Tom Rudalavage Scores First Career Victory At Lake Moc-A-Tek
After two weeks off due to adverse weather conditions, racing action
returned to the Lake Moc-A-Tek Speedway last Saturday night. The 358
Modified class saw a first time winner as Tom Rudalavage drove his
Cousin's Convenient Market sponsored #61 to his first ever feature win.
Defending track champion Ralph Mele won his second Sportsman feature of
the season while defending Street Stock champion Mike Loney won his third
feature of the season. Nate Evans picked up the Pure Stock feature win,
his second while Ralph Utter Jr. was also a first time winner in 250cc
Micro Sprint action.
Rudalavage's first win came in dominating fashion as he took
advantage of a front row starting position to grab the lead early and
never looked back. Tom totally controlled the event as only a series of
late race caution flags kept the field within striking distance, but Tom
was perfect on each restart and could open up his advantage once again
each time the green flag reappeared. Alan Kellogg brought his Kentucky
Fried Chicken sponsored #99 home second with the Mopar powered #911 of
Troy Weisenfluh third. Bill Reese and Brian Malcolm completed the top
five. Finishing in positions six through ten were Everett Haubrich,
Billy Thornton, Bill Grammes, and rookies Josh Beierle and Joey Grammes.
In Sportsman action, it was defending track champion Ralph Mele
driving his Co-Fab #711 to his second win of the 2001 campaign. The win
was a hard earned victory as Mele had to battle fellow former champion
Tom Laner Jr. throughout the event for the top spot. The two former
champions put on a show for the Lake Moc-A-Tek fans as Laner pressured
Mele all the way but was not able to find a way past Mele in a great
battle for the top spot. Unfortunately the battle at the head of the
pack was interrupted way too many times as many caution flags slowed the
Sportsman feature. Behind Mele and Laner, Alex Knopka continued his
perfect string of top three finishes with a third place effort this time
out. Anthony Reggie and Chris Hamer completed the top five. Greg Morgan
made his first start of the season and finished sixth ahead of LeRoy
Long, Darren Stout, Kevin Kresge, and Brian Bray.
The Strreet Stock feature boiled down to a battle between defending
champion Mike Loney and Tony Nalaschi, who was making only his second
start of the season. Both started deep in the pack and worked their way
to the front with Loney getting there first. In the closing stages
Nalaschi took several looks inside Loney, but could not make the pass and
settled for a solid second place finish. Bill Saxe led the early laps
before settling for a third place finish ahead of Nick Petrilak and Joe
Krisovich. Mike VanTassel, Neil DiBlasi, Jerry Liford, Adam Jones, and
Jim Hughes Jr. completed the top ten.
Nate Evans picked up the Pure Stock feature win despite nursing a
skipping motor throughout the feature event. Franklin Bush finished
second, the top finishing four cylinder powered car. Eric Schmidt, Jim
Balutis, and Ron Blake completed the top five. Rounding out the top ten
were Ira Landrum, newcomer Jim Martin, Jeff Simko, Keith Villano, and Jim
Sgroi.
Ralph Utter Jr. picked up a convincing win in the 250cc Micro Sprint
feature as he held off a hard charging Richie Hartman to pick up his
first career Lake Moc-A-Tek victory. Hartman, a two time feature winner
already this season, attempted to chase Utter down in the closing stages
but Utter was able to keep a couple of lapped cars between himself and
Hartman most of the way. Hartman wheeled in on Utter on the final lap,
but was not able to make a move and Utter had the win over Hartman, Davey
Franek, Chris Oraschin, and Jason Frantz, and newcomer The second half
of the top ten consisted of Kyle Pickering, Alan Shiffler, Braydon
Winters, Rich McKay, and Joe Hogan.
Racing continues this Saturday night at the Lake Moc-A-Tek Speedway.
Racing gets underway at 6PM sharp with a regular five division racing
card on tap. Promoter Charlie Bray can be contacted at 610-759-0809.
The race day weather hotline is (570)-226-5602.
LAKE MOC-A-TEK RACE SUMMARY
358 MODIFIEDS: 1. TOM RUDALAVAGE 2. Alan Kellogg 3. Troy Weisenfluh 4.
Bill Reese 5. Brian Malcolm 6. Everett Haubrich 7. Billy Thornton 8. Bill
Grammes 9. Josh Beierle 10. Joey Grammes 11. George Hildebrandt 12. Brian
Cobb 13. Barry White 14. Bobby Puckett 15. John Leiby 16. Jim Allen 17.
Nick Barassi 18. Tom Oleski 19. Dom Roselli 20. Mike Ricci 21. Gary
Griffin 22. Ed Strada Jr. 23. Russ Strausser
SPORTSMAN: 1. RALPH MELE 2. Tom Laner Jr. 3. Alex Knopka 4. Anthony
Reggie 5. Chris Hamer 6. Greg Morgan 7. LeRoy Long 8. Darren Stout 9.
Kevin Kresge 10. Brain Bray 11. Pete Gardner 12. Mike Marold 13. Jim
Kledorfer 14. Bob Grammes 15. Brad Grqammes 16. Ron Frable 17. Paul
McCollum 18. Art Bray 19. Rocky Rosetti 20 Tom Gervasi 21. Ted Stout 22.
Jim Babb 23. Steve Kyzer
STREET STOCK: 1. MIKE LONEY 2. Tony Nalaschi 3. Bill Saxe 4. Nick
Petrilak 5. Joe Krisovich 6. Mike VanTassel 7. Neil DiBlasi 8. Jerry
Liford 9. Adam Jones 10. Jim Hughes Jr. 11. Ray LaMonica 12. Danny
VanTassel 13. Brian Duffin 14. Ed Kudrako 15. Tom Herman 16. Alan Chilot
17. Bill Metschulat 18. Jim Sykes 19. David Luff 20. Kevin Simko 21. Bill
Rosengrant
PURE STOCK: 1. NATE EVANS 2. Franklin Bush 3. Eric Schmidt 4. Jim Balutis
5. Ron Blake 6. Ira Landrum 7. Jim Martin 8. Jeff Simko 9. Keith Villano
10. Jim Sgroi 11. Tom Cilurso 12. John Walsh 13. Ray LaMonica
MICRO SPRINT 1. RALPH UTTER JR. 2. Richie Hartman 3. Davey Franek 4.
Chris Oraschin 5. Jason Frantz 6. Kyle Pickering 7. Alan Shiffler 8.
Brayden Winters 9. Rich McKay 10. Joe Hogan 11. Pat Potter 12. Kevin Nolf
13. Greg Stevens 14. Geoff Quackenbush 15. Gary Stevens 16. Nolan Mosier
17. Michelle Conway 18. Charlie Redlich