RIVERHEAD RACEWAY ROUNDUP
A fourth-place finish leaves Maestri on top 0 comments below
RIVERHEAD--The curtain came down on the 2008 season at Riverhead Raceway Saturday with Frank Dumicich Jr. of East Quogue scoring his fourth super pro truck win of the year. With his fourth-place tally, Lou Maestri of Deer Park sewed up his third super pro truck championship.
The other big winner was Ray Fitzgerald of Manorville, who drove to his fifth grand enduro win of the season.
Dumicich sat in victory lane after winning his 20-lap race, with Mike Albasini of Flushing the runner-up. Newcomer Rob McCormick of Calverton roared from 20th for a third-place finish.
Fitzgerald scored his fifth win in the grand enduro ranks despite a 24th starting spot in the 33-car field, which went 75 laps.
Racing into the first corner with just eight laps to go, Fitzgerald was able to overtake division champion Robin Vollmoeller of Riverhead for the lead while the duo raced in heavy-lapped traffic. Once in front, Fitzgerald stayed there to the end. He won the race, but fell 20 points shy of the championship held by Vollmoeller, who was second in the race. On the strength of his third-place effort, John Cozza of Medford won the grand enduro championship. It is his second Riverhead Raceway title, having won the blunderbust crown in 1989.
With a seventh-place finish after a late-race spin, Donald Lawrence of Hampton Bays clinched the four-/six-cylinder truck enduro championship.
Tommy Walkowiak of Ridge notched his fourth four-/six-cylinder truck enduro win of the year in a 50-lap contest that he said would be his last race in the division. Walkowiak took control of the race on Lap 17, when race leader Rob McCormick of Calverton got crossed up in lapped traffic. McCormick finished second, and Shawn Wanat of Riverhead was third.
After Mike Smith crossed the line first in the eight-cylinder, 100-lap enduro, he was disqualified for an infraction discovered during a postrace inspection. That gave Phil LaManna of Smithtown his second career win. Just by starting the race, Dege Russell of Rocky Point won championship. He won three of the seven points-paying races in his Chevy.
In the 50-lap nightcap for the eight-cylinder troops, after 14 years of trying, Frank Martines of Shirley finally scored his first career win.
In what may have been a history-making year, Wanat won the 50-lap, six-cylinder enduro, making it seven out of seven on the year and earning his second consecutive championship in the process.
Another driver who enjoyed his first trip to victory lane was Matt Brown of Ronkonkoma. He won the four-cylinder enduro, a 50-lap tilt.
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