Well, the annual Wings N’ Wheels event has come and gone, and this year’s incarnation was definitely a big-time event – not only for the 3 touring series that took to the track with the SK Mods, but because this Saturday Keith Rocco had a chance to clinch the National NWAAS title. All this after some other shenanigans during the week leading up to which gave this weekend the potential to be quite entertaining… even had some Family Section surprises during the event that I couldn’t have made up beforehand if I wanted to, so let’s get to it…
First thing I noticed when I got to the bowl was the Terry & Co were ready for this event. Cosmetically, the place was looking sharp. The quasi-paving of the parking lot and north pits that happened a couple months ago has really settled in over time and it made a difference in the pits where the MRS and NEMA teams were. The VIP and handicap parking areas were freshly painted with lines, the grass lots were available for overflow parking and there were plenty of Speedbowl Staff around the facility making things happen. Funny when ya think about the first Wings N’ Wheels back in 2008 when it was the one event of the year where people actually showed up, and the next week, like all the rest under the J-Rob regime, it was back to dismal crowds and far from friendly customer service. That year, the Wings show almost bothered me as it felt like Robinson was just saying “See, I can pack this place if I want to” and then drove the place back into the ground after it was over. This season, Terry & Co. looked like a crew who knew what they were doing and were prepared for the biggest event of the year… like a celebration within its community, not an ‘I told ya so’ from upper management that was the vibe for me back in 2008.
The SK field was once again over 20 (21 to be exact) even with early season regulars like Dennis Charette, Mike FInkeldey, Justin Gaydosh and Mark Bakaj still MIA. I saw a few people from the #57 SK team, including car-owner Mike Pane, who all said they really hoped tonight would be the night as they would prefer to win the NWAAS title at the Speedbowl if possible – definitely cool!! I stopped by their pit stall early in the day to wish Keith good luck and then told him about the lil’ Speedbowl nugget of getting his record 10th SK win of the season as well should he get the victory tonight. He kinda looked at me like “dude, wha?”… and I just thought, I should prolly leave this cat alone – to say he was focused would be an understatement. He has come close to this title the last few years, only to come up short by season’s end. This night, with the Championship just one win away, Keith’s focus seemed pretty intense.
With all this going on, I will say I was somewhat bummed our webisode crew is on hiatus… not only do we still have equipment issues, but my man Jesse Gleason is still hobbled up on crutches from ankle surgery, so we’re still TBD on when we’ll film next – and this Saturday woulda definitely been a good night to capture. Jesse was in the house with his bro & dad chilling with us in the Family Section (crutches & big ankles and all), and I was ready with my girl’s lil’ portable video camera (a la Blogger Boy style) ready to capture the celebration. There were no heats for the SK’s, so handicapping by points had Rocco starting 12th.
Their race was first with Kyle James starting up front and holding down the lead while Kid Roc came through the field. Tom Abele Jr was in second, then Janovic in third with Kid Roc all over him. I was somewhat intrigued with rookie Kyle James leading as I had made a prediction with my Family Section rowdies in the beginning of the year that he would grab a win in his first SK season, but when the caution came with about 11 to go, I had a feeling he would be in trouble with Abele outside him and Janovic & Rocco behind him. Indeed, the caution was the last thing Kyle wanted as the outside went on the restart with Abele taking the lead, although not for long. Rocco too, cleared James from the outside and then set his sights on Abele. I wanna say there were 6 laps to go when he finally got under the 32 to make the winning pass and it was on to Victory Lane, the NWAAS Nat’l Title and the Speedbowl Record Books from there!
With the win, I believe Keith grabbed both the NWAAS Connecticut State and National Championships as well as his 23rd career SK win at the Speedbowl and the 10th of the 2010 season, breaking Dennis Gada’s record of 9 in one year and becoming the first SK Modified driver in Speedbowl history to reach double-digit wins in a single season!
