Brode Scores Win in Baldwin, Evans, Jarzombek 77 Memorial
Riverhead Raceway celebrated the lives of three Modified racers on Saturday, July 20th with the running of the Baldwin, Evans, Jarzombek 77-lap Memorial race. While the temperatures remained high, the fans turned out to see five features as well as a few classic Modifieds. In addition to the 77-lap Modified feature, the INEX Legends, Blunderbusts, Chargers, and “World Famous” Figure Eights were in action.
The evening’s festivities started with heat races for the Legends. The first heat race went green with Bobby Jones at the head of the field. Jones led the first two laps, but surrendered the lead to Johnnie Gloor on lap three on the exit of turn two. One lap later Justin Strumpf moved his No. 15 to second place with defending champion, Kyle Ellwood right behind him in third. Ellwood moved by Strumpf just two laps later. The race’s first caution came out with two laps to go when Ellwood made contact with Gloor in turn three, spinning Gloor around. Ellwood was penalized for rough riding and was moved to the rear of the field. That handed the lead over to Strumpf and moved Eric Hersey up to second. Strumpf held off Hersey for the final two laps to secure the pole for the feature event.
The second race began with Steve Smith starting from the lead with Alex Urbina to his outside. Urbina took advantage of a poor start by Smith and quickly went to the lead. The first caution came out on just the second lap in turn one. Timmy Solomito was turned and it resulted in the rear of his car getting air. The rear end was busted on Solomito’s machine, but the crew was able to fix it in time to start the feature. Brad Van Houten, and Joe Sedotto were also involved. Urbina led Christian Conklin, Smith, Greg Harris and Van Houten to the restart. Kyle Soper was the big mover in this race as he restarted seventh on the second lap but was in position to battle for the lead. Soper took the white flag in third, but moved past Van Houten for second in turn two, and got underneath Urbina going into three. Soper took the heat race win and would start in second for the feature outside of Strumpf.
The final heat race began with Steve Hersey at the point with Mike Van Houten outside of him. Hersey and Van Houten battled side-by-side for the lead for the first four laps of the race until Vinny Delaney ended that battle by taking second place from Van Houten on lap five, and then the lead from Hersey just one lap later while entering turn three. The race’s only caution came out a lap later when Van Houten and Jeffrey Goodale made contact entering turn three. Goodale’s No. 46 machine came to a stop in turn three and required a lift from the tow truck to get back to the pits. Brendon Bock made a daring three-wide move in turn two to move to third place, but it was Delaney who held off Kevin Nowak and Bock to get the victory and the third starting position in the feature.
Time-trials for the NASCAR Modifieds were next on the schedule in order to set the field for their 77-lap event. Twelve Modifieds took time and it was Justin Bonsignore who laid down the fastest lap. Both of Bosnignore’s laps were the fastest of anyone, but it was his second lap that would be the lap of record at a time of 11.876 seconds. As usual the top eight starting positions were decided by a redraw among the fastest eight drivers. The point’s leader and last week’s winner Howie Brode drew the pole position. Jason Agugliaro drew second, Ron Silk would start third, Timmy Solomito drew fourth, Ryan Preece picked the fifth starting spot, Dave Brigati drew sixth, Bonsignore drew seventh, and Dave Sapienza would start eighth.
The first feature of the night was a 20-lap event for the Blunderbusts. Paul Parisi started the race on the pole with Ron Langdon to his outside, and it was Langdon who would lead the field at the end of the first lap. Parisi pulled his car to the infield two laps later. On lap 14 Tom Pickerell moved his No. 4 car to second place, but trailed Langdon by the length of a straightaway. Pickerell closed fast and had one attempt to get by Langdon for the win. Pickerell laid the bumper to Langdon entering turn three on the final lap. He moved Langdon up the track and the two crossed under the checkered flag side-by-side, but Pickerell had a slight advantage. However, Langdon was declared the winner as it was ruled that Pickerell had his left-front tire below the yellow line when he made his way past Langdon. Langdon scored the victory and Pickerell was scored second. Tommy Walkowiak, Scott Maliszewski, and Justin Wahl completed the top five in a race that went caution-free.
