|
 Forty-five
years ago in 1963 the Utica-Rome Speedway opened for the season.
Tom Kotary won the 25-lap NASCAR
Sportsman feature. Robbie Kotary finished second with Jim Luke,
third. Rene Charland and Bill
Wimble rounded out the top five.
Forty years ago in 1968 there was no Spring Sizzler as most of the
extra distance-added purse events were run in the fall after Labor
Day. Ray Hendrick won a 100 lap modified event at Martinsville on
Saturday afternoon. Norwood Arena in Massachusetts opened for the
season with Eddie Flemke taking the win. At Fonda, Eddie Pieniezak
took the win on the dirt over Jerry Cook and Ron Narducci. Flemke
made it two for two on the weekend as he won the Sunday afternoon
event at Thompson. Also running on Sunday was Fulton where Don
Diffendorf took the win.
Thirty-five years ago in 1973, Ed Flemke got even for a
disappointment suffered 12 months prior when he turned the tables on
Fred DeSarro to win Sizzler II. DeSarro, who had won the original
Sizzler when Flemke's water pump broke, finished second and was
followed by Maynard Troyer, Paul Radford, Guy Chartrand and Richie
Evans.
Thirty years ago in 1978, Maynard Troyer staged a knock down, drag
out battle with Geoff Bodine to win the Sizzler. Evans finished
third with Bugsy Stevens and DeSarro rounding out the top five. John
Rosati won the non-qualifiers event.
Twenty-five years ago in the Spring Sizzler of 1983 Greg Sacks was
unbeatable as he scored a hard fought win over Reggie Ruggerio,
Brett Bodine and Brian Ross. Jim Spencer won the non-qualifiers race
and finished seventh in the 80 lap Spring Sizzler at Stafford
.
Twenty years ago in 1988, The Modified series was not included in
the Sizzler. The SK's took center stage with Ted Christopher taking
the 80-lap win over Bob Potter, Bo Gunning and Tom Tagg. Phil
Rondeau was the late model winner. The racing was good but the crowd
that followed the Modifieds stayed away in droves.
Fifteen years ago, in1993, the Sizzler had been expanded from 80 to
200 laps for the NASCAR Modified Series. Reggie Ruggiero took the
lead on lap 153 and held off Doug Hevron and Tom Baldwin for the
win. Mike Christopher was the SK modified winner over his brother
Ted. In Winston Cup action at Talledega, Ernie Irvan took the win
over Dale Jarrett and Dale Earnhardt. Rusty Wallace had been ahead
of Earnhardt but unfortunately got tapped by the man in black and
went end over end in a wreck.
Ten years ago in 1998, the Featherlite Modified Tour was in
Martinsville for a 200-lap event that served as a preliminary to
their spring Winston Cup event. Mike Ewanitsko, in the Art Barry
No.21, came from a 24th starting spot to take a hard fought win over
Mike Stefanik and Tim Connolly. Stefanik led the event from the
start to lap 167. Ewanitsko and Stefanik ran wheel to wheel for many
laps. Reggie Ruggiero and Jamie Tomaino rounded out the top five.
The Waterford Speedbowl had a 200-lap event scheduled for Sunday
until rain intervened. Rain also washed out the Winston Cup event at
Martinsville. NASCAR has a “Next clear day policy” which dictated
that the event would run on Monday. Bobby Hamilton was the pole
sitter and led 378 of the 500 laps to take the win. John Andretti
was running second with six laps to go when he ran out of gas. Ted
Musgrave, running third at the time, finished second.
Five years ago in 2003 Ted Christopher and Ed Flemke JR got real
personal as the two made repeated contact for most of the last 50
laps of the 200 lap Spring Sizzler at Stafford. With four laps to go
it got ugly and the end result saw Flemke planted in the wall on the
backstretch. Christopher continued on to take the win. Todd Szegedy
ended up second with Tony Hirschman, third. Chuck Hossfeld and Ken
Woolley rounded out the top five. Christopher also won the twin
SK-Modified events that were run in conjunction with the Sizzler.
The entire program was run on Sunday after rain-washed out Saturday
qualifying. There were 40 Modifieds on hand. The Busch North Series
showed with 27 cars for their series opener at Lee Raceway. Andy
Santerre led pole to pole to win the 150-lap event. Kelly Moore
finished second. In Winston Cup action at Fontana, California, Kurt
Busch passed Jamie McMurray with 12 laps to go and went on to take
the win. Pole sitter Steve Park wrecked on the first lap. Matt
Kenseth won the companion Busch Series event. Racing at Wall
Township, Riverhead and at the Waterford Speedbowl was rained out.
