TEGG REPEATS AT BLACK ROCK SPEEDWAY
by Chris Marquart
DUNDEE, NY -- The legend continues... Barely.
Black Rock lore maintains that no one has ever passed Steve Paine for the lead in a regularly scheduled Friday night feature at Black Rock Speedway. Some Black Rock regulars maintain he has never been passed in a feature without breaking or having some misfortune. In open track, Paine was superhuman.
Friday, Gil Tegg supplied the kryptonite. With a bold inside move, Tegg wowed the packed house as he darted to the inside of Paine - the nearly untouchable track champion since 1998 - and wheeled past for second place.
From there, Tegg made short work of Stacy Jackson on a restart and cruised to a straightaway-plus advantage to bag his second win in a row.
"I’ve never done that before," Tegg said after the race. "We’re psyched. The guys on the team have been working real hard. The motor and the car are awesome. I'm just the guys that steers the car.
"It's not hard when everything is going so well."
Tegg was wheeling a 2003 Troyer house car, the same car he won with at Black Rock last weekend and the same car he won with at Woodhull Speedway at their Victoria All-Star/Sunoco Aplus 150 qualifier event last Saturday.
"Ever since we wrecked the car it's been a rocket," Tegg said.
In its debut with Tegg in the cockpit, he slid the car across a jersey barrier at the Turning Stone Casino 358-Modified Super DIRT Series race at Rolling Wheels Raceway in Elbridge, NY, July 2.
"We lost the brakes, lost the power steering and everything that could have went wrong went wrong," Tegg said. "At the shop, we went through everything and brought it over to Woodhull and won the first night and now two in a row here. If we can take care of this little over-heating problem and we'll be all set."
Once the race got over some early race hurdles, Stacy Jackson looked strong, but Steve Paine had climbed to third from 11th in just four laps. Tegg, who started to Paine’s right, was fifth. While Aaron Jacobus ran down Terry Hough, Paine and Tegg moved to the third and fourth spots, respectively.
Paine drew a bead on Jacobus’ No. 2 as the top four entered the third turn; Tegg dove low.
"Steve was behind the 2 car and the 2 car drifted up a little bit. That opened the door for me," Tegg said. "Sometimes, it's not so bad to be behind the fast runners. They don't know where you're at and you can pick your lane."
Tegg drove by Paine and Jacobus both, moving to second. As the field rumbled into the first turn. Tegg took a look at Hough. Before he could complete the pass, yellow flew as Alex Hoag looped his no. 7H in the third turn. On the restart, Jim Hull and Dave Rauscher tangled in the second turn with Hull coming to rest on Rauscher’s air cleaner. Both were unhurt and continued.
On the restart, Tegg fired to the lead and Paine shuffled Hough to third, but Tegg was gone. Tegg drove the car hard for the next 15 laps, staying put on the high side while Paine tried to reel in Tegg’s high-flying Troyer. Tegg had none of that; he stretched to a lengthy straightaway plus advantage.
"I had a feeling we would hold him off, but I didn't think we would have a straight away lead," Tegg said. "The car was really hooked up. I came up on a lapped car at the end that made me nervous."
Paine’s moment to close came as Tegg shot to the middle of two lapped cars with two to go. Coming off the second turn, Tegg dove to the middle and disposed of both. Had either car slipped, Tegg’s cannonball run would have come to a quick end. They didn’t; Tegg continued to work the car through the final tour and leg out on Paine.
"I believe they said I had never been passed for the lead in the feature," Paine said. "Good thing I wasn't in the lead tonight, because he would have passed me."
"This motor is only four races old and since we wrecked it, this car has been a rocket," Tegg said. "Everything is right where it needs to be. If we can get through the pack and stay out of trouble, we should be pretty strong."
Serenity Sutherland and her cousin, Quinn Sutherland handed out the "blues" in each of their features. Quinn took advantage of the absence of points leader Dave Fultz to win the Super Stock main over Carl Cleveland and Bill Miller. Serenity parked her rebuilt, blue No. 37 in the Knapp & Schalppi Victory Lane after her surprising win in the Regional Pro Truck’s 20 lap shoot out.
Sutherland and her truck were each injured in an ugly wreck last weekend. Serenity drove hard to the front and made the decisive pass on Tom Austin in the middle of the third turn and further held off Les Irwin and Jim Schuyler to notch her second win in three weeks, her second career win overall.
