Championship Night on Sept. 19th Marks End of An Era For Cromarty’s
A journey that began established in 1977 at Islip Speedway and turned into one of the longest and most successful tenures in short track racing will come to a conclusion Saturday evening September 19th at Riverhead Raceway when Barbara & Jim Cromarty present their final NASCAR Whelen All American Series program. The annual Champions night will be packed with plenty of racing featuring 50-lappers for both the NASCAR Modifieds and Late Models plus five other great racing classes as well as the champion interviews. With all of that to be accomplished a special 4:30 pm feature event start time has been set.
The NASCAR Modified 50-lapper will find the likes of Tom Rogers Jr. of Riverhead going against impressive rookie driver Kyle Soper of Manorville as well as John Fortin Sr. of Holtsville, Howie Brode of East Islip and Ryan Preece of Berlin, Ct. Unless Rogers has a complete catastrophic first two weeks of September he will more than likely clinch his third career NASCAR Modified championship. The Late Model championship fight very well could boil down to their 50-lap tilt with Mike Bologna of Melville shooting for his second consecutive crown. He’ll have to fend off the likes of Jeremy McDermott of Riverhead, Kevin Metzger of Massapequa, Shawn Patrick of Brightwaters and Chris LaSpisa of Shirley to do so.
For the first time since 1959 Tom Rogers Jr could very well become a two division champion Saturday September 19th something only Ronnie Herra (1957) and Buzzy Hedges (1959) did before him. The Figure Eight chase finds Rogers having a 16-point lead over Roger Maynor of Bay Shore heading into the final two point races in September and will look to win the title in fashion with a victory in the 15-lap finale. Tom Ferrara of Patchogue, Ken Hyde Jr. of Mastic Beach and Mike Mujsce of Quogue will be out for the win.
As to who will be interviewed as the Charger champion for 2015, that might not be determined until their September 19th 20-lapper. Defending champion Eric Zeh of Centereach has the likes of “Radiant” Ray Minieri of Bay Shore, John Baker of Brookhaven and CJ Lehmann of Shirley to contend with for the championship.
Two drivers heading into the final night of racing who can breathe easy will be defending Blunderbust champion Tom Pickerell of Huntington who led Jack Handley Jr of Medford entering September by 38 markers but as Handley can attest to anything can happen. In the final race of 2014 Handley entered that race with a healthy cushion but an early race drive line issue cost him the 2014 title to Pickerell. Tom Sullivan of Massapequa, Jim Laird Jr. of Islip Terrace and Joe Warren Jr. of Ridge all hope for a final race win as well. Entering the final three races of 2015 Legend Race Car points leader Dylan Slepian of Dix Hills enjoys what seems to be an insurmountable 62-point lead over Vinny Delaney of Holtsville. Kyle Ellwood of Riverhead, Richie Davidowitz of east Moriches and George Tomko Jr. of Aquebogue all hope for top five point finishes as well.
Annually the Super Pro Truck championship fight comes down to the final race and sometimes after the race as it did in 2014. Last year after the Golden Auto Body 20 Lou Maestri of Deer Park and Erin Solomito of Hampton Bays were deadlocked in points and the tie breaker came down to second place finishes. That could very well be the case on the 19th with Maestri trying to fend off Dave Brigati of Calverton, Mark Stewart of Riverhead, Mike Albasini of Flushing and Jerry Giordano of Freeport.