Hulsizer, Brewer, Keller & Barker cop Can Am gold
LaFargeville, NY: The Dealmaker Auto Group was the sponsor for Saturday night’s racing action at the Can Am Motorsports Park, and three familiar and one new face raced their way to victory lane as Steve Hulsizer won in DIRT 358’s, Clayton Brewer III won his first ever Sportsman feature at Can Am, Rob Keller put his IMCA across the finish line first and Mark Barker won the Pure Stock feature.
Owner John Wight decided to put the IMCA modifieds out first for their 15 lap main event. There was a caution right away on the initial green that saw point leader Larry Bezner have to take his car to the pits done for the race. Erv Miller grabbed the early lead, but it was Rob Keller and Billy Dunn that were making their way to the front as Dunn charged to second place by lap seven. The halfway point found the lead pack as Miller, Dunn, Richard Townsend, Keller and Chris Taylor all jockeying for position. By the 11th lap, Keller was in second and the next lap saw him wrestle the lead away from Miller enroute to his first win of the 2002 season with Miller a strong section, Dunn third, Taylor fourth and rookie Jon Dumas fifth.
The Sportsman division has seen marked improvement in car counts so far this young season, and this week was no exception as 26 cars took the green flag from starter Steve Rickett. Rob Galloway of Hammond, NY has been one of the most improved drivers so far and Rob took the early lead over Watertown’s Tim VanBrocklin in his Jreck Sub mount with rookie Jack Meeks in third. It was Galloway, VanBrocklin and young Clayton Brewer III putting on a great race for the lead. At the crossed flags, the lead pack was comprised of VanBrocklin, Brewer, Galloway, Lance Willix, track champ Bill Plooy, Matt Butler, Scott MacCue and Andy Howard. Brewer then took the lead on the 15th lap and held off his challengers the remaining five laps to score his first ever Can Am feature win. MacCue, Butler, Mark Webb and Jim Vock making up the top five finishers followed him across the line.
With Dealmaker being the night’s sponsor and the Dealmaker Back To Back Challenge standing at a huge $4500, the pressure was on defending track champion Billy Wilcox of Watertown to see if he could become the first back to back winner and take home $6,000 for 30 laps. Wilcox, by virtue of his win last week, started 19th in the 26 car-starting field. Todd Stewart from Kingston, Ontario sat on the pole and quickly put his 358 out front followed by Mike Ward, Jeff Kotary, rookie Mike Adderley and Ryan Bartlett who just celebrated his 17th birthday. Lap three found the caution flying for Jeff Kotary who was facing the wrong way in turn two, while further on down the track Danny O’Brien was stopped in turn four. Stewart maintained his lead at the halfway point of the feature trailed by a fast closing Steve Hulsizer, Bartlett, Pat Ward, Scott Parliament and Jason Barney. The two Bicknell cars of Stewart and Hulsizer raced together until the 16th lap when Stewart suffered a flat while leading. Hulsizer had the lead and would never look back, although Pat Ward and Jason Barney were now second and third respectively and looking for first. Scott Parliament’s solid top five run came to a disappointing end on the 28th lap when he brought out the last caution. The two-lap shootout saw Hulsizer hold off Ward and Barney, while rookie 358 driver Willy Decker from Vernon, NY had an excellent fourth place finish with Frankie “Flatfoot” Caprara rounding out the top five.
The last feature out was the Pure Stocks. Twenty-one cars competed for their 15-lap feature. Mother Nature was also starting to make herself known with some light showers. Mark Barker of Evans Mills put his 100.7 car out front early with Ed Rogers, Jeff Shannon, Dave Pope, Dave Mannise and Mark Webb making up the lead pack of cars. Barker, however, only had one thing in mind and that was win, and that’s what he did as he held off a charging Dave Mannise for the victory with Rogers, Webb and Pope rounding out the top five.
Thomas Trash Service and Sherwin Williams paints and Peg’s Painting of Gouverneur will sponsor this Saturday night’s racing program. On the card will be the first round of the North-South Big Rig Challenge. The Dealmaker Challenge will go up to $4700 for Steve Hulsizer to shoot for. Gates open at five with racing at seven sharp. There is always plenty of free parking on the grounds. For further information, call the track phone at 315-658-4431, or log onto the track website at www.can-amspeedway.com for all the latest news, weather, points and more.
358 Mods: STEVE HULSIZER, Pat Ward, Jason Barney, Willy Decker, Frankie Caprara, Billy Wilcox, Ryan Bartlett, Lee Gill, Pierre Dagenais, Bill Gill, Mike Ward, Danny O’Brien, Larry Welling, Mike Prentice, George McIntyre, Gus Schmidt, Jeff Kotary, Steve Roberts, Ben Tucker, Kevin Battelle, Todd Stewart, Scott Parliament, Robert Bennett, Mike Adderley, John Ramsey, Roger Phelps.
Sportsman: CLAYTON BREWER, Scott MacCue, Matt Butler, Scott Webb, Jim Vock, Rob Galloway, Adam Moore, Jeff Stevenson, Lance Willix, Andy Howard, Bill Eisele, Kyle Dingwall, Doug Matthews, Jack Meeks, Anthony Fiorentino, Tim VanBrocklin, Mike Amell, Larry Lamb, Steve Rookey, Steve Roberts, Jr., Craig Collier, Jason Potter, Ryan Phelps, Bill Plooy, Jordan Bennett, Mike Teachout.
IMCA Mods: ROB KELLER, Erv Miller, Billy Dunn, Chris Taylor, Jon Dumas, Paul Calhoun, Bill Anderson, Ken Klinkowsky, Brian Copp, Jeff Bannister, Richard Townsend, Don Hilts, Hunter Grimes, John Mason, Rick Duskas, Larry Bezner.
Pure Stocks: MARK BARKER, Dave Mannise, Ed Rogers, Scott Castor, Dana Aikins, Dave Pope, Mark Webb, Mike Cousins, Travis Andrews. Steve Gilmore, Darius Gamel, Don Scales, Rob Simmons, Rick Trexler, Jeff Shannon, Keith Rabetoy, Charles Duffany, George Sanford, Jason Gilmore, Kevin Duffany. DNS: Justin Mason, Shane Ray, and Ken Hamm.