Island Insight
by
Greg
Berkowitz
Riverhead Raceway presented another
great night of short track racing this past Saturday. The
schedule was a short one; only four regular divisions took to
the track; however the night was far from light on action.
The Late Models' winningest driver -
Roger Oxee - reached another milestone - his 60th career
victory. The win was a crowd pleaser for fans and drivers alike.
Oxee has been one of the division's strongest supporters,
helping keep the division alive during its darkest days when the
division experienced low car counts and, at times, poor racing.
Oxee worked to squelch rumors of the division's demise and
reached out to his fellow racers to get them to come back out.
His efforts have helped turn the division around. The true
weight of Oxee's milestone win came to bear when the long-time
stalwart confirmed speculation that the 2012 season may be his
last.
Track announcer Bob Finan was spot-on
when describing the lap eight restart of the Modified feature
when he said, “This may the most interesting restart of the
season.” The reason for this anticipation? Race leader Tom
Rogers Jr. had a left front tire going down and elected to
restart without changing tires. Track officials and even fellow
competitors made sure Rogers was aware his tire was going down.
Even the casual eye could see that there was something wrong
with the left front tire on the No. 0 machine. But Rogers, who
is a rookie on the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour, isn’t running
for the track championship this year. With nothing to lose but a
chance to win, Rogers and his crew decided to roll the dice and
stay on the track. Over the years Rogers has developed a
reputation as driver with great car control, a skill he used
often on his way to several wins and championships in Modified,
Late Model, and Figure 8 competition. Rogers Jr. would have to
use every ounce of skill he had to keep the lead when the field
went green. To the surprise of nearly everyone watching, this is
exactly what Rogers did, in fact by lap 20 he not only did he
hold the lead but he was pulling away on the way to his first
Modified win of 2011. Upon closer inspection in victory lane it
was revealed that the outside bead had completely broken from
the rim, which adds to the amazing feat of driving skill Rogers
showed while wheeling a car with a flat tire to the victory
lane.
The night’s racing program closed out
with another Enduro under the lights. This week it was the
8-cylinder division that took to the track in what proved to be
a real barn-burner of a race. The second 8-cylinder Enduro night
race of the season saw one of the larger fields over the course
of the past two seasons. The field was varied greatly in both
car type and driver experience. Among the 49 cars entered there
were Fords, Chevys, and even a BMW, all of which were wheeled by
both veterans adding another chapter to their storied histories,
and rookies trying to write their first. This difference in both
car and driver manifests itself on the track in the form of an
excessively large speed gap between the fast and slow cars.
Whenever there is such a large gap between haves and have-nots,
there is bound to be action as the leaders have to sort their
way through a minefield of injured cars and rookie drivers still
trying to get a feel for the track. In the end it was Dege
Russell who navigated through the field the best, taking down
the win. The win was hard fought as a hard-charging Dominic
Ranieri drove through lap traffic several times to reach
Russell’s bumper. However Russell was able to hold off Ranieri
to earn his first win of the season and a bit of redemption for
an earlier race in the season where Russell spun out while
leading.
Throughout Riverhead Raceway’s 60-plus
year history, many different events have come and gone. From the
skid-plate racing to car rollover contests, the Riverhead
faithful have been open to anything, including one of their
newest events - mini-van demolition derbies. The second mini-van
demolition derby took place Saturday night. The new event's
competitors have had great difficulty in finding suitable cars,
which added to the event's strangeness. Nevertheless, the
regulars of Riverhead's demolition derbies still managed to put
on a good show, only one week after the last demo derby no less.
Ultimately it was Jamie “Mad Man” Killkenny who was able to
outlast the rest, although not without a fight. Jason Savoy, who
broke his nose only a week ago in the July 2 4-cylinder
demolition derby, drove a minivan with only three wheels to a
third-place finish while Timmy Mulqueen drove the same van that
won the first minivan demo with brother Daniel behind the wheel,
to a second-place finish.
Source: Greg Berkowitz/LongIslandJam.com
Posted: July 10, 2011
