Archive for the ‘ISMA News’ Category

Top 3 (Jim Feeney Photo)

Oswego, NY – After a rain-filled weekend, the clouds finally broke enough at Oswego to begin some racing on Labor Day Monday morning allowing Bourne, MA’s Ben Seitz to claim his first ISMA win. Seitz took the ISMA Bud Light Super Nationals 50 victory after a late race pass of leader Mike Lichty. Seitz started third but lost that spot to Russ Wood in the yellow-plagued first half of the race. With 20 to go, the Richard Bien-owned 17 began moving forward and on lap 44, he and Lichty went side by side as they approached a lap car with Seitz able to take the right line around and the lead with five to go.  Lichty and Jeff Locke trailed Seitz to the checkereds. Seitz, having run at Oswego on many occasions in a NEMA midget, was very proud of this win for his new winged super team.

“This is awesome. Halfway through the race I knew we were going to have a good car, but I wasn’t really expecting to get the win. I saw Lichty getting loose there toward the end. Then I said ‘we might have a shot at this.’ We hit lapped traffic and that was probably the only way I could have passed him. I kind of feel bad for him. The kid has been in second place so many times ready to win. “

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There was big news breaking for Supermodified fans during the Lee USA Speedway ISMA program last Friday, when longtime area promoters Russ Conway and Ken Smith took the trackside microphone and announced that “The Classic” would be run at Lee on Saturday, Sept. 11.

Billed as “New England’s Longest-Running Consecutive Traditional Race,” the race had been run at Star Speedway in Epping for most of the past 44 years, but with All-Star currently sitting idle, the change in venue was the only way to carry on the tradition.

Most modern-era ISMA Supermodified fans came to know the Classic as the toughest race on the circuit. It was 200 laps around the lightning-quick quarter-mile, which always made for an entertaining show, with a 24-car field knocking off five laps a minute under green.

Along with the new venue, however, comes a new format. This year, the race will be run in two segments of 50 green-flag laps each, with the best overall finish determining the Classic champion. The field will be inverted after the finish of the first feature.

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Top 3 from Waterford (Jim Feeney Photo)

Waterford, CT – “I’d rather be lucky than good,” said Chris Perley after his Waterford Speedbowl win on Saturday night. It was a race he probably should not have won.  But, when you consider Perley’s achievements over the years, the words luck and good are used together not as an either/or.  The Waterford ISMA 50 went straight green for 36 laps over a time of 8+ minutes before a stop occurred for a bad wreck that bunched the field. The restart set up an intense torrid battle out front between Mike Lichty and Lou Cicconi that was a heart stopper. Chris Perley was settling in for a third place finish when on lap 44 the 84 and 10 came together off four, sending one into the first turn wall and one into the infield, both heavily damaged. After the cleanup and the speculation began as to what happened to the front-runners, but the race was not over. For the remaining seven laps, Perley pulled away from now second place runner Joey Scanlon, to claim his second feature win in as many nights. He became only the second repeat winner this ISMA season.

Perley jumped from his Vic Miller 11 in front of the large, vocal cheering crowd, and commented, “When Louie and Lichty were battling I really wasn’t in there. I was trying to creep up on them and getting there was taking me too long. I would have been proud to finish third to either one of those guys and second to either one. They were putting on a great race. I really don’t know what happened up there.”

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Chris Perley (Jim Feeney Photo)

Lee, NH – Four-time ISMA champion Chris Perley had decided to take some time off this year due to a growing business and family. But, at Lee USA Speedway on Friday night in front of a packed house, he showed he hadn’t lost his edge at all. Starting tenth on the field he stealthfully moved through the pack to third on lap 25 of the Ollie Silva Memorial 75. He tracked down second place finisher Dave Shullick Jr. and then headed for second-year ISMA driver Jeff Locke who held the lead after a lap 6 pass of Dan Lane. On lap 32 Chris put the Vic Miller11 by Locke and was not challenged after that. It was his third win at the three-eighth mile oval, since 2004. And his 61^st overall in ISMA competition.

Perley described his race. “The car was great. The crew made a bunch of changes like changing the shocks after the heat. I didn’t know if it was the right move. But Vic knows a lot more than I do and that’s why I like to race for him. It really worked out good. I thought I was too loose – even during the race. But it stayed that way. I made sure I didn’t spin the tires. Toward the end the car came right out from under me – that’s what the tires do at Lee so I went ‘ah I blew it. I have ten laps left and I’m not going to make it!’  That’s when I moved up on that caution immediately after that. I scuffed my tires up top and it was good so I said OK let’s stay up there. I kind of hung around up there for the rest of the race. I just prayed that I didn’t screw up, and that we didn’t have any more cautions.

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Delaware, Ont.  – Rob Summers became the sixth different winner in the eight races run to date on the ISMA tour Saturday night at Delaware Speedway in Canada. Summers took over the Jeff Holbrook-owned 35 ride earlier this year and since then he’s been getting closer and closer to a victory. The Vernon, CT driver came to the half-mile oval on Friday after two strong second place runs at Sandusky and finished a competitive fourth following some of ISMA’s best. Saturday was his turn to be the one to follow. Starting tenth in the field, he was up to third by lap ten. A slip on lap 15 by Mike Lichty who was trying to pass leader Bob Dawson, gave Summers a shot at second and then on lap 27, he drove by Dawson in traffic going into turn two.  Summers pulled away from Lichty and was on his way to victory. The win was the second in his supermodified career.

