Drivers Treat First Practice Like Opening Night
With opening night at Riverhead Raceway being only two weeks away, many drivers took advantage of pre-season warm ups in order to dial in their cars in preparation for the 2013 season. Many people were worried when they woke up Saturday morning that the weather would keep the drivers from taking to the track, some even contemplated not showing up. However the weather decided to cooperate and a good amount of teams from each division showed up to take to Riverhead Raceway’s 1/4 of a mile oval.
Things got dicey and exciting in one modified practice session between Marisa Niederauer in the No. 0, Tom Rogers Jr. in the No. 3, and Dave Brigati in the No. 98x. At one point Rogers put the chrome horn to Brigati and moved him up the track. A few laps later Niederauer got underneath Brigati and went by. Brigati tried to cut back underneath her, but got a bit loose which let Niederauer drive away.
Some drivers did have issues throughout the day, but most teams left the track without any major problems. A few Legends cars spun out during one session, and Chris Turbush had an issue on the right rear of his No. 81 Charger car that required him to be towed back to the pits by a Brigandi Brothers Tow Truck.
The one major issue of the day came when Super Pro Truck driver Rich Campo lost a motor in his No. 38 truck. Unfortunately Campo realized after practice was over that he may not be able to make next weeks session but he will definitely be ready in time for opening night on May 4th. “Besides losing the motor,” said Campo, “the rest of the day went really well the truck is a lot better this year than it was last year.”
In the Legend division, there are two brothers that will be competing against each other this season at Riverhead Raceway. Artie Pedersen III and his younger brother, Allan are both in the division this year, but both have very different expectations for their seasons.
Artie, 16, is looking to run up front and compete for wins. “I think I have enough experience that I need to get a win this year,” said Artie. “I just want to keep knocking off top-10s and top-fives. We learned a lot the last couple of years, so we should be good.”
Allan, 14, is just looking for seat time. This is his first year of eligibility; so he realizes he just needs to gain experience. “My first practice went pretty well,” said Allan. “I wasn’t too far off of the other guys. There’s a lot of cars in this series this year, so I just want to make the show each week.”
Both Pedersen cars have sponsorship from Sherwin Williams Paints, Soundwaves, East End Screen Printing and more.
Richie Coy is a Legend car driver from Haskell, New Jersey. Normally he races at Bethel Motor Speedway, but there he was this past Saturday at Riverhead Raceway for the first practice day of the season. “For the last couple of seasons we’ve been running Bethel full time,” said Coy. “This year we are going to come up to a couple of the time-trial races here at Riverhead. So we came up to practice just to see what it’s like on the track.”
When asked about how Riverhead compares to other tracks that Coy has raced, he couldn’t stop saying how much fun the quarter-mile bullring is. “It’s a very different shape,” said Coy. “It’s a small track. So it’s fun. It takes a lot of momentum, and there’s some bumps that give it character. So far I’m having fun. The straightaways seem smaller than Bethel, but the corners are more sweeping. I’ve been to a lot of different tracks and I don’t think anything really compares to this. It’s kind of different all into its own. It’s kind of neat. It’s unique, which is cool. I like tracks that are just different. Not copy-cat tracks.”
Coy enjoyed his time on the track. While some drivers had trouble during practice, Coy kept the fenders on his. “I’m tickled to death,” said Coy. “We didn’t wreck which is always important. I think we are probably top ten in times today, so all-in-all I’m very happy. Hopefully the rest of the season goes like this.”
Coy said that if things go well in his races at Riverhead this season he would love to come back more often over the next few years if things improve financially.
“In today’s economy, I have to pay 20 dollars round-trip in tolls, plus fuel to get here. It’s a little bit of a hike for us,” said Coy. “That’s really the only deterrent of us coming to Riverhead. You don’t see a whole lot of sponsors on my car, so it’s all out of pocket. Hopefully if things go great when we do come out here we will come out here more often.”
Photos from the 1st Practice day available at: http://www.racerhub.com/photos/index.php?cat=2107
Source: Rob Blount/LongIslandJam.com