TITTLE WINS AT PENN CAN
Susquehanna, Pa..8/28/98.....Butch Tittle of Saylorsburg, Pa. passed Kirk
Horton with seven laps to go to claim his third win of the year in the
thirty lap Modified feature last Friday night on Briar's Tiki Bar/Endles
Mountain Stone Company night at the Penn Can Speedway. Tittle's win
coupled with point leader Carl Nagel's fourth place finish close the gap
between them
and set the stage for the last two weeks of the point season.
A surprisingly strong Scott Seman led the first nine laps from
his outside pole spot before Horton took over with an inside move coming
off turn four on lap ten. Seven yellow plagued the first half the race
and slowed the pace and caused a myriad of restarts. Jeff Bronson who's
sponsored by Briar's moved into second on lap thirteen but was involved
in an incident
with Seman which triggered a multi-car jingle just shy of the halfway
point.
On the restart Horton had company. The Z car was in his rearview
mirror. For eight laps Tittle was all over Horton, both inside and
outside before Horton drifted a little high coming off turn two on lap
twenty-three and Tittle was right there to take advantage of it and take
the top spot. Horton went right back after Tittle for the next to
circuits as Mike and Carl Nagel closed in on the leaders. Only one more
yellow slowed the proceedings before the end of the race when Dan
Hineline stopped in turn four on lap twenty six. On the restart Tittle
pulled away and crossed the finish line a couple of car lengths ahead of
Horton. Mike Nagel took home
third while point leader Carl Nagel saw his point lead slip a little by
finishing fourth. Rounding out the top five was Chuck Akulis. Six
through tenth went to George Kostelansky, who came from deep in the pack
after an early race incident, Billy Huff, Jim Witko Jr, who came from
the "B" main, Bronson and Bill Tittle. Last week's feature winner Mike
Colsten was involved in that Bronson accident and lost a lap in the pits
making repairs.
Dave Passetti was the early leader in the twenty lap Late Model
main as he hooked up with Dave Zona in an early race duel for the top
spot. The man on the move however was the Gary Dyer excavating sponsored
car of Curt Tunilo. Tunilo, who started in tenth moved into the top five
by lap three and moved steadily forward. By lap seven both Zona and
Tunilo moved Passetti to take over the first and second spots. As the
field took the crossed flags Tunilo made a power move by Zona to take
over the top spot.
The father and son tag team of Warren and Dan Stone were giving
Zona a tough time for the runner-up spot after Tunilo opened up a small
lead over the field. Zona held them both at bay until the white flag lap
when Zona got a little too low coming off turn two and he lost five
spots in the process, falling al the way back to seventh. The only thing
that kept the field close to Tunilo was the late race yellows as he took
the checkered flag comfortably ahead of Warren Stone in second. Dan
Stone came home third while Passetti was fourth and Alan Coy completed
the top five. Warren Stone cemented his point lead over Gene Sharpsteen
as the latter encountered the fourth turn uke tire and severely damaged
the sheet metal on his Bullitt built machine as he finished far back.
It finally had to happen. Glen Wilcox, winless since the end of
last season. got underneath two time winner Chuck Boman on lap thirteen
and led the rest of the way to win that elusive first one for the 1998
season. Boman took the lead from early season phenom Frank Bonham on the
second circuit. Wilcox got by Bonham a couple of laps later which set
the stage for this front running duel for the remainder of the race.
Wilcox pressured Boman the next seven laps before gaining an
advantage. This duo had pressure from behind with former winners Mike
Frost, Jamie Shea and Dick Vauter in the next three spots. All that
changed on lap eleven however as the field checked up and Frost went
around in turn two. Both Frost and fourth place Jamie Shea went to the
rear because of it.
The last seven laps saw Boman try to mount an assault of
Wilcox's spot but it was to no avail and Wilcox had his first win with
Boman right behind. Third went to Vauter followed by John Green in
fourth and last week's winner Mike Decker fifth..
