Preece Continues Hot Streak Winning Cromarty Cup 50

One of the largest crowds of the season braved the strong heat to see the NASCAR Modifieds race for the Cromarty Cup in a 50-lap event as well as fireworks as the Independence Day festivities carried on into the weekend. Also on the card this weekend was 20-lap features for the Chargers, INEX Legends, and Blunderbusts, as well as 15 laps for the “World Famous” Figure Eights, and a four-cylinder demolition derby.

The evening got started with three heat races to set the field for the Legend feature. Allan Pedersen led the field to the green, but it was Joe Sedotto who led the field off of turn two on the first lap. However the caution came out before the first lap was completed when Steve Hersey hit the turn four wall hard. That resulted in a complete restart of the race. Pedersen was back on the pole and once again it was Sedotto who led the field out of turn two. On the fifth lap of the race Johnnie Gloor took the lead in turn four. Gloor held off Jeffrey Goodale for the heat race victory and as a result Gloor started on the pole for the feature.

Alex Urbina led the field to the green flag for the second heat race with Vincent Colletti to his outside. Heat race two went caution-free, and it was Urbina who picked up the victory.

The final heat race went green with Mike Van Houten on the pole and George Baker Jr. on his outside. But just like in the first heat race the driver on the pole didn’t get to lead the field down the backstretch after Bryan Kelly took the lead exiting turn two. The caution came out on the second lap of the race when Brendon Bock got in the back of Van Houten and turned him around. The race restarted with Kelly leading Justin Strumpf. Strumpf took the lead from Kelly exiting turn two on the restart and held him off to get the win.

Time-trials for the NASCAR Modified’s Cromarty Cup 50-lap feature event took place after the heat races. Ryan Preece was back in the Bill Park-owned No. 20 this week and he laid down the fastest lap with a time of 11.925 seconds. Timmy Solomito put down the second fastest lap with a time of 11.937 seconds. The top eight qualifiers did a redraw to determine their starting positions as they usually do and it was Timmy Solomito who drew the pole position. David Roys drew the second spot, Howie Brode third, Dave Brigati fourth, Justin Bonsignore fifth, Preece drew sixth, Tom Rogers Jr. drew seventh, and Shawn Solomito drew the eighth starting position.

The first feature of the night was the 20-lap event for the Blunderbusts. Paul Parisi was back after his hard crash last week and he was on the pole with Justin Wahl to his outside. Wahl took the lead from Parisi in turn two on the sixth lap of the race. The event’s first caution came out one lap later when Tim Mulqueen hit the wall on the exit of turn four, and then spun out on the entry to turn one. Parisi also went for a spin on the exit of turn two, but that came after the yellow flag was displayed so he was given his second place spot back. The race resumed with Wahl leading Parisi, William J. Wegmann, and  William A. Wegmann. The next caution came out on lap 11 when the cars of William A. Wegmann and Jimmy White got hooked together in turn three. The cars came to a stop at the exit of turn four where they were then able to unhook themselves. The driver on the move in this race was Jack Handley Jr. Handley, who had one win on the season before Saturday night, started 12th and was in third on lap 13. He then made his way into the lead just two laps later when he made his move on Wahl exiting turn two on the outside. Handley held off a hard-charging Tommy Walkowiak for his second win of the season and second in the last three races. Scott Maliszewski, Justin Wahl, and Brian Brown rounded out the top five.

“I just followed in the beginning, and then I started picking them off one-by-one,” said Handley. “Before I knew it I was in fourth and I said I might be able to win this. There’s only 20 laps. You can’t sit in the same position for more than two laps. If you do that you aren’t going to win.”

Handley was unable to do a victory lap to celebrate his win because he lost oil pressure.

“At the end of the straightaways there was no oil pressure,” said Handley. “I was thinking of pulling off with five to go, but I decided to keep going but I was just hoping it wouldn’t blow.”

