Sports

Auto Racing: A rocky season gets smoother for Solomito

Riverhead-Raceway-Indian-has-been-fixed-after-Hurricane-Sandy

RIVERHEAD RACEWAY

Timmy Solomito of Islip was proof positive of the old adage that you can’t keep a good man, or in this case a good race team, down. He swept the Evans Hall of Fame NASCAR Modified Twin 50s on Saturday night at Riverhead Raceway. They were the first wins of the season for Solomito.

In the first race, Solomito flashed under the checker flag first. He was followed by Tom Rogers Jr. of Riverhead, Howie Brode of East Islip, Brad Van Houten of Wading River and Ryan Preece of Berlin, Conn.

The finishing order for Race 2 was once again Solomito, Rogers, Brode and Van Houten, with fifth going to Eric Goodale of Riverhead.

“We needed this,” Solomito said in victory lane. “We had a rocky start to our season.”

The wins were the 9th and 10th of Solomito’s budding career.

In other races:

Mike Mujsce of Quogue notched his 15th career Figure Eight win, leading all but one lap of the 15-lap main event. Johnny Vullo of Farmingville reclaimed second on Lap 11 and held that position to the end. Roger Maynor of Bay Shore was third after starting the race eighth.

Chris Turbush of Wading River became the first repeat winner of 2014 in the Charger division. He dominated a 20-lap feature event for his 37th career win. Scott Pedersen of Shirley used a double-file restart on Lap 8 to move into second where he finished. Cory Midgett of East Hampton was the third driver to cross the finish line.

Richie Davidowitz of East Moriches raced to his second win of the year, becoming the first repeat winner in the Legend Race Car class. The 20-lap race saw second place go to Kyle Soper of Manorville and third to Brad Van Houten of Wading River.

Enduro veteran Jim McCarthy of Bellmore made a late-race pass of Donald Lawrence of Southampton to score his first win of the year in a 75-lap Eight-Cylinder Enduro. Lawrence was second. Jeffrey Otto Jr. of Deer Park scored a career-best, third-place finish.