FULL MOON BRINGS 4 NEW FACES TO VICTORY LANE AT WOODHULL
Doreen Farnum
Mother Nature finally cooperated with a beautiful night for dirt track racing at the Steuben county oval. The Sizzlin Summer Heats continued this week, as the 358 Modifieds were the honored class. Heat winners Steve Hartman Sr, Chuck Kennison & Billy Van Pelt each picked up a $500 bonus. The Main Event saw 20 358 Modifieds line up to take the green in the 40-lap Sizzlin Summer special. This was a hot race tonight as the winner would get some extra cash from the Sizzlin Summer promo, plus get to choose between a Syracuse Super Dirt Week qualifying spot, or a spot in the Victoria Open. The Victoria Open is a qualifying race for the Victoria 200 Weekend All Star Race held at Fulton Speedway.
The evening’s sponsor was The Cantina Tex-Mex restaurant and sitting on the pole for the modified feature was Bob Davis in the #20 Cantina sponsored Ford. What a night for Davis to have his main sponsor on hand as he leads the field to start the 40 lap main event. Before the green dropped for the 40-lap event, the Modifieds helped run in some water that was spread on the track at intermission. After a few hot laps, drivers gave starter Scott Colegrove the thumbs up that the track was race ready. Bob Davis liked the top spot, and was able to jump out and lead the first few laps. Then came Steve Hartman Jr. Hartman Jr got the lead from Davis after the restart on lap 5 for a spin collecti! ng Billy Van Pelt, Chuck Kennison and Roger Williams. Hartman Jr and Davis raced hard lap after lap until lap 28 saw Black Rock Regular, Gil Tegg take over the runner up spot from Davis. Tegg had been sitting quietly in 3rd until this point. Once he got 2nd from Davis, Tegg set his sights on the leader. On lap 30, the bad luck struck Hartman Jr when something broke on his ride while he was enjoying a great lead. His hand went up immediately to alert drivers behind him of the problem. Gil Tegg said thank you very much, and took advantage of Hartman’s disappointment for the top spot. Bob Davis ran down on the inside during the caution to cool off h! is tires, but that wouldn’t be enough to challenge Tegg and he would have to settle for 2nd. Lyle Sherwood crossed the line in 3rd followed by Dale Welty and Frank Dunning. With this win, Tegg, chose to take the spot for the Victoria All Star Open, which left the Syracuse spot available to 2nd place finisher Bob Davis in his Cantina ride.
As the full moon peeked over the trees in turn two, the Super Stocks took to the track for their main event. Mike Carpella spun on lap 2, bringing out the 1st caution. Scott Brown got fired up on lap 6 and shot to the point sending Brett Flint to 2nd, but then came Rich Marlatt to take that spot from Flint. Soon after sliding back to 3rd, Flint spun and Bob Lubberts had nowhere to go but into Flint and they collected Greg Galligan as well. The trio got going on their own after Scott Colegrove dropped the yellow and all three had to pick up the rear on the restart. Marlatt was running back in 3rd on lap 12 when he slid high in turn 2 and Larry Knowles drove right on by him. 4 laps later on lap 16 the yellow would fly again as Brett Flint stalled in turn 4 and could not get his ride fired up again. Flint was pushed up to the pits and we were left with a 4-lap dash for the checkers. Scott Brown was out front fighting to keep his lead, as the last 2 laps anyone of the top 4 Brown, Greg Crooker, Knowles and Marlatt could have been the winner. At the checkers it was Scott Brown across 1st, and Marlatt flew past Crooker & Knowles for 2nd. Larry Knowles secured the 3rd spot, Crooker who had run a tight 2nd most of the race had to settle for 4th and Jim Buck got a nice top 5 finish.
When the Street Stocks filed out onto the track the full moon was a little hidden by clouds, but it was there nonetheless. Dave Davis jumped to the front on lap 3 but behind him it was 4 wide racing in the rest of the field. Joe Nobriga got around on lap 7 and ended up facing the wrong way in turn 2. Nobriga was up in the front pack when he spun, but thanks to the one-way radios and race director Jerry Symmonds, everyone was able to avoid him. On the lap 8 restart, Mike Williams got a great run and flew up 4 or 5 spots to the runner up spot in just ½ a lap. At the line on lap 11, Williams and Davis were bumper to bumper, but Williams finally gets around Davis for the lead in turn 2. Henry Mi! racle was hanging on to 3rd, Cliff Moss had 4th as Dave Gee and Geoff McNally battle it out for 5th. McNally would win that battle at the line to finish out the top 5. The Street Stock class is filled with so many competitive cars and drivers. The fans got to see yet another spectacular race as they were running 4 wide lap after lap after lap. Williams was the 8th face in the 8th race for the classy Woodhull Street Stock class. What a testament to this class of drivers.
