Kostelansky Wins Battle, Nagel Wins War At Penn Can

Susquehanna, Pa...9/4/98..George Kostelansky of Saylorsburg, Pa.

cruised the last thirty-three laps after taking the early lead from a

potent Randy Decker to take a big pay day by winning the 1998 edition of

the Penn Can Spectacular last Friday on Pump N' Pantry night as Carl

Nagel, with his tenth place finish was good enough to hold odd Butch

Tittle by ten points to win the 1998 track Modified championship.

Decker and Scott Seman held the front row spots for the fifth

lapper and it was Decker who showed his dominance early. Fresh off his

first Modified win ever last Saturday night at Thunder Mountain, Decker

opened up a comfortable margin over the field as the heavy hitters were

mired in heavy traffic in the pack. Kostelansky got by Seman on lap six

and started to give chase to Decker who by now a dozen car lengths ahead

of the field. With no yellows to help, it took a little longer for

Kostelansky to catch Decker.

Kostelansky caught Decker on lap fifteen and began to work on

the veteran in lapped traffic. When the front running duo caught Garth

Tonkin, Decker chose the wrong lane and Kostelansky went by to take the

lead. The race's first yellow didn't occur until lap twenty-eight when

Bill Huff and Bill tangled on the front stretch in an incident that also

involved Rusty Harrington. Nagel pitted at that point and rejoined the

field without losing a lap.

The race's only other yellow flag came on lap forty which

bunched the field up for the last time with Kostelansky still in front

with Decker in second, Chuck Akulis in third, Jeff Rudalavage in fourth

and Jeff Bronson in fifth. The last ten laps saw Mike Colsten start a

belated charge on the outside groove toward the front. He was sixth on

lap forty-five. Fifth on forty-six, fourth on forty-seven, third on the

white flag and passed Decker for the runner-up spot coming off turn four

as the checkered flag flew over Kostelansky's front bumper. Akulis took

fourth and Rudalavage was fifth. Six through tenth went to Jeff Bronson,

Jim Witko, Butch Tittle, Kirk Horton and Nagel who had worked his way

back to that spot from his pit stop. With that tenth place finish it

gave Nagel his first track title in a long time by ten points over

Tittle.

For the first part of the Late Model twenty-five lapper it was

Jamie Griffiths looking to improve his two win total but Dave Zona had

other ideas. Zona took over the top spot on lap three on a restart. Zona

and Griffiths held the top two spots until lap eight when Dan Stone

moved in to the runner-up spot behind the swift Zona. By lap twelve,

point leader Warren Stone had moved into the mix with Zona still in

front.

Just before the second of three yellows flew Dan Stone powered

by Zona on the high side on lap sixteen. As the laps ticked off Dan

Stone increased his margin over the rest of the field as Warren Stone

was having a tough time getting Zona for second. Just before the last

yellow on lap twenty-one Warren got by on the inside and this set up a

four lap shoot-out between father and son with a new player, Gene

Sharpsteen thrown into the mix.

This trio battled tooth and nail the final four laps with Warren

trying every trick in his arsenal to unseat his son but it was to no

avail as Dan crossed the finish line just a couple of feet ahead of dad

Warren with Sharpsteen also tight to both of them. Zona took home a

strong fourth and Griffith was fifth. Warren Stone holds the points lead

with just one more week of points left.

Jamie Shea led the final twenty-three laps to score a convincing

win in the twenty-five lap Street Stock edition of the 1998 edition of

the Spectacular. Shea, who started fifth grabbed the top spot from Chris

Hunsinger and held off point leader Mike Loney to secure the win. Loney

moved into a challenging spot right behind Shea on lap seven and despite

only a couple of yellow flags to impede his progress, Loney could do

nothing with Shea.

In fact as the race wound down, Shea increased his margin over

the field and slightly cut down the point difference between himself and

leader Loney and second place Glen Wilcox who finished fifth. Shea

crossed the finish line three comfortable car lengths ahead of Loney for

the win followed right behind by Chuck Boman in third, Mike Decker in

fourth and Wilcox. There's one more point show for the Street Stocks and

that's next week with championship points on the line which will finally

decide who the 1998 Street Stock champion is.

The twenty lap Pure Stock feature went right down to the wire

before point leader Dwayne Robbins took hold the victory. Dave Carp led

one before the unsung Kevin Cole took over the top spot, Cole led

throughout the next fourteen laps before Robbins took over on lap

eighteen. Cole wasn't done yet as the duo came upon the lapped machine

of Keith Hoffman, Robbins went the wrong way and Cole ducked back

underneath to regain the top spot for lap nineteen as misfortune was

rearing it's ugly head. As Cole was going by Hoffman, they touched

wheels and Cole's right front tire went flat and that gave Robbins back

the lead which he held until the checkers. Rich Keehle, in the hunt all

evening took home second while Ned Finch came home third,

Ron Latwinski was fourth and the luckless Cole limped home fifth.

Next week will be the season championship for the Late Models,

Street Stocks, the Pure Stocks and the Dwarf Cars. Point champions in

those classes will be decided. Modifieds will also be on the bill with a

twenty lap $1,000 to win shoot-out with the top twelve point cars

participating. Race time is 7:30 p.m.

PUMP N' PANTRY SPECTACULAR MODIFIED FINISH: George Kostelansky,

Mike Colsten, Randy Decker, Chuck Akulis, Jeff Rudalavage, Jeff Bronson,

Jim Witko, Butch Tittle, Kirk Horton, Carl Nagel, Mike Nagel, Rick

Virkitis, Jim Witko Jr., Glen Knapp, Bill Tittle, Scott Seman, Mike

Janicelli, Alan Kellogg, Jason Rudalavage, Dan Hineline, Garth Tonkin,

John Siedlecky, Alan Rudalavage, Chris Shupp, Rusty Harrington, Bill

Huff.

PUMP N' PANTRY SPECTACULAR LATE MODEL FINISH: Dan Stone, Warren

Stone, Gene Sharpsteen, Dave Zona, Jamie Griffiths, Alan Coy, Larry

Dilello, Dave Passetti, Rick Holgate, Jason Bedford, Rick Hoover, Rich

Latwinski, Randall Paxton, Jim O'hara, Brad Schafer, Chad Hollenbeck,

Curt Tunilo.

PUMP N' PANTRY SPECTACULAR STREET STOCK FINISH: Jamie Shea, Mike

Loney, Chuck Boman, Mike Decker, Glen Wilcox, Dick Vauter, Frank Bonham,

Ken Sparks Jr., Joe Domiano, John Green, Chris Hunsinger, Dan Podwika,

Paul Rooney, Bret Spoor, Craig Trella, Tony Nalachi, Pete Gulick, Mike

Frost, Jason Clause, Fred Christ.

PUMP N' PANTRY SPECTACULAR PURE STOCK FINISH: Dwayne Robbins,

Rich Keehle, Ned Finch, Ron Latwinski, Kevin Cole, Dave Carp, Joe Cole,

Eric Pribula, Keith Hoffman, Bill Teribury.