KEVIN BATES AND JAMES CORNELL SCORE LAST LAP VICTORIES AT PENN CAN.
ALAN RUDALAVAGE, RANDALL PAXTON AND CRAIG DECKER ALSO TASTE VICTORY.
Last Friday night at the Penn Can Speedway was a night for last lap
heroics as in two of the five features saw a last lap pass decide the
victory. Current Sportsman point leader Kevin Bates led only the final
100 feet of the Sportsman feature to nose out Brian Decker for the
victory, then in the Super Stock ranks it was James Cornell utilizing
lapped traffic to his advantage to work past Paul Rooney on the final
turn on the last lap. Alan Rudalavage became the eighth different
Modified winner in as many races while Randall Paxton completed the hat
trick with his third straight Late Model victory. Even a flat tire on
the final lap could not deny Craig Decker his first Pure Stock victory of
the season.
The 30 lap Modified feature aw Alan Rudalavage turn in a strong run
to pick up his first victory of the season aboard his Pennstar Bank/BPG
Racing sponsored #145. Rudalavage started ninth but wasted little time
in making his way to the front of the field, cracking the top three by
the tenth lap. Alan spent several laps locked in a tight three-way
battle for the lead with his BPG Racing teammates Tom McGurrin and Sean
Collins. Ultimately Alan was able to work past both of them and into the
lead. With the second half of the race running without a caution flag,
once out front Alan was able to drive away from the field, opening up a
straightaway lead as he was never threatened the rest of the way and Alan
cruised to his first win of the 2003 campaign.
While Alan was all alone out front, there was plenty of action
behind him as the remainder of the top five were locked in a very tight
battle for the rest of the top five finishing order. There was plenty of
tight racing and a good deal of contact in this battle, which ultimately
saw Brian Weaver break out of the pack in the closing laps to run second.
By the time Weaver was able to establish himself in second, Rudalavage
had already opened up an insurmountable lead and with no caution flag to
tighten the field Weaver had to settle for a strong runner-up finish.
Tom McGurrin, George Kostelansky, and Rick Virkitis battled all the way
to the finish for positions three through five, finally crossing the line
in that order. Jeff Strunk returned to Penn Can after a couple of weeks
off, wheeling Jamie Shea's #J1 to a sixth place finish ahead of Sean
Collins, Chris Weaver, Brian Franko, and Mike Clapperton. Clapperton's
tenth place finish was the best for a DIRT legal 358 Modified powered
car, earning him the Small Block bonus.
Brian Weaver, Alan Rudalavage, and Rick Virkitis picked up Modified
heat race victories. Mike Clapperton won the consolation event.
The 20 lap Sportsman feature saw current point leader Kevin Bates
pick up his third win of the season, making the winning pass on the final
turn of the last lap to pick up the win. Brett Tonkin led the early laps
of the feature before surrendering the top spot to Brian Decker. While
Decker and Tonkin were battling out front, eventual winner Bates was
working his way through the field from his eleventh starting position.
Bates made his way past Tonkin for second in the closing laps and set off
in pursuit of Decker, who had opened up a bit of an advantage. As they
took the white flag, Bates had whittled down Decker's lead, but looked to
be too far back to mount a challenge on the final lap. The entire
complexion of the race changed in the fourth turn on the final lap, less
than 100 feet from the finish line. Approaching a lapped, car in the
high groove, Decker got crossed up for just a moment, opening the door
for Bates. The youngster was able to capitalize on the situation,
driving hard to the bottom underneath Decker. The slip killed Decker's
momentum which allowed Bates to power off the turn first and his superior
momentum allowed Kevin to get to the line just ahead of Decker, who
settled for second after a strong run. Chad Cook made a late charge to
take third from Tonkin late in the event while Brett settled for fourth
ahead of Mike Loney. Dave Leyshon, Brandon Buck, Shawn Mills, Shawn
Walker and Rick Whitney completed the top ten.
Mike Loney, Shawn Mills, and Brian Decker took top honors in the
Sportsman division qualifying events.
