Source: Photos by Simply the Best, Crystal Snape 
Posted by Wayne G. Barber
When the Tri-Track Open Modified Series comes to town, you can expect close tight racing and that's just what race fans got on Sat. Oct. 25th.
Thirty eight tour type modifies ran 4 qualifying heats and two "B" mains vieing for the 26 feature starting positions in Seekonk's Haunted Hundred.
With a $6000.00 pay day plus a $1500.00 bounty for anyone that could beat Matt Hirschman to the finish line, it didn't take long for the action to take place.
Ron Silk (Norwalk,CT) the 2011 Nascar champion and Steve Masse (Bellingham,MA) brought the potent field to green. Immediately Silk and Masse raced out to a short lead trying to break away from some of the heavy hitters further behind. From third on back Tommy Barrett (Millis,MA) Derek Ramstrom (W.Boylston,MA) Russ Hersey (Swanzey,N.H) Rowan Pennink (Hungingdon Valley,PA) and Woody Pitkat (Sturbridge,MA) all played bumper tag until lap 15 when Pitkat spun in turn 3 with a flat right rear tire.
On the restart Hersey overpowered Ramstrum for third place and as the pack dove into the third turn Masse spun his racer out of second place, bringing out the second yellow. Masse was able to drive away but 9 cars got tangled up behind him, resulting in the elimination of 6 time Seekonk track champion, Vinnie Annarummo (Swansea,MA). It also ended the day for Bobby Santos (Franklin,MA) the 2010 Nascar modified champion and Kurt Vigeant (Oxford, MA.)
When the field resumed racing Hersey, Ramstrom and Pennink traded second, third and fourth place for the next 6 laps until Hersey broke away and applied pressure on race leader Silk. By lap 28 Silk could no longer hold off Hersey's attack as he became the new leader of the event. Thru 3 more cautions Hersey kept the lead while Hirschman and Anthony Nocella (Woburn,MA) gradualy worked their way to the front.
As Hersey and second place Hirschman began to pull away, Hirschman got along side the leader but Hersey prevailed and looked to be on his way to the big paycheck. The last thing Hersey wanted to see was a caution flag but with ten to go Blake Barney (Jackson,N.J) coasted to a stop off turn four. With the tension level on high Hersey and Hirschman ran side by side through turns one and two as Nocella and Pennink charged from the second row. On the backstretch Nocella saw an opening beneath Hersey and tried to make it a three wide pass for the lead but Nocella and Hersey made contact causing the #88 to spin out of the lead. An impressive run by a small dollar team had ended along with their bid for victory which handed the lead to Hirschman.
With 10 circuits left in the event Hirschman and Nocella were now the next combatants to duel for the lead and that's just what they did. Nocella waited for the right moment and with three to go made his move and muscled his way pass Hirschman using his bumper, tires and nerf bars to take over the lead but on the next lap Hirschman repaid the favor by using his own bumper and nerf bars. With sparks flying Hirschman regained the upper hand and crossed under the checked flag for the winners hardware.
In a post race interview Hirschman said "We had to run hard in the heat to just get into the feature. Once we got into the feature I tried to be patient and move forward. The car didn't give me any indication that I needed to pit, but at the end the guys that did pit, the 92 specifically, he was in a good position because of his fresh tire. I can't say I should have done anything different because we did win.
With the bounty thing I wasn't sure how it was going to play out, but everybody ran me clean, so when I got to second it was getting tougher and tougher.
The #88 (Hersey); some of his restarts were confusing, I didn't know if he wanted the inside or the outside. He got aggressive and got under me and once he got the lead he tried to block the bottom and brake hard and when he brake hard I got into him and we rubbed our way around 3 and 4 and I got back ahead of him."
When asked about the bounty, he said "As far as the bounty it was good from the promotional side, I think it helped, their was a good crowd here today, the fans were into it. So long as I got beat fair and clean I would have been glad because its more money for the racers and I'm all about that. But if somebody did me wrong I wouldn't have been happy with that. It was hard to say what to expect.
