COLSTEN, STAGE, SCOFIELD AND MARYOTT CLAIM FIVE MILE OPENERS

KIRKWOOD, NY ... Mike Colsten won the Beacon opener Saturday at Five Mile Point Speedway for the second consecutive year. Gary Stage, Joe Scofield and Reed Matyatt also claimed opening night honors.

Mike Clapperton outgunned Mike Catalan at the drop of the green in the Modified feature and held the top spot for the first two laps. Catalan dove to the bottom to take the lead on the next circuit and then opened , comfortable lead.

Jeff Rudalavage Joined in the hunt, going to work on Clapperton for second by lap nine. The two ran side by side for several laps before Clapperton found a burst of speed late In the race, pulling away from Rudalavage and then closing the gap on Catalan.

Also On the move was Bob Ham, Jr. cases started 12th, Moved past Dick Sundgren four fourth and set his sights on Rudalavage as the race ensued. The race saw only three cautions and ad it reached the latter stages it looked as though lapped traffic could become a factor. Clapperton closed right in on Colsten over the final five laps as they manipulated lapped traffic. Catalan put his experience to good use and held off Clappertan's challenges to scale the win. Clapperton was a solid second over Rudalavage, Hamm and Sundgren. Sixth through tenth went to Tim Olenski, Ralph Mole, Butch Tittle, Jim Witco, Sr. and Jim Witko, Jr. Colsten made it a clean sweep winning his heat, the Part Plus Autostores Dash for Cash and the feature. He was followed in the dash by Clapperton and Mele.

The DIRT Sportsman feature found Bobby Yeager add Gary Stage on the front low. Yeager led the first lap but relinquished the top spot to Stage on the second circuit.

Jim Gabriel, Jr. moved into second on lap three and hounded Stage throughout the balance of the race. Stage, Gabriel and Bill Walters pulled away from the field with Stage maintaining his advantage and ultimately claiming the victory. Gabriel was second ahead of Walters, John Patchoski, Yeager and rookie Eddie White. Positions Six through ten went to Dave Locke, Steve Alger, Eddie McKeznan and Todd Shuman.

The Street Stock feature was a battle between Marty Goodwin and Joe Scofield for most of the race. Schofield tried every way around Goodwin before finally grabbing the lead and they completed lap 18.With a lap to go third place runner Rodney Hart made contact with Goodwin, turning him around and thus being sent to the Year. Scofield took the hard earned win over Pete Crown, Dave Rumsey, Greg McKerpan and Gary Card. Art Darling, Jr., Butch Klinger, Larry Hillis, Tom Milewski and Rob Harder founded out the top ten. 1996 point runner-up Reed maryott took the lead on lap two and cruised to the victory In the Pore Stock feature. He was followed by Charlie Gilbert, Bryan Post, Al Collingwood and Randy Percival. Sixth through tenth went to Joe Rafferty, Hatt Lipka, Jim Palmer, Doug Dekay and Brian Gebelein.