The NASCAR Whelen
Modified Tour Series has closed out
another successful season. Car counts
were down a bit but overall the
competition was great. When the final
checker dropped at Thompson, Ted
Christopher led the championship
standings by 127 points over Matt
Hirschman. Hirschman, who lost his ride
in the Bennett mount, was one of the
first to congratulate the new champion.
Todd Szegedy finished the year in third
spot with Chuck Hossfeld and Ronnie Silk
rounding out the top five. Rounding out
the top ten in the final standings are
Eric Beers, Mike Stefanik, Rowan Pennick,
Jimmy Blewett and Ryan Preece. Next on
the agenda is the annual Banquet of
Champions at the Mohegan Sun Casino in
December.
|
The weekly
stars of NASCAR head for Las Vegas
this coming weekend for the 27th
annual NASCAR Whelen All-American
Series awards banquet at the Rio
Hotel. The event will be co-hosted
by Mike Joy and Dick Berggren,
NASCAR on FOX” telecast teammates.
Both began their careers at local
short tracks, and understand the
sense of accomplishment the
honorees will receive. Joy, the
best there is when it comes to
calling a race began his career at
the Riverside Park Speedway.
Berggren began his racing career
at the Stafford Motor Speedway as
a driver. He later switched to
race photography and writing
before becoming a broadcaster.
Both have never forgotten their
roots. Those of us in the
northeast are proud to call them
“One of Us”.
At the Waterford Speedbowl
competitors are still wondering if
and or when they will be paid for
the Fall Finale. Word has it that
track operator Jerry Robinson will
not renew his lease of the
shoreline oval, which means that
the purse will never be paid.
NASCAR, which competitors at
Waterford were forced to join
needs to go after the non-paying
promoter and take legal action if
necessary in order to protect
their paying members.
In True Value Modified Series
action at the Twin State Speedway
Matt Hirschman, who has won 12
times in three of four Modified
racing series won the Ricky Miller
Memorial 100. Hirschman started
16th. Lisbon Connecticut’s Chris
Pasteryak came from last starting
spot to finish seventh and sewed
up the series championship. In the
100 lapper, Dwight Jarvis finished
second and was followed by Kirk
Alexander, Jon McKennedy and Bob
Goodenough. |
Mike Joy interviews Ronnie Wyckoff
in the 70's before his
"NASCAR on Fox" career, Mike along
with Dr. Dick Berggren will be
hosting the NASCAR Whelen
All-American Series banquet. |
Belated
congratulations to Bill Slater who was
presented with a special recognition
award from Mark and Lisa Arute from the
Stafford Motor Speedway. It was Slater
who convinced construction company owner
Jack Arute to lease the speedway in 1970
when it was about to go under. Arute
bought the track prior to the 1971
season and with Slater’s help made the
track one of the premier racing
facilities in the northeast. Slater,
originally from Danielson, CT, began his
racing career at the Waterford Speedbowl
and at the Lonsdale Arena. In addition
to his being a vital part of the
Stafford Speedway Slater’s
accomplishments include winning the 1965
Race of Champions at the Langhorne
Speedway in Pennsylvania and wins at the
New Jersey State Fairgrounds at Trenton.
He was also a five time track champion
and all time Sportsman winner at the
Norwood Arena in Massachusetts.
In All Star Modified action at Epping,
NH on Saturday night a paltry field of
only 15 Modifieds were on hand.
According to reports Ronnie Silk led
about 2/3 of the 100 lapper before being
passed by Mike Stefanik for the lead and
eventual win. Silk hung on for second
with Matt Hirschman, third. Kyle Ebersol
and Rowan Pennick rounded out the top
five. Among those who didn’t finish was
Ted Christopher who ended up 11th.
Interest continues to build for the 6th
Annual North-South Shootout: Nov. 4th -
8th at the Concord Motorsports Park in
Concord, NC. The main event will be the
6th Annual John Blewett III Memorial 100
lapper. Also part of the weekend are the
SK type Modifieds, Vintage Modifieds,
Rolling Thunder/Vintage Sportsman and
EastWest Supermodifieds
|
Seymour the Clowns antics with
Bugs Stevens was just a part of
the crazyness that racing
experienced in the 60's and 70's. |
Get well wishes
to John Farone Jr who underwent
surgery for Colon Cancer on Friday
October 17th. He was operated on
at the New Britain General
Hospital and was released on
Wednesday, October 22nd and will
be recovering at home for the next
few weeks. According to doctors
the prognosis is very good as they
believe all the cancer was
removed. For those of you who
don’t know, John or Butch spent
countless hours as Seymour the
Clown. Butch, who cheered up so
many could now use some cheering
up of his own. Cards of cheer can
reach Butch at home, 1725 Berlin
Turnpike #104, Berlin, Ct. 06037.
