By Lou Modestino<\/p>\n
The last lap provided all the drama for the second consecutive night at the UNOH Battle At The Beach. As a result, NASCAR veteran Steve Park and rising star Cameron Hayley walked off with the winner\u2019s trophies Tuesday in the inaugural non-points event at Daytona International Speedway.<\/p>\n
Thanks to a bump from behind from Park, Mike Stefanik of RI looped his car off of Turn 2 on the final circuit of the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour race. That enabled Park of East Northport, N.Y., to drive off to his first career Daytona win on Tuesday night. It was the two-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race winner’s first Modified victory since 1996. \u201cIt was just short-track racing. He probably had a car capable of winning, but we had the luckiest car. I’m just glad we won,\u201d Park said. \u201cIt’s huge. You can win races all over this country, but you’re not going to have a Daytona trophy like we have here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Park’s first career NASCAR win came in the first half of a doubleheader of racing on the .4-mile short-track on Daytona’s backstretch. In the nightcap, 16-year-old Hayley of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, won the 150-lap NASCAR K&N Pro Series event after a similar last-lap, bump-and-run move on race leader Michael Self and didn’t pay off for Gray Gaulding. \u201cI went to the outside, and (Gaulding) kind of pushed me to the wall a little bit and I had to back out,\u201d Hayley said of the green-white-checkered restart. \u201cBut I just kept on it hard, hard into (Turns 3 and 4), and we ended up with the win. It was pretty crazy.\u201d Gaulding held on for second with Rev Racing driver Bryan Ortiz coming in for third.<\/p>\n
But the real drama came in the final lap in the Modified race, when leaders Stefanik, Park and Eric Goodale freight-trained their way through Turns 1 and 2 on the tight oval. Park got into the back of Stefanik to send him spinning, though he felt he’d gotten too much of a push from Goodale. \u201cI don’t know what happened there on those last laps. I just know that guys got aggressive,\u201d Park said. \u201cMike Stefanik’s a good friend of mine, and I got into the back of him but I was getting it from the guy behind me who never lifted through the corner.\u201d<\/p>\n
Stefanik wasn’t as diplomatic \u2013 or as unclear \u2013 about what took place. Nor was he buying Park’s explanation. \u201cYeah, right,\u201d Stefanik said when apprised of Park’s summation. \u201cI don’t want to say anything. I’m just going to say the wrong thing here.\u201d And he did. “I’m frig– b— s—.”<\/p>\n
Goodale came home second, while Ted Christopher in the Mike Boehler Engineering entry out of Freetown took third following and ending that was similar to the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series Late Model finish on Monday night. In that race, Kyle Larson moved leader C.E. Falk III out of the way off the final turn en route to victory.<\/p>\n
The race started off badly for Franklin’s Bobby Santos tangled on turn three and had to head for the pit area from the temporary 4\/10ths -mile circuit on the backstretch of the Daytona Intl. Speedway. In the process he lost two laps. Turn three was also the scene of several other tangles and spins that took out many of the 30 odd entries. On laps 15 “calamity corner” also saw defending Whelen Modified Tour defending champion Doug Coby and Don Lia tangle. Also involved was Ted Christopher and Frank Fleming. Also, going out was New Hampshire’s Andy Suesse.<\/p>\n
Todd Szgedy of Connecticut took command at that point and continued to lead while Stefanik, Jeff Goodale and Kyle Larson were in hot pursuit. With 32 laps left Stefanik took over the lead with Larson trying to challenging the leader. Larson, though, ended up in a tangle which eliminated his effort as his car suffered a left front flat tire.<\/p>\n
The worst wreck in the Modified race was when Don Bohn came out of turn four vertical to the track and the right said wheel fence. as his race car continued down the track he went upside down spilling oil on the track which ignited. The track emergency crew came to his aid putting out the fire and removing him from the upside down race car. Bohn later said, “It looked like the 2013 racing season for is over for me. We only have one car and just a few parts and not too much else,” as he forced a smile during the post accident interview.<\/p>\n
The K&N Pro Series race was tame compared to the fireworks from the Modified event, which featured the stars of the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour and NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour. Former Modified Tour champion and event pole sitter Todd Szegedy led most of the way before suspension woes sidelined him just a few dozen laps from the finish, while Danny Bohn, last year\u2019s Whelen Southern Modified Tour runner-up, had his race end on his roof following a front stretch wreck.<\/p>\n
For Hayley, he won the K&N Pro Series race not by being the aggressor on the final lap but by capitalizing on the chaos that was around him. Gauldingcharged into the back of Self with two laps remaining, nearly stopping in the center of the track to avoid the backlash. Once back under acceleration, he bolted to the lead with Hayley \u2013 who had been fourth on the restart \u2013 in tow.<\/p>\n
Gaulding made it to Turn 4 with the lead, but he bobbled on his own and washed up the track to open the door for Hayley to win the drag race to the checkered flag. It was a bit of redemption for Gene Price Motorsports, Hayley’s team, which had seen Greg Pursley lead 129 laps from the pole before being booted out of the lead.<\/p>\n
Hayley will kick off his second full season in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West March 2 at Phoenix International Raceway in Avondale, Ariz. As a rookie, he was part of the Next 9, an industry initiative designed to spotlight NASCAR\u2019s rising starts. While classmates Darrell Wallace Jr., Dylan Kwasniewski, Ryan Blaney and Kyle Larson grabbed the spotlight with their success, Hayley admitted he put pressure on himself to prove he belonged.<\/p>\n
