…the more they stay the same. That isn’t quite the way I look at the Town of Riverhead, Riverhead Raceway or the Tour as I look back from this weekend past.

Before I get to this week’s missive, I have to address the tragedies that have shocked us in the past week. At the end of last week’s column, I mentioned the passing of Keith Comiskey. Keith opted out of a post race meal and decided to lie down in his hotel room while the rest of Dr. Paul’s #03 team went to dinner. He fell victim to a massive heart attack.

Keith touched a lot of people. He was a really great guy and more than that he was a great family man, community leader, football, baseball and soccer coach, mechanic, teacher and racer. It seemed like thousands of people attended the services last Thursday. The folks up at Waterford had a very special ceremony for Keith Saturday night. He will be sorely missed. As I wrote last week, the Comiskey family requests that in lieu of flowers or other gifts that donations can be made to the Victory Junction Gang Camp in memory of Keith.

I found out about Chet Yousik from Rick Jarzombek. Chet used to own Van Dyke and Yousik, the Goodyear tire dealer in Riverhead. He and his staff used to represent Competition Tire East as the Goodyear Tire dealer at many races in the northeast.

Chet fell victim to an illness that he had been fighting for an extended period of time and associated cancer. In recent years many might have known him better as one of the friendly bartenders at Digger O’Dell’s in Riverhead. The family has requested that in lieu of flowers or other gifts that donations be made to the charity of the giver’s choice in Chet’s name.

Without a doubt, the biggest shock of this week was the sudden loss of Denise Barry Dion. Denise had been swimming in a pool with her family last Tuesday when she encountered sudden abdominal pains. Denise was rushed to the hospital and put on life support. She fell victim to the sudden health malady Wednesday night.

Denise was a fixture in our community, just as her brother Ken and father Art have been for many years. She was sweet, beautiful, quiet, helpful, youthful and physically fit. The sudden tragic loss of a person so woven into the cloth of the Tour’s fabric has devastated the community. The Barry family has requested that in lieu of flowers or other gifts that donations are made to one of Denise’s favorite charities, The Make-A-Wish Foundation in her honor.

Riverhead Raceway had a nice moment of prayer before the start of the Tour event. In addition to the losses of former Riverhead campaigner Comiskey, former track sponsor Yousik and Tour participant Barry-Dion, Reverend Pat Evans passing that occurred just after the last Riverhead Tour show was remembered. Thanks to all of the teams that participated.

The Town of Riverhead, which used to be the hole in the wall at the end of the Long Island Expressway has been growing by leaps and bounds over the past several years. Since the last time the Tour visited, the new Post Office opened. Watch as the disgruntled citizenry drive off to the new Post Office, just around the corner and down the street from the racetrack.

The new Post Office is gleaming clean and huge. The facility has a big parking lot and handicapped access. Those two things were not available at the old Post Office despite its’ rich charm, historic significance and centralized location near the courthouses. Located at the intersection of West Main St. and Mill Rd., the new Post Office looks like everything new in Riverhead up on Rt. 58. It is big, clean, new and nothing like anything that many of the town residents ever thought would come to their little community.

Riverhead Raceway, despite having arguably the least amount of grandstands of any venue on the Tour schedule, has posted awards for our beloved Tour at or above many of the other regular Tour facilities of larger size. This has gone on for years and the attendance at the Tour shows had dwindled…until Saturday. I think the excitement that was generated by the Tom Baldwin Memorial 77 had a lot to do with it. The place was packed.

By the way, as far as I know, there is no such thing as a sell-out at Riverhead. There is plenty of standing room around the Eastern Long Island bullring. People will be parking their cars at the Tanger Outlet Mall to see a race there before they stop admissions to the track.

The Tour changes too. First we had the addition of the beneficiary rule or ‘lucky dog’. Second, there was controversy over provisional starting positions. There’s plenty of other stuff so read along. Most notably, Bill Denniston figured out how to keep me happy.

I didn’t think the beneficiary rule was a big deal one way or another. I can see the reason why one might not include Riverhead as one of the tracks to use this rule. Sometimes it could take as long as three extra laps just to get the beneficiary by the rest of the field under caution.

By the way, there were comments made to the effect that the pace vehicle was “doing time trial laps” on the message forum. I watched the same race and saw a very slow pace car. Typical laps for the pace car at regular Riverhead Raceway show find the pace car turning laps in the twenty-six to twenty-eight second range. I didn’t have a watch on the field but I would guesstimate that the pace car turned laps in the range of thirty-two to thirty-six seconds per lap Saturday. The pace car was driven at a speed of 20mph and ran those laps around the bottom groove.

