Last Saturday, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing a fellow with whom I have been acquainted for quite some time. Bob Finan is the Public Relations Director and announcer at Riverhead Raceway. He is an “Old School” treasure wrapped in a package that doesn’t seem all that old.

This week, the Whelen Modified Tour heads to the eastern Long Island bullring. Finan has been there longer than many of us have been involved in racing. When I first went to Islip, Riverhead, New Egypt and Pocono, Finan was announcing there. I used to think that Bob was the announcer at every track. He is one of those souls that never seem to get much attention from the media and is probably one of the racing personalities that deserve it most.

Initially when I asked Bob to sit down and answer some questions, he seemed a little hesitant. As you will see, he quickly opened up. Finan is no shrinking violet.

It is people who have a fervent passion for auto racing that make our Modified world spin on its axis. Bob and some of the people he mentions during the interview that follows are the folks that lead the effort to keep us all from wobbling out into space. He is a promoter, a name-dropper and he wants to know where you are from. He’s Bob Finan.

Walter Newcomb: When did it all get started for you?

Bob Finan: How I got involved with racing was, I became a fan in 1971. My father was a New York City police officer. He was working what they call a four to twelve [4PM –Midnight]. Which means he’s gone at night. Saturday nights my mom was trying to find stuff for us to do, sometimes it was putt-putt golf, sometimes it was movies, whatever, drive-ins, because they had them back then.

She saw an ad in the Newsday for Islip Speedway. Wanted: 100 men not afraid to die! Hundred-car demo! You know, the Larry Mendelson specialties. Went there and fell in love with the Modified Stock cars and the Figure Eights. I probably haven’t missed six Saturday nights since 1971.

WN: When was the last time that you missed a show?

BF: The last time that I missed a show was probably when my brother got married and that was probably 1995. I missed one show because I had some broken ribs one year. We were doing Riverhead on Fridays and Islip on Saturdays. I got into a minor altercation and I had some broken ribs. I was in the hospital one week. So Mike Calinoff had to go it alone out at Islip Speedway and out here at Riverhead. That was back in 1983.

WN: So other than that you probably haven’t missed a race since about 1974?

BF: Oh yeah and [missing] a half dozen [races] might even be stretching it out a little bit.

WN: How did you get started in announcing?

BF: How I got going in announcing was as time went on, friend of mine, from high school, Tommy Kaszeta, liked racing as well. We went to Islip Speedway together and started hanging each other around the tenth grade. The Mini-Modifieds back then had a Strictly Stock Volkswagen class that they ran incorporated into the Mini-Modified races. And the first Strictly Stock Volkswagen that crossed the line in a Mini-Modified feature was declared the winner for them.

[Tommy] built one of those cars. I worked with him. I worked with Joe Santiago on his cars. My mechanical ability can be written on the head of a thumbtack. I was basically just a body loading tires helping out. Me and wrenches are like fire and water.

The Mini-Modifieds used to travel to Riverhead, Islip, Freeport and of course up into and throughout New England. Sonny Grainger was the long-time announcer at Islip Speedway and the Mini-Modifieds had a club. “The Long Island Mini-Modified Association” felt as though they weren’t getting the proper coverage as far as driver, hometown and sponsors were concerned. We were sitting down in Joe Santiago’s basement and that’s where we had the club meetings, believe it or not, that’s how small the club actually was.

Joe Aragona, Joe Santiago, Jim Hendrickson, Jr. and the late Jack Scott all recommended maybe I try doing the announcing. Sonny Grainger wasn’t really happy that they wanted to bring in another announcer so I wasn’t able to announce at Islip. I announced my first race right here at Riverhead under the guidance of the legendary Tom Galan.

Galan used to do up Riverside Park that “It never rains at Riverside Park”. Tom Galan was the promoter that year at Riverhead Raceway. He and his wife leased the facility from the Hawkins family. He basically told me, “this is what you’ve got to do, this is what you’ve got to say”, handed me the microphone, I did my first Mini-Modified heat and he walked out and said, “okay, you’ve got it, you know what to do”.

