Weaver Cops Second Straight At Penn Can
JUSTIN BARGER WINS FIRST CAREER IN ELS SPRINTS
Last Friday night found Penn Can fans greeted by a cloudy,
threatening sky, but the rains held off long enough for the Penn Can
Speedway to get their fourth racing card of the 2001 season in the books.
After raining out the previous week, everyone was anxious to get back to
racing, and there was some excellent action on the fast 3/8 mile. Brian
Weaver picked up his second consecutive Penn Can victory in the 30 lap
Modified feature. The visiting Eastern Limited Sprints saw a new face in
victory lane as second generation driver Justin Barger recorded his first
ever feature win. Jamie Shea won his third Super Stock event of the
season while Rick Hand won his second Pure Stock feature. Bob Chapman
was the IMCA Modified winner.
The Modified feature saw Brian Weaver take only three laps to
advance from his twelfth starting position to take over the lead of the
race on the third circuit. Wheeling Randy Decker's Decker Logging #9R,
Weaver took control of the event with a breathtaking move in the first
turn. Brian was running fifth when he entered the turn, making a charge
on the outside groove. As the field exited the second turn, Weaver was
the race leader having driven around the outside of the top four cars in
one move. Once out front, Weaver began to open up an advantage on the
field, taking control of the event.
Defending track champion was the only car on the track to run with
Weaver and the two had opened up a sizeable gap on the rest of the field
when a caution flag was displayed on lap 26. This set up a four lap dash
to the finish between the two most recent track champions at Penn Can.
As the green flag re-appeared, Tittle made an aggressive charge to the
inside of Weaver entering the first turn, but Brian had the groove
covered and Tittle was unable to complete the pass. Tittle dogged Weaver
the rest of the way but was never able to make another bid at the lead
and Weaver raced to his second consecutive feature win by a narrow margin
over Tittle. Harry Marvin Jr., Mike Colssten, and Marty Bunker completed
the top five. Positions six through ten went to Rick Virkitis, Mike
Decker, Brian Franko, Bill Huff, and Carl Nagel. Mike Decker, Butch
Tittle, Chris Schupp, and Carl Nagel won heat races. Mike Frederick was
the consolation winner.
Seventeen year old second generation driver Justin Barger picked up
his first career feature win as the Eastern Limited Sprints made their
first appearance of the season at Penn Can. The Montrose, NY teenager
started fifth in the feature but wasted little time in going to the front
of the field as he worked around early leader Jeff "Spider" Thomas to
take over the lead that he would never relinquish. John Lieto made a
late run at Barger, but could not mount enough of a challenge to take
away the top spot and Barger, a former mini-sprint champion, had his
first career win in a full size race car. Lieto finished second with
Bill Bailey narrowly edging out George Suprick for third. Superick wound
up fourth with Jeff "Spider" Thomas fifth. John Carklin, Russ Bennett,
Warren Alexson, Carmen Carnibucci and Mike Miller made up the remainder
of the top ten. Qualifying events were won by Barger and Thomas.
Jamie Shea picked up his third Super Stock win of the season as he
outdueled Brett Spoor to take the win. It took him several laps to do
it, but Shea was finally able to get underneath Spoor to take the lead
with only two laps remaining in the event. Once Shea was out front,
Spoor was unable to find a way past and settled for second behind Shea.
Dan Vauter finished third with Gene Sharpsteen fourth in his first Super
Stock start of the season at Penn Can. Last week's winner Chris Piasecki
finished fifth. Dwayne Robbins, Pete Gullick, Dick Vauter, Rich Brown
and Ken Sparks rounded out the top ten. Chris Hunsinger and Brett Spoor
were heat race winners.
The IMCA Modifieds saw their fourth different winner in as many
weeks as Bob Chapman drove his RC Chapman #6 to victory. Chapman took
advantage of an outside pole starting position to grab the lead early and
lead every lap of the feature event. Charlie Gilbert finished second
with Larry Robbins, Mike Smith, and Billy House making up the rest of the
top five. Kevin Cole, Joe Cole, John Conway, Jason Macosky, and Frank
Bonham made up the rest of the top ten. Chapman and Conway were the heat
race winners.
Rick Hand won his second Pure Stock feature of the season as he
outdueled Chad Stone and Nate Evans to pick up the win with Stone and
Evans second and third respectively. Craig Decker had his best finish of
the season in fourth with Bill Warner fifth. Hand and Stone won the heat
races.
As always, racing will begin at 7:15 Pm sharp this Friday night.
Penn Can Speedway is located on Pa. Rte 171, seven miles East off Exit
#230 (formerly Exit 68)of I-81 just outside Susquehanna, Pa.
PENN CAN SPEEDWAY RACE SUMMARY:
MODIFIEDS: 1. BRIAN WEAVER 2. Butch Tittle 3. Harry Marvin Jr. 4. Mike
Colsten 5. Marty Bunker 6. Rick Virkitis 7. Mike Decker 8. Brian Franko
9. Bill Huff 10. Carl Nagel 11. Tom McGurrin 12. Kirk Horton 13. Garth
Tonkin 14. Rick Whitney 15. Alan Rudalavage 16. George Kostelansky 17.
Chris Schupp 18. Mike Frederick 19. Rich Keehle 20. Dave Zona 21. Mike
Nagel 22. Brian Davis 23. John Gurnsey 24. Alan Shiffler 25. Jeff Bronson
EASTERN LIMITED SPRINTS: 1. JUSTIN BARGER 2. John Lieto 3. Bill Bailey 4.
George Suprick 5. Jeff Thomas 6. John Karklin 7. Russ Bennett 8. Warren
Alexson 9. Carmen Carnibucci 10. Mike Miller 11. Brian Dumigan 12. Jim
Senzio 13. Jeremy Unruh 14. Dan Kazubinski 15. Howard Singer
SUPER STOCKS: 1. JAMIE SHEA 2.Brett Spoor 3. Dan Vauter 4. Gene
Sharpsteen 5. Chris Piasecki 6. Dwayne Robbins 7. Pete Gullick 8. Dick
Vauter 9. Rich Brown 11. Glenn Wilcox 12. Tracy Gregory 13. Pete Sobol
14. Tony Nalachi 15. Nick Petrilak 16. Chris Hunsinger 16. Craig Trella
IMCA MODIFIEDS: 1. BOB CHAPMAN 2. Charlie Gilbert 3. Larry Robbins 4.
Mike Smith 5. Billy House 6. Kevin Cole 7. Joe Cole 8. John Conway 9.
Jason Moncosky 10. Frank Bonham 11. Steve Hartman 12. Steve Welsh
PURE STOCKS: 1. RICK HAND 2. Chad Stone 3. Nate Evans 4. Craig Decker 5.
Bob Warner 6. Nate Shay 7. Bob Stilson 8. Keith Wilkins 9. Everett Cass
10. Harry Marvin III 11. Bob Tyriw 12. Don Lane 13. Mike Lartz