MATT KEITH'S WEEKLY RACING NEWS
Ronca Ends Long Drought
5-8-08
Don Ronca has been through it all! A garage accident at home a few years ago left him with a broken back,and a long road to recovery. Soon after he lost his car to a blown engine during pre-season practice. These things almost ended his racing career at Albany Saratoga. Thus, going into Friday night's feature; one had to wonder if Ronca's psyche would be leading him to believe he may never win again. Not to mention the fact that he had to start on the pole against a virtual who's who of dirt modified racers littered throughout the field and ready to chase him down.
But Ronca has stared adversity right in the face and been victorious, and on Friday night, he finally ended an 11 year drought with his first win since June of 1997, at the Albany Saratoga Speedway. It wasn't easy. Starting on the front row; Ronca had to hold off the challenges of first, Ronnie Johnson who was looking for his 2nd win in a row, and then perhaps one of the best, Brett Hearn. He was able to beat Hearn to the line by a half second for his 11th career win at the great race place.
Not a bad night for the Vermont brigade in the modifieds as Todd Stone came home 7th. Stone has strung together 3 straight consistent finishes putting him in 2nd place in points; only 4 behind leader, A.J. Romano. Shoreham's Jimmy Ryan placed 11th just outside the top ten and Vince Quenneville, 14th. Dave Camara had a rough night getting spun out and a flat tire. He recovered to finish 16th followed by Gene Munger making his 2008 debut, placing 17th. In the off season, sportsman racer, Rob Langevin from Londonderry was married to fellow pro street competitor Lori Cary.
On Friday night Langevin gave himself a bit of late wedding gift with a win in the sportsman feature, inheriting the lead when Mike Ketchum retired from the event on lap 18. For his efforts Langevin is also atop the point standings by the slimmest of margins over Chris Busta. The Green Mountain Boys really shined in the Pro Street division with Jeff Wasburn finishing 2nd to Kim Duell whom he leads in the point standings.
Chuck Towslee and Ed Thompson both had great runs finishing 4th and 6th respectively. Towslee currently sits tied for 10th in the point standings, while Thompson sits in 5th, just a short margin from the lead.
Alex Bell ended Frank Hoard III's two-race winning streak in the Budget Sportsman class, however Hoard's third place finish allowed him to continue atop the leader board in the quest for the track championship.
The Great Race Place will be back in action on Friday night, May 16th; while sister track, the Devil's Bowl Speedway, will swing open it's gates for the 42nd time on Sunday night the 18th.
NOTES In other racing action involving competitors for the green mountain state over the weekend: Jon Scarborough finished 3rd in the sportsman feature at Fonda Speedway on Saturday night. Mike Bruno brought home the same result on opening night at Airborne Speedway in Plattsburgh. Angela Hoard took a 3rd place finish in the Budget Sportsman at Glen Ridge. Angela sits in at number 2 in points at Ridge. At the other Ridge, Bear Ridge Speedway, Angela's brother, Frank Jr. placed 4th in the Sportsman modified feature. Keeping it in the family, Frank's son, Frank III won his heat race for the budget sportsman at Fonda, but the feature event was delayed until June 7th by a curfew.
Also at Fonda, Dave Camara was able to pick up a pair of 6th place finishes in the double features for the modifieds. Camara would then add a 19th place finish in Sunday's Victoria 200 at the Utica Rome Speedway. Bennington's Neal Stratton had a 7th place run in the sportsman feature at Lebanon Valley. Over in the Granite State at Twin State Speedway; it was Chris Wilk taking home another win in the Super Street division.
That about sums up this week's racing round up. I'm sure I missed a few here and there but will try again next week. Until then; keep on racing everyone! Best of luck to all, and let's hope for continued good weather!
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LADIES AND GENTLEMEN START YOUR ENGINES
4-28-08
Hey race fans! Some great summer weather throughout the month of April has allowed many area race tracks to kickoff their 2008 seasons without much interference from mother nature. The way winter lingered on through the end of March and into April, we began to wonder if race tracks would be buried in mud and snow until May.
We here at vermontsportsnow.com would like to use this weekly article to report on the efforts of our area racers who work hard each week to prepare their race cars and bring them to the track. Keep in mind that we can only attend one race track per night, and since most of them race on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday; that allows one to only attend 3 races per weekend. Therefore, much of the information comes from race track websites. We will try our best to post information about as many area drivers each week that we can.
Looking around at some of our green mountain competitors that have graced victory lane so far in 2008, we find that John Scarborough from Bomoseen was the winner last Saturday the 19th of March at Fonda Speedway in the sportsman division. The win had to be a special one for Jon who was the 2006 division champion at Fonda, but as many of you already know, he was involved in vicious crash last June that destroyed his car and left Jon with several burns from his escape. For Jon, getting back to victory lane at the same place that could have cost him his life had to be a bittersweet win.
