Island Insight
by
Greg
Berkowitz
Riverhead Raceway held its 50th NASCAR
Whelen Modified Tour this past Saturday Night, with numerous
storylines heading into the highly anticipated Lighthouse
Mission 200. Would a Long Island native win? How would the
track's regular stack up against the Tour's finest? Perhaps, the
biggest headline was its purse. Hardcore racing fan Jim
Schaefer, better known as "The Long Island Mod Maniac," helped
spearhead an effort to raise several thousand dollars to bump
the winner's purse to $7,100, plus $500 to the winner of the
25-lap last chance race, as well as $100 extra to the Charger
and Blunderbust feature victors. Donations were made straight up
and in the form of lap sponsors, which helped attract over 30
cars for the 28-car Tour field.
The night's events began with time
trials and Riverhead's own, Howie Brode, captured the pole, with
fellow Long Islander, Justin Bonsignore, timing in second. The
top 16 qualified by time, with the rest of the 28-car field set
by a 25-lap last chance qualifier. Another Long Islander, 2007 &
2009 NWMT champion Donny Lia, made a rare appearance, piloting
Wayne Anderson's No. 15 entry, and won the 25-lapper. Lia showed
there was no rust to knock off, passing Tour regular Ed Flemke
Jr. for the win. Lia stressed that this was a one-time event,
and he was not returning to racing full-time, although his
performance left his fans hoping otherwise. Unfortunately in the
feature, Lia's night ended early due to an early accident.
The anticipation was finally satisifed
when the all-Long-Island front row of Brode and Bonsignore
taking the green in front of a setting sun. Cautions came quick
as drivers fought hard early for their chance at the $7,100
winner's purse. Brode led early, but Bonsignore took the lead
around lap 20. Nevertheless, Brode never lost sight of the lead,
but ultimately his luck took a turn for the worst when he was
involved in a scary crash that almost saw another car flip over.
The incident would lead to one of the race's three red flags.
Yellow flag fever continued throughout the 175-lap event, with
very few cars finishing the event without battle scars. On every
restart, Bonsignore was pursued by an unlikely competitor - Todd
Szegedy. While Szegedy finished second during last week's
77-lapper, typically he's had a rough go at the quarter-mile
bullring, suffering from many DNF's over the course of his
career. Last week's race paid dividends for Szegedy, though, as
he continued to hound Bonsignore, but was unable to make the
pass, settling for second once again. Instead, Bonsignore, who
got his start racing EEKR go-karts at Riverhead, won his first
NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour event at his home track. Last week's
winner, Ronnie Silk finished third.
The Chargers and Blunderbusts were also
in action with 30-lap, double-point events each. While typically
the division's race lineups are set by handicapping, with the
top drivers starting toward the rear, this week was set by time
trials, putting the fast cars up front. Tommy Walkowiak (Blunderbusts)
and Chris Turbush (Chargers) started up front and unsurprisingly
capitalized on this opportunity and led every lap to win their
respective events. In both events the winners had to survive
last lap charges from - Walkowiak fending off open team driver
Scott Maliszewski, Turbush beating Jeremy McDermott by half a
car length. Walkowiak's 47th win extended his point lead and
puts him closer to a milestone 50th victory. Turbush's
double-point win helped dig him out of a point hole caused by a
string of bad luck and put him into the points lead, although
only two points ahead of Chris McGuire, and four points ahead of
McDermott.
Source: Greg Berkowitz/LongIslandJam.com
Posted: July 31, 2011
