GABRIEL TAKES WIN NUMBER TWO AT THUNDER MOUNTAIN
Center Lisle, New York…..On a night when everyone’s hearts was as heavy as the air, Jim Gabriel Jr. passed Jeff Sheely on the white flag lap to claim win number two in the Dave Mead owned Modified. Other winners on Parts Plus night were Ken Titus for win number one in the Sportsman division, J. T. McKernan got his first ever Super Stock win at Thunder Mountain by holding off his dad over the last five laps, Bill Rampe came out of his season long funk and won going away in the Pure Stocks, Ryan Lund got his first of the year in the Mini Sprints while Ben Bushaw in the Four Cylinder Modifieds and Shawn Mills in the Four Cylinder Stocks added to their win totals for the 2002 campaign.
Sheely’s, a longtime Thunder Mountain competitor, finally is getting it together in 2002 and looked to be on his way to his first ever win at the track as he led the first twenty-eight laps of the Modified feature. While Sheely was on cruise in the front of the pack, all eyes were on both Brian Weaver and Jim Gabriel Jr., both 2002 feature winners, who were methodically working their way toward the front. Without a lot of yellow flag time to slow the field and get anybody close to the leader, it was proving difficult. Also proving difficult was Dave Jenkins who was solidly in second and solidly in the bottom groove. Gabriel was the first to go by and he did it they he’s been doing it the last four weeks. On the outside. With ten to go and no cautions forthcoming, it was a game of catch up for Gabriel. He got close on lap twenty-seven and twenty-eight but Sheely held his line forcing Gabriel once again to the topside of the speedway. As the field took the white flag, Gabriel made it stick up there and went by but Sheely fought back on the bottom. Sheely got to the back wheel of the Gabriel mount as the duo crossed under the checkers. Weaver also got under Jenkins on the white flag lap to take home third and take over the Modified point lead from Mike Colsten. Rounding out the top five was Doug Worthing.
A first time 2002 winner emerged from the twenty-lap Sportsman feature. Former Dwarf Car driver Kenny Titus put his mount into the lead on lap two, taking it from Bret Tonkin. Titus opened up a small margin on the field as the top three point chasers, Chad Cook, Billy Spoonhower and Kevin Jordan started their weekly charge through the pack. Cook got to second on lap fourteen and put all sorts of pressure on Titus but the second year Sportsman driver refused to yield to the pressure and came home a winner. Cook strengthened his point lead with a solid second, Jordan got by Tonkin on lap sixteen and took home third while Tonkin and Jamie Shea completed the top five. Spoonhower lost a little ground in the point chase with a sixth place finish.
Over the past couple of years, the name of McKernan could be counted to be one of the top point getters each year in the Super Stock class along with winning a number of features and usually is was Ed McKernan doing all this. Saturday night changed all that. Young J. T. McKernan, after following in some mighty big footsteps came out of the shadows on August 17th and captured his first feature win ever at Thunder Mountain and he did it in convincing style. He started on the pole and led all but one of the twenty laps and holding off his dad’s charge at the end. Nobody else was close. Dwayne Robbins had his best finish in a long time at Thunder Mountain by claiming a solid third followed by Larry Hillis in fourth and two-time winner Wade Decker in the fifth spot.
JonDale Howey led the first five laps of the caution filled Pure Stock fifteen lapper before the hard luck Bill Rampe took over. Once in front, Rampe ran and hid from the field. One of the early yellow flags claimed co-point leader Mike Wilbur who got caught up in a multi-car fracas and got seriously crunched by another competitor and putting him out for the rest of the evening. Howey stayed within seeing distance of Rampe but he also had his hands full with a charging Bill Clark who was all over Howey for second. The final rundown shows Rampe with the win, Howey in second, Clark in third, Kurt Decker in fourth and Mark Shipman in fifth.
The fifteen-lap Four Cylinder Stock feature saw four yellow flags in the first three laps but when it all settled down, two familiar faces were battling it out for the top spot. Harold Humphrey took the top spot on lap five but lost it to Shawn Mills a couple of laps later, Mills led to the finish despite some heavy duty pressure from Rich Powell at the end. Humphrey also had his hands full with Bob Doolittle as the pair went at it for third. Rich Talada claimed the fifth spot at the checkers.
