( WATERFORD , CT ) Keith Rocco forged ahead on several late race restarts in scoring his second consecutive 35-lap Whelen All-American Series SK Modified feature at the Waterford Speedbowl Saturday evening. He passed early leader Jay Miller with 13-laps remaining, then battled Jeff Pearl before gaining the advantage in the closing circuits. Following Pearl was Rob Janovic Jr., Ron Yuhas Jr. and Tyler Chadwick.

Other Feature winners were Bruce Thomas Jr. (Late Model), Walt Hovey Jr. (Sportsman), Randy Churchill (Mini Stock), Jason Palmer (Legends), Joe Cipriano (Legends Young Lions), and Randy Cabral (NEMA Midgets).

“We just keep getting better each week,” said the 23-year-old Rocco. “I had to make the car kind of wide at the end, but with a couple of laps to go, you do what you have to do. I really don’t like to drive like that, but we’re here to win races like everybody else. I never expected to get another win so quickly. It’s the first time this has happened for me in the SK’s.”

Pearl was composed in victory lane, seemingly pleased to have scored a podium finish in what has been a somewhat disappointing season thus far for the former champion.

“I really thought we had a good shot at him tonight,” said Pearl . “His car got really wide at the end. I guess he raced the way he thought he had to for the win. We’ll take a second place tonight.”

In Late Model action, Bruce Thomas Jr. won his third of the season. He battled side-by-side with Ron Yuhas Jr. during the last half of the event before finally getting the advantage as the two approached lapped traffic.

“A lapped car made the difference tonight,” stated Thomas. “I had no choice but to kind of get into Ronnie when I passed him. We were coming up on that slow car so quickly and he was right in the groove. It was either stop, wreck both of us, or try to squeeze-in there. It’s too bad because we ran so many laps side-by-side and that kind of spoiled it. I’m not sure how the finish would have gone otherwise, as our cars were so evenly-matched.” Yuhas, Tim Jordan, Vin Esposito, and Ed Reed Jr. completed the top five.

Walt Hovey Jr. won his first Sportsman feature of the season overtaking leader Brandon Plemons on lap-15. In the closing circuits Josh Galvin pressured the winner before tangling with Plemons and spinning. Plemons, Al Stone III, Chris “Moose” Douton, and Mark Cooper rounded-out the top five. Coming from deep in the field, Randy Churchill passed Phil Evans on the final lap to win his third Mini Stock feature of the season. Evans was disqualified for purposely spinning Churchill at the conclusion of the event, moving Ken Cassidy Jr. into second. Danny Field, Bill Leonard, and Jack Aquilina completed the top-five. Randy Cabral put in a dominating performance in winning his second NEMA event of 2008. Jay Palmer won his third Legends feature of 2008, and making it two-in-a-row in the Legends Young Lions event was thirteen year-old Joe Cipriano.

SK MODIFIED (35); 1. Keith Rocco, 2. Jeff Pearl, 3. Rob Janovic Jr., 4. Ron Yuhas Jr., 5. Tyler Chadwick, 6. Jay Miller, 7. Justin Gaydosh, 8. Doug Coby, 9. Jeff Malave, 10. Dennis Gada, 11. Don Fowler, 12. Glenn Griswold, 13. Frank Mucciacciaro Jr., 14. Jeff Paul, 15. Glenn Pressel III, 16. Pete Pavone Jr., 17. Mike Sweeney, 18. John Agor, 19. Bill Benoit, 20. Michael Sabia Jr., 21. Wendell Dailey, 22. Wade Mattesen, 23. Rich Hammann.

LATE MODEL (30); 1. Bruce Thomas Jr., 2. Ron Yuhas Jr., 3. Tim Jordan, 4. Vin Esposito, 5. Ed Reed Jr., 6. Rich Staskowski, 7. Jeff Smith, 8. Robert LeBlanc Jr., 9. Tom Metcalf, 10. Mark Hudson, 11. Chris Bottge, 12. Bob Andreozzi, 13. Dan Holben.

SPORTSMAN (20); 1. Waly Hovey Jr., 2. Brandon Plemons, 3. Al Stone III, 4. Chris “Moose” Douton, 5. Mark Cooper, 6. Jack Aquilina, 7. Ronnie Oldman Jr., 8. Dwayne Dorr, 9. Ed Lamb Jr., 10. Nate Appell, 11. John Puglisi, 12. Chuck Rogers, 13. Kevin Burr, 14. Joe Nogiec, 15. Jim Procaccini, 16. Josh Galvin.

MINI STOCK (20); 1. Randy Churchill, 2. Ken Cassidy Jr., 3. Danny Field, 4. Bill Leonard, 5. Jack Aquilina, 6. Kyle James, 7. Raymond Christian III, 8. Ian Brew, 9. Christina Cunliffe, 10. Jeff Miller, 11. Andrew Becker, 12. Jeff “Soup” Civardi, 13. Nick Pappacoda, 14. Sean Caron, 15. Lou Bellisle, 16. Mark Panaroni, 17. Mark Caise, 18. Glenn Estes, 19. Jack Wolfram, 20. Brad Caddick, 21. David Sylvia, 22. Chris Williams, 23. Ben Bargnesi, 24. Phil Evans.

LEGENDS (20); 1. Jay Palmer, 2. Art Moran Jr., 3. Shaun Buffington, 4. Michael Gervais Jr., 5. Carl Blandina, 6. Justin Rau, 7. Mark Esposito, 8. Adam Gada, 9. Ryan Morgan, 10. Ed Field, 11. Len Beebe Jr., 12. Dan Bisignano, 13. Max Zachem, 14. Art Moran III, 15. Kyle Rogers, 16. Dan McGouren, 17. Paul Forbes, 18. Tom Gray, 19. Joe Gada, 20. Joe Cipriano, 21. Justin Doss, 22. Dave Stanton, 23. Pete Portante.

NEMA MIDGETS (25); 1. Randy Cabral, 2. Bobby Santos III, 3. Joey Payne Jr., 4. Erica Santos, 5. Greg Stoehr, 6. Adam Cantor, 7. William Wall, 8. John Zych, 9. Mark Irving, 10. Chris Leonard, 11. Jeremy Frankowski, 12. Paul Scally, 13. Paul Luggelle, 14. Doug Cleveland, 15. Shawn Torrey, 16. Nokie Fornoro, 17. Kevin Park, 18. Kelly Fayrell, 19. Lee Bundy, 20. Mike Horn .

Source: Dave Dykes, Speedbowl Public Relations
Photo: Keith Cyr, RaceDogPhotography