RPW Column: Street Stock Opener, 358’s & Sportsman At Orange County April 17th

Column By: MIKE TRAVERSE / RPW – MIDDLETOWN, NY – This Saturday’s racing at the Orange County Fair Speedway will see the NAPA North East Parts Group Street Stock division have their season opener. The H.O. Penn 358 Small Block Modifieds along with the Arkel Motors Sportsman will also be in action.

The big off season news regarding the OCFS Street Stocks was that 3 time champion Mike Vigiletti will be back in the field. Vigiletti had his season cut short in 2019 when he was injured in a fall and he did not race at all in 2020 while he allowed his injuries to completely heal. But Mike is coming back and looking for a 4th championship. But he will be facing some tough competition in his quest for #4.

Bob Sleight is the defending champion of the division, taking the title in both 2019 and the abbreviated season of 2020. Sleight won 2 of the 4 regular season races held last year. Bob gives much of the credit to his Crew Chief for the team’s success.

“Our team couldn’t do it without my crew chief, Dave Werber. He is a huge help to me and our racing program. It’s all about the teamwork and there’s no way that I could do it alone.” Sleight said.

Charlie Donald will be back racing in the Jalopy Jet #32. The popular Donald is a two time OCFS Street Stock Champion and he will be trying for #3 and move closer to the 30 win plateau this season.

Jim Hajkowski was the only racer other than Sleight to record 2 wins in 2020, Hajkowski collected his 2nd career Eastern States Street Stock Championship race win and he’s always in the mix at the front of the field.

Wayne Taylor was the only other driver besides Sleight and Hajkowski to win in the division at OCFS in 2020. He will be returning to race again this year.

Rob Taylor finished 2nd in the 2020 point standings and has shown that he can be a contender in every race.

After being inactive for most of the 2020 season, Team Froggy will be returning to competition at OCFS for 2021 with Ron Constable in the #49 and Ryan Modiano in the #07. And Ryan is very upbeat about the upcoming season.

“We want to get both frogs into the top 5 for at least one race this season. And for myself, I would like to get any kind of win that I could,” said Modiano.

After an exciting season opening feature last week, the 358 Small Block Modifieds will be having their 2nd race of the season on Saturday. After leader Jimmy Spellmon and 2nd place Jerry Higbie made contact on a lap 5 restart, Craig Mitchell and Anthony Perrego had a great 20 lap duel for the lead with Mitchell prevailing for the win.

A post spotted on Facebook this week mentions a bit of a revival of the Ice Bucket Challenge. Roger Henion Jr said on his Facebook page that he has made a bet with Allison Ricci that whoever finishes higher in the points in the 358 Small Block division gets to dunk the other driver with ice water. And Roger pointed out that it’s going to be a lot of ice water. It’s great to see this type of friendly competition between the teams. I somehow think that there’s going to be a lot of ice water flying around when it’s time to settle that wager.

Joey Bruning is off to a fast start in the Sportsman division. He followed up his opening night 2nd place finish by taking a dominating win in last Saturday’s feature. Bruning was fast through the field, racing from 16th to the lead in 11 laps and pulled away for the win.

Jeff Hulseapple is off to a great start for his 2021 season. Racing the Vitale 1X, Hulseapple, has back-to-back 3 place finishes, this past Saturday an impressive run from 15th starting spot. Jeff will be looking to continue the great start to his season this Saturday.

Joe Bonetti is another driver off to a very good start for the 2021 season. Bonetti has two 4th place finishes to far which places him close to the top in the early season point standings.

After a difficult opening night. 2019 Sportsman champion Grant Hilfiger had a nice bounce back race, finishing 2nd behind Bruning. Look for Hilfiger to move into contention in the points in the coming weeks.

In case you missed it, there was a very nice display of sportsmanship at OCFS this past Saturday. Sportsman racer Jared LaBagh had a crash in his heat, which damaged his #38 enough where it was done for the evening. Rookie Sportsman racer Jay Silvernail offered his car to LaBagh to attempt to qualify in the consi. By doing this, Silvernail forfeited his spot in the rookie feature. OCFS rules do not allow cars to run more than one division a night. Jay knew this, but he gave up his ride for the evening to help out a fellow racer and friend. Driving Jay’s car, LaBagh came up one spot short of qualifying for the feature. But that does not at all diminish the great gesture by Jay, very well done.

OCFS Schedule for 4/17/21
3:00 Pit gate opens
3:30 Street Stocks draw for starting spots
4:00 Grandstand and Drive In gates open
5:30 Mandatory drivers meeting at the scales
5:45-6:00 All cars to the staging area
6:00 Hot laps Sportsman
Hot laps Street Stocks
Hot laps Small Block Modifieds
6:45 Pre race ceremonies/National Anthem
7:00 Sportsman heats, 8 laps each
Small Block heats, 8 laps each
Street Stock hot laps, round 2
Sportsman consi(s), 8 laps
Small Block consi, 8 laps
Intermission
Sportsman feature, 20 laps
Street Stock feature, 15 laps
Small Block Feature, 25 laps
Victory Lane photos, all divisions