It was time for my annual venture to Riverhead Raceway. Typically the Baldwin Memorial has been the event there that brings me the most joy. This season the folks at Riverhead decided to combine the memorial races for Richie Evans, Charlie Jarzombek and Tommy together as a “Tribute to our Legends” night.

Gene Ullman from ASi produced some really nice event shirts at the last minute. Folks at the concession stands told us that once they were gone that they would not be available again. It is my understanding that their inventory will be replenished for the Tour show on August 4th.

The event was sponsored by Axel Anderson Heavy Duty Truck Repair and Towing. The business is operated by Riverhead Raceway’s living legend, Wayne Anderson. Wayne has five track championships and a Whelen Modified Tour title. Axel Anderson, the late namesake of the company and Wayne’s father is a Riverhead Raceway legend in his own right. Axel won seventeen races and four track championships in the only four years he raced there regularly.

There were some interesting street rods in the paddock area for the spectator drags. One was a little bucket with huge tires and flames. I ran into Don Howe while admiring it.

Edgar Goodale, owner of the #58 Tour team, called me “the poison pen” for giving Roy such a hard time over the past several articles. Roy did well this week. Basically, he resumed his original duties as team chef. I still think he hasn’t learned his lesson yet but this week he gets the week off from Walt’s doghouse.

Steve Tooker gets his turn this week. I was planning on sitting out the Late Model race by our transporter at the back of the pit area. Steve urged several of us to come up to the track and watch. As I stepped into the pit stands I flashed him a look, “this better be good”.

The Late Model racecars are a division with which most members of the Whelen Modified Tour contingent may not be familiar. Typically, the Late Models are the division that has the week off when the Tour travels to Riverhead. Saturday night, I saw why.

Race officials stretched the distance of the event from the usual twenty-five laps to thirty. That was done supposedly because there had been too many big accidents at the beginning of their short races. It didn’t help.

Just after a single lap had been completed there was chaos. It seemed to take the track crew forever to separate three cars on the front straightaway. I left the pit stand about twenty-five minutes after the green flew while the Late Models circulated under caution. Steve asked whether I had had enough. I told him, “I’ve already seen more than thirty laps”.

I proceeded down to turn 1 to wave at the cowboys. They are something. If you don’t believe me, just ask them.

Then I visited all of the regulars over in turn two. TBax told me that both of us didn’t have to sweat like we did last year. Well at least he didn’t. I apologized to Neal Farrell for spelling his name incorrectly in the Loudon article. He hadn’t seen it yet.

During my visit to turn two, they got the Late Model race restarted. I think it took a lap and a half for the field to try to destroy itself again. It took forever to separate the cars once again.

Fortunately, for those in attendance, Tom Baldwin, Jr. visited the press box and did about a half hour interview with Bob Finan. TB did a great job. Either the interview was really well received or the Riverhead fans are just used to waiting around for the end of the Late Model race.

The Tribute to our Legends 77 Modified race was completed considerably faster than the Late Model event. This was despite the Modified drivers creating quite a bit of their own havoc. I stayed in the paddock area during the race and I saw some of the craziest pit stops I have ever seen.

Chuck Steuer, a driver who has set fast time in qualifying many times at Riverhead, picked the pole in the redraw for the first time in his career. He led wire to wire. Wayne Anderson, who drew the outside pole, cut a tire on the pace laps and was forced to pit before the start of the race. That’s what to expect when the Figure-8 race is run before the Modifieds.

After the race, I pulled our tire cart away from the designated pit area. Jay shook his head as I took it down the backside of the pits. This isn’t my first rodeo and I knew what was coming.

As I approached our hauler, there were people running like crazy to get to the altercation. Who was fighting? I don’t care and whoever it was will probably get what they deserve. All I could think was that wasn’t a nice thing to do when Jerry Cook was in the house.

Did we learn anything Saturday? We learned that the officials at Riverhead no longer stop the races just because there is a fight in the pit area. That’s probably because the fight would be over by the time they got there anyway.

We discovered the reason that they don’t run Late Models when the Tour is in town. We also ran into a lot of old friends. And we found a way to get home about the same time as the folks who joined us from Connecticut; just wait to load up until about one in the morning. I look forward to seeing everyone in our little hometown next weekend.