Hurlburt, Shea And Hamm Gets Wins At Thunder Mountain

&nbs;= p; Center Lisle, New York - J, R, Hurlburt= , got his third of the year in the Modifieds, Jamie Shea got win number eleven and for all intents and purposes clinched the Street Stock title while the consistent Bob Hamm got his first of the year in the Sportsman 20 lapper last Saturday night at the Thunder Mountain Speedway as the season gets a little shorter. Other winners on the card included Don Moshier in the Pure Stocks, Shawn Mills in the Four Cylinder Stocks, Steve Hill got closer to the season win mark in the Four Cylinder Modifieds and Garry Moore won his second consecutive Mini Sprint feature.

&= nbsp; The thirty lap Modified feature wasn t a lap old before rookie Shawn Ellsworth brought out the race s first yellow. J. R. Hurlburt took the point on the restart and held it for the first seven laps before a very strong Paul Jensen took over. Once in front, Jensen pretty much put on cruise control as Hurlburt, Steve Babicek in third, Chris Weaver in fourth and Rick Wilk held their spots as the laps ticked off. Jensen s great run came to an abrupt end on lap twenty-one as a mechanical problem sent him pit side giving the lead back to Hurlburt and giving second to Babicek. The race s second yellow happened on lap twenty-three for a Scott Frack spin in turn one. One more lap, one more yellow for a four-car jingle involving Mike Colsten, Carl Nagel and Mike Clapperton. Rick Wilk was now the aggressor as he moved into second on the restart. Hurlburt and Wilk battled wheel to wheel for three laps before Wilk was scored in front with two to go. Coming off turn two on the very last lap, a tell-tale puff of smoke came out of Wilk s car and his bid for win number two of the season came to an end. Hurlburt crossed the line ahead of Chris Weaver who had gotten Babicek for second. Pat Jordan drove a strong race and came home fourth while Butch Cerullo rounded out the top five. Wilk coasted home with a seventh place finish.

&= nbsp; The twenty lap, twenty-car Sportsman feature got off to a rough start as six cars got tangled up in turn one, including point leader Chad Cook. Steve Anderson led the first eight laps while Bob Hamm and a strong Dennis Latwinski duked it out for second behind him. Kevin Jordan moved into the fray on lap four as he was all over Hamm for second. Anderson pushed up just a tad coming off turn two on lap nine and that was all Hamm needed as, Hamm powered by for the lead. Jordan also moved by into second as the field completed the halfway point. On a restart following a lap thirteen restart, third place Billy Spoonhower got up over on of the turtles in turn one and got into the back of Kevin Jordan causing Jordan to go sideways, losing a couple of spots. Jordan got back to third as Spoonhower challenged Hamm a number of times for the top spot but to no avail and Hamm finally got win number one of the 2001 season. Spoonhower settled for second while Jordan grabbed third, Rick Wilk got fourth and Anderson rounded out the top five.

&= nbsp; A strong Ron Latwinski led the first four laps of the twenty-lap Street Stock feature before Gary Roberts took over on lap five. A yellow on lap seven for Kevin Clark brought ten-time winner Jamie Shea into the picture as he restarted fourth. A slight bobble by Latwinski was all Shea need to move into second. Going into turn one, Shea slipped under Roberts to take the lead and that was all she wrote. Ed McKernan was now third and battled with Roberts for the second spot for three laps before finally getting by on lap twelve. Shea, meanwhile had built a comfortable cushion between himself and the field until a yellow on lap thirteen brought the field closer together. McKernan made several attempts to get Shea but couldn t do it as Shea brought home his eleventh win of the year at Thunder Mountain and just about put a lock on the season point title. McKernan was a solid second while Roberts took his best finish of the year with a third followed by Latwinski in fourth and Rick Davis In fifth.

&= nbsp; Bill Clark was strong early in the twenty-lap Pure Stock feature despite a couple of multi car jingles that brought out yellow flags. Clark led until the halfway point when one time winner Don Moshier took over the top spot. A real battle was going on behind Moshier as Clark had his hands full with Jim Cornell Jr, Mike Wilbur and Bill Rampe as they all battled for position. Cornell moved by Clark just after a lap fifteen restart and tried to close the gap between himself and Moshier. One more yellow on lap seventeen made it even closer and though he gave it a heck of a try Moshier held on for win number two for the season. Cornell took second, Clark nipped Rampe at the wire for third and Doug Stack grabbed off fifth.

&= nbsp; Steve Hill made it look easy from his eleventh starting spot in the fifteen-lap Four Cylinder Modified feature, having the lead at the end of the first lap. He deftly weaved in and out of traffic and passed pole sitter Roger Dewitt coming out of turn four at the end of lap one. Only one yellow flag impeded Hill s progress and in the end he had claimed win number fourteen o the season. Perennial runner-up Scott Allen got to second by lap five but was unable to mount any challenge to Hill. Ben Bushaw got third as the checkers flew followed by Don Knapp in fourth and Curt Pierce in fifth.

