“Friends of Mike Finale” Was Everything It Was Supposed To Be
Column By: NICHOLAS FILLMAN / RPW – SWEDESBORO, NJ – For the past 12 years the annual “Friends of Mike” event had been run in honor of one of Danny Serrano’s close friends who was met with an untimely passing. From its inception at the New Egypt Speedway in 2006, it was always a big event with some of the areas top drivers always being in attendance.
Once Danny left the New Egypt Speedway and moved to the Bridgeport Speedway, the traditions and fan fare continued…no matter what time of the season the race was run or what day of the week.
For the 12th and final “Friends of Mike” event the speedway decided to end it in spectacular fashion by having the Super DIRTcar Series drivers and teams come to town to tackle the track regulars and other drivers from the New Jersey and Pennsylvania circuit.
Like in years past it was a great event for the fans. From having a live band, BBQ catering, and the always popular Chinese auction that featured diecast cars, pictures, trophies, and modified body panels, it was a great time for all in attendance.
The fans, drivers, and track were treated to a beautiful day as far as weather was concerned with partly cloudy skies, a slight breeze, and temperatures near the 80 degree mark at the beginning of the event.
The feature event was a great one, featuring passing all over the track for the first 40 laps of the event. The track then started to slick off, and take a little rubber on the bottom, making passing a premium and difficult thing to do in the late stages of the feature event.
Ryan Watt would utilize his 8th place starting spot to maneuver his way to the front of the pack, and then set a torrid pace with the rest of the field in tow. Watt was back in his team’s Bicknell chassis entry after suffering a blown engine earlier on in the season with that piece.
Watt had the car hooked up, running an uncharacteristic bottom lane throughout the evening. He’s known for being one of the best to run the rim at the Bridgeport Speedway on the high side, but was the dominant car on the bottom Tuesday.
Watt, the defending track champion, defended home turf for the Bridgeport regulars, holding off two of the best when it comes to the Super DIRTcar Series in Stewart Friesen and Matt Sheppard.
Second place went to one of the most legendary drivers in Modified racing, Billy Pauch. Pauch has turned into a Bridgeport regular for the 2017 season after spending the past few years as a regular at New Egypt.
“Billy The Kid” was back aboard his Bicknell Chassis number one entry after debuting a brand new experimental car last weekend at Bridgeport.
Matt Sheppard is always a threat to win every time he unloads a car at a track for a Modified feature event. That appeared to be in jeopardy after being involved in a early race pile up that would send the 9s machine to the pit area to make repairs.
Unfortunately another incident would send “Super Matt” to the pit area for repairs again before rejoining the field. From then on, Sheppard would methodically work his way up though the field, ending up with a 5th place finish.
Rick Laubach had appeared to be the car to beat, quickly jumping out to the early race lead. The bad luck would start for him on lap 10 when his number 7 machine would blow a left rear tire. He would make the change, join the rear of the field, and then make his way back into the top 10 again only to suffer a right front tire go flat.
Yet again, Laubach would change a tire, and work his way back up the field before a final issue would send him pit side and end his hopes for a feature win. He would end the night in 25th.
The engine gremlins continue to bite Brett Kressley. Kressley was running solidly in the top 5 of the feature event before blowing an motor with two laps to go.
Kressley has been fast every time the team has unloaded, whether at Bridgeport, Big Diamond or Grandview. However the team has had a multitude of mechanical failures that have sidelined the sophomore Modified pilot this season.
The Super DIRTcar Series in 2017 features a multitude of rookie drivers, and drivers that have never seen the Bridgeport Speedway before. One of these drivers was Max McLaughlin. McLaughlin had the 6h HBR machine flying from time trials to the heat race. Unfortunately with only two laps to go in the heat, with a commanding lead, McLaughlin had an engine expire forcing the team to a back up car.
McLaughlin would run in the back of the consi to get laps on the back up and then utilized a provisional, starting 29th.
McLaughlin ran his own race and ended up with a respectable 14th place effort.
47 Big Block Modifieds filled the pit area on Tuesday evening with a mix of drivers from Series regulars, track regulars and other local teams. However, four surprising teams in attendance were that of Erick Rudolph, Billy Whittaker, and Mark and Ryan Forte.
Rudolph was aboard his family-owned 25 machine and has already been busy running Modifeids in 2017. He collected a victory for the Randy Chrysler team on Sunday at Tri-City Speedway in western PA.
Fulton Speedway regular Billy Whittaker has expressed his intentions to run the first five races of the SDS season and see where he is at in points before deciding on whether or not he will follow the rest of the tour.
Mark and Ryan Forte don’t run that often, but will show up whenever the Super DIRTcar Series comes to town. It was nice to see the family operation in attendance and out running their first event of 2017.
Results: 14w Ryan Watt, 1 Billy Pauch, 44 Stewart Friesen, 0 Neal Williams, 9s Matt Sheppard, 126 Jeff Strunk, 15 Billy Pauch jr, 25 Erick Rudolph, 99L Larry Wight, 14j Alan Johnson, 91 Billy Decker, 19 Tim Fuller, 20 Brett Hearn, 6h Max McLaughlin, 43 Keith Flach, 27j Danny Johnson, 30 Jamie Mills, 109 Billy Whittaker, 42p Pat Ward, 98h Jimmy Phelps, z14 Ron Roberts, 19b Brett Kressley, 8 Rich Scagliotta, 27 Ryan Anderson, 7 Rick Laubach, 22 Brandon Walters, 47 Bob Sarkisian, 35 Frank Cozze, 21a Peter Britten, 357 Duane Howard, 27 Dave Hunt, 88 Mike Mahaney, 3 Sammy Martz.