As always, Summers gave praise to his car owner and team. “The car has been on rails ever since we unloaded it this weekend. The crew did such an awesome job – Jerry, Mike, Brian Allegresso, and the whole JWJ team. They gave me one of the best cars I’ve ever driven. It was unreal – it went on the outside and inside. After I made the pass for the lead I was able to kind of just ride around out there.  Again I can’t thank Jeff Holbrook enough for giving me the opportunity to drive that car.”

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Delaware, Ontario – Mike Ordway Sr.’s victory at Delaware Speedway on Friday night ended in a rather bizarre fashion, when after crossing under the double checkers, his Vic Miller-owned supermodified crashed in the first turn wall. Instead of parking in victory lane, Ordway exited his mount halfway from the finish line, and watched as it was towed away. Ordway had been chased throughout the short sprint of a feature by Dave Shullick Jr., but was able to fend off those challenges until after the race was over. He described the finish of his second ISMA feature wins this season.

“I won the race and got down across the line and into one when the left front brake rotor broke. That was all it took. It just locked up the front wheel and it went around. There was nothing I could do about it at that point. Other than that the car was really good. It’s going to be good for tomorrow night, but I don’t know about now though. I was happy to win and to see all the fans that came out. We put on a good show I think, going 20 laps without a caution. That was good.”

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2010 Hy-Miler Classic Champion; Mark Sammut. (Todd Ridgeway Photo)

Sandusky, OH – London, Ontario’s Mark Sammut finally won his first and second winged ISMA features in 2009 after more than a decade of trying. He finished runner-up in ISMA points at year’s end. But, 2010 had not gone as well as the 78 team would have liked. In the first five races of the ISMA season, their best finish had been a sixth, that is until Saturday night’s 33rd annual Hy-Miler Nationals at Sandusky Speedway.  Sammut took the early lead, lost it to fellow Canadian Mike Lichty and then quietly stayed with the 84 until he was ready to reclaim the point. On lap 77 Sammut pulled alongside Lichty. The duo ran side by side until turn four when Sammut plucked the Hy-Miler prize. It was Sammut’s race to lose now, and for the final 22 laps he held on for the biggest win of his supermodified career.  He also became only the second Canadian to win the prestigious Hy-Miler race;  the first being Dave McKnight in 2001. Sammut recapped his road to victory.

“This is something. We had a really bad car all weekend long. We kept messing with it and messing with it. Finally before time trials today we thought it was coming around so we just pushed it a bit in that direction. We had a decent run in time trials. We had a decent run in the heat. I knew then that if we could stick with it we’d have a good car at the end of 100 laps. And we did. It was great.
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Dave Shullick Jr, Rob Summers, Charlie Schultz at Sandusky (Jim Feeney Photo)

Sandusky, OH – Despite the fact that it was 10:30 Saturday morning at Sandusky Speedway,  Dave Shullick Jr. proved he was was wide-awake and ready to go racing. Shullick, starting fourth on the grid, moved by race leader Rob Summers on a lap 5 restart and proverbially never looked back. The 40-lap Hy-Miler ISMA preliminary had been rained out on Friday night and was begun at 10:30 am. It was the fifth different winner and team at the fifth different racetrack to date this ISMA season. Shullick, who exited the last race with mechanical ills, was more than pleased with Booth-61 ride.
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Plattsburgh, NY – The large, enthusiastic crowd that filled Airborne Speedway Saturday night to see the ISMA winged supers race for the first time, certainly got their money’s worth. From the speeds, the qualifying heats, to the wave lap and down to the checkered flag, the fans were into it. The northern New York four-tenth’s mile oval seemed to be made for the powerful supermodifieds and it showed in the racing. “Awesome” was the by word from the drivers and fans alike at the end of the Airborne 50-lapper. It was a race to remember for sure – especially for winner Russ Wood and runner-up Justin Belfiore.

Ipswich, Mass. driver Justin Belfiore jumped to the initial lead and looked to be headed for his first win of the season until ninth-place starter Russ Wood closed in on the Belfiore 98. For the last ten laps of the race, the duo swapped the lead dicing in and out of traffic. A yellow with five to go set up a shootout, that had the crowd going wild. Lap after lap Wood tried the low side of Belfiore and was repelled. On the last lap, Wood chose the outside in one last attempt to wrest the lead from Belfiore and was able to pull alongside and by as the pair came down for the checkered much to the delight of the fans on hand. Thunderous applause greeted the veteran driver in victory lane.
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Jim Feeney Photo

Stafford Springs CT: It’s been a while since 50-year old Mike Ordway Sr. has stood in an ISMA victory lane. He’d spent several years out of competition, but Tuesday night he showed neither the heat nor his absence from regular supermodified competition had slowed him down. He put the Vic Miller number 1 into second just past the lap 10 mark and slowly reeled in race leader Bob Magner who possessed a healthy lead. Twelve laps later Ordway Sr. took the lead and was only challenged slightly after a series of late race yellows bunched the field behind him. It was his first ISMA win since July 23, 2004. The win was Ordway Sr.’s career 31^st in ISMA. He stands fourth on the All-Time win list behind Perley, Wood and Warren.

“Car was really good tonight,” said the veteran Fremont, NH driver. ” I owe it all to the crew for putting it back together after Waterford where it was wrecked. They worked on it for three straight weeks and to have it run like this is unbelievable. That’s why Chris won so many races.

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