Champ Trail - August 9, 2016

  The Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park was quiet this past week as final preparations are being made for this weeks Budweiser ‘King of Beers’ 150 which will take place this coming Wednesday, August 10, and will feature the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour, NEMA, and Thompson’s four NASCAR Whelen All-American Series divisions. The speedway will pay tribute to the late Ronnie Bouchard and the late Mario Fiore. The night will also see the debut of the all new book by Bones Bouncier on the life and exploits of the late Ronnie Bouchard.

  At the Stafford Motor Speedway on Friday night in front of a packed house, the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour was on hand with 25 cars for a 150 lapper. Jimmy Blewett and Justin Bonsignore were in the right place at the right time as leaders Doug Coby and Bobby Santos ran out of gas on the closing laps. Coby, who led twice, first from the start to lap 12, then from lap 16 to lap 143, saw his vision of victory disappear when his car sputtered on lap 144 and totally quit one lap later. Santos suffered the same fate on lap 151, after slowing on lap 150. Justin Bonsignore led laps 150 and 151 before being overtaken by Blewett. Coby ended up 20th and Santos, 17th. Brendon Bock, Chase Dowling and Eric Goodale rounded out the top five. Sixth thru tenth were Ron Silk, Max Zachem, Timmy Solomito, Woody Pitkat and Craig Lutz.
  If the fields of Modifieds continue to dwindle Melissa Fifield, who finished 22nd may finally break the top twenty. She completed 121 laps before being black flagged for going too slow. At that point she had been lapped 19 times!
  Taking down NASCAR Whelen All-American Series weekly feature wins on the night were Rowan Pennink in the SK Modified® feature, Tom Fearn in the Late Model feature, Marcello Rufrano was a first time winner in his very first career SK Light start, Justin Bren won the Limited Late Model feature, and Ryan Fearn scored the DARE Stock feature win.
  In the SK Modified feature, Pennink led Michael Gervais to the checkered flag to pick up his fourth win of the 2016 season. Keith Rocco finished third with Danny Cates and Woody Pitkat rounding out the top-5.

  The New London-Waterford Speedbowl their annual Wings & Wheels program on Saturday night. Jon McKennedy held off Richard Savary to win the 100-lap Valenti Modified Racing feature in the main event. Tyler Chadwick topped the field in the 35-lap SK Modified feature. Cory DiMatteo was the winner of the SK Light Modified feature. John Zych Jr. won the 25-lap NEMA Midget feature. PJ Stergois was the winner in the NEMA Lite feature. Geoffrey Sutton won the 25-lap ATQMRA Three-Quarter Midget feature. Mike McVetta won the 50-lap ISMA SuperModified feature
  In the VMRS 100, McKennedy, who started sixth in the 29-car field, rallied after being involved in a lap 32 crash that collected nearly half of the field. Ted Christopher spun as he exited turn two and ultimately collected 17 cars. Savary went to the lead by Woody Pitkat on lap 70 restart with McKennedy following him to second. Three laps later McKennedy went to the outside to take over the lead for good. Savary hung on to finish second with Woody Pitkat, third. Rounding out the top five was Mike Willis Jr and Dave Etheridge. Chris Pasteryak, Donnie Lashua, Geoff Gernhard, Brandon Dion, and Keith Rocco, rounded out the top ten.
  In the 35 lap SK Modified feature, Chadwick picked up his second victory of the season. Ted Christopher finished second and Diego Monahan was third. Bo Gunning took the field to the green from the pole with Chadwick to his outside and the pair put on a show over the opening segment of the race. On lap 6, Chadwick edged Gunning out for the lead at the line, but the pair remained side-by-side in the lead battle.
  With 20 laps left Gunning was able to get Chadwick to tuck in behind in second. A lap later slight contact between the two sent Gunning sliding sideways in turn two to bring out a caution and put Chadwick in the lead. On the ensuing restart it was Joey Gada getting by Adam Gada for second place with Christopher following to third place and Monahan to fourth. Caution flew again with 12 laps remaining and on the restart it was Christopher moving to second place past Joey Gada, with Monahan moving to third. But Chadwick was up to the task of keeping Christopher at bay over the final 10 laps. Christopher took one bumping shot at Chadwick on the final lap, but Chadwick held his line. Rounding out the top five was Joey Gada and Dennis Perry.

  At the Riverhead Raceway on Long Island Defending NASCAR Modified champion Tom Rogers Jr. of Riverhead and his team plotted out strategy Saturday afternoon in the pit area of Riverhead Raceway and when the night's 40-lap feature event was over that game plan worked to perfection as Rogers won his first feature event of 2016 after starting last. It was only the 5th start of the season for Rogers who is on the road to recovery after some early season health concerns. Said Rogers, "we decided this afternoon (Saturday) instead of using up our tires in the heat race that I'd take the green and pull into the infield. We knew that would start us last but with a 13-car field we felt we could march towards the front"

  In action at the Bowman-Gray Stadium in North Carolina Tim Brown and Burt Myers finished one-two in a rain shortened 100 lapper on Friday night. The NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour visited Bowman-Gray on Saturday night and ran the Strutmasters.com 199. Burt and Jason Myers finished one-two with Andy Seuss, third.

  On the speedway stock market scene last week, two of the three speedway stocks ended the wek on the positive side. Speedway Motorsports went up 0.22 to 17.89 and Dover Entertainment went up 0.03 to 2.13 while the International Speedway Corporation dropped 0.11 to 33.66. NASCAR fuel supplier Sunoco (Energy Transfer) went up 2.78 to 42.28 and NASCAR cup sponsor Sprint went up 0.03 to 6.17 while NASCAR tire supplier Goodyear dropped 0.44 to 28.23. Two of the three car manufacturers were down. Ford dropped 0.47 to 12.19 and General Motors dropped 0.74 to 30.80 while Toyota went up 0.36 to 115.96. In the home improvement sector, Home Depot dropped 1.43 to 136.91 and Lowes dropped 0.56 to 81.72. In the area of big team sponsorship, Coca-Cola dropped 0.06 to 142.35 and Target dropped 0.39 while McDonalds went up 1.56 to 119.21, Aarons Rentals went up 1.71 to 24.66 and Fedex went up 1.01 to 162.91.

  On the tube this week:

  Friday, August 12
6:00 PM, NASCAR Xfinity Series Mid-Ohio qualifying, USA Network

  Saturday, August 13
3:00 PM, NXS Countdown, USA
3:30 PM, NXS Mid-Ohio race, USA
8:00 PM, Undercover Boss - NASCAR, CNBC

   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: August 9, 2016