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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I met Bentley Warren at his saloon during a charity motorcycle ride to benefit a 6-year-old girl from Kennebunk suffering with a brain tumor. Right away I could tell that he was a happy-go-lucky, down-to-earth man. He had a smile on his face and was wearing a bandana headband, sunglasses, cut-off jeans shorts and black leather biker boots — a fashion statement that is all his own and hard to beat. One would never guess that this ageless 69-year-old biker was also a legendary super-modified race car driver and successful businessman with a very generous side.

Bentley Warren was born in Kennebunkport in 1940. He began race car driving in the late 1950s and five decades later he is still going at it. Warren drove in the USAC Championship Car series in the 1970-1975 seasons, with 37 career starts, including the 1971 and 1975 Indianapolis 500. He finished in the top 10 a total of 14 times, with his best finish in fourth position in 1970. Warren has raced throughout the country, with his most recent races at Oswego Speedway in New York, driving a wingless super-modified car. In 2007, Warren was inducted in the New England Auto Racers Hall of Fame.

Throughout most of his racing career, Warren has also operated a successful trucking business, Bentley Warren Trucking Inc., based out of Massachusetts.

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by Gerald Laurie

There was no full moon aloft over Madera Speedway Saturday Night, but the happenings in the Supermodified Feature Event had everyone scanning the skies for a bright lunar orb. More on that later. Madera’s fifth big Open Wheel Event of the season featured the the Open Supermodifieds and the 360 Supermodifieds as usual. In addition, the Sprint Cars of the USAC Western States Series were added as a bonus to the fans. All of the open wheel groups ran a full program of time trials, dashes, heat races, and features.

The Sprints qualified first among the open wheelers with Tony Hunt fastest on the 1/3 mile oval at 13.628 seconds. Luis Ramos III at 13.674 and Scott Pierovich at 13.734 rounded out the top three.

The 360 Supermodifieds were paced by Kenny Kinchen with a lap of 13.359 seconds followed by Kyle Vanderpool at 13.649, and Willie Northammer at 14.066.

The Open Supermodifieds were the final challengers to the clock with Lonnie Adamson in control at 12.504, followed by Jim Birges at 12.572, and Kody Swanson at 12.710.
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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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Joe Starr Photo, www.bigwestracing.com

by Keith Shampine

DACONO, Colo. – Chris Sheil started third and held off veteran Joe Priselac to record his first-ever Englewood Supermodified Association feature win Saturday night at Colorado Nat’l Speedway. Sheil’s triumph made him the fourth different winner in as many races on the 2010 ERA tour.

Sheil recorded the triumph after a record-breaking day for temperatures in the Denver area. The official high was 102 degrees, breaking a record from 1971. Track temperatures were said to be about 140 degrees when Sheil and 11 other winged ERA supermodifieds lapped CNS’s three-eighths-mile oval during practice.
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by Gerald Laurie

The annual Al Pombo Classic at Madera Speedway on Saturday featured Supermodifieds and BCRA Midgets. The show was comprised of qualifications, trophy dashes, heat races and feature events for both classes.

The event started with Time Trials for the BCRA Midgets on the 1/3 mile banked asphalt oval. Tanner Swanson (10) set fast time with a lap of 14.235 seconds. He was closely followed by older brother Kody Swanson (15) at 14.341, and Nick Foster, Jr. (1) at 14.573.

Next to challenge the clocks were the 360 Supermodifieds. Fastest was Kenny Kinchen (5) at 13.555, followed by Kyle Vanderpool (1) at 13.726, and Lance Jackson (18) at 13.882.

The Open Supermodifieds were the final qualifiers and were led by Kody Swanson(72) at 12.776 over Jim Birges (32) at 12.858, and Lonnie Adamson (98) at 13.037.

The next order of business was the trophy dash sequence. The Bay Cities Racing Association Midgets lined up with Floyd Alvis on the pole flanked by Nick Foster, Jr. The back row included Kody and Tanner Swanson. At the drop of the green, Foster charged to the lead on the outside followed by Tanner and Kody Swanson, Alvis had trouble accelerating at the start and dropped to the back.  Tanner Swanson made several attempts to pass down low and although he was able to pull even, he could not complete the pass. Foster took the hardware over the Swansons and Alvis.
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