Mitch Gibbs, Jim Smith, Jason Rood, and Chad Ray Win at New Utica-Rome
Vernon, NY…. Professional DIRT Motorsports sanctioned racing action returned to the New Utica-Rome Speedway this past Sunday night, and Mitch Gibbs, in the DIRT 358 Modifieds, and Jim Smith, in the DIRT Sportsman, both visited Victory Lane for the second time this season. In addition two NUR drivers, Jason Rood in the DIRT Pro Stocks and Chad Ray in the Pure Stocks, became first time feature winners in their divisions.
Mitch Gibbs, from North Norwich, won his second DIRT 358 Modified feature of the season at the speedway. Ryan Baye jumped out to the early lead, only to have it taken away by Rich Price at the beginning of the second lap. Then, a big pileup in turn one occurred when Harry Schaffer spun. This caused a pile of Modifieds that included John Barker Jr., Mike Gillette, Ed Richer, Jerry Higbie, and John Ramsey. Both Ramsey and Barker were done for the night. On the restart, Mike Hulsizer shot out of a cannon and grabbed the lead from Rich Price. Hulsizer, running a great race, led the next two laps until a yellow was brought out for the second time by Harry Schaffer for a spin. On the lap five restart, Mitch Gibbs stole the lead from Price, and opened up a sizable lead. Ron Holmes, last week’s feature winner, was moving up into the top few positions when he suddenly lost power in his racer and was forced pitside. Gibbs’ lead was beginning to shrink when Steve Hulsizer entered the fray and began to run him down. Then, a short caution occurred when Mark Schoonover spun his mount. The restart and next few laps provided some great racing for position in the top five between Mike Hulsizer, Jeff Walton, Todd Burley, and Dale Planck. This group of Mods went three wide several times, with Mike Hulsizer getting the third position. Then, second place driver Steve Hulsizer broke and pulled to the infield, handing the second spot to Jeff Walton, who had gotten by Mike Hulsizer. Mike Hulsizer, Dale Planck, and Todd Burley then battled it out for the third position, which Planck took with two laps to go. By this time, Mitch Gibbs had checked away from the rest of the field and easily drove to his second feature win of the season. Behind Gibbs it was Jeff Walton, Dale Planck, Mike Hulsizer, and Todd Burley. Modified heat wins went to Rich Price, Mitch Gibbs, and Jeff Kotary.
The DIRT Sportsman feature event was definitely a great show, especially since there was a guaranteed qualifying spot on the line for the Syracuse Mile "Firecracker" race and a spot for the Rolling Wheels Raceway World Series. Jim Smith took the lead from Butch Reiter on lap three and led the final seventeen circuits for the big feature win. Behind Smith was Kevin Crave in second, a hard charging Ron Richardson in third, Bill Shantel in fourth, and Jack Miller in fifth. The Sportsman heats were won by Kevin Crave, Jim Smith, and Dan Yankowski.
Rookie DIRT Pro Stock driver, Jason Rood, has had some great top three runs so far this season at New Utica-Rome. Rood turned it up a notch this past Sunday and rode to his first ever DIRT Pro Stock feature win. Behind Rood, it was Gerry Newman, Bret Belden, Dave Bruno, and Ed Kotary. Five-time winner this season, Tom Denton, fell out with mechanical problems with just a handful of laps to go. Pro Stock heats went to Gerry Newman and Bill Shantel Jr.
Chad Ray became a first time winner in the Pure Stocks ranks at NUR. It was a wild race, with Jim Thomas and Jeff Pastorella waging a tremendous battle for a good portion of the show. Ray was the feature winner, followed by Thomas, Pastorella, a hard charging Rob Seavy, and point leader Jeff Thorp. The Stock heats went to Rob Seavy, Jeff Thorp, and Herm Staats.
This coming Sunday evening June 27th at the New Utica-Rome Speedway is a regular show of DIRT 358 Modifieds, DIRT Sportsman, DIRT Pro Stocks, and Pure Stocks. The gates will open at 4pm and racetime is set for 6pm. For more information, call the speedway at (315) 829-4557 or visit the speedway’s homepage on the internet at www.newuticaromespeedway.com.
News & Notes: Popular NUR Modified driver J.J. Michaels was not in attendance because he was under the weather. Hopefully he will get well soon! During intermission, the first Rollover Contest of the season provided area racing enthusiasts with some thrills and spills. Also, Track Announcer, Shane Andrews, provided some entertainment with the first ever NUR "Let’s Make a Deal." A great time was definitely had by all. In other speedway news, it was announced that the night of racing scheduled for July 25th has been cancelled because of the Woodstock concert in Rome. Major traffic problems are predicted all across the area, and track management felt that it would be best to cancel the races for that evening.
NEW UTICA-ROME SPEEDWAY RACE SUMMARY
FATHER’S DAY – SUNDAY JUNE 20TH, 1999
DIRT 358 Modifieds (30 Laps) – 1)MITCH GIBBS, 2)Jeff Walton, 3)Dale Planck, 4)Mike Hulsizer, 5)Todd Burley, 6)Gus Schmidt, 7)Rich Price, 8)Jim Rothwell, 9)Dave House, 10)Tommy Kinsella, 11)Jason Barney, 12)Roger Phelps, 13)Jerry Higbie Jr., 14)Pete Taylor, 15)Harry Schaffer, 16)Mike Gillette, 17)Jeff Kotary, 18)Ed Richer, 19)Ryan Baye, 20)Steve Hulsizer, 21)Ron Holmes, 22)Mark Schoonover, 23)Joel Thomas, 24)John Ramsey, 25)John Barker Jr.
DIRT Sportsman (20 Laps) – 1)JIM SMITH, 2)Kevin Crave, 3)Ron Richardson, 4)Bill Shantel Sr., 5)Jack Miller, 6)Jim Davis, 7)Willy Decker, 8)Ben Tucker, 9)Butch Reiter, 10)Paul Carey, 11)Paul Kinney, 12)Pete Nowicki Jr. 13)Dave Bargabos, 14)Brian Johnson, 15)Mike Dillenbeck, 16)John Kinsella, 17)Jamie Christian, 18)Steve Davis, 19)Tim Clemons, 20)Dan Yankowski, 21)Tim Mayne, 22)John Christian, 23)Brian Murphy, 24)Todd Storace.
DIRT Pro Stocks (15 Laps) – 1)JASON ROOD, 2)Gerry Newman, 3)Bret Belden, 4)Dave Bruno, 5)Ed Kotary, 6)Stan Clark, 7)Jerry Holmes, 8)Bill Shantel Jr., 9)Bill Knapp, 10)Tom Denton, 11)Dave Moyer, 12)Scott Moyer, 13)Joe Palmer, 14)Wayne Archer.
Pure Stocks (15 Laps) – 1)CHAD RAY, 2)Jim Thomas, 3)Jeff Pastorella, 4)Rob Seavy, 5)Jeff Thorp, 6)Herm Staats, 7)Bill Mason, 8)Mike Archer, 9)Waylan Wilczek, 10)George Schulze, 11)Art Newman, 12)Dave Arbes, 13)Neil Dixon, 14)Steve Delano, 15)Scott Simzer, 16)Dan Hatch, 17)Les Lewis, 18)Dave Mannise, 19)Rocky Warner, 20)Bob Gloska, 21)Mike Burke, 22)Chuck Cushman, 23)Mike Howe, 24)Mark Effner, 25)Matt Spisak, 26)Bob Gentile, 27)Jay Finch.