COLSTEN AND VAUTER SCORE BIG AT PENN CAN

Susquehanna, Pa..7/17/98...There were three first time 1998 winners last

Friday night at the Penn Can Speedway on Main Engines/Line Line Auto

Sales/Mike Petrilak Memorial night. Mike Colsten took the lead from a

surprisingly quick Al Jubinski on lap eighteen and went on to win his

first Modified feature of the year while Dick Vauter waited until the

next to last lap to pass Mike Buchek to repeat as the Petrilak Memorial

winner in the Street Stocks while Five Mile Point flagger Joe Cole led

wire to wire and held off his cousin Kevin to notch his first ever

driving victory in the fifteen lap Pure Stock event.

Tonkin and Jubinski held the front row of the thirty lap

Modified head liner as Tonkin asserted himself early as the first nine

laps of the event were caution free before Mike Frederick slowed on the

front stretch bringing out the first yellow. On the restart Jubinski,

from his outside front row spot beat leader Tonkin into turn as Mike

Colsten moved into third. The Ford powered mount of Colsten was all over

Tonkin and finally on lap fourteen moved into second past Joe Eisenhauer

who'd passed Tonkin a couple of laps earlier for the runner-up as

Jubinski looked as though he was on cruise control up in front of the

field.

Jubinski's shot at glory ended on lap eighteen as Colsten went

sailing by as a mechanical gremlin started to plague the quick Jubinski

machine and he retired from the race a lap later. Once in front Colsten

started to put some distance between himself and the field as Tonkin

moved back into second as Eisenhauer fell of the pace when something

broke in the car's rear end. With the front pair comfortably settled in,

the real battle was for third between Mike Nagel, Randy Decker and Jeff

Rudalavage all waging a ding-dong battle for the third place spot. When

all was said and done Colsten had himself a solid twelve car length

victory over Tonkin, who recorded his best finish of the 1998 season to

date. Mike Nagel won the battle for third, passing Decker on the white

flag lap. Rudalavage wound up fifth. Sixth through tenth went to Rick

Virkitis in sixth, Butch Tittle in seventh, Bill Tittle for eighth, Glen

Knapp in ninth and completing the top ten was Carl Nagel.

Last year Dick Vauter took the lead early and led a lot of laps

to win the first annual Mike Petrilak memorial. This year he waited

until the next to last lap to overtake Mike Buchek for the lead and the

eventual win.

Jason Clause led the race for the first two laps before

departing after a red flag situation brought about by a multi-car jingle

precipitated by Paul Rooney and Tony Nalachi getting together on the

backstretch in front of the rest of the field. The pack scattered and

Nalachi wound up against the light pole on the backstretch while Rooney

and innocent bystander and three time feature winner Frank Bonham

getting the worst of it.

When the race resumed it was Buchek in front followed by a quick

Sean Collins and Vauter along with Jamie Shea. They stayed that way with

Vauter passing Collins on lap five for second and chasing Buchek until

lap twenty-five of the scheduled twenty-seven lap event. Buchek was

garnering mucho lap money as Vauter and now Shea were nipping at

Buchek's heels.

Vauter dove low on lap twenty-six on the front stretch to take

the lead as a yellow flag flew on the field. On the restart Vauter

lengthened his lead as Shea tried in vain to get by Buchak to have a

shot at Vauter. It didn't come to pass however as Vauter scored a five

car length victory over Buchek and Shea. Finishing fourth was Glenn

Wilcox and rounding out the top five was two time winner Chuck Boman.

During post race inspection it was found that Buchek's car had an

illegal part on it so he was disqualified and Chris Hunsinger was moved

into the top five.

For a number of weeks now Joe Cole had started in the front row

and led the first lap of the Pure Stock feature but eventually he'd fade

and somebody else would win. Well last Friday night it was a little bit

different. Some major work was done on the Cole machine and it paid off

handsomely as the second year driver led all fifteen laps to record his

first ever feature event victory in a race that almost went start to

finish without a yellow flag.

