ALAN JOHNSON WIN ADVANCE AUTO PARTS SUPER DIRT SERIES RACE AT BREWERTON
BREWERTON, NY......Alan Johnson continued his strong runs with his 358 Modified Wednesday night at Brewerton Speedway, dominating the second half of the 99-lap Advance Auto Parts Super DIRT Series 358 Modified contest to score the victory. In the companion IMCA Modified race, Rob Keller beat Cory Fachini in a photo finish to grab another win.
Tom Sears and Danny O'Brien brought the 31-car starting field down for the green flag to begin the 99-lap feature event, but Danny Johnson catapulted himself from inside the second row to the lead in turn two. Billy Decker, driving KC Goewey's Lebanon Valley ride, also moved into the top three quickly after a strong battle with Mike Perrotte. Alan Johnson started 12th and eased his way into the top ten, waging war with Pete Bicknell and Tom Kinsella as Danny Johnson pulled away out front.
Brett Hearn, Dale Planck, and Tim Fuller were making their moves from mid-pack in the first third of the feature event, but Hearn's car began to show smoke after lap 25 and he began to fade through the field. Up front, Danny and Decker staged a two car breakaway as Bicknell broke free to chase after them with Alan Johnson in tow. Decker used the outside lane to take the lead from Danny on a restart, but the yellow flew an instant later for a multi car pileup in turn four. Involved in the incident were Hearn, Todd Burley, Pierre Dagenais, and many others. Hearn retired his car shortly thereafter with worsening motor problems.
On the restart after the pileup, Decker charged into the lead and pulled a couple of car lengths on Danny Johnson. Bicknell took advantage of the close ranks to move into third, then swept past Danny for the second spot. Alan Johnson also moved in quickly to take over third. As Decker hit lapped traffic, Bicknell quickly ran him down and after a great battle through the lapped cars emerged with the lead. Alan slipped past a couple of laps later as Decker faded back to settle into the third spot.
Just past the halfway point, Alan took his Bicknell chassis past "Mr. Small Block" and moved into the lead. An extended set of green flag laps found the leaders darting in and out of packs of lapped traffic. Alan held the lead, though Bicknell did get very close on several occasions. While the leaders worked traffic, Pat O'Brien, who had been involved in the earlier pileup, and Steve Paine, who had to qualify through a consi, were storming up through the pack and appeared to have the two fastest cars on the speedway.
A late race yellow closed the ranks, but the order up front remained the same, as Alan once again pulled away from Bicknell. The best race on the track was between Paine and Pat O'Brien, who had moved past Danny Johnson and thrilled the fans with some excellent side by side racing, even through traffic. In the closing laps, Alan built up a comfortable lead on Bicknell and cruised home with the victory. Decker, nursing an overheating car, was unchallenged for third, while Paine got the best of his battle with O'Brien, taking a fourth after starting in the 26th position. O'Brien rounded out the top five finishers. 358 Modified heats were won by Todd Stewart, Dale Planck, Decker, and Tom Kinsella, with consi wins going to Bobby Varin and Jimmy Phelps.
The 20-lap IMCA Modified feature started with a couple of quick yellows for minor incidents. Once the field settled in, Rob Keller slipped his way into the lead, with Cory Fachini and Bob Bradt in tow. The second half of the feature saw the trio run side by side and even three wide for the lead on a couple of occasions. With five laps to go, Bradt faded back a bit, leaving Keller and Fachini to settle matters for the feature win. Fachini tried high and low to pass Keller, who held him off at each attempt. On the final lap, Fachini swung high in turn three and cut low under Keller as they roared off turn four. In the drag race to the finish line, Keller was able to hold off Fachini by less than half a car length for a crowd-pleasing win. Bradt came home in the third spot, followed by George Valenti and Dick Weiland. IMCA Modified heats were won by Keller and Jim Rogers.
Coming up Friday night at the "D-Shaped DIRT Demon," the "Fabulous Four" divisions of DIRT Modifieds, IMCA Modifieds, Dwarfs, and 4 Cylinders will be in action along with One On One Spectator Races. Gates will open at 5:30pm with racing starting at 7:30pm.
RACE SUMMARY-WHAT'S YOUR SIGN NIGHT
ADVANCE AUTO PARTS 358 SUPER DIRT SERIES
BREWERTON SPEEDWAY-AUGUST 4TH, 1999
DIRT 358 MODIFIED FEATURE-ALAN JOHNSON, Pete Bicknell, Billy Decker, Steve Paine, Pat O'Brien, Danny O' Brien, Tim Burnett, Danny Johnson, Tim Fuller, Dale Planck, Tom Kinsella, Tim Hindley, Todd Burley, Bobby Varin, Pierre Dagenais, Todd Stewart, Dan Miller, Ryan Baye, Mike Hulsizer, Joel Doiron, Tom Sears, Jerry Higbie, Jay Hopkins, Frank Caparara, Mike Perrotte, Brett Hearn, Jim Phleps, Roger Phelps, Rick Miller, Gus Schmidt, Steve Hulsizer.
IMCA MODIFIED FEATURE-ROB KELLER, Cory Fachini, Bob Bradt, George Valenti, Dick Weiland, Don Alvord, Ron O'Neil, Tim Murphy, Carmen Vona, Ken Rogers, Sean Lias, Les Hubbard, Jeff Cardinale, Bill Anderson Jr., Randy Hall, John Bell, Coleen Finch, John Thayer, Tony Finch, Dane Keller.