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OCTOBER NEWS
Perley Takes 5th Straight
World Series
By: Carol Haynes - ISMA
It wasn’t a tremendous surprise
to anyone when Chris Perley pulled the Vic
Miller 11 into victory lane on Sunday at
Thompson Speedway. After all he’d been there
eight times before. His first World Series
ISMA 50 win came on Oct. 15, 2000 and he’s
only been out of the winner’s circle at that
Connecticut oval three times since. He only
took seven laps to move into the frontrunner
spot from his 11th place starting
position. His complete domination of the
supermodified portion of the famous Thompson
World Series is undeniable, as the record
books show, but Perley himself can’t quite
explain why.
He shook his head in victory
lane and admitted, “I don’t think the
domination here has a lot to do with me. Every
time we unload here I just can’t believe it. I
just sit in the car and drive it. The car
seems to love it here. I don’t know what to
say really. We don’t break down. The crew
gives me an awesome car. Thompson has been
just great to come to every year. I kind of
wish we came here more often but I wouldn’t
want to take anything away from what we have
right now. I don’t want to wear it out. It’s
just incredible. Happy to see the weather came
out great this weekend and all the fans who
all came out to see us. I’m happy my family
made it too. It’s just that I have a great
car, great sponsors, great motors for a great
track and it’s a great day. Congratulations
to my car owner Vic Miller on his seventh ISMA
car owner title. It was great to race for him
when I could this year and it’s been great
every year. You just can’t beat all of this.”
Having an exciting run to
finish second was Raymond, NH’s Jeff Locke who
got to lead one lap before the 11 stormed by.
Locke had some strong challenges, especially
toward the end of the 50-lapper from Timmy
Jedrzejek, but he held onto the runner-up
spot. He said after the race, “This was
awesome. I have to thank Richard (Witkum). The
car was really good. I didn’t have a whole lot
for Chris. I could stay with him but that was
about it. Congratulations to him and the whole
team. They obviously have this place figured
out. I’m really happy to come home second. I
have to thank my father and my family for
sticking with me. This is a great finish to a
pretty crummy year for us. I’m very happy.”
Also very happy was third place
finisher who finished up a pretty good year
with his new car owner Dan Soule. “This was a
real good run for us. The whole team did a
great job today. We adjust yesterday and I
hadn’t been to this place in ten or twelve
years. So we’re pleased with what we have as a
crew. We started off the race a little slow
and I think I dropped back maybe to tenth or
so. Then the car started to come to me and we
weren’t so concerned about being fast at the
start of the race but we knew we had to be
fast at the end. I thought Jeff and I had a
pretty good battle for a while there for
second. I just couldn’t hold it with him. I’d
get there on those last couple restarts and
he’d just pull back around me on the next lap
and then I couldn’t do anything after that.
Congratulations to Chris and Jeff for first
and second and we’ll go happily home to Ohio
with third.”
Canadian Craig Rayvals had the
pole for the ISMA 50 and took advantage of the
spot to take the early lead but on lap 7 the
37 of Locke took over and only one lap later
Perley absconded with the point and the
eventual win. Locke would have to contend
with a strong runner Jon Gambuti in his 14, a
former Cicconi-owned machine. Behind Jon were
the likes of Rob Summers, Rayvals, Mike Lichty,
Johnny Benson, Jedrzejek and Russ Wood.
Dave Sanborn, in the Lane 9,
flew the first yellow on lap 15 with several
pit stops made in the ensuing slowdown by Ben
Seitz, Brandon Bellinger and then Johnny
Benson Jr. Benson had unintentionally tagged
his own teammate Lichty, cutting a tire.
The restart attempt brought out
another yellow when Bob Bond grazed the front
straight cement wall and was hooked out of the
event. Ray Graham Jr. also parked the 90 and
Louie Cicconi, driving the deRitis 66, another
of the Aston, PA driver’s previous machines,
also called it a day.
Finally back underway, it was
Perley pulling away from Locke and Summers
putting Gambuti back a spot into fourth. The
11, which was on rails was ticking off some
16.6 second laps, but Chris wasn’t pulling
totally away from Locke, but not really
threatened either.
At the midway mark, it was
Perley, Locke, Summers, Jedrzejek, Lichty, Jon
McKennedy, Gambuti and Witkum, working his way
up from 23rd starting spot.
Just prior to lap 30, Benson
pulled the 74 pit side and a lap later,
Summers followed suit out of third.
Overheating caused the demise of the 35.
