Champ Trail -
May 5, 2015 |
The Stafford Motor Speedway opened their Friday night racing series under
clear skies. Ronnie Williams took the lead early and then had to hold off
challenges from Eric Berndt, Rowan Pennink, and then Keith Rocco to claim
victory in the 40-lap SK Modified® feature, Josh Wood was the winner in the
30-lap Late Model feature, Joey Ferrigno was the winner of the 20-lap SK
Light feature, Cliff Saunders won the 20-lap Limited Late Model feature,
Trace Beyer won the 15-lap DARE Stock feature, and Dana DiMatteo won the
20-lap Legend Cars feature.
In the waning moments of the SK Modified feature Pennink was right on
Williams’ back bumper with Rocco glued to his bumper in a 3-way fight for
the lead. Rocco made an amazing move to the inside of Pennink, going as low
in turn 3 as he could possibly drive his car to take over second with 3 laps
to go. Rocco was right there but he couldn’t get close enough to Williams in
the closing laps to make a move as Williams scored his first win of the 2015
season. Pennink finished third, with Berndt and Cipriano rounding out the
top-5.
Sixth through tenth were Matt Galko, Ryan Preece, Michael Gervais, Jr.
Tom Bolles and Glen Reen.
The long awaited Grand re-Opening of the New London-Waterford Speedbowl
took place this past Saturday, May 2. The crowd was good and the morale of
the competitors was high as they knew for sure they would get paid for their
efforts.
Keith Rocco scored a double whammy as he won the SK Modified and Late
Model features on this historical night. Rocco’s biggest threat in the
Modified event came about halfway through the event when he and Ted
Christopher made contact on a restart. Christopher brushed the frontstretch
wall during the incident. Christopher fell to third, got back to second, but
never a threat after that. Rob Janovic finished second. Rocco blamed the
bumping incident on cold tires. Christopher said it was deliberate as he
felt that Rocco rode him up. Christopher was later disqualified from his
second place finish. Christopher’s Prestige Motorsports owned ride was found
with an illegal intake manifold following the event.
The change moved Janovic to a second place finish and Craig Lutz Long
Island to third.
Earlier in the day Robert Our Motorsports announced that Tommy Barrett
had been canned and Rocco would be the team's new permanent driver on the
Whelen Modified Tour Series.
Rocco now has 105 combined victories at the shoreline oval, one shy of
the record set by Phil Rondeau.
The Valenti Modified Racing Series began their 2015 season last Saturday
night at the Monadnock Speedway in Winchester, NH. Todd Szegedy who finished
second in the Whelen Modified Tour opener at Thompson moved up a spot as he
took the 100 lap win at the New Hampshire oval on Saturday. Woody Pitkat who
was the WMT winner of the Spring Sizzler at Stafford, finished second. Todd
Patnode finished third. Rowan Pennink and Les Hinckley rounded out the top
five.
The Riverhead Raceway on Long Island opened for the season this past
Saturday. Tom Rogers scored twin 30 lap victories.
Down in the southland at the Bowman Gray Stadium, better known as the Mad
House, the season opening 200 lap Modified event was postponed a week
because of rain. Burt Myers won Saturday night’s season-opening Hayes
Jewelers 200, registering his seventh opening-night victory and fourth in
the last five years. Myers took the lead from brother and pole-sitter Jason
Myers in the 36th lap, and held off a strong challenge from his brother on a
final restart with 10 laps left. In between, he endured a scare from old
nemesis Junior Miller. On the 160th lap, Miller spun through the infield and
landed back on the track right in front of Myers. After 40 laps of
green-flag racing, Myers finally maneuvered past Miller, putting him a lap
down without incident. Jason Myers wound up second, Brandon Ward third and
Tim Brown fourth.
On the speedway stock market scene last week two of the three speedway
stock were down for the week. The International Speedway Corporation was up
0.13 to 36.68 while Speedway Motorsports dropped 2.70 to 22.46 and Dover
Entertainment dropped 0.07 to 2.32. NASCAR fuel supplier Sunoco (Energy
Transfer) went up 2.91 to 58.58 and NASCAR tire supplier Goodyear went up
0.66 to 28.40 while NASCAR cup sponsor Sprint dropped 0.05 to 5.22. It was
not a good week for the car manufacturers. Ford went up 0.04 to 15.81 while
General Motors dropped 0.17 to 35.42 and Toyota dropped 1.25 to 139.96. In
the home improvement sector, Home Depot dropped 4.15 to 109.55 and Lowes
dropped 2.46 to 70.70. In big team sponsorship, Aarons Rentals went up 1.89
to 34.67 and Fedex went up 1.78 to 171.93 while McDonalds dropped 0.94 to
97.80, Coca-Cola dropped 1.85 to 111.51 and Target dropped 3.05 to 79.65.
On the tube this coming week:
Wednesday, May 6
6:00 PM, NASCAR Race Hub, FOX Sports 1
Thursday, May 7
6:00 PM, NASCAR Race Hub, FS1
Friday, May 8
1:30 AM, NASCAR America - Scan All 43, NBC Sports Net
11:00 AM, NASCAR Masters of the Clock: The Legend of Martinsville, FS1
12:00 PM, NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Kansas practice, FS1
1:30 PM, NASCAR Race Hub - Weekend Edition, FS1
2:30 PM, NSCS Kansas final practice, FS1
3:30 PM, NASCAR Race Hub - Weekend Edition, FS1
4:30 PM, NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Kansas qualifying, FS1
6:00 PM, NASCAR Race Hub - Weekend Edition, FS1
6:30 PM, NSCS Kansas qualifying, FS1
8:30 PM, NCWTS Kansas race, FS1
Saturday, May 9
3:00 AM, NCWTS Kansas race re-air, FS1
11:00 AM, NSCS qualifying re-air, FS1
7:00 PM, NASCAR RaceDay, FS1
7:30 PM, NSCS Kansas race, FS1
Sunday, May 10
3:00 AM, NSCS Kansas race re-air, FS1
Monday, May 11
10:00 AM, NSCS Kansas race re-air, FS1
6:00 PM, NASCAR Race Hub, FS1
That’s about it for this week from 11 Gardner Drive, Westerly, and
R.I.02891. Ring my chimes at 401-596-5467.
E-mail:
smithpe_97_97@yahoo.com.
Phil Smith has been a
columnist for Speedway Scene and various
other publications for over 3 decades.
|
Source: Phil
Smith / Champ Trail
Posted: May
5, 2015 |
|
|