COLSTEN WINS SECOND AT THUNDER MOUNTAIN
Center Lisle, New York…..Defending Modified track champion Mike Colsten of Binghamton made it two in a row as he warded off challenges from Brian Weaver to grab off his second feature in row last Saturday night at the Thunder Mountain Speedway. Other winners on the seven class card included Billy Spoonhower in the Sportsman class, Ed McKernan in the Street Stocks, Buck Mills in the Pure Stocks, Shawn Mills in the Four Cylinder Stocks, Scott Allen in the Four Cylinder Modifieds and Don Harvey won number two in the Mini-Sprints as over 160 cars jammed the expanded pit area.
By luck of the draw, Colsten started in the third starting spot and quickly overhauled pole sitter Dave Jenkins for the top spot. Once in front it was a matter of surviving the numerous yellow flags. The worse of those occurred midway during the race when a tightly packed bunch of cars got together along the front straightway. Five cars were involved in the melee with Butch Cerullo getting the worst of it, having to be cradled off the track. Once the race resumed Weaver, in the Decker Logging machine, gave serious to the Don’s Auto Parts sponsored mount of Colsten. Lap after lap Weaver dogged “Mr. Ford Power” but could muster enough to get by and had to settle for his second consecutive runner-up finish. A late run by Paul Jensen netted a fast closing third while the McDonalds sponsored car of Steve Babicek wound up fourth and 2001 Rookie of the Year Sean Collins came home fifth.
In the twenty lap Sportsman go, it was also the third starter who got the jump on the field. Billy Spoonhower went from third to first in the first lap and never looked back. Seventh starter Brian Decker also got through traffic early and made many challenges to the Spoonhower car as the laps clicked off. Also joining the up-front battle was the Sprint PCS machine of Kevin Jordan. The former track Street Stock champ along with the front running duo separated himself or herself from the rest of the pack but neither had anything for Spoonhower. Jordan got second in a last lap pass in turn one and took home second while Decker, in a strong run came home third. Craig Terrell came from his fifteenth starting spot to get his second consecutive top five finish in fourth while last years track champion Chad Cook grabbed off fifth.
There’s was never a doubt that a McKernan was going win the twenty lap Super Stock feature. Young J. T. McKernan took off from his outside pole position and led the first four laps before dad Ed took over and led the final sixteen in his “Stonestacker Special”. A very fast Matt Roberts made his second serious late race challenge in a row that once again fell short and had to settle for second. J. T. hung on to finish third while Pete Gulick in another Sprint PCS sponsored car came home fourth and Wade Decker was a solid fifth. Last years track champ and the opening night winner Jamie Shea was in a borrowed ride and finished seventh.
Buck Mills survived a wild and wooly twenty lap Pure Stock feature to record his first win of the year. Mills too the lead on lap three from Jamie Rosh and never looked back. Matt Sissenstein led the first lap before Rosh passed him on the backstretch to lead lap two. Mills in turn passed Rosh and stayed in front of the pack for the rest of the yellow flag filled event that saw numerous incidents and bent sheet metal. Kurt Decker made a late race charge but couldn’t get Mills at the checkers and had to settle for the runner-up spot. Defending track champ Bill Rampe came home third while Dave Bellis and Shawn Walker completed the top five spots.
In the fifteen lap Four Cylinder Stock, Shawn Mills started on the pole and led all fifteen laps to record his first feature win of the year. Former track champion Harold Humphrey got close late in the race but couldn’t muster a challenge on Mills and had to settle for second. Bob Doolittle also closed late and made a run on Humphrey for second but couldn’t get it done and wound up third. Rick Angle and Lloyd Twarz completed the top five.
The fifteen lap, nineteen car Mini Sprint feature was all Don Harvey and he led all fifteen laps from his pole starting spot in this relatively caution free event. Jeff Black, Lance O’dell, Phil Peworchik and Brian Howland waged a great battle for the number two spot as the laps wound down but none of them had anything for Harvey and finished in that order. Peworchik was penalized two spots for jumping a late race restart was later disqualified, moving Brian Baxter into the top five.