The long, quick green run found
Perley well in command with Locke, Timmy J,
Lichty and McKennedy, the top five. Witkum and
Wood were next in line trailed by Oswego
regular Brian Sobus, Mark Sammut, Gambuti and
Joey Scanlon.
Yellow flew on lap 35 when the
28 of Bob Dawson puffed an ominous cloud which
turned out to be just water. On lap 40 Dan
Bowes caused another slowdown and one lap
later it was Moe Lilje’s turn to drop the
flag.
These last couple of restarts
bunched the field and although Perley pulled
away cleanly, some torrid racing ensued
between Locke and Jedrzejek and Lichty and
Witkum, which continued to race end. At the
checkered Perley had done it again, picking up
his fifth in a row with Locke, Jedrzejek,
Lichty and Witkum the top five.
Lichty, in his first ride at
Thompson in the car he’d taken to a King of
Wings win at Oswego, said of his fourth
place. “For what we had all day yesterday
after bringing a new car that I’ve never
driven here which is definitely a fast place,
we were out to lunch. I was better in the heat
race yesterday but the wing kept coming over
center and I just adjusted way too far on the
wing. I wasn’t letting it come down enough and
that’s what killed us today. Our straightway
speed was definitely not there. But, the car
was decent. We started out a little loose but
I think if the wing came down we would have
gained more positions. I just have to thank
dad, Craig Reed, Dickie, the whole crew and my
beautiful car owner Raven Reed Racing. It’s
the last race and it was a bummer because now
we have to wait five months now to go racing.”
Witkum was more than pleased
with his fifth, which unofficially earned him
an extra $100 donated by Bio-Based.us as the
Hard Charger. “It wasn’t a bad race for me at
all. After not running the heat race and
starting 23rd, fifth feels like a
win. The guys did a great job. I have to thank
Howie, my Uncle Bob, Pete, Wally, Tony
everybody just kept the think in one piece and
I had to do my job. So, that’s all I could get
out of it. We traded a little paint with
Lichty battling for fourth but that’s okay. He
was a little bit better than I was. He was a
little loose off and I was tight off.”
Russ Wood, Mark Sammut, Joey
Scanlon, Jon Gambuti and Dan Bowes rounded out
the top ten.
Vic Miller, whose 11 car was
credited with 7 wins in 2011 thanks to Perley
and Lou Cicconi, has clinched the ISMA Car
Owner of the year title, his seventh. He said
briefly amidst the chaos of pits at tech,
“That was a great run Chris had here today. I
finished up a good year. I wish he could have
run all the races this year, but we had a
bunch of different guys that really helped out
like Louie Cicconi, Vern Romanoski and Otto
Sitterly, so it was a great year. We’re really
happy. It couldn’t have been better. And, it’s
great to get a 7th car owner
title.”
In his hauler, Russ Wood also
acknowledged what should be his 8th
ISMA Driver Championship and giving his car
owner Jeff Holbrook a runner-up spot in the
Car Owner division. “We finished sixth today
and we did what we had to do. Everybody did a
good job and we’re just happy to get the
driver’s points deal. Congratulations to Chris
and Vic. They had a really super year. That’s
about it. It’s over and done with and now we
relax. It’s a little odd to be the driver
champion and have someone else be the owner
champion but it’s a team sport and even though
it’s a driver’s championship, this team is 100
percent behind it. So it is what it is. Even
though we made the sacrifice to go to all the
races, we did well and this is the end result.
We’ll take it.”
JOHNNY BENSON JR. PICKS UP
SECOND STRAIGHT RACING AGAINST CANCER 100 AT
SEEKONK
By Carol Haynes -
ISMA PR
Photos By: Jim Feeney
Johnny Wins at Seeknok
Seekonk, MA – Last year Johnny
Benson Jr. of NASCAR truck fame, came to
Seekonk Speedway for the first time to compete
in the ISMA 100. He left Seekonk with his
career-first ISMA victory after an exciting
battle with Chris Perley to the end of the 1st
annual Racing Against Cancer 100. Benson
duplicated his feat Sunday at the Cement
Palace with a few different adversaries, but
an equally awesome run. Benson was able to
present the $2500 ISMA check once again to the
Racing Against Cancer effort and he also
participated in the Cancer Team Walk on
Saturday for one fulfilling weekend.
The former NASCAR Camping World
truck champ started 7th in the
field of 26 potent supermodifieds and had to
work by Eddie Witkum Jr, swap the top spot
with 7-time ISMA champ Russ Wood and then
spend over half the race fending off the
torrid advances of Louie Cicconi in his
newly-purchased Vic Miller machine, a car
which Cicconi had taken to two wins in 2011
while subbing for Chris Perley. Benson was
finally able to clear some heavy traffic with
less than five to go, leaving second place
finisher Russ Wood a couple car lengths behind
at the checkers.
