RICK VIRKITIS, CHAD COOK, JASON CARMEN, JAMES CORNELL AND HARRY MARVIN
III SHARE PENN CAN SPEEDWAY SPOTLIGHT
(Susquehanna, Pa.) Despite threatening weather, the Friday night racing
card at the Penn Can Speedway went on as scheduled. Co-promoters Reed
Miller and Al Wilcox persevered and the entire racing program was run
off
with only some minor sprinkles at times during the program, but nothing
that interrupted the racing action. Rick Virkitis drove his Chad Sinon
Motorsports.BGP Racing #77v to victory in the Modified feature while
Chad
Cook picked up his second consecutive Sportsman victory. Jason Carman
scored his first career feature win in the Late Model ranks while James
Cornell picked up the Super Stock victory. Third generation driver
Harry
Marvin III won the Pure Stock feature.
The Modified feature saw Chris Weaver and Mike Frost pace the field
to the green flag with Frost jumping out to the early lead. Frost led
the opening circuits of the event befoe giving way to Chris Shupp and
George Kostelansky, who spent several laps swapping the lead back and
forth between them. While Shupp and Kostelansky battled for the top
spot, Virkitis was quickly driving his way into contention. Utilizing
the outside groove of the speedway Rick advanced from his seventh
starting position to run third behind the battle for the top spot.
Kostelansky worked past Shupp for the top spot with Virkitis also
making the move around Shupp a lap later to move into the runner-up
position. Rick was able to close on Kostleansky to make a challenge for
the top spot. The two longtime veteran drivers spent several laps
battling side by side for the lead before Virkitis was able to make what
would prove to be the winning pass on lap 13.
Once out front, Virkitis had things pretty much his own way as he
dominated the second half of the event. A couple of caution flags
allowed the field to close up behind him, but Rick was too strong and on
each restart he was immediately able to re-establish himself at the
front
of the field. Virkitis dominated the second half of the feature aboard
his Main Engines powered Chad Sinon Motorsports Bicknell machine, his
first win of the 2003 campaign. Behind Virkitis, Mike Colsten was able
to make a late pass to take second place away from Kostelansky, who
settled for a solid third place finish. Jeff Strunk backed up his
runner-up finish on opening night with a solid fourth place finish while
fifth place finisher Mike Clapperton collected an extra $200 bonus for
being the highest finishing car powered by a DIRT legal 358 CI motor.
Chris Shupp finished sixth while defending champion Brian Weaver
recovered from an early race incident to salvage a seventh place finish.
Jeff Bronson finished eighth ahead of opening night winner Butch Tittle
and Alan Rudalavage, who completed the top ten finishing positions.
Rick Virkitis, Chris Shupp, and Jeff Bronson won the three Modified
heat races. Alan Rudalavage was the Modified consolation race winner.
In the Sportsman ranks it was Deposit, NY's Chad Cook wheeling his
Coventry Transport sponsored #2J to his second consecutive feature win.
Cook started twelfth but took advantage of a couple of early cautions to
work his way quickly into a contending position. Front row starters
Brian Decker and Rick Whitney battled for the top spot early with
Whitney
eventually taking the spot. Whitney would suffer misfortune that would
rob him of a good finish as a deflating left rear tire caused him to
begin to drop off the pace, finally coming to a stop on the racing
surface when the tire went completely flat. By this time Cook had
already worked his way past Whitney to establish himself as the leader.
Once out front, Cook was able to run off the remaining laps to pick up
his second win of the 2003 season at Penn Can. Brian Decker chased Cook
all the way, but could not get close enough to mount a challenge over
the
closing laps and settled for a runner-up finish ahead of Ken Titus, Mike
Loney, and Brett Tonkin. Kevin Bates finished sixth ahead of Rick
Whitney, who rebounded from his flat tire to finish seventh. Bob Lane,
Rick Brown, and Ted Stout completed the top ten.
Sportsman rookie Ryan Olsommer picked up his first career Sportsman
win in the first heat race while Chad Cook and Rick Whitney claimed the
other two qualifying events.
RACE SUMMARY:
MODIFIEDS: 1. RICK VIRKITIS 2. Mike Colsten 3. George Kostelansky 4.
Jeff
Strunk 5. Mike Clapperton 6. Chris Shupp 7. Brian Weaver 8. Jeff Bronson
9. Butch Tittle 10. Alan Rudalavage 11. Sean Collins 12. Rick Whitney
13.
Billy Huff 14. Mike Decker 15. Steve Babicek 16. Rich Keehle 17. Chris
Weaver 18. Ralph Mele 19. Mike Frost 20. Brian Franko 21. Mike Nagel 22.
Dave Jenkins 23. Ed Strada Jr. 24. Rick Holgate 25. Joey Grammes DNQ:
Tom
McGurrin, Daryl Ellis
SPORTSMAN: 1. CHAD COOK 2. Brian Decker 3. Ken Titus 4. Mke Loney 5.
Brett Tonkin 6. Kevin Bates 7. Rick Whitney 8. Bob Lane 9. Rick Brown
10.
Ted Stout 11. Dwayne Robbins 12. Brant Hilfiger 13. Joe Wielgoz 14.
Anthoney Reggie 15. Bruce Evans Jr. 16. Dan Buchannon 17. George Howe
18.
Alex Konopka 19. Ryan Olsommer 20. Shawn Mills
LATE MODEL: 1. JASON CARMAN 2. Dave Zona 3. Keith Mudge 4. Jamie
Griffiths 5. Joe Damiano 6. Randall Paxton 7. Steve Tourje 8. Dave
Silvernail 9. Brent Dyer 10. Adam MacGeorge 11. Bud Phillips 12. Rich
King 13. Lou Sparks 14. Ken Winn 15. Carl Silvernail
SUPER STOCKS: 1. JAMES CORNELL 2. Brett Spoor 3. David Luff 4. Chris
Hunsinger 5. Chris Strohl 6. Wade Decker 7. Jason Schlafer 8. Paul
Rooney
9. Rich Post 10. Adam Diaz 11. Matt Gesford 12. Dave Evans 13. Randy
Teets 14. Tracy Gregory 15. Frank Bonham DNS: Jay Sisenkitch
PURE STOCKS: 1. HARRY MARVIN III 2. Billy House 3. Paul Harrington 4.
Shane Wolf 5. Rich Green 6. Dan Donnelly Jr. 7. Keith Wilkins 8. Craig
Decker 9. Jeremy Shaw 10. Mike Hoyte 11. Michael Lartz 12.Gregg Brunges
13. Auburn Lyons 14. Josh Ellis 15. Kevin Davies 16. Brad Albrecht 17.
Butch Green 18. Charlie Gilbert 19. Bob Boynton 20. Matt Payne