Rain Halts ASB American Classic 150 With 61-laps Complete; Ted Christopher, John Hurley, Shawn Tryon, & Mike Mordino Score Aug. 8 Nascar Dodge Weekly Series Feature Wins At SMS : Raceway Media

(Stafford Springs, CT)---With 61-laps complete in the 13th annual ASB American Classic 150 Featherlite Modified Series race, and Ed Flemke, Jr. leading, rain began to fall, postponing the race to Tuesday, August 19th. The ASB American Classic 150 will be resumed from lap-62, and the 35-lap Late Model feature that was scheduled for August 8th will also be completed on August 19th. Also part of the August 19th event will be a 15-lap DARE Stock feature. Rain checks from the August 8th event will be honored for the August 19th show.

In features that were completed, Ted Christopher won the SK Modified® feature, John Hurley won the DARE Stock feature, Shawn Tryon won the Coors Light 21 Means 21 SK Modified® feature, and Mike Mordino was the winner of the Late Model 16 feature.

In the 50-lap SK Modified® feature, there was a spin as the field came to the green flag. Chris Jones and Ted Christopher made contact, which sent Christopher into a slide through the frontstretch grass, while Lloyd Agor and Frank Wainwright spun in turn 1.

The start of the race saw Curt Brainard, in the #96 Kart Trak Chevrolet, get the advantage on Todd Owen, in the #90 Cooker Construction Pontiac at the drop of the green to take the early lead. Mike Holdridge settled into third in the #28 M+D Racing Chevrolet, Johnny Lobo, Jr. held fourth, and Eric Berndt rounded out the top-5 in the #54 North End Auto Parts Pontiac.

The caution came out on lap-3 when John Sandberg and Emil Downey made contact while battling for the sixth positon, which sent Sandberg spinning into the backstretch wall. The incident collected no less than 10 cars, including SK Modified® points leader Kerry Malone, Brad Hietala, Willie Hardie, Bo Gunning, Scott Foster, Jr., John Leger, Ronnie Silk, and Frank Ruocco. The race was red flagged to clear the track of debris and fluid. Several cars that were running at the back of the pack were able to drive through the incident with no damage to their cars.

The restart order at the front was the same top-5 as just before the wreck, but now Ted Christopher was sixth in the #13 Automated Waste Disposal Chevrolet, and George Bessette was seventh in the #93 Lasco Roofing + Sheetmetal Chevrolet. Chris Jones was 8th in the #39 Arbitell Racing Chevrolet, 21 Means 21 feature winner Shawn Tryon was 9th in the #20 Richard Chevrolet Chevy, and rounding out the top-10 was Chuck Docherty in the #78 JG Poulin Drywall Pontiac.

Owen took the lead back from Brainard as the race went back to green, while Christopher was on the move, picking off Holdridge for 4th place. The caution came back out on lap-8 as Jimmy Williams came to a rest against the turn 1 wall.

The first restart on lap-12 was called back by officials, and on the second restart, Christopher demonstrated his restart prowess by charging past Lobo, Brainard, and Owen into the lead. As Christopher made his move for the lead on lap-13, Holdridge came up to second, Berndt came up to third, and Brainard and Owen dropped back to fourth and fifth. Berndt rode in second behind Holdridge for several laps, but on lap-18 he went to the outside groove and went past Holdridge to take over second. Chuck Docherty had a stong car, and was picking up positions every lap. On lap-22 he made a move to get around Holdridge to take over the third position.

On lap-24, Berndt dropped off the pace with engine troubles, after riding Christopher’s bumper for several laps, looking to take the lead. With Berndt out of the race, Docherty assumed second place. The top-5 remained unchanged with Christopher at the point, Docherty second, Holdridge third, Brainard fourth, and Owen fifth. Shawn Tryon began to make his presence felt, moving from seventh to fourth, dropping Brainard back to fifth place.

This is how they ran until lap-45 when Billy Bolton hit the turn 1 wall after making contact with Bo Gunning. Gunning also spun and came to a rest in the turn 1 area. The red flag was displayed, setting up a five lap sprint to the finish.

On the restart, Christopher jumped out to the lead, with Docherty in close pursuit. Tryon made a strong move to take over third, while Holdridge and Brainard rounded out the top-5. Christopher began to inch away from Docherty, and on the last lap of the race, Tryon made a power move to the inside of Docherty to take over the second spot. Christopher sailed to the checkered flag to capture his fourth SK Modified® feature win of the 2003 season, and the 67th of his career at Stafford Motor Speedway.

