Simonin Tops Riverhead Snow Melt Street Stocks With First Career Win

It was the start of a new race season Sunday at Riverhead Raceway as Eddie & Connie Partridge & Tom Gatz presented the Snow Melt Enduro program on a sun splashed spring afternoon. Some 100 plus cars turned out with Glenn Simonin of Holtsville scoring the first ever Street Stock victory while Brandon Esposito of Farmingville manhandled the first ever Mini Stock race.

After Chris Lescenski led the first lap of the Street Stock 50-lap main event Brian McCormack moved out front on lap 2. McCormack seeking his first career win in Enduro racing built up a commanding lead in the race and seemed to have things in hand until a late race yellow bunched up the field. When the race resumed 2016 Grand Enduro champion Dave Antos was now right on McCormack’s rear bumper and the race was on for the first Street Stock win. On lap 46 racing through the first and second corner Antos got into the left rear of leader McCormack with Brian losing the handle for a moment. Antos was forced to check-up himself not to hit McCormack further which in turn allowed third place Glenn Simonin to race by the two leaders down the backstretch to claim the late race lead.

Simonin, a seven year Enduro veteran was also seeking his first career win and all he had to do over the final three laps was hit his marks which he did to perfection in his self funded Chevy Monte Carlo. At the checker flag Glenn Simonin would finally enjoy his first career win to which he noted, “I was in the right place at the right time for sure. I can’t thank all those who helped me along the way, it sure does feel good to win one” the happy winner stated.

Greg Harris of Riverhead in his SGS Stone Works Chevy was runner-up while Brian McCormack of Holbrook would recover for third in the Big Mack Towing & Recovery Monte Carlo.

In the 30-lap Mini Stock race 2016 Mini 8 Enduro champion Brandon Esposito of Farmingville broke out to the early race lead and never looked back as he dominated the race in his Versa Contracting entry. At the conclusion of the race Esposito, who will also compete in the INEX Legend Race Car division at Riverhead Raceway in 2017 won the race by more than half a lap. “This is going to be a fun and competitive division as the season moves along” Brandon noted. Chris Elixson of Riverhead was runner-up in his “Lightning” McQueen tribute car while Steve “The Pitbull” Trimboli of Freeport crossed the line third in the Pitbull Motors entry.

Gene Burbol of Brookhaven controlled the 40-lap 4/6-Cylinder Truck Enduro race to take home another victory in his successful career. After Mariah Lawrence paced the race for the first lap before Burbol, who started third on the grid took the lead with an inside pass in the third and fourth turn. Once out front Burbol kept a comfortable lead throughout the race to claim the win in his Gene’s 112 Auto Service Chevy S-10. Ben Gregor of Bridgehampton was runner-up in the Gregor Well Drilling Chevy with defending champion Don Nelson Jr. of Rocky Point third in the Abner Tree Experts machine.

The race of the day belonged to the Gut & Go 4/6-Cylinder troops as “Blackjack” Bryan Kelly of Aquebogue executed a last lap pass to edge out Kris “Krunchy” Dane of Hicksville for the 50-lap win. Former 8-Cylinder racer and multi time winner Dege Russell was led the race early on before a lap 31 red flag waved for a turn two incident. On the ensuing restart Russell balked for just a moment which allowed Dane to make a run to the outside to take over the race lead. Dane seemed to be on easy street but suddenly with 10 to go Kelly made a charge towards the front. Kelly would wait until the white flag lap to make his move on Dane for the lead ducking to the inside. With the checker flag waving Kelly would edge out Dane by less than a car length for the win. “We didn’t start on this car until 7:00 pm last night, as you can see it still has a license plate on it in the back” Kelly boasted. He added, “it was some fun racing Ham (Dane) he was waving and laughing at me when I passed him”. Early leader Dege Russell of Rocky Point placed third in the Kelly Russell Realty machine.

The Gut & Go 8-Cylinder race winner would not be determined on the track but rather during a rigid post race technical inspection. Mike D’Orta of Deer Park crossed the line first but was disqualified for unapproved tire size. That turn of events moved Sean Fitzpatrick of West Babylon the race winner in his Lakewood Used Auto Parts Chevy. Dennis Kurras of Centereach was runner-up in the FTW Contracting entry while Kevin Coyle of East Meadow was third in his self funded mount. Also caught in post race tech and disqualified from the race were Mike Asdahl and Justin Ferreri as the Riverhead tech staff sent out an early season notice to all competitors.

The next race on the 2017 Riverhead Raceway schedule will be another action packed Enduro on Sunday afternoon April 23rd at 12:30 pm. The Street Stocks will go 100-laps and be joined by a full compliment of Enduro racing plus a special INEX Legend Race Car event slated for 40-laps.

Street Stocks: 1. Glenn Simonin 2. Greg Harris 3. Brian McCormack 4. Chris Lescenski 5. Dave Antos 6. Dale Doherty 7. Tom Talbot 8. Gerard Lawrence 9. Kyle Curtis 10. Anthony Pizzo 11. Brandon Hubbard 12. Joe Boccia 13. Rhett Fogg

Mini Stocks: 1. Brandon Esposito 2. Chris Elixson 3. Steve Trimboli 4. Bryan Kelly 5. Robert Dugre 6. Preston Prydatko 7. Mike Mujsce Jr.

Trucks: 1. Gene Burbol 2. Ben Gregor 3. Don Nelson 4. Pete Rabaglia 5. Gary Voight 6. Jarrett Campbell 7. Steve Betcher 8. Dustin Cole 9. Mike Benton 10. Paul Cummings 11. Emily Hubbard 12. Danielle Cohen 13. RJ Gage 14. Mariah Lawrence 15. Hank Hallock DNS- Danielle Corwin

4/-6 Cylinder Gut & Go: 1. Bryan Kelly 2. Kris Dane 3. Dege Russell 4. Preston Prydatko 5. Donald Lawrence 6. Drew Fohrkolb 7. Eric Germuth 8. CJ Zukowski 9. Ryan Dupis 10. Kevin Augustine 11. Tony Collingsworth 12. Brad Bess 13. Scott Setek 14. Dan Augustine 15. Thomas Tascarella 16. George Astacio 17. Scott Phillips 18. Brandon Esposito 19. Ryan Warren 20. Joe Palmeri 21. Pete Barlotta 22. Brandon Patricek 23. Mitch Rippe 24. Kim Hyde 25. Charles Astacio 26. Cody Trola 27. Joe Warren 28. Robert Thurau 29. Mike Farrel 30. John Palmeri 31. Corey Beverly 32. Wesley Sammon 33. Sam Suttmeier 34. Mitchell Pattern 35. Danny Zasowski 36. Steve Fried 37. Kenny Hyde Jr. 38. Doug Tittle 39. Peter Verwys

8-Cylinder Gut & Go: 1. Sean Fitzpatrick 2. Dennis Kurras 3. Kevin Coyle 4. Brian Halsey 5. Dominick Ranieri 6. Pat Collins 7. Stacey Halsey 8. Thomas Roberts 9. John O’Rourke 10. Drew Scalfini 11. Mark Wolf 12. Jarrod Halsey 13. Jimmy Denis 14. Pat Verbeek 15. Peter Hart 16. Tom Talbot 17. Dennis Jones 18. Logan Fogg DQ- Mike D’Orta DQ- Michael Asdahl DQ- Justin Ferreri

Source: Bob Finan/RR PR