ISMA Teams Look for Good Runs at Thompson World Series & a Possible 2013 Championship
Oswego, NY – “Liquid” Lou Cicconi has been racing for almost 40 years and has won races, titles and awards many times over in his long and successful career which started in 1974 in quarter midgets. But, there is one thing he hasn’t won yet – an ISMA Championship title. Coming into the Thompson World Series of Speedway Racing, he’s got a pretty good shot at adding that title to his record book.
With ISMA an owner-based organization, there are actually two titles up for grabs each year – Car Owner of the Year and Driver of the Year. Over the years the two have come from the same team, except in 2011 when Vic Miller took the Car Owner title while Russ Wood, driving for Jeff Holbrook, claimed the Driver title.
Going into the World Series, the Vic Miller – Lou Cicconi team leads both sets of points with Miller 101 points ahead of second place Rich Bien (Ben Seitz) in the Owner chase and Cicconi leads the Driver points also by 101 over Ben. But, everyone knows and it was experienced last year at Thompson, strange things can happen. Last October the point battle was close between the Brad and Mike Lichty team and the Dan Soule / Timmy Jedrzejek team but misfortune struck on World Series Saturday during super modified practice and the Soule team was done before they had a chance. While no one wishes that anything like this happens again, there are still five teams with a mathematical chance at the top spot and they know lady luck plays a huge role in who comes out the champions.
According to the ISMA point system, 220 total points are available for a team at each race meet. These include race points, show-up points, heat points, leading a lap (5 pts) and most laps led gets 5 tallies.
Behind the Miller-Cicconi team (2294 pts and 1 feature win) is the Richard Bien – Ben Seitz number 17 team (2193 pts) who passed Brad Lichty-Mike Lichty after a series of mishaps put the 84 in poor finishing spots. Seitz has two feature wins this season.
The Canadian Lichty team, which is the defending ISMA championship team, sits in third going into the World Series with 2166 markers. They have had four wins this season but a couple bad finishes have hurt. Sitting in fourth is another Canadian Mark Sammut whose number 78 team has 2095 and last but not least in the point game is Jon McKennedy with 2085. McKennedy has wins at Waterford and most recently at the Star Classic to help his cause.
Sitting pretty in sixth, incidentally, is rookie Alison Cumens who is pretty much a shoe-in for Rookie of the Year honors and could move up into the top five if things go right on Sunday. She’s finished as high as second and has numerous top tens to confirm her consistency.
Only Lichty in the aforementioned top five point getters has an ISMA Driver championship and that came last year. Vic Miller has been a Car Owner of the Year seven times with his 2011 title split between several drivers including Chris Perley and Cicconi. Both Cicconi and nine-time ISMA World Series winner Chris Perley will be in competition at the World Series.
The unexpected is always expected at the traditional season-ending World Series of Speedway Racing at Thompson Speedway. This year should be no different!
Sources: Carol D Haynes/ISMA PR