Finally, Sonny Grainger relented at Islip and I was able to do a couple of shows at Islip. I did them at Freeport. Of course the Long Island Mini-Modifieds liked to run with Dan Meservey’s gang known as the New England Mini-Modified Association. I’ve done shows at Seekonk, Riverside Park, Thompson, Monadnock “the Mad Dog”, Pocono Raceway, we used to lease the facility to do a Mini-Modified show in September. I’ve done the Race of Champions at Pocono with Ben Dodge. I announced at Flemington, New Egypt and Wall Township Speedway.

Last year I got to announce the Turkey Derby at Wall Township Speedway. That was a thrill for me to do that because that is such a legendary race. I remember going down there with Bob O’Rourke and Glenn Sullivan and Ray Sullivan and hanging out in O’Rourke’s camper and sitting on that little log they had over in turn four. I was there when Vinnie Green exploded that car one day where the motor actually rolled down the track. I’ve watched Gil Hearne and John Blewett, Jr. run there. So it was a really a treat for me to do something at Wall [Township Speedway].

Announcing here at Riverhead Raceway and working with the Cromarty family not just at Riverhead Raceway but in their Monday through Friday business as well, really is a dream come true for some kid out of Brentwood with a Brentwood high school education to do their public relations and their press release work. To announce is the passion. You know the writing, that’s a bit more of a chore at times, but the announcing really is a passion to get the people up out of their seats, which we will try to do here tonight for “Tiger” Tom. We’re going to try to do the old Midget type pace lap where they’re all waving their hats and the flags, that’s really the thrill.

Along the way being able to become friends with so many of the people that you idolized from the other side of the fence. Growing up my favorite racecar driver was Bill Park. Why? Well when Sonny Grainger introduced Bill Park at Islip Speedway, Bill was from Brentwood. I was from Brentwood so naturally you root for a guy from your hometown.

That’s why I think that it is very important in today’s day and age and forever for racecar announcers to mention the driver’s hometowns because the kids identify. Hey that guy comes from where I live. So that’s how you start developing the fans.

Being friends with Charlie Jarzombek, Richie Evans, Fred Harbach, Butch Miceka, Bob O’Rourke, the list just goes on and on “Tiger” Tom Baldwin, Bob and Bill Park and all of the Figure Eight guys. You know my nickname in the pit area is “Figure Eight Bob” because I’ve always had a passion for the Figure Eight racers and their guys and the SAFER [Suffolk Association for Figure Eight Racing] organization, who are presenting this Ernie Maynor Memorial here tonight. Being friends with guys like Ernie Maynor and Carl “Whitey” Voelker and Chris Young, you know it really is special and not a lot of people get to make a part of their living doing something that they really, really enjoy in their passion. So I consider myself very fortunate.

WN: Chris Berman, from ESPN, has become rather famous for giving people nicknames. Prior to Chris Berman ever being on the air, you have been notorious for giving out nicknames.

BF: Myself, and I can’t take all of the credit, Mike Calinoff he was very instrumental in coming up with some of the nicknames like, Ernie “The Wrench” Maynor. We were always just amazed that Ernie’s talents, with just a simple set of tools, could convert his Figure Eight car into a Late Model and run Freeport and come back the next day with the same car and make it a Figure Eight car for Islip. Ernie “The Wrench” Maynor, Keith “Flash” Gordon and the list would go on and on.

I think it’s important that you read all of these message boards, ModSeriesScene included that the showmanship has kind of gone out of this sport. [Drivers like] Al DeAngelo with the skull and crossed bone flags and nicknames for drivers you know it’s very easy for anybody. Eddie could be “Steady Eddie”. We have a driver in our Super Pro Trucks who likes to call himself “Dangerous” Dave Koenig.

It’s important. This is entertainment. The days of hardcore one hundred lap Modified races being the norm have been replaced by, and for a die-hard, hardcore guy like me it’s sometimes even kind of hard for me to say this, these entertainment, family type shows that involve School Buses and Police Car Demolition Derbys and blindfold taxicab races because it tends to draw more John Q. Public, that maybe never visited Riverhead Raceway before or only visits once or twice a year and you need them to substantiate the hardcore race fans. So you have to make it entertaining for them and coming up with nicknames and trying to be as colorful as you can while still being tasteful is something that I’ve been very fortunate to do.

WN: Could you give us your fondest memory in racing?