“It’s a tough call,” said Pickerell. “I guess I went below the line, and I’d like to see the video to see if he actually pushed me down below the line, because I think I got inside of him and he kind of came down on me and I didn’t want to turn him because I’d definitely get sent to the back at that point.”
“That was a mistake on my part,” said Langdon. “I slowed down too much. I should have kept driving the way I was instead of slowing down, because I didn’t think he’d catch me. It’s a rookie mistake for an old guy.”
The Legends followed the Blunderbusts with Justin Strumpf on the pole and Kyle Soper to his outside. Soper jumped to the lead coming out of turn two. The race’s only caution came out on lap three when Brad Van Houten ramped up on Eric Hersey and got stuck in turn two. Soper restarted with Strumpf to his outside, Vinny Delaney in third, Kevin Nowak fourth, and Kyle Ellwood in fifth. The race went caution-free from there to the end of the race with Soper picking up his first victory of the season.
“This car was fast,” said Soper. “It’s brand new. We’ve been fast every week, but tonight was our night I guess. This is the first this year, but we will probably get more.”
The 20-lap feature for the Chargers was next with Cory Midgett on the pole and John Baker to his outside. Midgett held off Baker on the start and led early. The race’s first caution was out on lap five when Chad Churilla hit the wall in turn three due to a flat left-front tire. Midgett restarted the race from the lead, followed by Baker, Jayson White, Chris Turbush, and Tom Anderson. Turbush quickly made his way to third on the restart and moved into the lead on lap seven exiting turn four. Ray Minieri moved by Midgett to take second and Baker followed to take third on lap eight. The yellow flag was shown once again on lap nine when Anderson spun out in turn four. The battle for the lead began to heat up on lap 14 when Turbush and Minieri made contact in turns one and two. The two drivers battled side-by-side for the next five laps until Minieri was able to clear Turbush with one lap to go. Turbush had to hold off a strong charge from Baker to finish second. Minieri, Turbush, Baker, CJ Lehmann, and Eric Zeh rounded out the top five.
“It was good, hard racing,” said Minieri. “I saw he got a little loose off the turns and I was able to get under him. We raced hard side-by-side for a couple laps. It was good racing and a good show for the fans. It was a good win and we’ll try to get another one next week.”
Due to the possibility of rain the Figure Eight feature was moved ahead of the Modifieds, so they were up next with Tom Ferrara on the pole and Scott Pedersen to his outside. The race’s first caution came out on the tenth lap when the No. 88 of Brian Hansen came to a stop in the intersection. Ferrara was still leading, followed by John Vullo, Scott Pedersen, Kenny Hyde Jr., and Roger Maynor. The second attempt at the lap 12 restart was when things started to get crazy. Vullo made contact with Ferrara in turn two, which resulted in Ferrara spinning out. The race stayed green and Vullo held onto the lead. Ferrara got the car moving again, but was waiting for Vullo to come back around. He tried to take out Vullo in turn one, which resulted in Arne Pedersen and Hyde coming together hard in turn one to bring out the caution. After the caution came out Ferrara continued to try to take out Vullo. Eventually Ferrara came to a stop and started walking back to the pits. Speedway officials called the race at that point because the race had reached its time limit. Vullo was penalized for rough riding so the victory was given to Scott Pedersen. Roger Maynor, Mike Mujsce Sr., Gary Fritz Jr., and Scott Lehmann completed the top five.
