Barney, Meeks, Calhoun and Mannise All Victorious at Can Am

With the sun making one of its rare weekend appearances of this season, the biggest crowd of the season came out on Minfelt Building Supply, Renzi Brothers and Cheney Tire night at Can Am Motorsports Park Saturday night that saw Racin Jason Barney, Jack Meeks, Paul Calhoun and Dave Mannise all win their respective feature events, which Calhoun just edging out Larry Bezner in a photo finish in the IMCA modified feature race.

The big block/358 modified feature saw Lee Gill trying to become the first driver in 03 to win the Dealmaker Back To Back bonus which for this race stood at $3100. Frankie Caprara and Billy Dunn, two of the graduates from the Can Am go-kart track, brought the 20 car field to the green flag of Starter Steve Rickett. Dunn and the Belleville Bullet, Ryan Bartlett, were at the head of the field in the early going. Former Can Am Sportsman driver Ryan Baye made his first big block appearance of the season.. Once again, Danny O’Brien and his 358 were right in the thick of things as the Pocket Rocket worked his way up to second place and was putting pressure on Bartlett for the lead, and O’Brien did take the lead on lap 6 with Bartlett, Jason Barney, Dunn, Steve Hulsizer, Caprara, Gill and Mike Adderley trailing. Hulsizer suffered a flat tire on the 11th lap, got back during the caution to restart at the rear of the field. On the restart, Barney put his Stadium International Teo out front of O’Brien. At the crossed flags point at lap 15, the leaders were Barney, Pat Ward who made it in time from a Fonda rain out, Gill, O’Brien, Caprara, Adderley, Ryan Phelps and Bartlett. Ward was trying to find a way to get past his teammate Barney, while Gill had 3100 reasons to try to get by both of them. Gill passed Ward with two laps to go and was trying to get passed Barney, but time ran out on the Gill Bicknell as Barney claimed his first win of the 2003 season with Gill coming home second, Ward third, O’Brien fourth and Hulsizer coming all the way back to fifth. This sets up Barney to try to claim the Dealmaker bonus next week. Jason won the Bonus last season to be the only driver to do so.

The Sportsman feature this evening was the Kevin Fleming Memorial Race in memory of the Evans Mills driver who lost his life six-years ago the Fourth of July weekend at the Syracuse Fairgrounds. Ironically, it was June 21st, 1997 that Kevin won his last race at Can Am, a Syracuse qualifier for the Sportsman division. Kevin’s family was in attendance this evening for the race which saw 22 cars race in Kevin’s memory. Jack Meeks, a young driver from Kevin’s home town of Evans Mills, took the early lead, but relinquished it on the fourth lap to Jason Potter. Clayton Brewer was making his way to the front. Defending track champion Matt Butler pulled his car into the pits on the 13th lap suffering a rare DNF for the Canton, NY driver. On the 15th lap, the lead pack consisted of Meeks, Brewer, Ben Tucker, Potter, Sam Reakes, Jr., Tim Van Brocklin and Steve Roberts when the field was slowed for a fourth turn accident involving Shane Donath and Lance Willix. When racing resumed, it was a four-car battle royale to the checkers between Meeks, Potter, Tucker and Brewer. Meeks held on for the win over Potter, Tucker, Brewer and Reakes, but was found light on the scales in post-race tech and forfeited his first-place money and points for the race.

The IMCA modifieds took to the track for their feature with a field of 20 cars. Two IMCA veterans, Neal Edgar and Rob Keller, lead the pack with Brian Copp, Erv Miller and Tom Docteur in pursuit. Keller then looped his Dirt Works car in the first turn on the 5th lap putting him to the back of the field on the restart. When the crossed flags were display, it was Edgar out front with Larry Bezner, Miller, Paul Calhoun and Jon Dumas trailing. The last few laps were a barn burner among the four cars of Edgar, Bezner, Calhoun and Miller, Bezner took the lead briefly on the 11th lap. Former winner Rich Keller wanted to be a part of the fun and made it a five-car race for the checkers. On the last lap, it was Bezner on the inside and Calhoun on the outside down the back stretch, through turn three and in turn four Calhoun inched ahead of Bezner. As they crossed the line in a photo finish, Calhoun just nipped Bezner for the win with Erv Miller in third, Edgar in fourth and Rich Keller coming home fifth in another great IMCA race.

Last but not least, the Pure Stocks hit the track for 15 laps of exciting racing they always produce. Steve Gilmore held the early lead, but Dave Pope decided he wanted the lead and took it on the 4th lap from Gilmore with Mark Barker, Dana Aikins and Ken Hamm following. On lap 7, Mark Barker’s race came to an end as he pulled his 100.7 to the infield. When racing resumed, the crossed flags were displayed for Pope, Dave Mannise, Mike Cousins, Zeke McKeown and Gilmore. On the 9th lap, Pope looped his car on the backstretch. He pitted, came back out but had a broken front wheel making him a DNF for the evening. Fran Briant was making his first appearance of the season and was running strong until he had to retire on the 14th lap. When the checkers were displayed, it was defending track champ Dave Mannise winning for the 5th time this season with Mike Cousins home a solid second place with Ed Rogers third, McKeown fourth and Gilmore fifth.

This Saturday night will be Dealmaker Auto Group and Route 37 Building Supply night at Can Am with the big block/358 mods, DIRT Sportsman, IMCA mods and Pure Stocks in action. Added to the card this week will be the Midstate Vintage car club with their cars of the 50's, 60's and 70's. Gates will open at five with racing promptly at seven p.m. For further information, log onto the track web site at www.can-amspeedway.com or call the track phone at 315-658-4431. Come on out to Can Am Motorsports Park for an evening of affordable, enjoyable stockcar racing on the fast, wide half-mile clay oval.

MODIFIED: Jason Barney, Lee Gill, Pat Ward, Danny O’Brien, Steve Hulsizer, Frankie Caprara, Bill Gill, Mike Adderley, Ryan Baye, Rob Galloway, Jeff Brownell, Steve Bilow, Adam Moore, Ryan Phelps, Billy Dunn, Ryan Bartlett, Kyle Wilson, Larry Lamb, Todd Stewart, Anthony Fiorentino

SPORTSMAN: Jack Meeks, Jason Potter, Ben Tucker, Clayton Brewer IV, Sam Reakes IV, Tim Van Brocklin, Steve Roberts, Bill Eisele, Scott Webb, Mark Webb, Mike Teachout, Sammy Reakes, Jr., Lance Willix, Rob Bellinger, Andy Howard, Jim Vock, Jeff Stevenson, Brian Donath, Matt Butler, Kevin Phillips, Shane Donath DNS: Rick McCready

IMCA: Paul Calhoun, Larry Bezner, Erv Miller, Neal Edgar, Rich Keller, Jeff Bannister, Brian Copp, Rob Keller, John Carr, Jon Dumas, Rick Dusckas, Todd Anderson, Justin Mason, Lance LaLonde, Rick Reed, Chris Thurston, Tom Docteur, Terry Gardner, John Mason DNS: Joe August, Jr.

Pure Stocks: Dave Mannise, Mike Cousins, Ed Rogers, Zeke McKeown, Steve Gilmore, Travis Andrews, Jason Rarrick, Fran Briant, Dana Aikins, Ken Hamm, Dale Snyder, Dave Pope, Mark Barker, George Sanford, Chuck Cushman, Pete Cross DNS: Rick Paige, Christina Martin