Gill in Photo finish, MacCue, Bezner & Mannise at Can Am

LAFARGEVILLE, NY: What a finish! In a photo finish of the DIRT 358 modified feature Saturday night at Can Am Motorsports Park, the Hometown Hammer, Lee Gill, won by the narrowest of margins over Billy Wilcox of Watertown. The margin of victory was a razor thin .020 of a second. Also seeing victory lane Saturday night were Scott MacCue in Sportsman, the wily veteran Larry Bezner in IMCA and the unstoppable Dave Mannise in Pure Stocks claiming two feature wins and making it 11 in a row for the Fulton, NY driver.

With track conditions back to a wide three-groove track, the 358’s put on an excellent race as Steve Hulsizer, penalized last week and not disqualified, took the early lead over Racin Jason Barney and Frankie Caprara. The 50 WWTI Teo Pro Car of Bill Gill was the car on the move early, along with cousin Lee Gill. Billy Wilcox had also worked his way into second place by the seventh lap and making it known he was going to be a contender the whole race. The race was slowed on the 11th lap when Caprara slowed and headed for the pits, made a quick stop and fell end at the end of the field. With Steve Rickett throwing the green again, Hulsizer resumed the lead only to lose the lead on the 14th lap to Wilcox. At the halfway mark, the lead pack was Wilcox, Hulsizer, Bill Gill, Lee Gill, Barney, Gus Schmidt, Danny O’Brien, Ryan Bartlett, Caprara and Scott Parliament. Hulsizer then suffered a huge disappointment on the 17th lap when he found himself facing the wrong direction in turn one putting the 88 to the rear. On the following lap, there was a multi-car accident in turn four with Caprara, Bartlett, Ben Tucker and George Horning. The past couple weeks of struggling for Caprara saw the FX1 taken to the pits done for the night. When racing resumed, Lee Gill was making his move and claimed second place. In the meantime, in the closing laps of the race Billy Wilcox encountered a slower car that he encountered difficulty in passing letting Gill edge closer and closer. With Wilcox taking the white flag for the final lap, Gill made his move in turn four and the two drag raced down the front stretch with Gill just edging out Wilcox in a photo finish with Bill Gill in third, Gus Schmidt with a strong fourth place finish and the Pocket Rocket in fifth. In victory lane, Gill exclaimed, “This track was awesome. It was three lanes wide. I love it like this.”

In the Sportsman feature, 22 cars took the green flag and Scott MacCue of Castorland took charge of the race at the beginning and never looked back. The battle was basically for second on back. Rookie Sportsman Jeff Stevenson of Watertown continues to make impressive runs of late and was in the top three early on. Andrew Howard had a good run go sour when he made contact with a slower car while running second putting him in the pits on the 7th lap. MacCue continued to lead while Stevenson in second was trying to hold off Anthony Fiorentino, Ryan Phelps and Bill Plooy with Jessica Zemken also making her presence known. But the race belonged to MacCue as he claimed his second win of the season. Trailing MacCue across the line was Stevenson with a great run, Fiorentino, Phelps and Plooy. The 20 -lap race was run in 15 minutes and 27 seconds.

The Pure Stocks ran two features this night. The first feature was the postponed feature of last week that had two laps completed before stopping the race. Twenty-three cars started this race, and as usual the question was what lap would Dave Mannise take the lead. This race it took seven laps, and when he got the crossed flags from starter Steve Rickett it was Mannise followed by Scott Castor, Henry Chant, Charles Duffany and Bill Gardner, Jr. Mannise was not to be denied once again as he won his 10th feature in a row with Chant in second, Charles Duffany third, Scott Castor fourth and Joe Combs fifth.

In their regularly scheduled feature, Mark Barker from Evans Mills grabbed the early lead over Phil Desormeau, Gardner, Jr. and Don Scales. Scott Webb had worked his way to the front and held the lead at the halfway point over Scales, Barker, Gardner, Jr. and Mannise. This race took Mannise until the 10th lap to take the lead away from Webb. The white flag came out and on the last corner there was an accident, which found Bill Gardner, Jr., get upside down. The race was checkered and yellow flagged with Mannise winning his 11th in a row with Scott Webb in second, Barker third, Carl Robbins fourth and Desormeau fifth.

Last out came the IMCA mods. Paul Calhoun has really been having some strong runs of late and took command early of the race and lead up to the halfway point with Larry Bezner, Billy Dunn, Erv Miller and Kevin Battelle in pursuit. The veteran Bezner proved too much for Calhoun and he went on to claim his fourth win in a row and fifth on the season with Erv Miller in second, Dunn in third, Calhoun in fourth and Kevin Battelle just nosing out Brian Copp for fifth.

Racing resumes next Saturday night at seven p.m. with sponsorship from radio station Z93 and Jefferson Concrete. The four divisions will all see action and the evening will be capped off by a demolition derby. Can Am Motorsports Park is only four miles from Interstate 81 at Exit 49. Take Route 411 four miles west and you can’t miss it. For further information, the track phone is 315-658-4431, or log onto the track website at www.can-amspeedway.com Hope to see you Saturday night.

Notes: 21 mods, 23 Sportsman, 18 IMCA and 30 Pure Stocks in action. Former track champion and former Mr. DIRT 358 Tony Corcoran made his return to Can Am in Pat O’Brien’s car. Tony had not raced on dirt since 1985. In 1983, Tony won 12 features in a row at Can Am. Bob Bennett and Roger Phelps still on the mend. We wish them well.