First time winners populate Victory Lane – Pappa, Molleur and Cassidy score wins; Voglesong and Beal join night’s winners
Waterford, CT — Waterford Speedbowl lit up the night sky in the wake of Hurricane Irene, providing fans with an action packed night of Wild ‘n Wacky Wednesday motorsports at the shoreline oval. Visiting Victory Lane on the night included a host of first-time winners for the Wild ‘n Wacky Wednesday racing program. Fourteen-year old Matthew Pappa of Nassau, NY took his first Speedbowl checkered flag in the Legends Cars, while Andrew Molleur of Shelton became the track’s youngest winner in its 61-year history, taking down the win in the night’s Bandolero race at age eight. In the X-Cars a veteran racer took the checkered flag as Brad Voglesong of Middletown crossed the finish line first. Charles Beal of Ledyard won the night’s Wacky Race and Ken Cassidy Sr. was awarded the win in the Super X-Car feature, a first for the veteran driver from Lisbon at the track’s Wednesday series.
An entertaining 20-lap Legends Cars feature had Ed Field on the pole. He took the early lead ahead of fellow veteran racer Carl Blandina. Angelo Belsito moved to third position on lap-3 while Pappa was hot on his tail and followed into fourth place. That would not last for long as Pappa raced past Belsito on lap-4. He was not content to ride in third for long, and shot past the inside of Blandina on lap-6. He took up pursuit of Field for the lead from there.
The battle for the race lead intensified as Pappa pressured Field. He looked to Field’s inside exiting the corners, with field holding him off for a lap until they raced off turn four to lap-8. Pappa made an inside bid, however made slight contact with Field sending him spinning in front of the field. The turmoil collected Dave Garbo Jr., Belsito, Dana Dimatteo and others and drew the yellow and red flags to clear the track. Pappa resumed the race at the rear of the field.
After the delay, Field continued to show the way through lap-9 when Troy Talman raced by his inside. Talman led the second half of the race while Pappa was blistering his way back through the field, which was being slowly eliminated by attrition. Talman led Blandina and Pappa who began a torrid battle for second. Pappa finally found his way by Blandina in turn one and set chase on Talman. With both drivers seeking their first Speedbowl wins it set the stage for an exciting conclusion.
Talman raced the bottom of the track and Pappa patiently awaited an opportunity to make a move on the leader. That came on lap-18 as Pappa found room to Talman’s inside down the back chute, then the pair raced hard into turn three before Pappa came out of turn four with the lead. He went on over the final two laps to the win. Talman, Blandina, Field and Nick Lascuola completed the top-five.
Joey Ternullo led the field to green for the 20-lap Bandolero feature, however the multi-time winner this year was overtaken by Molleur on lap-2. Molleur scooted out to a several car length lead over Ternullo while point leader Rachel Forte raced her way up to third. She ducked past Ternullo to take second position on lap-5. Shortly after, Ternullo surrendered third place to a train of cars that included Nicholas Sowa and Ken Morin Jr. who were working together as they marched through the pack. The pair caught and passed Forte for second on lap-10 with the half-way mark shown.
The only caution finally waved on lap-13 for two cars that got together in turn two, erasing Molleur’s advantage. The eight-year old got a great restart to take back his lead. Morin picked up second position and chased down Molleur over the final four laps. Morin made a last ditch bid to take away the win in turn four on the final lap, however Molleur held off the charge to take his first career win. Morin, Sowa, Forte and Jordan Churchill finished second through fifth.
The 20-lap Super X-Car race was highlighted by tight racing from the start. Caution waved for the first time on lap-2 as Eric Finkbein, Ed Ryan, R.J. Cunningham and Cassidy found trouble at the end of the front chute into turn one.
After the restart Dan Butler looked strong out front of the field. He led over a battle behind for the top positions. Mike Maskell made his way to the front along with Ken Downing as they fought past Jim Boyle, Bill Reiman and Kevin Moon over the middle of the race. The battle for second between Maskell and Downing turned into a battle for the lead as Butler was in jeopardy of falling victim to both. Through turns one and two on lap-14, Maskell and Downing got together setting off an incident that also collected Frank Alessio and drew the second and final caution flag of the race.
Cassidy had recovered from the early altercation to join Butler on the front row for the restart. Butler got the jump when the green flag returned, resuming his. Butler went on to take the checkered flag first, however following post-race inspection, the win was awarded to Cassidy. Boyle was bumped up to second, while Downing rallied back for third. Reiman and Peter Pollard were fourth and fifth.
The 20-lap X-Car race had Chris Ivory setting the pace following an incident on lap-1 that sent cars scattering to avoid Scott Bellisle in turn four. In typical Wild ‘n Wacky Wednesday action, the X-Cars put on several side-by-side battles over the opening laps as the drivers jockeyed for position. Scott Limkemann along with Voglesong and Pete Zaikarite were early movers, coming out ahead of three and four-wide battles to rise into the top-five. Several cars became entangled exiting turn four on lap-3 to return the race to the caution.
Limkemann was too strong for Ivory after the restart, taking over on lap-4. Behind the new leader, Voglesong and Zaikarite moved into positions two and three putting Ivory back to fourth. Before long championship points contender Randy Johnston had joined the front pack, racing by Ivory’s inside into fourth just before halfway.
The second half of the race stayed clean and green. The leaders encountered lapped traffic tightening the top four positions. Voglesong had closed in on Limkemann however was under fire from Zaikarite, momentarily preventing him from putting on a serious challenge for the lead.
