BEGOLO AND GIFFORD TWO FOR TWO AT MERRITTVILLE
By Alexis De Wolfe
Well race fans it was another exciting night at Merrittville Speedway on May 1. The racing was good, and the debut of the dwarf cars excited many fans. For those of you that have never seen a dwarf car before they resemble 1940's and 1950's cars, but in miniature. Even the modified cars made them look tiny. Despite the small stature of the cars, at least three of the drivers are over six feet tall.
Jim Begolo and Dave Gifford both earned their second straight victories of the young season in the 358 Modified and Street Stock Divisions respectively. First time 99 winners were Nolan King, Ken Sargent and Fred Carleton in the Dwarf Car, Pro Stock and Sportsmen divisions respectively.
The night began late due to an incident on turn one during hot laps. Martin Polhill lost control off of turn one during hotlaps and unfortunately hit photographer Rick Wellman who was standing at the top of the turn. Wellman was taken to hospital by ambulance, but the speedway was later notified that he only had to have stitches. He didn't have any broken bones.
By 8 p.m. the first heat of the night got underway. Bruce Colbert in the 97-car lead the heat holding off Sam Cooper in the 2z car. 4c (Chris Crawford) crossed under the checkered flag behind Colbert and Cooper to take third. In the second heat the 8c car of Lloyd Cichocki pulled ahead of the pack and proceeded to lead the heat for the duration. After the first lap the 3 car of Chuck Martin was in second and 57k of Alex Whelan was in third place, but by the end of the heat Martin and Whelan had changed positions.
In the pro-stock's first heat the number 25 car of Ken Sargent ran away with the lead, finishing the heat almost a lap ahead of the pack. During the second heat 108 of Bill Bleich took first after one lap with 11 Ron Reece challenging. Holding tight to the rail around the corners he took the lead at the halfway point. Brian Halliwell pulled ahead to challenge Bleich for second but fell short. At the finish line it was Reece, Bleich and Tom Walker in the 81 car rounding out the top three.
The Sportsman's first heat found the 124 car of Garry Moreash swinging wide in turn one and running away from the pack. For second position the 19 car of John McKenney was challenging 72 (Bill Podwinski), while the 3 car of Chad Brachman closed the gap. Brachman pulled ahead with three to go. Moreash was the first to cross the finish line followed by Brachman and 77 (Bill Willard). In the second heat Tammy Willard took first off of turn one while back in the pack there was a lot of tension. Tammy ran away with the win, finishing a quarter lap ahead of the pack. In the third Sportsman heat Fred Carleton (96) moved up from the back of the pack to take the checkered flag.
The dwarf cars were the next to make their appearance. 55 Noel King jumped to the lead from near the back of the pack, and held onto it until there was one lap to go when the 0+ car of Howard Manges moved from third to first around turns three and four and came across the finish line in first place, followed by King and the 88 car of ?????????.
The first modified heat found Larry Lampman 44 in first, followed by 9, Ken Cosgrove and the 38 car of Scott Wood. The second heat finished off with 42, Pete Bicknell, 5, Martin Polhill, and 123 Rob Krull finishing first, second and third consecutively.
In the street stock feature 21 cars competed for the checkered flag. Bruce Colbert started the race off in first place. There was a close call on the front straightaway when 49 Al Smith got himself pointing in the wrong direction but he got himself going again after almost getting hit twice. Whelan in the 57k car pulled the first caution when he spun high on turn one but got out of it without getting hit. Colbert headed for the pits after nine laps putting the 4c car of Dave Gifford into first place.
Gifford held onto the lead for the last laps and came across the finish line for his second feature win in a row.
The Pro-stock feature found cars going into turn three and four three wide and holding it. Bill Bleich was the leader with Tom Walker and Ken Sargent challenging. Walker took over the first place position after two laps when Bleich started to fall off the pace. Eventually Sargent was able to overtake Walker.
The top three were; Sargent, Walker and Ron Reece.
The dwarf cars provided the fans with an exciting race, with a few bang ups and a couple of spinouts. The first caution was brought out on laps three when Bill Perry (9) spun out and had to be towed off of the track. On the restart 54 got himself turned around on the fourth corner bringing out another caution flag. On the second restart the 3 car of Mike Green spun out and brought out yet another caution. At the half way mark the 54 of Frank Blajzczak spun around again.
At the checkered, it was the 55 of Noel King who came in first followed by 77 Ray Webber and 17 Lee Webber to mark the finish of the first dwarf car race at Merrittville Speedway.
The Sportsman proved to be an interesting feature to watch with even more bang ups than in the dwarf class. On the green eight cars piled up between turns one and two. On the cautions the 21 car of Gary Kruchka stopped on the straightaway right in front of Lloyd Wilson and Greg Panunte causing a bit of a crunch. On the restart Tammy Willard in the 77 car lost control and collected four cars on turn four. Rob Pietz in the 69 car was in the lead for the restart. There were two more cautions before racing got underway but on the ninth lap Fred Carleton in the 96 car pulled into the lead and held it until the end of the race.
Carleton, Pietz, Moreash, Bill Willard and Brachman filled out the top five.
The last feature of the evening was a long 35 laps, fraught with cautions. The race lead off with Polhill battling with Lampman for the lead. The first caution came on lap 13 when Harry Sittler (37s) got turned around. Then Rob Krull got spun around in turn one. Jim Begolo moved to second just before the halfway mark and tried to challenge Polhill for first. Polhill and Jamie Turner (11) got together in turn one fighting for the lead, taking out Joe Middlemiss and getting black flagged for their efforts. This left Begolo in first on the 28th lap.
He came around to collect the checkered flag at the finish followed by Ken Cosgrove (9), Scott Wood, Pete Bicknell (42), and Harry Sittler.
Join us at Merrittville Speedway next week for Mother's Day Eve Madness, which will feature a full card with double points for all classes. Plus the nights events will include a Ladies Race. 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.vaxxine.com/merrittvillespeedway.