RIVERHEAD, N.Y. — Timmy Solomito didn’t have concrete plans on running the 73rd season opening night NASCAR Modified event Saturday at Riverhead Raceway.
However with the recent announcement of Wayne Anderson’s retirement, Solomito’s wheels started spinning. After all it was Wayne & Joette Anderson who gave Solomito his first big break.
So, he wrapped his car in one of Anderson’s more popular colors and at the end of the 50-lap tribute, it turned to triumph as Solomito pocketed his 21st career win. T
he thank you brought the 76-year old Anderson, who Solomito affectionately calls “Pops” to the winners circle one more time.
With a new handicap system in place for the Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series, Solomito who charged from the back of his qualifying heat to the front earned the pole position for the 19-car starting grid.
The rest as the saying goes is history, although writing that history wasn’t as easy as it sounds. Early on Solomito had hard-charging Chris Young, who went winless in 2022 hot on his heels.
However as the race wore on, Young had some suitors of his own who came calling, allowing the leader to get away during an extended green flag run that extended just past the halfway point.
Over the second half of the race Young soon lost second to Kyle Ellwood who himself was out to score his first NASCAR Modified win in quite some time.
Over the final stretch run Ellwood stayed in the rearview mirror of leader Solomito, trying to gain a run to the inside exiting the corners of the tight quarter-mile bullring. However as it if were the 1980’s at Islip Speedway, New Egypt Speedway or Riverhead Raceway, the light blue colors of Wayne Anderson sat in victory lane as Solomito scored the story book victory.
“My family and I had no real plans on running here tonight, we had a few penciled for later in the season,” Solomito said. “But it was Wayne & Joette who gave me my first break not only here but on the WMT, without them, well who knows.
“Big shout out to Doug & Maura Corwin of Eastport Feeds, they were behind this 100% and of course my family for always having my back. We’ll do some of the time trial shows later in the season.”
The win moved Solomito into a three-way tie on the all-time win list at 21 with Fred Harbach and Dan Jivanelli.Â
Kyle Ellwood was runner-up in the Buzz Chew Chevrolet entry while the returning Tom Rogers Jr. came home third in the Precision Water Works racer. Dylan Slepian came from deep in the field to finish fourth while John Beatty Jr. was fifth.
After a year away from racing to start a family, Jeremy McDermott returned to the late model wars with a win Saturday in the Rob Pelis owned Eastport Feeds Chevy.Â
When the checkered flag waved on the 25-lap Eagle Auto Mall Crate Modified event it appeared as if Ellwood has scored a win for Rat Pack Racing after holding off the efforts of a hard charging Chase Grennan. However in post-race teach the winning car was disqualified for an issue in the exhaust/header category of the rules and the win went to Grennan, the third of his career in the Black Forest Auto Chevy.Â
When the Figure Eights ran a doubleheader weekend to close out the 2022 season last September, Allan Pedersen swept the weekend. On Saturday he got the new season off the same as he ended last year, with a win in the 15-lap feature event.Â
Two-time and defending Blunderbust champion Cody Triola started the quest for his third straight title with a victory in a non-stop 20-lap feature.
Baseball had a Mr. October, Riverhead Raceway has Mr. Opening Night in the person of 20-lap Super Pro Truck feature winner Jack Handley Jr. Between his days as a Blunderbust racer and now in the Super Pro Truck ranks Jack, a St. John’s University graduate wins more often than not over the last decade on opening night.Â
Former champion and tested tough INEX Legend Race Car talent Kevin Nowak scored a milestone 20th career win Saturday when he triumphed in their 20-lap opener.Â