CHRIS WEAVER, KEVIN BATES, RANDALL PAXTON, TRACY GREGORY, AND DEE RAMEY ARE PENN CAN WINNERS

(Susquehanna, Pa)…For a while Friday night it looked like Mother Nature

was going to be the only winner at Penn Can as a line of heavy showers

moved through the area just as hot laps were getting underway. Speedway

management waited out the rain and the track crew went to work and got

the surface raceable again and the entire racing program was run off with

no further weather problems. Chris Weaver picked up his second win of the

season in the Modified division while defending track champion Kevin

Bates won his fourth Sportsman main of the season. Randall Paxton won

the BRC Lazer Series event for the Late Models while current point leader

Tracy Gregory won his fourth of the season. Dee Ramey scored his first

career feature win in the Pure Stock division.

The 30 lap Modified feature was paced to the green flag by Steve

Babicek and Chris Weaver. Weaver quickly made his way past Babicek to

take over the top spot that he would hold the remainder of the way.

Babicek was able to keep pace with Weaver, but was not able to challenge

for the top spot. Steve did make one run at Chris on an early race

restart, but a subsequent caution flag on the restart negated the pass

and put Weaver back in control of the event. Chris got a better restart

when the race resumed and was able to re-establish himself as the race

leader.

As the race passed the halfway point, Chris Weaver was still solidly

in control of the event, but a new player was emerging at the head of the

pack as Chris’ brother Brian had made his way from his 18th starting

position to challenge Babicek for the runner-up position. Brian was able

to slip past Babicek and set off in pursuit of his brother, who had built

up about a half straightaway lead. While Chris was running the high

groove, Brian had utilized the inside edge of the racing surface to make

his way to the front. Brian was not able to close on Chris running the

bottom, so with about 8 laps remaining, Brian switched to the top groove.

Once he moved up top, Brian was able to start cutting down Chris’ lead

and by the time the parallel flags were shown indicating two laps left,

Brian had closed to within feet of his brother.

The battle for the win between the Weaver Brothers would go right

down to the finish as things got even tighter when the two encountered

slower traffic on the final lap. The lapped car held Chris up just

enough to break his momentum exiting the fourth turn. Brian tried a last

ditch run out of turn four as he dove for the bottom to try to pull off a

late pass to take the win. Brian’s charge came up just short as Chris

had enough momentum on the high side to beat his brother back to the line

to earn his second victory of the season. Brian finished second to

continue to pad his point lead while Steve Babicek turned in a very

strong run to bring his McDonald’s of Cortland sponsored entry home to a

solid third place finish. Alan Rudalavage finished fourth with Chris

Shupp rounding out the top five. Bill Thornton Jr., Mike Decker, Tom

McGurrin, Carl Nagel and Joel Batzel rounded out the top ten.

Mike Nagel, Steve Babicek, and Chris Weaver won the Modified

qualifying events.

For the fourth time this season, defending Sportsman division

champion Kevin Bates drove to victory in the Sportsman main event.

Bates started the event ninth, but wasted little time in making his way

to the front of the field. Several early caution flags kept the field

bunched up and made for some tight racing at the front of the field.

Bates winning pass came on the sixth circuit as he drove around race

leader Ryan Olsommer to take control of the event. Though he would lead

the rest of the way, it was not an easy win for Bates. Over the second

half of the event Kevin was challenged all the way by Brett Tonkin.

Brett ran right with Bates and kept the pressure on all the way to the

checkered flag, but Kevin never wavered from his line and drove under the

checkered flag for his fourth victory of the season aboard his Penns Best

Trucking/Stag Construction sponsored entry. Tonkin’s solid drive earned

him a runner-up finish ahead of Arnie Slade, Mike Loney, and Marty

Bunker. Ryan Olsommer finished sixth ahead of Brian Decker and ray

Taylor. Bruce Evans Jr. and Alex Konopka were ninth and tenth

respectively.

Kevin Bates, Brett Tonkin, and Mike Marold were Sportsman heat race

winners.

The 25 lap Late Model feature was race #3 on the BRC Lazer Series

for the Late Model division. By luck of the draw, Alan Coy and Jason

Carman paced the field to the green flag. Carman’s race lasted only to

the second turn as driveline failure sent him pitside. This moved

Randall Paxton alongside Coy for the restart. A second early caution

flag slowed the action once again, but this would be the final caution of

the race as the remainder of the event ran off without a caution flag.

Coy was able to hang onto the top spot for a couple of circuits, but

Paxton was too strong around the outside groove and he drove around the

high side of Coy to take over the top spot. A few laps later defending

track champion Dave Zona worked past Coy and set off in pursuit of

Paxton.

The long green flag run saw the field spread out somewhat as Paxton

and Zona were able to move away from the field. Over the closing laps,

Zona was once again struck by the bad luck that has plagued him all

season as a deflating right rear tire caused him to drop off the pace.

