Tour type Modified and SK type Modified racing at the New Smyrna World Series continued on Monday night. In Tour type competition Ronnie Silk got the best of Ted Christopher on lap 14 and went on to take the 25 lap win. Christopher finished second and was followed by John Jensen, Kevin Goodale and Rob Fuller. Keith Rocco was the 20 lap SK type feature winner.
 
The second rain out of the series occurred on Tuesday night. It was announced that Don Lia informed Bob Garbarino that he would not defend his NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour Series title as he had secured a ride in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series.

On Wednesday night at New Smyrna temperatures were in the low 30’s but emotions and tempers were high. Ted Christopher won the tour type John Blewett III Memorial 50 lapper. Christopher took the lead from Chuck Hossfeld on lap 8 and in the end, held off Ron Silk for the win. Silk was later disqualified in a post race inspection when officials discovered an illegal cam shaft in his “Spec Engine”. Chuck Hossfeld was moved up into second spot. Silks night had only begun as the SK type event would turn ugly. He ended up with the win but it wasn’t pretty as he and Keith Rocco had a race-long conflict that ended with physical violence between two teams. Rocco and Silk tangled in the late stages of the event with Rocco incurring getting the most damage. As tow trucks hooked up the Rocco car he picked up a 2x4 and threw it at Silk, hitting his car just above the window. Rocco’s crew made repairs in time for the restart. Rocco restarted in fourth spot after being waved by cars that were in the rear. On the restart Silk’s engine blubbered as Rocco shot into the lead. The action reached a fever pitch on the white flag lap. With Silk and Rocco on the backstretch, Silk rode him up to the point where he hit the wall. Silk took the checker and pitted after a cool-down lap. Rocco followed him to victory lane where the name-calling turned into a physical confrontation. Track security was forced to Mace some of those including Rocco in order to bring the crowd under control. The end result was that Rocco was escorted off the track and was told that he was done for the week.

Silk returned on Thursday night and came away a double winner as he won both SK type and Mod Tour type events. Silk was unable to get a replacement engine or camshaft. Instead, his crew added 100# to the cars weight. In the tour type feature Silk passed Chuck Hossfeld on lap 9 and ran pretty much uncontested the rest of the 25 lap distance. Hossfeld finished second followed by James Civale and Eric Goodale. Ted Christopher finished 14th after wrecking. Silk went pole to pole in the SK type event.

Friday night’s Richie Evans Memorial 100 was rained out and rescheduled to Saturday night.

The skies were clear and the weather was cold for the Richie Evans Memorial on Saturday night. Matt Hirschman took the lead from James Civali on lap 89 to win the 100 lap contest. Ron Silk, who had been running one of the new spec engines had his crew do an engine change and finished third. Rowan Pennick and Kyle Ebersol rounded out the top five. Ted Christopher finished 14th and wrapped up the series championship by10 points over John Jensen. The SK types did not run. Ron Silk was declared the series champion.

In TV land this weeks viewing on the Speed Channel begins on Tuesday at 8:00am with NASCAR in a Hurry followed by What’s the Deal? with Jimmy Spencer at 8:30. At 5:00pm the action moves to espn2 for NASCAR Now. NASCAR Now will also be on at the same time on Wednesday and Thursday. At 7:30 NASCAR Race Hub goes on the Speed Channel. Race Hub will be on at the same time on Wednesday and Thursday. At 8:00pm Speed has a new program titled “Race in 60: NASCAR Sprint Cup Daytona 500 wrapup”. Wednesday’s viewing begins at noon with a replay on the Speed Channel of last weeks Daytona 500. On Thursday, Speed will replay last weeks NASCAR Nationwide Series Camping World 300that was run at Daytona. Speed debuts another new program, MotorWeek at 10:30am on Friday. MotorWeek, will provide unbiased, consumer-oriented auto news and features. At 2:00pm Speed goes west to the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, CA for Nationwide Series practice. A 90 minute practice session for the Sprint Cup cars follow at 3:00pm followed by 90 more minutes of Nationwide Series practice at 4:30pm. Speed goes live at Fontana for 30 minutes at 6:00pmfollowed by Sprint Cup qualifying at 6:30pm. At 8:30 Trackside at Fontana leads into another 90 minutes of Sprint Cup practice. Saturday’s action starts at noon with NASCAR Live at Fontana. Nationwide Series qualifying starts at 12:30pm on Speed. NASCAR Live goes again at 2:00pm followed by a 2-1/2 hour Sprint Cup practice at 2:30pm. The action switches to espn2 at 5:00pm for the Nationwide Series pre-race program that will lead to a 5:30pm start of the NASCAR Nationwide Series Stater Bros. 300 at the Auto Club Speedway. Sunday’s action starts at noon with NASCAR RaceDay for two hours. At 2:00pm the action switches to FOX for the Sprint Cup pre-race show that will lead to the start of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Auto Club 500 at the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, CA. On Sunday night at 7:00pm The Speed Report wraps up the racing at Fontana. At 8:00 NASCAR Victory Lane highlights the Auto Club 500 and at 9:00pm its Wind Tunnel with Dave Despain. Capping off the week is Madhouse on the History Channel on Sunday night at 11:00pm.

On the Speedway Stock Market Scene two of the three speedway stocks finished out the week on a positive note. Speedway Motorsports went up 0.47 to 16.70. The International Speedway Corporation went up 0.04 to 25.51 while Dover Motorsports dropped 0.11 to 2.03. Nascar Cup sponsor Sprint dropped 0.27 to 3.16 while fuel supplier Sun Oil went up 0.28 to 25.92 and tire supplier Goodyear went up 0.64 to 13.28. The car makers held their own. Toyota, with all their troubles, went up 2.34 to 77.05. Ford went up 0.21 to 11.12 while General Motors closed where they opened, at 0.60. In the home improvement sector, Home Depot went up 2.02 to 29.00 and Lowes went up 0.57 to 22.16. The team sponsors had a mixed bag. Dupont dropped 0.45 to 32.28 while Coca-Cola went up 1.69 to 51.81. Target Department Stores dropped 0.73 to 48.64 while Aaron’s Rentals went up 1.70 to 30.22.

That’s it for this week from 11 Gardner Drive, Westerly RI 02891. Ring my chimes at 401-596-5467. E-Mail is smithpe_97_97@yahoo.com