Danni Cugni of Marshfield made it to victory lane in the Wings and Wheels NEMA Lites feature at Waterford Speedbowl. Credit: NEMA photo.)

By Lou Modestino

Reigning NEMA champion John Zych was starting to worry that he hadn’t visited victory lane in 2014. A couple of podium finishes was all he could muster more than halfway through the schedule. That stress was relieved Saturday night when Zych of Mendon, MA won the Angelillo Memorial at the Waterford Speedbowl.

He may have had a hunch the elusive win would come on Saturday night after being among the fastest in practice, the fastest in the heats and set a blistering lap of 12.74 seconds, averaging 109 mph around the 3/8 Speedbowl. Randy Cabral of Kingston was second ollowed by Seth Carlson of Brimfield in third, Avery Stoehr of Lakeville and Todd Bertrand of Suffield, CT rounded out the top five in the 25 lap main.

Zych took the lead on lap 8 after passing Paul Bigelow of Kensington, CT. Two cautions flew late in the race with nine and seven laps to go. Each time Randy Cabral lined up next to him for the restart. “I didn’t want to see a caution, especially once I saw Randy next to me on those restarts,” Zych said in victory lane, “I knew I had to be perfect each time the green came out.” Perfect he was, pulling away from Cabral each time and beating him to the finish by almost a second and a half. Pole sitter Pete Pernesiglio of Ronkonkoma, NY was the only other leader in the feature. Zych and Jim SantaMaria of Burlington, CT were the heat winners.

A scary moment for veteran driver Doug Cleveland of Sudbury when his car caught fire at the conclusion of the race. Cleveland got out of the car quickly but not before inhaling some of the heat and suffering second degree burns to his leg. He was taken to the local hospital by the track ambulance and released later that night.

Danny Cugini of Marshfield methodically worked his way through traffic in the NEMA Lites portion of the Angelillo Memorial event and won the 25 lap feature. Like John Zych he was presented with trophies from the late Gene and Marylin Angelillo’s grandchildren in victory lane.

Logan Rayvals from Rockville, ONT Canada had set sail and looked to be cruising to his first career NEMA victory after taking the lead from Enfield, CT’s Brandon Igo on lap six. His romp was cut short by a caution thrown for a multi-car incident just off turn four that ended the night for point leader Ryan Krachun of Neshanic Station, NJ and last event’s winner Juris Kupris from Williamsburg, NY. The latter had his mount hauled off by wreckers on each end of the car.

By this time Cugini had moved up from his ninth starting spot and was ready to challenge Rayvals for the lead. He took over with seven laps to go and never looked back. Rayvals settled in for second, followed by Candia, NH’s PJ Stergios, Richie Morrocco of Plainville and Scott Bigelow of E. Hampton, CT making up the top five.

“I was praying for a caution because Logan was so far out in front,” said Cugini. “The car got so much better after the caution and I tried him on the outside and it worked.” He went on to thank his crew and especially his dad who fields cars for both Danny and his sister Megan at all of the NEMA Lite events.

The Lites ran only a feature as part of a big show that also offered the ISMA Supermodifieds, Modified Racing Series and Waterford’s SK Modifieds.

NEMA’s next stop is the Star Speedway in Epping, NH on August 23.