Christopher’s margin of victory over Tryon was .554 seconds. The race took 43 minutes, and 24 seconds to complete. Christopher’s fastest lap of the race was 19.664 seconds at an average speed of 91.538 mph. There were a total of 4 caution periods, resulting in 46 laps of green flag racing.

In the chase for the SK Modified ® championship, Kerry Malone extended his points lead over Eric Berndt from 16 points to 28 points, 414-386. Willie Hardie is third, 62 points behind, Mike Holdridge is fourth, 76 points behind, and Chris Jones is fifth, 80 points behind.

“We got lucky and missed that big wreck on the backstretch and picked up a lot of spots,” said Christopher. “We were down on some power tonight, but I have to give credit to Mike Pettit for getting this motor back to us today at noontime. The one we had last night had some problems with dropping water out of the cylinder, and I have to thank my guys for working all afternoon putting this thing in and getting the car ready for me while I was up at Watkins Glen. I definitely owe this one to the crew tonight, I want to thank them, and I want to thank Jim Galante for letting me drive his cars.”

In the 15-lap DARE Stock feature, John Hurley, of Tolland, picked up his second DARE Stock feature win of the 2003 season, joining Andrew Durand and Kevin Gambacorta as the division’s repeat winners. Hurley took the lead from Fran Siana at the halfway point of the 15-lap feature, and then pulled away from his closest pursuers to take the checkered flag. Rounding out the top-5 behind Hurley was Scott Hitchcock, Aaron Goff, Kevin Gambacorta, and Siana.

“We’ve had some tough times this year,” said Hurley. “We’ve crashed a lot and been stuck in the back a lot, we knew we could be fast if we got to the front, we just haven’t been able to get there. We had pretty high expectations coming out here tonight. I don’t think we had the fastest car tonight, I think that Stacey Botticello had the fastest car out there. I don’t’ know what happened to her, but all of a sudden she was gone. At that point, I had a good feeling that it would come down to either me or Scott [Hitchcock]. I’d like to thank Norm from Precision, Barnard Chassis for all their hard work on the car making it handle so well, my family, my crew, and all the people who come here to support me.” In the Coors Light 21 Means 21 SK Modified® feature, Shawn Tyron, of Monterey, MA, used a late race caution to his advantage, as he passed Chris Osella on the last lap after a green white checkered restart to take the feature victory. Osella had led the race from the drop of the green, and ended up finishing second behind Tryon. Rounding out the top-5 was Jimmy Williams, George Bessette, and Lloyd Agor.

“I knew I could get him,” said Tryon. “[Jimmy] Williams gave me a tough shot going down the frontstretch, and I knew we were faster than him, and I figured he’d push up in 3 and 4, so I stuck it in there and we got him. There’s a lot of pressure in this race, you can’t wreck the car and knock yourself out of the main feature. I have to thank Richard Chevrolet and my father Leigh.”

In the Late Model 16 feature, Mike Mordino, of Southington, passed leader E.J. Lagacy on a lap-14 restart, and went on to capture the checkered flag. Lagacy had taken the lead on lap-10, but his lead was erased when the caution came out on lap-12. Lagacy held on for second, while Al Berry, Tony Lafo, and Mike Gigantino rounded out the top-5. “I had to throw a little crazy setup in the car tonight because we don’t race that much,” said Mordino. “I threw all kinds of stuff in the car at the beginning of the week, and towards the end of the week, I said I better change some of it back because it might not work. We changed a few springs in the front, and a couple shocks, and the car is turning a lot better now. T/A and Billy do a great job with the engine, it’s just me trying to get the car hooked up with the power we have. We’ve won some heat races before, and we’ve run well, but this feels great, I’m a little emotional. I have to thank all the pit crew guys for sticking with me through the good and the bad.”

Stafford Motor Speedway’s next event will be New England Dodge Dealers Night on Friday, August 15th. The SK Modifieds® will race 50-laps, the Late Models will race two 35-lap features, and the DARE Stocks will race 15-laps. General admission tickets are $12.50 for adults, $5.00 for children ages 6-14, and free for children ages 5 & under. Reserved seating is $15.00 for all ages. Stafford Motor Speedway offers plenty of free parking with overnight parking available.

For more information contact the Stafford Motor Speedway track office at (860) 684-2783, or visit us on the web at www.staffordspeedway.com.

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