SEAN COLLINS , GARTH TONKIN JR., AND LES GILLETE ARE FIRST TIME WINNERS AT PENN CAN

(Susquehanna, Pa.)…After a couple of seasons of trying, Sean Collins

drove to his first career Modified feature win last Friday night at the

Penn Can Speedway on Fuccillo Ford of Hallstead, Pa. Night at the

speedway. Garth Tonkin Jr. was also a first time winner in the

Sportsman class as he piloted his G & G Towing sponsored mount to his

first ever feature win. The trend of first time winners continued as

Moscow, Pa.’s Les Gillete won his first ever Super Stock feature. Jamie

Griffiths drove his Ford powered #77 to victory in the Late Model feature

and Keith Wilkins won his first of the season in the Pure Stocks.

Despite heavy rains in the surrounding area, the weather never arrived at

Penn Can and the races were run without any weather problems.

Brian Franko and Sean Collins paced the Modified field to the green

flag. Franko grabbed the early lead and held the point for a couple of

laps before Collins was able to take over the top spot with a daring

outside pass around Franko. Collins found the outside groove of the

speedway to his liking as his Tom McGurrin owned BPG Racing #4x was

hooked up in the outside groove. Early in the race Collins was

challenged for the top spot by Bill Huff, who tried repeatedly to utilize

the low groove to take over the top spot.

As the race wore on, a new challenger emerged at the front of the

field as Rick Virkitis had charged from his tenth starting position to

work past Huff for the runner-up position. Over the closing laps,

Virkitis closed down on Collins, but Sean was too strong on the outside

of the speedway. Lapped traffic in the closing laps gave Virkitis one

final chance to make a move on Collins, but Sean drove the traffic

perfectly to pick up his first career Modified win. Virkitis brought his

Fields Used Furniture sponsored mount home second ahead of Tom McGurrin,

Bill Huff, and Chris Weaver. Brian Franko finished sixth trailed by Bill

Thornton Jr., Mike Colsten, Mike Nagel, and Carl Nagel.

Sean Collins, Alan Rudalavage, and Rick Holgate won the three

Modified heat races.

The Sportsman division put on an entertaining race as Garth Tonkin

Jr. won his first career feature in the Sportsman division. Though he

started on the pole, it was far from an easy win for Tonkin. Tonkin and

Mike Marold Jr. put on an exhibition of close quarters racing that lasted

the entire 20 laps. Tonkin and Marold swapped the top spot back and

forth several times as both led some laps during a 20 lap dice for the

lead that found the two running side by side most of the time. Tonkin

found the high side of the speedway to be the fast way around while

Marold had his Troyer machine working well on the inside groove. After

20 laps of great racing that saw the two battle hard for the top spot but

never so much as bang rub rails, Tonkin just managed to nose out Marold

at the finish to pick up his first career win. Marold crossed the line

less than a car length back in second while a fast closing Kevin Bates

wound up third. Brett Tonkin charged from sixteenth starting position to

finish fourth while Alex Konopka rounded out the top five. Ryan Olsommer

finished sixth ahead of rookie sensation Michael Lartz, Dwayne Robbins,

Bruce Evens, and Jeff Crambo.

Rick Brown and Michael Lartz topped the Sportsman qualifiers.

In Late Model action, it was Jamie Griffiths driving his Morden

Motors Ford Powered #77 home to his fourth win of the season, a fitting

winner on a night sponsored by the area’s largest Ford dealer, Fuccello

Ford. Griffiths earned the win as he and 2002 track champion Allen Coy

battled for the top spot for many laps before Griffiths was able to work

his way past Coy to take over the top spot late in the event. Jamie then

had to fight off a determined Coy, who was looking to retake the top

spot. Though Allen would pressure Griffiths the rest of the way he could

not find a way past and settled for a strong runner-up finish ahead of

current point leader Joe Damiano, Rich King, and Randall Paxton. RJ

Windhausen, Alan Kellogg, Billy Marvin, Keith Mudge, and Al Whittaker

were sixth through tenth respectively.

RJ Windhausen and Brent Dyer won the twin Late Model heat races.

Les Gillette picked up his first career Pen Can feature win on

Friday night as he drove his Gillette’s Excavating sponsored #33 to his

first ever win. Gillette, who earlier in the season won his first career

feature at Lake Moc-A-Tek, led all 20 laps of the event to pick up the

win. Gillette had things pretty much his way as he had the field covered

and was never really challenged during the event. Behind Les, things

were pretty tight as Brett Spoor and Paul Rooney were in a tight battle

for the second position. That battle would last the entire race with

Spoor finally taking the runner-up position with Rooney finishing third.

