps: 1. Dave
Brigati 2. John Beatty Jr. 3. Justin Bonsignore 4. John Fortin
5. Eddie Brunnhoelzl III 6. Tom Rogers Jr. 7. Don Howe 8. Kyle
Ellwood 9. Jerry Solomito 10. Chris Young 11. Shawn Solomito 12.
Frank Saladino 13. Robin Vollmoeller Sr. 14. John Fortin Jr. 15.
Terry Stiles 16. Wayne Anderson 17. Ken Darch 18. Mike Watson
19. Jason Agugliaro DNS-Jimmy Reed
Chargers 30-laps: 1. Eric Lutz 2. Frank
Dumicich Jr. 3. Chris Turbush 4.
Chris McGuire 5. Jeremy McDermott 6. Erin Dumicich 7. CJ Lehmann
8. Ray Minieri 9. John Baker 10. Tom Sullivan 11. Eric Zeh 12.
Brian Doyle 13.
Daryn Miller 14. Kory Comiskey 15. Derek Stachecki 16. Allen
Reeves 17.
Frank Scimeca Jr.
Figure Eights 15-laps: 1. Arne Pedersen
2. Tom Ferrara 3. Mike Mujsce 4.
Roger Maynor 5. Justin Bonsignore 6. Dennis Scott 7. Tim Farrell
8. Mike
Herbst 9. Scott Pedersen
Legend Race Cars 20-laps: 1. Kevin Nowak
2. Mike Malone 3. Justin Strumpf 4.
Paul Dodorico 5. Chris Young 6. Kyle Soper 7. Jim Byrne 8. Kyle
Ellwood 9.
Chris Rogers 10. Jim Sylvester 11. Glenn Maningo 12. Brendon
Bock 13. Cody
Triola 14. Buddy Commerdinger 15. John Harley 16. Tom Andrews
17. Tony
Naglieri 18. Vincent Biondolillo 19. Bryan Kelly 20. Jason
Sendlewski 21.
Vinny Delaney 22. Michael Rommeney 23. Anthony Cacioppo 24.
Artie Pedersen
III
4-Cylinder Enduro 50-laps (top five) 1.
Anthony Pizzo 2. Dennis Nelson 3.
Steve Trimboli 4. Matt Brown 5. Robert Endlekofer
Source:
Bob Finan/Riverhead Raceway PR
Posted: June 6, 2011
