Riverhead Raceway: Cameras, but no live fans watch Soper triumph

Kyle Soper of Manorville scored his 17th career NASCAR Modified victory at Riverhead Raceway Saturday night. Because of COVID-19 restrictions, no fans were on hand to witness it. In person, that is. The race, however, was streamed on riverheadraceway.tv as a pay-per-view event.

A tangle between the two lead cars driven by Chris Young and John Baker with three laps to go resulted in Soper becoming the new race leader, a position he held till the end.

“I started to put pressure on Chris, hoping to make something happen and lo and behold it did,” said Soper.

Second-place Dave Brigati of Calverton was admittedly disappointed with the late-race call by officials, but in typical Brigati fashion put a positive spin on the chain of events later in the pit area. “Hey it is what it is,” he said. “In racing sometimes the calls go your way, other times they don’t. I’m still happy and we rolled the car into the trailer with no damage.”

Brigati’s son-in-law, Roger Turbush of Riverhead, turned in a solid third-place effort. Howie Brode of East Islip motored in fourth and Michael Rutkoski of Mattituck was fifth.

Defending champion Jeremy McDermott of Riverhead dominated for his 19th career win in a 40-lap Late Models event. He led from the second lap on. Jarrod Hayes of Calverton settled for and veteran Chris McGuire of Selden was third.

In a 25-lap Crate Modified feature, Matt Brode of East Islip earned his third career win the old fashioned way by riding the outside lane to make of pass of Mike Albasini of Flushing for the lead with four laps left. Albasini took second. Rookie Richie Davidowitz drove from a 12th-place starting berth to come home third.

Sean Glennon of Northport made a bold inside pass of Frank Dumicich Sr. of East Quogue on Lap 12 to secure his third career Super Pro Truck victory in a 20-lapper. Jimmy Rennick Jr. of Howard Beach and Max Handley of Medford, making his first career SPT start, followed Glennon to the finish third.

Ray Fitzgerald of Manorville collected his third career Legend Race Car win after surviving multiple double-file restarts. The 20-lap race saw Allan Pedersen of Center Moriches finish second, with Riely O’Keefe of Manorville third.

Andrew Farnham of Baldwin recovered from an opening day crash in late July to win a 30-lap Mini Stock event. Justin Squires of Flanders was second and C.J. Zurkowski of Riverhead third.

Dennis Jones of Calverton notched his second career win in a 50-lap Eight-Cylinder Enduro contest.