When the race ended, I grabbed the cam and went down to the track for the celebration. On my way to the gate, I was struck by some disturbing scenes. Rocco’s mother was running to the track in pure excitement when somebody came by and flipped her the bird!! Really?? That’s not cool! I mean, boo the snot out of Rocco all you want if you don’t like him – the fans have a right to boo whomever they want… that’s what fans are supposed to do… but don’t be throwing sign-language F-bombs into his mother’s face while she watches her son earn a NASCAR National Championship! Jeez, show a little respect and let a proud mother have her moment… even by just walking by and doing nothing if you’re not a big Keith fan.
That aside, Rocco’s celebration on the track was one of the coolest moments for the Waterford Speedbowl that I can remember. Rocco himself was definitely the most emotional I’ve ever seen him. It was great seeing him getting hugs from his mom & dad, his girl, his brother, his whole team…. You could tell this title meant a lot to him, the relief in his eyes was obvious. I was also pretty psyched for Terry Eames… you could tell this meant a lot to him and honestly, whether you cheer or boo Keith, I don’t see how, if you’re a fan of the Speedbowl, you couldn’t see his National Championship as an important moment for our little track. Not only did Keith, who has competed at Stafford and Thompson as well this year, clinch the title winning at the shoreline oval, a majority of his 18 best finishes (10) were earned at the Speedbowl. Indeed, it’s a fact that the Waterford Speedbowl is the home for the 2010 NASCAR Whelen All-American Series NATIONAL CHAMPION!! That’s just freakin’ cool, and without a doubt an important accomplishment in the long 60 year history of the track!
Keith won his first Track Championship at the Speedbowl in the Street Stocks back in 2004, then left to compete in the SK’s at the other tracks. According to what he’s told us during interviews he’s done for our documentary project, it wasn’t until his first year in the hunt for the NWAAS Nat’l title (2007) that the Pane’s offered him the #57 ride at Waterford in an effort to help him gain needed finishes in NASCAR’s point system in addition to his Stafford and Thompson rides. Who’d a thunk that woulda led to him actually getting the national crown 3 seasons later with a majority of his points earned at the Speedbowl. Just a really cool moment! Congrats to Keith, car owners Mark & Mike Pane and the entire #57 team!! If only we had a camera crew to film that after-party!!!
Afterwards, back up in the Family Section I was wrapping with Jen Pearl when she says “hey, you remember Harry?”… I turn and look, and it’s former Speedbowl Ace Harry Rice just stone cold chillin’ . I haven’t seen that cat in years… I later said to a couple peeps around me, “yo, Harry Rice is in the house” to which I got a few (including my boy Rich Brooks) who responded with a “who?”… tisk, tisk people… c’mon now!! Harry Rice was a two-time Speedbowl Late Model Champion, going back-to-back in their first years under the moniker Super Stocks in 1980-1981. Harry also lived up the street from me in Waterford when I was a kid… he sure did tweak up the neighbors working on that car all night, but I loved it. In fact, when I was around 11 or 12, I would mow lawns in our neighborhood with my buddy Chris to get some $$ and then his mom would drive us to the Speedbowl to see Harry and our personal favorite C.J. Frye… wouldn’t ya know that same dude Chris, who I still keep in touch with to this day, was also at the track with us Saturday in the Family Section. I gave Harry a copy of last week’s Vault Report too, as he was just in it as the first driver to win features in 4-divisions (SS, LM, SK, Modified) a mark Jeffrey Paul tied 2 weeks ago. Harry said although he doesn’t come to the bowl too often these days, he keeps up on the track and visits jp.com and the vault site frequently (totally sweet!) The number of visitors to the Family Section this season is reaching an all-time high, and having Harry Rice chilling was definitely a sweet cameo appearance!
Speaking of Family Section appearances, we had a doozy later in the night when Mike Pane and a couple of his #57 crew came up for a while with their NWAAS National Championship sign. They were hootin’ & hollerin’ and making all kinds of noise – and rightfully so for what their team accomplished earlier…. I can only imagine how much this may have been tweakin’ the Jeff Pearl and Tyler Chadwick faithful in our neck of the woods… but that was nothing compared to what came next when my man Brooksie came walking up the stairs. Whoa-ho man! Ya can’t get any better than this!!
