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“Modified Madness” at Laird Raceway on Friday July 26th.

Friday July 26th marked our fourth race night of the season at Laird International Raceway. The race night was sponsored by Aecon Construction and many of their employees and families were in attendance to watch the action.

The weather was hot and sunny when cars started arriving at the track, but by race time at 7pm the sky had clouded over and was threatening rain. The national anthems were sung by Annette Bouchard and immediately afterwards, with the modifieds on the track, a bit of rain started to come down and officials debated whether it was enough to postpone the race for a few minutes. Flagman Ron Schmidt poled drivers from the flag stand and all but one gave the thumbs up, so the racing got started. It was spitting rain off and on through most of the race night, but not enough fell to put a halt to the racing. We got a full show in.

NAPA Auto Parts Michigan Modifieds

Ten Modifieds qualified for the night’s racing, with fast time going to #7 Josh Ware with a time of 15.032 seconds around the 1/3 mile paved oval.

The mods were out for two heats and a feature during the evening. Their first heat, consisting of 8 cars was the first race of the night. The #79 of Roddy Bolduc started up front and led the first 4 laps, while from further back #27 Dustin Jackson moved his way up to challenge Bolduc for the lead. Dustin got past Bolduc on lap 5
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Seven laps in the caution came out after #01 John Ross, and #28 Mark Porpealia went three wide on the backstretch while passing the slower moving #28K of Dave Wagner. Dave may have been slowing to go off the track. Porpealia was low, Wagner was high, and Ross was moving into the middle. The front tires of Ross & Porpealia touched and Porpealia went into a spin up the track, in front of Wagner and hit the guardrail hard, ending his night. Porpealia had just got the car back together after a similar incident at Laird two weeks earlier. The race was called short at that point while track crews towed the cars and cleaned up the mess.

Finishing order for the first heat was #27 Dustin Jackson 1st, #79 Roddy Bolduc 2nd, #84 Mark Laakso 3rd, John Ross 4th, Mark Porpealia 5th, and #20 Mike Hearty 6th. #28K of Wagner might have been running without a transponder and was not scored. Also on the track was #69 Josh Maitland, who left after completing 5 laps and was credited with 7th. Also on track but leaving before the green flew was #40 Chris Stark, a visiting driver from Lewiston Michigan.

In the second modified heat, Bolduc started at the pole with Stark outside. The pair raced side by side for the first laps, with Stark in the lead for the first two laps, then Bolduc for the next two. On lap 5 the caution came out when Jay McCoy spun off the track in corner 4. Side by side racing continued after the green through to the end of the 8 lap race. Bolduc took the win, followed by Stark 2nd, Laakso 3rd, Jackson 4th, Hearty 5th, Jay McCoy 6th, and Ross 7th.

The Modified Madness feature was a 30 lap event with 9 cars on the track and a single caution. Bolduc and Stark started up front, with Ross and Jackson in row two. Bolduc jumped to the early lead, while Stark fell back to fourth position behind Ross and Jackson after four laps. Jackson went to work on Ross for a few laps and got round him on lap 7 to take second. On lap 10, Jackson, while working on getting by Bolduc cut down under Bolduc on the backstretch, Bolduc went into corner 3 a bit fast and slid up giving Jackson the lead. Jackson then just started opening a gap on the rest of the field. On lap 17, caution came out as Josh Ware, attempting to pass Bolduc for second place spun in corner 4. Ware was sent to the rear for the restart.
Bolduc restarted outside Jackson but Jackson got a good start and had a fast car and jumped out to the lead. Bolduc drifted back a bit and Ross took up second. As the race progressed Jackson opened up a bigger lead, with Ross second and Laakso and Ware battling for third further behind. Ware won the battle for third but by the time he did it there wasn’t enough laps to catch up to Ross. The race concluded with Jackson capturing his second win of the night in the modified division, followed by Ross in 2nd about a third of a lap behind, #7 Josh Ware 3rd, Laakso 4th, Bolduc 5th, Hearty 6th, Stark 7th, #4 Michael Carbone 8th and McCoy 9th with a DNF after leaving the track with 4 laps completed.

Service Rental Factory Stocks
Six cars qualified in the Factory Stock Division, including #34 Landon Stark, and #22 Jordyn Stark, also visiting from Lewiston with their dad Chris. Fast qualifier was #01 Jerry Ross with a time of 16.361 seconds.

All six ran the first heat. Jordyn started up front with #88 Rob Wagner outside. On the first lap of the race, #52 Jon Diodati starting in 4th split the two frontrunners, made it three wide around corners 1 and two, and took the lead. Wagner slipped back and Jordyn and Landon ran 2nd and 3rd for a few laps, then they were passed by #01 Jerry Ross, and a bit later #51 Jamie Fox. Ross didn’t have enough time to catch Diodati. The race ended and Diodati was successful in repeating his heat race win from the previous night, to the cheers of friends and family in the stands. Ross was 2nd, Fox 3rd, Jordyn Stark 4th, Landon Stark 5th, and Wagner 6th.

