JOE PLAZEK SCORES AT CANANDAIGUA, WOODRING TAKES ESS MOTHER'S DAY SPECIAL
CANANDAIGUA, NY...Joe Plazek, from Caistor Center, Ontario, Canada, took over the lead on lap four and cruised home to his first 35-lap victory of the season at the Canandaigua Speedway on Mother's Day. Karl Comfort became the first repeat winner of the young season taking his second straight sportsman feature win. Les Whyte also joined the repeat group, winning the 15-lap street stock main event. And Mike Woodring led all 20 laps to win the rain delayed ESS feature from 1996. ESS results can be found elsewhere in in this paper.
Bryon Turner used his front row starting spot to take the lead at the drop of the green for the 35-lap modified main event. But by lap four Plazek cruised passed Turner for the lead. It seemed that Plazek had the car to go either on the top or the bottom of the extremely black slippery surface. Plazek would go on to lap almost the entire field, as only nine cars finished on the lead lap.
Three cautions slowed the race, all for minor spins. The most exciting came on lap 27 when Scott Boudinot looped in front of second place runner Gary Tomkins on the main straight.
The top five for most of the race were Plazek, Tomkins, Troy Griffin, Bob McCreadie and Steve Paine. Griffin spun on lap 29 and restart at the rear of the field. Paine exited to the pits on lap 30. This pushed McCreadie into third followed by Alan Johnson, Pat Ward, Bobby Varin, Tim McCreadie and John Moravec. These last six cars were battling for spots four through eight.
In sportsman action Karl Comfort became the sixth different leader taking the lead on a lap 18 restart that saw then leader Mike Button napping. Comfort powered past, but Button made the final two circuits interesting as he tried to correct his error.
Earlier leader in the race was Chuck Graham. Graham lost the lead to Randy Holden on lap two, but repassed Holden for the front spot on lap seven. Comfort took the lead from Graham on a lap ten restart, then lost the lead to Button's patented low inside move coming out of turn four on lap 16. Of course then Comfort regained the front spot just two laps later.
Five cautions slowed the sportsman main event. Lance Dusett took a wild ride off the third turn on lap 16, but did not flip his number 43D.
Button followed Comfort across the finish line in second followed by Scott Ridley, Loren Lincoln and Dale Darling. This was the 200th sportsman race run at the Canandaigua Speedway since 1987 when this division joined DIRT Motorsports.
Les Whyte took command of the street stock main event on lap seven and never looked back. Rick Miller came home in second followed by Scott Fremouw in third in his first outting of the season.
A total of 40 ESS sprint cars were on hand to make up their twice rained out program from 1996. Woodring led all 20 laps to claim the victory in the A-Main. Craig Lane finished in second followed by Lance Yonge and George Suprick.
Racing returns to Canandaigua this Saturday evening starting at 7 p.m..
LIME ROCK SPEEDWAY RACE SUMMARY
STREET STOCKS
HEAT 1: B. Lutz, D. McQuay, P. Schepis, B. White, B. Fremouw, J. Burba.
HEAT 2: J. McGuigan, S. Fremouw, F. Guererri, B. Brown, R. Miller, F. Hughes.
FEATURE (15-laps): LES WHYTE, Rick Miller, Scott Fremouw, Tom Hart, Jim McGuigan, Phil Schepis, Tom Barron, Billy Brown, Foster Hughes, Randy Miller, Dave McQuay, Jim Burba, Frank Guererri, Betty Fremouw, Bob White, Dave VanArsdale, Bobby Lutz,.
SPORTSMAN
HEAT 1: C. Graham, K. Comfort, R. Swarthout, G. Stage, L. Lincoln, M. Galloway.
HEAT 2: V. Vitale, M. Button, R. Holden, B. Krull, S. George, B. Hoff.
HEAT 3: P. Guererri, S. Ridley, L. Dusett, L. Lauffenburger, D. Darling, H. Albrecht.
CONSI: T. Henderson, F. Bagley, K. Fleming, M. Gerber, S. Gray, M. Conrow.
FEATURE (20-laps): KARL COMFORT, Mike Button, Scott Ridley, Loren Lincoln, Dale darling, Vince Vitale, Rick Swarthout, Billy Krull, Howie Albrecht, Chuck Graham, Lance Lauffenburger, Todd Henderson, Gary Stage, Rob Galloway, Scott George, Paul Guererri, Matt gerber, Kevin Fleming, Steve Gray, Mike Conrow, Lance Dusett, Randy Holden, Fred Bagley, Bill Hoff.
MODIFIED
HEAT 1: T. Griffin, B. Turner, S. Paine, G. Tegg Jr., C. Donk.
HEAT 2: J. Moravec, B. McCreadie, J. Plazek, R. White, S. Schrader.
HEAT 3: G. Tomkins, T. Bauer, B. Varin, D. Johnson, P. Ward.
CONSI: T. McCreadie, D. Ruggles, A. Johnson, C. Donk, C. Bower, R. Bliss jr., V. Coffey, B. Gill, S. Boudinot, S. Schultz.
FEATURE (35-laps): JOE PLAZEK, Gary Tomkins, Bob McCreadie, Alan Johnson, Pat Ward, Bobby Varin, Tim McCreadie, John Moravec, Troy Griffin, Darryl Ruggles, Gil Tegg Jr., Chuck Bower, Scott Schrader, Ray Bliss jr., Vic Coffey, Jimmy Phelps, Charlie Donk, Bill Gill, Scott Boudinot, Steve Paine, Ron White, Ted Bauer, Bryon Turner, Steve Schultz.