Sat, 17 May 2003, 10:27 PM Curfew Shuts Racing Down Saturday

By Larry Sullivan

ENGLISHTOWN, N.J. - 10:10 PM - We are through for the day at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park, with a few pairs of Super Comp eliminator cars still waiting to run their first round of eliminations.

Things were tightly scheduled today, with the Demon King Crown intermixed with qualifying and Sportsman eliminations.

The first major delay came when Johnny Rocca's '49 Mercury Pro Modified car went through the sand and into the catch net, requiring a lengthy extraction before the Top Alcohol cars could run.

Top Alcohol, scheduled to start around 6:00 PM, didn't start until 7:17 PM and took two hours to complete because of frequent oildowns.

That's when Super Comp finally got their first shot of the day and they were just four pairs away from completion when another oildwon brought things to a halt.

Already past the curfew, race officials had no options and called it a day.

They will resume as soon after the 10:00 AM engine start time as possible Sunday, reducing the pre-race ceremonies to about 10 minutes.

There is more Sportsman racing left than will fit into Sunday's schedule, despite the early start, the track facing a strict 7:30 PM curfew Sunday, so some eliminators may have to be completed at a later date.



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