For those in the racing community living under a rock and don’t know, Keith Rocco ran a Pane-owned car up at Thompson up until recently when a dispute with a tire inventory rule has kept him only at Stafford and Waterford on a weekly basis since. The man enforcing the rule at Thompson was one Dick Brooks. Why would he be coming up to the Family Section?? Well, he just happens to be my uncle and his son Rich and I were sitting there with Pane & Co and others during the ISMA race. Even better was that it was so crowded that the only open seat was right in front of Mike. I mean seriously, there wasn’t a MasterCard commercial produced that was as priceless as this… just freakin’ tremendous!!
I kept leaning over to Mike asking “how’s your boy Brooksie doing?” to which he responded rather loudly about how he was glad that they won at this racetrack, etc. I’m telling ya… it was just a tremendously awkward yet entertaining moment. I don’t get too involved with Brooksie’s calls at TIS, cause I go there once a year for the World Series and don’t see things for myself on weekly basis. Some might even say I don’t see things at the ‘bowl right. But when it comes to TIS, unlike the ‘bowl and because Brooksie’s family, I stay out of it. But this moment was fascinating nonetheless. It was also cool that Mike didn’t make things personal and we were able to laugh and have a good time about it even though it was all so surreal… definitely a moment I won’t forget anytime soon!
Between these crazy Family Section moments and the enormously long lines on the midway scoring a brew-nod, I didn’t see much of the NEMA or ISMA race. Chris deRitis won the 25 midget race and Chris Perley won in the Super’s 50 lapper… which was much better than the wreck fest that they had back in May.
The MRS 100 lapper was the night’s capper and this one had potential drama, but it never really materialized. There were some Speedbowl connections in the starting lineup like usual with this series. Teddy Christopher was in the #00, Doug Coby was in the #20 car that he’s already won 2 Speedbowl MRS races in, Rocco is in a white #57, Jeff Pearl took a provisional to make the show, former legend standout Max Zachem was in the #79, Donny Fowler was in the 10 car, Mike Holdridge, Jimmy Dolan, Charlie Pasteryak too… Chris Pasteryak is recovering from a wrist injury, so although he was there with his dad running, he was not competing. Other names behind the wheel were Rowan Pennink, Joe McKennedy and Les Hinckeley… it was a good field for sure.
Steve Masse had the pole in the #13 and led from the git-go…. There was one major wreck in turn 1 early that took out alotta cars (I think around only 14 finished on the track) and other than that, the race was mostly green laps. Teddy made it up to second, seemed ready to make a move on Masse, but with more than halfway to go at the time, I’m guessing he backed off a bit to save the car for the end. Pennink was in 3rd, then Coby who started deep starting making a move to the front from 6th place with about 20 or so laps left. He got all the way up to third after passing Pennink but like Christopher needed a caution to catch Masse who by this time had checked out pretty good. That caution never came and Masse took home what I believe is his first career Speedbowl win. Teddy second, Coby then Pennink. Coby came down for the podium interview, but no Ted Christopher in the 00. Not sure what that was all about… Blogger Boy has a post saying he’s been DQ’ed after tech inspection, but I couldn’t see how that would be what prevented him from a post-race interview… but who knows. At a glance though, it was pretty lame for one of the Modifieds biggest names to jip the fans of some post-race comments after the race.
So all-in-all it was a good day at the track and definitely a great event in the Speedbowl’s 60th season to have the NWAAS National Champion crowned on the frontstretch! And don’t forget, I believe Walt Hovey is still in the National Top 5 for the Street Stocks NWAAS division, and Danny Field leads the Mini Stocks National NWAAS division with Kenny Cassidy and Sean Caron in the Top 5 too… So the Speedbowl could potentially have more NASCAR National Championships to celebrate in 2010.
Next week is the season’s first ACT race and I’m pretty jammed up to see how our Speedbowl LM’ers will do against the big boys of the tour. I think Bruce & Timmy have already proven in previous ACT races at the bowl as well as last year’s ACT Invitational race at NHMS that they can hang, but I’d love to see s’more Speedbowl guys put on a show next week as well…. Guess we’ll find out in a few days!
Peace Out
Sid