Perley, Rocco, Stoehr & Wrenn Score CARQUEST Extreme Tuesday Feature Wins at Stafford Motor Speedway
Stafford Springs, CT — Tuesday night, June 28th, was the 8th annual CARQUEST Extreme Tuesday program at Stafford Motor Speedway. Chris Perley won the 50-lap ISMA Supermodified feature, Russ Stoehr won the 30-lap NEMA Midget feature event, and Norm Wrenn made it four wins in a row at Stafford by taking the 25-lap Pro-4 Modified feature event. In the CARQUEST Champions For Charities event, Keith Rocco took the checkered flag but the real winner was charity as the 14 champion drivers raised over $40,000 for their selected charities.
In the 50-lap ISMA Supermodified feature event, Ted Christopher took the lead from the pole and bean to set a blistering pace, pulling away from the rest of the competition. Bobby Magner and Johnny Benson were side by side for second place with Benson eventually getting the spot after several laps. Mike Lichty was running fourth with Russ Wood making up the remainder of the top-5 in the early laps.
Christopher was running strong in the lead and was maintaining a several car length lead over Benson in second at the lap-10 marker. Chris Perley was beginning to make a charge to the front of the field at this stage of the race and he cracked into the top-5 by passing Jamie Timmons. The action was slowed by the caution flag with 27 laps complete for Timmons, who spun in turn 2 after he had run among the top-5 cars.
[Photo Gallery] by Nicholas Teto
Christopher got a great restart and pulled out to the lead while Perley and Benson were side by side for second. Perley took the spot from Benson on lap-25, while Christopher was continuing to pull away. Several laps after the restart, Perley began to reel Christopher back in and when the two lead cars began to navigate lapped traffic, Perley closed right up to Christopher’s bumper. Perley made the pass for the lead on lap-43 and he led the remaining 7 laps as Christopher began to fall back from Perley. Benson came home in third behind Perley and Christopher, with Timmy Jedrzejek, and Russ Wood making up the top-5.
The CARQUEST Champions For Charities 15-lap feature was a wild race with positions swapping lap by lap. Woody Pitkat took the early lead, but he was overtaken by Bobby Santos, III on lap-3 for the lead. Before Santos could get back to the line to lead the lap, Richie Pallai, Jr. moved his kart to the front.
Pitkat charged back by Pallai for the lead on lap-4 while Pallai retook the lead on lap-5. Santos was still in the mix up front and he moved to the front on lap-6 before Frank Ruocco took a turn at the front on lap-7. Ruocco, Jon McKennedy, and Pitkat went three wide for the lead on lap-8 with McKennedy coming out with the lead. The caution came out with 10 laps complete for debris on the track.
McKennedy took the lead back under green on lap-11 while Keith Rocco moved into second. Rocco made a move to the high side of McKennedy on lap-14 and he led McKennedy back to the checkered flag to take the victory. McKennedy finished second, with Frank Ruocco, Todd Szegedy, and Woody Pitkat rounding out the top-5.
In the 30-lap NEMA Midget feature event, Greg Stoehr took the early race lead and immediately began to pull away from the rest of the field. Randy Cabral was working under the hood just prior to the start of the feature and he barely made it onto the track for the green flag. But once he got on track, he was slicing his way through traffic towards the front runners. Jeff Abold was second with Jeremy Frankoski in third, but Frankoski would overtake Abold for second. The caution came out with 8 laps complete for a spin by Abold in turn 3.
Back under green, Greg Stoehr took the lead but Cabral was the car on the charge. He picked off several spots on the first lap of the restart and was moving towards the lead on lap-10 when his car suddenly dropped off the pace and he retired from the race.
Greg Stoehr was still the race leader with Russ Stoehr moving into second. Frankoski was still third, with Jeff Horn in fourth and Erica Santos now in fifth. The top-3 continued to run in order while Santos was slowly reeling in the Horn. The caution came back out with 21 laps complete when Greg Stoehr spun in turn 2 while navigating lapped traffic, putting Russ Stoehr up front for the restart.
Russ Stoehr powered into the lead with Frankoski taking second. Horn moved into third with Abold, who had spun earlier, in fourth and Santos fifth. Santos’ good night ended on lap-25 when her car dropped off the pace and she retired from the race. Abold moved by Frankoski for second on lap-26 but it was all Russ Stoehr at the front of the field as he took the checkered flag. Rounding out the top-5 behind Russ Stoehr and Abold was Greg Stoehr, Chris Leonard, and Horn.