BF: Watching Fred Harbach win the 1992 NASCAR Modified championship here at Riverhead Raceway in his final race. That’s one of the fondest memories that I really have. He and Brian Miller, you know “Flyin’” Brian Miller and he’s “The Flying Dutchman” and there we go with the nicknames again but, they go into the last race of the year and I think Brian Miller was a young guy, gung ho, had a great year but I think Harbach had a lot of drivers that he had helped out, they looked up to him, I think they made it a little easy for Fred that night. And so they should. The Miller family wasn’t really thrilled with it but that’s what you get for four or five decades of racing and being friendly and helpful to everybody. I miss Fred and Gerry Harbach not being here at the track. Of course it was not very long after Fred retired from racing that he passed away and that was a shame.

You know there are other memories. I just thank NASCAR and the NASCAR Modified community. I remember when “Tiger” Tom Baldwin and Alan Harbach got together on the backstretch on the three-quarter mile at Pocono at the Race of Champions. Baldwin took one of the most violent flips I’ve ever seen in my life and luckily for Tom, the combination of NASCAR safety regulations and Tommy just being in the shape that Tommy was always in allowed Tommy to walk away from that car.

Of course there are memories that kind of lay heavy on your heart. Because you have good memories you’re going to have sad ones too. Losing guys like Ernie “The Wrench” Maynor and Willie Chavis. Just a year after Ernie was fatally injured, we lost Willie and that was Ernie’s cousin. I remember Roger Maynor (Ernie’s son, Willie’s nephew, a Figure Eight competitor that night in 1983 and Saturday night at Riverhead) coming up to the press box at Islip Speedway as they straightened out the situation, crying on my shoulder. That’s why Roger and I are close. We’re not close, close but we have a different kind of bond than I have with a lot of the other guys here at the Raceway. You know losing “Chargin’” Charlie Jarzombek and Richie Evans, Fred Harbach’s mechanic, Frank Cervoni and our old Chief Steward, Walt Edsall and guys of that ilk and of course here we had Bill Quilligan.

Bill Quiligan had a heart attack passing away on the backstretch here. One of those guys that is the backbone of this sport. Bill Quilligan, not a lot of people are going to know that name, he was one of those guys who signed in with his Modified on a low budget, week in, week out, ran around at the back of the field and every racetrack has to have those to have a show. And Bill unfortunately lost his life here at Riverhead Raceway as well and those memories, they’re sad, but the good ones far, far outweigh the sad memories. When you’re around anything like I have been now for thirty years, that’s going to happen.

WN: Who’s the driver that you’ve been most impressed by over the whole time you have been in the business?

BF: I’d have to say Richie Evans. Richie Evans could race that Modified. If you got a race going in the Home Depot parking lot up the road, Richie Evans would probably have his car handling around. I was amazed when he and Jerry Cook and Bobby Park and John Blewett and all of those guys used to chase points all across the country.

Richie Evans could run a Stafford Motor Speedway back in the day on a Friday night, a fast lightning-quick half-mile and then come down to Islip, a tiny fifth of a mile and be just as impressive as he was on the half-mile and then Sunday head all the way up to Utica-Rome, when that was asphalt and run that racetrack and how he and his crew, you know, Billy Nacewicz and all the guys on the Big Orange crew just how they adapted to every racetrack. Freeport, flat quarter mile oval, Islip, small fifth of a mile banked oval, the limited time he ran here it was amazing how dominant Richie was. He probably impressed me more than anybody on the track. And of course the parties after the races were off the track were pretty impressive too. Although, I have to say that “Chargin’” Charlie Jarzombek was “The King of the barbeque”.

WN: Who are the drivers who are out here today that you find most impressive?

BF: The young kids coming up out of the go-karts really, really impress me. Mike Andrews, Jr., J.R. Bertuccio, John Denniston and Eddie Brunnhoelzl, III. These go kart The Eastern Kart Racing Association that races here at Riverhead Raceway is really starting to be a big feeder system into all of our other divisions. I mentioned just NASCAR Modified drivers, but in our other divisions as well.

These go-karters seem to have almost no fear. The go-karts are light, they throw these karts into corners with reckless abandon and they tend to do the same even when they graduate to the twenty seven hundred and fifty pound Modifieds. To watch a guy like J.R. Bertuccio or Mike Andrews, Jr. going around this racetrack you’d swear you were watching them in a go-kart.

