|
Babbitt picks up first of season as Norton, Walworth, Barnes and Schumacher score second victory lane appearances.
Batavia, NY—June 9, 07--By: Chris Rhynold, Media/Racer Relations Director
A wild night of racing was on the card at Genesee Speedway for Pepsi Night. Bob Babbit scored his first win of the season in a wild 360 Late Model feature which had a crash that took out ten cars including the points leader Jim Johnson. All drivers involved walked away from the incident. All the other classes produced repeat winners in which three of them scored consecutive feature wins. Five 360 Sprint Cars were also on hand for an exhibition race to display the scramble format for the upcoming Western New York 360 Sprint Car Shoot-Out. Before the evening’s event, Genesee Speedway had a special guest that dropped by to say hello. Evernham Motorsports employee and former Genesee Speedway champion Kent Peckham and his wife dropped by to say hello as they were passing through town. Peckham builds all the wiring harnesses and looks after the wiring in all the cars in the Evernham stables, along with fielding his own late model that he races down south.
Sprint car Dash #1 would see Port Colborne, Ontario native Rob Pietz pretty much dominate the event as he led most of the five lap dash event. The dashes tonight were a test format for the Genesee Speedway Scramble Qualifiers that will be used for the Western New York 360 Sprint Car Shoot-Out on August 25th.
Bill Tice led the Dickinson Auto Service Mini Stocks to the green flag and spun while leading coming off turn four collecting Bobby Dickinson. Russ Wassner took the lead on the restart with Dan Norton following his lead. Norton showed Wassner his fender in turn three on lap three and took the lead from Wassner. Brandon Aradine powered to third by Jason Hull on the back chute. Ken Hixenbaugh who started fourteenth moved his way up to third on lap eight and moving in on the second spot held by Wassner. Hixenbaugh completed the pass for second on lap eleven. Norton continued to control the race as Hixenbaugh was beginning to cut into Norton’s lead. Even with the leaders closing in on the lap car of Jeremy Barnard on the last lap, Norton would hold off the hard charging Hixenbaugh to take his second feature event in a row.
Heat Winners – Heat #1 – Brandon Aradine, Heat #2 – Randy Barkley
In the Bobcat of Buffalo Street Stock Division, Frank Moyer would pace the field to the green flag with Dan Pries along side of him. Frank Moyer would jump to the early lead and Pries would drop down and follow. Caution would fall on the speedway on lap three as David Downs lost his right wheel and fired the wheel off into the pits. On the restart Dan Pries showed he had what it takes as he powered by Frank Moyer for the lead. Last weeks feature winner Jeb Walworth was on the move and moved to the second position on lap seven and started to challenge Pries for the lead. Walworth would move to the top spot on lap seven making it look easy and begin to check out on the field. Ken Begnouche was pressing Dan Pries for the runner up spot but couldn’t complete the pass. Walworth’s lead would go away as the caution would fly for a fire on the Darrel Moyer mount. On the restart Joey Spicola would move to the fourth spot by Bill Weller as Walworth would continue to control the race. Weller would spin in turn four on lap fourteen but would continue and not bring out the caution. Spicola would move to the third spot by Begnouche on lap seventeen. Walworth would control the green checkers restart and go on to win his second career and second consecutive street stock feature win.
Heat Winners – Heat #1 – Joey Spicola, Heat#2 – Jeb Walworth, Heat #3 – Bill Weller
Once again the 360 sprint cars would hit the speedway for the second dash with the field inverted from the first dash finish. Jeremy Barnard would power to the lead with Rob Pietz in tow. However, Mike Stelter would launch to the lead on lap two and check out on the field. Rob Pietz would move to second on lap four but was out of time to catch Stelter as he would go on to win the five lap dash event.
