April 21, Brockton, MA--- As part of a season-long celebration of 60 years of Modified champions, NASCAR will honor legends Ernie Gahan and Red Byron at Stafford Motor Speedway in Stafford Springs, Conn., this Sunday, April 27 prior to the Tech-Net Spring Sizzler.

NASCAR plans to honor each of its 31 all-time Modified champions throughout the season. The celebration began with the recognition of Frankie Schneider, Donny Lia and Richie Evans at the Icebreaker at Thompson International Speedway on April 6.

Gahan will be present for the pre-race festivities at Stafford and will be honored for the many accomplishments during his career, including the 1966 NASCAR Modified title. Byron, the first NASCAR champion in 1948, will be honored posthumously.

Like many drivers in his day, Gahan traversed the east coast and ran up to four races a week during his three-decade career. After getting his start in auto racing at Dover (N.H.) Speedway in 1948, Gahan compiled more than 300 feature wins on dirt and asphalt, and his career peaked in 1966 when he captured the NASCAR Modified championship. He was a 1990 inductee into the New York State Stock Car Association Hall of Fame and was a member of the inaugural induction class of the New England Auto Racers Hall of Fame in 1998.

The central figure in arguably the three most-important firsts in NASCAR history, Byron won the first NASCAR-sanctioned race on the beaches of Daytona in 1948, captured the first NASCAR title in a Modified that same year, and was the first NASCAR stock car champion in 1949. Byron has been a part of NASCAR lore since he navigated the beach and road course in his Ford Modified to win the first NASCAR race on Feb. 15, 1948. A member of the National Motorsports Hall of Fame, Byron will be inducted into the International Motorsports Hall of Fame on April 24. He was also named one of “NASCAR’s 50 Greatest Drivers” in 1998. Byron passed away in 1960 at the age of 45.

Following his season-opening win at Thompson on April 6, Ed Flemke Jr. and the rest of the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour drivers will make their second stop of the season at Stafford. Practice and time trials will take place this Saturday, April 26 while the 200-lap main event on Sunday, April 27 is set to go green at approximately 2:30 p.m.

Matt Kobyluck of Uncasville, Conn. began the 2008 season with an annual appearance in the NASCAR Camping World Series West race at Phoenix International Raceway last week with a tenth place finish. This week, the Mohegan Sun Casino race team is anxious to begin a bid for the NASCAR Camping World Series East title at Greenville-Pickens Speedway. If Phoenix was any indication, luck will be on Kobyluck’s side.

“At one point we were two laps down, but because I was racing the track and my own race, we were able to stay out of trouble and work ourselves back up,” said Kobyluck of his finish in the Jimmie Johnson Foundation 150 at Phoenix. “I was so relaxed the whole night. We were trying different things to make the car better, using the cautions to our advantage, and it worked out real well.”

Kobyluck started the race from 15th, but a flat tire sent him into the pits during green flag conditions. The team went two laps down, but opted to remain in the race. The only strategy: stay in front of the one other car that was as many laps down as he. Several wrecks brought out the caution enough times for Kobyluck to get back on the lead lap through the beneficiary rule, but there were still some very close calls for the Mohegan Sun Casino Chevrolet. At one point, Kobyluck spun completely around but was able to get going under his own power.

“Everything happened in slow motion. I was spinning and people were spinning beside me. I was on the brake and off the brake. When I got done spinning, I was pointed in the right direction. No one could believe it!” Kobyluck explained. “I spun in between all of them and never made contact with any of them.” Kobyluck’s top-10 was his first at the one-mile track since 2006.

MotoTown, the indoor dirt track complex in Windsor, Conn., decided to call it a season and will not run through the summer. The remainder of their schedule has been scratched according to the organizers of the New England Dirt Track Series. NEDTS organized several events at that venue during the fall and winter. The report said that the venue will reopen in October. No doubt the change was the result of trying to book various series that had commitments at outdoor tracks in New England and New York State, according to our source in the New England Dirt Track Series flat track motorcycle club.

