Gafforini’s title bid needs spin doctor

The 16-year-old from Las Vegas ran away with both 33-lap features at the Bullring. Rzesnowiecky might have been challenging for the season championship had he become age-eligible to race in the track’s premier class before May.

Instead, with one NASCAR All-American Series event remaining, Scott Gafforini was on center stage whether his car was on track, being towed or in the pits.

Gafforini began the night with what seemed an insurmountable 57-point lead in his quest to win the championship for a second time. Prior to winning it 2006, he had been runner-up five times, so in his heart he knew anything can happen on track.

Could anything thwart his title pursuit this year?

That question was answered on the second lap when Jeff Connors ran into the back of Gafforini, who began to spin. Gafforini had nearly regained control when he was smashed into by Jason Secor and put out of the race.

That ended Gafforini’s first race with a 19th-place finish. Connors placed fourth to take a big chunk out of Gafforini’s lead.

In the second race, Gafforini took over driving Dennis Rock Jr.’s car, one Gafforini had built. He was running fifth on the last lap when his car spun out in the last turn. He finished seventh.

“I always say I’m Mr. Excitement,” said Gafforini, who has won twice this year.

Standing next to his original car, which looked like it had finished last in the night’s demolition derby, Gafforini was smiling. He had already computed the points, which he determined will give him a 31-point lead going into this Saturday’s finale.

“It looks like if 14 Super Late Models show up next week and I finish last and (Connors) wins it will still give me the championship,” he said.

It’s a long shot that 14 Super Late Models will show up, because only 11 raced Saturday and a few crashed heavily and sustained significant damage.

“We’re not assuming we’ll win it, but it looks good,” Gafforini said.

Some in the crowd might have suspected Connors intentionally tried to spin Gafforini, but he wasn’t among them.

“(Connors) came over and apologized as soon as the race ended,” Gafforini said. “He didn’t do it on purpose. That was just a racing incident. That didn’t put me out of the race anyway. That was done by the rookie (Secor) who hit me. But this is amateur racing and things like that happen.”

In other racing, Doug Hamm won for the fifth consecutive time and seventh overall in Modifieds to lock up the season championship; Phil Goodwin won his 10th Chargers race; Justin Johnson won to continue his dominance in Thunder Roadsters; Dylan Kwasniewski won in Legends Cars; and Bombers runner-up Fred Harding was declared the race winner when first-place finisher Larry Dittman’s station wagon failed technical inspection afterward.

Contact reporter Jeff Wolf at jwolf@ reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0247.