Garbo and Vitelli share Legends Cars winner’s circle Churchill wins Bandolero feature; Yagmin, Zaikarite and Boyle also take victories
Waterford, CT — Waterford Speedbowl was in action Wednesday evening for a five-event program plus the completion of the suspended Legends Cars race from May 18. In the regularly scheduled 20-lap Legends Cars race, it was Dave Garbo Jr. of Stonington taking down his first checkered flag of the season. The Bandolero feature had another first time winner on the season, Jordan Churchill of Lisbon. In the Super X-Car race champion John Yagmin returned to Victory Lane and Pete Zaikarite of Niantic was the X-Car race winner. In the held-over Legends Cars feature, the final 13-laps were run with Alessandro Vitelli of Woodbridge taking the checkered flag. Jim Boyle of East Windsor bested a boisterous Super X-Car field in the Wacky Tollbooth race.
In the regularly scheduled 20-lap Legends Cars feature race, Dennis Pantani led from the drop of the green flag. Two early caution periods slowed the pace, as the field had trouble getting going over the opening laps. George Whitney and Nicholas Lascuola were eliminated after contact with the frontstretch wall knocked them out of the race. On the restart, a lap could no be completed before Giovanni Giarratana and Angelo Belsito became hooked together and tangled into the turn four tire barrier.
Garbo took over the race lead with a thrilling three-wide maneuver down the backchute following the restart. Once in the lead Garbo had to hold back a host of competitors in an entertaining race. Nick Ladyga moved into second position and the competitors singled out behind as they jockeyed for the top-ten positions over the first half of the race. Battles were found all over the speedway, with the best for tenth position as Kevin Nowak, Jason Palmer and Shaun Buffington were among those mixing it up.
[Photo Gallery] by Nicholas Teto
Alessandro Vitelli moved inside Ladyga for second position on lap-7, taking the spot away and bringing Dana Dimatteo with him up to third spot. They ran nose to tail to track down Garbo to make it a three-car battle out front. Meanwhile Palmer was on the move, making his way to the seventh position as the race moved past halfway.
Vitelli took a look to the bottom of Garbo entering turn one for the lead on lap-13. He had help from Dimatteo hot on his rear bumper to make the move stick and the pair both raced around Garbo out of turn two. Dimatteo continued to surge ahead as he attempted to race under Vitelli into turn one of lap-14. The pair made contact sending Vitelli spinning up the track. Caution was out for Vitelli, and Dimatteo was penalized for contact with the race leader.
Garbo resumed his lead for the restart with Joe Mucciacciaro lined up to his outside. Nowak and Pantani wrecked on the frontstretch on the restart attempt, keeping the race under the yellow flag. Ladyga and Palmer got around Mucciacciaro on the next restart and kept the pressure on Garbo. Another caution for a spin on lap-17 set up the final and decisive restart.
Garbo got the jump and Palmer battled to the inside of Ladyga over the final circuits. With the battle for second hot between Palmer and Ladyga, Garbo got away for the win. Ladyga held off Palmer for second. Mucciacciaro was fourth and Michael Blaskey fifth.
The final 13-laps of the suspended race from May 18 began with Ed Field on the pole position, resuming the lead he held when rains came a week ago. Field’s reign at the front came to an abrupt end as he spun at the start-finish line on the first lap back underway.
That handed the lead to Vitelli, who led over Garbo and Giarratana. Taylor Martin and Pantani tangled mid-pack without caution, and further ahead Giarratana was able to race around Garbo into second position. Caution finally waved on lap-12 after Dan Butler took a spin into the turn one grass. The final caution waved on lap-14 when Martin crashed in turn three.
Vitelli was in command on the restart. Mucciacciaro was in contention, using the third position on the restart to challenge Giarratana for second. He made the pass on lap-15 and set his sights on Vitelli for the lead.
Vitelli would not be denied, racing on to the checkered flag. Mucciacciaro, Giarratana, Garbo and Belsito finished second through fifth.
