Steve Hulsizer Takes First Modified Win of the Season and Gordy Button Wins His
Second ELS Sprint Car Feature of the Season at New Utica-Rome
Vernon, NY…. Fireworks in the skies and great racing made the Independence Spectacular at the New Utica-Rome Speedway a fantastic show this past Sunday July 4th. Winners on the evening were Steve Hulsizer in the DIRT 358 Modifieds, Gordy Button in the ELS Sprint Cars, Willy Decker in the DIRT Sportsman, Tom Denton in the DIRT Pro Stocks, and Dave Mannise in the Pure Stocks.
Steve Hulsizer, from Bridgeport, came from the 3rd starting position to win his first feature win of the season in the DIRT 358 Modified division at NUR. Hulsizer grabbed the initial lead at the start of the feature, but Todd Burley got the top spot by the second lap. The first yellow was brought out on lap four for a spin by Ryan Baye. Then on the restart, Jim Rothwell got around in the second corner, and a pileup, involving Bob Sitterly, Rothwell, and Jason Barney occurred. All cars were able to continue with some banged up sheet metal. Steve Hulsizer then got the lead back from Todd Burley by the fifth lap. Andy Bachetti shot himself out of a cannon and began passing multiple cars in the outside groove. Bachetti, in his first ever visit to the speedway, surprised many NUR fans when he moved into the top five by the seventh lap.
On the sixteenth lap, a fast Dale Planck caught the Burley mount in lapped traffic and began challenging him for position. Then, Andy Bachetti slowed on the frontstretch, ending his great run and bringing out another yellow flag session. On the restart, Planck moved alongside Burley and stole the second spot away. Planck was then able to catch Hulsizer on the final few laps. When the white flag flew, Planck dove to the inside in turn one and raced for the win with Hulsizer. By this time, the NUR race fans were going crazy, cheering for their favorite drivers. Going into turn three, Planck still had a shot at the win, but coming out of turn four Hulsizer had the better line and held of Planck for the win. Following Hulsizer and Planck home across the finish line were Todd Burley, Gus Schmidt, and Jeff Walton.
Hulsizer’s Modified was steaming and overheating in Victory Lane, but he was a very happy race driver. Hulsizer commented, “The car got pretty warm, but I never let off once!” With his win, Hulsizer earns a guaranteed spot in the Super DIRT Week 358 Modified Championship.
Modified heats were won by Mitch Gibbs, Pete Taylor, and Dale Planck. The Modified consi was won by Andy Bachetti.
The Eastern Limited Sprint Cars made their second appearance of the season at New Utica-Rome, and Gordy Button scored his second ELS win of the season at NUR. Button grabbed the early lead and led the entire feature event. Doug Emery was running a solid second place when Rich Wood took the spot with six circuits to go. At the finish line, it was Button over Wood, R.C. Faigle, Doug Emery, and Lee Sanders. ELS Sprint Car heat races were won by Gordy Button and R.C. Faigle.
Willy Decker led most of the laps of the DIRT Sportsman feature and took him his second feature win of the season at NUR. The last few laps of the race saw a great side by side battle for the 2nd position between Kevin Crave and Tim Clemons. After Decker, it was Crave, Clemons, Mike Button, and Greg Doust. Sportsman heat winners were Tim Mayne, Mike Button, and Willy Decker.
The DIRT Pro Stock feature event was lead in the beginning by Ed Kotary. Then, both Wayne Archer and Tom Denton came up to challenge. Archer grabbed the lead on an early restart, but Denton was right behind. Denton then took the lead on lap seven, and lead the rest of the way for his sixth feature win of the season at NUR. Behind Denton, it was Archer, a fast closing Bill Shantel Jr., Jerry Holmes, and Dave Moyer. Ed Kotary and Bill Shantel Jr. won the Pro Stock heat races.
Waylan Wilczek grabbed the lead on the initial start of the Pure Stock feature, only to have it taken away several laps later by Dave Mannise. Jeff Thorp was behind Mannise and tried mounting a charge for the lead on the final lap, but Mannise held on for the win. After Mannise it was Jeff Thorp, Waylan Wilczek, Jim Thomas, and Chad Ray in that order. Pure Stocks heats were won by Dave Mannise, Chuck Cushman, and Chad Ray.