The Mad Dog Motorsports (MDM) team is just one week away from embarking on their 2008 campaign. The Berkley-based team plans to take in the practice sessions at the Seekonk Speedway. The team will be starting their first season in Seekonk’s top-tier Pro Stock division. For the past three seasons, lead driver Jake Vanada, has been a top contender in the Allison Legacy North Race Series (ALNRS). Most recently, Jake is coming off of a season in which he finished second in the final point standings in 2007. During last year’s campaign, Jake won three races, finished in the top five-12 times, and the top ten-13 times. Jake hopes to carry that momentum into the 2008 season as he competes for the Rookie of the Year title at the Cement Palace.

“We have experienced a good deal of success in our brief history. I am excited to continue that trend in 2008, as we move into a full-size stock car for our first full season. There will be a learning curve, but we have a dedicated team and they are up for the challenge,” said Jake. There's another practice session planned for next Saturday, May 3 with the season ready to begin on Sunday afternoon, May 4.

Joey Logano of Middletown, Conn., a development driver for Joe Gibbs Racing, has filed an entry in the Venturini Motorsports Chevrolet for the ARCA/REMAX stockcar event at the reopened Rockingham Speedway in NC set for Sunday, May 4.

After participating in the ARCA RE/MAX Series open test at Rockingham in March where Logano was one of the quickest drivers, the Joe Gibbs Racing team utilized Logano Wednesday (April 16th) at Rockingham to test and gather information for all of their NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race teams.

“I’m looking forward to racing here,” said Logano. “It’s going to be a sweet race. There is going to be so much stuff going on with this race and the strategies that it’s going to be really cool to be a part of it. I feel like we definitely have a fast car that will be capable of winning this thing.” The southern New England standout will be among several from various NASCAR divisions taking in this event.

Defending champion Rob Janovic Jr. returned to victory lane at the Waterford Speedbowl Saturday evening with a convincing win in the 35-lap SK Modified feature. The victory came after what could only be deemed a disappointing performance during the season-opening Budweiser Modified Nationals of the week before. It was, according to Janovic, “a night of redemption”. Other feature winners were Bruce Thomas Jr. (Late Model), Jack Aquilina (Sportsman), and, Randy Churchill Jr. (Mini Stocks).

A flat tire on the No. 40 Mohegan Sun Casino Chevrolet resulted in a 23rd place finish at the Greenville-Pickens Speedway in SC in the NASCAR Camping World Series East opener for Matt Kobyluck after the driver was forced to pit under green flag conditions. Kobyluck went two laps down and was never able to recover.

As the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour heads to Stafford for the first of four visits during the 2008 season, Ed Flemke, Jr. finds himself in an unfamiliar position. Flemke won the season opening race for the first time in his career and he sits atop the championship standings as he readies for the 37th Annual Tech-Net Spring Sizzler. Flemke and his Gary Teto owned team look to carry their winning momentum into Stafford.” I’ve never in my life won a season opener, usually I never finish the first race” said Flemke. “All the guys on the team work so hard during the winter to get the car ready and winning showed that all the hard work does pay off, which can be a contagious thing for the race team and really give us a boost for the season. If you start off the season with trouble in the first race or two, it can take you the entire rest of the season to try to dig yourself out of that hole from the start, so this is definitely a good start to the year for us.”

Flemke will look to add his name to the Stafford record books as a Spring Sizzler champion, an honor that has been bestowed upon 22 different drivers, including his father. Flemke, Sr. nearly won the inaugural Sizzler in 1972 before a faulty water pump eliminated him from contention after dominating the event. Flemke, Sr. came back to Stafford the following year with another dominating performance that enable him to take the trip to victory lane that had eluded him one year earlier. The Sizzler winners list reads like a who’s who of Modified racing and should Flemke add his name to that list, it would be a huge personal accomplishment to join his father as a Sizzler champion.

