PAINE HITS BULL’S EYE AGAIN
by Chris Marquart
DUNDEE, NY -- Steve Paine leaned on the fence near pit lane, watching Serenity Sutherland wheel her blue No. 37 Regional Pro Truck around Black Rock Speedway Friday night.
"Don’t baby it," Paine coached.
Serenity couldn’t hear him, but he continued giving her advice from a far. Sure enough, Sutherland wheeled off the fourth turn with the bright scoring tower aglow: 19 laps to go and No. 37 was on top. On the series’ sponsor’s night, Sutherland notched her first career win.
"I’m so excited," Sutherland said, a student at Finger Lakes Community College.
"She was in good shape. As long as there was bite where her back wheels were, she was going to be OK," Paine said.
He would know, he’s won at Black Rock Speedway some 62 times. Well, 63 after Friday.
Paine got to the front from the 11th slot on the starting grid, needing just five laps to challenge for the lead.
"The car was good, it's probably been the best it's ever been," Paine said. "We put the car on the bottom and we passed them all at once."
Bad news for those that have been watching Paine wheel to 8 wins in 10 races.
Bobby Parrow and Stacy Jackson comprised the front row. Parrow led the opening lap, running a very fast high line and parking the right rear of his modified on the cushion. Jackson wheeled back to the front for the second lap. Parrow drove back to the front on the third lap; Gil Tegg and Paine were up to third and fourth.
As Tegg and Jackson battled off the fourth turn, Paine steered his TEO Pro car to the extreme bottom and passed them both, making a charge on Parrow entering the first turn. As the duo shot off the second corner, the yellow No. 7X showed the way. As lap six clicked off the board, Allen Willoughby jumped the berm and crossed back towards the inside of the speedway, making contact with Bryon Turner.
Yellow flew on lap 6 as Turner sat sideways in the middle of the third turn and Willoughby appeared disabled on the top of the speedway. On the restart, Alex Hoag and Mike Payne came to a stop as Payne’s rear nerf bar became stuck on Hoag’s shock tower.
The shower was fleeting, not affecting the flow of the 25-lap main at all. After Parrow jumped the restart, the field reset and Paine took off like a rocket, towing Tim Sebring to third behind Tegg.
"It was really good on the bottom until it rained," Paine said. "I was going to restart on the bottom, then I went like this (held out his hand) and the guy up here told me it was raining. I went to the outside."
Paine was able to walk away from the field, drawing out a half-straightaway lead at the half way point and then extending that in traffic with five laps to go.
"I was hoping I would get a good break and he would get a bad break in the lapped traffic, but I think we both got bad breaks towards the end of the race," Tegg said.
Tegg battled back, closing to within a quarter-stretch of Paine, "But running him down and passing him were two different things," Tegg explained. "The last two laps, we caught a couple cars running side by side. It's hard to get around them when they're two wide, you can't get to the bottom."
Paine didn’t know that Tegg was that close, but wasn’t real concerned. The No. 7X was able to dice through traffic with relative ease; cars that he couldn’t pass in the corners he was able to drive away from in the straightaways.
"As long as you don't get bottled up for more than half a corner, you're usually OK. I was pretty sure I was OK," Paine said. "I thought we had a pretty big lead."
Tegg was satisfied with second, considering the tire change he made before feature time. The car was off in the heat and Tegg and the Snapple Beverages-Gil Tegg Motorsports crew decided to put on old tires.
"I knew we would be close," Tegg said. "I was happy. it was a little tight early on and then it loosened up as the race went on. We just couldn't get through lapped traffic."
Sutherland led the final 16 laps over Brian Doolittle for her first career win at Black Rock Speedway. It was also the first Pro Truck win by a woman and Serenity is the first woman to win a regularly scheduled adult main at Black Rock Speedway or the Dundee Raceway, as it was formerly known.
Carl Cleveland got back into victory lane in the Super Stock division, needing just seven weeks between victories this time around. Earlier in the year, Cleveland held off defending Super Stock champion Dave Fultz for his first win since 1999.
