Ron Holmes, Dan Yankowski, Dave Bruno, and

Dave Mannise Win at New Utica-Rome

Vernon, NY…. Another great evening of DIRT Motorsports racing excitement occurred this past Sunday July 11th at the New Utica-Rome Speedway. Feature winners on the night were Oneida’s Ron Holmes in the DIRT 358 Modifieds, New Berlin’s Dan Yankowski in the DIRT Sportsman, Rome’s Dave Bruno in the DIRT Pro Stocks, and Fulton’s Dave Mannise in the Pure Stocks.

Jeff Kotary and Mark Schoonover led the Modified feature out of the starting gates to the green flag by Starter Chip Burdick, and Schoonover led the cavalry in the early going. Action was slowed in the third turn on lap one, when a big pileup ensued involving Mike Gillette, Ryan Bartlett, Dale Planck, Jason Barney, Dave House, J.J. Michaels, Andy Romano, Ryan Baye, and Bob Sitterly. All cars, except the No. 70 of Bob Sitterly were able to continue.

On the restart, a recent newcomer to the speedway, Jerry Higbie, took the lead out of the fourth turn. Ron Holmes, who had started in the ninth position, grabbed the top spot from Higbie on the fourth lap. Roger Phelps, Mitch Gibbs, and John Barker Jr. had all moved into the top five by this time.

On the eighth lap, Mike Hulsizer hit the dirt berm in turn one and spun, which brought out the yellow. Mitch Gibbs shot out of a rocket on the restart, and he took the third spot from Roger Phelps. Then, Gibbs went for the second position and stole it away from Jerry Higbie.

Several other cautions briefly slowed the action over the next few laps but Holmes held his lead. With two laps to go, J.J. Michaels came from no where and put a great move on Roger Phelps, taking the fourth spot away. Michaels did not stop there, and with one lap to go, he stole third from Jerry Higbie. Ron Holmes, who had a decent lead, crossed the finish line first for his second feature win of the season at NUR. Second was Mitch Gibbs, third was a fast-closing J.J. Michaels, fourth was Jerry Higbie, and fifth was Roger Phelps. With his second place finish, Gibbs became the new point leader over Dale Planck, who had finished sixteenth.

After the race, a happy Holmes commented, “This new Bicknell was flying again tonight! We had two good runs last night at Fonda and now the win tonight. I love it!”

The Modified heat races went to Roger Phelps, Ron Holmes, and Mark Schoonover. Tommy Kinsella won the Modified Consi race.

Former Track Champion, Dan Yankowski, won his first feature of the season in the DIRT Sportsman ranks. Yankowski took the lead on the second lap and never looked back. Points leader Jamie Christian came from deep in the pack and was going for second when he went pitside with two laps to go. Following Yankowski across the line were Steve Davis, Willy Decker, John Kinsella, and Kevin Crave. Sportsman heats went to John Christian, Dan Yankowski, and fifteen year old Paul Kinney.

The always-exciting DIRT Pro Stock division put on another great show at the speedway. Dave Bruno took the lead from Scott Moyer with four laps to go and scored his first feature win at the speedway in several years. It was Bruno’s second win on the weekend, as he also won on Saturday at the Fulton Speedway. After Bruno it was Scott Moyer, Bill Shantel Jr., Wayne Archer, and Bret Belden rounding out the top five. Scott Moyer and Dave Bruno won the Pro Stock heat races.

The Pure Stock division was the last feature of the evening and it was another action-filled race. Dave Mannise grabbed the top spot on the eighth circuit and held the lead for the remainder of the race. It was Mannise’s third win of the season and second in a row. Following Mannise, it was Chad Ray, Jeff Pastorella, Jim Thomas, and Chuck Cushman. Pure Stock heats were won by Dave Mannise, Jeff Pastorella, and Chad Ray.

Next Sunday July 18th at the NUR Speedway is New York Stock Car Association Safety Award Night and Nice N Easy Vendor’s Night. In competition will be the DIRT 358 Modifieds, DIRT Sportsman, DIRT Pro Stocks, and Pure Stocks. In addition, the 2nd Rollover Contest of the season with a bigger and better ramp will take place. The gates will open at 4pm and racing will begin at 6pm. For more information, call the speedway at (315) 829-4557 or visit the speedway’s internet homepage at www.newuticaromespeedway.com.

Notes….It was a beautiful day for racing at NUR. The races were over plenty of time before the concert at Vernon Downs let out, which enabled everyone to leave the speedway without any traffic problems. Popular Modified Track Champion Paul Jensen, from West Edmeston, will be returning to the racing wars at the speedway this coming Sunday.

NEW UTICA-ROME SPEEDWAY RACE SUMMARY

RACE DATE: JULY 11TH, 1999

DIRT 358 Modifieds (30 Lap Feature) – 1)RON HOLMES, 2)Mitch Gibbs, 3)J.J. Michaels, 4)Jerry Higbie, 5)Roger Phelps, 6)Steve Hulsizer, 7)Jim Rothwell, 8)John Barker Jr., 9)Jeff Walton, 10)Tom Kinsella, 11)Dave House, 12)Rich Price, 13)Jeff Kotary, 14)Mark Schoonover, 15)Mike Hulsizer, 16)Dale Planck, 17)Mike Gillette, 18)Ryan Bartlett, 19)Ryan Baye, 20)Jason Barney, 21)Joel Thomas, 22)Pete Taylor, 23)Andy Romano, 24)Gus Schmidt, 25)John Ramsey, 26)Steve Way, 27)Bob Sitterly. DNQ – Ted Lamb and Pat DaBiere.

DIRT Sportsman (20 Lap Feature) – 1)DAN YANKOWSKI, 2)Steve Davis, 3)Willy Decker, 4)John Kinsella, 5)Kevin Crave, 6)Jack Miller, 7)Ron Richardson, 8)Jim Smith, 9)Tim Mayne, 10)Bill Shantel Sr., 11)Paul Carey, 12)Dave Bargabos, 13)Pete Nowicki Jr., 14)Todd Storace, 15)Brian Johnson, 16)Jamie Christian, 17)Paul Kinney, 18)Todd Preston, 19)John Christian, 20)Dan Trombley.

DIRT Pro Stocks (15 Lap Feature) – 1)DAVE BRUNO, 2)Scott Moyer, 3)Bill Shantel Jr., 4)Wayne Archer, 5)Bret Belden, 6)Tom Denton, 7)Phlan Hart, 8)Bill Knapp, 9)Jeff Jones, 10)Geoff VanRiper, 11)Gerry Newman, 12)Jason Rood, 13)John Roese, 14)Stan Clark, 15)Dave Moyer, 16)Chuck Jones, 17)Ed Kotary, 18)Jerry Holmes.

Pure Stocks (15 Lap Feature) – 1)DAVE MANNISE, 2)Chad Ray, 3)Jeff Pastorella, 4)Jim Thomas, 5)Chuck Cushman, 6)Herm Staats, 7)Bill Mason, 8)Art Newman, 9)Bob Gloska, 10)Rob Seavy, 11)Mark Effner, 12)Mike Archer, 13)Rick Trexler, 14)Les Lewis, 15)Doug Grimaldi, 16)Jay Finch, 17)Waylan Wilczek, 18)Dan Hatch, 19)Scott Simzer, 20)Jeff Thorp, 21)George Schulze, 22)Don Kimball.