STAFFORD – On a chaotic day at Stafford Speedway it was a driver known most for always having the orderly plan of attack who ultimately tempered the mayhem.
Matt Hirschman survived an ugly late restart with Anthony Nocella and held on to win the 80-lap Monaco Modified Tri-Track Series 51st NAPA Fall Final Saturday at Stafford Speedway.
“I’m kind of just relieved to win a race,” Hirschman said. “Those are kind of exciting when you win when you kind of don’t think you’re going to. The one’s when you’re out front and you know you’ve got the car to beat, they’re not as exciting, you’re more hoping nothing goes wrong. In this one, I didn’t really think we were going to win.”
It was the second consecutive Fall Final victory for Hirschman, who also won the 2022 NAPA Spring Sizzler at Stafford.
“We’ve won some big one’s here,” said Hirschman, who earned $15,000 for the win. Making a habit of it. I’d like to see if we could get another [Spring] Sizzler in the collection before I’m done.”
Hirschman, of Northampton, Pa., became the first repeat winner this season in six Monaco Modified Tri-Track Series events. It was his record 21st series win over 54 career starts since 2014.
The event seemed plagued at the start with three cautions flying before a lap could be completed. Twelve of the 30 starters completed the event.
“It was an ugly race just from the drop of the green,” Hirschman said. “We couldn’t even get the drop of the green.”
Ronnie Williams of Lebanon was second and Cory DiMatteo of Farmington third.
“For us it was a day from hell,” Williams said. “I felt like everything that could go wrong in the beginning did go wrong. Just stupid stuff really. We started way back there. I think we started 19th and before we even did a lap I was up to 11th. It was chaotic for sure. But we kept our nose clean. … I don’t think you ever expect something crazy like that at Stafford. But a lot of money on the line, a lot of very good guys here, it just happens I guess.”
Said DiMatteo: “We were almost a lap down at one point. It was a long race for us. We started off really good and then the handling went away. We were able to battle back. I’m super happy. Super proud of my guys. This is my first completed Open race in maybe the half a dozen we’ve done in the past couple years.”
The turning point in the event came on a lap 78 restart. Nocella controlled Hirschman on two previous restarts on lap 76. On the lap 78 restart Nocella got a slight edge on Hirschman at the flagstand. Nocella then got up the track and spun in front of Hirschman and into the wall.
“I’ve always raced well with [Nocella], but that was 100 percent his fault,” Hirschman said. “He started taking away more and more space with each restart. … It got to the point where he’s putting me in the wall and putting himself in the wall. I think that was a mistake on his part. I thought maybe if he just ran his race he still could have won but he got a little bit dirty with me on the restarts and it cost him. … It could have cost us as well.”
Said Nocella: “On those late restarts, he was staying down on me, I was staying up, whatever. For a win for that much money it is what it is. That the specific restart, I definitely when I went to shift to high gear I spun the tires a little and kind of chased it up and we were out of room.”
At the start pole-sitter Mikey Flynn was slow to get fired forcing third place starting Ron Silk to check up. Silk, who was considered the favorite coming into the event, tried to find a way around Flynn as the issue rippled through the field. Silk’s car ended up getting hit and wrecking in turn one, ending his day.
On the second attempt at starting the race Flynn did not get up to speed again and then spun in front of the field while numerous drivers were forced to take evasive actions.
On the third attempt at a restart second place Keith Rocco didn’t go, stacking up the field. The wreck eliminated Craig Lutz and Jacob Perry.
The fourth attempt at getting the first lap completed was successful with Kyle Bonsignore getting by Nocella for the lead with Joey Cipriano going to second.
The action was short-lived. On lap four Teddy Hodgdon IV spun out of sixth place in turn one and collected Doug Coby.
Following the lap four restart Bonsignore and Nocella went side-by-side before Nocella cleared for the lead off of turn four on lap five.
By lap 25 Nocella and Bonsignore had checked out from third place Cipriano with Hirschman running fourth.
On lap 33 Hirschman went by Cipriano fourth. Nocella and Bonsignore were a straightaway ahead of Hirschman at the time. By lap 52 Nocella and Bonsignore remained checked out from the field with Hirschman running in third, more than three seconds behind Nocella. By lap 58 Hirschman had gained about a second on Nocella. By lap 61 Hirschman was within just about a second to Nocella.
On lap 62 Tyler Hines spun in turn two to bring out caution. Under caution the field headed to pit road. Nocella edged Hirschman in the race off pit road with Cipriano moving to third and Bonsignore falling to fourth.
On the lap 62 restart Hirschman got a huge jump from the outside lane to go to the lead for the first time in the race. On lap 63 Nocella fought back to the inside of Hirschman and took the lead back with a diving move into turn one on lap 64.