The track crew at Riverhead generally provides great service for our beloved Tour. They needed a little direction Saturday night. They shouldn’t have pushed a damaged car off of the track when cars were pulling up to pit. This is not their fault. The race director is responsible for anything that is moving on the track and no one said boo over the radio. The Mystique guys were smart enough to make Ted Christopher do a drive through so he didn’t lose a lap.

Provisional qualifying spots have been all of the buzz since qualifying ended at Riverhead. Provisional spots originated from the Cup Series when “The King” Richard Petty missed a show. Through the years more provisional spots were added and a past champion provisional was added. I believe that the past champion spot came into being because Darrell Waltrip missed a show at Charlotte.

It was terrible to see Jamie Tomaino not make this show. Had there been two provisional spots available for Riverhead regulars as there have been at Tour races in the past, Wayne Anderson and Chris Young would likely have taken those leaving the past champion provisional for Tomaino. I do however believe that NASCAR should look at reviewing the past champion provisional for all levels of competition and institute a minimum points position for those past champions that need to use one.

We haven’t heard much about provisional qualifying spots in the NEXTEL CUP Series this season. That’s because the only provisional available is one past champion spot. Let’s take a quick look at how the field may have appeared differently were the Tour to be using a similar qualifying method to the big boys.

If the top-twenty drivers based on owner points automatically make the field, I see the following differences. Renee Dupuis and Jamie Tomaino would have made the field. Chuck Steuer and Dick Houlihan would have gone home. Wayne Anderson would have still gotten the past champion provisional. Except for the issue of the Barry team who were absent.

If the top-twenty were limited to the nineteen teams of those in the top-twenty that made an attempt, Dave Etheridge would have earned a spot for being eighth fastest of the go home cars. I am not sure but if the first twenty cars in owner points that showed up made the event; Kevin Konopka likely would have occupied that (Etheridge’s) spot as the next driver in the owner’s standings. Somebody get me a scorecard.

Where were my buddies Dave Meredith and Ted Baxter? Too bad I didn’t see them. I told everyone that Bill Denniston knows how to keep me happy. That roasted corn on the cob was out of this world! At least Howie was there. Howie is lobbying to be the Public Relations Director for the object formerly known as Walt’s Cup. Apparently he is trying to drive a wedge between the Cup and the Cooler. Stay tuned; this could get interesting.

For the second week in a row, John Fortin took the lead from the outside pole starting spot. Fortin looked strong but eventually succumbed to mechanical difficulties on a lap forty restart. The team declared themselves out with transmission as the reason. According to a source close to the team, one of the tabs in the shifter linkage broke.

At the time of the incident, Howie Brode appeared to get his #96 car stuck to the rear of Fortin’s #84. Brode, who had been running third, was able to get separated and rejoined the pursuit.

Donny Lia took the lead when Fortin encountered his misfortune and he was never headed. There was a good long stretch of green flag racing during the event. A contributing factor to that was that there were a number of cars that were stuck in the pits.

The move over flag was a bone of contention among the high finishers in the event, as readers will see in the quotes that follow. It is my opinion that the blue flag with the yellow, white or orange diagonal stripe has no effect upon the drivers that the flagman displays it towards anyway. The only way to get the cars that are battling laps down to get out of the way of the leaders is to notify their spotters. Those notifications rarely seemed to come.

Perhaps the best move of the race was made by Eric Beers. Eric passed Zach Sylvester and Mike Christopher by cutting down to the bumps. “I had no clutch, so I had to go, they bobbled and slipped up a little bit,” commented Beers, “the white line down where all of those rumples are was open. It was kind of like point and shoot.” I thought it was a real Polaroid moment. “The sixteen car (#16 with Mike Stefanik aboard) cut a right front tire in turn three battling with the fifty (#50 and Chuck Hossfeld).” Beers picked up three spots in the final laps.

Much ado was also made of Beers return to the track in front of the field on a restart. Eric’s car was rolling without the benefit of a clutch and the field had not yet reached the point at which the gate had to be closed. One of the Tour officials began to close the gate as Beers approached the ramp. Eric said, “They started moving it (the gate) and I thought, this is going to be a big wreck. They opened it and I got some air (getting back on the track).”

Barbara Cromarty told Donny Lia in victory lane, “Donny, you really had the track measured, congratulations. That was a great race for you!” Bob Finan said, “Three in a row that’s not bad huh!” Donny replied, “Yea thanks a lot guys I can’t believe it, three in a row, that’s great, thanks for having us.” Finan added, “The Yankee’s have Mr. October, Reggie Jackson, You’re Mr. August around here buddy!” To which Lia replied, “I guess that’s the way it seems. We’ve been going real good here for the past three years and even when we’re struggling at other places we come here and always kind of rejuvenate our season. It feels really good something about this place we get around it good, it’s been really good to me and I couldn’t be happier.”

