When Big Diamond Speedway finally held a program last Friday after two consecutive rainouts, one of the East Coast's leading drivers finally got his opportunity to visit.
"I normally race asphalt and I normally race on Saturdays, so this is a day I can race my dirt car," Lou Cicconi Jr. said while standing beside his No. 75 358 modified. "I raced here once last year, and I really enjoyed it, so I wanted to come back."
Cicconi may have enjoyed Friday's visit less as he finished 14th in the 25-lap feature after he had won his heat race and had started 11th in the feature field, but the result easily beat his previous attempts to compete at the Forestville oval this season.
"It rained out a couple of times," the Aston resident said. "I was on my way up here last week and it rained out.
"I was on my way up the week prior to that and I blew two trailer tires out, so I couldn't make it. ... We bought the trailer and it had new tires on it, but they were the wrong load rating. When we had it loaded, it popped them. We had only one spare, but we blew two tires."
Cicconi said the mishap occurred halfway to Schuylkill County.
"I was lucky that I was 20 minutes away from a friend's house that had spares," he said. "I was a half-hour away too from him. It was a quarter-after 8 (when we were done changing tires)."
Joining Bobby Gunther Walsh as newcomers to Big Diamond this season last Friday, the man nicknamed "Liquid Lou" has enjoyed much better days. A former Rookie of the Year in three different series, he is a three-time American Racing Drivers Club midget champion with 34 career wins in that series in addition to two victories in the indoor Gambler's Classic in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Last year, Cicconi won the International Supermodified Association championship in the series, which conducts its races on asphalt.
His father is also a Northeast racing institution who won the ARDC car owner's crown in 1976.
In fact, while Lou Jr. is competing his 39th season since he began to race at age 10, he said Lou Cicconi Sr. continues to have a big role in his racing career.
About his new Troyer chassis prior to last Friday's program, Lou Jr. said, "My father's 87 and we had a hard winter and he would stay in like a week, a week-and-a-half, and I wasn't having it. So I bought this race car and made him put it together.
"I'll tell you, it made him a whole different person - seriously. That's true. I couldn't get him out of the house, and he lives for my race car."
Therefore, last Friday was Lou Sr.'s reward for his work.
"In the ISMA circuit, the closest race is like five hours from my house," Lou Jr. said. "And this race is an hour-and-a-half."
Friday's race also gave Cicconi the chance to try out the car's new engine, built by Pat Morrison.
"Because I got my ass kicked by his motors all of the time and that's why I went with him," Cicconi said.
Helping hands
Drivers passed through the stands at Big Diamond last Friday to collect money for the family of sprint car racer Duane Mausteller and received about $600 toward the costs of the Bloomsburg driver's recovery.
Mausteller, 41, remains hospitalized in Geisinger Medical Center, Danville, after he was seriously injured in a three-car crash during an Empire Super Sprints series race recently at Selinsgrove Speedway.
Around the oval
Oley's Duane Howard has won the last two 358 modified features at Grandview Speedway. Driving for Glen Hyneman in the No. 126 at Big Diamond, Howard won his second straight feature last Saturday in Mike Petruska's No. 66 at the Bechtelsville oval.
Meanwhile, Richland's Jared Umbenhauer scored his fifth sportsman feature win at Grandview last weekend.
Ryan Godown, who won the season-opening Money in the Mountain feature at Big Diamond in his big-block modified, was the 358 modified feature winner last weekend at New Egypt Speedway. There, Godown holds the all-time lead in the division with 11 feature wins.
Tuesday, a two-time 358 modified feature winner at Big Diamond, Billy Pauch Jr., placed second in the ARDC midget feature at Grandview, which was hosting the USAC wingless sprints that night.
One night later, Pauch won the Flying Farmer 40, a 40-lap SpeedSTR feature at Action Track USA in Kutztown.
(Curley covers Big Diamond Speedway for The Republican-Herald. Contact him at ccurley@republicanherald.com) Today's races
Where: Big Diamond Speedway, Forestville
When: 8:15 p.m. Gates open at 5 p.m. Warm-ups at 7:45 p.m.
Program: HTMA DIRTcar 358 modifieds, Slifko Fabrication 358 late models, Savage 61 Roadrunners
Admission: $15 per adult; $13 per senior citizen, active military or student ages 13-17, all with valid identification; Free for children ages 12-and-under
Special: The roadrunners will compete in the Crazy 8s, four eight-lap features. The draw will determine the first race's lineup. The winner of each feature will then pick an invert number from a bag to determine how many cars will be inverted for the following feature.