Last year, 2007, The 2007 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour Series headed
to the Stafford Motor Speedway on April 29. The track opened on
Friday despite heavy rains that cancelled weekly racing division
practice sessions. Forty-two Modifieds were on hand for practice and
qualifying on Saturday. Second generation driver Matt Hirschman took
the Busch Pole winner as he toured the half mile oval at 45/100th of
a second faster then his father, Tony, in qualifying. Tony Hirschman,
a five-time series champion, averaged 99.701 mph in his qualifying
run. Reggie Ruggiero of Rocky Hill, Conn. was third fastest with a
speed of 99.673 mph. Thompson Ice Breaker winner, James Civali, was
fourth fastest with a speed of 99.448 mph. Ted Christopher rounded
out the Top-5 in qualifying with a speed of 99.179 mph. The Top-8
qualifiers drew for starting position. Tony Hirschman drew the pole
and was joined by Ruggiero on the front row. Civali and Matt
Hirschman made up row number two.
Don Lia and car owner Bob Garbarino didn’t repeat their mistake made
at Thompson as they pitted for tires on lap 75 of the 200 lap Spring
Sizzler. Their pit stop paid off in dividends as they won the event.
Lia and Todd Szegedy swapped the lead three times over the final 29
laps. Lia took the lead for good on lap 97. Szegedy settled for
second with Jerry Marquis bringing the Brady Bunch No.00 home in
third spot. Mike Stefanik, who had a problem and never got to time
trial, got in the event using a provisional starting spot, finished
fourth. Zach Sylvester in the Curt Chase No.77 finished fifth.
Fourteen caution periods for 76 laps kept Lia’s average speed at
55.147 mph. Frank Ruocco, a part time Modified Tour competitor
caused the two biggest wrecks and was responsible for at least six
cars being knocked out of the Sizzler. The first “Big One” came on
lap 20 when Ruocco got airborne and landed on the Roger Hill No.79
driven by Chuck Hossfeld. The Hill car suffered extensive body
damage and looked ready for the scrap heap. Extensive pit repairs
and body work with a sledge hammer plus miles of 100 mile per hour
tape kept Hossfeld on the track. Plus the fact he received two
separate Lucky Dog awards and was able to finish on the lead lap in
13th spot. Carl Pasteryak and Bobby Santos III weren’t as lucky as
their mounts had to be parked because of extensive damage. The
second Ruocco “Big One” came on lap 117 when his radiator broke and
the resulting mess collected Rick Fuller, Rob Summers and Matt
Hirschman. Sixth through tenth were Tony Hirschman, James Civali,
Matt Hirschman, Jimmy Blewett and Jamie Tomaino.
Among the highlights of the weekend was the release of Steady Eddie:
Memories of Ed Flemke, Modified Racing's Fastest Professor. Coastal
181 and Bones Bourcier did an excellent job on this one. Flemke
became a Modified Legend in his own time. A favorite Flemke story
took place at the Waterford Speedbowl in the early 1950’s. Flemke
was in the Army and stationed at Fort Dix in New Jersey. Waterford
had a big race and Flemke wanted the weekend off and his superiors
refused his request. Some how he was able to go AWOL and make the
race. Some of his friends had his car ready when he arrived and he
jumped in and went out and won the race. Military Police were
waiting at the pit gate. They got a big surprise when Flemke parked
his race car between turns one and two and jumped the fence and ran
off into the nearby woods. To make a long story short, Flemke made
it back to Fort Dix and was in his bunk fast asleep when the MPs
returned from Connecticut.
In NASCAR Whelen All-American Series action, Chris Matthews repeated
his Spring Sizzler SK Light Modified feature win of one year ago,
and Rick Lanagan drove to victory in his Limited Late Model feature
debut. Zach Sylvester was the winner of the Coors Light 21 Means 21
SK Modified® feature event, and Ryan Posocco was the winner of the
Late Model 16 feature event.
Lloyd Agor was awarded the SK Modified win after apparent winner
Woody Pitkat was disqualified after officials discovered his car had
an illegal rear spoiler. Jeff Baral finished second and was followed
by Jeff Malave, Eric Berndt and Ted Christopher. The Late Model
Feature went green to checker with first-time winner Corey Hutchings
taking the win. Woody Pitkat finished second.
At the Waterford Speedbowl on Saturday night Shawn Monahan passed
Doug Coby with 12-laps to go to win Saturday evening’s 35-lap SK
Modified feature at the shoreline oval. Early leader Dennis Charette
spun after contact with Kenny Horton. Jeff Paul, Rob Janovic, and
Tyler Chadwick rounded-out the top-5. Last weeks winner Diego
Monahan finished sixth.