Bob then asked Donny about lapped traffic. Lia said, “Yea, I’m going to have to ask my buddies over at NASCAR what the story is because they didn’t start throwing the move-over flag until, I didn’t know when. You know I am sitting there like waiting, waiting and waiting and I don’t know if they didn’t know that I was the leader and I’m just talking about NASCAR not the other guys. I don’t know what was going on there but that was kind of aggravating. I’m going to say something because that’s not right.”

Donny took care of his team in the winner’s circle. “Huntington Honda, of course, has been on my car since I’ve been in racing. Speed51.com, Performance Technology, I’ve got to thank Rich Harbach over at T&F Auto body for painting our panels all year. He does a great job making our cars look real good. The whole crew, I mean they do an awesome job; everybody from the top down, Rob, Mike, Phil, Garfield, Jon Traski fabricates a whole bunch of stuff for us in the shop. Harry from the 48, Geoff Harbach, I got a lot of great guys out here its just unbelievable Greg here does our rear-ends for us. I’ve got to thank my crew chief, Kevin Crowley, the guy is the best kept secret in the pit area, that’s the way I look at it. I am proud of all of my guys. They did an awesome job tonight.”

Bob Finan then spoke to Tony Hirschman, “Tony, you got a second place run, I’m sure like Donny Lia that lapped traffic, that could have been your friend as well as your enemy.” Tony replied, “Yeah, I was letting him do the work trying to make the holes and a lot of guys weren’t moving over, they weren’t giving a lane and he settled back in. They know me. I am pretty patient myself and anybody else probably would have forced him right into there, pushed him right in and I hope he remembers that I run him real clean and gave him room. When he made the hole, I went with him, stuff like that. At least we got a nice stretch of green flag run in there. It showed everybody who had a good car and who didn’t. It’s Riverhead, it’s tight racing, sometimes there was no move over flag when there probably should have been, other times there was. Good hard racing. Right on that last restart, I don’t know whether he (Lia) missed a shift or something happened on his car. You can’t pass to the bottom on the restarts, I would have been tempted to dive to the bottom, you know, make the hole. It was too late for me to go to the outside and I knew Jerry (Marquis) was back there. We had a good night tonight, second is the best we’ve been here in a long time. We’re usually a top-10 car here. We worked on the car today and got it as good as we did. You know it’s cutting it close here going 200 laps, just looking at the right rear (tire), it looks like it’s just about down to the cords and there wasn’t much left.”

Bob then led Tony with, “Big picture though not a bad night for Tony Hirschman, defending Tour champion. Your car has some local flavor as far as sponsors go.” Tony responded, “Sure does. My car owners are from Brooklyn. Bob and Tom Kehley, their company is Key Material and Kamco Supply they’ve been behind us for how many years, great sponsors. Anybody wants to come see the car, Tuesday, in Brooklyn, were going to be at an open house at the Brooklyn store at Kamco so come out and get some autographs and I am sure they’ll have some other stuff. Come out and see us.”

Finan then spoke with Jerry Marquis, “Jerry, not the winning car tonight, but third ain’t bad buddy.” Jerry responded, “Well coming to Riverhead, we’ll take third any day of the week. It’s a great place to come and race. Very tight, tight quarters it makes a lot of action for the fans. We appreciate all of the fans, we had a packed house here tonight and I hope we put on a decent show for them.” Finan said, “You got Bob Garbarino a win over at the Beech Ridge Speedway a few weeks ago, the big picture, not a bad night, third and as you said, its Riverhead and at least you get out of here with the wheels on it and anything else after that, you’ll take.” Jerry’s response was, “Everything is a plus tonight.”

Jerry handed out praise to the team, “I want to thank our sponsors, Reynolds Auto Wrecking and everybody at Sunoco and all of our product sponsors for without them we wouldn’t be able to do what we need to do. Bob Garbarino for giving me the opportunity to drive this number four car. There’s a lot of nostalgia here like the (number) three car was, I get to say that I drove some of the greatest cars that were owned by some of the greatest people.”

The Tour heads for Stafford Springs Friday night. Stafford and Thompson weekly competitor Jeff Malave will attempt to qualify for the Tour show in his own car. Malave finds himself just twelve points out of the lead in the race for the NASCAR Dodge Weekly Series Division IV National Championship.

We look forward to bringing everyone live updates from the track. My return from Stafford will not be the brief five-minute ride home I had Saturday. Who knows? Maybe there will be a story in it.