Can Am Motorsports Park results for June 14th, 03
Can Am has been dubbed The Nasty Track of the North, and it lived up to its name on Saturday night with Wratten Trailer and Spooner Racing as the evening’s sponsors. Visiting victory lane were Lee Gill in the modifieds, Tim Van Brocklin in Sportsman, Paul Calhoun in IMCA mods, Dave Mannise in Pure Stocks and Rob Garafolo in the Dwarf cars.
With the heavy rains of Friday, Friday night and part of Saturday, the track was extremely tacky and fast. In a modified heat, Gus Schmidt and Steve Hulsizer were fighting for the lead when they bumped tires in turn three launching both cars into a series of flips. Both drivers climbed out of their cars, but the cars were done for the night. In a Sportsman heat, Steve Roberts found himself upside down off the backstretch in a pool of water. Steve likewise got out okay, but a little wetter than the previous lap. Then in the Dwarf car feature, John Behrent found himself flipping down the front stretch. John also got out of his car, albeit obviously groggy from the hard ride.
With threatening weather all day in the area, the modified car count was down somewhat from previous weeks. The sun did manage to come out at six p.m., but some cars decided to stay home rather than make the trek to Can Am. The feature was brought to the green flag by Anthony Fiorentino and Ryan Bartlett with Fiorentino having his best run of the young season so far taking over the early lead. The first caution came out on lap six for Fiorentino as he and Pat O’Brien made contact in turn one ending the night for the Carvel Ice Cream mount of Watertown’s Fiorentino. When racing resumed, it was Pat O’Brien finding the tacky track to his liking and putting his Troyer mount out front with Lee Gill, Frankie Caprara, Jason Barney and Bartlett in tow. Caprara saw his night come to an end on the seventh lap when he broke a rear end slider. O’Brien also went pit side under the same caution. When the green came back out, it was the Hometown Hammer, Lee Gill, putting his Mike Blok powered Bicknell out front for good and setting some wickedly fast times in the process turning an incredible 18.364 lap late in the race and running consistent 18.4's many laps. Jason Barney also had his Teo working to perfection until the last lap when he developed engine problems and limped home to the checkers behind Gill. Danny O’Brien’s small block came home a solid third with Bartlett fourth and Bill Gill in fifth. Top five was Bicknell, Teo, Troyer, Teo and Teo. It also means that Lee Gill will have a shot at the Dealmaker Back To Back Challenge money next week which should be at the $3100 level. It was also Gill’s second win of the season, having one back on May 10th.
The Sportsman feature saw another great race as Brian Donath and Mike Mandigo brought the 22 car field to green. It was Donath putting his car out front early, but it was Tim Van Brocklin who was on the move to the front and took over the lead on the 5th lap. The yellow flag came out on the 7th lap when Ben Tucker and Matt Butler made contact in turn one which put Tucker on the back end of a wrecker for a ride to the pits. The green was waved again and at the halfway point the lead pack was Van Brocklin, Donath, Mike Teachout, Lance Willix and Shane Donath. The caution flew again on the 18th lap for a slowing Steve Roberts car that bunched the field up for a two-lap shootout to the checkers. Van Brocklin was able to hold off the rest of the field to claim his first win of the 03 season followed by Mike Teachout in second, Willix home third, Brian Donath in fourth and track champ Matt Butler making it up to fifth.
Once again this week there was a strong field of IMCA modifieds that saw Erv Miller race out to an early lead over Rick Reed, Neal Edgar, John Mason and Rick Dusckas. It was then Neal Edgar’s turn to take the lead on the fourth lap, a lead he held onto for several more laps. At the lap ten mark with five to go, the lead pack consisted of Edgar, Rich Keller, Paul Calhoun, Reed and Miller. The cars of Edgar, Calhoun and Keller then distanced themselves from the pack and put on a great three-car race with Keller taking the lead on the 13th lap in traffic and then taking the white flag for the last lap, which then saw all three cars under a blanket going for the win. Coming out of turn four heading for the checkers, it was Paul Calhoun just nosing his car ahead of Keller to claim a hard-fought win over Rich Keller with Edgar in third, Reed fourth and Jeff Bannister fifth. A great race won by a half a car length.
The Pure Stocks ran their feature, and once again they disappointed no one. Travis Andrews raced into the early lead, but it was track champion Dave Mannise making his way into the top spot on the 5th lap of the 15 lap feature. It was another terrific race between Mannise, Dave Pope, Zeke McKeown and Dana Aikins, but it was the veteran Mannise holding on for another win with Pope coming home second, McKeown third, Aikins fourth and Mike Cousins fifth.
As mentioned above, the Dwarf cars were back for another visit and 23 of the scaled down race cars came out for another exciting race that was red flagged for the flip of John Behrent. When the green was waved to get racing underway after the accident, it was Rob Garafolo and Troy Van Allen putting on a great race with Lowell Zehr in third waiting for any slip up by the front two. At the checkers, it was Rob Garafolo holding on for the win over Van Allen with Lowell Zehr third, Joe Garafolo fourth and Steve Miller fifth.
In hot laps, Lee Gill ran a lap of 18.384, while Jason Barney lowered it to 18.368. In the modified feature, Gill then ran a lap at 18.364, which either tied the track record or established a new track record. Bob McCreadie held the big block track record at a 18.3, but we don’t know what the other two decimal places were. So, technically we have three people now running an 18.3 lap in a big block.
MODIFIED: LEE GILL, Jason Barney, Danny O’Brien, Ryan Bartlett, Bill Gill, Todd Stewart, Ryan Phelps, Rob Galloway, Jeff Marshall, Billy Dunn, Pat O’Brien, Frank Caprara, Mike Adderley, Adam Moore, Anthony Fiorentino DNS: Kyle Wilson, Gus Schmidt, Steve Hulsizer
SPORTSMAN: TIM VAN BROCKLIN, Mike Teachout, Lance Willix, Brian Donath, Matt Butler, Shane Donath, Clayton Brewer III, Mike Mandigo, Andy Howard, Jim Vock, Jason Potter, Todd Van Tassel, Rick McCready, Kevin Phillips, Bill Eisele, Jr., Jeff Stevenson, Steve Roberts, Sammy Reakes, Jr., Scott Webb, Ben Tucker DNS: Terry Merchant, Jack Meeks
IMCA: PAUL CALHOUN, Rich Keller, Neal Edgar, Rick Reed, Jeff Bannister, John Mason, Erv Miller, Larry Bezner, Dale Caswell, Kevin Cook, Jon Dumas, Rob Keller, Brian Copp, Todd Anderson, John Carr, Tom Docteur, Hunter Grimes, Terry Gardner, Chris Thurston, Lance LaLonde, Justin Mason
PURE STOCK: DAVE MANNISE, Dave Pope, Zeke McKeown, Dana Aikins, Mike Cousins, Ed Rogers, Rick Paige, Ken Hamm, Travis Andrews, Steve Gilmore, Brian Holder, Mark Barker, Dale Snyder, Jason Rarrick DNS: Pete Cross
DWARF: ROB GARAFOLO, Troy Van Allen, Lowell Zehr, Joe Garafolo, Tim Devendorf, Don Fenner, Doug Williams, John Byrnes, Marcus Moser, Shaun Hort, Mike Isabell, Kelly Skinner, Jeff Barker, Kim Nash, Brenda Rice, Tim Burdick, Mark Cooper, Wayne Younglove, John Behrent, D.J. Forbes, Scott Nash, Dan Williams