Ryan Lund has finally come full circle. Last year he was involved in a horrible accident, which sidelined him for the year. This year he finally got that elusive first win. After starting on the pole, he led every lap with Rick Wust, Garry Moore and Dale Pitcher all in pursuit. None of them caught him and He had the win. Point leader Pitcher passed Wust on the last lap to get second. Moore and Jimmy Lawler came home in fourth and fifth.
Tom Fletcher looked strong leading the first eight laps of the Four Cylinder Modified feature before encountering mechanical problems giving up the lead to young Ben Bushaw who proceeded to take his potent #36 to the checkers for his third win of the season. Ken Stafford passed point leader Scott Allen on the last lap to claim second, followed by Ronnie Clark in fourth and Dick Case fifth.
Next week will feature a regular seven-class show consisting of the Modifieds, Sportsman, Super Stocks, Pure Stocks, Four Cylinder Stocks, Four Cylinder Modifieds and Mini Sprints. Gates will open at 4:00 with racing set to begin at 6:30. Thunder Mountain is located just off New York route 79 in Center Lisle, just three miles west of exit 8 off I81.
NOTES: It was a very sad night indeed. Two competitors (one current and one from the past) both lost their lives early Saturday morning. Former Modified driver and fifty year campaigner George Lewis lost a courageous battle with cancer and current Pure Stock driver Harry Uhl Jr. lost his life in a boating accident. The flags were flown at half-mast all evening. The Pure Stock feature pace lap left the number one spot open in honor of Uhl and most of the cars in the field had #55 decals on their cars and one of his former cars, now driven by fellow driver Rich Green, also helped pace the field.
MODIFIED FINISH: Jim Gabriel Jr., Jeff Sheely, Brian Weaver, Dave Jenkins, Doug Worthing, Brent Wilcox, Mike Colsten, J. R. Hurlburt, Carl Nagel, Tom McGurrin, Chris Weaver, John Guernsey, George Kostelansky, Mike Nagel, Shawn Collins, Kevin Ingram, Rick Wilk, Paul Jensen, Brian Payne, Butch Cerullo, Steve Babicek, Dick Sundgren, Mike Decker
SPORTSMAN FINISH: Ken Titus, Chad Cook, Kevin Jordan, Bret Tonkin, Jamie Shea, Billy Spoonhower, Brian White, Matt Smith, Max Mosher Jr., Cliff Pierce, Norm Whittemore, Bret Boyer, Sean Olenski, Tony Vyziak, Mike Drungo, Dan Buchanan, Randy Thomas.
SUPER STOCK FINISH: J. T. McKernan, Ed McKernan, Dwayne Robbins, Larry Hills, Wade Decker, Gary Roberts, Denny Decker, Harold Humphrey, Jamie Hurlburt, Ken Hammond, Skip Peabody, Ken Winn, Jamie Shea, Mike Austin, Fred Velez, Dave Nixon, Rick Davis, Matt Roberts, John Morse, Earl Zimmer.
PURE STOCK FINISH; Bill Rampe, JonDale Howey, Bill Clark, Kurt Decker, Mark Shipman, Jamie Rosh, Buck Mills, Rich Green, Bret Welch, Dan Janus, Bill Leonard Jr., Charley Mosher, John Cooper Jr., Shawn Walker, Don Mosher, Brian Hicks, Louie Gordonier, Jay Weaver, Dave Denton, Bob Mills, Matt Sissenstein, Chuck Alexander, Mike Wilbur, Steve McWain.
FOUR CYLINDER STOCK FINISH: Shawn Mills, Rich Powell, Harold Humphrey, Bob Doolittle, Rich Talada, Jeff Wilcox Jr., Jerry Wilcox, Jay Hayward, Fred Newton, Fred Newton II, Lloyd Twarz, John Coish, Chuck Wheeland, John Wilcox, Jeff Wilcox, Aaron Peck.
MINI SPRINT FINISH: Ryan Lund, Dale Pitcher, Rick Wust, Garry Moore, Jimmy Lawler, Matt Windhausen, Steve Klock, Rich Powell, Jeff Black, Brian Baxter, Jason Wust.