Nocella and I talked after and we agreed it was just good hard racing, it was what both of us expected and I'm glad we both got finishes that we deserved as far as 1/2 either way. Because of the way we bumped and rubbed, either one of us could have gotten a flat tire."
In victory lane Nocella immediately approached Hirschman's car, came face to face and congratulated Hirschman, saying what a great race they had with each other. Hirschman agreed and told Nocella they both used each other up at the end.
Nocella commented, "I knew it was going to be tough at the end , our right rear was going away, we got turned around early (lap 15) in the race and had to work pretty hard to get back up thru and that heated up our tires. We were running the same lap times as the leaders, I knew if I had a good restart I could give him a shot there. He slid up there, got a little tight once and it was three to go so it was my one shot for that much money. They're putting up that much money plus a bounty, might as well give the fans a show. He left the bottom open and I sailed it in and didn't lift until I was up to his door, he got sideways and I moved him up. He got right back to my bumper and I knew what was going to happen so I tried to roll it in a little easy to keep it on the bottom and he did what he had to do and didn't lift until I was up into the second groove. That's just hard racing, you cant expect anything different. He just moved me out of the way for the win. If I got to be beat by one guy I'm happy it's him, one of the best of the best."
Pennink had the best seat in the house sitting in third place and watching the action a few feet in front of him.
He said "We had a good car all day. The 25 team put another solid car underneath me, we were good in practice and won our heat and we finished in the top three in the race so we cant complain much about that. We were just short on running up there for the win with the 60 and 92. Want to thank all my guys on the 25 team for an awesome season."
Finishing fourth, Richard Savary (Canton,MA) made a late race charge to nip Les Hinckley (Winsor Locks,CT) at the finish line.
Heat winners were: Silk, Nocella, Pennink, Ramstrom
Heat winners were: Silk, Nocella, Pennink, Ramstrom
"B" Main #1- Pasteryak
"B"Main #2- Santos
Summary:
Track---Seekonk Speedway
Race---TTOMS Haunted Hundred
Cautions---6---laps-15-17-29- 55-67-90
Lap Leaders---4---#85,(1-27)---# 88,(28-90)---60,(91-96)---92,( 97)---60,(98-100)
Margin of Victory---0.510
Best Lap Time---12.327 sec.
Best Speed---96.374 MPH
Best Lap By---88nh-Russ Hersey
Finish:
1---60-Matt Hirschman-4 time Tri-Track champion
2---92-Anthony Nocella- 5 wins 2017 VMRS champion
3---25-Rowan Pennink- multiple wins with VMRS-Nascar-MTS-2017
4---99-Richard Savary- 1 win-3 top 5s-3 top 10s
5---06-Les Hinckley- 7 top 5s
6---13-Steve Masse- 1 win-3 top 5s- 3 top 10s
7---27-Andrew Krause- 2 top 6s Nascar tour
8---88-Keith Rocco- 2017 champion Stafford, Thompson, Waterford 2017
9---43-Ron Frees- multi mod winner Wall speedway
10--15ct.-Chris Pasteryak- 1 win 4 top 10s
11--16-Colbey Fournier- 7th place in points VMRS
12--16-Max Zackem- 3 top 10s Tri-Track
13--35-Derek Ramstrom- 1 top 10 T-T
14--82-Woody Pitkat- 1 win -5 top 5s- 4 top 10s
15--48-Jon Keivman- 1 top 10
16--27-Matt Galko- 1 top 10
17--85-Ron Silk- 2011 Nascar champion 1 win- 3 top 5s TT
18--88-Russ Hersey- 2 wins VMRS 2017
19--9-Tommy Barrett- MTS & Tri-Track wins at Seekonk
20--43-Kirk Alexander- 33 wins & 3 championships-VMRS
21--6-Ryan Preece- 12 tour type wins 2017
22--76- Ryan Vanasse- 2017 Pro Stock win- Seekonk
23--14-Blake Barney- 2 top 10s TT
24--12- Vinnie Annarummo- 6 track championships- Seekonk
25--44- Bobby Santos- 2010 Nascar Mod Champion
26--7- Kurt Vigeant- 8th place Star TT
Source: Story by James Snape
Source: Photos by Simply the Best, Crystal Snape
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