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March 25, Long Beach, NY--- It’s been over a month since we’ve penned a new column. In that time, we’ve been very busy starting up a new business, which, along with babysitting our 4-year-old grandson, has taken up all of our time. We’ve joined the wellness and weight-loss industry, and managed to lose over 20 lbs. since mid-February. In the process, our cholesterol has dropped to within its proper limits for the first time in over 25 years. Anyway, now it’s time to ‘pay the piper’, as we catch up on some of the happenings we’ve missed.
Annually, a group of drivers, car-owners, crews, families, and others, get together to celebrate the achievements of their own division. This year S.A.F.E.R. had a brand new venue, with their dinner/dance being held at The Beach Club in Ronkonkoma. Some of the luster that had been missing for the past few years was regained, as over 100 people turned out for the event.
One of the reasons that we like going to this banquet every year is that when someone gets up to thank the people who made his/her particular achievement possible, we can all hear their speech. We haven’t been to the Riverhead Raceway Banquet in a couple of years (I think they misplaced our invitation). That is in part, due to the fact that the running of the North-South Shootout™ is one the same weekend, as well as the fact that when someone gets up to the microphone to express their thanks, nobody can hear a word their saying. That, in part, is because they either don’t care, have already shown up to the banquet half drunk, or are just plain rude.
However, when those people show up at the Riverhead banquet get together to talk one-on-one, they are some of the nicest bunch of people you can imagine. It’s a Jeckel & Hyde situation at the banquet. Go figure…
But we would like to thank Joe Saraceno and the members of S.A.F.E.R. for the free tickets to this year’s very enjoyable event.
We were very gratified to see that John Wellman was inducted into the Hall of Fame for everything that he does for SAFER. Although he does a lot for racing on Long Island in general, it seems that SAFER publicly makes their thanks and appreciation known. It’s a shame that John has asked us not to publicize everything that he does, so that everyone knows how generous and good-hearted he is. Still, we know. Nor will we forget. In fact, we’ll go even one step further. If John Wellman isn’t the nicest person that we’ve ever met in racing, we’ll be darned if we can figure out who is.
AND THE OSCAR GOES TO--- Some of the S.A.F.E.R. awards that were handed out went to:
Paul
Specht John Zell Memorial Sportsman
Award
Tom Graff Rookie of the Year
Ken Hyde S.A.F.E.R.
Achievement Award
Bill Farrell Best Crew Member
of the Year
Carl Baxter Best Appearing Car
Award
Carl Baxter, Dorothea Hyde Dedicated Service Award
Tommy Guida Crew Chief of the Year
Mitch Butrich Car Owner of the Year
Rick Swanson John Kraft Award (new)
Top 12 in Points
Tim
Farrell 12th
Dorothea Hyde 11th
Will Farrell 10th
Carl Voelker Jr. 9th
Tom Graff 8th
Paul Specht 7th
Tom Ferrara 6th
Jim Donaldson 5th
Mike Mujsce 4th
Carl Baxter 3rd
Kenny Hyde 2nd
Tom Kraft 1st
Inducted into the Ernie Maynor Memorial Hall of Fame
John Wellman
Steven ‘Smithy’ Smith
Don Gerle
Again, it was a great, fun night. Anyone who missed it should try to make it for next year’s annual soirée.
RUMORS--- WHAT RUMORS? Despite some of the wild rumors that have been floating around Long Island about the controversial JR Bertuccio, he stated to us in no uncertain terms that he would be back at Riverhead in 2007 for the full season. To that end, he took the trip down to Caraway Speedway in Asheboro, NC for the season opening Whelen Southern Modified Tour 150 this past Saturday night.
His night ended early on lap 24, as something appeared to break on the Gershow Recycling entry, spinning into the wall. He climbed out unscathed, although the same couldn’t be said for the right front of his car. Last years’ defending race winner Ted (TC) Christopher ended up playing bumper tag with local hot shoe Burt Myers. The result was a red flag, Christopher walking slowly down the front-stretch toward his car hauler while being soundly booed by the southern crowd, and Myers finishing in 2nd. It was not a good night for the northern contingent. Bertuccio, Christopher, and Jamie Tomaino all went home early.
