Christopher Pole Winner for Icebreaker at Thompson Speedway; Rocco & Zuidema Win Firsts of Weekend Doubleheader
Thompson, CT — Ted Christopher of Plainfield, CT, who has been hot behind the wheel with a host of wins already in 2009, started his Whelen Modified Tour title defense in style by winning the Coors Light Pole in qualifying for the Icebreaker 2009 at Thompson Speedway. With a lap of 18.642 seconds (120.890 MPH), Christopher earned his 19th career WMT pole and his eighth career pole at Thompson. Doug Coby, driving for George Bierce, qualified second. There were a few surprises in qualifying including Glenn Reen, Jamie Tomaino and Rowan Pennink rounding out the top-five.
After the redraw, Coby and Pennink will start from the front row on Sunday afternoon while Tomaino will make his record-setting 500th career start. Christopher will ultimately start from the fourth position followed by Mike Stefanik and Reen.
Keith Rocco of Wallingford, CT, scored his first win of the 2009 season in a fiercely competitive opener for the Sunoco Modifieds. Rocco jumped out from his front row starting spot to take the lead in the early going of the Sunoco Modified Main event. In the early stages of the event Tommy Cravenho ran second with heavy pressure from Josh Sylvester. Todd Ceravolo and Ted Christopher rounded out the top five. The battle for the fifth position with Ceravolo, Christopher, Bert Marvin, and Kerry Malone was beginning to heat up when the first caution of the event flew on lap six for a spin by Harry Rheaume. During the caution, Jimmy Blewett headed down pit road for service.On the ensuing restart, Rocco resumed his lead while Ted Christopher was on a tear heading back to the head of the pack. After a quick caution for an incident involving Brad Van Houten, the battle at the head of the pack began to heat up between Rocco, Sylvester and Christopher. The battling up front allowed Malone, Marvin and Ceravolo to join the fray.
A pass for the lead by Christopher was negated when the third caution flew on lap 14 for a spin by Andrew Charron. Rocco was up for the challenge on the restart but had his hands full with Christopher and Malone. Christopher was able to make a pass for the lead in turn one but Rocco fought his way back. Coming out of the corner, Christopher bobbled slightly and was collected by Sylvester sending Christopher spinning in front of the field. A number of cars were involved including Danny Cates, Woody Pitkat and Marvin.
The restart pitted Malone against Rocco, who was once again up for the challenge. After another quick caution, things settled down up front with Rocco extending his lead slightly over Ceravolo and Malone. The cars on the move were Christopher and Blewett. The two who had started at the rear of the field were picking off cars one-by-one heading back to the front. On lap 22, Malone gave up the third position heading to pit road with mechanical woes.
As Rocco crossed the line to take down the victory, contact between Cravenho and Christopher sent Christopher head-on into the turn four wall. Christopher took a punishing hit but walked away from the incident. Todd Ceravolo finished a strong second over Eric Goodale, Rowan Pennink, doing double-duty in the Falmouth Ready Mix #31x, and Zach Sylvester. After post-race technical inspection, Goodale was stripped of his third-place finish; moving Pennink and Z. Sylvester up a position and Jimmy Blewett inside the top five.
Defending division champion Jeff Zuidema of North Brookfield, CT, led wire-to-wire to win the first of two Late Model main events scheduled for the weekend. Zuidema capitalized on his pole staring position to lead. Rick Gentes and Tommy O’Sullivan made up the top-three. In the early going, the best battling was a bit deeper in the pack with Wayne Coury, Sr., Mark Jenison, Tom Fox, and Paul Newcomb, Jr.
Fox had made his way past both Coury and Jenison before taking chase of O’Sullivan and Gentes. Only a few laps later, Fox was able to make his way by O’Sullivan while Zuidema was gaining some distance over Gentes.
A quick caution for a spin by John Materas changed the complexity of the race. With only four laps remaining, contact between O’Sullivan and Newcomb resulted with O’Sullivan making hard contact with the outside wall between turns three and four. During the caution, Gentes headed down pit road giving up the third position.
On the restart, Zuidema headed Fox and Mark Oliviera, who inherited the third position. Zuidema was able to stretch his lead over Fox in the final laps to begin his title defense with his first Late Model victory of 2009. Fox started his run with the ShopWurld.com Racing Against Cancer Team with a runner-up finish. Oliviera came home in third followed by Materas and Gentes.
The excitement of opening weekend at Thompson Speedway continues on Sunday beginning at Noon with feature events for all six of the Whelen All-American Series divisions including the second of the double-header for the Sunoco Modifieds and the Late Models. The Whelen Modified Tour will take the spotlight with their 150 lap event at approximately 3:15 PM.
Regular Thursday night racing kicks off at the historic oval on Thursday, May 21, 2009. For complete details visit thompsonspeedway.com.
NASCAR Whelen All-American Series SK Modified (25-lap) Feature Finish (Top Ten): 1. Keith Rocco, Wallingford, CT; 2. Todd Ceravolo, Gales Ferry, CT; 3. Rowan Pennink, Huntingdon Valley, PA; 4. Zach Sylvester, Lebanon, CT; 5. Jimmy Blewett, Howell, NJ; 6. Tom Cravenho Jr., Raynham, MA; 7. Tim Sullivan, South Windsor, CT; 8. Danny Cates, Chaplin, CT; 9. Andy Gasper, Andover, CT; 10. Brian McCarthy, Norwich.
Late Model Feature Finish-20-lap (Top Ten): 1. Jeff Zuidema, N. Brookfield, MA; 2. Tom Fox, Plainfield, CT; 3. Mark Oliveira, Blackstone, MA; 4. John Materas, Voluntown, CT; 5. Rick Gentes, Woonsocket, RI; 6. Jeremy Sadowski, Voluntown, CT; 7. Mark Jenison, Cranston, RI; 8. Jeff Hesselton, Auburn, MA; 9. Mike Scorzelli, Malta, NY; 10. Wayne Coury Sr., Milford, CT.
Sources: Dale Wolbrink/Thompson International Speedway PR