Late Model Race & Standings Report from Thompson Speedway 8-18-15

William Wall had a Beast of a Race Car

Posted by Wayne G. Barber & Photos from the Wayne G. Barber Collection

The short 2015 racing season at Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park is now down to a pair of 25 lap barn burners to decide the 2015 division champion.
 On Wed. August 12th the track hosted one spectacular racing card for the die hard New England race fans. The 4 regular NASCAR Whelen All-American divisions plus the Whelen Tour's third visit in 2015 and a special addition of the famous NEMA Midgets to boot.
 One of the most competitive racing divisions in all of New England in this scribes opinion is the Late Models. Tonight would not disappoint me with the edge of your seat feature which had everything any race fan could ask for.
 The car count stayed up with 18 racing teams making the trip on a very hot Wed.night. Two heats of 8 laps were posted for the division with 9 cars in each. This was a important points race with only three 25 lap races to go for the roses. No points awarded for the heats and I think most of the race teams were fine tuning the race cars for the first on the racing card feature.
 I clocked #68 Jeff Rocco who hails from Wallingford, Conn.in his practice and heat with a division best of 21.595 and 104.191 mph which did not surprise me because of earlier races in 2015 he also had been the quickest. J.Rocco is the only driver with two victories in this competitive division and remember last year no one had more than one. #4 William Wall from Shrewsbury, Mass. who has been up on the wheel all season with top 5's and led laps brought a rocket ship beautiful prepared race car to Thompson today and cranked a fantastic time of 21.725 and 103.686 mph on my average watch.
 #91 Larry Gelinas wins the award for farthest traveled from Buxton, Maine and turned a awesome 21.753 and 103.119 mph and the one race team that turned my head was the #45 Damon Tinio from nearby Mendon, Mass who gave all the credit to his spotter Larry (Leadfoot) Barnett for guiding him to a impressive best lap of 21.874 and 103.003 mph
  #3 eight time champion (6 at Thompson & 2 at Waterford) Glenn Boss from nearby Danielson, Conn. who came to race with a best lap of 21.855 and about 103 mph. I interviewed Boss in the pits and he confirmed that this is fact will be his last racing season and will retire.I interviewed the #9ma Brian Tagg, Oxford, Mass.in the pits and were told the race car was 100% race ready and the three generation race team was now, (Game On).
 Tagg then went out in the practice and the heats and dialed in a points leading division time of 21.809 and I think the veteran Tagg saved a little for the feature.
 The green flag fell and Wall set the early pace with a sand bagging blistering speed on my watch of 21.546 with most of the points leaders boxed in way back in the pack. Then the cautions started piling up by lap 12 with carnage on the track for the #2 Anthony Ryan, Ridgefield, Conn involved and another with the # 10ma Tom Carey Jr. , New Salem, Mass. losing have his sheet metal in the numerous three wide racing.#45 Tinio who showed his true grit at race trim time of 21.618 also sustained speed reducing damage and had to retire early at lap #11.
 #11 Randy Tucker also could not escape the collision and retired after only 11 laps raced. Gelinas was also involved but continued for the valuable points.
 After the restart on lap 11 it only took one lap for the #68 J.Rocco to overtake Wall. The biggest movers at this point were#88 Keith Rocco from Berlin, Conn driving with a injured hand and Tagg who wheeled a daring three wide pass for the chance to get back into this race which was at the half way point.#97 Ernie Larose from Plainfield, Conn. also was not folding his cards and was racing side by side without flinching.
  I cannot believe that I described this late model race through 19 laps without a mention of the six time late model track champion #70 Rick Gentes from the village of Oakland, R.I. which is in the Town of Burrillville, R.I.  I clocked Gentes earlier at 21.946 and with two race cars at the track assumed that he to was not showing all his cards. He drew a distant starting position and really worked his butt off to stay on the track and stay in the championship hunt. The last two racing seasons Gentes pulled it off in the last two races over Boss and he will have to overtake  two race teams to duplicate the feat in 2015.
The last few late model features have the two Rocco twins duking it out 1,2 and tonight was no different. Jeff Rocco proved again with no sugar coating that the 2015 championship will have to be won by out racing him. The most interesting part of this division is the famous Keith Rocco known for his career accomplishments in the Modifies at all the New England race tracks has a possibility of a late model championship at two tracks and at Thompson without a Victory and with a broken hand to boot !
 After the win Jeff Rocco talked about his victory and said that he will be donating all of the earnings($750) from his victory to the family of young Chase Bennett who's father drives a late model at Stafford Springs, Conn. through the Race for Chase campaign to help support the 3-year-old in his fight against leukemia. “This team never quits. Just because we won the last one doesn’t mean we go home and do nothing. We did our homework and I’ll tell you this car was awesome on the long run,” said Rocco who said it was a team decision to give his winnings to a good cause. “I talked it over with my car owner. He’s a class act. It just goes to show how close this racing community is. A friend of ours has a son who was diagnosed with leukemia earlier this week and we want to take the whole check and give it right to them. Maybe some of our competitors will do the same.”
 I had a nice chat with Todd Ceravolo who is Keith Rocco's father in law in the paddock and asked him directly if he has a knot in his stomach at the green flag after his all-star racing career and he answered no and smiled and said he was still savoring the last racing card at the 20/20/10 event at Thompson with his two SK Mods #16 and #176 by Eric Berndt finishing back to back and could not possibly be more prouder of his racing (Family) in this 2015 racing season .

Late Model Finish 8-12-15

1 Jeff Rocco, 2nd Keith Rocco, 3rd William Wall 4th Brian Tagg , 5th Ernest  LaRose, 6th  Rick Gentes, 7th Jeff Smith, 8th Glen Boss, 9th Joe Curioso, 10th Buddy Charette, 11th Larry Gelinas, Jariah Roderick, Art Moran III ,Robert O;Connell, Tom Carey Jr, Anthony Ryan ,Damon Tinio ,Randy Tucker

Late Model Standings 8-18-15 with two 25 lap races to go in the 2015 racing season Wed.,Aug.26th and at the season ending World Series on Oct 18

1	9	BRIAN TAGG	277
2	88ma	KEITH ROCCO	276	-1
3	70	RICK GENTES	257	-20
4	68	JEFF ROCCO	247	-30
5	4	WILLIAM WALL	238	-39
6	91	LARRY GELINAS	229	-48
7	15	JEFF SMITH	223	-54
8	3	GLENN BOSS	213	-64
9	97	ERNEST LaROSE	199	-78
10	2	ANTHONY RYAN	185	-92