In retrospect to the three races held on the temporary paper-clip 4\/10ths-mile track, it’s obvious that turn 3 needs to be reworked. especially for the Modified cars with their wide slick tires which experienced trouble steering on that flat as a pancake track. The layout is similiar to the one at Bowman-Gray Stadium in Winston-Salem, NC. Bowman-Gray is one of the oldest tracks on the NASCAR circuit. A few years back it was the scene of the History Channel’s MADHOUSE reality series and garnered the highest ratings ever for that for that cable channel. However, it was discontinued because of very consistently high production costs, according to reports.<\/p>\n
The NASCAR K&N Pro Series East gets underway on March 16 at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway. The NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour kicks off its points season on March 16 at Caraway Speedway in Asheboro, N.C., while the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour gets underway on April 14 at Thompson (Conn.) International Speedway.<\/p>\n
At New Smyrna Speedway in Florida Woody Pitkat of Connecticut won the opening night Modified race in the World Series. Rhode Island’s Mike Stefanik came in sixth while Ted Christopher, at the wheel of the Brady Bunch entry came in eighth. On night two Chuck Hossfeld won that one while TC came in fifth. Modified car counts were way off at NSS.<\/p>\n
Originally from Southington, Connecticut, Melvin “Red” Foote 85, of Chesterfield, VA, passed away recently. Red is survived by his wife of 45 years, Loretta Foote; his stepdaughter, Linda Strasburg; stepgrandson, Michael Talley; step granddaughter, Michelle (Richard) King; and sisters-in-law, Rev. Beverly J. Samford and Julianna Duke.<\/p>\n
Red enjoyed racing stockcars for 35 years, is formerly known as one of the “Eastern Bandits”, and was inducted into the New England Racing Hall of Fame for racecar drivers in 1999. After retirement, he spent much time at Newpoint Campground on his boat fishing.<\/p>\n
Red Foote ran his first race in 1948 at the Kingston Fairgrounds in RI. Carl Morrow and Ralph LeGendre co-owned Foote\u201ds first car, a silver #1 coach. It wasn\u2019t long before the \u201cracing bug\u201d bit Foote, and he was competing at Norwood Arena on Thursdays and Saturdays and Lonsdale Arena in Rhode Island on Sundays with regular visits to Westboro Speedway when time allowed. One day, while driving to a race at Lonsdale, the car hauling Foote’s race car broke down. Unable to make repairs, he unloaded the race car and used it to push the tow vehicle to the track.<\/p>\n
This kind of persistence paid off for Foote, who won championships at New London-Waterford Speedbowl in Connecticut in 1953 and again in 1958. He also won a championship at the Plainville Stadium in Connecticut in the 50\u2019s competing in the United Stock Car Racing Club.<\/p>\n
In 1960 Foote and the late Ed Flemke, Sr., were both racing with NASCAR and winning races from New England to the Carolinas. It was during this period that Foote became one of the \u201cEastern Bandits\u201d, along with Flemke and future Indy 500 Rookie of the year Denny Zimmerman and four-time NASCAR National Sportsman (Now Nationwide Series) Champion Rene Charland joined trio. Red took down a championship in North Carolina in 1965 as well as a seat in a top car owned by famed NASCAR Winston Cup race car owner Junie Donlevy of Richmond, Virginia.<\/p>\n
Red Foote retired after competing at Langley Field, Virginia, in 1980, driving a sportsman car, (present day Nationwide Series), so he was able to say that he was competitive in 5 different decades of racing. From his \u201937 Coach, to a NASCAR Late Model Sportsman, Red Foote represented himself and the sport of auto racing well throughout his career. Foote really shined in extra distance races at such venues as Norwood Arena, Wall Stadium in Belmar, NJ, Old Bridge, NJ, Trenton, NJ, Martinsville, Virginia, and Southside Speedway in Richmond, Virginia.<\/p>\n
Racing book publisher Coastal 181 announced today that it has acquired the inventory of Rose Racing Publications of Glendale, Arizona.<\/p>\n
Buzz Rose built his publishing company into a highly regarded source for authoritative books on open-wheel racing in America. He brought vast experience and a huge network to his titles, as he was himself a renowned sprint car road warrior. His successes behind the wheel led to his induction into the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame in Knoxville, Iowa.<\/p>\n
Rose Racing Publications\u2019 titles include definitive histories on the East Coast\u2019s URC, the California Racing Association (CRA), and IMCA, AAA, USAC, and CSRA. The most recent work is the robustly researched but sobering volume, \u201cRACERS AT REST: The Checkered Flag,\u201d profiling the considerable number of drivers who have perished in open-wheel competition.<\/p>\n
Both companies having strong racing backgrounds. Rose Racing Publications and Coastal 181 have collaborated closely over the years and plan to continue that association. Coastal 181\u2019s Cary Stratton said, \u201cWe are very pleased to be able to continue to make Buzz Rose\u2019s excellent titles available to the racing community. We look forward to having him join us at various shows and entertaining all comers with his wonderful racing yarns.\u201c<\/p>\n
Here’s what’s happening in southern New England. The Dunkin Center in Providence, RI has the Monster Trucks in all weekend. It all starts at 7 p.m. Friday night with two shows at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. The VFW in Norwood has an indoor auto flea market on Saturday at 9 a.m.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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