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Mark
Corbisiero Street Stock Memorial Coming Soon to Mountain Speedway
By:
Gene Ostrowski
September 5, 2008
Along with $777 to win, lap money and with double points on the line,
the 6th annual Cook’s Touch Restaurant 77-lap Mark Corbisiero
street stock memorial event is set to rock Mountain Speedway on Sunday,
September 14.
Looking back to 2003, Mark Corbisiero, a well known Mountain Speedway
street stock racer, knew that his time was near. It’s no doubt that man
of us, practically all of us tend to sit back at times and take things
for granted, without giving much though, or paying attention to life
itself. However, Mark did and at least publicly, he made it look easy.
Strong people such as Mark focus toward their passions and people that
they love. They do their best to hang on. Along the way they struggle,
yet continue to give back everything they can before their final
departure. Many of us have been honored to know such a person as the
late Mark Corbisiero, or at least crossed his path.
After a few
years of enduro racing, and after a four-year hiatus in regular
“Saturday night racing”, Mark’s racing addiction came to a close when he
lost his battle with cancer in 2003. He was only twenty-six years old.
Fighting the disease wasn’t exactly easy for Mark, but his family,
friends and practically everyone who knew him felt his passion for the
sport of racing. More so, the response from the people who had loved him
was incredible.
Corbisiero started racing in the factory stock division at the speedway
in 2001. Along with his childhood friend and teammate, Shaun Burd and
also with Dave Cook, who owned the business that sponsored them at the
time (The Cook’s Touch Restaurant), the duo put together some very
competitive race machines. On September 16th of that season,
Mark won his first ever feature event. His teammate (Burd) was right
behind in second. Mark finished off his rookie season with 11 top 5’s
and 14 top 10’s in 15 starts. He was awarded the fourth place points
trophy at the season ending banquet.
With already enough experience, Corbisiero jumped into the #77 numbered
Monte Carlo street stock for the following season. With high hopes of
consistency, the team struggled a bit, but still managed to garner some
worthwhile finishes. One finish worth mentioning is when Mark pulled off
a feature win during that rookie season. After all, it was a true
accomplishment, since he was driving in what’s often called the track’s
most competitive division. He rounded out the year with an eighth place
finish in the overall point standings.
Since his car wasn’t completely ready for the start of the 2003 season,
Mark jumped behind the wheel of Mike Odwazny’s #51 for the first few
shows. “Even though he was sick, he (Mark) wanted to run for points that
season, except his car was still at Speedboys Fabrication and it
wouldn’t have been done in time.” said Odwazny. “So he asked if I’d be
willing to let him drive my factory stock car with the street stocks. I
said sure”, he noted. After a few weeks, Mark made his debut with the
freshly painted blue #77 eye catcher. May 17th was a huge
night for the Cook’s Touch team, as Corbisiero grabbed the street stock
feature and Burd notched the factory stock main event. The win was the
last of Corbisiero’s career. Because of his illness, Mark was unable to
compete for the entire season. However, he still accumulated enough
points to end the season by finishing 10th in the overall
standings.
Up until his passing in September of 2003, Mark garnered very impressive
stats in his four years of racing at Mountain. Out of 66 starts, he
accumulated 5 feature wins, 33 top 5’s and 51 top 10 finishes in feature
races. He also visited victory lane 12 times after winning heat races.
Following his death, Mark’s sponsor, family and friends wasted no time
putting together an annual memorial to honor their true hero in racing.
Late in the 2003 season, former Wall Stadium street stock driver, Wall
Speedway’s Bobby Geiger took the inaugural win in the 77-lap event.
Mountain regular, “Bullet” Bob Ankner found victory lane after post race
inspection the following season and in 2005 “The Wallbanger”, Shaun Burd
grabbed the victory with only a handful of laps remaining, while
piloting Corbisiero’s familiar #77 to the stripe. Without a dry eye in
victory lane, Burd said “He’s watching over us. “This one’s for my
buddy”.
Mark would be proud of the turnout at the huge event, as was “Stormin”
Norman Barnes after capturing the checkered in the 2006. “Mr. August”,
Richie DiMarco, found victory lane last season and is hoping for a
repeat victory in 2008.
Despite the pressures that these street stock drivers will face on the
track, they will forever remain a part of what a part of Mark Corbisiero
enjoyed during his journey on Earth- street stock racing at Mountain
Speedway.
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