Joe Cole led the first four laps of the evening ending Pure
Stock fifteen lapper before Ron Latwinski made his statement for the top
spot. Once in front Latwinski tried to fend off the challenges of the
trio of Dave Carp, Rich Keehle and Dwayne Robbins.
Carp got by on lap ten but that was short lived as he was
penalized one spot on the next yellow for aggressive driving and put
back into second giving Latwinski back the lead with Keehle now in
third. Keehle and Carp came together on the restart and Carp went around
and both drivers went to the rear.
With the laps ticking down Latwinski's sick motor was no match
for Robbins as the point leader got by for the lead as the parallel
flags were shown. Robbins went on to score win number five for the
season and tighten his hold on the top spot in the point standings.
Latwinski held on for second while Gordonier came home third. Keehle
worked his way back to fourth and Bill Teribury was the benefactor of an
illegal Ned Finch to claim fifth.
Don't forget next week's it Penn Can's annual SPECTACULAR with
extra laps and extra money plus a huge fireworks display. There's
championship points on the line in all divisions. Racing it scheduled to
get underway at 7:30 p.m.
The twelve lap Dwarf Car feature saw Chad Cook take advantage of
his father Mark's misfortune to score his fourth win of the 1998 season
here at Penn Can. Mark led from the opening bell and looked to be on his
way to win number two before a broken axle sidelined him on lap eight.
Once in front Chad made the most of leading the remained of the race.
Steve Tourje had his best finish of the year taking home second while
Lou Gordonier was
third followed by Alan Barker and Dennis Copp in the top five spots.
BRIAR'S TIKI BAR/ENDLESS MOUNTAIN STONE CO. MODIFIED FINISH:
Butch Tittle,
Kirk Horton, Mike Nagel, Carl Nagel, Chuck Akulis, George Kostelansky,
Billy Huff, Jim Witko Jr., Jeff Bronson, Bill Tittle, Alan Rudalavage,
John Siedlecky, Dan Morden, Glen Knapp, Dan Hineline, Jim Witko, Mike
Colsten, Jeff Rudalavage, Scott Seman, Rusty Harrington, Chris Shupp,
Randy Decker, Rick Virkitis, Mike Fredrick, Nick Jubinski.
BRIAR'S TIKI BAR/ENDLESS MOUNTAIN STONE CO LATE MODEL FINISH:
CurtTunilo
Warren Stone, Dan Stone, Dave Passetti, Alan Coy, Rick Holgate, Dave
Zona, Jamie Griffiths, Larry Dilello, Jason Bedford, Dick Sharpsteen,
Gary Allen, Homer Ferrante, Brad Schafer, Randall Paxton, Rick Hoover,
Gene Sharpsteen, Chad Hollenbeck.
BRIAR'S TIKI BAR/ENDLESS MOUNTAIN STONE CO STREET STOCK FINISH:
Glen
Wilcox, Chuck Boman, Dick Vauter, John Green, Mike Decker, Frank Bonham,
Mike Loney, Billy Marvin, Jason Clause, Jamie Shea, Ken Sparks Jr., Dan
Podwika, Tony Nalachi, Dave Flynn, Mike Frost, Joe Domiano, Fred Christ,
Craig Trella, Dale Baldwin, Rick Davis, Bret Spoor, Brad Butcher, Mike
Buchek, Chris Hunsinger, Paul Rooney, Chris Piasecki.
BRIAR'S TIKI BAR/ENDLESS MOUNTAIN STONE CO. PURE STOCK FINISH:
Dwayne
Robbins, Ron Latwinski, Lou Gordonier, Rich Keehle, Bill Teribury, Joe
Cole, Nate Evans Kevin Simko, Dave Carp, Kevin Cole, Billy Hunter, Keith
Hoffman, Pete Hoover.
BRIAR'S TIKI BAR/ENDLESS MOUNTAIN STONE CO DWARF CAR FINISH:
Chad Cook, Steve Tourje, Lou Gordonier, Alan Barker, Dennis Copp, Ken
Titus, Mark
Cook, Gordie Isam, Duane Knapp.