WOODHULL RACEWAY TAKES ONE OVER MOTHER NATURE
by Doreen Farnum
Woodhull fans braved the ominous looking sky to come out and see the annual Late Model Reunion in the Boonies. After a brief shower shortly after the gates opened, the packer cars were on the track getting into race ready condition. And the stands were packed. After last week’s scheduled Late Model show was rained out, track owners Scott & Amy Drake were determined to get this show in.
As they do every year when the Late Models invade the Steuben County oval, three 358 Mods & three Late Models run a 10 lap dash to see who can get around the 1/3 mile track the quickest. This year, it was the Late Model of Jeff Hoffman 1st at the line with the 358 Modified of Dale Welty right behind him. The visitors Brady Wonderling & Tim Hoffman took 3rd & 4th with the home team’s Lyle Sherwood & Curt VanPelt rounding out the Dash. Wades Building Supply of Addison NY put up $1,000 for this dash with $500 going to the winner & $100 to everyone else.
Fans also got to see The Race of Champions with 5 of McKean County’s past champs duking it out. Bob Close came out on top of that challenge.
The DIRT 358 Modifieds started off the feature events as they normally do, with their 25 lap main. The Wild Child Lyle Sherwood was here with a brand new car, new motor, new chassis & new paint job. Former Woodhull champ Curt VanPelt also returned to join the fun, as he had the night off as race director for McKean County Raceway. Sherwood jumped into the lead right off the bat, as behind him we saw row after row of 4 wide racing before the Mods got settled in. Sherwood was into lap traffic by lap 6 and back a bit, Mike Jackson, Dale Welty & Bobby Davis were in a fierce battle for 3rd. The first caution came on lap 11 when Chuck Kennison hopped over the back bank coming out of turn 2.&! nbsp; As we all know, cautions breed cautions, so on the restart, Steve Hartman Sr, got a little loose. As the drivers were checking up, Starkey teammates Roger Williams & Dave Dubois, Larry Keegan, Bill Williams & Chuck Kennison got together in turn 4, as the leaders went by the Chilson Wilcox Start/Finish line to complete lap 12 and get the yellow again. Sherwood opted for the pole on the restarts which is a bit uncharacteristic for him. On the next restart, the Ford of Bobby Davis kissed the front wall pretty hard coming out of turn 4 & Don Lawson got turned around on the front straight in an unrelated incident. After 3 yellows the Mods lined up single file for the last restart which alleviated a lot of congestion. With just 2 laps to go! , Dale Welty and Steve Hartman Sr. came up to dance with leader Lyle Sherwood. Sherwood wasn’t giving up easily, but Welty finally got by him on the back stretch during the final lap. Welty picked up his first win this year with Sherwood, Hartman Sr, The Jackson brothers Stacey and Mike with great runs to take the top 5.
The visiting Late Models had the runner up spot for the evening and they started right off with a great battle for the top spot between Brady Wonderling, and Hoffman brothers Jeff & Tim. The trio rounded turn 2 on lap 2 to see Lloyd Swain and Dave Norton together in turns 3 & 4. Wonderling had a setback as he was sent pitside to remove a hanging fender brace. That left the Hoffmans to work out who would get first. With Wonderling at the back of the field, Kenny Trevitz came up to mix it up with the Hoffmans. Bob Close snuck up on the top 3 and snagged the lead on lap 10. Close had some trouble in his heat as he got stuck on the berm in turn 4 twice.&nb! sp; In the feature he got it figured out and worked out an entire straightaway lead. John Haggerty came to do battle with Tim Hoffman for the runner up spot. Once Haggerty took over Hoffman, he opened up a little distance, but could not make any progress on Close. Close went on to take the double checkers, Haggerty had 2nd wrapped up, Tim Hoffman, Kenny Trevitz, Jeff Hoffman, Eric Ensell, Al Brewer, Brady Wonderling, Lloyd Swain, Mike Wonderling, and Rick Isadore round out the field.
Super Stocks had a tough act to follow, as Kyle Lefelhoc got out front to lead a few laps until lap 4 when Randy Hilfiger came and took it away. Glen Writenour & Rich Marlatt came along right on Hilfiger’s tail. Writenour and Hilfiger were battling for the lead and Marlatt was sitting in 3rd watching. Writenour won the battle on lap 11. On the next lap, Hilfiger bobbled giving the runner up spot to Marlatt and the top 3 ran away from the rest of the field. The only yellow for the Supers came out on lap 18 when Brett Flint spun in turn 2 and bunched up the field for the 2 lap dash to the checkers. Marlatt was not happy to see that caution as he was just about to take the lead f! rom Writenour. Marlatt tried a last lap slingshot move to get by Writenour, but he couldn’t quite pull it off, and Writenour went on to take his 3rd feature win of the year. Marlatt had to settle for 2nd, Randy Hilfiger, Mike Hilfiger and Ed Mills filled out the top 5.