The night’s first feature event, the fifteen lap Four Cylinder Modified feature was all Scott Allen as he led all fifteen laps enroute to win number one for the year. Last week’s winner Ben Bushaw came home second followed by Curt Pierce in third, George Howe in fourth and Kala Bush in fifth.
Next week will feature a regular seven-class show featuring the Modifieds, Sportsman, Super Stocks, Pure Stocks, Four Cylinder Modifieds, Four Cylinder Stocks and the Mini-Sprints. Gates open around 4:00 p.m. with racing set to begin at 6:30. Thunder Mountain is located just off New York Route 79 in Center Lisle or Exit 8 off I81.
MODIFIED FINISH: Mike Colsten, Brian Weaver, Paul Jensen, Steve Babicek, Sean Collins, Chris Weaver, Brent Wilcox, Dick Sundgren, Tom McGurrin, J. R. Hurlburt, Carl Nagel, Jeff Sheely, Scott Brady, Mike Clapperton, Dave Jenkins, George Kostelansky, Bob Hamm Jr., Mike Nagel, Butch Cerullo, Mike Decker, Doug Worthing, Eddie White, Denny Superko, Chris Ostrowski. DNS-Rick Wilk, Jim Crawn, Alan Bush.
SPORTSMAN FINISH: Billy Spoonhower, Kevin Jordan, Mike Decker, Craig Terrell, Chad Cook, Tom McGurrin, Tim Mayne, Ray Purcell, Cliff Pierce, Ken Titus, Matt Smith, Bob Bennett, Tony Vyziak, Tony Reggie, Tony Pease, Darren Stout, Ted Stout, Sean Olenski, Dan Buchanan, Chris Berg, Bruce Evans, Mark Wainwright, Max Mosher Jr.
SUPER STOCK FINISH: Ed McKernan, Matt Roberts, J. T. McKernan, Pete Gulick, Wade Decker, Harold Humphrey, Jamie Shea, Gary Roberts, Dwayne Robbins, Larry Hillis, Brian Steigerwald, Ken Hammond, Todd Hurlburt, Art Darling Jr., Earl Zimmer, Ray Taylor, Darwin Wood, Brian MacRabie, Tom Hermann, Dave Satterly, Dick Stark Jr., Skip Peabody, Rick Davis. DNS-Bryan Dodge
PURE STOCK FINISH: Buck Mills, Kurt Decker, Bill Rampe, Dave Bellis, Shaun Waller, Harry Uhl Jr., Jon Dale Howey, John Cooper, Larry Champion, Brian Hicks, Dan Freelove, Jamie Rosh, Chris Lord, Jess Snell, Matt Sissenstein, Bret Welch, Mike Wilbur, Geoff Powell, Darl Ellis, Don Mosher, Rich Green, Mike Austin, Dan Babcock, Bill Davey, Bill Clark. DNS-Fred Peters, Scott Chapman, Charley Mosher, Bob Mills, Corey Bond, Bill Goodrich, Rob Larsen, Doug Stack.
FOUR CYLINDER STOCK FINISH: Shawn Mills, Harold Humphrey, Bob Doolittle, Rick Angle, Lloyd Twarz, Dan Talada, Jeff Wilcox, Bob Stevens, John Wilcox, Jay Hayward, Rich Powell, Jim French, Stan Mathews, Frank Fink, Aaron Peck, Rich Talada, Jerry Wilcox, Tim Rudolph, Jeff Wilcox Jr., Chuck Wheeland Jr., Richard Wolford, Fred Newton II, George Mathews, John Coish, John Talada, Fred Newton.
MINI SPRINT FINISH: Don Harvey, Jeff Black, Lance O’dell, Brian Howland, Brian Baxter, Ryan Lund, Duby Woodruff, Bob Brown, Bruce Brown, Garry Moore, Steve Diffendorf, Woody Woodruff, Rick Wust Keith Rifenburg, Jason Wust, Bruce Gould, Mike Schrader. DNS-Dale Pitcher, DQ-Phil Peworchik.
FOUR CYLINDER MODIFIED FINISH: Scott Allen, Ben Bushaw, Curt Pierce, George Howe, Kala Bush, Anna Howe, Calvin Pierce, Roger Dewitt, Kim Pierce.