The 20-lap Bandolero feature saw Churchill leading through the early going. He was on top holding back the charges of Jacob Urch over the first half of the race. Defending division champion Taylor Martin was on the move, advancing into the top three before the race’s halfway point.
Martin took over second position by racing inside of Urch on lap-10. She immediately looked to the outside of Churchill for the race lead. Several attempts to pull alongside Churchill in the top lane proved fruitless for Martin and she fell back into the grips of Urch for second position. Urch moved back around Martin on lap-15.
After falling back in line, Martin immediately went back to work on the inside of the track. First she cleared Urch then went back after Churchill refusing to back down. Just as Martin looked poised to contend for the lead, her car dropped off the pace suddenly, coming to rest on the apron of the track. The only caution flag waved for Martin on lap-18.
Churchill prevailed on the only restart attempt in the race, going on to his first win in the division. Rachel Forte came through the pack to take second place at the checkered flag, with Jordan Lamothe finishing third.
Ed Ryan led the opening circuits of the 20-lap Super X-Car race. He led through an early caution period on lap-5 and was in front of a battle between Peter Pollard and Downing for second position over the middle of the race.
Ryan broke loose in turn two on lap-14, giving up the race lead to John Yagmin who stormed through the pack and into contention. Pollard took second and Ryan slipped back to third. Yagmin kept control of the remaining five laps to take the victory. Pollard was second, and Downing rallied around Ryan on the final lap to take third position at the checkered flag.
In the 20-lap X-Car feature, after a rough few opening lap the field settled in to some great green flag racing to end the race. Scott Limkemann took over the race lead on lap-3, then tried to run away and hide from the competition. He distanced himself ahead of a battle behind which included Randy Johnston, Zaikarite, Brad Voglesong and others. Zaikarite raced into second position on lap-6, with Voglesong in hot pursuit. Glen Thomas Jr. was moving through the field in the meantime, racing his way into the top-five. He took the fourth position away from Johnston on lap-9 looking towards the top three.
As Limkemann’s lead was slowly shrinking out front, Thomas and Voglesong began to battle for third place. That battled ended as Voglesong got crossed up and into the grass in turn two on lap-13, but the hesitation allowed Limkemann and Zaikarite to open up a little breathing room over Thomas, now in third.
Zaikarite continued to reel in Limkemann until he was able to dive to the inside of the race leader entering turn one of lap-15. He made the move stick and was the new race leader a lap later. He went on to the victory with Limkemann running a great race to finish in second. Thomas dropped off the pace and out of third place on the final lap, bumping Johnston back up to a podium finish.
Boyle not only proved to be the first competitor to complete the Wacky Super X-Car Toll-Booth race, he also proved accurate. Competitors are required to drop a token marked with their number into a bucket upon each completed lap during the event. Boyle crossed the stripe first after five laps, allowing him to win a tie-break on the number of successfully landed tokens “paid” at the start-finish line.
Wild ‘n Wacky Wednesday returns next Wednesday evening with another five event race program including a Wacky Toll Booth race for the X-Car competitors. For more information about Wild ‘n Wacky Wednesday and the calendar of events, please visit www.speedbowl.com or contact track offices at 860.442.1585.