In the 25-lap Pro-4 Modified feature, Tyler Anderson led the field to the green and he took the early race lead ahead of Frank Perry, Dan Meservey, and Brian Vincent. Norm Wrenn and Dan Meservey, Jr. were side by side for fifth with Wrenn taking the spot. Wrenn quickly picked off two more spots to move into third before the cauton came out with 4 laps complete for a spin in turn 1 by Dave Bedard. Mark Giordano came to a stop on the backstretch and needed a tow back to the pits and points leader Phil Lausier was on pit road working on the rear end of his car and he went several laps down before rejoining the race.
Anderson took command back under green with Vincent and Perry dueling side by side for second. They rode side by side for several laps before Vincent cleared him and took the position. Perry fell back several more spots to fifth as Wrenn went into third and Meservey, Jr. took fourth.
Wrenn rode in third for several laps before he moving into second where he was hounding Anderson for the lead. Wrenn got by Anderson on lap-19, but the caution came out, negating the pass and putting Wrenn back to second for the restart.
Wrenn powered by Anderson on the restart, charging by in the high groove. Vincent was now side by side with Meservey, Jr. for third with Meservey, Jr. taking the position. Stan Mertz was on the charge and was now in fifth behind Vincent. The caution came back out with 21 laps complete for spins by Adam Norton in turn 2 and Tim D’Amico in turn 4.
Wrenn took the lead back under green with Anderson and Meservey, Jr. behind him. Mertz got a good restart and moved into fourth while Dave Richardi moved into fifth. Vincent’s good run came to an end with a spin on the backstretch to bring the yellow back out with 23 laps complete and set up a green white checkered finish.
Wrenn led the field around the final two laps to secure his fourth consecutive Pro-4 Modified victory at Stafford Motor Speedway. Anderson finished second, with Meservey, Jr., Mertz, and Richardi rounding out the top-5.
For more information contact the Stafford Motor Speedway track office at (860) 684-2783, or visit us on the web at www.staffordspeedway.com.
Sources: Scott Running/Stafford Motor Speedway PR
ISMA SUPERMODIFIED (50)
1) Chris Perley
2) Ted Christopher
3) Johnny Benson, Jr.
4) Timmy Jedrzejek
5) Russ Wood
6) Mike Lichty
7) Joey Scanlon
8) Justin Belfiore
9) Bobby Magner
10) Rob Summers
11) Jeff Locke
12) Mark Sammut
13) Paul White
14) Ben Seitz
15) Dan Lane
16) Jamie Timmons
17) Eddie Witkum
18) Dan Bowes
19) Dave Duggan
20) Chris DeRitis
21) Jon McKennedy
22) Eric Lewis
23) Eric Emhoff
NEMA MIDGET (30)
1) Russ Stoehr
2) Jeff Abold
3) Greg Stoehr
4) Chris Leonard
5) Jeff Horn
6) Erica Santos
7) Keith Botelho
8) Paul Scally
9) Lee Bundy
10) Jeremy Frankoski
11) Randy Cabral
12) Pete Pernisiglio, Jr.
13) John Zych, Jr.
PRO-4 MODIFIED (25)
1) Norm Wrenn
2) Tyler Anderson
3) Dan Meservey, Jr.
4) Stan Mertz
5) Dave Richardi
6) Dan Meservey
7) Rob Richardi, Jr.
8) Dick Dubois
9) Adam Norton
10) Cory Cleary
11) Tim D’Amico
12) Dave Bedard
13) Mark Charette
14) Brian Vincent
15) Derek Robbie
16) Frank Perry
17) Phil Lausier
18) Mark Giordano
CARQUEST CHAMPIONS FOR CHARITIES (15)
1) Keith Rocco
2) Jon McKennedy
3) Frank Ruocco
4) Todd Szegedy
5) Woody Pitkat
6) Bobby Santos, III
7) Richie Pallai, Jr.
8) Ted Christopher
9) Mike Stefanik
10) Randy Cabral
11) Russ Wood
12) Bob Potter
13) Chris Perley
14) Stan Mertz