Spring Has Sprung

OK, so we have one MRS and one Whelen race on the books and one rain out. Stafford is up next and hopefully mother nature will let us get this one in.

What have we learned so far?? Well the #4 team is a solid team and with a good driver behind the wheel who is now Bobby Santos the III can win on any track. Ryan Preece has started the year where he left off with another second place finish and looking to move up one spot in the standings. Mike Stefanik looks to be on a mission to show yes he is getting older but that is not going to slow him down. TC fought the race car most of the Icebreaker for a 4th place finish. Todd Szegedy had one his usual solid top 5 finishes.

I think what we may also learn is that while we may not have the largest fields of cars it is a quality field of cars. Walking through the pits at Thompson there are a lot of new and freshened race cars that should make for great racing this year.

Several cars that caught my eye did not finish up front but it was good to see them in action.

Burt Myers from NC looked strong early but faded at the end to a 14th place finish. I think everyone would like to see him back for more. Richie Pallai Jr. finished 21st in his 1st modified start at the track. Johnnny Bush in his immaculate #68 had a crate motor and a GPS from Nascar to keep an eye on it. Teammates Wade Cole and Jake Morosz had there ups and downs but I think it was fair to say most were happy to see 2 of the long time tour supporters at the track.

Jimmy Blewett will give the 14 a good ride this year but is is strange not seeing the Reg at the Icebreaker. Hopefully we have not seen the last of him on the tour. Southern tour champ George Brunnhoelzl III who is a native Long Islander is keeping up a family tradition that dates back to the 1950's of winning races and championships.

So its now its on to Stafford and the 200 lap Spring Sizzler, a race that has been won by the biggest names ever to drive a modified. Lets hope the weather holds off so we can run the 39th annual Sizzler! It all starts with the morning pit party on the track from 11:00-12:00 and ends with 200 laps of modified action.

See you at the track.

Jaws

Racing Season is Now Open!

Well we now have our 1st race under our belts. The Waterford Speedbowl hosted 2 days of racing this past weekend. Sunday morning it was on the road early for the 2 1/2 hour drive up the Connecticut coast line to see the MRS racing series, Waterford SK modifieds, NEMA midgets and other local classes.

2 weeks ago it was 70 degrees, last weekend no such luck with a cloudy sky and 40 degree temperatures.

First up was the midgets, 5 minutes and 40 seconds later they were done with Chris Leonard at 19 years of age taking down his first win.

The SK modified class brought a strong field of good looking race cars to the track. 27 cars started a 60 lap race but far from that number finished. Keith Rocco started first and finished there. Keith was strong from the drop of the green and was never really was challenged. Back through the field there was a lot side by side racing and passing. Unfortunately there were many spins and wrecks too. Shawn Solomito passed many cars on his way from the back to a 7th place finish, Jeff Pearl also passed his share of cars and finished 3rd. Ceravolo was strong all day for a 2nd place finish .

The feature event of the day was the MRS modifieds. Another strong field of 30 cars from all over the northeast took part in their first race of the season. Doug Coby won his second MRS race in his last 2 tries at Waterford. And this time he stayed clear of the infield water.

It was a rough day for the open wheel cars. At one point on lap 80 there only 10 cars remained waiting for track clean up to finish. Chris Pasteryak had a good run going until he crushed the brand new cement wall setting off a chain reaction that involved no less than 6 cars and left several out of the race.

Matt Hirshman had a good day, staying out of trouble and finishing a strong second in what was an underpowered car. Eric Goodale had a good finish in 7th but took the hard route to get there. Several trips to the pits and a couple spins plus an almost trip into the first turn wall did not deter the MRS rookie from finishing..

The most disappointed driver of the day had to be Rowan Pennick who while running 2nd ran out of gas on a restart and was never a factor again finishing 10th.

Next up for the MRS modifieds is Albany Saratoga on the 18th of April, but before that its an annual tradition the Whelen modified tour at Thompson Speedway for the 2010 edition of the Icebreaker.

See you at the track.