The Whelen Modified Tour ended it's
Spring Break last Sunday when the boys
of summer went "up country" to the
Monadnock Speedway for the Monadnock 200
at the Monadnock Speedway in Winchester,
N.H. The event had originally been
scheduled for Saturday but a pending bad
forecast pushed the date back a day.
Todd Szegedy showed everyone why he is
still someone to watch on the NASCAR
Whelen Modified Tour. Szegedy, the 2003
tour champion, started from the pole and
led every lap to win the Monadnock 200
Sunday for his 15th career tour win and
first since August of last year. With
his win Szegedy became the fourth
different winner in as many races this
season on the tour and it was his first
top-five finish of the season. Szegedy
held off Justin Bosingnore who followed
in second while Matt Hirschman was
third. Ron Silk was fourth and James
Civali completed the top five.Defending
race winner ted Christopher finished
sixth with Mike Stefanik seventh and Ron
Yuhas Jr. eighth. Erick Rudolph and
point leader Rowan Pennink completed the
top 10.
The race was slowed six times for
cautions which kept Szegedy's average
speed down to 48.491 mph. All yellows
were for spin-outs. Bryon Chew spun on
lap 2, Wade Cole on lap 38, Andy Seuss
on lap 48, Ed Flemke Jr on lap 85, Doug
Coby on lap 106 and Richie Pallai on lap
154. There were 28 cars on hand. Sixteen
of the original 28 starters finished on
the lead lap. According to reports the
event drew a respectable amount of fans.
Defending series champion Bobby Santos
had somewhat of a lackluster day. After
starting thirteenth, Santos worked his
way to ninth by lap 100 only to have his
tires give up as he faded to 15th by lap
130 and was lapped by lap 153. Saved by
the Lucky Dog provision Santos managed
to salvage a 15th for the day.
Pennink used his solid 10th place finish
to retain the series points lead by 25
over Ron Silk (644-619. Ted Christopher,
Mike Stefanik and Matt Hirschman round
out the top 5. Sixth through tenth are
Eric Beers, Eric Rudolph, Bobby Santos,
Todd Szegedy and Ron Yuhas Jr.
The Stafford Motor Speedway attempted to
run the Inaugural Lincoln Tech Modified
Racing Series event but to no avail as
rains brought the racing action to a
halt after 32 laps had been completed.
The SK Modifieds were also victims of
the wet stuff. Both events will be run
on Friday, June 29. Keith Rocco was
leading when the event was stopped.
The big story of the night was the fact
that Ted Christopher was not allowed to
compete in the Modified Racing Series
event because the engine in the Joe
Brady #00 was deemed illegal. The
Hartford Courant reported that Series
motor inspector Bob Carrita said car
owner Joe Brady tried to "blatantly bend
the rules". Evidently "someone"
installed material in a cylinder that
would give a faulty reading when
compression tests were conducted.
Before the rains came Stafford support
classes got their features in. Picking
up feature wins were Keith Rocco in the
30-lap Late Model feature, Tommy
Membrino, Jr. in the 20-lap SK Light
feature, Shawn Thibeault in the 20-lap
Limited Late Model feature, and Don Wood
in the 15-lap DARE Stock feature.
In action at the Waterford Speedbowl
Defending track and NASCAR Whelen
All-American Series national champion
Keith Rocco returned to Victory Lane,
picking up the checkered flag in the
night’s SK Modified® feature. Jason
Palmer picked up a career first win in
the Bob Valenti Auto Mall Late Model
division. The two Street Stock feature
races were swept by defending champion
Al Stone III. Glenn Colvin won the Mini
Stock race. Other winners on the night
included Paul Luggelle and Dana Dimatteo
in their respective NEMA Lite and
Legends Carsfeatures.
Rocco led the SK Modified® field to the
green flag in their 35-lap feature
looking to end a string of finishes
outside the top-five, including two 17th
place finishes. Nichole Morgillo, Kyle
James, Jeff Pearl and Tyler Chadwick
raced to the top-five positions behind
Rocco in the opening laps. James was the
first to pull out of line, challenging
Morgillo’s outside on lap-3. After three
laps of pursuit, James moved into the
position for good in turn three. Pearl
followed suit and was in third when the
field completed lap-7. James quickly
chased down the lead Rocco briefly
gained over the field and looked ready
to mount a challenge. Pearl ran alone in
third while Rob Janovic Jr. and Chadwick
made up the top-five as the race moved
past halfway continuing under green flag
conditions. The first caution finally
slowed the torrid pace on lap-21 when
Diego Monahan cut a left front tire and
stopped on the track in turn three.
