Gibbs Wins Fourth Small Block Modified Feature of the Season
on Nice N Easy Night at New Utica-Rome
Vernon, NY…. Nice N Easy Grocery Shoppes presented an exciting evening of racing this past Sunday July 18th at the New Utica-Rome Speedway. Feature winners on the night were North Norwich’s Mitch Gibbs in the DIRT 358 Modifieds, Schoharie’s Jack Miller in the DIRT Sportsman, Oneida’s Jason Rood in the DIRT Pro Stocks, and Westmoreland’s Jeff Pastorella in the Pure Stocks.
Steve Way and Bob Sitterly led the cavalry off turn four to Starter Chip Burdick’s green flag to begin the DIRT 358 Modified feature. The action was immediately slowed when Ryan Baye spun in turn two and collected Dale Planck, Jim Rothwell, and J.J. Michaels. All cars were able to continue.
Bob Sitterly was the early leader, but Jeff Walton grabbed the top spot on the fourth circuit. However, Ron Holmes, last week’s feature winner, was right there challenging Walton for the lead. Then, Todd Burley brought out the yellow with a flat tire.
On the restart, Holmes got a good run on Walton and assumed the lead. A few laps later, a big pileup in the fourth turn occurred which involved John Barker Jr., Rich Price, Bob Sitterly, Ryan Baye, Jason Barney, J.J. Michaels, and Roger Phelps. Phelps was done for the night, as was Barney.
The race resumed, and on the move was Alan Johnson. Johnson moved into the fourth position by the lead lap and was running very well. However, on the eleventh lap, he slowed and brought out a yellow with a possible rear suspension problem on his No. 24.
On the lap eleven restart, Mitch Gibbs stole the lead from Ron Holmes. Further back, Dale Planck was starting to make his presence known when he moved into the top five. Gus Schmidt and Planck had quite a battle going for position.
A few laps later, Bob Sitterly and Jeff Kotary made contact coming out of the fourth turn, bringing out the yellow. Kotary then banged into the Sitterly machine after the incident was over, and both drivers were sent to the pit area for their actions.
When the race resumed, Ron Holmes tried to mount a charge on Gibbs but Gibbs was on top of his game. Gibbs led the remainder of the race and went on to his fourth feature victory of the season at NUR. Following Gibbs, it was Ron Holmes in second, Dale Planck in third, a hard-charging Todd Burley in fourth, and J.J. Michaels in fifth.
For Gibbs, who had started in fourteenth, it was his fourth feature win on the season at NUR. In Victory Lane, he commented, “We are trying to be consistent, and we really want to win another track title. But, we also want to win races and we are happy to be here again.”
The close and exciting Modified heats were won by Mitch Gibbs, Todd Burley, and Dale Planck.
Fifteen-year-old driver Paul Kinney led the DIRT Sportsman feature event in the early going. However, Tim Mayne grabbed the lead from Kinney a few laps later. Paul Carey came up to challenge Mayne for the lead as did Willy Decker and Jack Miller. Then, Mayne and Decker made contact, with Decker heading towards the frontstretch wall and Mayne being sent to the rear. Jack Miller stole the lead from Carey with six laps to go and led the rest of the way home for his first Sportsman win of the season at NUR. After Miller, it was Jamie Christian, Kevin Crave, Ron Richardson, and Paul Carey. John Kinsella, Paul Kinney, and Tim Mayne were the Sportsman heat winners.
Rookie driver, Jason Rood, won his second DIRT Pro Stock feature of the season at NUR. After Rood in the hotly contested race was Dave Bruno, Wayne Archer, Scott Moyer, and Tom Denton. The Pro Stock heat races were won by Tom Denton and Dave Bruno.
The always-exciting Pure Stock division put on another great feature event at NUR. Some tremendous racing deep in the pack occurred, but Jeff Pastorella had his competitors covered, and he got his second feature win of the season. Following Pastorella was Dave Mannise, Chad Ray, Jay Finch, and Herm Staats. Pure Stock heat wins went to Jeff Pastorella, Chad Ray, and Jay Finch.
The New York State Stock Car Association held their Safety Award Night at the speedway. NYSSCA reps Ed and Betty Biittig, along with John Keegan, were on hand to present the $50 awards to the first NYSSCA member to finish each feature event. The winners were Mitch Gibbs in the Modifieds, Jack Miller in the Sportsman, Wayne Archer in the Pro Stocks, and Jeff Pastorella in the Pure Stocks.
