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2003 2004 2005

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24 Jun 2003 - 31 Aug 2004

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PAINE RUNS DOWN HOAG, TAKES FIFTH OF THE YEAR

By CHRIS MARQUART

DUNDEE, NY -- Steve Paine trailed the leader by over three seconds in Friday night’s feature at Black Rock Speedway; he had nine laps to catch and pass Alex Hoag.

Time to break out the rabbit’s foot? Or the lucky horseshoe? Or how about that four-leaf clover?

"I don’t know about that," Steve Paine said. "A four leaf clover might be good luck, but then it’s green. It’s one good and one bad. They cancel each other out and I’m right back where I started."

Paine ended up where he started the season: Victory Lane.

"This car was good," Paine said after his fifth this season at Black Rock Speedway. "I was good on the bottom, but when I was chasing him, I had to go to the top because he was so far out. I looked at the lap counter and it said '16.' I had nine laps. I thought, 'no way.'"

In the words made famous in film "Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure," yes way!

Paine set sail for Hoag trimming a nearly insurmountable lead to a half-car length in just six laps. Hoag bobbled in the first turn with just three laps to go and Paine slid underneath.

"He hit that ramp in one and pushed," Paine explained of his decisive pass. "I just happened to be turning across the corner. It was one of those timing things. You can't plan something like that."

Hoag shoved up the track and Paine, who had been diamonding off the turn to gain ground in the straights, steered his mighty Terrell's Potato Chips -Tallamadge Tire-Advanced Lubrication Specialists-Pabst Blue Ribbon-Geneva Homes-The Wall 99.3-Cayuga Auto Parts TEO Pro Car no. 7X to the point and drove off.

"If we had a 20 lap race, maybe that would be good," laughed runner up Hoag. "That's the first time he passed me for a win. We needed to finish a race. We haven't finished in a while, so this is good."

Hoag started on the pole and was the dominant car on the speedway until the last five laps. Hoag jumped out to a straight away-plus advantage over Brian Swarthout and Tim Sebring encountering lapped traffic just two laps into the main.

Meanwhile, Paine was stuck deep in the pack with last week’s winner Gil Tegg, Ron White and Bryon Turner. The cars were equal and running two-wide. Paine parked his car on the bottom and slowly worked to the front.

"Everybody was so fast," Paine said. "When you’re two lanes wide, there's no place to go. I stayed on the bottom and it worked out. It usually does. But it was getting late. It was like lap six or seven and I was still ninth."

Paine got a break when Hoag ran into Fran Hilton and yellow flew. Neither car was damaged, but the restart allowed Paine to clear Turner, White and Tegg. From there, Hoag’s time at the front was numbered.

"When he got me, I just jumped the cushion and it was one of those 'oh crap, here he comes' kind of things," Hoag said. "Track was heavy and there was a big cushion. The car was fast and we'll take that over a DNF."

Hoag said the outcome may have been different had lapped traffic been thicker.

"I wish we could have caught some traffic at the end and held him off," Hoag said. "There's a big speed difference between the leaders and the lapped traffic here."

The Regional Pro Truck main saw five different leaders with Larry Knowles emerging to claim his second straight feature event. Four laps into the race, Serenity Sutherland spun after contact occurred with Tommy Austin. Austin continued, but the rest of the field bottlenecked into the fracas. Every single truck was involved in the melee. Knowles restarted third and took the lead in four laps.

Rob Conklin was the class of the PPG Super Stock field, but a late race incident with Dave Baroody sent him to the rear of the field and handed Dave Fultz his second win in as many weeks. Conklin had checked out and was adding about two seconds per lap to his advantage. Baroody spun in the second turn and Carl Cleveland checked up to avoid him. Conklin made contact with the Cleveland car and spun into the wall. Under DIRT rules, any car involved in an incident under yellow or a car that does not fall in line where assigned, must report to the back of the field. Conklin was sent back and Fultz took the win.