“We had a good pit stop, I came out second and got the lead right away and I was just way too tight on the short initial run and he was really good,” Hirschman said “There wasn’t even a thought to hold him off. He drove right underneath me and drove right by me. But as the race progressed, with each lap, with each restart I thought we started to equalize more. And then it was almost to the point of ‘Well maybe we still have a shot here’ and that brought us to those closing restarts.”
On lap 68 caution flew with Eric Goodale stopped in turn one with major left front damage. For the restart Hirschman chose the inside lane when the choose cone came out, putting Bonsignore on the front row for the restart. Nocella controlled out front on the restart. On lap 70 Hirschman got under Bonsignore for second with Williams following to third and Ryan Newman to fourth. Newman went by Williams for third place on lap 71 but Williams took the position back on lap 73.
By lap 74 Nocella had opened a half second lead on Hirschman. Caution flew on lap 76 for the stopped cars of Buddy Charette and Brett Meservey. Under caution fourth place running Newman slowed on the track and went to the pits.
On the lap 76 restart Nocella and Hirschman went side-by-side through turn one, but caution was quickly back out for the wrecked car of Chris Pasteryak in turn one.
On the next attempt at a lap 76 restart, Nocella and Hirschman went side-by-side for much of the lap before Nocella cleared for the lead off of turn four. Caution was back out on lap 78 for a wreck in turn one that began with Nick Salva turning Cipriano in a battle for seventh. It set up for the decisive restart that ended Nocella’s chance to win.
Hirschman controlled at the front on the final restart, leaving DiMatteo and Williams to fight for second. Williams went by DiMatteo for second on lap 79.
Monaco Modified Tri-Track Series NAPA Fall Final At Stafford Speedway
What an absolute mess. Almost 1/3 of the field knocked out before a lap is done. Instantly took a lot of the wind out of the sails when it was set up to be another ~20 car spread out race with not much going on.
Barely 1/3 finished.
Was tri track using the standard Stafford painted restart zone? Or their own?
If they were using Stafford’s, just absolute massive jumped starts near the end. Like, dont even need a replay big.
Cant imagine what would have been said if this was a tour race.
sometimes it be that way though, i guess.
A Flo/Stafford pit reporter said that Rocco had a cam failure, which led to his no-go restart. Do we know why Flynn didn’t go twice?
Ben Dodge guessed that Rocco had a distributor problem and later he and Rickey said that Newman lost an axle (vs. running out of gas, as stated by Newman in a pit interview later in the race). Perhaps Ben and Kyle should leave such explanations to the pit reporters.
The Beginning Was An Embarrassment To Modified Racing At Stafford Speedway!!!!
Bring back the real tour.
TOUR THIS !! And little pissant, Jacob perry, should keep his mouth shut. If he doesn’t know what he’s talking about.
I fell out of my seat when Kopcik said in the interview that they should drug test Barrett🤣
What an absolute 💩show. People were leaving with 30 laps to go. That’s pretty much all you need to know… Boy do I miss the days of the traditional fall final. The Saturday and Sunday show with the tour. Not this Fall ” Final” then let’s have championship night the following Friday. Just stupid. But thanks a lot covid…
Preach Sister Preach!! I Ttotally Agree With You!!!
Beautiful day for late September racing. Great crowd. From a food perspective: the ice cream stand was a big hit near turn 1.
Racing: the SK light series ran well although one sided. Chapman was hooked up. The SK race was forgettable. Congrats to Molleur, he had the car. Nice run for Arute, just came up short.
The Monaco series was interesting to
Say the least.. I wouldn’t call it great racing but it didn’t lack drama. Mikey Flynn. If your car is a pile of crap/mechanical failure , why the hell don’t you pit or pull over. You damaged about 5-6 cars by the restarts and costs thousands of dollars in damage. Totally ridiculous. The thing ended up blowing up or breaking down as predicted. As a race car driver, you should know if something is wrong. Was unacceptable. The first half hour was amateur hour. Ryan Newman being there was great for Stafford. If he didn’t run out of gas.. he would of had a shot for a win. He had great pace. Speaking of amateur hour: HOW DO YOU RUN OUT OF GAS? Team failure there. Nocella had the best car out of the 15 remaining. He should of won yet took himself out by going up the track. No confidence in his restart ability? Or Matt Hirshman fear? Matt didn’t have the best car but was in it to win it and he did. Not a fan of the “Money Matt” but he is great for the modified series. Every series or sport needs a villain.
Overall it was a solid day at Stafford! The Arutes continue to do a great job and they deserve a lot of credit.
