Riverside FANatic Summerfest 06
by Alan Plummer
This weekend’s Summerfest at Riverside Speedway, a P.A.S.S. sanctioned track, was two nights of great racing. Friday night’s festivities included Monster Trucks, an added bonus, and Saturday night included the P.A.S.S. Outlaws and Modifieds.
Friday started out with the Angels. The 55 of Traci Nelson started on the pole, with the 7 of Kate Demar outside. Demar immediately took the lead and ran away with the event. The 36 of Allison Brown moved into 2nd on lap 2. On lap 6 the 72 of Heather Hodge moved into 3rd bringing the 44 of Jennie Dion with her. Lap traffic on lap 16, held up Hodge and Dion. Dion made a great move to split the lap traffic and overtake the 3rd spot. Across the stripe it was Demar, who had lapped everyone except 2nd : Brown and 3rd Dion.
The Daredevils took to the field next, with the novice division 1st. the 3 of Kristopher Russell started on the pole, with the 11 of Brett Gervais outside. Gervais took the lead and the 27 of Dickie Stanly moved into 2nd. The 41 of Vanessa Brown gets sideways, and everyone clears, giving 3rd to the 00 of Ciara McCoy. On lap 9 the 73 of Riley Hartshorn and the 19 of Walter Bandy get together in turn 2, bringing out the yellow. Stanley gets the restart over Gervais. The 22 of Tori Delabruere stays on the outside groove to take the 2nd spot. On lap 13 Delabruere looks under Stanley, but can’t complete the pass. Stanley takes the checkers followed by Delabruere, Gervais, and Hartshorn. Delabruere was DQ’ed after going through tech for a camber violation, giving Gervais the 2nd spot.
In the Daredevil masters, the 8 of Tyler Leighton started on the pole with the 72 of Cody Hodge on the outside. Hodge took the lead leaving Leighton outside. The 5 of Jesse Switser moves into 2nd and the 93 of Alex Theroux into 3rd. On lap 6 the 77 of Brandon Lambert and the 04 of Shawn Swallow get together bringing out a caution. Hodge gets the restart, and Theroux moves into 2nd, and the 01 of Sami Gooden moves into 3rd. Gooden moved into 2nd on lap 9. Theroux and Swallow battle for 6 laps before Swallow takes 2nd. On the final lap Gooden gets into Swallow, sending Swallow across the line sideways and getting Gooden sent to the rear. Hodge won first place followed by Swallow and Switser
Monster trucks Eradicator and Backdraft took to the infield to crush and jump some cars. The also did a nice job of tearing up the infield lawn. They did a great performance, wowing the crowd.
The Street Stock open was the last event of the evening. Cars from Thunder Road, and White Mountain Motorsports Park were on hand to challenge the Riverside cars. The 76 of Ryan Delabruere started on the pole with the 4 of Steve “Mudflap” Quenneville on the outside. Delabruere took the lead, bring the 68 of Derrick O’Donnell with him. Lap 1 yellow: the 47 of Will Hennequin and the 8 of Alan Jones get together. O’Donnell battles Delabruere for 6 laps before taking a clear lead. On lap 17 the 6 of Jerrad Ledger takes third away from Quenneville, and on lap 21 overtakes Delabruere for 2nd. A caution on lap 33 was caused by the tire of 22 Michael Smith coming off in turn 1. Ledger takes the restart, leaving Delabruere and O’Donnell to battle for 2nd. O’Donnell skates high allowing Delabruere to sneak by. O’Donnell now battles the 03 of Jason Kenison, Kenison taking 3rd on lap 50. On lap 54 the 19 of Jake McDowell moves into 3rd. Lap 64 caution; three cars involved. Ledger again takes the restart. McDowell moves into the 2nd spot. By lap 70 McDowell is all over the rear of Ledger, but can’t complete the pass. Ledger takes the checkers, followed by McDowell, O’Donnell, Delabruere and Quenneville. Ledger is mainly a White Mountain car, but has a lot of past Riverside experience, followed by 3 Riverside cars and a Thunder Road car. I’d say that puts the cars pretty even, I wish more cars would have shown up to make it even more exciting, well there is always next year.
