GABRIEL AND COOK GET THUNDER MOUNTAIN WINS.
Jim Gabriel Jr., in the Modifieds, Chad Cook in the Sportsmen and Mark Wainwright in the Street Stocks were the big winners last Saturday night at the Thunder Mountain Speedway in Center Lisle on Ace Hardware night. Other winners on the seven feature event program included Buck Mills in the Pure Stocks, Bob Doolittle in the Four Cylinder Stocks, Ken Stafford in the Four Cylinder Modifieds and Tim Parker got another victory in the Thunder Dog finale.
Jim Gabriel Jr. Became the seventh different Modified winner in eight shows as he took the lead from popular Doug Worthing on lap twenty-eight and on to record the victory. It wasn’t all that easy for Gabriel as he looped in front of the pack on lap three and was hit really hard by former feature winner Eddie White who had no place to go. White’s car was done for the evening with significant rear end damage but Gabriel’s mount suffered some minor sheet metal damage and he restarted in the back of the pack. Worthing meanwhile was fending serious challenges from first Mike Colsten and later Brian Weaver. Weaver actually had gotten under Worthing coming out of turn four at the halfway signal and the two made contact and Worthing stayed out front and Weaver headed spinning to the infield with a wheel ripped off, sidelining him for the night
When the race resumed, Gabriel starting moving his way to the front with his “slide for life” in the high groove, picking off cars one by one until he got past a second place Brent Wilcox with five to go. Worthing was running a solid inside line late in the race but couldn’t hold back Gabriel’s onslaught, losing the top spot with the parallel flags in sight. Gabriel cruised home with a three car length victory, his first of the season. Worthing came home second, still winless in over a year at Thunder Mountain. Wilcox was a solid third followed by Colsten and Paul Jensen.
Chad Cook padded his points lead with a solid victory in the twenty lap Sportsman go. Sean Olenski led the early going before Cook, Brian White, Rick Wilk and Billy Spoonhower got to the front. Cook wasted little time asserting himself as he reached the top spot by lap five and never looked back. The real race was going on behind him as White, Wilk, Spoonhower, Ken Titus and Brent Boyer were all dicing it out. Cook cruised home with the win and Wilk separated himself from the others, claimed second, and behind them things got interesting. On the white flag lap there was contact and Spoonhower wound up going around and Titus claiming third and Boyer, fourth. Rounding out the top five in a caution/checker finish was Shawn Mills.
The twenty lap Street Stock main was all Mark Wainwright as led all but the first lap enroute to his second win of the year. Matt Roberts led the first circuit but Wainwright held forth the rest of the way. Defending point champ, Ed McKernan wound up being the first car out of the race as he and Larry Hillis got together on the front stretch and McKernan wound up in the wall, none to happy about the situation. Contender Chris Stull took second followed by Harold Humphrey in third, Roberts in fourth and J. T. McKernan in fifth.
The twenty lap Pure Stock event was a wild and wooly affair, which left not too many cars unscathed. Veteran Bob Boynton led the first six laps in this caution plagued race. Dick Stark then took over but lost it to Buck Mills three laps later when the Uhl Sr., owned machine of Stark developed a flat right rear. That’s when all the fun started. On the restart for the Stark flat tire, Boynton Sr. got a little sideways and to even further sideways when his son Kevin, subbing in the Bill Goodrich owned 3G, got into the back of him after being jostled by John Cooper Jr. Boynton Sr. looped but kept on going as third place Butch Green went to the high side and missed everything. When the yellow flew, the only car left sitting was Boynton Jr. The last five laps were caution free but Green was all over the back bumper of Mills for those laps and eventually lost the number two spot to Cooper who wound up with his best finish ever in second. Green in his zeal to get back around Cooper Jr., clipped the inside marker tire on turn four which spun him into the infield and he had to settle for fifth behind Jamie Rosh and Lou Gordonier. Gordonier’s car was later disqualified in post race tech and Don Moshier took home fifth place money.
The fifteen lap Four Cylinder Modified feature also featured a last lap pass but it also saw Ken Stafford grab off another win, coming from an early race jingle to pass leader Gordie Isham on the first turn of the last lap to claim his victory. Isham held on for second while Mark Reynolds, Bruce Knaak, in the ex-Ben Bushaw machine, get fourth and Scott Brown take home fifth spot.
The Fifteen lap Four Cylinder Stock was another all out battle between the two point leaders, Bob Doolittle and Harold Humphrey. Humphrey led most of the feature but Doolittle snuck up on him over the last couple of laps and squeezed between Humphrey and a lapped car on the last lap to steal the victory. Humphrey came home second followed by the consistent Mitch Hurlburt in third, John Wilcox in fourth and Jason Tuttle in fifth.
Once again Tim Parker prevailed in the twelve car, twelve lap Thunder Dog feature but not without a fight from Dick Baker. Baker led the first nine laps of the feature, which was slowed by a yellow flag only one in the early going. Parker took command on lap ten and led the rest of the way for his win. Baker took second in a strong effort followed by Jeff Wilcox in third, Larry Rowley in fourth and Rusty Chilson in fifth.
Next week Thunder Mountain Speedway hosts a seven feature regular show highlighted by the mighty Modifieds. Also on the card will be the Sportsmen, Street Stocks, Pure Stocks, Four Cylinder Stocks, Four Cylinder Modifieds and Thunder Dogs. Gates open at 4:00 with racing set to begin at 6:30. Thunder Mountain is located on New York route 79 in Center Lisle, just four short miles from I81 in Whitney Point