Waterford Speedbowl 5/25 Wild ‘n Wacky Wednesday Results:
Legends Cars (final 13-laps of suspended 5/18 race): 1. Alessandro Vitelli, Woodbridge; 2. Joe Mucciacciaro, Wolcott; 3. Giovanni Giarratana, Newington; 4. Dave Garbo Jr., Stonington; 5. Angelo Belsito, Auburn, MA; 6. Dana Dimatteo, Farmington; 7. Carl Blandina, Milford; 8. Dennis Pantani, Branford; 9. Nicholas Lascuola, Brockton, MA; 10. Dan Butler, Waterford; 11. Taylor Martin, Windham, NH; 12. Ed Field, Deep River; 13. William Munro, North Branford; 14. Bayley Currey, Driftwood, TX; 15. Gregory Lang, Davidson, NC; 16. Alex Pacheco, Rockwell, NC; 17. Richard White, North Stonington
Legends Cars (20-laps): 1. Dave Garbo Jr., Stonington; 2. Nick Ladyga, Voluntown; 3. Jason Palmer, Berlin; 4. Joe Mucciacciaro, Wolcott; 5. Michael Blaskey, Waterbury; 6. Carl Blandina, Milford; 7. Dana Dimatteo, Farmington; 8. Dylan Izzo, Westport; 9. Ed Field, Deep River; 10. Alessandro Vitelli, Woodbridge; 11. Tom Gray, Sprague; 12. Shaun Buffington, Plainfield; 13. Troy Talman, Oxford, MA; 14. Peter Cirilli, Farmington; 15. Dennis Pantani, Branford; 16. Jason Sendlewski, Calverton, NY; 17. Matt Carpenter, Auburn, MA; 18. Stan Carpenter, Auburn, MA; 19. Glenn Barnes, Hope Valley, RI; 20. Giovanni Giarratana, Newington; 21. Kevin Nowak, Medford, NY; 22. Dan Butler, Waterford; 23. Angelo Belsito, Auburn, MA; 24. George Whitney, Westbrook; 25. Nicholas Lascuola, Brockton, MA; DNS – Taylor Martin, Windham, NH; DNS – Nick Sowa, Middletown; DNS – William Munro, North Branford
Bandolero’s (20-laps): 1. Jordan Churchill, Lisbon; 2. Rachel Forte, Douglas, MA; 3. Jordan Lamothe, Woodstock; 4. Joey Ternullo, Middletown; 5. Corey Dimatteo, Farmington; 6. Jacob Urch, West Suffield; 7. Chace Wood, Danielson; 8. Robby Jones, Waterbury; 9. Andrew Molleur, Shelton; 10. Jacob Perry, Pawcatuck; 11. Rene Morgillo, Niantic; 12. Taylor Martin, Windham, NH; 13. Ken Morin Jr., Old Saybrook
Super X-Cars (20-laps): 1. John Yagmin, Tolland; 2. Peter Pollard, Old Lyme; 3. Ken Downing III, Branford; 4. Ed Ryan, Preston; 5. Jim Boyle, East Windsor; 6. Frank Alessio, Colchester; 7. Shawn Perkins, Salem; 8. Mike Maskell, Quaker Hill; 9. William Chouinard, Swansea, MA; 10. Bill Reiman, Southington; 11. John Rodbidoux, Fall River, MA; 12. Dan Moon, Exeter, RI; 13. Shawn Butler, Jewett City; 14. Eric Finkbein, Columbia; 15. Richard Avino, North Haven; 16. Robert Norman, Clinton; DNS – Bill Hine, Ansonia
X-Cars (20-laps): 1. Pete Zaikarite, Niantic; 2. Scott Limkemann, East Lyme; 3. Randy Johnston, Westerly, RI; 4. Chris Garside, Waterford; 5. Wayne Shifflett, Preston; 6. Shawn Stula, Colchester; 7. Chistopher Ivory, Oakdale; 8. Glen Thomas Jr., Groton; 9. Brad Voglesong, Middletown; 10. Jeremy Bourbeau, Taftville; 11. Michael Marvin, Colchester; 12. Javier Rivera, Willimantic; 13. David Amspacher, Uncasville; 14. Onie Pierce, Norwich; 15. C.P. Burdick, Deep River; 16. David Lloyd, Mystic; 17. Richard Mollo, Seymour; 18. Ron Dimauro, Plymouth; 19. Christopher Lee, Norwich; 20. Kim Bickford, Griswold; 21. Todd Nadeau, 22. Mike Trask, Plainfield; 23. Armand Banks, Charlestown, RI; 24. Patrick Williams, Middletown; 25. Josh Barrie, Voluntown; 26. Kristie Hamel, Jewett City; 27. Jon Porter, Canterbury; DNS – John Bowes, Willington
Super X-Car Tollbooth race: 1. Jim Boyle, East Windsor
Sources: Waterford Speedbowl PR