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The Firecracker Smacker
McLaughlin, Cozza, Petey and Simms blast off at the NEETS Firecracker Smacker!
Story by:Cindy Bott
The North East Enduro Tour Series (NEETS) took to the high banks Saturday evening with over 250 Laps of racing slated for the second "$5 Family Fun Night" of the 2009 season at Wall Stadium. Running along with the NEETS Valtue Towing sponsored enduros were the 4 Cylinder Super Modifieds and the INEX Legends.
Bob Wohgelmuth had the pole for the start of the 100 lap 4 cylinder race. Battling hard for second place was the 6m of Vern McLaughlin and the #12 of Pete Verwys, who made his NEETS Racing debut at this event. By lap 8, Verwys passed both McLauglin and Wohgelmuth for the lead. Shortly thereafter, Wohgelmuth had to make an unexpected trip into the pits with a broken crank shaft.
With McLaughlin hot on the bumper of Verwys, the #6 of John Sac-Man Saccomondi had moved to 3rd spot with "The Real" Kenny Wallace in 4th and Dave Bentley Jr in 5th place. As Verwys was still leading by lap 30, McLaughlin tried to make a pass on Verwys but just couldn't quite do it until Lap 32 when Verwys slowed down and took a trip into the infield with motor problems. McLaughlin charged ahead with Sac-Man and Kenny Wallace not far behind, but by Lap 40 Dave Bentley Jr passed Wallace to take the 3rd place position.
Bentley poured on the afterburners and passed Sac-Man and set his sites on McLaughlin, but Bentley ran out of laps and McLaughlin brought the victory home. Vern McLaughlin is no stranger to victory lane being a previous Factory Stock champion in 2007 at Wall Stadium, but this marks his first ever enduro victory at Wall.
Next up were the NEETS Trucks Racing Under eXtremes (TRUX) running a 50 Lapper with a finish that got the crownd on their feet!
The TRUX race was filled with Long Islanders as the #11 of Byran Kelly led his fellow Islanders to the drop of the green flag. Kelly led the opening laps until the former 2006 TRUX Champion John Cozza (#59) took the lead with the #34 of Greg Harris following right behind. Cozza began to put some distance between himself and a terrific battle started to wage for 2nd place between Harris, Kelly and the #43 of Jeff Gregor.
Swapping positions multiple times for the runner up position let Cozza make his way almost to the bumpers of the battle going on in front of him. Cozza wisely stayed in his position as the white flag waved. It was a wild finish with 3 wide as Gregor, Harris and Kelly would not give up their spots entering turn 4. The 3 tangled which sent Gregor into a sideways slide across the finish line with Harris taking 3rd and Kelly spinning around to take 4th.
This win also marks John Cozza's triumphant return to the NEETS TRUX Series as well as his first victory at Wall Stadium. Later in the pits Cozza commented on how great it was to run with NEETS once again and how pleased he and all the TRUX drivers were with the latest of happenings with NEETS.
Returning in a big way was the Big Car Division where 29 cars took to the track for the 100 lap 6/8 cylinder portion of the show. With over double the number of competitiors from the previous event, the crowd and drivers were revved up for a big show!
The 32X of Dan Birdsall had the pole and kept the lead until lap 6 when Steve Weber challenged for the lead. Contact was made and Birdsall fell back to 5th. In the meantime, the defending NEETS Enduro winner Joe Constandi (#21) had worked his way to 2nd place and started to put pressure on Weber. By lap 21 Constandi was alongside Weber when both cars made contact which sent Constandi hard into the front stretch wall. Constandi's battered machine made it miraculously into the infield and Weber limped his mount into the pits.
This gave the lead to #45G of Rob Longo with #43 of Richard Petey close in 2nd. The only red of the evening was shown on lap 30 when the spinning mount of Bob Kulik's #266 collected the #50 of Anthony Bell on the front stretch. The #07 of Tim Flanagan smashed head on into Kulik with the #26 of Troy Gant running into Flanagan as well. All drivers climbed out under their own power, Bell suffered only minor injuries but was forced to take a ride in the ambulance by NEETS officials for safety reasons. Flanagan's #07 was badly damaged and leaking fuel on the front stretch resulting in a mandatory moving of the dead vehicle.
Once the track was clear of officials, racing resumed leaving the 2 badly damaged cars of Bell and Kulik on the front stretch. On lap 32, the 44 of Mike Parisi jumped into the lead but it was to be shortlived as Parisi spun around in turn 2 which gave the lead back to Longo. With Petey in hot pursuit of Longo, he took the lead on lap 48. Longo had to slow as he got a flat tire and had to retire to the pits. Petey never looked back as he led the remaining 52 laps to victory.
