The
Waterford Speedbowl moved into its
regular Saturday night schedule. The
management has created a new flag
for the starter to display. It’s
called the “Meatball” flag and it is
to be waved at an individual who
refuses to comply with the officials
in charge or someone who makes a
dumb move or decision. Last weeks
“Meatball Flag” should have been
shown to the Late Model driver who
started on the pole of the Late
Model feature who triggered a wreck
that eliminated the potential
winning cars of Larry Goss and Eddie
Reed Jr. Starting on the pole as a
rookie makes no sense at all. The
individual who makes the line-ups is
also deserving of the “Meat Ball”.
Bruce Thomas Jr was the eventual
winner and is now two for two in
Late Model competition at the
shoreline oval.
Defending SK Modified champion Rob
Janovic redeemed himself after a
poor showing at the season opener as
he scored a convincing win in the 35
SK Modified feature. Jeff Paul, who
also had a poor showing on opening
day, finished second. Tyler
Chadwick, Justin Gaydosh and Diego
Monahan rounded out the top five.
Opening day Nationals winner Dennis
Gada was eliminated after making
contact with Dennis Charette who was
the early leader after pole sitter
Frank Mucciacciaro spun out on lap
11. The Gada-Charette confrontation
occurred on lap 18 and also
eliminated Jeff Pearl and Jeff
Malave.
Other feature winners were Jack
Aquilina (Sportsman), and, Randy
Churchill Jr. (Mini Stocks). Also
making an appearance were the New
England Antique Racers, presenting
exhibition events featuring the cars
of a past era. With over twenty
restored racers taking to the track,
fans were treated to a view of the
true “racing roots” of New England
short track history.
Action resumes at the Speedbowl this
weekend with a full slate of racing
for the SK Modifieds, Late Models,
Sportsman, Mini Stocks, and Legends.
The True Value Modified Series
opened their 2008 season at the Lee
USA Speedway in New Hampshire last
Sunday. Twenty eight Modifieds were
on hand. Kirk Alexander took the win
over David Pinkham, Dale Evonsion,
Mike Holdredge, Jon McKennedy and
Ted Christopher. The True Value
Series now moves to the Monadnock
Speedway in Winchester , NH for an
event this Saturday, April 26.
The Stafford Motor Speedway will
officially open for the 2008 season
this coming weekend with the 37th
Annual Tech-Net Spring Sizzler
presented by CARQUEST scheduled for
April 25, 26, & 27. Tickets for "The
Greatest Race in the History of
Spring" are available and on sale
now at the Stafford Motor Speedway
Box Office. Tickets are priced at
$35.00 for adult General Admission,
$5.00 for children ages 6-14, and
children ages 5 & under are free.
Reserved seating is $38.00 for all
ages. All tickets cover both
Saturday and Sunday admission to the
Sizzler. As always, Stafford Motor
Speedway offers free parking with
overnight parking available.
In TV land this week NASCAR Now on
ESPN2 will be on at 6:00pm from
Tuesday thru Friday. With the NASCAR
Sprint Cup series having last
weekend off the mid week viewing is
sparse. The action finally heats up
on Friday. NASCAR Confidential on
Speed starts it off at 1:00pm
followed by NASCAR Live at Talledega
at 2:00pm . Live coverage from
Talledega continues at 2:30 with
Sprint Cup practice. At 3:30pm it’s
another segment of NASCAR Live
followed by Sprint Cup final
practice at 4:00 . Pole qualifying
for the NASCAR Nationwide Series
begins at 5:00 . Saturday’s action
on the Speed Channel gets an early
start as the Sprint Cup cars have
their pole qualifying at Talledega
at 11:00am . At 2:30pm the action
switches to ABC for the pre-race
show for the NASCAR Nationwide
Series Aaron's 312 which gets the
green at Talledega at 3:00pm . At
6:00pm the action switches to the
Speed Channel for live coverage of
the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series
O'Reilly Auto Parts 250 at Kansas
City . The ARCA/ReMax Series follows
at 8:30 . NASCAR Now on ESPN2 starts
off Sunday at 10:00am . At 11:30am
it’s NASCAR RaceDay from Talladega .
At 1:30pm FOX goes live with their
pre-race show that will lead to a
2:00pm start of the NASCAR Sprint
Cup series Aaron's 499 at Talladega
. On Sunday night the Speed Channel
wraps up the weekend with The Speed
Report at 7:00 and NASCAR Victory
Lanel at 8:00 . Wind Tunnel with
Dave Despain follows at 9:00 .
On the Speedway Stock Market Scene
last week the racing related stocks
did quite well with a few
exceptions. Two of the three
speedway stocks ended the week on a
positive note. Leading the way was
the International Speedway
Corporation which went up 1.03 to
43.07. Dover Downs went up 0.40 to
6.56. On the negative side was
Speedway Motorsports which dropped
0.01 to 25.00. NASCAR Cup sponsor
Sprint/Nextel went up 0.14 to 6.61
while NASCAR fuel supplier Sun Oil
went up 4.23 to 55.68. Tire supplier
Goodyear went up 1.93 to 27.43 while
NASCAR second division sponsor
Nationwide went up 0.02 to 49.02.
Coca-Cola jumped 3.15 to 59.70 while
Dupont went up 2.69 to 52.02. Target
Stores and Aarons rentals were also
up. Target went up 2.63 to 54.60 and
Aarons went up 1.44 to 22.69. In the
home improvement sector Lowes went
up 0.87 to 24.86 and Home Depot went
up 0.52 to 28.69. The parcel
carriers also had a good week. Fedex
went up 3.75 to 96.65 and UPS went
up 2.26 to 73.15. Once again on the
bottom of the list is the World
Racing Group (DIRT Motorsports)
which dropped 0.01 to 0.29.
Photo Credit: Keith Cyr,
RaceDogPhotography
That’s it for this week from 40
Clark St. Westerly RI 02891 . Ring
my chimes at 401-596-5467. E-Mail is
smithpe_97_97@yahoo.com
