Next Up Long Island

Well this week the modified tour hits Long Island. Probably 30-32 teams from all over the northeast will converge on Riverhead Raceway.

After trips to the far reaches of New York State, Connecticut and Pa. it will be nice to make the short trip to Riverhead.

Favorites this week have to include Jimmy Blewett, Ted Christopher, Todd Szegedy and Donny Lia plus locals Bill Park and Chuck Steuer should give the tour drivers a run for their money.

The day starts with a drivers meeting at 1:00PM, practice from 2-3, time trials at 4:30 and the 25 lap qualifying heat at 6:00.


In addition to the tour Riverhead will feature 2 local divisions, the Chargers and the Blunderbusts. Both will be running double point time trial shows, which usually bring out nice fields.

1st Time Modified Winner in Western New York.

Well, it may be old and it may need a few things (Including an extra port-a-potty or 2) Spencer Speedwayin Williamson NY played host to a pretty good modified race on Sunday. Originally set for Saturday night rain changed that by flooding the infield where the cars were to pit.

27 teams made the trip west, including the back up 2 re-numbered 90 for Renee DuPuis for what really looked like a start and park. Buck Catalano substituted for Jake Morosz and I believe his familiarity with the track served the team well as he brought the maroon 9 home in 15th place.Doug Colby was in the 79 back up machine re-numbered to his familiar 19 but dropped out with front end damage.

The heart breaker of the day was the 99 of Jamie Tomanio blowing the engine in practice and parking it for the event. Glenn Tyler graciously offered his back up car but Jamie chose to skip the event.

Drivers with problem using the race included, Johnny Bush "The Bushman" who lost a transmission late in the race and retired, Glen Reen who was having troubles all day also dropped out before the races end along with Jimmy Blewett who retired with damage to the car. Wade Cole had pit road problems when he left too soon before all or any of the lug nuts were secured and lost a right rear on pit road.

Ken Heagy was having a decent day until a trip off turn 3 left his car on the double hook although he recovered to an 18th place finish. Eric Beers blew a gasket or an oil line and spun by himself on the back stretch loosing time in the pits. Chris Pasteryak struggled all day with nerf bar damage and a damaged left front tire. Woody Pitkat slid back from a 5th place start to an unlucky 13th place finish.

The strangest incident occurred before the race started. Ted Christopher after inspection was driving down the infield access road, hit a pot hole and damaged a bunch of the front end sheet metal. Repairs were made before the feature started and it did not hinder his day. A loose handling race car left him in 10th place.

Enough with the bad how about the good. Second place Todd Szegedy was strong all day leading many laps early in the race and it he had a a few more laps may have been in victory circle.

Third place Chuck Hossfield from western New York made a pretty good return to the series, for a while it looked like he was the fastest but may have run out of tires at the end.

Fourth place Rowan Pennink was solid all day.

Ryan Preese was near the top all day, including leading a few laps but faded to 5th. Ryan had the back-up car ready to go as the team fought electrical problem during practice and the heat.

Usually 6th place is not what a driver aspires for but with all the troubles Donny Lia had Sunday, not too bad a finish. Donny had on a fire suit the promoted Autism research, a cause near and dear to my heart.

Rookie Eric Goodale is really getting comfortable with driving a full blown modified after racing SK's off and on the last couple of years. Eric is going to be in victory lane before too log. Eric had a fine 8th place finish after leading in the NH race and finishing 17th.

Now we save the best for last. Winner Erick Rudolph started 25th and passed a bunch of cars to win his first NASCAR Tour race. At the age of 17 years 3 months it was quite an accomplishment. Erick has continued a winning tradition started by his grandfather many years ago and continued by his father Charlie farther who was a winner on pavement and dirt. I think now that he has is first win, in the 1st race he finished this year there could be many more to follow!

The tour has a couple of weeks off, then its off to Long Island and Riverhead Raceway for the only stop there in 2009.

If he builds it, will they come?

As I entered the new track called Shangri-la II I could only wonder, if he builds it will they come?

Opening weekend and no more than 12 cars per class, odd for such a nice facility until you realize that no one there or anywhere near there had ever raced on cement!

Add in that opening day was the middle of every racers season at other tracks and you can understand the short fields.That plus word of mouth had circulated that the track would never be ready in time.

Guess what, it was done enough to schedule a FULL weekend of racing.

http://jaws17.zenfolio.com/p158924764

Track owner George Swansborough will have to add more seating, lights, a full PA stsyem, finish some paving and the fence, more permanent bath rooms and oh yes garbage cans and you will have a first rate facility. Word on the street is there will be foam blocks in place shortly, a welcome saftey addition to keep the drivers safe.

I for one will be back as soon as I can, 4+ hours drive from home will limit visits but for an ROC or WMT race I think I would be there in a heartbeat and I would not be alone.

Shangri-La II Welcome!!

Well its about 24 hours since I was heading down a dust road near Tioga NY feeling very good about the future of a new race track.



Shangri-La II is now open for business.



Now the racing was OK, the track is still not finished and they need more cars to help fill the pits and stands every week, but it was a very good start.



I arrived so late there were only 3 races left but I enjoyed every minute.



As I arrived I was pleasantly surprised that the stands were full of race fans taking in the track ,racing and some beautiful weather. It was pretty quiet except the drag racing going on up the hill. 9 Street Stocks were lined up waiting for their last race of the day, the fans who filled the stands sat patiently for the next race as the track announcer kept them entertained.



After the Street Stocks ran their race up next was what I came for, the ground pounding modifides

A New Race Track Opens July 4th Weekend.

Wow, just think about that! In these poor economic times a new track is opening in upstate NY, Shangri-la II. And not just "any" track a progressive banked 1/2 mile cement oval! It remins me of Bristol. with about 150,000 less seats!

Track owner George Swansbrough has spent a lot of money to complete the facility to get ready for opening weekend. While everything may not be complete it looks like they will run the first show on 4th of July weekend.

All races at the track will be under the ASA banner.

The neat thing about this track is it will feature full blown asphalt modified race cars! This is a class that has stuggled to attract good fields at every track that runs them weekly except maybe Bowman Gray in NC. So Shangri-la II will have its work cut out for them on a weely basis, especially when there is a ROC or Whelen race running that night.

An intersting feature of the facility is that there is also a drag strip on the grounds, Skyline drags right next door and fans will have the opportunity to go back and forth between the 2 tracks watching both drag cars and stock cars in one night for one admission price!

We wish track ownership the best of luck getting this facility up and running and many great nights with filled stands and pits plus no rain!!!

Shangri-la II Speedway is located off of Rt. 17 west of Binghampton NY , for more information check the tracks web page http://www.shangrila-2.com/index.shtml

See you at the races.