This was Petey's first win since the 2006 NEETS MUTHA of All Enduros which he captured the Big Car Championship. Petey made his return to Wall Stadium and NEETS victory lane with another graceful demonstration of his impressive enduro driving skills which comes from his years of experience!
Filling the time between the Big Car Race and the much anticipated Ladies Race was none other than Felix Ciattarelli! Felix came roaring out onto the speedway in his "Bluesmobile" replica Dodge Monaco, sending the car in countless circles, Felix jumped out throwing the crowds over 100 Value Towing T-shirts. Felix, not only sponsoring the NEETS events at Wall Stadium, also raised the stakes even higher at the driver's meeting before the races by adding an extra $50 to the purse of each division!
Last on the card for the wild night of enduro action was the well anticipated Ladies Race!
Sue Simpson, Wall's office manager, had the pole as she led 8 brave women to the start of their own 25 lap race. Sue held the lead until the #32x of Melissa Simms overtook her and began to make some distance on the field. Danielle Ostrander, also a Wall employee, began to make her way toward the front and a battle between her and Simpson for 2nd place began. Coming upon lapped traffic, Simms weaved through cars and made her way to Victory Lane.
This is Simms first NEETS victory, but it looks as it will not be the last. She was very thankful of Dan Birdsall for aloowing her to use the car for the race. Simms also races in the Small Car division where she is starting to show the boys just how hard she can play!
A very special thank you goes out to Tim Flanagan and all of the Flanagan Racing crew for sponsoring a purse for the Ladies Race! In addition to the sponsorship from Flanagan Racing, Value Towing's driver's meeting perk raised the winnings to $100 for the Ladies Race.
The next NEETS race will take place at Grandview Speedway on Sunday, July 26, with two 150 Lap enduros. NEETS will return to Wall Stadium on Saturday, August 22nd for the third, but not last time, in 2009. NEETS officials are working diligently with Wall Stadium Promoter, Jim Morton, to work a few more enduro dates on the card before the end of the 2009 racing season. Stay tuned for the latest info, right here on www.neetsracing.com!
The Firecracker Smacker |
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| Small Car - 100 Laps | Big Car - 100 Laps | ||
| 1 | #6M - Vern McLuaghlin III | 1 | #43 - Richard Petey |
| 2 | #5 - Dave Bentley Jr. | 2 | #56 - Mike Ebert |
| 3 | #6 - John Saccomandi | 3 | #14 - Elliot Wohl |
| 4 | #81 - Kenny Wallace | 4 | #55 - Tim O'Shea |
| 5 | #73 - Jeff Walls | 5 | #28 - Bob Anderton |
| 6 | #22 - Melissa Simms | 6 | #15 - Keith Flores |
| 7 | #12 - Pete Verwys | 7 | #44 - Mike Parisi |
| 8 | #168 - Bob Wohlgemuth | 8 | #35 - Chris Felber |
| 9 | #48 - Jay Bundy | ||
| TRUX - 50 Laps | 10 | #75 - Howie Bott | |
| 1 | #59 - Jon Cozza | 11 | #45 - Rob Longo |
| 2 | #43 - Jeff Gregor | 12 | #310 - Bill Stockert |
| 3 | #34 - Greg Harris | 13 | #73 - Paul Hartwig |
| 4 | #11 - Bryan Kelly | 14 | #007 - Bryan Flanagan |
| 5 | #28 - Jim Badalato | 15 | #32X - Dan Birdsall |
| 6 | #78 - Pat Gregor | 16 | #32 - Alex Fletcher |
| 17 | #33 - Frank D'Entremont | ||
| Ladies Race - 25 Laps | 18 | #26 - Troy Gant | |
| 1 | #32X - Melissa Simms | 19 | #50 - Anthony Bell |
| 2 | #007 - Danielle Ostrander | 20 | #07 - Tim Flanagan |
| 3 | #357 - Sue Simpson | 21 | #266 - Bob Kulik |
| 4 | #15 - Kimee Page | 22 | #2 - Ned Coolbaugh |
| 5 | #79 - Kristen Kabalis | 23 | #79 - Steve Weber |
| 6 | #32 - Lisa Fletcher | 24 | #98 - Steven Lynch |
| 7 | #26 - Jodi Rendemonti | 25 | #005 - Felix Ciattarelli |
| 8 | #73 - Kim Taylor | 26 | #120 - Rick Latza |
| 27 | #11 - Bryan Kelly | ||
| 28 | #34 - Greg Harris | ||
| DQ | #21 - Joe Constandi | ||