Dave Constantino Gets Back To His Winning Ways Sunday Night At Glen Ridge

Column By: LAURIE FALLIS / RPW – FULTONVILLE NY – On a hot summer night where the Glen Ridge Motorsports Park was fast and sizzling, you had several drivers that finally made it back to familiar territory and others make it to victory lane for the very first time.

Parillo Services sponsored the night’s action and Dave Constantino was happy to be sitting in victory lane when the evening was complete. Constantino, behind the wheel of the West End Towing #7, took the Crate Modified win, grabbing the lead on lap two and never looked back, leading the rest of the way in the caution-free event.

“I have to thank Ray Sefrin (car owner) for giving me this awesome machine,” Constantino said. “This thing was a pretty fast hotrod tonight.”

Constantino is well-known for his antics in victory lane, but Sunday, he was very subdued. When the unusual happened, with no props, the question was asked what was going on.

“It’s just too darn hot,” he replied.

Tim Hartman Jr. had nothing for the high-flying “lil bear” on this night and had to settle for second. Billy August, who moved out of the Limited Sportsman ranks, brought his #50 home in third. Jimmy Introne was fourth while Joe Orlando rounded out the top five.

The Limited Sportsman feature had a first-time winner as Ryan Heath from Huntington, MA claimed checkers.

Heath took advantage of his pole starting position and would drive a smooth, consistent race with no challenges from behind.

“I am just overwhelmed with joy at this moment,” Heath said. “I want to thank my crew for making the adjustments on this car so I could get through the corners and give us all this victory.”

I got a chance to ask Ryan what was his thought in the closing laps of the race.

“Don’t screw up,” he said. “The flagger was letting me know I had a decent lead so I just needed to keep calm and hit my marks.”

I also asked him what his thought were before the feature.

“Before I got in the car, I was real nervous,” he said. “But, once I was in line thinking of my game plan, I was calmer. Then, when I hit the track, it was game on.”

It’s always special to get that first win and I bet the 2-1/2 hour ride home was an awesome one. Congratulations to Heath and his team. Finishing second was Greg Perron followed by Derick McGrew Jr, and Kathy Bellon.

The Pro Stock feature also had a driver who has not seen victory lane in a while. Ivan Joslin was able to grab checkers for the popular win.

“The track was fast and I was getting tired of finishing second,” Joslin stated.

Jimmy Normoyle and Luke Horning battled it out for second with the 7n winning out. Horning was third with Justin Knight and Ron Delease rounded out the top five.

The Street Stock feature was won by Cliff Haslun as he out dueled Stevie Cosselman in the night’s action.

“I thought the low side would be the best, being its the shortest way around the track,” Haslun said. “When I had to restart on the high side, I found it to be the better lane, and it was fast out there.”

The 4-Cylinder feature was plagued with many cautions. Before three laps were even completed, Officials made the call to have them go single file. When they settled down, the class was able to get green laps in the books, and in the end, it was an exhausted PJ Bleau getting the Dual Cam victory with Wayne Russel capturing the Single Cam win.

Senior Slingshots were once again won by Mike Hill followed by Eric Jennings, Jim Mudge, Brett Putnam and Tyler Vadney. Junior Slingshot had last years track champion, Garrett Poland, get the win as he led flag-to-flag with Brock Pinkerous, Mathew Backus and Connor Hill in tow.

Before my night commenced, I was able to take my racing monster into the pits. He was my companion for the night and was able to meet a driver with the same name as his. He thought it was pretty neat and I have to thank Ryan Heath for that. He’s definitely picked up a fan in my little racing monster.

Also, it was my honor to finally meet veteran race car driver Stanley Wetmore, who is a big part of the Heath Racing Team. Wetmore is Ryan Heath’s idol and guides the young pilot.

Our ride home consisted of my 6-year-old grandson giving me play-by-play action on Race-Monitor of the Super DIRTcar Series race at Utica-Rome, which was won by Jimmy Phelps. You gotta love the kid’s enthusiasm for racing.

As always, prayers to our service men and women to keep them safe. See you all at the track. Keep on racing.