The Legends followed the Blunderbusts for their 20-lap feature. Johnnie Gloor led the field to the green flag with Alex Urbina to his outside. Gloor got the jump on Urbina and held onto the lead. Justin Strumpf quickly made his way past Urbina for second place before the first lap was completed. The event’s only caution came out on lap 17 when one car spun and Jeffrey Goodale hopped over the front of another car. The caution was officially ruled to be for debris, so all drivers got to keep their positions for the restart. Gloor restarted with Strumpf behind him, as well as Anthony Marsh, Brendon Bock, and Goodale in the top five in single-file formation. Gloor was able to hold off Strumpf to score his first win of the season.

“It’s just awesome to have the satisfaction of a win,” said Gloor. “The whole team worked their butts off after a hard crash two weeks ago. Strumpf had a great car tonight. He raced me clean the whole race. We raced it out hard and I came out on top.”

The “World Famous” Figure Eight stock cars were third on the bill, rather than the closers like usual. Scott Pedersen started on the pole with John “Electric” Vullo to his outside, but Vullo was able to quickly take the lead by the completion of the first circuit. The first caution came out on the second lap when the No. 91 of Ed Cheslak spun out in the intersection. The caution was back out immediately after the restart when Gary Fritz Jr.’s car came to a stop at the entrance to turn one. Vullo led Roger Maynor, and Pedersen on the restart. The final caution came out on lap 12 when Brian Hansen came to a stop in the intersection. Vullo was able to hold off Maynor on the final restart to score his second victory of the season.

“The car wasn’t 100-percent tonight,” said Vullo, “but it went. We started off in a good spot and that helped, and then me driving a little smarter helped out too.”

The Chargers followed the Figure Eights for their 20-lap feature. John Baker started the race from the top spot with Cory Midgett to his outside. Baker held the lead on the start of the race, but Midgett quickly fell to fourth as Chris Turbush and Chad Churilla both got by. Turbush was able to take the lead from Baker on lap 10, and Churilla followed to take second. Churilla quickly went on the offense and got underneath Turbush one lap later, but his attack was thwarted when the yellow flag flew for Baker who hit the wall in turn one. Churilla and Turbush got together as the caution came out on the backstretch, which resulted in Turbush going for a spin and a flat right-front tire for Churilla. Churilla had to pit to change the tire, but Turbush was able to restart the race from his first-place running position. Turbush restarted with Eric Zeh behind him. Ray Minieri took second place from Zeh on the outside of turn four with two laps remaining, but he had nothing for Turbush who scored his second win of the season.

“This is a great one,” said Turbush. “Fourth of July weekend. Packed stands. I had a lot of people here and I really wanted to win tonight and we were lucky enough to win. We had contact. Me and Chad Churilla were battling, and I would have loved to have seen us go one-two. That’s what I wanted, and it’s too bad we got together and he got a flat. Every week I want to win, though that isn’t realistic. But that’s what I shoot for and we got lucky enough tonight.”

The main event of the night was the Cromarty Cup 50-lap feature for the NASCAR Modifieds. By virtue of the redraw it was Timmy Solomito on the pole with David Roys to his outside. Solomito got the jump on Roys and held the lead until the first caution came out on lap 14. The caution was thrown to clean up a leak from Jason Agugliaro’s No. 69 machine. Solomito led the field to the restart with Howie Brode to his outside. Solomito missed a shift on the restart, which let Brode take the lead, and enabled Ryan Preece to go from fourth to second as Solomito stacked up the inside line. Preece immediately was able to get by Brode for the lead as the top three started to pull away from the rest of the field. Solomito made his way back into second on lap 26. On lap 30 Dave Brigati spun out in turn two at the same time as EJ Heim spun in turn four. The caution came out two laps later as Heim was still stopped on the apron of turn four. Preece led Solomito, Brode, Kevin Orlando, and Justin Bonsignore on the restart in single-file formation. The caution was displayed once again as Heim spun again in turn two on the restart. On the next restart almost immediately the yellow-flag was displayed for a spin by Marisa Niederauer in turn two. The race went green to the finish from there and it was Preece who picked up his second win of the season in Whelen All-American Series weekly competition. Preece held off Solomito, Brode, Bonsignore and Roys.