The wildest Street Stocks in the East were up next. Phil Hall led the first lap, but we saw the first yellow for the Streets on just the 2nd lap when Kenny People’s Jr, and Gene Galligan got together in turn 4. Dave Davis grabbed the lead on the restart and left Phil Hall, Mike Williams and Joe Nobriga to run 3 wide for 3rd. Hall went high in turn 4 to bring out the 2nd yellow. Davis took control again on the restart, but behind him was a tough fight for the top 6 spots. Lap 7 we saw the 3rd yellow for Peoples Jr stalled on the back straight and needing a tow to the pits. On the restart attempt, Cliff Moss got turned around to hold of the throwing ! of the green. Finally we got a good restart and Davis ran the show. Williams was running in second, Geoff McNally came around on lap 18 to try and grab the spot from Williams, but couldn’t pull it off. Dave Davis went on to win and be the 10th winner in 11 races. Dan Gordon has been the only repeat winner in this class all season.
The Mini Stocks came out to wrap up the evening’s events. Jason Ketrow hopped out to point for lap 1, as AJ Costly wags back & forth but the whole field gets around him & he keeps it going. Ketrow and Ray Hyer drag race down the back stretch with Hyer coming out on top. The first yellow for the final event waved on just the 4th lap for Josh Mills facing backward in turn 4. The Mini’s got 1 lap in, but Ted Morsemen and Black Rock regular Jarred Hill got together, to bring they caution back out for Hyer. On the restart Hyer hops right out front again, but Mike Buchanan grabbed the number 2 spot from Ketrow and Chad Dickerson came along and grabbed the number 3 spot from him. Ketrow got sideways and tried to straighten it out, but collected Lynn Burrell, Ryan Davenport and Joe Kurtz. During this caution, points leader Josh Mills had pulled into the infield and ended up hooked to a wrecker going pitside. A tough break for Mills, but what an opportunity for Hyer to gain some points going into the Season Championship next week. Hyer led the field to a single file restart as Chad Dickerson and Buchanan fought neck in neck for 2nd. At the ˝ way point, Dickerson had secured the runner up spot, but he worked lap after lap to close the gap between himself and the leader. Hyer went a little high on lap 18 and Dickerson capitalized on that to grab the lead. Hyer took it back on lap 19 &! amp; held on for his 5th win of the season. Dickerson was 2nd , Jordan Dibble, Bill VanEtten, and Ray Speicher take the top 5.
Heat Results
358 Modifieds - 12B-Curt VanPelt, 123-Dale Welty, 17-Lyle Sherwood
Super Stocks – 1H Randy Hilfiger, 15-Glen Writenour
Street Stocks – 94-Dave Davis, 55-Ken Thomas, 72-Joe Nobriga
Mini Stocks – 80-Ray Hyer, 11-Jason Ketrow, 57-Chad Dickerson
Feature Results
358 Modifieds – 123-Dale Welty, 17-Lyle Sherwood, z8-Steve Hartman Sr, 66-Stacey Jackson, 88m-Mike Jackson, 12B-Curt VanPelt, 13-Kevin Chilson, 6x-Dave Dubois, 15-Bill Brewer, 13x-Frank Dunning
Super Stocks – Glen Writenour, 67-Rich Marlatt, 1H-Randy Hilfiger, 11-Mike Hilfiger, 96-Ed Mills, 4-Larry Knowles, 22-Kyle Lefelhoc, 39-Mike Carpella, 17-Greg Galligan, 77-Bob Lubberts
Street Stocks – 94-Dave Davis, 59-Geoff McNally, 19-Mike Williams, 55-Ken Thomas, 8-Bill Shea, 3-Bob Clark, 35-Dave Gee, 5-Henry Miracle, 66-Dan Gordon, 48-Gary Archer
Mini Stocks – 80-Ray Hyer, 57-Chad Dickerson, 5-Jordan Dibble, 31-Bill VanEtten, 14-Ray Speicher, 86-Kevin Young, 81-Don Knowles, 0-Kevin Erdman, 15-Mike Smith, 11-Jason Ketrow
Dash for Cash Results
32-Jeff Hoffman (LM), 123-Dale Welty (Mod), 11-Brady Wonderling (LM), 83-Tim Hoffman (LM), 17-Lyle Sherwood (Mod), 12BCurt VanPelt (Mod)
Late Model Results
Heats – 83-Tim Hoffman, 11-Brady Wonderling
Race of Champions – 04-Bob Close, 83-Tim Hoffman, 71-Al Brewer, 32-Jeff Hoffman
Feature – 04-Bob Close, 49-John Haggerty, 83-Tim Hoffman, 61T-Kenny Trevitz, 32-Jeff Hoffman, 77-Eric Ensell, 71-Al Brewer, 11-Brady Wonderling, 88-Lloyd Swain, 24x-Dave Norton, 9-Rick Isadore