BRIAN WEAVER, ALEX KONOPKA, JAMIE GRIFFITHS, CHRIS STROHL, CHRIS WOOD AND JEREMY FRANKOSKI ARE FRIDAY NIGHT PENN CAN WINNERS

(Susquehanna, Pa.)…Three time defending track champion Brian Weaver took
another step toward his fourth straight championship on Friday night as
he drove to victory in the 30 lap Modified feature at the Penn Can
Speedway. Alex Konopka picked up his first win of the season in a
Sportsman feature that was decided by less than a foot at the finish line
while Jamie Griffiths captured his second Late Model feature of the
season. Chris Strohl, who just completed his sophomore year in high
school, picked up his first Penn Can feature win in Super Stock action
while Chris Wood won the Pure Stock feature in only his fifth career
start. The Briggs and Stratton Slingshot Tour made their first ever
appearance at Penn Can with Jeremy Frankoski picking up the feature win.
Mike Colsten and Billy Thornton paced the Modified field to Glen
O’laughlin’s green flag to start the 30 lap Modified feature. Colsten,
wheeling his Ford powered Small Block, grabbed the lead at the droop of
the green flag. The early stages of the event saw two caution flags in
the first two laps, both for minor incidents. After those two caution
periods, the Modified put on a show for the Penn Can fans as they ran off
the final 28 laps of the feature event without a caution flag.
Colsten continued to lead the event, but eventual winner Brian
Weaver was on his way to the front from his twelfth starting position.
Without the aid of any caution flags to keep the field bunched up, Weaver
was able to charge his way through the pack. Car owner Randy Decker and
his crew gave Weaver a strong ride, as Brian would report later that the
car was “completely hooked up” and “would do whatever he wanted it to”.
With the car working to his liking, Brian charged his way to the front of
the pack. As the race neared the halfway point, Weaver had advanced to
third and was working all over second place runner Billy Thornton for
that position. Just past the halfway point, Weaver slipped underneath
Thornton for the runner-up position.
With the long green flag run, the leaders spent most of the final
third of the race battling in heavy lapped traffic. Race leader Colsten
got held up just a bit in traffic which allowed Weaver to close in.
Brian made the winning move on the 22nd lap as he was able to drop his
Decker Logging/Cannonsville Lumber sponsored mount underneath Colsten
exiting the first turn. Holding the preferred groove off the second
turn, Weaver was able to get all the horses his Big Block was putting out
to the ground to beat Colsten in a drag race down the backstretch to take
over the top spot.
Once out front Weaver’s only concern was the lapped traffic as he
was able to move away from Colsten, but had to be very careful lapping
cars as the laps wound down. At the finish, Weaver picked up the win by
a comfortable margin over Colsten. Billy Thornton hung on to finish a
strong third to collect the bonus posted for the highest finishing car
powered by a DIRT legal Small Block. Tom McGurrin finished fourth while
Alan Rudalavage made a last lap pass on Joey Grammes to record a top five
finish. Joey Grammes finished sixth ahead of Rick Virkitis, Chris Shupp,
Bill Huff, and Tom Rudalavage.
Brian Weaver, Tom McGurrin, and Billy Thornton won the Modified
qualifiers.
In Sportsman action it was Alex Konopka picking up his first win of
the season in a race that saw one of the closer finishes of the season at
Penn Can. Konopka started on the outside pole and led all 20 laps of the
feature event, but it was far from an easy win for the pilot of the
Fisher Fuels #14. Alex took the lead at the start and in the early
stages looked like he might simply drive away from the field, but a
couple of caution periods kept the field bunched up. Arnie Slade was on
the move from his ninth starting position and by the halfway point had
moved into second place. The second half of the race featured some great
close, side by side racing between Konopka and Slade as Arnie repeatedly
was able to get his nose underneath Alex in the corners, but each time
Alex was able to hold him off. On the final lap, Slade made a last ditch
run at Konopka, pulling alongside exiting the fourth turn for a final rag
race to the checkered flag.
The two crossed the line nearly dead even with Konopka just barely
nosing out Slade at the finish. Behind the race for the win, Brett
Tonkin came home with a third place finish with Mike Loney and Dwayne
Robbins rounding out the top five. Marty Bunker placed sixth ahead of
Ryan Olsommer, Michael Lartz, Bruce Evens Jr., and George Howe.
The two Sportsman Semis were won by Mike Marold Jr. and Brian
Decker.
The 20 lap Late Model feature fell to Jamie Griffiths and his Morden
Motors sponsored Ford powered #77 as Jamie collected his second win of
the 2004 campaign. Jamie started tenth, but capitalized on a plethora of
caution flags that marred the early part of the Late Model event, keeping
the field bunched up which allowed Jamie to quickly advance to the top
spot. Over the closing stages of the event Randall Paxton made a run at
Griffiths, but could not find a way past and settled for a strong
runner-up position. Defending Late Model champion Dave Zona recovered
from an early race incident to drive to a third place finish despite
heavy damage to the right side of his machine with Jason Carman finishing
fourth. Current point leader Joe Damiano protected his point lead with a
fifth place finish as he charged from the rear aboard a strange car as he
took over the ride in Al Whittaker’s car after problems in his heat race
sidelined Damiano’s car for the evening. Bud Phillips, Eric Bonham, Rick
King, Alan Kellogg, and Keith Mudge completed the top ten finishing
order.
The Late Models also qualified via a pair of Semi features with Bud
Phillips and Dave Zona picking up the wins.
The Super Stock division saw a first time winner as second year
driver Chris Strohl picked up his first career Penn Can feature win in
the 20 lap feature. Chris started third on the field driving last year’s
car as his primary car for this season was damaged in a crash at another
track last Saturday night. The battle at the front of the field in the
Super Stock event featured a pair of high school students as Nick
Petrilak led the early stages of the event before Strohl slipped by to
take the top spot. Just after taking the checkered flag, Strohl had the
left rear wheel break in the first turn and his mount had to be towed to
victory lane minus that wheel. Behind Strohl and second place finishing
Petrilak, Jerry Tonti ran third with Wade Decker and Billy Trego
completing the top five. Chris Hunsinger was sixth trailed by Tracy
Gregory, Denny Decker, Harry Marvin Jr., and Paul Rooney
Chris Strohl and Paul Rooney won the two Super Stock Semi features.
In only his firth career start, Newark Valley’s Chris Wood drove to
victory in the 15 lap Pure Stock feature. Wood started on pole and was
able to build up a bit of an advantage as behind him the battle raged for
second place. After a race long battle for the position, point leader
Charlie Gilbert came away with a runner-up finish over Craig Decker and
Shane Wolf as those three fought hard all race long for second through
fourth spots while Nate Shay rounded out the top five. Newcomer Howard
Jones crossed the line sixth trailed by Keith Wilkins, Josh Ellis,
Everett Cass, and Mike Hoyte.
Craig Decker and Chris Woods won the Pure Stock qualifiers.
The Brigs and Stratton Slingshot Tour made its first appearance ever
at Penn Can with Jeremy Frankoski picking up the win in the 15 lap
feature. Tavis Nolan finished second with Jim Johnston, Dave Pecko, and
Rich Curtis second through fifth respectively.