The final event of the evening was the Mini Stocks hoping to put on yet another great show for the fans. The full moon brought out a few more cautions for this class as they often run green to checkers with barely a hint of yellow. Don Knowles spun in turn 4 but was able to right it without drawing the caution, Josh Mills & Dennis Erdmann were not so lucky when they spun in turns 1 & 2. Jordan Dibble had nowhere to go, and brought out the yellow. A few laps later Ray Spiker stalled in turn 3 as he was trying to limp into the infield, and Scott Colegrove threw the yellow. Mike Smith, Dennis French and Mike Buchanan get together hard in turn 2 when some drivers slowed for the caution lights and others didn’t see them yet. The Min! i Stocks are the only class at Woodhull not required to have 1-way radios and this is a perfect example of why they should have them. In the Street Stock race, we got to see just how helpful the radios are in preventing damage to cars & injuries to drivers. On the restart Joe Kurtz spun hard in turn 1 coming out with a right rear flat. Race director Jerry Symmonds lined the remaining cars up single file to take the restart. After the restart, David Kurtz’ motor went up in smoke under the flag stand, to bring the yellow right back out, and Jeff Stone spun coming out of 2, couldn’t get it fired up again & had to be pushed to the pits. By lap 18, Brian Grant had worked his way up to the front to challenge race leader Chad Dickerson for the lead. They raced ! side by side for the last 2 laps swapping the lead back & forth. As the checkers dropped, it was Grant with the top spot, Dickerson had to settle for 2nd after leading almost the whole race. Jordan Dibble was 3rd, Kevin Young and Ray Hyer who rallied from a late race set back finished 5th.
The Cantina Restaurant folks had a great time at the high-banks for their first time sponsoring an event. They told Kenny Shupp they would definitely be back next year and we are all looking forward to it as it appears another successful relationship has blossomed between Woodhull Raceway and its sponsors. Next week Woodhull welcomes Pembrook Pines Media Group. I have talked about Pembrook Pines before, as they are the home of KZ102 radio in Wellsville where I put in my time during the week. WVIN 98.3 the official voice of Woodhull Raceway is also under the Pembrook umbrella and the home of Life in the Fast Lane hosted Sunday mornings 11am – Noon by Woodhull’s own Kenny Shupp along with Steve Kellogg. Robert Pfuntner, CEO of Pembrook P! ines Media has several other radio stations stretching across the Southern Tier as well as the Keuka Maid and Sarrasins Restaurant in Penn Yan. Anyone who listens to KZ102 in Wellsville or OK100 in Elmira will be familiar with Dakota Lee Ann Summers. She will be our special guest as she will be in town for several appearances on behalf of Pembrook Pines, and she will be here to present trophies in Victory Lane as well.
Feature Results
358 Modifieds – 22-Gil Tegg, 20-Bob Davis, 17-Lyle Sherwood, 123-Dale Welty, 13x-Frank Dunning, 1-Stacey Jackson, z8-Steve Harman Sr, 12-Billy VanPelt, 6x-Dave Dubois, 13-Kevin Chilson
Super Stocks – 87-Scott Brown, 67-Rich Marlatt, 4-Larry Knowles, 32-Greg Crooker, 04-Jim Buck, 96-Ed Mills, 1H-Randy Hilfiger, 5k-Kenny Peoples Sr, 3-Jason Knowles, 2-Mark Costa
Street Stocks – 19-Mike Williams, 94-Dave Davis, 5-Henry Miracle, 23-Cliff Moss, 59-Geoff McNally, 35-Dave Gee, 66-Dan Gordon, 55-Ken Thomas, 29-Chuck Pruden, 6x-Joe Dgien
Mini Stocks – 46-Brian Grant, 57-Chad Dickerson, 5-Jordan Dibble, 86-Kevin Young, 80-Ray Hyer, 81-Don Knowles, 14-Ray Spiker, 7-Dennis Erdmann, 21-Nate Dunning, 11-Jason Ketrow