Landon Stark was missing in heat 2 making it 5 cars on the track for an 8 lap race. Jordyn Stark started up front with Wagner. Stark was able to lead just one lap before getting passed by Fox and Ross. Fox and Ross battled side by side for a few laps until caution came out on lap 6 with Wagner spinning in corner 2. The race restarted and after a side by side battle, Ross got in front of Fox for the win. Jordyn Stark was 3rd, Wagner 4th and Diodati 5th with a DNF after leaving the track during the caution.

All six were out for their 20 lap feature later in the night. Jordyn Stark and Wagner started in the front row. Jordyn led the first couple laps with brother Landon right behind. On lap 3, Landon slid into corner 3 bringing out the caution flag. The race restarted with Jordyn inside front row, and Diodati outside. Diodati took over top position for a couple laps, with Ross working outside. Ross got by on lap 5 then began to open up a lead on the others. Fox and Diodati raced side by side for a few laps then Fox got past Diodati and took over second place on lap 14. By this time though Ross had opened up a 1/3 lap lead over Fox and Diodati and Fox wasn’t fast enough to close the gap. Ross took his second win of the night, with Fox 2nd, Diodati 3rd, Jordyn Stark 4th, Landon Stark 5th with a DNF and Wagner 6th, also with a DNF.

Northern Fencing Super Late Models
Five cars also qualified in the Super Late Model Division. #61 Dustin Jackson, who was doing “double duty” in this division & the modified division, pulled up fast qualifier with a time of 14.437 seconds.

Four cars started the first heat, missing was #15 Randy Lapossie; #100 Ron Raynor and #50 Rob Hiiemaa started at the front, with Jackson and #21 Jake Irwin in the second row. Hiiemaa got a good start and took the lead. Jackson passed Raynor on the inside on lap 2 then took a couple laps to catch up to Hiiemaa. Jackson made a couple of attempts to pass Hiiemaa on the inside, coming out of corner 2 and onto the backstretch; he was successful and took over the lead to get the win. Hiiemaa was 2nd, Raynor 3rd, and Irwin 4th.

Lapossie was on track for heat 2. The second heat was similar to the first, but this time Jackson made it past Hiiemaa on the outside. The finish order was the same as the first heat too, Jackson, Hiiemaa, Raynor, Irwin and Lapossie

The five came out later in the night for a 20 lap feature. Hiiemaa again got off with a good start. It took Jackson about 7 laps to get past second place runner Jake Irwin. By the time he did, Hiiemaa had a lead of about 15 car lengths. Jackson needed a few laps to catch up to Hiiemaa, and got up to Hiiemaa’s back bumper a couple times, but didn’t have enough to challenge for the win. Hiiemaa saw the checkered flag first, Jackson 2nd, Raynor 3rd, Irwin 4th, and Lapossie got 5th with a DNF after leaving the track at about the mid way point of the race.

Atomic Blonde Factory Fours
Six cars took to the track in the Atomic Blonde Factory Four division, three of which were “Enduro” cars so did not gather points. The group raced two 8 lap heats, and a 15 lap feature.

In the first heat, caution came out on lap 4 as second place runner #12 Jason Kern went into corner 3 a bit hot and ended up sliding up corner 4 into the tires at the track entrance. Kern was sent to the back. At the end of 8 laps, it was #88 Kayla Kurnell taking away the win, Kern was 2nd, Randy Larrett 3rd (enduro car unscored), #82 Joe Wierzbicki 4th (endure car unscored), and new driver Rob Ralph in the #95 was 5th. Also on the track in an enduro car was rookie driver #96 Dave Wilson, , who may have been missing a transponder and was unscored.

Heat two was caution free, and the finishing order was identical to the first heat, Kurnell, Kern, Larrett, Wierzbicki, and Ralph.

In their feature, Kurnell led from start to finish. Kern, running second was able to get beside Kurnell a few times, but had problems with sliding in corner 4 and could never complete the pass. Kurnell got her third win for the night in the feature, with Kern right behind in 2nd.. Wierzbicki and Larrett switched places in comparison to the heats and finished 3rd and 4th respectively. Ralph was 5th.

Other Activities
During intermission we held another school bus race and almost saw one tip over around the first corners. After that, kids were brought out on track for a “nickel toss”; it sure doesn’t take long for kids to clean up a few hundred nickels! Kids also got to go for a school bus ride around the track; lots of screams and laughs.
Three more bicycles were given away in a draw. Proud winners were Danika Backstrom, Audrey Brocklebank and Thomas Bouchard.

Photos of the evenings events can be found on this website at http://lairdinternationalraceway.myracepass.com/gallery/?g=17276

The race night was finished up at approximately 10 pm. For the remainder of the season, our regular race night has been moved to Thursdays with our next race, “Race for a Cure”, to be held Thursday Aug 1st. Gates open at 5:45, Qualifying at 6 and racing starting right after opening ceremonies at 7 pm. Hope to see you then!

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