“I had a great car,” said Preece. “I could work the outside of the inside. It made my life easy with a car that good.”

Preece has been on an incredible roll this season. He’s scored five victories in SK competition at Stafford (Conn.) Speedway, three victories on the Whelen Modified Tour, including one last week at Riverhead, and a win in SK competition at Thompson (Conn.) Speedway. Riverhead’s P.A. announcer Bob Finan has dubbed it the “Summer of Preece.”

“I’ve been on a roll like two wins in a row, but never five in a row,” said Preece. “So it’s been a great year. Winning never gets old. I’m definitely riding a wave right now and I hope it keeps going.”

The night concluded with a fireworks display, followed by a four-cylinder demolition derby that was won by Jason Savoy. A scary moment occurred when the event was red-flagged for an injured driver. Larry “The Cable Guy” Guyette suffered an injury to his rib area and was placed on a stretcher in an ambulance. He was taken to an area hospital for further evaluations.

Photos available at: http://www.racerhub.com/photos/index.php?cat=2150

Blunderbust:

1. (12) Jack Handley Jr.

2. (13) Tommy Walkowiak

3. (9) Scott Maliszewski

4. (2) Justin Wahl

5. (10) Brian Brown

6. (5) William A. Wegmann

7. (7) Tom Puccia

8. (1) Paul Parisi

9. (6) Ron Langdon

10. (3) Tom Sullivan

11. (14) Tom Pickerell

12. (4) William J. Wegmann

13. (8) Tim Mulqueen

14. (15) Jimmy White Jr.

15. (11) Bob Muller

Chargers:

1. (6) Chris Turbush

2. (5) Ray Minieri

3. (9) Eric Zeh

4. (7) CJ Lehmann

5. (8) Chad Churilla

6. (2) Cory Osland

7. (3) Richard Wilson

8. (8) Tom Anderson

9. (1) John Baker

Figure Eights:

1. (2) John Vullo

2. (4) Roger Maynor

3. (6) Arne Pedersen

4. (7) Ken Hyde Jr.

5. (1) Scott Pedersen

6. (5) Mike Mujsce Sr.

7. (3) Tom Ferrara

8. (9) Gary Fritz Jr.

9. (8) Ed Cheslak

10. (11) Brian Hansen

11. (10) Tom Rogers Jr.

Legends:

1. (1) Johnnie Gloor

2. (3) Justin Strumpf

3. (9) Brendon Bock

4. (15) Timmy Solomito

5. (5) Anthony Marsh

6. (14) Kyle Soper

7. (10) Kevin Nowak

8. (18) Richie Davidowitz

9. (7) Eric Hersey

10. (6) Bryan Kelly

11. (12) Christian Conklin

12. (25) Brad Van Houten

13. (8) Dylan Slepian

14. (22) Kyle Ellwood

15. (17) George Tomko Jr.

16. (26) Greg Harris

17. (19) Artie Pedersen III

18. (11) Vincent Colletti

19. (13) Vinny Delaney

20. (2) Alex Urbina

21. (16) Joe Sedotto

22. (20) Shawn Wanat

23. (21) Allan Pedersen

24. (23) Mike Van Houten

25. (27) Steve Smith

26. (24) Bobby Jones

27. (4) Jeffrey Goodale

Modifieds:

1. (6) Ryan Preece

2. (1) Timmy Solomito

3. (3) Howie Brode

4. (5) Justin Bonsignore

5. (2) David Roys

6. (12) Dave Sapienza

7. (7) Tom Rogers Jr.

8. (11) Ron Silk

9. (14) Kyle Ellwood

10. (15) Eddie Brunnhoelzl III

11. (8) Shawn Solomito

12. (13) Vincent Biondolillo

13. (16) Ken Darch

14. (17) Marisa Niederauer

15. (4) Dave Brigati

16. (18) EJ Heim

17. (9) Kevin Orlando

18. (10) Jason Agugliaro

 

Source: Rob Blount/LongIslandJam