The Troyer Race Cars Sportsman division would see a first time front row as John Baker and Tim Downs would lead the field to green. Point’s leader Rob Pratt would be forced to park his car as his car experienced a drive shaft issue which would take a serious bite out of his points. Baker would take the early lead with Steve Schumacher settling into the second spot. Schumacher would take the point on lap two before the caution would fall when Justin Wright and Mike Short would come together and stop at the top of turn two. Schumacher would bolt away from the field on the restart but the field would be slowed when Greg Mrzywka and John Venuto came together on the back chute sending Mrzywka into the concrete barrier and almost into the trees going into turn three. On the restart Schumacher would pull away from the field leaving John Baker, Don Spatorico and Ricky Newton battling for the runner up spot. By lap twelve Schumacher had opened up his lead to a full straight and Ricky Newton pulled in the second place runner John Baker and was mounting a challenge for the runner up spot. RJ Kingdollar, driving the Kerry Ball car moved his way up to the fourth spot and was setting his sights on Ricky Newton for third. Baker and Newton would make contact on lap eighteen and Newton would move to second with Kingdollar moving to third. Caution would fall on lap twenty when third place runner RJ Kingdollar would come to rest at the top of turn three with a flat right front tire. Schumacher would again check out on the restart with Ricky Newton in the second spot. Newton would have nothing for Schumacher as he would cruise to his second feature win at Genesee Speedway this season.
Heat Winners – Heat#1 – John Panattoni, Heat#2 – Rob Pratt, Heat#3 – Greg Mrzywka
Brett Martin would pace the Greenlief’s Restaurant Pro Stocks field for their twenty lap feature event. Don Barnes and Brett Martin would cross the line on lap one with Barnes edging out Martin by two one hundredths of a second. Four time feature winner, Pete Stefanski and Mike Townsend would come together on lap two bringing out the caution. Stefanski and Townsend would have to go tail for the restart. Barnes would take control on the restart with Brett Martin holding off Steve Lewis for the second spot. Brett Martin would give up the runner up spot when he and Eric Greenlief would jump the berm in turn two moving Lewis into second. Stefanski would move to the third spot on lap ten and was beginning to hound Lewis for the second spot. On lap thirteen Stefanski would battle Lewis and take the spot away as Mike Martin would close in on the second and third spot. Barnes had opened up such a lead Stefanski would really have to hustle if he wanted any kind of hope of catching Barnes and contend for the win. With the laps running down Stefanski had run out of hope as Don Barnes went on to with his second consecutive feature win of the season.
Heat Winners – Heat #1 John Gagner, Heat #2 – Steve Lewis
Bob Babbitt and Tim Kaufmann would lead the field for the twenty lap BDK Construction 360 Late Models. Bob Babbitt would take the early lead followed by class sponsor Brian Kotarski. Jim Johnson and Jon Rivers would battle Tim Kaufmann for the third spot and both would complete the move by lap five. Caution would fly on lap five as Carl Shetler, Rich Mogavero and Tom Baker would spin together in turn three. Again, the caution would fly as everyone but the top five would rack ‘em and stack ‘em in turn three. Johnson was forced to exit the speedway with a right front flat tire. Johnson would return to the speedway and the field would do one green flag lap when disaster would strike when a massive crash happened going into turn three. As Don Newton, JJ Mazur, Josh Pangrazio, Jeff Maxwell, Derek Boyle, Brian Farnsworth and Tom Baker all came together and to a stop in turn three blocking the track, Jim Johnson had no where to go and ran right into the middle of the wreck at almost full speed. Due to the time to clean up the mess, it was decided to cut the feature short to fifteen laps because of curfew restraints. Babbitt took control on the restart with Tim Kaufmann and Dave DuBois chasing him down. With only nine cars on the track the field was able to spread out. Babbitt had stretched his lead to a full straight by lap eleven. Babbitt would go on to pick up his first win on the 2007 season and become only the third driver to pick up a feature win this season in the 360 Late Models.