Dave tried to limp the wounded car to the finish, but the tie came apart

on the white flag lap, sending Dave to the pits. This was the only break

Paxton needed as he flashed under the checkered flag the winner by a

comfortable margin. Zona’s misfortune handed second place to Joe

Damiano while Alan Coy drove to a third place finish. Alan Kellogg was

fourth while Billy Marvin completed the top five finishing order. Jamie

Griffiths, Al Whittaker, R.J. Windhausen, Rich King and Bud Phillips

completed the top ten.

Paxton made it a clean sweep of the evening’s activities as he also

won his qualifying event. R.J. Windhausen won the other late Model

qualifier.

In Super Stock action, Tracy Gregory picked up his fourth win of the

season. Tracy started tenth and took the lead with a bold move when the

top three cars made contact and got out of shape while battling for the

lead. Gregory made a bold move to the inside to move from fourth to the

lead as the three top cars were out of shape after contact. Tracy led

the rest of the way to pick up the win. Paul Rooney finished second

trailed by Denny Decker, Jerry Tonti, and Chris Strohl. Dan Pompey

finished sixth trailed by Brett Spoor, Billy Trego, Harry Marvin Jr., and

Darwin Green.

Brett Spoor and Paul Rooney were winners in Super Stock qualifying

action.

Dee Ramey picked up his first career win in the 20 lap Pure Stock

feature. Ramey took the lead early on from Nate Evens then held off a

challenge from current point leader Charlie Gilbert to pick up a hard

fought first career feature win. Gilbert chased Ramey all the way but

had to settle for a second place finish as he could not find a way past

Ramey. Keith Wilkins was third ahead of Shane Wolf and Tom Garren.

Newcomer Rob Warner finished sixth ahead of rookie Kevin Beach, Mike

Hoyte, Nate Evens and Auburn Lyons.

Craig Decker and Dee Ramey won the pure Stock qualifiers.

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. 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. CHRIS WEAVER 2. Brian Weaver 3. Steve Babicek 4. Alan

Rudalavage 5. Chris Shupp 6. Bill Thornton Jr. 7. Mike Decker 8. Tom

McGurrin 9. Carl Nagel 10. Joel Batzel 11. Bill Huff 12. Brain Franko 13.

Mike Colsten 14. Mike Nagel 15. Mike Frost 16. George Kostelansky 17.

Joey Grammes 18. Rick Virkitis 19. Brad Grammes 20. Ricky Yetter 21. Rick

Holgate 22. Tom Hager 23. Dean Collins 24. Tom Rudalavage

SPORTSMAN: 1. KEVIN BATES 2. Brett Tonkin 3. Arnie Slade 4. Mike Loney 5.

Marty Bunker 6. Ryan Olsommer 7. Brian Decker 8. Ray Taylor 9. Bruce

Evans Jr. 10. Alex Konopka 11. Dwayne Robbins 12. Michael Lartz 13. Ted

Stout 14. Grath Tonkin Jr. 15. Mike Marold Jr. 16. Harry Marvin III 17.

Andrew Stout 18. Matt Kaminskas 19. Greg Hunsinger 20. Rick Brown 21.

George Deckelman 22. Eric Crambo 23. Eric Stephens 24. Rod Frable

BRC LAZER SERIES LATE MODELS: 1. RANDALL PAXTON 2. Joe Damaino 3. Allen

Coy 4. Alan Kellogg 5. Billy Marvin 6. Jamie Griffiths 7. Al Whittaker 8.

R.J. Windhausen 9. Rich King 10. Bud Phillips 11. Keith Mudge 12. Dave

Zona 13. Brent Dyer 14. Lou Sparks 15. Adam MacGeorge 16. Eric Bonham 17.

Tom Cummings 18. Jason Carman

SUPER STOCKS: 1. TRACY GREGORY 2. Paul Rooney 3. Denny Decker 4. Jerry

Tonti 5. Chris Strohl 6. Dan Pompey 7. Brett Spoor 8. Billy Trego 9.

Harry Marvin Jr. 10. Darwin Green 11. Nick Petrilak 12. Chris Hunsinger

13. Les Gillette 14. Jack Stanley 15. Jamie Cortazar DNS: Paul Strohl

PURE STOCKS 1. DEE RAMEY 2. Charlie Gilbert 3. Keith Wilkins 4. Shane

Wolf 5. Tom Garren 6. Rob Warner 7. Kevin Beach 8. Mike Hoyte 9. Nate

Evans 10. Auburn Lyons 11. Ivan Smith 12. Craig Decker 3. Ivan Smith 24.

Randy Rollison 15. Josh Ellis 16. Chris Wood 17. Les Penney 18. Nate Shay

19. Joe Cisney 20. Jeremy Consla DNS: Brad Abright