May 24, Westfield, MA--- Stafford finally got the chance to go racing Friday night.  But that didn’t stop Mother Nature from striking during the evening. A brief but hard rain caused a 90-minute delay before the NASCAR Whelen Modified Series could take to the track for their second visit to the half-mile in the 18^th annual TSI Harley-Davison 150. 

   The WMT drivers took the green flag at 11:20 and the race ended just before 1am making for a very long night.  

  In the 31-car field, it was the #4 of Chuck Hossfeld taking a slim lead over every one.  As the race was getting underway, I felt that the best battle on the track was for the lead between Hossfeld and the 09 of Bobby Grigas III.  But that didn’t last to long because the field went single file in a hurry. After the first few cautions (a total of nine) Ted Christopher in the #36 was making his way to the front.   

  As the race continued I noticed that some of the best battles happened on the restarts.  And I could only guess that the reason being that the field was lined up double file.  But with the field single file it did like they were setting a blistering pace.   

  On lap 39, Hossfeld ended up loosing the lead to Grigas.  Once in the lead, Grigas started to drive away from the field.  After a few calm laps in the books, Grigas ended up having problems and had to hand over the lead.  Taking command of the field was Matt Hirschman in the #59.  But that only lasted for thirteen laps.  Taking back the lead was Hossfeld who went on to take the checkered flag.   

  In the SK Modifieds, it seemed like they had picked up where they left off last year.     Taking the lead at the drop of the green was the # 6 of Wade Mattesen.  While he did that, second back was battling for position.  With that happening, I had a hard time just focusing on one battle.  By lap three the first of what turned out to be too many cautions early in the race flew.  On one of the restarts, Mattesen, though strong, lost the lead to the #9 of Brad Hietala.  But Hietala didn’t have it easy.  Ted Christopher in the #13 was right there waiting for him to make a mistake.  But due to Christopher being a little too excited to take the lead, he ended up taking Hietala and himself out.  So that left Woody Pitkat in the #52 in the lead.  Challenging him for the lead was the #78 of Keith Rocco.  But little did these two gentlemen know that Christopher was making his way back to the front.  By the time the checkers flew, it was Christopher taking down his 99^th career win at SMS. 

  When the SK Lights took to the track, it was Harry Wheeler in the #54 taking charge of the field.  But Wheeler wasn’t able to pull away from the field.  Battling him right away was the #90 of Aaron Goff.  Goff took the lead on lap two.  But his lead didn’t last very long either.  Goff ended up spinning out and giving the lead to the #21 of John Walmsley. 

  As the race continued it became obvious that the SK Lights were picking up some of the bad habits from the SK’s, which led to a number of caution flags.    

  When the race went back to green, it was the #29 of Chris Matthews taking command.  And due to a 20 minute time limit placed on the division, Matthews went on to take down the win.   

   In the D.A.R.E Stocks it was Norm Sears in the #90 taking down the feature win. 

  Within the next few weeks the Late Models and the Limited Late Models will be made up. 

  Next week looks to bring the five regular weekly Stafford divisions. 

  And this week let’s not forget about the men and women who have served our great country.  If it wasn’t for these brave souls, we wouldn’t be able to enjoy our favorite past time, auto racing.  God Bless the U.S.A!