Island Insight
by
Greg
Berkowitz
The NASCAR Whelen All-American Series
continued this past Saturday night at Riverhead Raceway with
five weekly divisions, including a Late Model 50-lapper, plus a
rare Enduro doubleheader - 4/6-Cylinder Trucks and
6-Cylinders.
Victory lane played host to a slew of
fresh faces Saturday night. Four of the five regular division
winners made either their first career trip to victory lane or
their first trip of the season. Chris Young was the only repeat
winner. Young won his second Legends Car feature of the season
and Riverhead career. Brian McElearney won his first-ever Super
Pro Truck feature, while Jarrod Hayes and Eddie Mistretta each
earned their first victories of 2011 in the Late Models and
Blunderbusts, respectively. But it was the Modifieds’ victory
lane celebration that was perhaps the biggest highlight for both
fans and drivers alike. Veteran Wayne Anderson returned to
victory lane for the 32nd time of his Riverhead career. For
Anderson it was the final chapter of a dramatic and triumphant
comeback story. Just over a year ago, Anderson was sidelined
from racing after a serious medical incident following an early
season race at Riverhead. Anderson missed much of last season
recovering from this incident, but that didn’t prevent Anderson
from coming back to the track as an owner soon after the
incident. Anderson watched from the sidelines as Donny Lia drove
Anderson’s car to victory lane during 2010. Many people would
have called it quits at this point, content to watch younger
drivers take the reins, but not Anderson. Anderson returned to
driving late last season, and last night finally completed his
recovery by taking the checkered flag at the end of the 35-lap
event. Interestingly, Anderson held off two young and
up-and-coming drivers to earn his win - Shawn Solomito and last
week’s winner, Justin Bonsignore.
The Legends Cars earned a round of
applause Saturday night for running their 20-lap event
caution-free. The Legends have struggled this season with
putting together long green runs. One two occasions this season,
the Legend race ran past its allowed time limit, necessitating
that the race be declared over before completing all the
scheduled laps. The most recent occasion occurred last week when
the race was called with only a handful of laps remaining after
one car ended up on its roof. But this Saturday night drivers
managed to run the event caution-free. This is no small feat for
any short-track division, but the drivers managed to pull it off
by racing clean and keeping their cars moving after a spin or
incident. However, just because the race went caution-free, does
not mean it didn’t have its full share of excitement. Early race
leader Vinnie Delaney jumped out to a massive lead of nearly a
whole straightaway. Eventual race winner Chris Young had to
drive hard every lap in order to reel Delaney in, in time to
pass him for the checkered flag. Young’s performance was quite a
feat considering he did not have the benefit of a caution flag
to bunch up the field.
Saturday night’s night concluded with a rare Enduro
doubleheader. The originally scheduled 6-Cylinder Enduro was
joined by a 4/6-cylinder Truck Enduro that was rained out
earlier this month. As a result, fans were treated to not one
but two races for the ages. By the very nature of Enduro racing,
there is always a big gap in speed from the fastest cars to the
slower cars. Thus, it is not unusual to see a driver simply
drive away from the field and earn an easy win. But that was not
the case Saturday night. Ben Gregor (one of five Gregors racing
in the 19-truck field) initially jumped out to a staggering lead
in the Truck Enduro feature, but was forced to retire from the
lead after hard contact mid-race. This opened the door for Jimmy
Denis and Robin Vollmoeller to stage one of the greatest battles
seen this season in any division. Both drivers sliced and diced
through lapped traffic, driving side-by-side for several laps
until Vollmoeller was eventually able to pull away with the win.
The 6-Cylinder Enduro continued the
trend with another great battle. Ultimately it was Gene Burbol
who was able to tip-toe through the mine field of lapped traffic
the quickest and take down the win. Another great showing for
the Enduros, which only goes to show that a small budget doesn’t
mean small excitement.
Source: Greg Berkowitz/LongIslandJam.com
Posted: June 29, 2011
