Can Am Motorsports Park results for Aug. 11th

For immediate release

It was a mixture of new faces and familiar faces Saturday night at Can Am Motorsports Park as Billy Wilcox won the 358 feature, Matt Butler won his first of the 01 racing season in Sportsman, 17 year-old Mike Adderly won his first IMCA feature ever, and veteran Dave Mannise won again on Waite Toyota, Appledale Farmers Market and Real Rock 100.7 night.

Twenty-three Sportsman answered the green flag of Starter Steve Rickett, and Andy Howard put his car out front early with Kyle Wilson and Dave Surace in hot pursuit with Matt Butler hovering in fourth place and taking to the high groove on the wide, smooth track. Young Wilson was applying pressure to Howard as the two put some distance between them and the rest of the pack, but with Butler taking the high ground he was making up distance steadily. At the halfway flags, the running order was Howard, Wilson, Surace, Butler, Scott Webb, Lance Willix, Ryan Phelps, Bill Plooy and Scott MacCue. On the 14th lap, Butler made his move around the high side of Howard and cruised to his first win of the 2001-racing season. Following Butler across the line was Howard with Wilson third, Plooy fourth and Willix rounding out the top five.

Next up was the DIRT 358 mod squad. Dale Eggleston and Boomer McIntyre lead the field to the green flag. Steve Hulsizer was trying to become the first Dealmaker Auto Group Back To Back Challenge winner of the season, which would mean a bonus of $3100 for Steve if he could win. His job was made harder by having to come from the 14th spot in the starting field. This was another great race with young Racin Jason Barney putting his Teo Pro Car out front early with a mighty multi-car battle for second as McIntyre, Frankie “Flatfoot” Caprara, Bill Gill, Ryan Bartlett, Eggleston and point leader Billy Wilcox all looking for second place. By the 7th lap, Wilcox, who started 10th, had also taking to the top groove and made his way to second place. The caution came out on the same lap for an accident between Lans Petzoldt and Roger Phelps at the beginning of the homestretch. Although both drivers were okay, both made this way to the pits on the back of a wrecker. When the race resumed, it only took two more laps for Wilcox to take the lead from Barney. Two more cautions for Ryan Bartlett hitting a track tire in turn two and the Hometown Hammer, Lee Gill, getting into the front stretch wall slowed the race. Although second place driver Bill Gill, also in a Teo, was a couple tenths quicker than Wilcox, the Watertown veteran, looking for his first 358 track title, was able to fend off Gill’s challenge enroute to his second win of the year. Gill seemingly has worked out most of the bugs that plagued him earlier in the season came across the line with a solid second place finish. Rounding out the top five were Barney, in another top five finish, last week’s winner Hulsizer who made his way all the way to fourth, and Gus Schmidt.

With only a couple more point races, Wilcox padded his point lead with the win over Danny O’Brien by an unofficial 56 points.

The always popular and hard racing Pure Stocks came out next, 26 strong of them. Ricky the Rocket Paige held the early lead in his #13. The race was red flagged early when Carl Robbins flipped his car in the second turn. Carl was okay, but the car was done for the night. Paige continued to lead and at the halfway point he was out front followed by the ever steady Mark Barker, Kevin Chant, Dave Mannise and Dave Pope. It took a little longer this week for Mannise to claim the lead, but he did on lap 11 and the fat lady was heard practicing in the ladies room. Ricky the Rocket tried valiantly to overtake the 11 time winner, but it was not to be as Mannise went on to claim his 12th win of the year with Paige second, Barker third, Pope fourth and Chant fifth.

The last race of the night was the IMCA mod feature. Only 13 cars were able to answer the green, and Rob Keller held down the early lead with young Mike Adderly, looking for his first win ever, in hot pursuit along with Jake Rabetoy and Billy Dunn lurking just behind the leaders. The late stages of the race turned into a barn burner between two go kart drivers, Adderly and Dunn, and it was Mike Adderly getting under the checkers first ahead of Dunn, Rob Keller, Larry Bezner and Brian Copp.

Racing this Saturday evening will be sponsored by Stadium International of Binghamton, Syracuse and Watertown. Any fan with a valid CDL license will be admitted to the grandstand at half price. It will also be the last qualifier for the season-ending Battle at the Border, also sponsored by Stadium International. Racing starts at seven p.m. sharp. For further information, the track phone is 315-658-4431.