As the laps continued to click off the scoreboard Voglesong used his experience to turn up the heat. With two laps remaining, more lapped traffic was ahead. Voglesong found room on the bottom of the track coming to the white flag, then spent the final lap underneath Limkemann in a last lap duel. Voglesong navigated lapped cars in turn three and four to exit the corner in the lead and nailed down the victory. Limkemann ran impressive for second. Zaikarite, Johnston and Chris Garside rounded out the top-five.
The weekly Wacky Race had the bravest Super X-Car pilots touring the Speedbowl in the opposite direction. It wasn’t long before those comfortable making right hand turns emerged as the top competition. In the end, last year’s division champion Charles Beal took the Wacky checkered flag.
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 8/31 Wild ‘n Wacky Wednesday Results and Standings:
Legends Cars (20-laps): 1. Matthew Pappa, Nassau, NY; 2. Troy Talman, Oxford, MA; 3. Carl Blandina, Milford; 4. Ed Field, Deep River; 5. Nick Lascuola, Brockton, MA; 6. Nicholas Sowa, Middletown; 7. Taylor Martin, Windham, NH; 8. Peter Cirilli, Farmington; 9. Angelo Belsito, Auburn, MA; 10. Dana Dimatteo, Farmington; 11. Dave Garbo Jr., Stonington; 12. Dennis Pantani, Branford; 13. Max Zachem, Preston; 14. Dennis Lambert, Indian Trail, NC; DNS – Arthur Marrero, Baltic
Standings after sixteen events: 1. Dimatteo, 719; 2. Garbo, 646; 3. Joey Mucciacciaro, 624; 4. Belsito, 622; 5. Field, 586; 6. Blandina, 552; 7. Talman, 540; 8. Jason Palmer, 431; 9. Giovanni Giarratana, 404; 10. Lascuola, 366
Bandoleros (20-laps): 1. Andrew Molleur, Shelton; 2. Ken Morin Jr., Old Saybrook; 3. Nicholas Sowa, Middletown; 4. Rachel Forte, Douglas, MA; 5. Jordan Churchill, Lisbon; 6. Cory Dimatteo, Farmington; 7. Jacob Perry, Pawcatuck; 8. Jacob Urch, Suffield; 9. Taylor Martin, Windham, NH; 10. Joey Ternullo, Middletown; 11. Corey Comeroski, Lebanon; 12. Rene Morgillo, Niantic; 13. Alan Eastman, Fishers Island, NY
Standings after twenty-one events: 1. Forte, 924; 2. C. Dimatteo, 836; 3. Martin, 829; 4. 4. Ternullo, 808; 5. Churchill, 805; 6. Morin, 714; 7. Jacob Urch, 636; 8. Perry, 634; 9. Molleur, 587; 10. Jordan Lamothe, 512
Super X-Cars (20-laps): 1. Ken Cassidy Sr., Lisbon; 2. Jim Boyle, East Windsor; 3. Ken Downing, Branford; 4. Bill Reiman, Southington; 5. Peter Pollard, Old Lyme; 6. Dan Moon, Exeter, RI; 7. Mark Boisvert, Uxbridge, MA; 8. Kevin Moon, Exeter, RI; 9. Mike Maskell, Quaker Hill; 10. Jon Porter, Canterbury; 11. R.J. Cunningham, Durham; 12. Frank Alessio, Colchester; 13. Eric Finkbein, Colchester; 14. Ed Ryan, Preston; 15. Sean Lisle, Clinton; DQ – Dan Butler, Waterford
Standings after sixteen events: 1. Alessio, 651; 2. Maskell, 650; 3. Ryan, 628; 4. Downing, 594; 5. Pollard, 591; 6. Boyle, 581; 6. 7. D. Moon, 568; 8. (tie) Robert Norman, Reiman, 490; 10. Boisvert, 426
X-Cars (20-laps): 1. Brad Voglesong, Middletown; 2. Scott Limkemann, East Lyme; 3. Pete Zaikarite, Niantic; 4. Randy Johnston, Westerly, RI; 5. Chris Garside, Waterford; 6. Wayne Shifflett, Preston; 7. Shawn Stula, Colchester; 8. Dan D’addario, Middletown; 9. Mike Trask, Plainfield; 10. Melissa Clavette, Bozrah; 11. Larry Loomis, Plainfield; 12. Onie Pierce, Norwich; 13. Robert Carlson, Rockfall; 14. Richard Mollo, Seymour; 15. David Lloyd, Mystic; 16. Josh Barrie, Voluntown; 17. Jeremy Bourbeau, Taftville; 18. Christopher Ivory, Oakdale; 19. Chuck McDonald, Groton; 20. Kristie Hamel, Jewett City; 21. Christopher Lee, Uncasville; 22. Danny Gervais, East Hartford; 23. Javier Rivera, Willimantic; 24. Scott Bellisle, Griswold
Standings after sixteen events: 1. Voglesong, 732; 2. Johnston, 730; 3. Zaikarite, 718; 4. Garside, 640; 5. Trask, 574; 6. Stula, 540; 7. Limkemann, 510; 8. Patrick Williams, 498; 9. Shifflett, 460; 10. Ivory, 422
Wacky Super X-Car Race: 1. Charles Beal, Ledyard; 2. Dan Moon, Exeter, RI; 3. Kristie Hamel, Jewett City; 4. Bill Reiman, Southington; 5. Ricky Moore; DNS – Peter Pollard
Sources: Waterford Speedbowl PR