Alfred Clark scored his second win in a row and third victory this season in the 4-cylinder main, taking the top spot from a strong Mike Hughey in the closing laps. Clark ran high for three laps in a row before steering under Hughey with two laps to go. Yellow flew on the final lap, setting up a one-lap dash to the checkers. Clark held strong, running away from Hughey and Karl Weichenthal.

Derek Mills handled everything Jon Wallenbeck threw at him en route to his first Bandit class win of ‘03. Mills’ win breaks Wallenbeck’s streak of four wins in a row.

---Pit Notes--

Hoag’s small block mount was a big block car up until Thursday night when the team converted it to Black Rock’s small block trim... Paine’s win was his 60th of his career at Black Rock Speedway...Donnie Slover made his return to action Friday. Slover’s old Bicknell was heavily damaged in a wreck about a month ago at Canandaigua in a wreck with Billy Decker... Fran Hilton drove a no. 3A Olsen chassis converted to a Troyer 358-Modified in his first start at BRS... Chris McCann was back in the no. 4JM Super Stock car, filling in for Steve Brace. It was his first start at Black Rock in ‘03... Ed Mills was dominating his Super Stock heat before breaking the rear axle. The wheel and axle bounced across the speedway, but no one was injured...

Peter Smith Aggregates Feature Results

DIRT 358-Modifieds (25 laps): Steve Paine, Alex Hoag, Brian Swarthout, Ron White, Bryon Turner, Gil Tegg Jr., Aaron Jacobus, Tim Sebring, Chuck Graham, Mike Jackson, Derrick Podsiadlo, Bobby Davis, Dave DuBois, Kenny Johnson, Fran Hilton, Don Slover, Alan Willoughby, Mike Schultz. DNS: Jim Hull.

Lap leaders: A.Hoag 1-22, S.Paine 23-25.

Heat winners: B.Swarthout, A.Hoag.

PPG Super Stocks (20 laps): Dave Fultz, Quinn Sutherland, Stevie Brace, Chris McCann, Joe Povoski, Bill Miller, Bobby Teed, Randy Eggleston, Rob Conklin, Dave Baroody, Andy Krull, Brandon Smith, Carl Cleveland, Nathan Daggett, John Sutryk, Sparky Hills. DNS: Ed Mills.

Lap leaders: Stevie Brace 1-2, R.Conklin 3-18, D.Fultz 18-20.

Heat winners: Stevie Brace, Q.Sutherland.

Regional Pro Trucks (20 laps): Larry Knowles, Keith Austin, Jim Schuyler, Bob Buono, Don Divens, Jeff Barner, Brian Doolittle, Tommy Austin, Keith Lane, Brian Metcalf, Doug Buckley, Les Irwin, Serenity Sutherland, Ron Perry. DNS: Gene DePuy.

Lap leaders: S.Sutherland 1-3, T.Austin 4, J.Schuyler 5-7, K.Austin 8-9, L.Knowles 10-20.

Heat winners: K.Lane, L.Irwin.

4-Cylinders (20 laps): Alfred Clark, Mike Hughey, Karl Weichenthal, Ron Divens, Willy Grant Jr., Steven Ovens, Kevin Young, Del Cummings, Tom Postalwait, Joe Slavin, Brooks Leach, Terry Povoski, Jack Ayers, Jared Hill, Ray Cornish, John Houck, Brian Crawford, Chad Ayers, Phil Yaw, Ryan Davenport, Mike Smith, Rich Andrews, Josh Mills. DNS: George Park Sr., Ray Speicher.

Lap leaders: B.Leach 1-9, M.Hughey 10-18, A.Clark 19-20.

Heat winners: K.Young, M.Hughey, W.Grant Jr.

Black Rock Bandits (10 laps): Derek Mills, Jon Wallenbeck, Adam Austin, Laverne Knickerbocker III, Brad Ovens, Brady Fultz, Justin Divens, Rich Kelly, Brent Ayers, Jeremy Abbey, Brett Crawford, Brian Butler, Jamie Schuyler, C.J. Winslow, Matt Eggleston, George Park Jr. DNS: Anthony Teed, Justin Longacre.

Lap leaders: R.Kelly 1, Derek Mills 2-10.