Brode Triumphs Over Chaos
The skies looked threatening throughout much of the day, but racing went on as scheduled at Riverhead Raceway. The night saw the NASCAR Modifieds, Late Models, Super Pro Trucks, and the INEX Legends in action as well as a 50-lap 8-cylinder Enduro event.
The day started off with three heat races for the Legends. Kevin Nowak started from the pole for the first heat race, but he spun out in turn one and got hit by Bobby Jones who had no where else to go. A complete restart was performed due to the failure to complete the first lap, but Nowak was sent to the rear of the field for being the cause of the caution. That moved Shawn Wanat up to the top spot with Mike Van Houten to his outside. The race went green and Dylan Slepian quickly worked his way from fourth to second before the first lap was completed. By the third lap, Slepian was in the lead. By the fourth lap, Kyle Ellwood had made his way to second and then quickly went by Slepian for the lead just one lap later. Ellwood held on for the heat race victory and would start the feature from the pole position.
Artie Pedersen III started on the pole for the second heat race. Pedersen held the lead for the first half of the race, but lost it to Vinny Delaney on lap four. Pedersen finished third after Kyle Soper got by him for second on lap five. Soper finished second to Delaney. Timmy Solomito and Anthony Marsh rounded out the top five.
Alex Urbina started from the pole for the third heat race with Vincent Colletti to his outside, but Urbina spun out before he took the green flag. The caution came out and a full restart was performed. Urbina restarted in the rear of the field as a result of his spin. Colletti inherited the pole position and Brendon Bock moved up to second. Bock took the lead from Colletti on the third lap and held on to secure the third starting position in the feature. Brad Van Houten, Justin Strumpf, Bryan Kelly and Richie Davidowitz rounded out the top five.
Time-trials were up next on the schedule for the Modifieds. Tom Rogers Jr. laid down the fastest lap with a time of 11.865 seconds on his first qualifying lap. He slowed down to an 11.894 on his second lap. Last years track champion Shawn Solomito put down the second fastest lap with a time of 11.898 seconds. As tradition the fastest eight drivers did a redraw to determine their starting positions for the feature. Kevin Orlando laid down the sixth fastest lap, but he drew the pole position for the feature. Shawn Solomito drew the second position, Dave Sapienza drew third, Howie Brode drew fourth, Timmy Solomito drew fifth, Dave Brigati drew sixth position. Brigati was in Sapienza’s No. 36 this week and Sapienza was in Frank Vigliarolo’s No. 5. Rogers may have put down the fastest lap but he drew the seventh starting position and David Roys drew the eighth starting position.
The evening’s festivities went into a hurry-up mode of sorts as the track decided to start the features 15 minutes earlier than originally planned due to impending weather. Fortunately the rain never came and every event ran as scheduled starting with a 20-lap feature for the Super Pro Trucks.
Mark Stewart was back in his familiar No. 8 truck, after the damage to the truck from a hard crash earlier in the season, and started the event from the pole. Stewart said that the team worked late into the night on Friday night to get the truck ready for the race.
“It was a lot of work,” said Stewart. “We worked all through the night. At 5:30 we all went home and went to sleep. Only having a couple hours of sleep. Then we all came back to the garage at eight in the morning to start working on it again.”
Stewart started on the pole with “Dangerous” Dave Koenig to his outside. Stewart got the jump on Koenig and held on to the lead. The race went caution-free and Stewart held on for the victory. The win was the first for Stewart, and it came in just his fifth race.
“I honestly thought it would take longer because I’m still learning,” said Stewart. “Everything is so new to me. But the truck was that hooked up after we fixed it.”
The Legends followed the Super Pro Trucks with their 20-lap feature. Defending track champion Kyle Ellwood started from the pole with Vinny Delaney to his outside. The first caution came out on lap 12 for a piece of debris in turn two. Ellwood continued to lead on the restart with Delaney, Soper, Bock and Brad Van Houten behind him. The yellow flag flew once again just four laps later for debris again. A muffler was just above the groove in turn four and a piece of Christian Conklin’s left-rear fender was on the frontstretch. The race was green for another two laps after the restart until the caution came out when Joe Sedotto spun in turn four. The race went green to the end after that restart and Kyle Ellwood held on for his third win of the season. Bock, Soper, Solomito and Van Houten completed the top five.