Cole's pressure came from an unusual place, his cousin and

fellow Five Mile Point employee, Kevin who is the handicapper there. The

cousins ran side by side for a number of laps with Kevin even leading

lap eleven before Joe took over for good. The duo came upon a lapped car

with the checkers in sight but Joe made the right choice and beat his

cousin by a car length at the wire for his first ever victory. Jay

Bradley came home third followed by Rich Keehle and Wayne Merritt.

The twenty lap Late Model feature was all Dan Stone. Stone,

who's seemingly had a bad luck gremlin haunting him over the last

several weeks, said he almost forgot where victory lane was while being

interviewed after the race.Stone took the top spot on the initial race

and led every lead every lap over the rest of the strong field.

Stone's only challenger came late in the race when two time

winner Gene Sharpsteen passed a surprisingly fast Dave Zona for second

late in the race, broke free from the pack and went after Stone but fell

short at the wire and had to settle for second in the relatively caution

free event. Zona took home a nice third place finish while point leader

Warren Stone came home fourth and Dave Passetti wound up fifth.

The fifteen lap Dwarf Car feature was all Gordie Isham. Isham

led the first two laps before Mark Cook took over and led the next two

circuits. Cook broke something in the rear and Isham regained the lead

and led the rest of the way over Chad Cook who wound up second. Brian

Terrell was third followed by Alan Barker and Duane Knapp.

Next week it will be the Todd Seeley Motorcycle Stunt Show along

with a regular card of Modifieds, Late Models, Street Stocks and Pure

Stocks. Racing is scheduled to begin at 7:30 p.m.

MAIN ENGINES/PINE LINE AUTO SALES MODIFIED FINISH: Mike Colsten,

Garth Tonkin, Mike Nagel, Randy Decker, Jeff Rudalavage, Rick Virkitis,

Butch Tittle, Bill Tittle, Glen Knapp, Carl Nagel, Jim Witko Jr, Jim

Witko, Rusty Harrington, Bill Huff, Chuck Akulis, George Kostelansky,

John Siedlecky, Larry Kelleher, Alan Kellogg, Dan Stone, Jeff Bronson,

Joe Eisenhauer, Al Jubinski, Kirk Horton, Mike Frederick, Alan

Rudalavage, Bob Hamm Jr.

MAIN ENGINES/PINE LINE AUTO SALES/MIKE PETRILAK MEMORIAL STREET

STOCK FINISH: Dick Vauter, Jamie Shea, Glenn Wilcox, Chuck Boman, Chris

Hunsinger, John Greene, Mike Loney, Mike Frost, Sean Collins, Scott

Conover, Rick Murtaugh, Dan Podwika, Pete Gulick, Brett Spoor, Tony

Nalachi, Randy Gates, Chris Piasecki, Joe Damiano, Mike Decker, Ken

Sparks Jr., Jason Clause, Paul Rooney, Frank Bonham, Mike Buchek-DQ.

MAIN ENGINES/PINE LINE AUTO SALES PURE STOCK FINISH: Joe Cole,

Kevin Cole, Jay Bradley, Rich Keehle, Wayne Merritt, Bill Carp, Jason

Wood, Jim Ortiz, Ned Finch, Frank Supak, Dwayne Robbins Chris Conrad.

MAIN ENGINES/PINE LINE AUTO SALES LATE MODEL FINISH: Dan Stone,

Gene Sharpsteen, Dave Zona, Warren Stone, Dave Passetti, Larry Dilello,

Curt Tunilo, Keith Stone, Jamie Griffiths, Rick Holgate, Shawn Bedford,

Alan Coy, Brad Schafer, Chad Hollenbeck, Randall Paxton.

MAIN ENGINES/PINE LINE AUTO SALES DWARF CAR FINISH: Gordie

Isham, Chad Cook, Brian Terrell, Alan Barker, Duane Knapp, Steve Tourje,

Dennis Copp, Mark Cook.