Eddie MacDonald, Frank Ruocco, Scott Foster Jr., Matt Gallo, Andrew Durand and Norm Sears take down feature wins

June 10--Westfield, MA--- I hope everyone will bare with me with my columns now because I’m trying a different point of view in my writing. I will still be talking about the action that happens on/off the track at Stafford Motor Speedway.

As most of you might have known Friday was the 17^th annual TSI Harley Davidson 150 for the Busch East drivers.

Before the race started I was talking with fellow columnist and host of Stafford Motor Speedway, Deane Mercier, and he was telling me how there were twelve rookies in the thirty car field. After this bit of info I was curious to see what was going to happen in the feature event.

In the race, fans saw only four leaders and a lot of single file racing. There were few battles though throughout the field. Most of the challenges for position, including the lead happened on restarts. Eddie MacDonald, the race winner lead the last eighty one laps. MacDonald was able to take over the lead after caution number four and never looked back.

I found out later on that this was MacDonald’s first race back and wasn't even thought of as a contender for the win. 

The SK Modified feature event was very active. Brad Hietala was able to take the lead for the first lap. But on lap one was the first of many cautions. Then on the restart it was Zach Sylvester taking over the lead. Little did I realize, this was the calm before the storm. As I was watching the race I noticed 'TC' Ted Christopher in #13 slicing his way through the field. While this was happening, more and more cautions were coming out. Like many other people I was beginning to think TC had the car to beat in this forty lap event, but he ended up getting involved in two cautions. Able to hold down the lead till the restart on lap thirty four was Sylvester. He lost the lead to Frank Ruocco in the #91. How Ruocco survived this race with all of the cautions and beating and banging was a mystery to myself and probably many other people that were sitting in the stands.

In the Late Models it was the quickest race because it had only three yellow flag in the thirty lap event. Showing his muscle early was Ryan Posocco. Tip-toeing his way up to the front was Scott Foster in his #44 machine. Foster was able to take command of the field on lap eleven.

During the SK Lights I had realized that a rookie should never start on the front row. Why you ask? Well I’ve been noticing that when a rookie starts up front, they cant shift into gear fast enough and they always end up in the back. This week it happened to Kyle Spencer in the #18. Spencer had a hard time shifting his car into gear twice, which caused two cautions. After the second time he was sent to the back of the field. Once he was put to the back of the field it was the #09 of Raymond Grassetti taking the lead. Grassetti didn’t last that long in the lead because Matt Gallo in his #77 Guida’s Milk and Ice Cream machine coming up through the field. Gallo was able to take the lead on lap eight and he never looked back.

For the third time this season it was the # 43 R.A.D Auto machine driven by Andrew Durand taking down the win. I’ve been watching this kid race all season and I’ve realized that he can race. I can also talk from experience (due to the fact I got to drive a go-kart powered by R.AD), he has a great engine builder to help him.