WARD CAPTURES FIRST BREWERTON WIN OF 1999
BREWERTON, NY.....Pat Ward held on with an ill-handling race car through the closing laps of a thrilling DIRT Modified feature event to take his first checkered flag of the year at the "D-Shaped DIRT Demon" on NGK Spark Plugs/Avon Products of Oswego County night. In the IMCA Modifieds, Cory Fachini took his first win of the year and Jim Olin joined the first time in 1999 club in the 4 Cylinders. Tony Buffa was the lone repeat winner in the Dwarf cars.
The start of the 35-lap DIRT Modified feature saw Ward jump into the early lead, but in the second turn of the first lap, a scramble sent Bob McCreadie sideways. He was tagged by Billy Decker and as the yellow flew, McCreadie's return to competition was cut short as he went to the pits. On the restart, Alan Johnson tucked in behind Decker and followed him up through the pack while Tim Fuller was going in the opposite direction, as he faded from the top five after looking strong early.
Decker and Alan Johnson were joined in battle by Danny Johnson as they sped up into the top five by lap 10. Decker settled into the second spot behind Ward and held off Alan until a lap 13 yellow. On the restart, Decker swung to the outside and tried to power past Ward going into turn one. Instead, he jumped the cushion and almost struck the outside retaining wall. Decker gathered his car back in, but pulled high with a problem and stopped in turn three. After a trip to the pits, Decker rejoined the field in the rear and stayed on the lead lap.
On the next restart, Alan Johnson moved onto Ward's back bumper while Tim McCreadie powered past Danny Johnson to take the third spot. Ward at first pulled away from Alan but with ten laps to go, the handle started to go away on his car and Alan closed in to make a serious challenge for the lead. Tim McCreadie's race ended with a mechanical problem on lap 28 and Decker took advantage of the yellow, closing up on the leaders after storming through the field to get back to third spot.
The final laps had the crowd on their feet as Alan tried repeatedly to move around Ward on the outside. Ward held off Alan while at the same time Decker was attempting an inside move. The trio swapped lanes and positions too many times to count in the final laps, but coming off turn two on the final lap, Ward was still holding on with Johnson in second. As they came off turn four, Decker powered around Johnson, but couldn't catch Ward, who won by just one car length. Danny Johnson came home fourth and Tim Fuller's up and down night ended with a fifth place finish. DIRT Modified heats were won by Ray Bliss, Tim McCreadie, and Fuller.
The 20-lap IMCA Modified feature event began with Don Alvord jumping into the lead with Dick Weiland making a move on Bill Klinkowsky to grab second on lap 3. As Alvord and Weiland battled for the lead, Rob Keller and Sean Lias were dealing with heavy traffic in the pack as they tried to move into contention. Cory Fachini and Carmen Vona had moved into the top five by lap 8 as well.
Fachini got into second at the halfway point and hounded the race leader for two laps until Weiland returned the favor. Fachini repassed Weiland one lap later and parked on Alvord's rear bumper waiting for the chance to make a move. The opportunity came when Alvord drifted high on lap 17 and Fachini streaked into the lead. A mad scramble on the last lap saw Weiland lose several spots, as did Rob Keller, who was running in third at the start of the final lap.
As the checkers flew, Fachini had his first win of the year, with Alvord having his best finish of the year with a second. Lias made it into third in the last lap scramble, followed by Vona and Klinkowsky. IMCA Modified heats were won by Les Hubbard, Tim Murphy, and Rob Keller.
The 20-lap Dwarf car feature ran clean and green for the first 18 laps, and while some spirited racing was going on deep in the pack, Tony Buffa made short work of getting the lead, moving onto the point on lap 2. As Buffa stretched out his advantage and sliced through lapped traffic, Dan Boyce and Troy Van Allen hooked up in battle with Ken Gamlen and Eric Crawford. This quartet thrilled the fans as they made many three and four wide passes as they chased after Buffa.
After the lap 18 yellow, one more caution flag flew, setting the stage for a last lap shootout. Nobody could touch Buffa, who notched another win and added to his points lead. Dan Boyce, Crawford, Gamlen, and Van Allen followed Buffa across the line. Dwarf car heats were won by Gamlen, Buffa, and David Orr, with Mark Weigelt capturing the B-Main.
The 4 Cylinder feature followed a similar pattern to the Dwarf cars as Jim Olin stole the lead from Roger West two laps in and held a consistent margin over West through the middle stages of the race. When the yellow finally flew for the first time, there were only two laps left. Unfortunately for Harvey Calkins, 4 Cylinder point leader, he was involved in the crash that brought out the caution. On the restart, Olin held the lead, but the race stopped short of the checker when Brian Evenden took a wild flipping ride through the first turn.
Olin held on in the one lap dash to the flag for his first 4 Cylinder win of the year. Roger West held onto the runner-up spot, followed by Jim Lalone, Doug Battles, and Mark Warner. 4 Cylinder heats were won by Roger Olchewske, Olin, and Calkins.
The Supermodified Stars on DIRT event saw Greg Furlong take the win after a race long battle with "Mr. X" aboard Tony Buffa's car....who turned out to be DIRT Modified racer Dale Planck!
Next Friday night is a busy night at Brewerton. It's another Family Autograph Night with a special added attraction as Sky Lungston will thrill the fans with his exciting and dangerous motorcycle jumps and Crunchman, the official mascot of the AHL's Syracuse Crunch will be on hand to entertain one and all. Gates will open at 5:30pm with racing starting at 7:30pm.
RACE SUMMARY-NGK SPARK PLUG/AVON PRODUCTS OF OSWEGO COUNTY NIGHT
BREWERTON SPEEDWAY-JULY 16, 1999
DIRT MODIFIED FEATURE-PAT WARD, Billy Decker, Alan Johnson, Danny Johnson, Tim Fuller, Jim Phelps, Jim Gabriel, Roger Phelps (SB), Jeremie Corcoran, Chuck Hebing, Tim McCreadie, Dale Planck, Ray Bliss, Scot Prentice, Steve Hulszier (SB), Ryan Baye (SB), Mike Hulszier, Bob Melone, Bob McCreadie, Tim Vincent (SB).
IMCA MODIFIED FEATURE-CORY FACHINI, Don Alvord, Sean Lias, Carmen Vona, Dick Weiland, John Bell, Dane Keller, Les Hubbard, Bill Anderson, Rob Keller, George Valenti, Doug McKane, Ken Rogers, Bill Anderson Jr., Coleen Finch, Bob Bradt, Tim Murphy, Tony Finch, Jim Evans, Pat Hobbs, Jeff Cardinale, Ron O'Neil.
DWARF CAR FEATURE-TONY BUFFA, Dan Boyce, Eric Crawford, Ken Gamlen, Troy Van Allen, David Orr, Pat Pontello, Barry Virts, Ed Lawton, Darren Forbes, Frank Doll, Scott Nash, Jay Reid, Mark Weigelt, Bob Munger, Kevin Doll, Kevin DonHauser, RJ Grimshaw, Nate Phelps, Dave Lamphere, Bob McCarthy, Gary Sampo, Brenda Rice, Brandon Phelps.
4 CYLINDER FEATURE-JIM OLIN, Roger West, Jim Lalone, Doug Battles, Mark Warner, Darik VanEpps, Tim Koch, Brett Hubbard, Roger Olchewske, Chris Bargabus, Lloyd Hinton, Brian Evenden, Pat Fay, John West, Mike Humphrey, Harvey Calkins, Jason Amidon, Joe Bribre, Jon Amidon, Walt VanEpps, Rob Whipple, Bob Whipple, Channie Joyner.