Threat of Rain Leads to Realignment of Features on Cromarty Cup Night

It was chilly, windy, even a little wet on Saturday, May 18 at Riverhead Raceway, but all the races were able to go the full distance to put on a show for the fans in the stands. Once again all seven divisions were in action, the Modifieds ran twin-30 lap features and the Figure Eights ran in the 20 lap Cromarty Cup.

The night started off with three eight-lap heat races for the Legends division. In the first race Kyle Ellwood took the lead on the sixth lap and held on for the win. In race two Artie Pedersen III spun out while leading the race on the fourth lap. He went back to the pits leaking fluid but thankfully his crew got the car repaired in enough time to get him back out on track. His spin handed the lead over to Christian Conklin who held on to get the win. The third heat race saw a great finish as Vinny Delaney was three-wide with Jeffrey Goodale and the lapped machine of Mike Van Houten Jr. Delaney went high, Van Houten in the middle, and Goodale tried to make the move for the lead on the bottom.

Next on the schedule were time trials for the Modifieds, which saw Ryan Preece post fast time. Preece’s second lap was the fastest with a time of 11.777 seconds. The fastest eight qualifiers did a re-draw. Last race’s winner Shawn Solomito drew the pole once again. Howie Brode drew second, Vincent Biondolillo third, NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour regular Ron Silk fourth, John Beatty Jr. fifth, Preece sixth, Dave Sapienza seventh and Tom Rogers Jr. eighth.

The first feature of the night was a 20-lap race for the Super Pro Trucks. Anthony Vecchio started on the pole with Rich Campo alongside, but Lou Maestri who crashed hard two weeks ago quickly went to the lead when he went by Vecchio in turn three on the second lap. The yellow flag flew on the sixth lap of the race when Vecchio got into the outside wall exiting turn four and then got into “Dangerous” Dave Koenig. Koenig went hard into the turn one wall taking heavy damage to the left side of his truck. The race restarted on lap seven with Maestri in the lead followed by Frank Dumicich Jr., and Erin Dumicich-Solomito. The caution came out again on lap 14 when Vecchio turned Mark Stewart into the frontstretch wall. Stewart took a lot of damage, but was okay. “It’s a two-to-three week fix,” said Stewart. “I had the spot and I was under him. I don’t know what happened to him, but I just got turned into the wall. I’m good though.” The race went green to the finish after the restart on lap 15. Maestri got the win with Frank Dumicich taking second place. “Oh it feels great,” said Maestri. “The guys worked hard all week long with late hours in the shop. The thing was bent in the front, the back was over a few inches, we needed a whole new suspension in the left front. We worked hard, came back and had everything right where we needed it.”

The Blunderbusts were up next for a 20-lap feature of their own. Tom Sullivan started on pole with Bob Muller right next to him. The race only saw two caution flags. The first came out on the third lap when Jimmy White Jr. had a tire go flat. The second caution came out on the fifth lap when four cars got into each other in turn four. The 27 of Ed Mistretta had a right-rear tire go flat which caused him to get into the 58 of Brandon Hubbard who then spun around the 51 of Tom Puccia. The 61 of Justin Wahl was also involved in the incident which left him with a broken front bumper. The race restarted with Sullivan leading Scott Maliszewski and Paul Parisi on lap six who went straight to the finish from there. Sullivan grabbed the victory, his first since August 20, 2005. “It’s been a long damn time,” said Sullivan. “It was a good race. The car was hooked up. At the beginning of the year we had motor problems, but we took care of that. This feels great.”

After the Blunderbusts concluded it started to sprinkle a bit at the track so the officials changed the order of events. That put the 25-lap feature for the Late Models up next. Shawn Patrick started on the pole and led until Roger Oxee coming out of the eighth lap caught him. Patrick went around but got the car going again to keep the race green. The event went caution-free and Oxee took home the victory on his birthday. “I’ve won quite a few times on my birthday,” said Oxee. “This seems to be a lucky night. It was my 62nd win on my 61st birthday. Not bad for an old man.”

After the Late Model feature the twin-30 lap features followed for the Modifieds. Shawn Solomito started on the pole after the re-draw for the second week in a row, but he didn’t hold the lead for long. Howie Brode quickly took the lead from Solomito on the first lap of the race. The caution came out on lap five when the 98 of Dave Brigati spun out. The 26 of David Roys gave the 06 of Vinny Biondolillo a shot exiting turn two. Biondolillo got sideways and tried to save it but got into Brigati in the process and turned him around in turn three. The race restarted on lap six with Brode leading Solomito, Ron Silk, Tom Rogers Jr., and Ryan Preece. Brode was able to hold off multiple charges from Rogers and got the win in the first 30 laps. Rogers put the bumper to Brode a few times but was unable to get by. The second 30-lap race continued right where the first one left off with Brode at the front. This one went caution-free to the end, even though the 59 of Jerry Solomito spun out in turn three on the sixth lap. Rogers faded from contention and Brode won this race as well holding off Preece, Solomito and Silk. Brode led all 60 laps on the night just like Shawn Solomito did two weeks earlier. Due to the change in scheduling the Modifieds were followed by the Legends, Chargers, and then the Figure Eights.