After the evening racing program was over, a gigantic fireworks display to celebrate the Independence Holiday lit the skies over the Vernon, NY area. NUR Announcer, Shane Andrews choreographed the fireworks to some patriotic music, much to the delight of the fans.
This coming Sunday July 11th at the New Utica-Rome Speedway is Student Night along with a complete regular show of DIRT 358 Modifieds, DIRT Sportsman, DIRT Pro Stocks, and Pure Stocks. Any school student ages 10-14, that presents a passing report card at the ticket booth, will be admitted free for the night’s racing program. The gates will swing open at 4pm and racetime is 6pm. For more information, call the speedway at (315) 829-4557 or visit the speedway on the internet at www.newuticaromespeedway.com.
Notes: A capacity crowd made it through a hot and hazy night at the speedway. Rain was forecasted to be in the area, but was never a factor on the night’s racing events
NEW UTICA-ROME SPEEDWAY RACE SUMMARY
INDEPENDENCE DAY SPECTACULAR – JULY 4TH, 1999
DIRT 358 Modifieds (30 Laps) – 1)STEVE HULSIZER, 2)Dale Planck, 3)Todd Burley, 4)Gus Schmidt, 5)Jeff Walton, 6)Jerry Higbie, 7)Ron Holmes, 8)John Barker Jr., 9)J.J. Michaels, 10)Dave House, 11)Mitch Gibbs, 12)Mike Ricci, 13)Andy Romano, 14)Jim Rothwell, 15)Roger Phelps, 16)Mike Hulsizer, 17)Ryan Baye, 18)Mark Schoonover, 19)Pete Taylor, 20)Mike Gillette, 21)Joel Thomas, 22)Andy Bachetti, 23)Bob Sitterly, 24)Jason Barney. DNQ – Ryan Bartlett, John Ramsey, Tom Behrent, Jeff Kotary, Jeff Lutes, John Lutes.
ELS Sprint Cars (20 Laps) – 1)GORDY BUTTON, 2)Rich Wood, 3)Doug Emery, 4)R.C. Faigle, 5)Lee Sanders, 6)John Leito, 7)Mike Barlow, 8)Aaron Crocker, 9)George Ely, 10)Warren Alexson, 11)Bob Waid, 12)Rich Zagata, 13)Wayne Patterson, 14)Rick Hart, 15)Brian Dumigan, 16)Roger Ferris, 17)John Karklin, 18)Howard Singer, 19)Bill Bailey, 20)Steve Rukowski, 21)Russ Bennett.
DIRT Sportsman (20 Laps) – 1)WILLY DECKER, 2)Kevin Crave, 3)Tim Clemons, 4)Mike Button, 5)Greg Doust, 6)Jack Miller, 7)Tim Mayne, 8)Jim Smith, 9)Steve Davis, 10)Paul Carey, 11)Russ Hefti, 12)Brian Johnson, 13)John Christian, 14)Bill Shantel Sr., 15)Brian Whittredge, 16)Dan Yankowski, 17)Dave Bargabos, 18)Rob Coleman, 19)Dan Trombley, 20)Paul Kinney, 21)Butch Reiter, 22)Todd Storace.
DIRT Pro Stocks (15 Laps) – 1)TOM DENTON, 2)Wayne Archer, 3)Bill Shantel Jr., 4)Jerry Holmes, 5)Dave Moyer, 6)Phlan Hart, 7)Gerry Newman, 8)Jason Rood, 9)Bret Belden, 10)Bill Knapp, 11)Chuck Jones, 12)Scott Moyer, 13)John Roese, 14)Dave Bruno, 15)Ed Kotary.
Pure Stocks (15 Laps) – 1)DAVE MANNISE, 2)Jeff Thorp, 3)Waylan Wilczek, 4)Jim Thomas, 5)Chad Ray, 6)Herm Staats, 7)Art Newman, 8)Jay Finch, 9)Bill Mason, 10)Bob Gloska, 11)Dave Arbes, 12)Jeff Pastorella, 13)Rob Seavy, 14)Steve Delano, 15)George Schulze, 16)Les Lewis, 17)Mark Effner, 18)Scott Simzer, 19)Dan Hatch, 20)Bill Lashing, 21)Neil Dixon, 22)Mike Burke, 23)Bob Gentile, 24)Donald Kimball, 25)Chuck Cushman, 26)Mike Archer, 27)Bill Trexler Sr. (DQ).