Long Islanders Ready to Roll in Florida;New Smyrna Update

While many up north wait for the snow to clear and the ground to thaw, some have headed south to race in sunny Florida. The entry list for the Battle at the Beach at Daytona International Speedway has nine drivers from Long Island on it. Quite a few of them are also racing a couple miles down the road at New Smyrna Speedway as well.

Donny Lia of Jericho, Eric Goodale of Riverhead, Justin Bonsignore of Holtsville and JR Bertuccio of Centereach are regulars on the northern and southern tours.

Meanwhile some Riverhead Raceway regulars have also made the trek down there. Timmy Solomito of Islip, John Beatty Jr. of Merrick, Danny Watts of Wading River, and Dave Sapienza of Riverhead all are hoping that their skills on the tight quarter-mile of Riverhead will translate well to the short .3-mile oval on Daytona’s backstretch.

Another Riverhead regular, Dave Brigati of Calverton will be down there in the Hillbilly Racing No. 79 and may run the entire season with that team.

Silk Dominant in Two Days of Action at New Smyrna

Ron Silk has been dominant so far at New Smyrna Speedway in tour-type modified action. Silk has won both nights of action so far to kick off the weeklong festivities there.

On night one Silk had to hold off Jimmy Zacharias, Chuck Hossfeld, Ryan Preece and Eric Goodale. Silk apparently made the pass with 12 laps to go in the 35-lap feature, a race that saw only one caution when Andy Seuss and Tommy Barrett got together and Seuss collected the wall.

On night two Silk beat Preece, Matt Hirschman, Hossfeld, and Zacharias in the 35-lap feature.

Riverhead Raceway’s 2013 INEX Legend Car champion Brendon Bock is also down at New Smyrna, but he’s racing a Super Late Model. Bock finished 20th out of 26 cars on night one, one lap down. On the second night Bock finished on the lead lap in 11th of 26.

Sources: The Chrome Horn; Speed51