Benson mentioned the traffic
factor in victory lane, “I would have liked to
see some open traffic in those last laps. I’ve
got to thank Brad and Mike Lichty, Reggie,
Duane and all the guys that work on the 74.
The thing was pretty good tonight. I began to
think toward the end there that I might have
used it up more than I wanted to, but it just
felt good. I remember from last year that you
could run the car pretty hard here so that’s
what we did.
“But those last 15 laps were
pretty spectacular. The car was getting loose
and sliding around pretty good. But I’m sure
the other guys were doing the same thing. I
don’t know if it was Russ or Louie who got
beside me there but that woke me up. You have
to be patient in traffic. You have to keep
tires on the car. Sometimes you come up on
guys and you kind of surprise them. You kind
of click through when you do. When somebody
puts the pressure on, then you have to go. I
probably took a few chances out there, but
outside that we did pretty good.
“Again I have to thank Brad,
Patco Transportation and the whole Lichty
family for giving me this opportunity and to
Gary Sagar for having me come up here two
years in a row. The hospitality has been
great. The walk they had for Breast Cancer was
a pretty cool success. It’s been a good time
this week. We appreciate everybody who has
helped the cause. On behalf of ISMA, I get to
present the check for $2500 for Racing Against
Cancer. There are a lot of great people who
help make this happen. It was great to be a
huge part even though I only walked 25 laps!”
Russ Wood, who actually led the
race briefly, and then had to get by Louie
Cicconi late in the race for second,
commented, “It was a pretty fun race there.
Johnny won here last year and I think he’s got
this place down pat. We were good and then we
were bad. I was having fun in traffic. I had a
ball. Thanks to Gary from Kraze Korlacki Speed
Equipment for putting this on and to everybody
who has given to Racing Against Cancer this
year. Every little bit helps.”
Rob Summers, in the thick of
things all race long, came across in third
after Cicconi got some help for a late race
bobble. Said Summers, “I was running pretty
good but toward the end of the race I got in a
bad lane and got shuffled back. Then we were
able to get back toward the front again. Russ
was good but none of us were as good as
Johnny. He owns this place. I can’t thank
enough Jeff Holbrook, Russ Wood, JWJ
Enterprises, Brian Allegresso and all these
guys who gave me a great car tonight.”
The ISMA 100, which had been
delayed a day due to bad weather forecasts,
got underway just after 5 pm on Sunday with
Dave Sanborn and Mike Ordway Jr. leading the
strong 26-car field down to green. Sanborn
took the early lead but his teammate Eddie
Witkum Jr. came up and stole his thunder on
lap 5.
Witkum survived a couple
cautions for spins in those early laps but
soon had Benson bearing down on his 97, until
Russ Wood stepped in to give Benson a battle.
First Wood got Benson, then
Benson got Wood, and then Wood got both Benson
and Witkum to lead lap 28. But, that was the
only lap Wood led. Shortly thereafter, both
Witkum and Benson maneuvered through a pack of
cars to put Wood back in third and Eddie back
in the lead. Coming on strong in the meantime
was Louie Cicconi, trailed by Justin Belfiore
and Rob Summers.
On lap 31, Benson put the
Lichty 74 into the lead thanks to some more
traffic and the race was on. A quick yellow
for Brandon Bellinger one lap later bunched up
the field, but Benson was able to pull
slightly ahead on the restart.
By lap 35, Johnny was back
chomping at the tail of the field at the quick
third mile oval. Wood followed Benson
through, diving high and low with Cicconi
doing likewise. Witkum held fourth now ahead
of Summers and Belfiore, trailed by Mike
Lichty, Chris Perley and Jon McKennedy.
On lap 44, Cicconi, in one
hairy, breath-taking move in traffic, got by
Wood for second.
Just prior to the half way
mark, things tightened up as yellow fell for
Oswego Classic champ Otto Sitterly who had
bounced off the track. Several cars pitted
during the time including Mike Lichty. Things
got underway, only to slow up again when Jeff
Locke repeated Sitterly’s spin.
A lot of water and dirt had
been kicked up on the speedway and the race
was red flagged for cleanup and a quick
refueling due to the number of caution laps
already run.
The race went green again on
lap 55 and Benson was off like a shot, knowing
Cicconi and Wood were right there now trailed
by Summers and Perley. Minutes later Benson
approached a tangle of cars, which put Cicconi
right on his tail again.
