Tom Rogers Jr. Scores Heated NASCAR Modified Victory At Riverhead Raceway
RIVERHEAD, NY — With six laps to go in the 35-lap NASCAR Modified feature event Saturday night Tom Rogers Jr. was running third behind John Fortin and Timmy Solomito who raged a race long heated battle for the race lead and win. With five laps remaining Tom Rogers Jr. suddenly found himself the new race leader and eventual race winner after the leaders ahead of him had contact with Fortin spinning and Solomito sent to the rear of the field for rough riding handing Tom his second consecutive win and 24th overall in his career.
John Beatty Jr. set fast time in qualifying with a lap of 11.844 but the soft spoken driver could only muster a 4th starting spot in the redraw while visiting John Fortin drew the pole and Timmy Solomito picking the outside pole. That set the stage for the two to renew their rivalry and that they did right from the drop of the green flag as they raced side by side with Fortin leading the first four laps of the race. Solomito would lead lap five of the contest by a nose off turn four before Fortin roared back out front on the sixth circuit. For the next two dozen laps Fortin and Solomito ran either side by side or nose to tail fighting for the race lead with Dave Sapienza and Tom Rogers running third and fourth. That too would be a heated fight for position and in fact Rogers would get into Sapienza going into three with Dave spinning and drawing a caution.
With the laps winding down to less than 10 to go Solomito started to turn up the pressure on Fortin for the race lead with Timmy getting pressure of his own from Tom Rogers Jr. from behind as the leading trio ran in very tight quarters with Fortin having to save his car off turn four a couple of times. On lap 30 Timmy got into the back of Fortin going into the third turn and this time John could not save his car as he spun from the lead drawing a yellow flag. During that yellow flag period NASCAR Officials sent Timmy Solomito to the rear of the field for rough riding handing the race lead to Tom Rogers Jr with point leader Howie Brode moving from fourth to second. Over the final five laps Rogers was able to put a car length or two between Brode and himself and drove off to his fourth win of the season in the Jessup Landscaping Chevy.
“First I have to apologize to Dave Sapienza, I bounced off the wall in the back stretch and my foot hit the clutch instead of the brake and I got into him” Rogers admitted in victory lane. As to what he saw in front of him when the leaders got together Tom said “there was a lot of beating and banging going on all race long, we didn’t have the winning car tonight as our tires gave up some but we’ll take it”.
Howie Brode of East Islip with his runner-up finish in the Freightliner of Long Island Chevy virtually clinched the 2013 Riverhead Raceway NASCAR Modified title as he now enjoys a healthy 97-point bulge over Ryan Preece of Berlin, Ct. who finished third in the race in the East-West Marine Chevy. Kevin Orlando of Calverton had a great run for fourth in his SK type Modified while Jason Agugliaro of Islip closed out a successful month of August with a fifth place showing.
Former Late Model champion Scott Kulesa of Georgetown, Ma. scored his first victory of the 2013 campaign when he went wire to wire to win a caution free 25-lap main event. With a recent run of bad luck and finishes to show for it, Scott Kulesa took advantage of a rare pole starting position to jump out front when the green lights winked on with Chris LaSpisa moving under outside pole sitter Kevin Orlando for second. Early on LaSpisa stayed in step with the race leader but as the laps clicked off Kulesa was able to pull away just a little bit more lap after lap and there would be no denying the driver of the Eastport Feeds Pontiac victory on this night. In victory lane Scott gave all the credit to his crew, “my guys busted their tails on this car, it was bent up pretty good a few weeks back and we had to run our back-up car one night” the Calverton native noted. Chris LaSpisa of Shirley was runner-up in the Sprinklers Galore Irrigation Chevy while Jeremy McDermott of Riverhead increased his point lead with a third place tally in the SDS Telecommunications Dodge. With one points paying race remaining in 2013 McDermott leads Roger Oxee of Peconic by nine points, the title will be decided September 21st.
