Broken Wrist Doesn’t Slow Tara Galko at Whip City Speedway

BY MARK McKEON

WESTFIELD, MA – Driving with a wrist she broke in a racing accident two weeks ago, Tara Galko of Meriden, CT had the best night of her racing life as she captured her 270cc heat and went on to win her first Mini Sprint feature. The 18 year old nursing student at Southern Connecticut State University had to withstand a pair of restarts and a determined challenge from points leader Seth Carlson, who pulled alongside on multiple occasions, but couldn’t complete the pass.

“I was a little nervous on the second restart because I knew Seth would be right behind me and he’s tough, but I made up my mind that I wasn’t going to let him get by me,” a smiling Galko said in victory lane.

Kurt Conklin had more ups and downs than an Otis elevator as he blew an engine in the 270cc feature but came back to capture the 750 Sportsman event. A blown engine cost Luke Greenwood a 600cc win as Greg Smith was in position to take over and score his second victory of the year. Rick Stone led from flag to flag and outran a rapidly closing Mike King for his second 750cc win. After blowing engines in his last four races, John Virgilio finally found a 1200cc power plant as strong as his driving and he used it to shellac the field, winning by a Zip Code.

Scott Viets cruised to his sixth Quad 4 Midget victory this season. The drama of the night came from weekly rival Joe Krawiec, who raced to second after coming from the back of the pack 3 times, once due to a tangle with teammate Denny Zimmerman.

Former Central New York Mini Sprints ace Dave McCumber of Killington, VT celebrated his 67th birthday by winning the Atlantic Coast Old Timers race in his 1947 Kurtis Kraft Midget.

This week the Whip runs its fall shootout for 750cc Mini Sprints and new this year will be a shootout for a combined 270cc and 600cc class. Both shootouts consist of time trials, heats, a dash for cash and a feature. The 1200cc Mini Sprints and the Quad 4 Midgets will run their usual program and the Modified Lites have the night off. A regular Kart and 250 Youth Sprint program will run in the afternoon and the Modified Kart feature will run under the lights.

250 Youth: 1. Alex Adamsky, 2. Cullen Pike.

270cc: 1. Tara Galko, 2. Seth Carlson, 3. Kendall Segar, 4. Todd Bertrand, 5. Brooks Bennett, 6. Brian Boudreau, 7. Mark Irving, 8. Glen Clark, 9. Derek Robbie, 10. Wayne Ibitz, 11. Robert Bahre, 12. Kurt Conklin, 13. B.K. Rizzo, 14. Matt Seymour, 15. Ben Martelle, 16. Jake Sapowsky, 17. Andrew Mullen.

600cc: 1. Greg Smith, 2. Brandon Igo, 3. Ryan Bigelow, 4. Jay Coppo, 5. Ricci Hirth, 6. Chris Lennox, 7. Paul Bigelow, 8. Luke Greenwood, 9. Brian Cunningham, 10. Richard Crooker.

750cc: 1. Rick Stone, 2. Mike King, 3. Mark Taylor, 4. Phil Bessette, 5. Don Masciadrelli, 6. Nikki Ouellette, 7. Ed Adametz, 8. Bill Adamsky, 9. Matt Brown, 10. Tyler Jackson, 11. John Casazza, 12. Rob Walendy, 13. John Cole.

750 Sportsman: 1. Kurt Conklin, 2. Kyle Smith, 3. Tim Stick, 4. Wayne Bush, 5. Makayla Lucia, 6. Paul Corazzo Sr., 7. Cori Tufano.

1200cc: 1. John Virgilio, 2. Paul Rose, 3. Mark Taylor, 4. Jon Moore, 5. Peter Dance, 6. Will Casazza, 7. Joseph Szczapa, 8. Jerry Sehn, 9. Jamie Beaudry, 10. Paul Corazzo Jr., 11. Jim Johnston.

Quad 4 Midget: 1. Scott Viets, 2. Joe Krawiec, 3. Tim Gallant, 4. Jamie Spalding, 5. Jim Mossman, 6. Denny Zimmerman, 7. Scott Holcomb, 8. Kevin Tefft, 9. Dana Shaw, 10. David Leighton.

Modified Lite: 1. Rick Ashlaw, 2. Bob Charland, 3. Donald Bellen, 4. Roger Angers Jr., 5. Ryan Charland, 6. Bob LaForge, 7. Ryan Nicewicz, 8. Robert Poloski, 9. Brett Crowther, 10. Casey Ouellette.

Karts- Novice: 1. Tanner Correia, 2. Jake Ellis, 3. Aidan Pike, 4. Darren Taylor, 5. Kerrian Adamsky.

Turquoise: 1. Spencer Brockman, 2. Corey Lemelin, 3. Dylan Irish, 4. E.J. Adametz, 5. Dan Bongiovanni.

Junior: 1. Jeffrey Champagne, 2. Ryan Irish, 3. Nora Lemelin, 4. Connor Leighton, 5. Travis Snow.

Lite: 1. Kate Lafreniere, 2. Steven Banach, 3. Mike Hauser, 4. Josh Rutola, 5. Dale Weeks, 6. Stephanie Banach.

Heavy: 1. Jake Sapowsky, 2. David Comeau, 3. Bill Tack, 4. R.J. Currey, 5. Bruce Dodge, 6. Bob Byron, 7. Roy Gauthier, 8. Dale Weeks.

Modified: 1. Jim Close, 2. Rick Ashlaw. 3. Eric Jorgenson, 4. Roger Fujimoto, 5. Craig Hublard, 6. Gary Hublard. 7. Scott Kalber, 8. Steve Rockwood, 9. Makayla Lucia, 10. Frank L’Etoile Jr.

2 Stroke: 1. Ernie Whidden, 2. Bruce Dodge, 3. Steve Rockwood, 4. Jason Wood, 5. Eric Snow, 6. Roger Angers Jr.