Saturday’s events kicked off with the P.A.S.S. Modified division. Of course, not realizing they didn’t have any qualifying, I didn’t write any notes down. The winner was the 5 of Chris Staples followed by the 8 of Jason Taylor and the 29 of Greg Ellis.
Next on tap was the “crunch bunch”, the Super Stocks. The 76 of Shawn Hood started on the pole, with the 10 of Adam Hurd outside. Hood took the lead, as the 31 of Brian Middleton and the 48 of Willie Holbrook got together bringing out the yellow. Hood takes the restart, as Hurd nearly hits the wall and gets freight trained back. On lap 4 the 73 of David Ofsuryk Jr. took the lead, and the 32 of Jeff Marshall moved into 2nd. Two laps later Marshall takes 1st. On lap 14, Holbrook moves into 3rd. Marshall takes the checkers followed by Ofsuryk and Holbrook. After post race inspection, Marshall and Holbrook were both disqualified for being to low. This gave Ofsuryk the win, with the 04 of Nathan Swallow 2nd and the 74 of Dan Sidney 3rd.
In the Dwarf cars, the 28 of Ernie Laplant started on the pole with the 22 of Dana Huoppi outside. Laplant got the early lead. The 6 of Travis Belisle, the 2 of Eric Hall and the 98 of John Drinkwine get together. Belisle does several 360’s as he goes off the middle of turns 1 and 2. Laplant again takes the restart. The 68 of Tim Sherman moves into 3rd place, and on lap16 he takes 2nd, and lap 18 takes the lead. Drinkwine moves into 3rd place on lap21, and takes over 2nd on lap24. At the stripe it is Sherman followed by Drinkwine and Huoppi.
The Outlaw Late Models were up next. I don’t think I’ve seen a Late Model race with so much sheet metal damage. There were 5 cautions in the first 10 laps. Riverside regular Jamie Swallow Jr. made his 1st attempt at a P.A.S.S. race, and the results were impressive. He started 4th and held the position for many laps. After the leaders got together, Swallow was leading for a few laps. He almost had 3rd place, but the 99 of Mark Belanger road him a little high, causing him to back off a little. Fourth place in your first race is pretty impressive to me. The winner was the 07 of Mark Patten, and 2nd was the 55 of Jimmy Renfrew.
The Cyclones were up last. They didn’t even take half as long to run their 100 lapper as the Outlaws did. The only near red flag of the night was when the 29 of Chris Meunier blew a tire and took Dukes of Hazzard ride off turn 1. He was still a little soar on Sunday. Other than that incident, it was a great race. The 12 of Tyler Therrien won followed by the 72 of Paul Hodge and the 7 of Todd Kenison.
Next Saturday night is a full card of racing, with all divisions but the Late Models. There will be Kiddee racecar rides from 5-5:45 pm. Post time 6 pm. Then on Sunday it is the David’s House, Riverside Speedway point fund Walkathon. 50% of all monies raised will go to benefit David’s House, and the other 50% will go to the drivers point fund. A heart healthy walk will follow. The event starts at 10:30am with registration. The Walkathon will take place at noon. Then at 1:15pm, it will be the 1st ever 25 lap human enduro. The first person to walk 25 laps around Riverside Speedway will win $200, with second place paying $100 and 3rd paying $50. There is a $35 entry fee and all proceeds go to both programs. Information and entry blanks are available on the Riverside Speedway website, www.riversidespeedway.org. Both events are open to the public as well as all race teams. The team that raises the most funds in each division will receive some very nice prizes. Pictures and archived FANatic articles can be seen at http://racing.apcomptech.com If you have any questions or comments email me at riversidefanatic@apcomptech.com