Penn Can Speedway management also announced a schedule change
involving the North South Series event which was scheduled for June 22nd.
That event has been pushed back one week and will now be run on June
29th.
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 Late Model event will be the
second race of the season on the BRC Lazer Shootout. 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.
RACE SUMMARY:
MODIFIEDS: 1. BRIAN WEAVER 2. Mike Colsten 3. Billy Thornton 4. Tom
McGurrin 5. Alan Rudalavage 6. Joey Grammes 7. Rick Virkitis 8. Chris
Shupp 9. Bill Huff 10. Tom Rudalavage 11. Carl Nagel 12. George
Kostelansky 13. Mike Decker 14. Seam Collins 15. Mike Nagel 16, Rick
Holgate 17. Brian Franko 18. Steve Babicek 19. Kyle Weiss 20. Mike Frost
21. Ricky Yetter 22. Tom Hager 23. Brad Grammes 24. Chris Weaver 25.
Bernie Kelly
SPORTSMAN: 1. ALEX Konopka 2. Arnie Slade 3. Brett Tonkin 4. Mike Loney
5. Dwayne Robbins 6. Michael Lartz 7. Ryan Olsommer 8. Michael Lartz 9.
Bruce Evans Jr. 10. George Howe 11. Eric Crambo 12. Harry Marvin III 13.
Greg Hunsinger 14.Eric Stephens 15. Kevin Bates 16. Mike Marold 17.
George Deckelman Jr. 18. Garth Tonkin Jr. 19. Joshua Pursell 20. Brian
Decker DNS: Dusty Jaeger, Rick Brown.
LATE MODELS: 1. JAMIE GRIFFITHS 2. Randall Paxton 3. Dave Zona 4. Jason
Carman 5. Joe Damiano 6. Bud Phillips 7. Eric Bonham 8. Rich king 9. Alan
Kellogg 10. Keith Mudge 11. Tom Cummings 12. Allen Coy 13. RJ Windhausen
14. Brent Dyer 15. Billy Marvin 16. Jim O’Hara DNS: Adam MacGeorge,
George Leatso, Lou Sparks, Al Whittaker
SUPER STOCKS: 1. CHRIS STROHL 2. Nick Petrilak 3. Jerry Tonti 4. Wade
Decker 5. Bill Trego 6. Chris Hunsinger 7. Tracy Gregory 8. Denny Decker
9. Harry Marvin Jr. 10. Paul Rooney 11. Dan Pompey 12. Brett Spoor 13.
Les Gillette 14. James Millard 15. Paul Strohl 16. Frank Bonham
PURE STOCKS: 1. CHRIS WOOD 2. Charlie Gilbert 3. Craig Decker 4. Shane
Wolf 5. Nate Shay 6. Howard Jones 7. Keith Wilkins 8. Josh Ellis 9.
Everett Cass 10. Mike Hoyte 11. Kevin Beach 12. Ryan Stone 13. Nate Evans
14. Dee Ramey 15. Randy Rollison 16. Rob Sterling 17. Dan Donnelly
18.Matt Pagliaro 19. Tom Garren 20. Joe Cisney 21. Bill Hawkins 22.
Jeremy Consla 23. Sheppard Blodgett 24. Ivan Smith DNS: Jason Makosky,
Dick Stark
BRIGGS AND STRATTON SLINGSHOT TOUR: 1. JEREMY FRANKOSKI 2. Travis Nolan
3. Jim Johnston 4. Dave Pecko 5. Rich Curtis 6. John Critelli 7. Nick
Pecko 8. Tyler Wilkins 9. Keith Tucker 10. Clint Smith 11. Del Howell 12.
Jeff Howell DNS: Kevin Smith, Mike Tasillo

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