Flynn’s transmission wouldn’t shift, he tried it twice, probably should have dropped to the back and gone in 4th the 2nd time, hindsight’s 20/20 i know. Hirschman should stick to the ROC, Tritrack shouldn’t put up with that crap, let alone give a win to ANYBODY who uses moves like that.
Every series has their off night however, bringing back the WMT with their anorexic 18-20 car count isn’t the solution to the Fall Final.
Chuck,
What “crap” by Hirschman should the Monaco Modified Tri-Track Series not put up with? What “move” did he make? Did you actually read this story? Anthony Nocella said he was at fault for what happened on the restart where he wrecked. I think most anybody watching that could figure that out.
THAT WAS TOTALLY NOCELLA”S FAULT!!!
All and all it was a great Saturday of racing – great field of Mods all around, great to see everyone at the track. Congratulations to all the Winners of the day
Flynn was the cause of the first incident and should have been sent to rear. Apparently they did a complete restart allowing him to cause another wreck
Earl is right, bad night for the boys. Mechanical failure and bad judgment never go away . I wonder who got the Hard Luck 500$ , lot of contenders.
Saw almost 100 Modifieds run yesterday! Good racing overall, although it seemed to be a “full moon” kind of day for TriTRack, more issues than usual. I must admit, from my view it looked like Hirschman dumped Nocella, but the Stafford replay from the turn 1 camera told me otherwise. I think Nocella might have been able to hold him off until that happened. Still a great raceday overall!!
So here’s a thought experiment.
The first screwed up start by Flynn probably gets officiated the same way for just about every series or track. He kept going, so he isn’t involved. The only one that might be different is the tour with their blend rules. This isnt a shot at anyone or saying they should have put him to the back. Things were done as they should have been.
The missed start was obviously unintentional. But tracks/series do put drivers to the back for unintentional things all the time.
If he starts fine, goes into one and gets loose and slides up into silk and causes just as big of a wreck, but he keeps going. Everyone would agree he caused it, and it’s a pretty easy call to put him to the back, even though most would agree it wasn’t intentional.
So why do “we”, as short tracks and series, not do the same for a missed shift. It was just a clear he was to blame. And intent shouldn’t matter, just like if he got loose. But he did end several drivers nights. Shouldn’t there be some sort of penalty?
Saturday was a prime example of why you don’t want to slow cars on the start. I’ve seen arguments that tri track heart races used to be more fun and fair when the shower cars got a chance to start in the front. Now we see why somebody like Ron Silk might complain about that.
Hillary2024 your right ,I use to like Kopcik but he is a big piece of crap , a young punk
Chuck, still waiting for your response ,let us know what we missed
The driver that caused the caution light to be displayed always goes to the rear of the field, no matter what track or series is running the event! Have i missed something in watching short track racing for the last five decades ?
I actually look forward to the reactions from the Zig. Even anticipated it as the MMTTS race was unfolding or more accurately failing to launch thinking I bet Zig will have his dagger at the ready for this one.
These things happen. It’s not like the Tour doesn’t have it’s black swan events. Wall a number of years back with Woody surviving and winning comes to mind, Thompson a couple years back same thing.
What I’d be curious about though is fans thoughts on the length of the show. Forgetting any specific events that may have caused it to run long it was still pretty long even if it came off like clock work. You bring the family, want to see the group qualifying and heats starting at about 1:30 which commits you to the better part of 5 hours even under ideal circumstances. Add in travel time and at what point does length become an issue?
I can remember the families first visit to Stafford like it was yesterday. What really was impressive was them rolling out the races one after the other like clock work. Only three divisions at the time so that moved things along. Driver interviews but the big celebrations reserved for only the NWMT winner at major events.
Attended plenty of the bigger events but have no recollection of how long they ran way back when. I’m pretty sure they didn’t spend so much time with all the bells and whistles. A pit party, group qualifying then heats, special races for the SK Lights and of course the usual victory lane ceremonies. Time spent for friends and supporters to get to victory lane more time when they head back.. The driver spending more then half their chat time thanking every cousin, uncle and friend that helped them as well as sponsors.
In the current era there’s logic for every element of how the race program is run. Being driver centric from promotional bits on different drivers on the big screen, highlighting sponsors, developing the next generation of fan through the help of pit parties and big wheel races is text book seed planting. Does the sum of the parts at times contribute to shows dragging on with more value added filler at the cost of racing action? King of the Crates show in a show what the heck was that? More bells and whistles but it’s still just the regular drivers and the dominant car won. Who by the way already was the king of the crates before the race started with his insurmountable points lead.