I’d have to say that goes all the way back to even Steven Park back running the Eastern Kart Racing Association that Fred Harbach and Bob Park actually originated. They used to race up in a parking lot up in Melville. They used to call it “Bruno’s Superspeedway”. It was up in the back parking lot of an industrial building on Sunday afternoons. I watched Steven race there.

Mike Coll, who runs a Late Model here at Riverhead and over at Mountain Speedway, he’s actually the point leader at Mountain as well. He impresses me and he had no go-kart background. He’s an impressive little racecar driver. These kids today, they have no fear and we need more and more of those young kids to come into the sport.

WN: Is there a Riverhead regular that could pull off the win in the Tour show next week?

BF: We haven’t had one since 1995. Eddie Brunnhoelzl, Jr. won the Miller Lite 201 back then. He won that in his family owned #8x. The Riverhead Raceway regulars as we sit here today with the Miller Lite 200 coming up next Saturday night that have entered the show so far are Bill Park, J.R. Bertuccio and Howie Brode is entered as well. Brode pretty much a regular here this year.

We all remember Bill Park came close one year to winning the Tour show. He was hanging his car on the outside of Kenny Bouchard, who was in the Boehler #3 they got together and Bill got into the gate off of turn number three and that actually led to Mike Stefanik’s first win here at Riverhead Raceway in the Clint Hanks #37. I’m going to give the nod to Bertuccio solely on the fact that he’s won three races here [this year] at Riverhead. The only thing that makes me hesitate to say that J.R. is that they’re not going to run the same car they run here on Saturday nights here at Riverhead Raceway. They’re going to run the silver car, the Gershow Motorsports entry that they’re shaking down here tonight.

WN: What do you expect from the Tour show?

BF: I’m expecting the usual. The Whelen Modified Tour guys come to Riverhead Raceway with two objectives. One, qualify. You do have some hometown regulars here at Riverhead Raceway that already have like three and a half months under their belt from running this place. Although they’re on a different tire, still they have the laps here. So I think for the Modified Tour regulars coming in here, especially some of the drivers that have never seen this place, like James Civali, just to name one off of the top of my head, Ron Yuhas and guys like that, first of all they have to get as many laps as they can in practice and qualify within the twenty-three that take time.

But what I’m expecting from the race itself after the race to qualify is the typical tire-management issue. Usually the first hundred laps the guys are just trying to hang out. Get to the second hundred laps and then mount an attack if they can.

Looking at the Modified Tour roster now if I had to sit here and say hey who’s going to win that race next week? I’d make it a toss-up between Mike Stefanik and Jerry Marquis because they just both are very; very proficient at saving their tires and making that late-race run to the front. If I had to give out a dark horse, I’d have to give that to Eric Beers. But of course, let’s face it, when you’re talking Riverhead Raceway, Modified Tour event in August, you have to talk Donny Lia. He’s won the last three Modified Tour races in August and that’s why we call him “Mr. August” now. Lia, the hands on favorite, but watch Stefanik, Marquis and perhaps Eric Beers. Those are the guys I’d watch for.

WN: What are the plans for Bob Finan in the future?

BF: Lose weight. Right now I’m on a low carb diet. For the racing future, I’ll probably go out of Riverhead Raceway down the road if I were no longer involved with this facility. That’s not going to happen anytime soon. The Cromartys do not have this facility for sale. What’s going to happen after Riverhead Raceway? I don’t know.

I did all of my traveling back in the days with the Mini-Modifieds that’s why you rarely ever see me at NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour event. I’ve done my days of traveling and had all of that fun. If an offer came my way to maybe to announce at a track in southern Connecticut or New Jersey I would think about it. I’d probably just want to do the announcing, I’m not so sure I’d want to do the writing. I’ll leave that up to guys like you.

Right now I am focused on trying to make Riverhead Raceway be as good as it can be in this day of short track racing which is nothing like it used to be for any of us. Any short track operator in the country will tell you. You’re fighting televised races on Saturday nights.

You’re fighting just an enormous amount of other entertainment events, especially here on Long Island. Remember, Long Island is only a hundred and something miles long and twenty miles wide and there are more movie theatres, nightclubs, the Hamptons, minor league baseball, minor league lacrosse, minor league soccer and so the competition for the entertainment dollar in short track racing across the country is really keen but it’s more so here on the island because of the limited geography of Long Island itself and the amount of other entertainment venues there are.