Mark Stewart of Riverhead continues his freshman season of success in the Super Pro Truck ranks as the 15-year old fourth generation driver posted his third win of the season in the Commercial Driver Training Inc. 20-lap feature event. “Dangerous” Dave Koenig broke out front at the start of the race with Mark Stewart and his uncle Roger Turbush giving chase. On lap 6 racing off turn two Koenig left the door open to the inside and Stewart took full advantage moving his Angela’s House Chevy underneath for the race lead. On e lap later Roger Turbush was able to slip by Koenig as well for second but later in the race he truck fell off the pace with issues moving Lou Maestri to second on lap 16. However by the time Lou got to second there was not enough laps left in the race to chase down Mark Stewart who nailed down yet another win as he heads back to High School in the days to come after Labor Day. Lou Maestri of Deer Park was second in the Star Car Collision Chevy with Mike Albasini of Flushing crossing the line third in the Hollis Court Collision Chevy.
What a difference a week makes is an old moniker in short track racing and indeed held true for Brad Van Houten of Wading River who posted his first career Legend Race Car victory, a hard fought victory at that. One week ago Brad had the pole for the Legends feature but was deemed to have jumped the start and sent to the rear of the field. This week by virtue of his second heat race win Van Houten had the outside pole alongside the streaking Vinny Delaney. Riding the outside lane Brad would take the early race lead in a good tight battle with Vinny, who was after his third win in the month of August. Once in the lead Van Houten could breath just for a few laps as Delaney and Timmy Solomito raced for second with Solomito using a lapped car as a pick to get by Delaney on lap 8. Once to second “The Natural” reeled in Van Houten and the two Riverhead Building Supply employees went at it for the race lead and win. Solomito tried high and low to find a path by Van Houten for the lead but Brad was equal to the task each and every challenge and drove his FX Speedword entry to victory. Timmy Solomito of Islip was runner-up in the Monsters Recycling machine with Vinny Delaney of Holtsville third in the John’s Tree Removal mount.
Matt Mulqueen of Levittown made just his second start of 2013 in the 4-Cylinder Demolition Derby and is now two for two on the season as he topped Rich Fowler of Wantagh for the win. Mulqueen delivered the final hit to his Timmy’s Towing teammate right at the Figure Eight intersection for the winning blow. Fowler was named Judge’s Choice while Jason Savoy of Lake Panamoka clinched the 2013 championship when he was voted Fan’s Choice in his Monsters Recycling entry.
NASCAR Modifieds: 1. Tom Rogers Jr. 2. Howie Brode 3. Ryan Preece 4. Kevin Orlando 5. Jason Agugliaro 6. Dave Sapienza 7. Justin Bonsignore 8. Vinny Biondolillo 9. Marisa Niederauer 10. John Fortin 11. Timmy Solomito 12. Eddie Brunnhoelzl III 13. EJ Heim 14. John Beatty Jr. 15. Jeff Andrade 16. Dave Brigati 17. David Roys 18. Shawn Solomito 19. Kyle Ellwood 20. Ron Silk 21. Ken Darch 22. Danny Watts
Late Models: 1. Scott Kulesa 2. Chris LaSpisa 3. Jeremy McDermott 4. Shawn Patrick 5. Roger Oxee 6. Ken Alfano 7. Mike Bologna 8. Kevin Metzger 9. Chris Mangels 10. Scott Lehmann 11. Kevin Orlando 12. Justin Bonsignore
Super Pro Trucks: 1. Mark Stewart 2. Lou Maestri 3. Mike Albasini 4. Frank Dumicich Jr. 5. Bobby Gardner 6. Erin Dumicich-Solomito 7. Brian McElearney 8. Frank Dumicich Sr. 9. Roger Turbush 10. Anthony Vecchio 11. Rich Campo 12. Rob Bader 13. Amanda Anderson
Legend Race Cars: 1. Brad Van Houten 2. Timmy Solomito 3. Vinny Delaney 4. Brendon Bock 5. Kyle Soper 6. Richie Davidowitz 7. Jeffrey Goodale 8. Justin Strumpf 9. Anthony Marsh 10. Greg Harris 11. Bryan Kelly 12. Artie Pedersen III 13. George Tomko Jr. 14. Shawn Wanat 15. Joe Sedotto 16. Brian Brown 17. Dylan Slepian 18. Michael Rommeney 19. Mike Van Houten 20. Eric Hersey 21. Allan Pedersen 22. Steve Hersey 23. Steve Smith 24. Kevin Nowak 25. Vinny Colletti 26. Kyle Ellwood 27. Johnnie Gloor IV
4-Cylinder Demolition Derby: Winner-Matt Mulqueen
Sources: Bob Finan/Riverhead Raceway PR