WARD AND BUTLER CLAIM TRACK CROWNS AT CAN AM
It was another beautiful night for racing at the Can Am Motorsports Park on F. X. Caprara Car Companies and Syracuse Supply night. Pat Ward and Matt Butler are the 2002 DIRT 358 and Sportsman track champions as their points came to a close.
Pat Ward of Genoa, NY has been a long-time veteran of stockcar racing. With car owner John Wight also the owner at Can Am, this was his first season of racing at the LaFargeville half-mile and he promptly goes out and wins the track championship in the process. In the 30-lap feature run Saturday night, Ward was in a position to win $2100 in the Dealmaker Auto Back To Back Challenge. As Steve Rickett waved the green flag on the twenty-three-car field, it was rookie driver Mike Adderley taking command of the race early on, but it was in fact the Dealmaker Auto Group Teo of Bill Gill who was making his way to the front looking to win his first feature of the season. It was on lap 12 that Gill made his move to overtake Adderley and take the lead of the race. Three laps later at the halfway point; the lead pack was Gill, Adderley, Frankie “Flatfoot” Caprara, Ward, Lee Gill, Roger Phelps, Scott Parliament and Larry Welling. One lap later, Caprara passed Adderley for second spot and set his sights on Gill. A lap 20 caution for a slowing Todd Stewart bunched the pack up again. At lap 25, the top five was Gill, Caprara, Ward, Lee Gill and Adderley. The suspense then happened on the 27th lap when Gill’s car started smoking. Could he hold on with a smoking car for three laps? The answer was yes, but it was a costly victory as the engine was damaged but Gill still was able to get his win with Caprara in second, Lee Gill moving to third followed by Ward and Adderley.
The Sportsman race was ugly. In the first eight-laps of the 20 lap feature, there were five yellow flags and one red flag as the 26 car field was having serious trouble completing laps. Cars were spinning. Scott MacCue lost a wheel. There were accidents, the most serious of which took place on lap 8 when Tim Van Brocklin flipped his car in turn four. Tim has not had much luck the past two weeks. Last week he had trouble in turn four and got into a battle with the Jersey barrier. Anyway, the red flag brought the race to a half while the track crews cleaned up the accident scene. When racing got the green again, there was a battle up front between point leader Matt Butler and second place point getter Andy Howard. Howard took the lead on the 9th lap and with a couple more cautions thrown in for good measure, he withstood the pack once again to score his second win in a row with Anthony Fiorentino having a strong late season coming home second with Clayton Brewer III having another top five run, Matt Butler with a fourth place finish good enough to win the track crown and Jim Vock rounding out the top five.
The IMCA feature saw 17 cars start the race, and no sooner had Steve Rickett waved the green there were problems once again in turn four as Jake Rabetoy, back racing after a few weeks off, wound up on his roof. Also involved were Erv Miller and Larry Bezner. When the green was waived once again, it was Bobby Thurston, Jr. taking the lead and control of the race. It was Thurston, Jon Dumas, Jeff Bannister, Rick Dusckas, Paul Calhoun, Ken Klinkowsky and Chris Taylor making up the race leaders. The caution lights came on in the 14th lap when Rick Reed’s car had engine woes. A yellow was something Thurston did not want. On the restart, third place car Jeff Bannister tried to take Thurston on the inside of turn one. Contact was made and Thurston spun out and wound up taking a ride to the pits on a hook. Bannister was black flagged by Rickett for rough riding and there was a one-lap shoot out for the finish. It was a finish Chris Taylor won’t forget as he was able to hold off multi-time winner Paul Calhoun for his first ever IMCA win at Can Am over Calhoun with Dumas, Bezner and Brian Copp rounding out the top five.
The last feature saw 20 Pure Stocks come out for their 15-lap feature event. The race turned into a six-car race for the lead between Scott Castor, Don Scales, Kevin Chant, Brian Holder, Dave Mannise and George Sanford. Chant was the leader at the halfway point over Castor and Mannise, and on the last lap Chant was feeling the pressure of Dave Mannise as they raced side by side down the backstretch into turns three and four. There was contact in turn four and Chant wound up on the losing end as Mannise went on to score the win over Holder, Castor, and Scales with Joe Combs in fifth.
358 Mods: BILL GILL, Frankie Caprara, Lee Gill, Pat Ward, Mike Adderley, Roger Phelps, Scott Parliament, Larry Welling, Billy Wilcox, Jason Barney, Danny O’Brien, Gus Schmidt, Ray Zemken, Dale Eggleston, Jeff Kotary, Wayne Side, Dave Orr, Dave Surace, Rick Kroll, Todd Stewart, Heath Carney, Steve Bilow, Bob Bennett
Sportsman: ANDY HOWARD, Anthony Fiorentino, Clayton Brewer III, Matt Butler, Jim Vock, Jack Meeks, Jason Potter, Jessica Zemken, Adam Moore, Jeff Stevenson, Bill Eisele, Paul Benz, Larry Lamb, Jordan Bennett, Brian Cannizzo, Terry Knobloch, Rick McCready, Todd VanTassel, Rick Paige, Lance Willix, Ryan Phelps, Steve Roberts, Tim Van Brocklin, Scott MacCue, Peter Schroy, Rob Galloway
IMCA: CHRIS TAYLOR, Paul Calhoun, Jon Dumas, Larry Bezner, Brian Copp, Billy Dunn, Ken Klinkowsky, Lance LaLonde, Bob Thurston, Jr., Hunter Grimes, Jeff Bannister, Rick Reed, Dan Hilts, Bentley Aiken, Jake Rabetoy, Erv Miller, Jeff Shannon, Neal Edgar
Pure Stocks: DAVE MANNISE, Brian Holder, Scott Castor, Don Scales, Joe Combs, George Sanford, Travis Andrews, Bill Gardner, Kevin Chant, Dale Snyder, Dave Pope, Pete Cross, Carl Robbins, Rob Simmons, Phil Desormeau, Mark Barker, Charles Duffany, Mike Cousins, Kevin Duffany, Lyle Murphy, Dana Aikins DNS: Justin Mason Ken Hamm