The Legends division ran 20 laps with Kyle Ellwood starting at the top of the heap. Ellwood spun the tires on the very start of the race, which handed the lead to Christian Conklin. But Ellwood was gifted a re-do because the caution came out before the first lap was completed. Justin Strumpf hit the outside wall in the first turn to bring out the yellow. Ellwood was able to try again on the start and this time he held back Conklin. The race went green to the end after that and Ellwood led every lap. Vinny Delaney finished a distant second with Brendon Bock third, Conklin fourth, and Jeffrey Goodale who rounded out the top five.

The Chargers ran their 20-lap race caution-free, but not drama-free. John Baker started on the pole in his 07 machine. He led the first eight laps of the race until he was spun around in turn one by Eric Zeh. The caution did not fly and Zeh was able to hold off Chris Turbush for the victory.

The final event of the night was the 20-lap Cromarty Cup for the “World Famous” Figure Eight stock cars. This race saw issues on just the second lap when one driver’s motor went up in smoke and Roger Maynor had an issue with his left-front tire. Maynor did return, but he was six laps down. Things got crazy on the eighth lap when John Vullo Jr. took the lead in turn three from Kenny Hyde Jr. just as the caution waved for a spin from the intersection. Vullo held the lead until lap 15 when he was penalized for hitting three cones. The officials gave the lead to Arne Pedersen who scored the victory. Vullo was scored in the sixth position.

 

Photos available at http://www.racerhub.com/photos/index.php?cat=2123

 

Results

Blunderbust

1. (1) Tom Sullivan

2. (4) Scott Maliszewski

3. (13) Tom Pickerell

4. (9) Paul Parisi

5. (15) William A. Wegmann

6. (12)Tommy Walkowiak

7. (5) Jack Handley Jr.

8. (10) Tim Mulqueen

9. (17) Brian Brown

10. (16) William J. Wegmann

11. (7) Justin Wahl

12. (3) Brandon Hubbard

13. (2) Bob Muller

14. (14) Ed Mistretta

15. (6) Tom Puccia

16. (8) Joe Seeger

17. (11) Jimmy White Jr.

 

Chargers

1. (3) Eric Zeh

2. (5) Chris Turbush

3. (6) Chad Churilla

4. (2) Ray Minieri

5. (4) CJ Lehmann

6. Roger Turbush

7. (7) Tom Anderson

8. Richard Wilson

9. (10) Jayson White

10. (1) John Baker

 

Legends

1. (1) Kyle Ellwood

2. (3) Vinny Delaney

3. (5) Brendon Bock

4. (2) Christian Conklin

5. (6) Jeffrey Goodale

6. (8) Kevin Nowak

7. (4) Shawn Wanat

8. (12) Johnny Gloor

9. (7) Dylan Slepian

10. (11) Gregory Harris

11. (18) Brad Van Houten

12. (9) Eric Hersey

13. (28) Richie Davidowitz

14. (19) Anthony Marsh

15. (13) Vincent Colletti

16. (16) Alex Urbina

17. (27) Chris Rogers

18. (23) Artie Pedersen III

19. (22) Joe Sedotto

20. (20) George Baker Jr.

21. (24) Jim Byrne

22. (16) Tommy Walkowiak

23. (21) Michael Rommeney

24. (25) Steve Hersey

25. (10) Frank Scimeca Jr

26. (26) Steve Smith

27. (14) Timmy Solomito

28. (15) Justin Strumpf

 

Late Models

1. (5) Roger Oxee

2. (7) Scott Kulesa

3. (3) Chris La Spisa

4. (9) Ken Alfano

5. (10) Jeremy McDermott

6. (1) Shawn Patrick

7. (2) Arne Pedersen

8. (6) Mike Bologna

9. (4) Kevin Metzger

10. (8) Kevin Orlando

 

Super Pro Trucks

1. (3) Lou Maestri

2. (4) Frank Dumicich Jr.

3. (5) Erin Dumicich

4. (6) Roger Turbush

5. (7) Michael Albasini

6. (9) Brian McElearney

7. (8) Frank N. Dumicich

8. (12) Rob Bader

9. (2) Rich Campo

10. (10) Kevin Scharfenberg

11. (1) Anthony Vecchio

12. (11) Mark Stewart

13. (13) David Koenig

 

Figure Eights

1. (6) Arne Pedersen

2. (3) Kenny Hyde Jr.

3. (4) Tom Ferrara

4. (2) Mike Mujsce

5.  George Seus

6. (7) John Vullo

7. (10) Gary Fritz Jr.

8.  Michael Rommeney

9. (5) Roger Maynor

10. (8) Scott Pedersen

11. (9) Brian Hansen

12. Frank Scimeca Jr.

 

Modifieds

1. (2) Howie Brode

2. (6) Ryan Preece

3. (1) Shawn Solomito

4. (4) Ron Silk

5. (8) Tom Rogers Jr.

6. (5) John Beatty Jr.

7. (7) Dave Sapienza

8. (9) Jason Agugliaro

9. (11) Timmy Solomito

10. (13) Eric Goodale

11. (10) Brad Van Houten

12. (16) Ed Brunnhoelzl III

13. (14) David Roys

14. (3) Vinny Biondolillo

15. (20) Glenn Logan

16. (18) Kevin Orlando

17. (12) Jerry Solomito

18. (17) Richie Pallai Jr.

19. (15) Dave Brigati

20. (19) Chris McGuire

 

Source: Rob Blount/LongIslandJam.com