&= nbsp; Three cars wide completed lap number one in the fifteen lap Four Cylinder Stock feature event with Stanley Mathews having his nose in front of the other two for the lead. Mathews led the first three circuits before Rich Talada got by coming out of turn four. He was quickly followed by Rick Angle taking over spot number two. Angle went wide allowing Shawn Mills to get by on lap five. Mathews got back by and held second for the next few laps. Just after the halfway point Talada and Mathews got tangled up with a couple of lapped cars, giving the lead to Angle with Mills right behind. Mills got underneath coming off turn four on lap nine for the lead and he was never headed. Angle tried to keep three-time winner Chris Smith behind him as Mills was driving away. Smith got Angle on the next to last lap but couldn t get close to Mills and had to settle for second, followed by Angle, Frank Fink and Rich Powell.

&= nbsp; Next week will be the next to last point race for the season in all classes. Gates will open at 4:00 with racing set to begin at 6:30.

&= nbsp; In much the same scenario as the Four Cylinder Modifieds, Gary Moore got out in front early of the fifteen lap Mini Sprint feature and led the race wire to wire in claiming his third win of the season. Two yellows hampered Moore s efforts but in the end, he wasn t to be denied. Dale Pitcher made a strong run late to get Rick Wust made a small dent in Steve Klock s point lead he claimed third followed by Jimmy Lawler and first time visitor Jeff Black in fifth.

&= nbsp; MODIFIED FINISH: J. R. Hurlburt, Chris Weaver, Steve Babicek, Pat Jordan, Butch Cerullo, Doug Worthing, Rick Wilk, Sean Collins, Dave Jenkins, Mike Clapperton, Tom McGurrin, Mike Colsten, Bill Huff, Denny Superko, Garth Tonkin, Carl Nagel, Scott Frack, Dick Sundgren, Jimmy Wrench, Paul Jensen, George Kostelansky, Mike Nagel, Mike Krum, Mike Frost, Shawn Ellsworth. DNS-Bill Clark, Brian Payne.

&= nbsp; SPORTSMAN FINISH: Bob Hamm, Billy Spoonhower, Kevin Jordan, Rick Wilk, Steve Anderson, Brian Payne, Chad Cook, Don Hart Jr., Ken Titus, Tom Sienko, Chris Ostrowski, Tony Vyziak, Scott Allen, Tony Pease, Dennis Latwinski, Brian Decker, Brent Boyer, Mike Trautschold, Ed Bennett, Rick Christopher.

&= nbsp; STREET STOCK FINISH: Jamie Shea, Ed McKernan, Gary Roberts, Ron Latwinski, Rick Davis, Harold Humphrey, Larry Hillis, Larry Lane, Bill Morse, Ken Hammond, Wade Decker, Doug Nelson, Terry Mudge, Earl Zimmer, Charlie Fulton, Ray Taylor, John Morse, Kevin Clark, Tim Davey, Dave Button, Brian MacRabie.

&= nbsp; PURE STOCK FINISH: Don Moshier, Jim Cornell Jr., Bill Clark, Bill Rampe, Doug Stack, Mike Wilbur, Buck Mills, Bill Davey, Norm Whittemore, Bret Welch, Jamie Rosh, Jess Snell, Rich Powell, Mitchell Alexander, Ray Austin, Max Moshier Jr., Rich Green, Denny Decker, William Soloweij, Charlie Fulton, Chuck Alexander, Matt Sissenstein, Charlie Holcomb, Chuck Griffith, John Cooper.

&= nbsp; FOUR CYLINDER MODIFIED FINISH: Steve Hill, Scott Allen, Ben Bushaw, Don Knapp, Curt Pierce, Cliff Pierce, Dick Case, Calvin Pierce, Dennis Copp, Tom Fletcher, Buzz Barton, George Howe, Scott Berg, Roger Dewitt, Anna Howe, Kala Bush.

&= nbsp; FOUR CYLINDER STOCK FINISH: Shawn Mills, Chris Smith, Rick Angle, Frank Fink, Rich Powell, Lloyd Twarz, Jeff Wilcox Jr., John Wilcox, Ed Dyson, Dan Talada, Jerry Wilcox, Jeff Wilcox, Jay Hayward, Rich Talada, Stanley Mathews, Kasey Hilliar, Fred Newton, Loren Haines, Mickey Labarron, Jayson Van Patten, Rich Ferrara, Kevin Miller, John Coish.

&= nbsp; MINI SPRINT FINISH: Garry Moore, Dale Pitcher, Rick Wust. Jimmy Lawler, Jeff Black, Bruce Gould, Dave Kessinger, Doug Smith, Darl Ellis, Steve Klock. DNS-Ryan Lund