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PETE BICKNELL WINS FAST-TRACK MERRITTVILLE DOUBLE HEADER



(By Bruce Bonham)





PETE BICKNELL

(All photos courtesy of Monique's Photography Photos)





THOROLD, ON — Pete Bicknell found himself in Merrittville Speedway’s Victory Lane twice Saturday, proving that the master of Thorold’s D-shaped surface is in top form after a subdued 2003 season as co-track owner.

With an eye on the weather the entire gloomy day, the ambitious card contained a pair of L. St. Amand Enterprises 358 modified 35 lappers — the first left over from opening night rain delay two weeks ago.






With Bicknell on the pole for the added mod main, the legendary 16-time track champ darted into the lead, while a mess developed behind when several speeders didn’t make it to the second turn on the opening lap.

The harsh metal-bending began when defending 358 champ Larry Lampman, starting on the outside pole, got out of shape, setting up a scramble involving Rob Pietz, Pete Cosco, Scott Wood, Richie Vinson, Brian Stevens and Ricky Richner. The next crack at starter Barry Davidson’s green flag also required the yellow-light switch turned on when Paul Ashton and Richner faced the wrong way at Turn 2. With short bursts of racing until the yellows ended, the checkered flag finally flew for Bicknell.

Fred Carleton managed to avoid most of the chaos and worked his way to second before getting together with Randy Chrysler (here because of Canandaigua’s rain out) and dropping the Thorold charger to fifth. Todd Gordon moved up the chain to second, while Richie Vinson crossed the line third.

Brian Stevens, making frantic repairs from the opening-lap mix-up narrowly missed hitting the pace truck when returning to the speedway and the pack took the green. Taking evasive action, he slammed the tire barrier, causing more damage.

In the second mod headliner, Scott Wood made a brilliant blast at the start, jumping the Turn 1 and 2 outside cushion to launch into the lead. Wood, winner of four features last season, held the point until Bicknell’s customary slide job coming out of the final turn on Lap 28, sealed the deal for the boss and making the night a double-whammy.

“After the weather we had with day-long drizzle, this had been a great night for us. We thought we were going to call the race about 3 p.m. this afternoon, but everyone did a great job getting us ready,” said Bicknell in his second trip to The Lane before almost 2,500 fans, and realizing that surrounding tracks at Canandaigua, Batavia and Holland Speedways were washed out.

“The track was very fast and smooth, and although we had a few glitches tonight, we’re happy to be racing again.”

Richner had a splendid run, catching the leader by the eighth round, dropping back to third briefly before getting by Wood to re-take second. Carleton continued his tear holding off Chrysler for fourth. Despite Stevens’ earlier troubles, the two-time championship veteran, starting last, was fast enough to take sixth.







Martin Polhill squirted into the lead of the25-lap Original Pizza Logs Sportsman clash with Billy Willard’s No. 77 in hot pursuit. Willard, who hit the Turn 4 wall hard two weeks ago, hounded the leader and seized the opportunity made when the leader tapped the Turn 4 guard rail on Lap 14. That left a bit of room for Willard and hard-charger Adam Ferri, who fought to the front from the 11th starting position, to get by.

A Lap 20 restart for Kevin Sharpe’s spinning car in Turn 2, set up a five-lap shootout among the top three, but Willard held the point. With two circuits remaining, Willard made another clean restart to convincingly win his first feature of the season.

“I knew how close Adam was to me, saw his nose a few times,” said Willard who celebrated his victory with crew and several Willard clan, including his stroke-recovering father Allan. “The track was very fast tonight and we didn’t make any mistakes.”

Billy Bliech drove a steady race to finish third with Bobby Davidson, a two-time winner last season, speeding to fourth.





When the green flag fell for the 24-car flock of Hoosier Stockers, racers were everywhere when the pack entered Turn 1 ... aback of leaders Rick Champigny and Kevin Kocarik. Despite strong challenges from Kocarik in a thrilling nose-to-tail battle, Champigny led the distance. Peter Reid, who came from 18th netted the second spot off the Lap 11 restart. Greg Ayres took fourth, while Rob Knapp, up to stocks from Dwarf Cars last season, took third after the 15-lap war.







Defending Seneca Niagara Casino Dwarf Car champ Scott Billing roared into the lead of the little car 15-lap main event, passing sophomore runner Justin Sharp. Meanwhile Billing’s cousin Wally, champ in ‘02, quickly came to the front, passing several cars on the outside of the opening lap, and settled for second. Heat winner Wayne Robins repeated his opening night third place while Sharp ended up fourth.







Rob Goulding and Trevor Goulding led the 14-car, 15-lap four cylinder skirmish from beginning to end. Mike Giberson and Larry Erskine filed in behind the leaders.





In the opening, four-race Ladies Race for the Cup series, Christine Porter peeled off the at the start and never looked back. The Candy Man lady, ‘03 champ Charlene Dooley, trying to catch the winner, heavy-footed her 310c through Turn two and spun, leaving the position for Karen Kocarik.