Next Sunday July 25th the New Utica-Rome Speedway will be CLOSED because of the Woodstock concert in Rome. However, the speedway will reopen on Thursday July 29th for a five star program sponsored by Tracey Road Equipment. On tap that night is a 50 lap feature for the DIRT 358 Modifieds, a 20 lap feature for the DIRT Sportsman, and a 15 lap feature for the Pure Stocks. On the line will be a guaranteed spot in Fulton Speedway’s Victoria 200 and Super DIRT Week’s DIRT 358 Modified Championship. The gates will open at 5pm and racing will begin at 7:30pm. For more information, contact the speedway at (315) 829-4557 or visit the official track website at www.newuticaromespeedway.com.
News and Notes…. It was another hot and humid night at the speedway. Alan Johnson has announced that he will be a NUR regular for the remainder of the season. Paul Jensen did not race as expected, but he will be racing on July 29th for sure. A much bigger and better Rollover ramp was designed for the night’s Rollover Contest, which Walt Koperda won after flipping his car numerous times. The fine folks from Nice N Easy Grocery Shoppes enjoyed a great night of racing. Nice N Easy driver, Dale Planck, signed autographs for his fans during the intermission. In other speedway news, it was announced that a daredevil will attempt to jump the infield pond with his car on Wednesday August 25th, which is the night of the Advance Auto Parts Super DIRT Series race.
NEW UTICA-ROME SPEEDWAY RACE SUMMARY
NICE N EASY GROCERY SHOPPES NIGHT
RACE DATE: JULY 18TH, 1999
DIRT 358 Modifieds (30 Laps) – 1)MITCH GIBBS, 2)Ron Holmes, 3)Dale Planck, 4)Todd Burley, 5)J.J. Michaels, 6)Gus Schmidt, 7)Jeff Walton, 8)Jim Rothwell, 9)Rich Price, 10)Andy Romano, 11)Pete Taylor, 12)Ryan Baye, 13)Steve Way, 14)Ryan Bartlett, 15)Joel Thomas, 16)Pete Roberts, 17)John Ramsey, 18)Alan Johnson, 19)Mark Schoonover, 20)John Barker Jr., 21)Jason Barney, 22)Roger Phelps, 23)Ted Lamb, 24)Steve Hulsizer, 25)Mike Gillette, 26)Bob Sitterly, 27)Jeff Kotary, 28)Mike Hulsizer.
DIRT Sportsman (20 Laps) – 1)JACK MILLER, 2)Jamie Christian, 3)Kevin Crave, 4)Ron Richardson, 5)Paul Carey, 6)John Kinsella, 7)Matt DeLorenzo, 8)Butch Reiter, 9)Bill Shantel Sr., 10)Tim Mayne, 11)Dave Bargabos, 12)Jim Smith, 13)Paul Kinney, 14)Dan Yankowski, 15)Brian Murphy, 16)Willy Decker, 17)Daryl Hagen, 18)Pete Nowicki Jr., 19)Steve Davis, 20)Todd Storace.
DIRT Pro Stocks (15 Laps) – 1)JASON ROOD, 2)Dave Bruno, 3)Wayne Archer, 4)Scott Moyer, 5)Tom Denton, 6)Dave Moyer, 7)Jeff Jones, 8)Gerry Newman, 9)Stan Clark, 10)Geoff VanRiper, 11)Bill Knapp, 12)Joe Palmer, 13)Bill Shantel Jr., 14)Chuck Jones, 15)Ed Kotary, 16)John Roese, 17)Bret Belden, 18)Jim Potts.
Pure Stocks (15 Laps) – 1)JEFF PASTORELLA, 2)Dave Mannise, 3)Chad Ray, 4)Jay Finch, 5)Herm Staats, 6)Jeff Thorp, 7)Art Newman, 8)Bill Mason, 9)Doug Grimaldi, 10)Les Lewis, 11)Waylan Wilczek, 12)Don Kimball, 13)Dan Hatch, 14)Dave Bean, 15)Dan Congden, 16)Carl Wright, 17)George Schulze, 18)Mike Archer, 19)Mark Effner, 20)Mike Howe, 21)Jim Thomas, 22)Bill Lashing, 23)Bob Gloska, 24)Rob Seavy, 25)Mike Burke.