The Baldwin, Evans, Jarzombek 77 Memorial started with Howie Brode on the pole and Jason Agugliaro to his outside. Brode got off to the quick lead and Ron Silk made his way past Agugliaro to second. Ryan Preece made his way from fifth to third by lap four. The first caution came out on lap 15 when Dave Brigati and Agugliaro spun out in turn two. Brode led Silk and Preece on the restart, but Preece quickly moved past Silk for second and set his sights on Brode. The battle really started to heat up when Preece made contact with last week’s winner in turn two, but Brode was able to gather it back up. Five laps later, Preece made it to the lead coming out of turn four. One lap later, Silk also made his way by Brode to take second. The caution came out 10 laps later for a spin by Vinny Biondolillo in turn one, which proved to be the turning point of the race. The left-front tire on Preece’s machine went flat under caution so he had to surrender the lead and pit to change it. That handed the lead to Silk and moved Brode back up to second. Silk and Brode started to stretch their lead over the rest of the field a few laps after the restart, and Silk was leading Brode by about five car-lengths. But Brode started to close in on Silk and when he got to him he quickly got by. Brode took the lead back with nine laps remaining and held on to score his second straight win and his third of the season. Silk, Solomito, Dave Sapienza, and Brigati completed the top five.
“I just saved a little bit for the end,” said Brode, “I gave him a little bump-and-run and went on. This feels awesome. Ronny Silk is one of the best Modified drivers in the country, so I’m pretty happy with this outcome.”
With this win, Brode added to his point lead. He has a 68-point lead over Tom Rogers Jr.
Photos are available at: http://www.racerhub.com/photos/index.php?cat=2154
Blunderbusts Results:
1. (2) Ron Langdon
2. (10) Tom Pickerell
3. (12) Tommy Walkowiak
4. (11) Scott Maliszewski
5. (5) Justin Wahl
6. (7) Brian Brown
7. (4) Tom Sullivan
8. (3) Tim Mulqueen
9. (14) Ed Mistretta
10. (9) Jimmy White Jr.
11. (8) Tom Puccia
12. (6) William A. Wegmann
13. (13) Jack Handley Jr.
14. (1) Paul Parisi
Chargers:
1. (6) Ray Minieri
2. (7) Chris Turbush
3. (2) John Baker
4. (9) CJ Lehmann
5. (10) Eric Zeh
6. (1) Cory Midgett
7. (4) Richard Wilson
8. (3) Jayson White
9. (5) Tom Anderson
10. (8) Chad Churilla
Figure Eights:
1. (2) Scott Pedersen
2. (5) Roger Maynor
3. (3) Mike Mujsce Sr.
4. (12) Gary Fritz Jr.
5. (9) Scott Lehmann
6. (5) Ken Hyde Jr.
7. (6) Arne Pedersen
8. (1) Tom Ferrara
9. (4) John Vullo
10. (10) CJ Lehmann
11. (11) Brian Hansen
12. (8) Michael Rommeney
Legends:
1. (2) Kyle Soper
2. (3) Vinny Delaney
3. (7) Richie Davidowitz
4. (9) Brendon Bock
5. (10) Kyle Ellwood
6. (1) Justin Strumpf
7. (6) Kevin Nowak
8. (14) Christian Conklin
9. (26) Timmy Solomito
10. (8) Brad Van Houten
11. (11) Greg Harris
12. (25) Johnnie Gloor
13. (12) Dylan Slepian
14. (20) Jim Sylvester
15. (15) Artie Pedersen III
16. (5) Alex Urbina
17. (22) Shawn Wanat
18. (27) Vincent Colletti
19. (17) Anthony Marsh
20. (13) Bryan Kelly
21. (18) Colin Hoeffner
22. (21) Mike Van Houten
23. (16) Bobby Jones
24. (24) Steve Hersey
25. (19) Allan Pedersen
26. (23) Steve Smith
27. (4) Eric Hersey
Modifieds:
1. (1) Howie Brode
2. (3) Ron Silk
3. (4) Timmy Solomito
4. (8) Dave Sapienza
5. (6) Dave Brigati
6. (5) Ryan Preece
7. (9) Dave Roys
8. (7) Justin Bonsignore
9. (11) Ed Brunnhoelzl III
10. (10) Vinny Biondolillo
11. (12) Ken Darch
12. (2) Jason Agugliaro
13. (13) Ken Heagy
Source: Rob Blount/LongIslandJam