WEAVER GETS CAREER FIRST AT THUNDER MOUNTAIN
Center Lisle, New York….051202.Chris Weaver of Conklin stopped Mike Colsten’s Modified winning streak at three and in doing so captured that elusive feature event first win in the thirty lap Modified headliner. Other winners on the seven event card also included another first time winner George Howe in the Four Cylinder Modifieds and first time Thunder Mountain winner Bob Doolittle in the Four Cylinder Stocks. Kevin Jordan became the fourth different winner in four weeks in the twenty lap Sportsman go. Buck Mills got win number two in the Pure Stocks, Ed McKernan continued his winning ways in the Super Stocks and Lance O’dell passed three time winner Don Harvey to get the fifteen lap Mini Sprint checker on another night that saw over one hundred and fifty cars in action.
Pole sitter Butch Cerullo led the first eleven laps of the thirty lap Modified feature that saw only one yellow flag for a minor spin before Weaver took the point on lap twelve. With Weaver in front, eyes were starting to focus on three-time winner and current point leader Mike Colsten. Colsten, who started twelfth on the field moved into the top five by the halfway point and settled into the third spot by lap twenty behind Weaver and George Kostelansky. Colsten made an inside move on Kostelansky coming off turn four on lap twenty-three and moved into second. With the fans on their feet, Colsten started to reel the bottom hugging Weaver in. A yellow with five to go brought Colsten even closer. Try as he might, Colsten couldn’t dis-lodge Weaver from the bottom of the track and moved to the high side in a valiant effort to make it four in a row, but Weaver wasn’t to be denied as he crossed under the starters’ checkers a car length in front of Colsten to get that precious initial victory. Colsten took second and padded his point lead in the process. Kostelansky, in his best effort of the season took home third followed by Doug Worthing and Weaver’s big brother Brian in fifth.
The twenty lap, twenty-three car, Sportsman feature got off to a rocky start with seven yellows and three different leaders in the first four laps, but once it got going, it was an extremely competitive race. Rookie Matt Smith led lap one from his pole starting spot before Brian Decker passed him on a lap two restart. As the next lap unfolded, Kevin Jordan found himself in the top spot but with lots of company. Point leader Billy Spoonhower and last week’s winner Chad Cook positioned themselves right on the back bumper on Jordan and stayed there for the rest of the races’ seventeen laps. Jordan kept the Sprint PCS machine out there for the remained of the race but Cook muscled his way to second on lap eighteen but couldn’t do nothing with Jordan and had to settle for second. Spoonhower came home third followed by Decker in fourth and Ken Titus in fifth.
The twenty lap Super Stock feature saw an extreme rarity in the class. A green-to-checker race with no yellows. It didn’t matter however as two time winner Ed McKernan made it three in a row as he came from twelfth in a twenty car field to pass leader Ray Taylor on lap seven and never look back. Taylor took home second followed by Wade Decker in third, Ken Hammond in fourth and Larry Hillis in fifth.
The fifteen lap Pure Stock affair was another rock-em, sock-em affair that saw one time feature event winner Buck Mills hold off late race challenges by Denny Decker to get win number two of the season. Another winner and former track champ Mike Wilbur came home third while Don Mosher and Shawn Walker came home fifth in the twenty-six-car field.
George Howe got out front early in the fifteen-lap Four Cylinder Modified race and let the rest of the field play catch up. Former feature event winner Scott Allen tried to catch the high-flying Howe but it was to no avail as Howe recorded his first ever career win in a relatively incident free race. Last week’s winner Curt Pierce was third followed by Calvin Pierce in fourth and Ben Carpenter in fifth.
The fifteen lap Four Cylinder Stock feature was also a wild affair with the top three spots being swapped numerous times over the last five laps but Bob Doolittle was the on who came on top to get his first ever Thunder Mountain checkers. Harold Humphrey and Shawn Mills wrestled for the number two spot with Humphrey coming out on top on the final circuit. Mills was third followed by Rich Powell in fourth and Stan Mathews in fifth.
