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By Jeff Paterson
John Salvatore, Jr.: Making the Big Jump
The 2008 season will be a big one for John Salvatore, Jr., second generation wheelman from Martinsville, NJ. 2007 saw Salvatore, Jr. win his first sportsman feature at New Egypt Speedway in the family owned Teo mount with Tony Feil power. Following hot on Salvatore’s heels were some of the best in the business (Willie Osmun, Gary Butler, etc), sportsman drivers with many wins under their belts and 10 + years of experience in the high powered small block race cars. But at the end of the season John’s father and former East Windsor Speedway, Orange County and New Egypt Speedway racer purchased a Tony Feil prepared big block from Pat Wall for his son. Over the winter the team assembled the brand new 2006 Teo low rack and are set to go racing.
“I’m looking forward to racing with guys I grew up idolizing and am hoping we can qualify most nights and get some respective finishes. We know it’s going to be tough, racing against guys like Billy Pauch, Frank Cozze, Keith Hoffman, Jimmy Horton and the rest of the modified guys at New Egypt is no joke. Some of these guys have been racing since before I was born. If I can get their respect, qualify and snag some top ten finishes we’ll be real happy. We just want to settle in and just get better each week” says a clearly ecstatic but calm Salvatore, Jr.
Helping Salvatore Racing put the car on the track in 2008 are a wealth of sponsors. Neary Excavating, Jer-Car Disposal, Salvatore Automotive, Quality Sheet Metal and Welding, Awesome Flooring, S&M Carpet, D&B Auto Parts, Supreme Lithograph, Bridgewater Motorworks, D&D Renovations and TJ Kline. “Without the help of all of these great sponsors along with my crew there’s no way we could do this week in and week out. Racing is so expensive and the economy isn’t helping our business or many of our sponsor’s businesses so we really appreciate what everyone is doing to help us out”.
As for the car, as mentioned above, Salvatore will have a brand new 2006 Teo Low Rack car with zero laps on it with Tony Feil power under the hood and some sharp graphics, and a new color scheme, courtesy of Jay Dugan and his Radical Design Group. “If we’re half as fast as this car looks I think we’ll be alright” jokes the 23 year old racer. “We won’t be short on power and this car was actually built for Frank Cozze by Bobby Hearn and his team. Frank ended up not buying the car and Bobby gave us a fair price on it so we picked it up back in late 2006 and just never put it together until now. We’ll have some extra gear and a seond car ready to go, too”.
John’s season will see him running weekly at New Egypt Speedway as well as all of the events at Bridgeport for the combined series New Egypt and Bridgeport have put together. And depending on time, money and how the season is going, they may hit a few specials. “I’m just looking forward to getting back out there and seeing what we can do against the best in the business”, Salvatore states. If you’d like more information on becoming a part of the Salvatore Racing 10s team as a crew member, marketing partner or for press/media purposes please call John Salvatore, Jr. at 908-642-7601 |
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