Randall Paxton completed the hat trick on Friday night as he drove
his Mile Hill Auto Parts sponsored #22R to his third consecutive feature
win on Friday night. It was a hard fought victory for Paxton as he and
Dave Zona put on a show for the Penn Can fans as they battled for the
victory. Paxton started the feature in the ninth starting position, one
behind Zona. The two worked their way through the field together with
Zona getting to the front first, driving past early race leader and Late
Model rookie Pete Sobol to take over the top spot with Paxton working
past Sobol a few laps later. This set up the battle up front with Zona
running the cushion and Paxton working the low side of the speedway. A
lap 12 caution flag would prove to be the pivotal moment in this event.
On the restart, Zona jumped the cushion in the second turn, giving Paxton
the opening he needed to take over the top spot. This would prove to be
the winning pass as once out front Paxton moved into the preferred
outside groove. Zona tried lap after lap to retake the lead, sticking
his nose under Paxton in every turn but he could not get enough of a run
to make the pass and settled for a strong runner-up finish behind Paxton
in a very exciting and entertaining race. Allen Coy made a late charge
to finish third ahead of Pete Sobol, who recorded his best finish of his
rookie season and Jason Bedford. Brent Dyer, Bud Phillips, Keith Mudge,
Rich King, and Jim O'Hara completed the top ten.
RACE SUMMARY:
MODIFIEDS: 1. ALAN RUDALAVAGE 2. Brian Weaver 3. Tom McGurrin 4. George
Kostelansky 5. Rick Virkitis 6. Jeff Strunk 7. Sean Collins 8. Chris
Weaver 9. Brian Franko 10. Mike Clapperton 11. Butch Tittle 12. Bill Huff
13. Chris Shupp 14. Mike Nagel 15. Dave Jenkins 16. Steve Babicek 17.
Ralph Mele 18. Jim Sanderson 19. Bill Thornton 20. Daryl Ellis 21. Mike
Colsten 22. Rick Whitney 23. Mike Frost 24. Roger Lewis DNQ: Bob Thomas,
Mike Decker, Bob Conklin
SPORTSMAN: 1. KEVIN BATES 2. Brian Decker 3. Chad Cook 4. Brett Tonkin 5.
Mike Loney 6. Dave Leyshon 7. Brandon Buck 8. Shawn Mills 9. Shawn Walker
10. Rick Whitney 11. Ken Titus 12. Bob Lane 13. Dwayne Robbins 14. Ted
Stout 15. Joe Wielgosz 16. Dan Buchannon 17. Bruce Evans Jr. 18. Mike
Mondak 19. Garth Tonkin Jr. DNS: Rick Brown
LATE MODEL: 1. RANDALL PAXTON 2. Dave Zona 3. Allen Coy 4. Pete Sobol 5.
Jason Bedford 6. Brent Dyer 7. Bud Phillips 8. Keith Mudge 9. Rich King
10. Jim O'Hara 11. Lou Sparks 12. Ken Wynn 13. Jamie Griffiths 14. Larry
DeLello 15. Adam MacGeorge 16. Jason Carman 17.Joe Damiano 18. George
Leatso
SUPER STOCK: 1. JAMES CORNELL 2. Chris Hunsinger 3. Paul Rooney 4. Tracy
Gregory 5. Brett Spoor 6. Dave Zona 7. Wade Decker 8. Adam Diaz 9. Chris
Strohl 10. Nick Petrilak 11. Bryon Pitcher 12. Matt Gesford 13. Nate
Evans 14. Mike Decker 15. David Luff 16. Jay Sienkevich
PURE STOCK: 1. CRAIG DECKER 2. Charlie Gilbert 3. Keith Wilkins 4. Toby
Sparks 5. Michael Lartz 6. Tom Garren 7. Shane Wolf 8. Harry Marvin III
9. Everett Cass 10. Randy Rollison 11. Fred Velez 12. Frank Penney 13.
Kevin Sterling 14. Rob Welsh 15. Billy House 16. Ivan Smith 17. Josh
Ellis 18. Dan Donnelly 19. Mike Hoyte 20. Gary Davis