The fifteen-lap Mini-Sprint event saw something you don’t often see, Don Harvey getting passed for a win. Lance O’dell pulled off the feat on the very last lap. Harvey who’d been leading since the early going went high to avoid a lapped car and O’dell snuck through on the bottom for the win. Harvey had to settle for second followed by Dale Pitcher, who was nursing a sick sounding motor, in third, rookie Brian Baxter in fourth and Duby Woodruff claiming the fifth spot.
Next week Thunder Mountain will again present a seven class show featuring the Modifieds, Sportsman, Super Stocks, Pure Stocks, Four Cylinder Stocks, Four Cylinder Modifieds and Mini Sprints starting at 6:30 p.m. In a couple of weeks on Sunday May 26th, the first round of the Don’s Automotive Mall North-South Street Stock series will take place at Thunder Mountain.
MODIFIED FINISH: Chris Weaver, Mike Colsten, George Kostelansky, Doug Worthing, Brian Weaver, Bob Hamm, Tom McGurrin, Paul Jensen, Butch Cerullo, Scott Brady, Brent Wilcox, Dick Sundgren, Jeff Sheely, Carl Nagel, Brian Payne, Sean Collins, Steve Babicek, J. R. Hurlburt, Rick Wilk, Chris Ostrowski, Eddie White, Mike Nagel, Dave Jenkins, Jim Crawn, Denny Superko.
SPORTSMAN FINISH: Kevin Jordan, Chad Cook, Billy Spoonhower, Brian Decker, Ken Titus, Dave Dissinger, Tom McGurrin, Matt Smith, Cliff Pierce, Bret Tonkin, Chris Berg, Dan Buchanan, Mark Wainwright, Craig Terrell, Ed Bennett, Garth Tonkin Jr., Dan Vauter, Tony Vyziak, Max Mosher Jr., Tim Mayne, Tony Pease, Sean Olenski, Scott Allen.
SUPER STOCK FINISH: Ed McKernan, Ray Taylor, Wade Decker, Ken Hammond, Larry Hillis, Harold Humphrey, Matt Roberts, J. T. McKernan, Dwayne Robbins, Rick Davis, Brian Steigerwald, Brian MacRabie, Todd Hurlburt, Jay Wood, Earl Zimmer, Skip Peabody, Gary Roberts, Dick Stark.
PURE STOCK FINISH: Buck Mills, Denny Decker, Mike Wilbur, Don Mosher, Shawn Walker, Rich Green, Harry Uhl Jr., Bob Mills, Charlie Mosher, Kurt Decker, Bill Clark, John Dale Howey, Chuck Alexander, Mike Austin, Dan Babcock, Bret Welch, Jamie Rosh, Bill Goodrich, Corey Bond, Bill Davey, Steve McWain, Geoff Powell, John Cooper, Doug Stack, Brian Hicks, Bill Rampe.
FOUR CYLINDER MODIFIED FINISH: George Howe, Scott Allen, Curt Pierce, Calvin Pierce, Ben Carpenter, Kala Bush, Ben Bushaw, Roger Dewitt, Kim Pierce, Ken Stafford, Anna Howe, Ronnie Clark, Ick Pierce.
FOUR CYLINDER STOCK FINISH: Bob Doolittle, Harold Humphrey, Shawn Mills, Rich Powell, Stanley Mathews, Lloyd Twarz, Jeff Wilcox Jr., Jerry Wilcox, Jeff Wilcox, Ed Dyson, Dan Talada, Fred Newton II, Nate Stevens, John Wilcox, Jay Hayward, Tim Rudolph, Aaron Peck, Fred Newton, Chuck Wheeland, Mick Labarron, Richard Wolford, Jon Talada, Jim French, Rich Talada.
MINI SPRINT FINISH: Lance O’dell, Don Harvey, Dale Pitcher, Brian Baxter, Duby Woodruff, Ryan Lund, Jeff Black, Garry Moore, Bruce Brown, Rick Wust, James Brush, Barry Virts, Jimmy Lawler, Steve Diffendorf, Woody Woodruff, Bruce Gould, Reds Brush, Bob Black.