A Bunch of “Maniacs” Help Sponsor Riverhead NWMT Race

Eric Goodale took home close to $8,000 with his win on Saturday night thanks to the fundraising efforts of James Schaefer and all of his friends which include: Brian Denton, Aj Hackert, Fred Wilcox, and JW Buckley. All of these gentlemen have been contributing money and helping out Schaefer for quite some time. Schaefer may be the one with the “Long Island Mod Maniac” nickname, but just about every person who helps him out could qualify for that.

Aj Hackert decided to help Schaefer out because he wanted to make sure that the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour races would get good car counts and that the track would stay open.

“The first year he started doing it was the first year I did it,” said Hackert of Baiting Hollow. “I was worried about losing the whole race track.”

Others like Brian “Sparky” Denton feel this is the closest they’re going to get to sponsoring their favorite driver.

“I would love to have the money to sponsor a race car flat out, but of course I’m not in that position,” said Denton. “I remember that a lot of guys wouldn’t go to Riverhead. And then Jim started his sponsoring of laps and the Modifieds and it seemed more and more guys would come.”

Denton, who used to reside on Long Island, but now calls Lebanon, Conn. home, is a big Rowan Pennink fan and he almost always will have his $300 sent Pennink’s way. Denton also was a big Tony Hirschman fan and is now a fan of Matt. Denton sponsored both Pennink and Hirschman for $300 each.

“I follow Rowan Pennink because I’ve known is spotter, Brian Crowley, since he was about 12 years old,” said Denton. “When Jim said he was having trouble sponsoring the cars out of Pennsylvania I decided to do the two cars from Pennsylvania.”

He also bought three laps, one of which is in memory of his wife who he said was his “racing partner.”

“I lost her about eight years ago to breast cancer,” said Denton. “I took some years off (from racing) when she was ill, but I’ve decided to go back to the track again.”

The Long Island Mod Maniac even manages to reach people who have no ties to Long Island. Fred Wilcox of Ithica met Schaefer at Mountain Speedway and after they got to talking Wilcox decided that he’d help out as well.

“His infectious enthusiasm sort of took over,” said Wilcox. “2011 was the first year that I decided to pony up 300 bucks to sponsor a Tour race at Riverhead. I was unhappy at the purse structure that was agreed to between Riverhead and NASCAR. It struck me as unbelievably low. And I thought Jim’s approach was a great idea.”

Wilcox makes sure that his money goes to help veteran driver Wade Cole.

“I’m a big Wade Cole fan,” said Wilcox. “I think he represents NASCAR and the Modified Tour very well. He’s the gentleman of the Whelen Modified Tour and I am just so proud to have my name on his car.”

JW Buckley, of Wantagh, contacted Schaefer to pitch in because he said he felt that he owes a lot to racing. Buckley tries to sponsor some of the Riverhead regulars for the Tour races like John Beatty Jr.

“I got myself in some trouble, but I had about 12 years that were really bad,” said Buckley. “I saw what Jim was doing and I knew that I didn’t have a lot of money, but I owed a lot to car racing. It’s my way of giving back to something that I love and in effect saved me.”

Source: Rob Blount/LongIslandJam.com