Meanwhile, former Northern Tour regular L.W. Miller took the win. Next week, it’s on to the famous Music City Motorplex in Nashville, TN. We don’t know how many northerners will be heading down. We do know the RoC champion Andy Seuss will be making the trip. Seuss and his #70 Rockingham Boat team have entered the April 1st NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour event at the half-mile facility and the young racer is excited about going there for the first time.
“I’ve heard a lot about the track and have seen it get a ton of publicity when the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and the NASCAR Busch Series went there. Nashville itself is a great landmark in the United States. It will be neat to go there and race. Hopefully, I can add my name to the history books.
“We’re confident going to Nashville. We’ve had good luck on the NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour. Our last time down there, we sat on the outside pole. This time we’re shooting for a pole backed up by a nice solid top-five finish.”
Waterford kicks it up next Saturday and Sunday with their annual Budweiser Modified Nationals. A fairly new and growing division will be at Waterford, that being the Northeast Ford Focus Series, a division of USAC. We’re not certain as yet whether or not we’ll be able to get to Waterford; but we do want to catch this series in action sometime in 2007. We’ve heard some good things about the series and its drivers.
NEMA (Northeast Midget Association) also kicks it up at Waterford. Ben Seitz is the 3-time defending champion, who is looking to be the first to ever win four championships in a row at NEMA.
Thompson has their pre-season warm-ups on Saturday, while Stafford has their annual Connecticut Spring Motorcycle Swap Meet on Sunday. After the ‘Mod Nats’, Waterford gets underway a week later with the beginning of their Whelen All-American Series season.
Thompson’s annual Ice Breaker is on April 14, as the Whelen Modified Tour gets started. The same day, Wall Township Speedway has their warm-ups. Warm-ups at Riverhead won’t start until April 21st.
One quick note--- Long Island Motorsports News has a contest giving away one pair of tickets for the IceBreaker, while also giving away two pairs of tickets to the Thunder At The Shore at Wall Township Speedway for those that like to watch great Modified action. Go to www.LongIslandMotorsports.com to enter and for more information.
It seems that Rusty Wallace is the latest to have added a ‘driver development’ team to the Busch East Series, with driver Chase Austin at the helm. Austin claims over 100 wins in Go-Karts in his resume. Dale Earnhardt Inc. with Andy Santerre Motorsports, Joe Gibbs Racing, Ginn Racing, Wood Brothers/JTG Racing, Ken Schrader Racing Inc., and Fitz Motorsports are some of the other entries in 2007. It would appear that the demise of the BES is not as imminent as some would suggest.
The North-South Shootout™ which has been shown to be a major force in the post-race season because of its major prestige has announced a new addition. The Super-Modifieds will be part of the action this coming November 2nd & 3rd at Concord Motorsport Park. We can’t wait to watch those cars rocket around the tri-oval.
Whelen Engineering’s Phil Kurze will be the Grand Marshall of the annual Tech-Net Spring Sizzler, Presented by CarQuest at Stafford Motor Speedway on April 27-29th. As our friend Walt Newcomb would say, we can only hope for Whelen Weather for that weekend. Again in 2007, NASCAR New England can be viewed on NESN (New England Sports Network), in its regular Saturday time slot, commencing on June 2nd, and running for 15 weeks.
*****
Those are out thoughts this time. What’s yours? Questions, comments, and complaints will reach us at liracenews@hotmail.com. Until next time, Happy Motoring!
Mike Fields has written for the Area Auto Racing News, Raceway Media Magazine, as well as being a contributing author for the book Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul. He has also been a co-host of a weekly motorsports radio program, and a track announcer. Fields currently writes a weekly internet column, and is an occasional contributing columnist for the Riverhead Racer, the track program for Long Island's Riverhead Raceway.
While not at his full-time job (babysitting his very rambunctious almost 4-year old grandson), he is the owner of The Hero Card Store!, providing specialty autograph cards to racecar drivers and teams. He may be contacted by e-mail at info@LongIslandMotorsports.com, or by phone at (516) 376-4028.
Modified graphic by Tom Coufalik of www.pcracers.net.
Disclaimer: Views expressed by columnists and all others on this website are strictly their own, and may not necessarily reflect the views and/or opinions of the management of Long Island Motorsports News.
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