Dan Pompey and Billy Marvin completed the top five. Jerry Tonti picked

up a sixth place finish trailed by Nick Petrilak, Chris Hunsinger, Darwin

Green and Jamie Cortazar.

Brett Spoor and Les Gillette won the Sportsman qualifying events.

The Pure Stock feature had plenty of excitement and a surprise

winner as Keith Wilkins drove to victory in the 15 lap feature. Wilkins

never led the event until the final corner when race leader Chris Wood

got into the turn too hard and got crossed up. This opened the door for

Wilkins, who shot past Wood to pick up his first win of the 2004 racing

season. Wood got the car gathered up in time to finish second with

current point leader Charlie Gilbert third. Josh Ellis finished fourth

with Bill Hawkins fifth. Dee Ramey, Rob Warner, Ray Lindquist, Randy

Rollison and Brad Albrecht rounded out the top ten.

Keith Wilkins and Shane Wolf won the Pure Stock heat races. .

Racing continues this Friday night at Penn Can Speedway with a

full card of racing action featuring all five of Penn Can Speedway‘s five

regular divisions. The Modifieds, Sportsman, Late Models, Super Stocks

and Pure Stocks will all be in action. The Modifieds will be competing

in a special Firecracker 40 lap feature event and the evening will also

feature a huge fireworks display in the air over the speedway. Racing

gets underway at 7:15 PM. For more information, contact the speedway

office at (570)-575-9928 or check out the speedway’s official website at

www.penncan.com.

FUCCELLO FORD RACE SUMMARY:

MODIFIEDS: 1. SEAN COLLINS 2. Rick Virkitis 3. Tom McGurrin 4. Bill Huff

5. Chris Weaver 6. Brain Franko 7. Bill Thornton Jr. 8. Mike Colsten 9.

Mike Nagel 10. Carl Nagel 11. George Kostelansky 12. Chris Shupp 13.

Steve Babicek 14. Joey Grammes 15. Alan Rudalavage 16. Brad Grammes 17.

Mike Frost 18. Ricky Yetter 19. Joel Batzel 20. Tom Rudalavage 21. Rick

Holgate 22. Don Slover 23. Brian Weaver

SPORTSMAN: 1. GARTH TONKIN JR. 2. Mike Marold Jr. 3.; Kevin Bates 4.

Brett Tonkin 5. Alex Konopka 6. Ryan Olsommer 7. Michael Lartz 8. Dwayne

Robbins 9. Bruce Evand Jr. 10. Jeff Crambo 11. Mike Loney 12. Arnie Slade

13. Greg Hunsinger 14. Rick Brown 15. Eric Stephens 16. Harry Marvin III

DNS; Brian Decker, Marty Bunker

LATE MODEL: 1. JAMIE GRIFFITHS 2. Allen Coy 3. Joe Damiano 4. Rich King

5. Randall Paxton 6. RJ Windhausen 7. Alan Kellogg 8. Billy Marvin 9.

Keith Mudge 10. Al Whttaker 11. Brent Dyer 12. Bud Phillips 13. Jim

O’Hara 14. Dan Clarke 15. Dave Zona 16. Jason Carman 17. Mark Phelps 18.

Lou Sparks

SUPER STOCK: 1. LES GILLETTE 2. Brett Spoor 3. Paul Rooney 4. Dan Pompey

5. Harry Marvin Jr. 6. Jerry Tonti 7. Nick Petrilak 8. Chris Hunsinger 9.

Darwin Green 10. Jamie Cortazar 11. Oliver Gale 12. Tracy Gregory 13.

Billy Trego 14. Denny Decker 15. Paul Strohl

PURE STOCK: 1. KEITH WILKINS 2. Chris Wood 3. Charlie Gilbert 4. Josh

Ellis 5. Bill Hawkins 6. Dee Ramey 7. Rob Warner 8. Ray Lindquist 9.

Randy Rollison 10. Brad Albrecht 11. Ivan Smith 12. Mike Hoyte 13. Shane

Wolf 14. Joe Cisney 15. Kevin Beach 16. Rich Green 17. Jason Harrington

18. Tom Garren 19. Butch Green 20. Dan Donnelly Jr. DQ: Nate Shay