John Baker Rockets From 12th to Riverhead Raceway Nascar Modified Winners Circle Saturday Night
Riverhead, NY Aug. 14th — Saddled with starting 12th in Saturday night’s Buzz Chew Chevrolet NASCAR Modified feature didn’t deter John Baker of Brookhaven from racing to his second win of the season on I Love American night at Riverhead Raceway as he won the 50-lap feature event. For Baker who also won on June 12th the victory was the fourth of his career.
Early in the going Jack Handley Jr. moved to the race lead followed by Eric Zeh with both drivers seeking their first career win. On lap 3 working the backstretch Dylan Slepian was able to pass Zeh to the outside for second. Slepian, a former INEX Legend Race Car champion chased Handley for the following seven laps. On lap 12 Kyle Soper gunning for his third win in a row made his way by Slepian for second setting sail for race leader Handley. The first lead change of the race would come on a 18th lap double-file restart where Soper would get the measure of Handley taking over the race lead and many on hand thought Soper would race off to his 23rd career win however John Baker who was making his way towards the front of the field and Tom Rogers Jr. has other ideas.
On lap 20 Baker who had just come to third just laps prior made his way by Handley for second and began to close in a leader Soper. After three laps of sizing Soper up for a pass, Baker made his move on lap 23 slipping under Soper in the third and fourth turn to become the new race leader. Just one lap later Tom Rogers Jr. with whom Soper had a race-long battle with to win the Baldwin, Evans & Jarzombek 77 a week earlier also passed Kyle for second. While Rogers was able to keep pace with Baker over the second half of the race as did Soper but the leader’s car seemed to be getting stronger as the laps wore down.
At the checker, it was John Baker racing from deep in the field to the winner’s circle in his Staria Automotive Chevy. “This is all my father (Daryl) who gives me what I need to race and of course Geno Orlando who prepares them for me” Baker noted afterwards in victory lane. As for the race itself John recalled, “this thing was just right tonight and I was able to make my way through the pack but getting the lead was one thing, keeping against Tommy and Kyle quite another”. He was referring to the fact that Rogers the defending track champion is a 60-time winner and Soper the 2021 championship leader has won 22 times.
Tom Rogers Jr. of Riverhead for the second week in a row was runner-up in the Precision Water Works Chevy while Kyle Soper of Manorville was third in the Eastport Feeds Chevy. Dylan Slepian of Dix Hills and Chris Young of Calverton completed the top five finishers.
The Figure Eights returned to action after a month layoff providing a wild finish to their 15-lap main event that saw Vinny Biondolillo of Farmingville win his first career feature while spinning backwards! Brian Hansen led the first lap before defending champion Joe Warren Jr. passed him on lap 2 for the race lead. Vinny Biondollilo making just his second start of the year after a brief time away to drag race would come from dead last (12th) to move by Hansen for second on lap 3, it would not be the last time Biondoillo and Hansen would see each other. As the race progressed Warren and Biondolillo ran one-two with Vinny a one-time NASCAR Modified winner turning up the pressure. On lap 12 that pressure paid off as Biondolillo made his way by Warren for the lead but Joe wasn’t going to give up without a fight.
As the race was coming to a conclusion the traffic at the “X” was getting more frequent and as they raced off turn four to come down to the checker Biondollilo was clipped in the intersection by Hansen which sent the leaders machine into spin cycle. At first, it appeared that Joe Warren Jr. crossed the line first however race director Scott Tapley requested a replay from the track live stream and upon further review, Vinny Biondollilo’s rear bumper crossed over where the start-finish line would extend to on the course and he was deemed the race winner. The large crowd on hand roared with approval at the wild finish. Joe Warren Jr. of Ridge was second in the Alicia M. Menechino Attorney At Law entry while Tom Ferrara of Patchogue was third in the Beach Auto Collision Cadillac.
Just one week removed from his award-winning march from twenty-sixth to third in the 50-lap INEX Legend Race Car National Qualifier Anthony Marsh of Riverhead backed it up Saturday with his first career feature event triumph and this time he only had to come from the eighth starting berth. At the throw of the green, Mike Benton raced out front chased over the first 11 circuits by teenage driver Sean McElearney. Both drivers had never won before and looked strong running up front until the halfway mark of the contest. Unfortunately on lap 11 leader, Benton got into some fluid dropped by a car he was lapping sending him into a spin that would draw a caution moving him to the rear of the field. On the ensuing restart, it was McElearney the new race leader as he outgunned Marsh to lead lap 12 but on the very next lap, Marsh jumped to the outside passing McElearney on the front stretch for the lead. Kevin Nowak the defending champion and 19-time career winner made his way to second on lap 14 and if Marsh were to win his first-ever race he would have to hold off one of the best on the East Coast. Hold him off he would as when the checkers flew it was Anthony Marsh steering the Riverhead Trailer machine to victory lane. Kevin Nowak of Medford was runner-up in the JTEC Electric racer while Allan Pedersen of Center Moriches was third in the CheckerWon Manufacturing mount.
The 20-lap Mini Stock feature turned into a race-long battle between Joe Cooke Jr. of Shirley and eventual winner Ryan Warren of Ridge complete with a photo finish. Cooke who has stepped up his program in 2021 broke to the early race lead with Warren second. On lap 4 Warren ducked under Cooke in the third and fourth turn to take the lead a lead he’d hold until lap 11. A medical episode in the grandstands drew a caution flag so EMT’s could tend to the person in distress who would late be okay. When the race restarted Cooke reclaimed the race lead from Warren as they sliced and dices their way around the quarter-mile. On lap 14 during another double-file restart that found Cooke choosing the inside Warren would ride the outside to take the race lead back from Cooke. The battle would boil down to the last turn of the final lap as the tandem ran side by side with the checkers waving in the air. After careful review of the scoring and timing and feed from the live stream it was determined Ryan Warren in his Schmidt’s Market & Produce Cavalier won the race by 0.005. Joe Cooke in the Sign Design racer was a disappointed second thinking he had his first career win while defending champion CJ Zukowski of Riverhead was third in the MSM Motorsports Cavalier.
Sources: Bob Finan/Riverhead Raceway PR