Champ Trail - May 16, 2016

  The NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour Series headed to the Langley Speedway in Hampton, Virginia last Saturday for round four of the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour season. Ryan Preece would not make it two straight as he vacated the seat of his No. 6 TS Haulers Chevrolet to get married to his longtime girlfriend. Needing a replacement driver, car owner Ed Partridge tabbed two-time Langley winner and four-time NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified champion George Brunnhoelzl III.
  Twenty five cars were on hand for the 150 lap event, City of Hampton "150". Doug Coby took the pole, the 21st of his career. Second fastest was Eric Goodale. Timmy Solomito, Rob Summers and Rowan Pennick completed the top five.
  Doug Coby started on the pole and for 99 laps had total control of the event. With Timmy Solomito hot on his tail, Coby set the pace of every lap with the exception of lap 55 when Solomito inched by. A competition caution shuffled the field as Rob Summers took the lead on the restart on lap 100. Coby retook the lead on lap 107 with Solomito close on his tail. Solomito tried all the tricks but to no avail. On lap143 Solomito went low between turns three and four. Coby attempted to block as Solomito hit and spun him. A caution was thrown but NASCAR took no action. Solomito then survived a restart with two laps to go and survived overtime to clinch the win. Coby was able to restart and ended up 15th at the checker. Max Zachem was sitting in the cat bird’s seat when Solomito executed the bump and run. On the ensuing restart Zachem got “freight trained” on the outside and ended up fourth. Eric Goodale finished in second, his best result of the season. Kyle Bonsignore finished third and Justin Bonsignore rounded out the top-five. Rob Summers, Rowan Pennink, Danny Bohn, Kyle Ebersole and Matt Swanson completed the top 10.
  The tour does not return to New England until June 14 for a Wednesday night event at the Thompson Motorsports Park Speedway.

  The Stafford Motor Speedway beat the big noreaster that was heading to New England. Late Models had top billing with the Call Before You Dig 811 50-lap extra distance feature event. Michael Bennett was the big winner, leading all 50 laps to take home the $1,811 winner’s check. Other feature winners were Ted Christopher, who outdueled Keith Rocco with a last lap pass in the SK Modified® feature, Cory DiMatteo won the SK Light feature for the second race in a row, Cliff Saunders outlasted his twin brother Al to take the checkers in the Limited Late Model feature, and Zack Robinson came out on top of a hard fought duel between himself and Johnny Walker to win the DARE Stock feature.
  In the 40-lap SK Modified® feature event. Christopher took the lead following a restart on lap 9. Rocco was in the mix by lap 26. Rocco was starting to work Christopher over for the lead as he was looking high and low for a way to make a pass for the lead on lap-26. Rocco nearly had a pass made on lap-30 but Christopher was able to shut the door on the move. Ron Williams was still in third with Tom Abele and Cam McDermott making up the top-5. Rocco was still looking high and low for a way around Christopher but he was still behind with 5 laps to go.
  Rocco was finally able to make a move and he took the lead with a move in turn 3 on lap-37. Christopher wasn’t going away quietly as he was all over Rocco’s bumper. The cars took the white flag locked together. Rocco led down the backstretch and into turn 3. Christopher made a power move in turn 3 to get alongside Rocco and he took the lead by a nose coming off turn 4 and he led Rocco to the line to take the win. Williams settled for third with Abele and McDermott rounding out the top five. Sixth thru tenth were Chase Dowling, Mike Christopher, Jr., Matt Galko, Michael Gervais, Jr and Rowan Pennink.
  Ted Christopher, at 58 years of age is the Staffords all-time winningest driver with 126 feature wins. His overall career total is 369 wins.

  There was no racing at the Riverhead Raceway on eastern Long Island last weekend. Faced with a ominous forecast calling for perhaps two and a half inches of rain coupled with temperatures not getting above the mid fifties, Riverhead Raceway owners Eddie & Connie Partridge and Tom Gatz called off Saturday nights NASCAR Whelen All American Series program.
  The call was made Friday morning in an effort to allow loyal competitors and fans ample time to make other plans for Mother's Day eve, a point that was appreciated by many teams judging by their posts on various social media outlets.
  Riverhead Raceway will try again this Saturday night May 20th as the Granite State Pro Stock Series treks southbound to Long Island for a 100-lap event. Joining the GSPSS on the NASCAR Whelen All American Series program are the NASCAR Modifieds, Figure Eights, a 30-lapper for the Blunderbusts, Super Pro Trucks, INEX Legend Race Cars, Mini Stocks and a Truck Enduro.

  Down in the south land, Tim Brown increased his Bowman Gray Stadium-record win total to 81 with a victory in the first 25-lap Modified Division race, with Bobby Measmer Jr. taking second and Burt Myers taking fifth. Brown drew a “14” after the victory, forcing him to start the second 25-lap Modified race in that spot, and he was part of a first-lap wreck. Jonathan Brown, who finished 13th in the first race, won from the outside pole by beating pole-sitter Brody Jones, Randy Butner and Myers to the line.

  On the speedway stock market scene this week all three speedway stocks were down. The International Speedway Corporation dropped 0.85 to 35.75 while Speedway Motorsports dropped 0.47 to 17.04 and Dover Entertainment dropped 0.07 to 2.03. NASCAR cup sponsor Monster Beverage went up 0.17 to 47.62, NASCAR fuel supplier Sunoco (Energy Transfer)went up 0.31 to 23.02 and NASCAR tire supplier Goodyear went down 1.01 to 34.33. The auto manufacturers were down for the week. General Motors dropped 0.16 to 33.61 while Ford dropped 0.22 to 10.92 and Toyota dropped 3.50 to 106.41. In the home improvement sector, Lowes dropped 1.22 to 84.72 and Home Depot went up 1.15 to 156.88. The big team sponsor’s stocks were mostly negative except for McDonalds which went up 1.37 to 145.33. Coca-Cola dropped 5.81 to 199.93, Target dropped 1.52 to 55.80, Aarons Rentals dropped 1.43 to 34.96 and Fedex dropped 0.76 to 191.66.

  On the tube this week:

  Thursday, May 18
6:00 PM, NASCAR Race Hub, Fox Sports 1

  Friday, May 19
3:30 AM, One Hot Night: the NASCAR 1992 All-Star Race, FS1
4:30 AM, Empty Cup: Quest for the 1992 NASCAR Championship, FS1
5:00 AM, The 600: History of NASCAR's Toughest Race, FS1
1:00 PM, Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Charlotte All-Star practice, FS1
2:30 PM, NASCAR Race Hub - Weekend Edition, FS1
3:00 PM, MENCS Charlotte All-Star practice, FS1
3:30 PM, One Hot Night: the NASCAR 1992 All-Star Race, FS1
4:30 PM, NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Charlotte qualifying, FS1
6:00 PM, MENCS Charlotte All-Star qualifying, FS1
8:00 PM, NCWTS SetUp, FS1
8:30 PM, NCWTS Charlotte race, FS1

  Saturday, May 20
12:30 PM, Empty Cup: Quest for the 1992 NASCAR Championship, FS1
1:00 PM, NCWTS Charlotte race re-air, FS1
4:00 PM, NASCAR RaceDay, FS1
4:30 PM, MENCS Charlotte All-Star qualifying, FS1
6:00 PM, MENCS Charlotte Open / All-Star qualifier race, FS1
8:00 PM, MENCS Charlotte All-Star race, FS1

  Sunday, May 21
12:00 PM, MENCS Charlotte All-Star race re-air, 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 16, 2017