Two days after returning home
Farone had the misfortune of
having his wife Sandra pass away.
Sandra was a niece of the late
racing legend "Money Bags" Moe
Gherzi. |
It seems like
yesterday but it was 23 years ago in
1985 that we lost Richie Evans at
Martinsville. Considered the undisputed
King of the Modifieds, Evans' influence
lives on today.
In TV land this week televised action on
the Speed Channel begins on Thursday at
noon with a replay of last weekend’s
Sprint Cup Pep Boys Auto 500 at the
Atlanta Motor Speedway. On Friday, Speed
gets an early start with live coverage
of NASCAR Nationwide Series practice at
the Texas Motor Speedway at 10:00am.
Qualifying for the Nationwide Series
will also be on Speed starting at 6:30.
NASCAR Live follows at 8:00. At 8:30
Speed has the pre-race show for the
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Chevy
Silverado 350k, which gets the green at
8:30. Trackside at Texas Motor Speedway
rounds out the day at 11:30. Saturday’s
action begins at 3:00pmwith a one hour
Sprint Cup practice session. At 3:00
espn has their Nationwide Series
pre-race show that will lead into a 3:30
start of the O’Reilly Challenge at the
Texas Motor Speedway. At 4:00pm the
Speed Channel hosts a two-hour recap of
the recent Super Dirt Week at Syracuse.
The DIRT Modifieds on the mile at
Syracuse will raise the hair on the back
of your neck. At 6:00pm espn2 hosts
Sprint Cup final practice from Texas. On
the Speed Channel at 6:00 will be the
World of Outlaws Late Models for two
hours of competition from two tracks in
Ohio. At 8:00pm Speed provides same day
delayed coverage of the World of Outlaws
Sprint Cars on the dirt track at Lowes
Motor Speedway in Charlotte, NC.
Sunday’s viewing begins at 10:00am with
NASCAR RaceDay. ESPN2 has NASCAR Now on
at the same time. Speed returns at
2:00pm with another 60 minutes of
RaceDay. At 3:00 the action moves to ABC
for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Dickies 500
from Texas, which gets the green at
3:30. The Speed Channel wraps up the
weekend on Sunday night with The Speed
Report at 7:00pm, NASCAR Victory Lane at
8:00pm and Wind Tunnel with Dave Despain
at 9:00pm. If you can stay awake ESPN2
has a one-hour NASCAR Now at 10:00pm.
On the Speedway Stock Market Scene last
week the racing related stocks reflected
the bear market conditions on Wall
Street with a few exceptions including
the International Speedway Corporation,
which went up 1.44 to 28.24 and NASCAR
Cup sponsor Sprint/Nextel which went up
0.10 to 3.16. Speedway stocks, Dover
Downs, which dropped 1.32 to 2.05, and
Speedway Motorsports, which dropped 0.67
to 12.36, pretty much followed market
trends. Nationwide, which sponsors
NASCAR’s second division, dropped 0.43
to 48.56. NASCAR fuel supplier Sun Oil
dropped 0.96 to 24.19 while Goodyear
dropped 2.81 to 8.89. The NASCAR team
sponsors didn’t escape. Dupont dropped
4.44 to 29.33 as Coca-Cola dropped 3.05
to 38.28. Target Department Stores
dropped 6.45 to 32.92 as Aaron’s Rentals
dropped 1.45 to 19.28. In the home
improvement sector Home Depot dropped
1.70 to 18.51 and Lowes dropped 2.11 to
17.20. The parcel carriers followed
suit. Fedex dropped 5.74 to 56.81 and
UPS
dropped 3.99 to 46.55. Still on the
bottom is the World Racing Group at
0.02.
That’s it for this week from 40
Clark St. Westerly RI 02891 . Ring
my chimes at 401-596-5467. E-Mail is
smithpe_97_97@yahoo.com