Heat Winners – Heat #1 – Ron Mogavero, Heat #2 – Jim Johnson, Heat#3 – Jon Rivers
Sprint Car Dash #1 – 5 Laps
1. ez69 Rob Pietz
2. 6 Mike Stelter
3. 86 Tim Barnard
4. 71jr Jay Pietz
5. 9jr Tim Zack
Dickinson’s Auto Service Mini Stocks- 15 Laps
1. 0 Dan Norton
2. 14 Ken Hixenbaugh
3. x82 Russ Wassner
4. 95 Randy Barkley
5. 37 Jason Hull
6. 8 Nick Skeet
7. 71 Bill Tice
8. 03 Mark Forsha
9. 22 John Giles
10. 12b Brandon Aradine
11. 7+1 Ed Neal
12. 328 Bobby Dickinson
13. 53 Pat Powers
14. 86 Jeremy Barnard
15. 99 Herb Neal
16. 69 Roger Norton
Bobcat of Buffalo Street Stocks – 20 Laps
1. 74 Jeb Walworth
2. 18 Dan Pries
3. 93 Joey Spicola
4. 2z Ken Begnouche
5. f3 Frank Moyer
6. r7 Ron Roberts
7. 69 Bill Weller
8. 92 Dave Bansmer
9. 13 Kevin Mitchell
10. 378 Carl Shetler
11. 07 Jeremy Denton
12. 2v John Fry
13. 29 Kyle Rupp
14. 4 Darrel Moyer
15. 20 Matthew Pfalzer
16. 02 David Downs
Troyer Race Cars Sportsman – 25 Laps
1. Steve Schumacher
2. 11n Ricky Newton
3. 11j Don Spatorico
4. 18j John Baker
5. 0 Stubby Pangrazio
6. 19w Justin Wright
7. 23 Ed Cain
8. 67 John Panattoni
9. 28w Sandy Pembleton
10. 57 Don Ogden
11. 5s Mike Short
12. 50 Tim Downs
13. 93jr Rob Richmond Jr
14. 6t4 R.J. Kingdollar
15. 99s Steve Miller
16. 04 Greg Mrzywka
17. p38 Rob Pratt
18. 12 Bill Hallett
19. 44v John Venuto
20. 34 Nick Joy – DQ
Greenlief’s Restaurant Pro Stocks – 20 Laps
1. 28 Don Barnes
2. 2 Pete Stefanski
3. 11s Steve Lewis
4. 99 Mike Martin
5. 10 Brett Martin
6. 71 Scott Gribben
7. 6 Butch Zimmerman
8. 1fx Mike Townsend
9. 3j John Gagner
10. 12g Eric Greenlief
11. 113jr Frank Guererri
12. 11k Bill Kibbe
BDK Construction 360 Late Models – 20 Laps (Cut to 15 Laps due to curfew)
1. 2 Bob Babbitt
2. 22 Tim Kaufmann
3. 012 Dave DuBois
4. 51 Jeff Bridge
5. 85 Jon Rivers
6. 75 Ron Mogavero
7. 15 Rich Mogavero
8. 93b Tom Baker
9. 07 Josh Pangrazio
10. 05 Brian Kotarski
11. 58 Carl Shetler
12. 45 Jeff Maxwell
13. 1fx Brian Farnsworth
14. 13jr JJ Mazur
15. 42 Derek Boyle
16. 54 Don Newton
17. 93j Jim Johnson
Sprint Car Dash #2 – 5 Laps
1. 6 Mike Stelter
2. ez69 Rob Pietz
3. 86 Tim Barnard
4. 9jr Tim Zack
5. 71jr Jay Pietz
Be sure to join us next week when Dirt Track Digest presents the Lucas Oil Sportsman Shoot-Out plus the 5 Star Program. Pit Gates open at 4pm, Grandstand opens at 5pm, Green Flag drops at 6pm. For race day information call the speedway at 585-343-1076.
For Up to Date results and information visit our website at www.geneseespeedway.com .
|
|