The memory of a Fall Final from last century is still strong. Packed stands with the goal being to get to the feature event that was what everyone came for. Sitting in the paddock stands, watching the field hit turn one on the start in apple pie order at speed was breathtaking and it didn’t take 4 hours to get to it. Contrast that to now where you have all these boxes to check. Only three divisions but with the shows within the show it’s hours from initial qualifying to the feature event. Does the average fan still have his or her enthusiasm topped off or has it become more a marathon to say you completed? All that time waiting, it goes south like Saturday night or weather is a factor then what are the chances a first time fan comes back? Sure as I’m typing this Stafford became a weekly ritual after seeing that first very exciting, efficiently run show then getting home at a reasonable hour to tuck the kids in.
Sure another old guy yammering on comparing racing in the last century with rose colored glasses doing his best to be a cliché. I still can’t imagine taking the family to the races for the first time, waiting hours for the feature race to go off and when all is said and done the time investment is well over 6 hours for most factoring in travel time.
Are smart phones the glue that holds it all together? Whether it’s the disengaged adult or children is the presence of an alternative entertainment source make the waiting not really an inconvenience at all?
No skin off my nose. Watched group qualifying and the heats thought it was terrific. Then ran some errands, mowed the lawn and checked back in at 5:30 with a cold one settling in for an entertaining albeit less then ideal feature event. Seeing Hirschman hit the wall flush with his two right side tires and braking enough to avoid disaster with the 92 then going on to an unlikely win was a finish that goes in the memory bank for sure.
Good crowd and a money maker but was it a Fall Final worthy crowd? I’d bet it was dominated by all you experienced veterans of big events. Coming to the race with the right mind set smart phone at the ready for down time, you know the rhythms of big events these days and set to grind it out no matter how long it takes.
It’s not just Stafford it seems most tracks view more hours, more bells and whistles, more divisions add up to more value for the fan. Riverhead will go on for a half hour parading vehicles around the track honoring some group or individual in front of empty stands.
Is it more complicated then it needs to be. Programs bloated like the trophies they pass out so big a successful driver like Hirschman or Silk would need a warehouse to keep them all in. To the casual observer the cars all looked the same, it took forever to complete, has the sport lost it’s way? Could the way back be learning lessons from Cleetus Mcfarland. Wall to wall excitement, a tight package, all novice fans with very few disgruntled when leaving the track.
Doug, I think the “King of the Carates” was rescheduled from the rained out GAF Engine Masters race. Also, I understand your points but for anyone that goes to the event and complains it takes too long can just show up later and skip practice, the pit party, and/or the heats. Most times I’m at the track when it opens and I leave when they are done for the event regardless of the time, but I choose to do so. I never go expecting or hoping for a given time frame. The length of time for any sporting event is variable to some degree. I thought it was great to see modifieds all day! For anyone that thinks it’s too long, just show up later! They may switch classes around but the practice, heats, and features order always stays the same.
I’d like to see the officials be more attentive to drivers accelerating before reaching the restart zone. I’m wondering if that was what Chuck was referring to.
To be fair Doug – the king of the crate was added due to a rainout… If the Open mods only had one consi and the 3 initial starts the show would have been a lot shorter.
While no likes seeing good cars being taken out early, i think it was a better race than the sizzler with the 16 dominating as much as he did. One has to wonder if the wrecks did not happen would the 92 or 60 have the speed to compete with the 16 , or would it have been the same story?
Doug, I believe the group qualifying you are referring to is called a tire scuff session that is part of every MMTTS event. It’s also my belief that it’s used to set the heat race line up. It’s their series, their procedure, the track is well aware of it and it’s not going to change.
The MMTTS has been on since the 2024 schedule was released and the King of the Crates was rescheduled to the Fall Final due to a rain out. Every fan who attended was aware, prepared for it and by the looks of things the place had an excellent turn out.
Great job Stafford on another successful Fall Final weekend!
1) “Doug, I think the “King of the Carates” was rescheduled from the rained out GAF Engine Masters race.”
2) “To be fair Doug – the king of the crate was added due to a rainout…”
3) “The MMTTS has been on since the 2024 schedule was released and the King of the Crates was rescheduled to the Fall Final due to a rain out.”
I can’t decide. Is this counterpoint being repeated because you don’t read each others comments or is it knowing I’m really old and won’t grasp it if it’s said only once? Which I might add there could be some merit to.
A response to the rescheduled argument may be that the length was the sum of the bells and whistles, not any one in particular. There was the possibility of changing the format for the SK Light race to compress it while still paying generously as originally planned but at this point that’s moot.
“What I’d be curious about though is fans thoughts on the length of the show.”
That was the question, asked and answered. No one is concerned or at least not enough to weigh in so I’d thank you kind gentlemen for helping to straighten me out.