Rocco got a great jump over James on the
restart. Pearl filled the gap to James’
inside and the pair spent five-laps
battling for the spot before Pearl
finally pulled ahead. Rocco was slowly
able to stretch his advantage over Pearl
as the race wore on. The interruption on
lap-21 proved to be the only one in a
cleanly competed event. Rocco checked
out to the win by several lengths over
Pearl at the checkered flag. He wired
the field for his fifth win on the year
and cut into Pearl’s point lead. James
held off Janovic to take third position
with Chadwick finishing in fifth.
In the Southland at the Bowman-Gray
Stadium in Winston-Salem, NC, Lee
Jeffreys and Burt Myers won twin 25 lap
Modified features.
At the Riverhead Raceway on Long Island,
Wayne Anderson took the NASCAR Modified
feature win.
In TV land NASCAR Race Hub will air on
the Speed Channel at 7:00pm on Tuesday
and Wednesday. NASCAR Now on espn2 airs
at 5:00pm on Tuesday and Wednesday. This
weeks race viewing begins on Tuesday at
1:00pm with a re-run of the 1967 Indy
500 on ESPN Classic. A re-run of the
1969 Indy 500 follows at 2:00pm. On
Wednesday at noon the Speed Channel
re-runs last weekend's NASCAR Sprint Cup
Toyota/Save Mart 350 that was held at
the Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, CA. On
Thursday, Speed replays last Saturday's
NASCAR Nationwide Series Bucyrus 200
that was run at Road America in Elkhart
Lake, WI. Speed goes live at 2:30pm for
Nationwide Series practice at Daytona.
Sprint Cup practice follows at 4:00pm.
At 6:00pm Versus presents the Lucas Oil
Motorsport Hour. Live coverage by Speed
continues at 6:30pm from Daytona with 90
minutes of the final Sprint Cup practice
session. At 8:00pm Speed presents The
Day: On the Fourth of July, 1984,
racing's living legend Richard
Petty won his 200th and final NASCAR
race. On Friday at noon Speed presents
the June 18 NASCAR K&N Pro Series East
event, the Langley 175, at the Langley
Speedway in Hampton, VA. At 4:00pm,
Speed goes live with Sprint Cup
qualifying from Daytona. Speed Center
follows at 6:30pm. At 7:00pm the action
shifts to ESPN for the NASCAR Nationwide
Series Subway Jalapeño 250 at the
Daytona Intl. Speedway. Trackside on
Speed follows at 11:00pm. Saturday's
viewing starts at 10:30am with NASCAR
Performance from the NASCAR Hall of Fame
on Speed. Trackside at Daytona follows
at 11:00am. At 4:30pm NASCAR RaceDay
previews the upcoming Sprint Cup event
at Daytona. At 6:30pm the action shifts
to TNT for a one hour pre-race show that
will lead to the 7:30pm start of the
NASCAR Sprint Cup Coke Zero 400 at the
Daytona Intl. Speedway. On Sunday, Speed
Center at 7:00pm and NASCAR Victory Lane
at 8:00pm sum up the day's racing. At
9:00pm Wind Tunnel with Dave Despain
closes
out the weekend.
On the Speedway Stock Market scene last
week two of the three speedway stocks
had positive results for the week.
Speedway Motorsports went up 0.37 to
13.84 and the International Speedway
Corporation went up 0.24 to 26.83 while
Dover Motorsports dropped 0.01 to 1.92.
NASCAR Cup sponsor Sprint dropped 0.19
to 5.00 while NASCAR fuel supplier Sun
Oil went up 0.23 to 39.15. NASCAR tire
supplier Goodyear went up 1.08 to 15.88.
Two of the three car makers were up for
the week. Leading the way was Toyota
which went up 1.78 to 81.29. General
Motors went up 0.92 to 29.92 while Ford
dropped 0.03 to 13.24. In the home
improvement sector, Home Depot went up
0.55 to 35.08 and Lowes went up 0.42 to
23.25. The big team sponsors were hot
and cold. Dupont went up 2.39 to 51.96
while Coca-Cola dropped 0.67 to 67.84.
Target Department Stores dropped 0.20 to
46.33 while Aarons Rentals went up 1.00
to 27.00 and Fedex went up 4.88 to
91.87.
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
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