Other feature winners were Bruce Thomas Jr. (Late Models), Dwayne
Dorr (Sportsman), Joseph Godbout III (Mini Stocks), Ginny Quinones (USAC
Ford Focus Midget Series).
At the Wall Township Speedway Kevin Flockhart won the 40 lap
Modified feature. Tom Farrell, Michael Bohn, John Blewett III, Steve
Reed and Shaun Craig rounded out the top five.
In NASCAR Busch East competition Sixteen-year-old Joey Logano swept
to the win at the Greenville-Pickens Speedway in South Carolina, his
second NASCAR Grand National victory in less than ten days. Logano,
of Middletown, Conn., held off Sean Caisse to win the NASCAR Busch
East Series Greased Lightning 150. The victory comes on the heals of
his NASCAR West Series season opening win at Phoenix International
Raceway April 19. The West Series and Busch East Series wins were
Logano’s first and second career NASCAR starts, respectively. Logano,
who set the track record at 87.481 mph qualifying, took the lead
from defending race winner Caisse on lap 73. Bryon Chew of
Mattituck, N.Y. was third followed by Peyton Sellers of Danville,
Va., and Rogelio Lopez of Mexico City, Mexico.
In Nextel Cup action at the Talledega Speedway Jeff Gordon crossed
the finish line for win No. 77, breaking a tie with the late Dale
Earnhardt on NASCAR's career victory list. It was only fitting that
it happened at Talladega, where Earnhardt, who would have been 56 on
Sunday, won 10 times in his Cup career. But it was anticlimactic and
confusing, ending under caution to leave Gordon unsure if he'd
actually won and taken over sixth place on the wins list.
Gordon, who started on the pole, ran up front at times during the
race but was 14th on a restart with 10 laps to go. But he stormed to
the front and with three laps to go passed Jamie McMurray for the
lead a split-second before a caution came out. It set up a the
green-white-checkered flag finish, with Gordon out front on the
restart. But before the field reached full speed, a wreck far behind
the leaders brought out the caution and effectively ended the
race.Tony Stewart, embroiled in controversy all week for likening
NASCAR to pro wrestling, was knocked into the wall far ahead of the
first accident. He bounced off the outside wall, slid down the track
and into the inside wall, then stood fuming on the apron as he
waited for the field to pass. He made an angry gesture at Jamie
McMurray and David Gilliland as they passed under caution. Jimmie
Johnson, Gordon's teammate, finished second as Hendrick Motorsports
cars continued their season-long domination. Hendrick drivers have
won six of the first nine races.Kurt Busch was third, Gilliland
fourth and McMurray finished fifth. Kevin Harvick was sixth,
followed by Earnhardt, David Stremme, Ryan Newman and Martin Truex
Jr.
The Cincinnati Enquirer reported that the Kentucky Speedway revised
their lawsuit against NASCAR and the International Speedway
Corporation. Kentucky Speedway was no longer demanding a Nextel Cup
race in its federal lawsuit against NASCAR and International
Speedway Corp. In an amended complaint filed Friday, April 20, the
speedway said it wanted NASCAR to develop "objective factors" for
the awarding of Nextel Cup races, the France family to give up
control of either ISC (a public company that operates tracks and
whose majority of voting stock is owned by the Frances) or NASCAR (a
private company owned by the Frances) and for ISC to sell at least
eight of the 12 tracks it owns that host Nextel Cup events. The
41-page complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in Covington, also
revealed some of the speedway's attempts to bring NASCAR's top
racing series to Gallatin County. The speedway filed suit in July
2005 alleging NASCAR and ISC violated antitrust laws by restricting
which tracks host Nextel Cup races and trying to "monopolize the
market for hosting premium stock car racing events." In the original
complaint, the speedway asked for Nextel Cup races to be awarded
through a competitive bidding process. The complaint detailed some
specific attempts by the speedway to secure a spot on the Nextel
schedule. According to the new complaint, the track offered New
Hampshire International Speedway owner Bob Bahre $360 million to buy
the facility that holds two Cup races annually. NASCAR and ISC
denied the allegations contained in the original complaint.
This week here are several
vintage racing photos of "The Champ" Rene Charland courtesy
of vintagemodifieds.com. The 4-time NASCAR National Sportsman
Champion's health has not been good and is now confined to a nursing
home. Cards of cheer can be sent to Rene at:
Rene Charland
Pine View Commons
210 South Melcher
Johnstown, NY 12095
That’s it for this week from
40 Clark St. Westerly RI 02891. Ring my chimes at 401-596-5467 |
