Brode Sweeps Twin-30s Again

The 2014 season has gotten off to a pretty good start for Riverhead Raceway’s defending champion Howie Brode. Brode once again swept Riverhead’s twin-30 lap feature.

Brode started the first race on the outside of the front row with Timmy Solomito to his inside. He battled Solomito for a couple laps before surrendering the spot. After dealing with Tom Rogers Jr. for a few more laps Brode found himself back in third.

Third was where Brode would stay for most of the race until there was nine to go. Solomito and Rogers got into each other in turn three one lap after a restart. Both drivers started to slide, but they were both able to hang on. Rogers dropped back to third, but Solomito fell all the way back to eleventh. Brode made his way to the outside of turn four to avoid the sliding cars and took over the lead.

Brode just had to hold off Ryan Preece and Rogers on one more restart to take down the victory in the first 30-lap race.

The second race was much calmer than the first as it went caution free and Brode scored the win again.

“Just had a good car and we were moving forward like we’re supposed to,” said Brode. “My car was a little tight in the beginning and we’ve got to work on that. But I was real good in the end.”

Jimmy White Jr. Gets Second Win of Season

Jimmy White Jr. started seventh, but was in the lead by lap eight. His charge to the front was aided by a few restarts, as there were two cautions before the race was five laps old.

On a restart with six laps to go White had to fend off a fast Tom Pickerell as well as a hard-charging Jack Handley Jr. Handley made his way to the front from 16th. He got to White’s back bumper but had to settle for a second place finish.

White, Handley, Pickerell, William A. Wegmann, and Bryan Sescila completed the top five.

“It was survival of the fittest,” said White. “This race was rough. Everyone was beating and banging.”

Brad Van Houten Breaks Through

Brad Van Houten has been close to winning a Legends feature at Riverhead Raceway all season long. It seems that every time he’s in the position to win a race something has happened to keep him out of victory lane; but that all changed this week.

Van Houten won his heat race to give him the pole position for the feature. Van Houten had to deal with a fast Richie Davidowitz for most of the race but he was able to hold him off and lead every lap to score his first win of the season.

“We worked really hard to get this win,” said Van Houten. “We’ve been fast. The cards didn’t really play out the way I wanted to. But tonight we got it done.”

Back-to-Back for Mark stewart

Mark Stewart’s second win of the season did not come easy as he had to make his way to the front from the seventh starting position.

Stewart was lucky the race was 30 laps instead of the usual 20 as he needed just about every lap to get to the lead. He took second place with five laps to go and quickly made his way to the tailgate of Mike Albasini’s truck.

Stewart made the move for the lead with two laps to go on the exit of turn two. He dove underneath Albasini as they made their way towards turn three. On the exit of turn four they made contact. Albasini almost spun, but managed to save it. However he lost the top spot to Stewart in the process.

“My truck was good enough where I could come off the bottom and get them on the straightaway,” said Stewart. “I think I can get at least one or two more. With the way this truck is rolling… it’s rolling great. We’ll see what happens.”

Eriksen Wins Late Models Again

Peter “Buzzy” Eriksen’s pass for the lead and the win might have been the easiest pass he’ll ever make. He was running in second at the time when Kevin Metzger broke something in the right front of his No. 23 Late Model while leading. Metzger was forced to pit when the caution came out and that handed the lead over to Eriksen.

Eriksen had to deal with a couple of restarts, but he managed to grow his lead in the late stages of the race to score his second win of the season.

Jeremy McDermott, Chris La Spisa, Shawn Patrick and Chris Lescenski completed the top five.

Photos available at: http://www.racerhub.com/photos/index.php?cat=2264

Super Pro Truck Results:

1. (7) Mark Stewart

2. (1) Michael Albasini

3. (3) Lou Maestri

4. (2) Erin Solomito

5. (6) Frank N. Dumicich

6. (8) Frank Dumicich Jr.

7. (11) Jimmy Rennick Jr.

8. (9) Rich Campo

9. (4) David Koenig Jr.

10. (10) Brian McElearney

11. (12) Amanda Lee Andersen

12. (5) Roger Turbush

Legends Results:

1. (1) Brad Van Houten

2. (5) Kyle Soper

3. (4) Richard Davidowitz

4. (14) Artie Pedersen III

5. (8) Justin Strumpf

6. (10) Gregory Harris

7. (2) Anthony Marsh

8. (7) Brendon Bock

9. (11) John Beatty Jr.

10. (26) Dylan Slepian

11. (3) Michael Rutkoski

12. (13) Allan Pedersen

13. (19) Chris Rogers

14. (9) Ray Fitzgerald

15. (17) Bryan Kelly

16. (23) Vinny Delaney

17. (16) Eric Hersey

18. (24) George  Tomko Jr

19. (25) Dave Koenig

20. (21) Kurt Krieger

21. (20) Kevin Chew

22. (17) Ed Cheslak

23. (19) Steve Hersey

24. (6) Shawn Wanat

25. (12) Timmy Solomito

26. (15) Mike Van Houten

Blunderbust Results:

1. (7) Jimmy White Jr.

2. (16) Jack Handley Jr.

3. (14) Tom Pickerell

4. (12) William A. Wegmann

5. (4) Bryan Sescila

6. (17) Joe Warren

7. (5) William J. Wegmann

8. (8) Tom Sullivan

9. (2) Paul Parisi

10. (6) Bob Muller

11. (11) Johnny Cricchio

12. (3) Gary Caldwell

13. (10) Thomas Puccia

14. (18) Ian Maliszewski

15. (15) Tommy Walkowiak

16. (1) Terry Stiles

17. (13) Brian Brown

18. (9) Tim Mulqueen

19. (19) Rich Hubbard

Late Models Results:

1. (4) Buzzy Eriksen

2. (9) Jeremy McDermott

3. (7) Chris La Spisa

4. (6) Shawn Patrick

5. (1) Chris Lescenski

6. (5) Kenneth Alfano

7. (8) Mike Bologna

8. (3) Roger Oxee

9. (10) Rob Pelis

10. (2) Kevin Metzger

Modified Race 1 Results:

1. (2) Howie Brode

2. (4) Tom Rogers Jr.

3. (7) Ryan Preece

4. (3) Jason Agugliaro

5. (9) Dave Sapienza

6. (10) Kyle Ellwood

7. (5) Ken Darch

8. (1) Timmy Solomito

9. (14) Amber Fortin

10. (12) Ed Brunnhoelzl III

11. (8) John Fortin Jr.

12. (11) John Fortin

13. (6) Vinny Biondolillo

14. (13) Jeffrey Goodale

15. (15) Mike Bologna

16. (16) Dennis Krupski

Modified Race 2 Results:

1. (1) Howie Brode

2. (3) Ryan Preece

3. (2) Tom Rogers Jr.

4. (10) Ed Brunnhoelzl III

5. (4) Jason Agugliaro

6. (6) Kyle Ellwood

7. (12) John Fortin

8. (8) Timmy Solomito

9. (7) Ken Darch

10. (9) Amber Fortin

11. (5) Dave Sapienza

12. (15) Mike Bologna

13. (16) Dennis Krupski

14. (11) John Fortin Jr.

15. (13) Vinny Biondolillo

16. (14) Jeffrey Goodale

Source: Rob Blount/LongIslandJam.com