Jimmy White Jr. Declared Riverhead Raceway Blunderbust Winner, Kyle Soper Drives To Legends Gold
RIVERHEAD, NY — Prior to the Green Earth Technologies 200 WMT event at Riverhead Raceway two 30-lap features were presented with Jimmy “The Kid” White Jr. of Southampton being declared the Blunderbust winner some five hours after the completion of their race while high school senior Kyle Soper of Manorville drove to the Legend Race Car victory by a few car lengths.
Jack Handley Jr. set fast time in the pre-race time trials that set the 24 car field and in the redraw would pick outside pole while defending champion Tom Pickerell drew the pole. Pickerell looking to avenge misfortune from the week before promptly jumped out to the early race lead with Handley in tow and what ensued was a race long spirited fight for the lead. With Pickerell and Handley the class of the field early on the duo would also spend a fair amount of time fighting their way through lapped traffic and it would be a lapped car that would force Pickerell from the lead on lap 28. Handley who also got involved with the lapped cars was able to collect and correct his car seemingly nailing down another victory on the 2013 season. As the race was checkered NASCAR Inspectors called for the top six cars to report to the inspection area.
In post race inspection that lasted until well after midnight it was deemed that Jack Handley Jr. had unapproved work done to his heads and the young talent was disqualified from the race. That handed the victory over to Jimmy White Jr. and his Busy Bee Pest Control Cadillac team, the second time this year the team won a race in this manner. Championship contender Scott Maliszewski of Deer Park was runner-up in the Thomas Stock Attorney At Law Chevy with Tommy Walkowiak of Ridge recovering from a spin to claim third in his Blaze Fuel Oil Chevy. White, Maliszewski, Pickerell as well as Tommy Walkowiak all had to pull the heads off their engines as well and were deemed legal.
Defending Legend Race Car champion Kyle Ellwood of Riverhead nearly broke his own track record in qualifying with a lap of 13.685 but in the redraw picked the worst spot you can, 8th. Kyle Soper and Kevin Nowak brought the 27-car field to green with Soper quickly marching out front in his Atlantic Chevrolet & Cadillac machine. Richie Davidowitz quickly came to second at the start of the race but he was overtaken on lap 3 by Brad Van Houten who executed an inside pass off turn four. For the remainder of the race Van Houten, who was going for his second consecutive win mirrored Soper but as the race, which was slowed by only one caution flag wore on Soper was able to put some asphalt between himself and his challenger.
At the checker it was Kyle Soper enjoying his second win of the 2013 campaign with Brad Van Houten of Wading River the runner-up in his Riverhead Building Supply machine. Richie Davidowitz of East Moriches spent the rest of the race in third spot once passed by Van Houten and that is where the SAM Mechanical driver would finish.
Blunderbusts: 1. Jimmy White Jr. 2. Scott Maliszewski 3. Tommy Walkowiak 4. Tom Pickerell 5. Bill Wegmann Jr. 6. Bill Wegmann Sr. 7. Brian Brown 8. Tom Sullivan 9. Joe Seeger 10. Justin Wahl 11. Tim Mulqueen 12. Paul Parisi 13. Johnny Cricchio 14. Bryan Quilliam 15. Bob Muller 16. Gary Caldwell 17. Jessica Cohan 18. Brandon Hubbard 19. Tom Puccia 20. Robert Duffus 21. CJ Zurkowski 22. Ron Langdon 23. Rob Bader DQ-Jack Handley Jr.
Legend Race Cars: 1. Kyle Soper 2. Brad Van Houten 3. Richie Davidowitz 4. Timmy Solomito 5. Brendon Bock 6. Kevin Nowak 7. Kyle Ellwood 8. Vinny Delaney 9. Justin Strumpf 10. Paul Dodorico 11. Greg Harris 12. Artie Pedersen III 13. George Tomko Jr. 14. Dylan Slepian 15. Eric Hersey 16. Tom Sherman 17. Allan Pedersen 18. Anthony Marsh 19. Shawn Wanat 20. Joe Sedotto 21. Chris Rogers 22. Mike Van Houten 23. Steve Hersey 24. Steve Smith 25. Alex Urbina 26. Christian Conklin 27. Gary Molnar
Sources: Bob Finan/Riverhead Raceway PR