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Perley Dominate at Mansfield
I finally got a weekend off and the good man upstairs blessed Ohio race fans
with beautiful weather and a great night of racing. I know that I have reported
twice already this year from Mansfield, but it's hard not to take in a chance to
see the fastest short track cars in the world. The ISMA Supermodifieds
invaded the half mile Saturday and it was quite a treat for the packed
grandstands. I spent several hours pitside with these guys and they are one
of the greatest groups of drivers I have ever met. All of them were really down
to earth people that love travelling to the Buckeye state to race. In fact, many
of the drivers said that Mansfield, Sandusky, and Toledo are there favorite
tracks to race at. Most of these folks travel from what is considered the ISMA
triangle, a 30 mile triangle in an area that most of the drivers come from. This
area encompasses the states of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New
Hampshire. So you could just imagine the travel time these guys have just
getting here to race! One racer I met, Vern Romanoski from Strong, Maine,
spent 22 straight hours driving to get to Toledo Friday night - talk about
dedication!
Doug Ehret and Tony Uridales brought the Miller Lite Late Model feature
event down for the green, with Uridales taking the lead. After a lap 6
backstretch melee that damaged the three of the four fastest qualifiers, Kent
Brewer would sneak under Uridales on the restart for the lead. During the
next green flag run, Bubba Smith was picking his way through the field and
was tracking down leader Brewer. Uridales brought out the caution on lap 13
as his car lost power, and Bubba wasted no time passing Brewer on the
restart. John Sandquist, Jr. challenged the youngster a few times on the
restarts, but Bubba proved to be the best this evening as he raced his way to
an impressive victory over Sandquist, Jr., Bob Sibila, Jr., Doug Ehret, and
Dave Dobbins. Bubba is the only repeat winner this year in the Late Model
division.
Next out was the 50 lap main event for the USA Modifieds. Doug Meyer and
Scotty Tomasik brought the 24 car field down to the green and Tomasik
jumped out to the lead. Tomasik would lead all 50 caution free laps on his way
to victory with Doug Meyer, Rodney Scott, TJ Stineman, and Matt Leedy
following.
Next out was the ISMA Supers, the race the crowd came to see. 25 winged
warriors from the east hit the track and it was Scotty Martel out to a quick lead.
On lap 6, Kyle Carpenter would take the lead from Martel, only to wind up in a
wreck on lap 14 while trying to make his way through lapped traffic. Miami, Fl.
driver John Torrese would inherit the lead, but while coming down for the
restart, Torrese pulled pitside and eventual race winner Chris Perley was now
the leader. Perley blistered the field and at one point was half a track ahead
of second place Lou Cicconi. After a lap 47 caution for Moe Lilje, who broke a
rear end and slammed into the turn four wall, fifth place Nokie Fornoro would
put on a show for the last three laps. Fornoro passed a handful of lapped
cars and squeaked by third place Bobby Santos for a photo finish. Following
Perley to the stripe was Liquid Lou Cicconi, Nokie Fornoro, Bobby Santos, and
Mark Sammut. Just to tell you how fast these cars are, they ran a 50 lap race
in 21 minutes, which included two lengthy cautions. Congratulations to all of
the ISMA drivers and I'll see you again at the Hy-miler at Sandusky.
Message Board
up with the lapped traffic of Vern
Romanoski (5) and Rich Reid (55).
closed for the season, supermodified driver Nokie
Fornoro told me "You'll see a lot more closing too. Back
home a lot of our local tracks have closed up or have
dropped their top divisions. A normal middle class family
just can't afford to go to the races anymore, and without
the fans, promotors can't pay the purse. It's kind of scary."
old friend Friday night at Toledo. Lou said "Tony
(Stewart) just grabbed a lawn chair and sat there
enjoying the races. No one bothered him at all. It's not
uncommon for Tony to just show up at a track if he's in
the area. He's a pretty unique friend." Tony and Lou
raced midgets together in the past.
straight at the high banks of Mansfield. Chris had told
me earlier that "I love this place and it's been good to us.
If we run like we did in hot laps, we have a shot to win."
And win he did. If this race was 100 laps, he would have
lapped the field. Nokie Fornoro was still talking about it
at tech after the race as seen left.