I would also like to add that in talking to Jon at the car show back in March at the Diamond Run Mall, I learned that Jon had been wearing all the necessary fire retardant clothing and yet he still received burns. However, he said that he still goes to racetracks and sees many drivers still wearing sneakers, no gloves, and not wearing much of the necessary fire retardant clothing. Take a lesson from Jon's crash; you can replace your car, but you cant replace your life! Take the necessary precautions! We want to report about your racing accomplishments and not racing tragedies.
Also finding his way to victory lane was Mendon's Chris Wilk, who won the opening night win in the Super Street division at Twin State Speedway in Claremont, New Hampshire on Friday night, the 25th of April. Jeff Washburn was the opening night winner at Albany Saratoga Speedway in the Pro Street division a week ago Friday, April 18th. Frank Hoard III from Manchester is now 2 for 2 in feature wins in the budget sportsman division at Albany Saratoga.
Several improvements have been made or on the way at both Albany/Saratoga Speedway and Devil's Bowl. At Malta, a new exit from the pits has been added allowing a separate exit and entrance to the pit area to keep the program moving. A set of grandstands will be added between the two roadways to allow crews to view their car while on the track. Soon the pit tower will be move behind these grandstands allowing the pit steward a better view of the track and the hot pit area that will be behind the grandstands. Over at Devils Bowl, new aluminum grandstands replace the old wooden bleachers, and plans are underway to build a victory lane behind the main grandstand tower, which will allow fans to see their favorite driver in victory lane and track officials to keep the program on the track moving.
In closing, thus far at Malta, and many other speedways, car counts have been strong as well as fan attendance. However, with rising prices at the pump that will probably reach over $4.00 a gallon by mid summer; it makes you wonder how many race teams will be forced to cut back their racing schedule due to the cost of fueling the truck just to tow the car to the race track, let alone fuel for the race car. Also, will fans who's wallet's are already pinched with rising costs of fuel, food, etc. be forced to cut back their entertainment dollar? While I could extend this article much further with a huge rant about the greedy politicians and corporations that run this country we will close out right here.
Everyone have a safe week and keep on racing!
Matt.
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So why have athletics changed for the better?
1-17-08
By Eric Berry
NortheastSports.net
As a longtime coach I have always believed that coaches serve as mentors in a lot of different ways. They offer their players with advice that will help them on and off the court, or so the theory goes. In my youthful playing days we learned all about “tryouts” and “cuts”, though painful, we understood the repercussions for not playing well, not communicating with teammates in ways that were beneficial to the team. And last but not least we understood that we had to get better or deal with it if we were going to be on the team next time or receive a substantial amount of playing time. My point is I’m having a hard time understanding this “new” way in which athletics or physical education is being taught to kids.
We teach kids now that it doesn’t matter if they are the most talented because Little Billy should share his playing time. This may be the case even though Billy shows minimal effort in practice and doesn’t show up all the time. This is the case because some psychologist/psychiatrist decided a long time ago that we don’t need to keep score, and that everyone should have the same equal time or chance to succeed. That’s exactly how it works in real life too. I’m being facetious because I have started to coach my daughter’s youth basketball team and realize that things are not what they used to be. I do believe that some things have definitely changed for the better.
In the 70’s it was nothing for parents to be drinking some Schlitz in the parking lot and think nothing of it. Or to berate the officials(wonder where I got it from?) from the sidelines unmercifully. My little league team had three mothers(mine included may she rest in peace) who I know had voodoo dolls of good old umpire Harold Smith. He would walk along and shriek in pain for no apparent reason as snickers and jeers would come from the back row.
So things are better now in that regard(and maybe only that one) than they used to be for sure. When we started our league we were given some basic rules that opined that we should play everyone and a certain amount of minutes at the minimum everyone should play. I can remember thinking what my old Babe Ruth coach would have thought about that. With his big chew in(league rules allowed coaches to “chew” and some players followed that doctrine for good measure) and 12-pack belly he would have had a real knee slapper with that one. One can argue that most of my ultra competitive generation didn’t turn out so well because of yesteryear’s system. I on the other hand argue the opposite.
I wonder if what we are teaching our youth now is serving them well. I’m sure it happens in some leagues where people don’t keep the score(for the record they do in ours). We want you to win on the scoreboard but not play to win thank you very much! What? Meantime we send more mixed signals than Britney Spears did to Kevin Federline. The point is, if you teach kids to be winners they may turn out to be what you don’t want-losers! There is competition everywhere be it in the classroom, physical education class and of course in the job market. I believe we have lulled a gross amount of kids into thinking with almost a stoner type mentality, or Ritalin hangover thought process if you will, that it’s all right if they don’t have a job. You’ll get one Billy; it’s all about being treated fairly in this world. And if not there’s always welfare.
I know it’s a strange argument but one that can’t be totally ignored. Look around. Who are the successful businessmen and what is their chemical makeup? I guarantee they are ridiculously competitive whether they are a geek or a former jock. They realize in order to be successful they have to keep score in their workplace everyday. If someone has to get cut then they gotta go baby. After all, it ain’t intramurals, and neither are competitive youth sports.
Eric Berry owns and operates NortheastSports.net
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