Column By: MIKE TRAVERSE / RPW – ACCORD, NY – After waiting eight years to claim his first Accord Speedway Modified feature win in 2021, Joe Judge is starting to become a regular visitor to Accord’s Victory Lane.
And it’s a trend that he would like to continue.
On Friday night, he raced to his 2nd win of the season, leading all 30 laps and holding off Accord’s all time leading winner, Rich Ricci Jr. and defending Modified champion, Danny Creeden.
Scott Ferrier and Judge were on the front row for the drop of the green. Judge took the lead as caution was out quickly for Jimmy Wells who pitted and later returned. Judge led on the restart with Brett Graham racing into 2nd with Randy Green 3rd. A few laps later, Daniel Morgiewicz Jr. brushed the 2nd turn wall to bring out the caution. Judge led on the restart as Ricci Jr got past Green and Graham for 2nd. Creeden got by Green for 4th and then by Graham for 3rd.
Just past halfway, caution was out as John Ferrier slowed. On the restart, Graham spun into the infield to bring out the caution again. This was the final restart of the race as Judge led over Ricci Jr. Rich kept in close, taking some looks inside of Judge as Joe was racing a middle groove. But as the laps began to wind down, Judge was able to open a bit of distance on Ricci Jr. and Joe took the checkers 7/10ths of a second over Ricci Jr. with Creeden 3rd, Danny Tyler 4th, Scott Ferrier 5th. Leo Fotopoulos was 6th with Green 7th, Mike Ricci 8th, Wells 9th and Geoff Quackenbush 10th.
“The car was really good. Last week, we tried something different, we set up just to run the bottom. I was good on the bottom. I tried the top last week and it was no good,” Judge said after the race. “We made one little change to make it the best of both worlds and it worked very well. Usually, I like to run up by the wall, but tonight I was able to protect 1 and 2 down low , 3 and 4 kind of in the middle. And it worked out well.”
The roar of the Modifieds returns to Accord Speedway on Friday, July 22 as it will be WRWD Salute to the Vets Night.