Ray Hyer passed a lot of cars to win the Four-Cylinder feature. Hyer started 17th on the grid and worked up to challenge leader Jared Hill. For the final five laps, the duo staged a fabulous battle, dicing and blocking the other’s advances. Hyer drove past Hill and was scored the leader of lap 19; Hill could not rebound to pull a return move through the final corners and Hyer notched the win.
Brady Fultz beat out Laverne Knickerbocker III and Jon Wallenbeck to notch his first feature win of his budding career. Fultz went flag-to-flag in the 10-lap Bandit feature; Brad Ovens and Brett Crawford rounded out the top five.
---Pit Notes---
Super Stock Champion Dave Fultz was driving Friday night with a broken arm. While working at his home, Fultz fell out of a tree... Ron White did make the feature, rolling out his own 1991 Bicknell. The car was last driven by Fran Hilton... Black Rock debuted their new Sunoco Race Fuels light outside the pit gate... Dave Weibert, a Woodhull Speedway regular, ran the Super Stock feature in an old Larry Knowles car.
REGIONAL TRUCK, TRAILER AND BUS-LONG MILK HAULERS FEATURE RESULTS
DIRT 358-Modifieds (25 laps): Steve Paine, Gil Tegg, Tim Sebring, Bobby Parrow, Bill Deming, Mike Jackson, Derrick Podsiadlo, Chuck Graham, Dave DuBois, Alex Hoag, Brian Swarthout, Aaron Jacobus, Ron White, Bryon Turner, Dave Yehl, Mike Payne, Stacy Jackson, Jim Hull, Fran Hilton, Don Slover, Allen Willoughby, Mike Schultz. DNS: Terry Hough.
Lap leaders: B.Parrow 1, S.Jackson 2, B.Parrow 3-5, S.Paine 6-25.
Heat winners: C.Graham, S.Jackson, S.Paine.
PPG Super Stocks (20 laps): Carl Cleveland, Steve Brace, Bill Miller, Stevie Brace, Rob Conklin, Quinn Sutherland, Dave Fultz, Fred Buckley, Bobby Teed, Dave Wibert, Andy Krull, Nate Daggett, Joe Povoski, Sparky Hills, John Sutryk. DNS: Ed Mills.
Lap leaders: J.Povoski 1-9, C.Cleveland 10-20.
Heat winners: J.Povoski, E.Mills.
Regional Pro Trucks (20 laps): Serenity Sutherland, Brian Doolittle, Tom Austin, Bob Buono, Larry Knowles, Jeff Barner, Doug Buckley, Keith Austin, Les Irwin, Keith Lane, Don Divens, Jim Schuyler, Brian Metcalf, Ken Houck, Henry Taylor.
Lap leaders: B.Doolittle 1-3, S.Sutherland 4-20.
Heat winners: D.Buckley, J.Schuyler.
Four Cylinders (20 laps): Ray Hyer, Jared Hill, Alfy Clark, Ryan Davenport, Terry Povoski, Mike Hughey, Karl Weichenthal, Del Cummings, Phil Yaw, Jack Ayers, Brooks Leach, Steven Ovens, Tom Postalwait, Brian Crawford, Josh Mills, Joe Slavin, John Houck, Ron Povoski, Robert Beach, Ray Cornish, Mike Smith, Willy Grant Jr., Chad Ayers, Kevin Young, Ray Speicher, Willy Grant Sr. DNS: Kevin Teed, George Park Sr., Mark Wallenbeck.
Lap leaders: R.Davenport 1-13, J.Hill 14-18, R.Hyer 19-20.
Heat winners: J.Hill, R.Davenport, J.Mills.
Bandits (10 laps): Brady Fultz, LaVerne Knickerbocker III, Jon Wallenbeck, Brad Ovens, Brett Crawford, Jamie Schuyler, Jeremy Abbey, Rich King, C.J. Winslow, Brian Butler, Justin Karlnoski, Derek Mills, Justin Divens, George Park Jr., Anthony Teed.