The Late Models followed with a 25-lap feature. Arne Pedersen started on the pole with Kevin Metzger to his outside. Metzger jumped to the lead down the backstretch. Pedersen starting dropping back quickly and then his night came to an end when he was pushed into the wall exiting turn four. Pedersen hit the wall hard and pancaked the front of his car, which resulted in a lengthy delay to clean up the oil that dropped out of his car. The race resumed with Metzger leading Ken Alfano, Mike Bologna and Jeremy McDermott. The yellow flag was back out immediately when Bologna spun out Metzger in turn two. Metzger’s car came to a stop in the middle of the backstretch. Shawn Patrick got on the brakes hard, but slid right into Metzger and slammed his right front. Bologna was sent to the rear of the field for rough riding. The race restarted on the fifth lap of the race with Alfano leading McDermott, Chris La Spisa, Roger Oxee, and Scott Kulesa. The yellow flag was shown again five laps later when Oxee spun entering turn four. Alfano held the lead on the next restart and took off. The final 10 laps went green to the finish and Alfano scored his first victory of the season. La Spisa, Kulesa, Bologna, and Chris McGuire rounded out the top five.
The NASCAR Modifieds were up next with a 35-lap feature. Kevin Orlando started on the pole courtesy of the redraw with Shawn Solomito to his outside. The caution flew before the field made it to turn three when Orlando spun out of turn two. Orlando said that they broke an axle right at the start of the race that caused the spin. Dave Brigati hit the backstretch wall hard, and David Roys also spun. A second attempt at the start of the race saw Shawn Solomito leading Dave Sapienza, Howie Brode, Timmy Solomito, and Tom Rogers Jr. Solomito cleared Sapienza, but Sapienza drove into the corner too deep and spun out Solomito. Sapienza continued up the track and right into Timmy Solomito who hit the turn two wall hard. Marisa Niederauer was hit from behind and pushed into the side of Sapienza. A third attempt at the start of the race saw Brode leading Rogers, Jerry Solomito, Jason Agugliaro, and Eddie Brunnhoelzl III. But the yellow flag was quickly displayed once again. The officials felt Rogers jumped the restart as he beat Brode to the line, so the yellow was displayed to reset the lineup. Rogers was sent to the rear of the field. He disagreed with the decision.
“I don’t know if he spun the tires,” said Rogers, “But the RPMs started to climb, so I went. That’s my signal to go. The officials sometimes see it that way and sometimes they don’t.”
The fourth attempt to complete the first lap was successful with Brode leading Jerry Solomito, Agugliaro, Brunnhoelzl, and Vinny Biondolillo. But the caution came out just a lap later when Orlando and Rogers got together in turn four and Rogers hit the wall. Rogers was not happy with Orlando so he slammed into Orlando in turn two. He left the racetrack and then immediately came back and slammed into Orlando again. He hopped over the left side tires of Orlando and came to a stop facing the wall in turn four. Orlando then drove into the side of Rogers and then backed away. Rogers threw the car in reverse and backed into Orlando. He then drove off the racetrack and back to his hauler. Orlando walked back to the pits.
“I was going down the straightaway and [Orlando] just slammed on the brakes,” said Rogers. “There was nobody in front of him, so I don’t know what his issue was. I jumped to the outside of him, I go down into three and he runs me up almost into the fence… he’s driving everybody like a punk..”
Orlando saw things a little differently.
“Tommy was black-flagged for jumping the restart,” said Orlando. “He was a little upset obviously and he pulled a little stunt in three and four as he always does. I guess he took it out on the first car he saw, and he turned me around. I’m kind of tired of getting pushed around, so I retaliated.”
Brode led Agugliaro, Jerry Solomito, Brunnhoelzl and Kyle Ellwood on the next restart, and Brode jumped out to the lead. By the 10th lap Shawn Solomito had made his way from ninth back up to fourth after he passed Brunnhoelzl in turn four. Solomito made his way to third, but he was moved back to fourth on the next caution for passing Brunnhoelzl below the yellow line. That caution came out on lap 23 when Biondolillo spun by himself in turn one. Solomito immediately moved back into third just one lap after the restart. With just three laps to go Solomito moved Agugliaro out of the way to take second place in turn four. Brode held off a hard-charging Solomito to score his second victory of the season and add to his points lead. Shawn Solomito, Agugliaro, Brunnhoelzl, and Jerry Solomito rounded out the top five.
