Longo, Walls, Lawrence, and Ostrander Find NEETS
Victory Lane at Wall
The threat of rain held off for the North East Enduro Series (NEETS)
third appearance at Wall Stadium for the Mid-Summer "Slam" event sponsored
by Value Towing Service & Auto Recycling. To the delight of the many fans
that came out for a fun filled evening, Rob Longo, Jeff Walls, Mariah
Lawrence and Danielle Ostrander brought their mounts to victory at the
FANtastic Jersey Shore facility. Starting the night off with a bang was the
announcement at the driver’s meeting of two additional races being added to
the 2009 NEETS Racing season at Wall Stadium. The pending dates of these
events are October 25th and November 29th.
First on the bill was the 50-lap Small Car/TRUX event. Due to car counts, it
was decided that the two divisions would be combined, but with separate
finishes and payouts. While in the staging area, Vern McLaughlin III had to
go to the pits for an adjustment but made it out to the track just as the
green flag dropped. Jeff Walls had the pole position, but was quickly passed
by John "Sac-Man" Saccomandi at the start. His lead was to be short lived
however, as Walls powered by Sac-Man by lap two. Woot Lawrence took the lead
for the TRUX as fellow trucker Jeff Gregor had to retire to the pits. Dave
Bentley Jr, who had started last for the 4 cylinders, quickly moved up into
second. McLaughlin, who had a tremendous amount of catching up to do, passed
Melissa Simms for the fourth position by lap 24. With Woot still leading the
TRUX, disaster hit as he got a flat tire and had to make a run into the
pits. This put Mariah Lawrence in the lead as the sole TRUX left on the
track. Walls had a huge lead on the second place runner, Bentley, Jr. and
was never seriously challenged for the finish.
What shaped up to be a very exciting finish, started with Danielle Ostrander
leading 13 of her fellow competitors for the 25 lapper at the signal of
flagger Matt Odwazny. Ostrander hit the gas and put some distance between
herself and second place runner Mariah Lawrence right from the start. As the
rest of the field started to get their bearings, Kimee Page took a spin
between turns 3 and 4 along with Melissa Simms, who did a spectacular
burnout trying to get her racecar pointed in the correct direction. From
that point on, Simms was on a mission. She began to power her way around the
heavy lapped traffic and had her sights set on Ostrander who still had a big
lead on second place runner Lawrence. By lap 20, Simms had passed Lawrence
and was quickly closing in on Ostrander. Side by side, Simms made the pass
for the lead by lap 22, but Ostrander would have none of it, and stayed on
the bumper of Simms as they weaved in and out of lapped traffic. As the
white flag waved, Simms, who was pushing her car to the limit, lost control
and hit the wall between turns 3 and 4 as Ostrander headed for the checkered
flag. Simms was dazed but climbed out under her own power as the crowd
showed their appreciation for the efforts of all the women who participated.
The pole sitter for the 100-lap feature event was Chris Felber, who charged
out of the gate to quickly hold onto the top spot. Felber began to put some
distance on the rest of the field. However, on lap 13, Felber spun into the
fence between turns 1 and 2 giving Elliot Wohl, who had quietly been moving
his way up to the front, the leading position. As Wohl weaved his way in
between lapped traffic, a battle had begun for the second and third place
positions between Vern McLaughlin III and Rob Longo. Catastrophe struck on
lap 45 as leader Wohl got tangled up with a lapped car causing heavy damage
to his mount. With the driver's door facing traffic, the only red flag of
the evening was displayed to safely remove Wohl from his racecar. Racing
resumed with McLaughlin now being shown as the race leader with Longo hot on
his bumper. Richard Petey, the winner of the last enduro at Wall Stadium,
moved into the third position with company on his bumper as well with Felix
Ciattarelli not far behind. By lap 72, Longo really put pressure on
McLaughlin and made the pass by the next lap. McLaughlin pushed hard to keep
up, but ended up spinning in turn 4 and had to retire to the infield with
radiator damage. Longo began to distance himself from Petey and Ciattarelli
as a battle began between fourth place Tim O'Shea and fifth place Howie Bott.
Bott tried to make a pass on O'Shea in the closing laps, but couldn't quite
seal the deal and settled for fifth. First time enduro winner Rob Longo
showed tremendous enthusiasm as he did a victory burnout on the front
stretch to the delight of his many fans.
The next NEETS Enduro event will take place at Grandview Speedway on Sunday
August 30th with the running of the first ever “DirtStock”. NEETS will
return to Wall Stadium on October 25th for a Fall Enduro Spectacular!
Several different races will be ran along side of the enduros, all of which
can be enjoyed for only $5 in the grandstands as usual! For more information
on the North East Enduro Tour Series, rules, schedules, pre-registration,
log onto www.neetsracing.com.
6/8-Cylinder Finish (Top 5): ROB LONGO, Richard Petey, Felix Ciattarelli,
Tim O'Shea, Howie Bott
4-Cylinder Finish (Top 5): JEFF WALLS, Dave Bentley, Jr, Vern McLaughlin
III, Melissa Simms, John Saccomandi.
TRUX Finish: MARIAH LAWRENCE, Woot Lawrence, Jeff Gregor
Ladies Race Finish (Top 5): DANIELLE OSTRANDER, Mariah Lawrence, Melissa
Simms, Tracy Berger-Carmen, Ruth Schultz