Phil Yaw was eyeing victory in a furious battle with Four-Cylinder points leader Joe Povoski before lapped traffic watered down the battle through the waning laps. Yaw took over the point after just one tour and looked like he was ready to check out on the field, but Povoski was rolling to the front. Povoski slipped by Yaw on lap 15, but was topped again on lap 17 in the 20 lap main. Yaw had to hang on for just three laps, but a fracas with John Houck resulted in Yaw spinning and handing the lead to Povoski. Povoski held off Josh Mills and Del Cummings through the final two laps to notch his second win of the year.
Brent Ayers picked up his first Bandit division win of the season, holding off a hard-charging Jon Wallenbeck. Ayers jumped to the point and stayed put, repelling charges from LaVerne Knickerbocker III and George Park Jr. Before Wallenbeck came to the second spot. Wallenbeck, the class points leader settled for second ahead of Knickerbocker, Justin Longacre and Park.
---Pit Notes---
A tornado plowed through the Brad Harrington shop, knocking down their garage and leaving both of his cars, driven by Stacy Jackson, littered with debris. The team cleaned up the no. 66 and raced Friday night... The third of three four-cylinder heats saw a wild pileup on the front stretch. Chad Ayers and Ray Speicher were battling hard off the fourth turn when Ayers got turned into the wall. He bounced off and was tagged hard by Ryan Davenport, who bounced into Phil Yaw. Davenport and Ayers could not make the feature... Super Stock points leader Dave Fultz was not in his car Friday night. He opted to sit the race out while nursing a high break on his right arm... Dave Rauscher was on hand Friday night to race with the 358-Modifieds...
I.D. Booth Company-Booth Electric-Ferris Trucking Feature Results
DIRT 358-Modifieds (25 laps): Gil Tegg Jr., Steve Paine, Terry Hough, Brian Swarthout, Tim Sebring, Bill Deming, Dave DuBois, Bryon Turner, Chuck Graham, Aaron Jacobus, Ron White, Mike Jackson, Alex Hoag, Dave Rauscher, Jim Hull, Stacy Jackson, Pete Luta, Allen Willoughby, Loren Lincoln, Fran Hilton, Derrick Podsiadlo, Mike Schultz, Danny West.
Lap leaders: T.Hough 1-10, G.Tegg 11-25.
Heat winners: M.Jackson, T.Hough, B.Swarthout.
PPG Super Stocks (20 laps): Quinn Sutherland, Carl Cleveland, Bill Miller, Rob Conklin, Steve Brace, Ed Mills, Fred Buckley, Nate Daggett, Andy Krall, Sparky Hills, Mike Brown, Stevie Brace, Joe Povoski, Brandon Smith.
Lap leaders: J.Povoski 1-3; S.Hills 4-6; Q.Sutherland 7-20..
Heat winners: S.Hills, R.Conklin.
Regional Pro Trucks (20 laps): Serenity Sutherland, Les Irwin, Jim Schuyler, Larry Knowles, Bob Buono, Doug Buckley, Fred Buckley, Keith Austin, Keith Lane, Brian Metcalf, Tommy Austin, Brian Doolittle.
Lap leaders: K.Austin 1-3; D.Buckley 4; K.Austin 5-9; T.Austin 10-13; S.Sutherland 14-20.
Heat winners: L.Irwin, D.Buckley.
Four Cylinders (20 laps): Joe Povoski, Josh Mills, Del Cummings, Alfy Clark, Karl Weichenthal, Mike Hughey, Shawn Brace, George Park Sr., Steven Ovens, Willy Grant Jr., Brian Crawford, Rich Sharpsteen, Brooks Leach, Kevin Young, Jared Hill, Ray Cornish, Tom Postalwait, Phil Yaw, Kevin Teed, Ray Speicher, Rich Andrews, Jack Ayers, Tim Povoski, Mike Smith, John Houck, Skip Dean, Tim Wolfe. DNS: Chad Ayers, Ryan Davenport.
Lap leaders: B.Crawford 1; P.Yaw 2-14; J.Povoski 15-16; P.Yaw 17; J.Povoski 18-20.
Heat winners: J.Mills, A.Clark, J.Povoski.
Bandits (10 laps): Brent Ayers, Jon Wallenbeck, LaVerne Knickerbocker III, Justin Longacre, George Park Jr., Jamie Schuyler, Brad Ovens, Derek Mills, Brett Crawford, Anthony Teed, Tim Wolfe, Anthony Teed, Brian Butler, Rich Kelly, Jeremy Abbey, Adam Travis.
Lap leaders: B.Ayers 1-10.
Mid-State Vintage Auto Club Winners: Brad Lizenberger (50's); Pat Sonnenberg (60's) and Mike Draper (70's).