“My car was handling perfect,” said Brode. “It was a bit tough in the beginning. There was some bumping and grinding and people spinning, but we got through it. It was a great night for us.”
It was a rough night for last year’s track champion, but Shawn Solomito battled back from an early spin to finish second.
“On lap zero we got a good restart and Sap tried getting in behind us,” said Solomito. “Howie Brode never lifted and drove through both of us. Our car was on rails tonight. It’s a new car and we feel like we finally figured it out. Everybody was pretty much racing with respect for the most part except for a couple people here, but you get a wheel on them and just drive it in there. We made our way back to the front and they penalized me a spot for saying I passed too low. But we got that spot back and another one and we probably should have won the show tonight.”
Solomito drives for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and after the event he had a fan come up to him to tell Solomito how much he appreciated the job that the team does raising awareness of his illness.
“It’s an honor to run with Cystic Fibrosis on the quarter-panels,” said Solomito. “They never know where the next day is going to lead for them and their lives are pretty tough. It’s pretty awesome to run on behalf of Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and hopefully we made them proud tonight.”
The final event of the night was an 8-cylinder Enduro that was won by Anthony Pizzo.
Photos available at:http://www.racerhub.com/photos/index.php?cat=2152
Super Pro Trucks Results:
1. (1) Mark Stewart
2. (2) Dave Koenig
3. (7) Roger Turbush
4. (6) Frank Dumicich Jr.
5. (9) Erin Dumicich-Solomito
6. (10) Michael Albasini
7. (11) Lou Maestri
8. (13) John Denniston
9. (3) Rob Bader
10. (4) Anthony Vecchio
11. (5) Brian McElearney
12. (12) Rich Campo
13. (8) Frank Dumicich Sr.
Late Models:
1. (4) Ken Alfano
2. (5) Chris La Spisa
3. (9) Scott Kulesa
4. (6) Mike Bologna
5. (11) Chris McGuire
6. (3) Jeremy McDermott
7. (8) Buzzy Eriksen
8. (13) Chris Mangels
9. (12) Derek Stacheki
10. (10) Roger Oxee
11. (2) Kevin Metzger
12. (1) Arne Pedersen
13. (7) Shawn Patrick
Legends:
1. (1) Kyle Ellwood
2. (3) Brendon Bock
3. (5) Kyle Soper
4. (11) Timmy Solomito
5. (6) Brad Van Houten
6. (2) Vinny Delaney
7. (9) Justin Strumpf
8. (8) Artie Pedersen III
9. (4) Dylan Slepian
10. (14) Anthony Marsh
11. (21) Jeffrey Goodale
12. (18) Vincent Colletti
13. (10) Kevin Nowak
14. (20) Greg Harris
15. (16) Shawn Wanat
16. (19) Mike Van Houten
17. (17) Joe Sedotto
18. (22) Steve Hersey
19. (24) Frank Scimeca Jr.
20. (23) Allan Pedersen
21. (25) Brian Brown
22. (26) Steve Smith
23. (13) Christian Conklin
24. (15) Richie Davidowitz
25. (27) Alex Urbina
26. (7) Johnnie Gloor
27. (12) Bryan Kelly
28. (28) Bobby Jones
Modifieds:
1. (4) Howie Brode
2. (2) Shawn Solomito
3. (10) Jason Agugliaro
4. (11) Ed Brunnhoelzl III
5. (9) Jerry Solomito
6. (12) Kyle Ellwood
7. (3) Dave Sapienza
8. (15) Vinny Biondolillo
9. (13) Ken Darch
10. (8) David Roys
11. (5) Timmy Solomito
12. (14) Marisa Niederauer
13. (6) Dave Brigati
14. (13) Chad Churilla
15. (1) Kevin Orlando
Source: Rob Blount/LongIslandJam.com