JOHNSON, MARTIN, LEWIS, RAPPLEYEA, AND RICKARD SURVIVE AND WIN ON A TOUGH NIGHT AT RANSOMVILLE

RANSOMVILLE, NY...Torrential rains last Thursday provided for a great racing surface at the big "R" come Friday night. A two and some times three groove race track provided fans with close racing action in all four divisions. But the full moon was quite evident behind the thin clouds as a bunch of machinery was tore up before the nights end.

Danny Johnson of Phelps, NY continued his winning ways at Ransomville Speedway as he captured his third event of the season last Friday night. Driving his self-owned orange 27J, Johnson collected the D. H. Cloy and Son sponsored 358 modified feature.

A restart prior to mid way found Johnson going from fourth to first in a half a lap and never looking back. Stretching out his advantage to half a straight away at times, Johnson took the victory over Billy Krull. Krull of Sanborn, NY posted his best finish of the season at second. Tim Murdock, Rich Vinson, and Robbie Krull rounded out the top five.

Johnson was able to extend his point lead over second place point man, Pete Bicknell, as Bicknell dropped out after contact between himself and Dan Habuda resulted in mechanical woes. Brian Stevens who was tied with Bicknell just one point behind Johnson coming into the night was involved in a mid-race mishap with Todd Burley which rendered them both in the rear of the field. Contact mid field in turn one resulted in Stevens spinning. Blaming Burley, Stevens proceeded to drive up and over the left rear tire of Burley's mount under caution resulting in sheet metal damage. Both suffered poor finishes as a result.

Heat winners were Ricky Richner, Mark Sylvies, and Tim Murdock.

The Sportsman race entertained many a fan as great racing was seen between Don Martin, Dave Just, and Stewart Friesen for the lead position. The three swapped the top spot several times with Martin taking the win at the line over Just on the final circuit. The pair went into turn three side by side with Just appearing to have the advantage. Just however, slipped up high allowing Martin by on the lowside with Friesen right there pressuring for second. Just held on to second followed by Friesen, Randy Chrysler, and Kevin Wills.

Friesen emerged the new points leader as high point man coming into the night, Chad Brachmann, finished just out of the top five in sixth position. Heat winners were Dave Just, Tony Purgarich, and Wayne McKie.

The Prostock 20 lap feature event turned into a crash fest with Steve Lewis surviving the maylay to win the D. H. Cloy and Son sponsored affair. Lewis captured his first win of the season followed by Roger Chrysler, Joe Stefanski, Pete Stefanski, and Mark Schulz.

The worst accident I have seen in a long time happened early on as the front of the field came upon the lapped car of A.J. Schultz. Dave and Mike Williams were battling side by side off turn four for the lead position when head flagman, Jipp Ortiz, showed Schultz the move over flag. Rather than moving over, Schultz slowed stacking the field up behind him. A very scarry and horrifying crash then unfolded as the cars of Dan Mayer and Dave Kramp were involved in a series of flips while also being struck by other machines. With not much more than the roll cage left on the Kramp car, Dave emerged and climbed on the roof to show the crowd he was a-okay. The car was pretty much junk. Mayer also emerged unharmed but suffered a lot of damage. Also caught up were Pat McCoy, Tom Walker, Eric Greenleif, and Butch Parker.

That was the second wreck in the event while the first one happened a few laps earlier. Front row starter Tom Greene lost control coming off turn four collecting the cars of Pete Simpson, Jason Boyle, Butch Zimmerman, Steve Dominski, and Joe Stefanski. All but Stefanski was done for the night with the Boyle car suffering a substantial amount of damage. These two events took almost half the field out of contention.

Heat winners in the Prostocks were Roger Chrysler, Butch Zimmerman, and Pete Stefanski.

Joe Rickard of the Tuscarora Nation captured his first feature event of the season aboard the first Street Stock feature event. Rickard is piloting the old Alex Morris machine and is in his rookie season. Rickard became the ninth different winner in the Street Stocks this season.

Following Rickard across the line were Ben Hornquist, Ken Washburn, Steve Buzzard, and Steve Coleman.

The second Street Stock feature went to Don Rappleyea. Rappleyea became the first repeat winner of that class in the 2000 season. Leading the way from the start to the finish, Rappleyea held off a serious challenge by Sean Kott on the final circuit. Kott finished in second followed by Randy Zimmerman, Don Barnes, and Eric Ben.

Heat winners were Eric Ben, Steve Coleman, and Don Rappleyea.

D. H. CLOY AND SON MODIFIED FEATURE FINISH...DANNY JOHNSON, Billy Krull, Tim Murdock, Rich Vinson, Robbie Krull, Mark Sylvies, Scott Wood, Dan Miller, Ricky Richner, Don Spatarico, Rick Hoctor, Al Jepson, Chris Wood, Mark Feor, Brian Stevens, Russ Zimmerman, Todd Burley, Dan Habuda, Sam Crogan, Vic Coffey, Pete Bicknell, and Todd Gordon.

D. H. CLOY AND SON SPORTSMAN FEATURE FINISH...DON MARTIN, Dave Just, Stewart Friesen, Randy Chrysler, Kevin Wills, Chad Brachmann, Curt Sherwood, John Hagerman, Scott George, Jeff McGinnis, Tony Purgarich, Pete Cosco, Dave Nashwinter, Dan Lacey, Dave Charczuk, Dean Ferri, Jim Zimmerman, Rob Winters, and James Strassburg.

D. H. CLOY AND SON PROSTOCK FEATURE FINISH...STEVE LEWIS, Roger Chrysler, Joe Stefanski, Pete Stefanski, Mark Schulz, Dave Williams, Dan Shoop, Mike Williams, Tom Walker, Eric Greenleif, Pat McCoy, Mark Harvey, Emerson Webster, Pete Simpson, Butch Parker, Dave Kramp, Dan Mayer, Jeff Martin, Cory Sawyer, A.J. Schultz, Tom Greene, Butch Zimmerman, Steve Dominski, and Jason Boyle.

D. H. CLOY AND SON STREET STOCK FEATURE FINISH #1...JOE RICKARD, Ben Hornquist, Ken Washburn, Steve Buzzard, Steve Coleman, Dave Nichols, Jeff Schulze, Justin Israel, Digger Lester, Paul Plante, Dave Webster, Dave Stolzenberg Jr., Patrick Daul, Jeffrey Lyons, Aaron Jacobs, Jerry Condron, and Patti White.

D. H. CLOY AND SON STREET STOCK FEATURE FINISH #2...DON RAPPLEYEA, Sean Kott, Randy Zimmerman, Don Barnes, Eric Ben, Kirk Tuttle, Fred Srock, Bill Holtz, Shawn Graham, Derek Smith, Roger Israel, Wayne Close, Dan Baughman, Roger Smith, Alex Morris, and Wayne Washburn.