Jessie Fair was the lone surviver of the field of 17 big car demos.



Tail Pipes: For the second race night, the Merrittville Speedway infield flag flew at half-staff for former starter Bobby MacPherson who passed away May 4 ... With day-long moisture, pits were inaccessible and closed for a half hour while crews scrambled to level the mud ...







Veteran mod racer Paul Ashton came prepared and sprinkled his pit area with straw ... Meanwhile getting the saturated track in shape, after Bryant Irvine and crew dumped 10,000 gallons of water Friday further delayed post time by a half hour.







Sportsman 1998 champ Tammy Willard got the call early last week to race the No 84 crate-engine mount ... Willard, who joked she was taking a step down from last year’s Bicknell modified test ride, proved she hasn’t lost her abilities by finishing an impressive sixth. The historic number, 777 of former great Terry Edwards, was on track Saturday, driven by karter Tyler McPherson, son of former driver and now Turn 4 corner flagman Guy. Running a solid race in the Hoosier Stock owned by former racer Mike Granton, he locking up with Travis Braun, and was scored 18th ... Veteran racer Don Turner waved the green flag to start the first mod main to commemorating the end of his illustrious 40-plus year career driving the Blue Streak. Next weekend’s Victoria Day double header has CAA member appreciation night and the first spectator one-on-one race set for Saturday ... Holiday Monday, the DIRT Sportsman Tour fires off a 50 lapper, plus a 10-lap dash-for-cash BRB Can-Am Super Stocks prelude to their July 1 tour event ... 2001 Merrittville pro stock champ Darren Kish made a few hot laps to show fans the class.

RESULTS:

St. Amand Modified #1 (35 laps): PETE BICKNELL, Todd Gordon, Richie Vinson, Robbie Krull, Fred Carleton, Randy Chrysler, Rick Richner, Gary Kruchka, Pete Cosco, Paul Ashton, Rob Pietz, Scott Wood, Kenny Winfield, Dwayne Winfield, Larry Lampman, Jamie Turner, Don Spatarico, Tim Murdock, Corey Gruhl, Tim Jones, Brian Stevens

St. Amand Modified #2 (35 laps): PETE BICKNELL, Rick Richner, Scott Wood, Fred Carleton, Randy Chrysler, Brian Stevens, Larry Lampman, Rob Pietz, Robbie Krull, Richie Vinson, Pete Cosco, Todd Gordon, Tim Jones, Paul Ashton, Gary Kruchka, Brad Gravestock, Corey Gruhl, Don Spatarico, Kenny Winfield,, Sam Crogan.

Sportsman (25 laps): BILLY WILLARD, Adam Ferri, Martin Polhill, Billy Bleach, Bobby Davidson, Tammy Willard, Boyd MacTavish, Dennis Giangola, Chad Chevalier, Derek Lemyre, Jim Ruston, Darrell Ebersole, Greg Panunte, Wayne Conn, Scott George, Mike Kruchka, Dave Flannigan, Mike Ward, Don Spiece, Kevin Sharpe, Rick St. Pierre.

Heats: 1. Don Spiece 2. Martin Polhill 3. Bobby Davidson

Hoosier Street Stocks (15 laps): RICK CHAMPIGNY, Peter Reid, Kevin Kocarik, Rob Knapp, Mike Dooley, Greg Ayres, Rob Murray, John Johnson, Dave Dykstra, Russ Davidson, Kirk Wilson, Ron Kingsbury, Ed Fargnoli, Terry Larmet, Brad Sheehan, Danielle Landry, J.P. Gosselin, Tyler McPherson, Dave Stolzenberg, Travis Braun, Carl Saunders, Graham Mackey, Paul Morin, Chris Schneider, Rick Beales.

Heats: 1. Rick Champigny 2. Kevin Kocarik 3. Peter Reid

Seneca Niagara Casino Dwarf Cars (15 laps): SCOTT BILLING, Wally Billing, Wayne Robins, Justin Sharp, Dave Ackler, Rick Brubacker, Derek Breden, Kellie Mason, Bob Breden, Dave Arnold, Ray Sliter, Denis Kemper, Ken Knapp, Shawn Sliter, Chris Steele, Dave Russell, Mark Brighton, Kory Howe.

Heats: 1. Wayne Robbins 2. Chris Steele

Four cylinder (15 laps): ROB GOULDING, Trevor Goulding, Mike Giberson, Larry Erskine, Chris Hawko, Carey Gore, Paul Klager, Jeff Mark, Gord Bates, Rob Overholt, Glen Leinen, Vic Mealing, Tony Kelly, Roger Shenstone, Norm Mark.

Heats: 1. Norm Mark 2. Trevor Goulding

Ladies Race for the Cup #1: CHRISTINE PORTER Karen Kocarik, Charlene Dooley, Nancy Kaprell, Julia Gosselin, Holly Cooper.

Big Car Demo: JESSIE FAIR.