Ryan Preece Wins at Riverhead Raceway.

OK , so as one of my friends calls it Christmas is over. Ryan Preece came to Long Island and swept the entire day. The teenage Nascar driver got is first "official" win on the WMT.

That is now 2 races in a row with teenage winners. I not sure if that has ever been done before. There were many younger drivers in the race which bodes well for the future of the tour.

As many people commented Saturday was a beautiful day, sunny and warm with bright blue sky's. Steve Lombardo claimed he brought the weather from his California home. Steve had the honor of driving the Charlie J coupe before the feature.

32 Nascar modified cars filled the pits. Teams from about 5 states converged on the tight 1/4 mile track. Long Island was well represented with 13 of the 28 starters based on Long Island.

Practice was uneventful except a small incident between Wade Cole and Erick Rudolph.

Qualifying was a surprise with the #3 of Ryan Preece taking his first pole at Riverhead. The 25 lap heat was pretty uneventful with most cars finishing where they started. The one surprise was the 59 of Erick Rudolph who could not get the car to handle all day, so the Spencer winner went home early.

The race itself was decent except for the 3 red flags that were thrown for incidents on the track, the lap 2 pile up in turn 2 being the biggest incident involving 6 or 7cars.

Several drivers did not fare well. They included Ted Christopher who got a flat on a restart. TC tried to stay out to draw a caution but touched the 79 of Ronnie Silk and pounded the wall. Ronnie was also in and out of the pits all night finishing 27th. Several cars had engine problems including Donnie Lia, and John Fortin who overheated and dropped out.

Other drivers having a less than enjoyable race were Ken Heagy who dropped out with front end damage, as did Frank Vigliarolo. Kevin Goodale had a top 3 run going and was strong all night. The 51 of Justin Bonsignore touched the 33 when lapping him and spun the 50 of Kevin to the infield. It would have been his best finish on the tour, Kevin finished 13. Kevin's brother Eric got caught up in a lap 2 pile up and finished 17th.

Several drivers had very good runs,Jamie Tomanio started 27th and finished 7th, quite a turn around from the blown engine at Spencer. Glen Reen started 22nd and finished 5th, one of his best runs on the tour. Eric Beers started 26th and finished
6th and Todd Szegedy started 24th and finished 8th. Long Islanders Howie Browdie, Dave Brigati and Justin Bonsignore came home 2,3 and 4.

But in the end it was all Ryan Preece, Ryan had his best day on the tour since his Martnsville win. Ryan, his crew and family could not stop smiling after the win. In a short time Ryan has shown he can run well at any track where the tour visits.

The points have now changed a bit. TC is now second with Todd Szegedy leading and Ryan is now 3rd.

Even with 3 reds, the race was run in a reasonable 52 minutes 49 seconds.

See all the action from Riverhead here: http://jaws17.zenfolio.com/p56556202

Up next Stafford Speedway Friday night August 7th which is the second of 5 races in the busy month of August.

See you there.

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.