Cicconi throwing every trick
from a long playbook, took the advantage on
lap 71 but Benson played the trump card and
was back in front on lap 72. Johnny was able
to put a couple car roadblock on Cicconi but
Lou jumped it and was back on Benson’s tail at
the 20 to go mark, not leaving out Wood,
Summers, McKennedy and Perley by any means.
With 8 laps to go the
excitement escalated if that was possible as
Benson hit another traffic wall, allowing
Cicconi to catch right up again. With five to
go, Benson had cleared a path through and one
lap later Wood get by Cicconi in the cat and
mouse chase leaving Summers, Cicconi,
McKennedy and Perley not far behind.
With three laps to go, Cicconi
suddenly appeared to slide up the track losing
a couple valuable spots to Summers and
McKennedy. After finishing sixth, Cicconi said
on those last laps, “I was running with
Benson. I thought I was going to get a shot in
lap traffic. Actually, I did get by him but I
didn’t take his line away and I should have.
He runs me so clean. Then we were going
through that heavy lap traffic and Jonathan
McKennedy made a right turn into me, hit me
and almost spun me out. I was able to hold on
though.”
Benson came through the last
two laps unscathed with Wood and Summers
chasing for the top three spots. McKennedy and
Perley finished up the top five.
McKennedy commented later, “We
had a good car. I want to thank Paul and Helen
Dunigan for letting me run the car again. At
the beginning of the race, the car was a
little bit tight - it might have been all the
fuel. Chris and I had a pretty good race back
and forth there. It was fun racing with him. …
good clean racing. We were able to catch up to
Russell and Robbie but at that point the race
was over. Congratulations to Johnny on his
second win in a row here.”
Perley, who watched as his
second Vic Miller ride for years, left the
stable for the Cicconi garage, said of his
run, it was round and round for 100 laps.
Let’s see here. At Star we finished second and
we were wondering what was wrong with the car.
It was good but it was a good second place
car. We came here and the car was good all day
but it wasn’t quite what we’re used to I guess
you could say. We worked on it and I think we
did the best we could. I was really happy with
a fifth after starting fourteenth, but now we
think we know what it is. So, we’re going to
go home and cut it up. But I’m happy. The car
ran the whole 100 laps. It was a tough race
and it was fun racing with everybody.
Everybody raced clean. Traffic was tough which
made it fun. Fifth is good. We’ll take it.”
Seekonk Speedway
Seekonk, Ma-
Saturday October 1st, The cars and stars of
the International Super Modified Association return to
Seekonk Speedway for Racing Against Cancer 100. A full
field of the best Super Modified drivers will be
competing for 100 green flag asphalt pounding laps.
Leading the charge is the
defending 2010 race winner, 2008 NASCAR Camping World
Truck Series Championship, Johnny Benson, Jr from
Cornelius, North Carolina. Looking to spoil his day,
fresh off his Classic win at Star Speedway is 7-time
(most all-time) 2010 ISMA Champion Russ Wood. Wood of
Pelham, New Hampshire has never won at Seekonk but has
finished 2nd three times.
“Seekonk Speedway is a lot of
fun. A very clean and well organized facility but most
of all very racy! 3 Grooves of racing; high 10 and low
11 second laps that put you in traffic most of the
time. It’s a driver’s track with a lot of action.
Can’t wait”! said Wood recently.
Also hoping to spoil Benson’s day
is current 2011 ISMA points’ leader, the most winning
driver in ISMA history, six-time ISMA Champion, the
“Rowley Rocket”, Chris Perley who leads all active
drivers with 3 Seekonk wins. Local ISMA driver Ben
Seitz of Bourne, Ma, a 4 time NEMA Champion who
currently is 4th in 2011 ISMA points, would
love to score his first Seekonk ISMA win. Race
Teams from the Northeast, North
Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, & Canada are scheduled
to attempt to qualify. Three drivers are guaranteed
starters; Chris Perley, Dan Bowes, and Russ Wood, by
virtue of their finish at Waterford, Lee & Star
respectively.
Joining ISMA will be the Small
Block Supermodifieds who are the premier division,
competing weekly in the NASCAR Whelen All-American
Series at Lee USA Speedway, Lee NH. Also the NEMA
Lites, and the championship event, race 3 of 3 for the
ladies in the Kraze Triple Crown Powder Puff Series.
Gates open at 2, Racing begins at
5. Rain date Sunday October 2nd. For
additional information
www.krazespeedequipment.com. 800-252-6830
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