We’re just trying to make this go and have Modified racing here. Week in, week out we want to thank Sunoco Race Fuels for putting up the “Tiger” Tom Baldwin, Hard Charger Award for our Modifieds weekly. That goes to the driver that improves the most positions from their original starting spot. We thank all of our corporate sponsors, like tonight we have, CAR-QUEST Auto Parts, sponsoring Tom’s race for us tonight, Rich Pallai and the gang. We want to keep things going here and hopefully be here for many, many more years to come. They may have to put in a lift gate to get me up into the press box if I get any older. It’s a great thing to entertain people and to be entertained while you entertain the people. It’s really a unique situation.

WN: You’re recently married?

BF: Recently married to the lovely Lori. She’s an Irish girl like “meself”. We reside over in Bayshore, just off the Sunrise Highway. That’s great.

She’s really understanding of what I do and knows that the commitment of time April through October you’re mot going to see me pretty much on Saturday’s. Although [Lori] is working at the facility this year to help out. We have someone who took ill that Lori is filling in for, for the time being.

WN: So just a son?

BF: Just my son Billy. Lori has a son Joey. Joey actually works here at the Raceway as well, selling chairs off in turn number one. I’ve got the whole family involved. That’s the extent of our family. I have two brothers. Tom, lives down in Ashburn, Virginia. I have a brother Jimmy who lives in Chandler, Arizona and my dad still lives in Brentwood, where I grew up. He’s a retired NYC police officer as I mentioned that earlier.

My son Billy, who had announced with me here at Riverhead for a few years, is now a New York City police officer in the First Precinct. That’s downtown Manhattan, which happens to be ground zero. I’m very proud of what he does. I was very, very happy to actually work with my son, announcing for a couple of seasons, like Lenny and Mike Calinoff had done.

And now I know the special feeling that Lenny must have had. And there’s a name I forgot to mention earlier. When it came along to being a racecar announcer, I can’t thank Len Calinoff enough. Not only was he very smart about what had to be done but he was also very funny. I think I got a little of my humor from Lenny because he taught me not to take myself too seriously. Of course my days with Mike Calinoff, they’re legendary. How the both of us don’t have criminal records or are still alive sometimes is amazing but we did get through it.

WN: Who are some of the other people that you worked with in the announcing booth?

BF: I’ve had the pleasure, especially in my traveling days with the Mini-Modifieds, of working with the late John Janisitis over at Seekonk. I never worked with the late, great, Bill Welch from Stafford but I took a lot of what I heard from Bill and implemented it into what I do. I worked with Dave Sutherland up at Monadnock Speedway, Earl Krause down at Wall Township Speedway last year. The great cast of guys I worked with here at Riverhead Raceway includes my son Billy, Steve “Pumpkinhead” Halpin, Charlie Langlois, Mike Calinoff and Jeff Bressler.

Jeff Bressler is a very talented announcer who works for Motor Trend Radio. He has had his own radio shows. He does some writing for the Area Auto Racing News; he tagged on a couple of notes onto my press release. Jeff’s my most recent partner and hopefully I won’t burn him out too fast so he’ll stick around for a few years. Jeff recently got married as well so we’re both married guys up here having fun broadcasting the races and giving the fans all of the information about their favorite drivers. We’re a part of a Long Island jewel in Riverhead Raceway.

I think the favorite guy that I ever worked with, aside from the guys I worked with on Long Island is Ben Dodge. My favorite times were working the Race of Champions with Ben Dodge up at the Pocono Raceway. We hit it off well.

We traded on and off. We did the two hundred fifty lap races in ten or fifteen lap increments and Ben is just such a professional at every aspect of auto racing. Working with Ben at the RoC really, really those were some special days.

I admire Ben for what he does for the Hoenig family over at Thompson with those Thursday night shows, which are a tough sell to begin with. But to get those shows in and out and have everybody on their way home, [early enough] some of them living close enough can watch the eleven o’clock news. That’s pretty impressive.

It’s just the greatest game in the world. People who haven’t seen a short track race in person they’ve really missed a treat. I’m not saying they have to come every week but you’ve got to see some of them.

When I got done with my interview, Bob rolled right into introducing drivers, sponsors, hometowns and websites. He never stops thinking about balancing his efforts to help the fans, the competitors and his employers. Don’t miss the race this weekend. Bob is probably going to say something that you’ll remember and treasure for a very long time.