THREE NEW WINNERS FIND WAY TO VICTORY LANE AT MERRITTVILLE SPEEDWAY
By Alexis De Wolfe
Thorold, Ontario...The Empire Super Sprints made their first of three appearances at Merrittville Speedway last Saturday night, giving race fans a good show with their winged cars - the largest field ever assembled at the Thorold track with 33 sprints in the pit area. And the evening sported a 50/50 ticket win of $1501 this week. Jeff Weston of Welland was the lucky winner who went home with a little extra money in his pockets.
Phil Rudachuk was the Street Stock feature winner - this was his first feature win ever. Congratulations Phil! Ken Sargent walked away with the win in the Pro Stock feature, his second in a row. Fred Carleton took the win in the Sportsman feature in his 96/14j car. And the modifieds put on a great show in the first cautionless feature of the season with 93, Rich Vinson walking away the winner. Scott Holcomb in the 91 ESS car took the checkered in the sprint feature - the eighth '99 winner in eight starts along the Mac Tools ESS Tour.
Chris Crawford in the 4c car quickly got himself turned around in turn four of the street stock feature bringing out a caution but everyone got out of the mess all right. Phil Rudachuk in the r63 car took the lead on the restart with Mike Ward (95) chasing him down. Ward took the lead on the fourth lap, while r63 fell back to duke it out with Lloyd Cichocki (8c).
|Some how Rudachuk managed to bully his way back up to the front of the pack in the last lap and overtook Ward, coming down for his first checkered flag in a feature ever. Cichocki finished second, followed by Dave Gifford (34c), Ward (95) and Bob Brown (3) rounded out the top five.
The pro-stock feature began with the Todd Zelichowski (18) in the lead and being challenged by Brian Halliwell (1a) and Ken Sargent (25). Sargent took the lead away from Zelichowski on the fifth lap while Tom Walker (81) car crept up on the outside to take second on the sixth lap. Caution came out for Zelichowski coming to rest in turn four. Walker looked to take the lead on the restart, but after a second caution and some rubbing he had his tire cut out from underneath him, leaving him to take a tow truck off the track.
This left Sargent with a clear lead over the pack, followed by Herb Hunter (95), and back in third Halliwell battled it out with the 31 of Chris Buttigieg, but Buttigieg got spun out on the last lap, leaving Don Spiece (88) to take fourth and Zelichowski managed to battle back to fifth place when they came down for the checkered.
The 21 of Gary Kruchka jumped to the lead as the green flag fell on the Sportsman feature, followed quickly by Bob Davidson (73) and Andy Imbeault (47). Imbeault stole the lead on the second lap, but Greg Panunte in the 99p moved up to take it on the next lap around leaving Shawn Keus (7s) and Gary Moreash (124) to battle it out for third. The yellow flag fell for the 2 of Ryan Hunsinger and the 57 of Jack McKinney getting together in turn one. The ambulance came out to check on Hunsinger but he had just had the wind knocked out of him. Panunte took the lead on the restart, while Pete Cosco (17c) and Paul Ashton (3a) got together in turn 4. On the next restart Carleton claimed the first spot while Randy Chrysler (21k) made his move on the outside of the track. Moreash managed to wrestle second spot from Panunte as the John Hagerman (71) broke up in turn four. On the restart Moreash moved up to challenge Carleton. After two more cautions bringing the towtrucks onto the track, the final half of the race was cautionless. Carleton maintained the lead to the checkered followed by Bill Willard (77), Chad Brachman (3), Tammy Willard (77t), and Gary Moreash (124) rounding out the top five.
Harry Sittler in the 37 modified took the early lead in the feature holding off Rich Vinson (93) and Andy Green (24). Vinson wrestled the lead away from him on the fifth lap as Dan Miller (22) moves up into third place. On the 14th lap Vinson moved up to lap the last car in the pack and continued to lap cars for the remainder of the race. Scott Wood (38) moved up into third in the last half of the race and looked to second but was unable to take it away from Sittler. This was the first caution free race of the season at Merrittville Speedway, it took 11 minutes to run the 35 lap feature.
Vinson was your leader with his first win of the season followed by Sittler, Wood, Robbie Krull (123) and Dan Miller rounding out the top five.
The Empire Super Sprints came out for the final feature of the night and put on a great show for fans. The fastest car on the track making the circuit in 15.3 seconds. The 7 of Bobby Podalak took the early lead followed by the 34 of ????????? Caution came out for a couple of cars tangled up in turn four but it didn't take long to put everything to rights and have them racing again. Scott Holcomb (91) took the lead on the restart, caution didn't come out again until lap 13, and on the restart Lance Yonge (5) quietly took the lead. Holcomb regained the lead on the 14th lap and managed to hold onto it 'till the end of the race.
Holcomb took the checkered followed by Craig Keel (9), Yonge, Mike Van Dusen (56) and Mike Woodring (19). The Empire Super Sprints return for round two on Saturday August 14th.
Join us at Merrittville Speedway next week when the Pen Centre presents Father's Day Fandemonium - plus a Full Card. Gates will open at 5:30 p.m. and the action starts at 7:30 p.m. For further information contact the speedway at (905) 892-8266 or visit our website at http://www.merrittvillespeedway.