“It would mean a lot to me to be able to win the Sizzler and join my dad,” said Flemke. “I’m always compared to him and he set a very high standard to measure up to. At the same time, you can’t put too much pressure on yourself; you just have to take things as they come. I remember one year I was racing at Stafford and it happened to be my father’s birthday. I came to the track that night and I had it in my mind that I was going to lap the field that night. Then I went out and I think I ended up hitting everything except the pace car. That situation repeated itself a few years later, and I took a whole different approach. I didn’t say anything to anyone all night long leading up to the race and I ended up winning the race that night.

Dad always told me you win some, you lose a lot, and the rest get rained out. I think if you take that attitude with you, things tend to workout. ”Flemke’s win at the season opening event also places him atop the chase for the 2008 Whelen Modified Tour championship, a position that Flemke has never occupied at season’s end in any division throughout his racing career. Flemke has twice finished second in the point’s standings, in 2004 behind Tony Hirschman, and again in 2006 behind Mike Stefanik. Flemke hopes to follow in the footsteps of Donny Lia, who used a Sizzler victory last year to propel himself to five more wins and the 2007 championship.” The championship is the number one thing in racing right now, it’s the goal of everyone at the start of the season,” said Flemke.

“We look at the points and see where we’re at, but my dad always told me that if you get enough wins that the championship will take care of itself. I’ve never won a championship in my career in anything, so winning a championship this year would be a great personal achievement. It would definitely put an exclamation point on my career instead of a period. If my racing career ended today, I’d be proud of what I’ve been able to accomplish and I’d like to think that my dad would be too.”

Flemke and the Whelen Modified Tour take to the Stafford half-mile for the first time on Saturday, April 26 for practice and Coors Light Pole Qualifying. The Whelen Modified Tour cars along with cars from Stafford’s five weekly divisions will be on hand from 11 a.m.-noon on Sunday, April 27.

Jeff Anton, of Russell left Greenville-Pickens Speedway in SC in April 2007 with an 18th place finish. For 2008, he was looking for improvement behind the wheel of his No. 30 Engineered Floors, Inc. Chevrolet. The car's handling was loose, though, and while he did improve on last year's result, he was left wanting better than the seventeenth he got in the NASCAR Camping World East Series season opener.

Defending champion Kirk Alexander, Swanzey, NH, jumped into the lead on lap three and roared to victory in the” Governors Cup 100” modified race Sunday afternoon at Lee USA Speedway, Lee NH. The win was Alexander’s 27th career victory with the touring series.

Despite early race pressure from Ted Christopher, Plainville, CT, and then David Pinkham, Buxton, ME, the three-time champion survived a caution plagued race that was once stopped for an overheating racer that sprayed water on the racing surface resulting in six cars retired to the pit area. Pinkham settled for second followed by E. Hartland, CT’s Dale Evonsion, Madison, CT veteran Mike Holdridge, and Jon McKennedy, Chelmsford, MA. making up the top five.

Christopher, Rob Goodenough, Swanzey, NH., Les Hinckley, Windsor Locks, CT., Ed Dachenhausen, Danbury, CT., and Chris Pasteryak, Lisbon, CT, finished sixth through tenth. Sunday’s race was also the first of eight guaranteed starter races for the Sunoco Modified Mania 400 weekend at Thompson, CT. in September. The next event for the TVMRS will be Saturday April 26, at Monadnock Speedway, Winchester, NH., for the running of the “Bond Auto Parts 100.”

Let's check to see what else is happening in southern New England. On Saturday at the Bayside Expo in Dorchester it's a big car show for Imports starting at 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Whip City in Westfield opens the season with Mini Sprint action on the dirt track. The same day MotoX 338 in Southwick offers MotoX action all day. On Sunday Seekonk Speedway will host a car show for VW vehicles all day long. Shelton Speedway in Conn. will open for the season on Sunday with karting events.

    Lou Modestino is a long-time columnist and Public Relations person, working for numerous tracks in the northeast, and now writes for The Enterprise in Brockton, MA.  He may be reached at lmodestino@hotmail.com. 

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