DECKER CAPTURES BREWERTON SPEEDWAY THRILLER
BREWERTON, NY...8/21/98..Billy Decker broke into a race long battle between the brothers Johnson and took the lead with five laps to go to get an exciting DIRT Modified win at Brewerton Speedway Friday night. Rob Keller took his first win of the year in the IMCA Modifieds, Ed Granoski scored his second in a row in the 4 Cylinders, and Troy Van Allen steamrolled the competition for his 12th win in the Dwarf cars.
The DIRT Modified feature quickly developed into a battle between Danny and Alan Johnson, after Danny spent several laps in a side by side duel with Jimmy Phelps. Alan and Danny spent the rest of the first half of the feature running side by side, switching high and low grooves, swapping the lead back and forth. Behind them, Decker was moving forward from his 15th starting spot on the grid, battling with Bob McCreadie and Pat Ward and Scott Prentice along the way.
The lead battle continued through a couple of brief yellow flags in the race's second half, with Decker coming into the third spot on lap 25. The lead race became a three-way dance, with more lead swapping and shifting. With five to go, Decker found the low groove in turn four and grabbed second, then pulled into the lead half a lap later, opening up a few car lengths. A last lap restart did not change Decker's margin, as he scored the win over Alan, with Bob McCreadie nipping Danny at the line for third. Pat Ward took the fifth spot. DIRT Modified heats were won by Bobby Melone, Danny Johnson, and Prentice.
The IMCA Modified feature was dominated until lap 15 by Cory Fachini, who withstood numerous challenges from Sean Lias in the middle third of the feature. Rob Keller was coming up from deep in the pack, and slid into contention, moving past Lias just past the halfway point. As Fachini ran the high groove, Keller stayed low, making his winning move on lap 16. Keller took the checkers and dedicated the race to his mother, who had been admitted to the hospital earlier in the day. Lias grabbed second, followe!
d by Fachini, Craig Simmons, and Dane Keller. IMCA Modified heats were won by Lias, Rob Keller, and Brendt Matzel.
The Dwarf car feature was once again a showstopping performance by Troy Van Allen. By lap 4, Van Allen had moved to fourth, and pulled an incredible fourth to first move on the backstretch on lap 6 to take the lead. Eric Crawford broke from the rest of the pack to go into second, and tried to stay with the speedy Van Allen car, but could not get close enough to mount a challenge. At the finish, Van Allen had his 12th win in 15 starts at Brewerton this year, with Crawford coming home with the second spot. Kevin Doll, Bill Teleska, and Bob Bird rounded out the top five. Dwarf car heats were won by Van Allen, Crawford, and Lawton. Mark Weigelt captured the Dwarf car B-Main.
The 4 Cylinder feature looked like it would be another win for Lloyd Hinton, the division's current point leader, but Ed Granoski, last week's winner, found the tacky track conditions to his liking, passing Hinton for the lead. Jim Olin also moved up from mid pack, and in the latter half of the feature, they all battled for the lead. Neither Hinton nor Olin could catch Granoski, who got his second win in a row. Hinton and Olin were chased across the line by Chuck Powelcyzk and Ken Klinkowsky. 4 Cylinder heats were won by John Clark, Klinkowsky, and Hinton.
The Youth Dwarf feature was captured by Dave Gruel.
Next Friday night, a regular show of DIRT Modifieds, IMCA Modifieds, 4 Cylinders, and Dwarf cars will take to the "D-Shaped DIRT Demon". Gates will open at 5:30pm with racing starting at 7:30pm.
RACE SUMMARY-SAM'S LAKESIDE/AKKUCOLOR NIGHT
BREWERTON SPEEDWAY-FRIDAY, AUGUST 21ST, 1998
DIRT MODIFIED FEATURE-BILLY DECKER, Alan Johnson, Bob McCreadie, Danny Johnson, Pat Ward, Bobby Varin, Tim Fuller, Chuck Bower, Scott Prentice, Bill Abold (SB), Jim Phelps, Roger Phelps, Dale Planck, Lansing Petzoldt (SB), Jason Barney, Shawn Donath (SB), T!
om Sears, Bill Gill, Jeremy Baye (SB), Dan Connelly (SB), Bob Ostrander (SB), George Horning (SB), Bobby Melone, Max Phillips, Tim McCreadie.
IMCA MODIFIED FEATURE-ROB KELLER, Sean Lias, Cory Fachini, Craig Simmons, Dane Keller, George Catanzano, Les Hubbard, Frank Caprara, Brendt Matzel, Carmen Vona, Jim Evans, Don Alvord, John Bell, Dick Weiland, Coleen Finch, Bob Bradt, Bill Klinkowsky Sr., Je!
ff Cardinale, Ron O'Neil, Tony Finch.
DWARF CAR FEATURE-TROY VAN ALLEN, Eric Crawford, Kevin Doll, Bill Teliska, Bob Bird, Barry Virts, Brian Cunningham, David Orr, Mark Weigelt, Ed Lawton, Scott Nash, RJ Grimshaw, Pat Pontello, Dave Lamphere, Bob McCarthy, Darren Forbes, Jay Reid, Dennis Johns!
on, Dan Thompson, Lee Babcock, Carl Crawford, Kevin DonHausen, Alan Barker, Ken Gamlen, Gary Sampo, Barb Foley, Kevin Battelle.
4 CYLINDER FEATURE-ED GRANOSKI, Lloyd Hinton, Jim Olin, Chuck Powelcyzk, Ken Klinkowsky, John Clark, Ray Chittenden, Chris Carroll, Mark Warner, Tim Koch, Roger West, Kevan Cook, Jon Amidon, John West, Chris Bargabus, Harvey Calkins Jr., Chad Granoski, Bria!
n Yox, Darik Van Epps, Channie Joyner, Toby Bennett, Brent Hubbard, Ray Thurston, Russ Cusson, Roger Olchewske, Jeff Amidon.
YOUTH DWARF FEATURE-Dave Gruel, Brandon Phelps, Ryan Phelps, Nate Phelps.