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Brewerton, NY – On Friday night at the Brewerton Speedway, another first time winner made their way to victory lane. Roy Bresnahan, 35, of Palermo, N.Y., captured his first ever 35-lap DIRTcar Modified feature event.
“The guys have been working hard to get this,” said Bresnahan. “I knew we were close the last few weeks and I’m glad I could go out there and finally get one.”
Tom Juhl Jr. jumped out to the lead from his second starting position as the race got underway with Bresnahan taking the runner-up position immediately in his Enders powered Bicknell.
Bresnahan continued to run second until the 11th circuit when Juhl slid high in turn four opening the door for him to slide to the inside.
“At first I had a really bad push and didn’t have anything for him (Juhl),” stated Bresnahan. “But the car came around and he was sliding on the outside and I found a good line on the bottom where I was able to not spin the tires.”
With the lead in hand, Bresnahan never moved his no. 02 of the inside lane although he had plenty of challengers over the course of the final 20 laps.
On lap 32, the caution came for debris on the speedway giving the entire field, most notably, Chuck Bower, one more opportunity to get by Bresnahan.
On the restart, Bresnahan again drove to the inside as Bower tried to go around him using the middle lane but it was to no avail. Bresnahan held on to become the sixth winner at the speedway in 2007.
“I just tried to stay calm and run my line on the inside,” said Bresnahan. “There are a lot of strong runners here and I knew I had to run my line and not screw up.”
Bresnahan crossed the line ahead of 2000 Track Champion Bower. Bower, looking for his first win since 2003, was forced to again settle for a runner-up finish.
“We’ve been running really well the last few weeks,” said Bower. “I had a win at Canandaigua last weekend and for us to come here and get a second shows that things are starting to come together really well for us right now.”
Bower started the feature event from the 10th spot and patiently used the inside line to secure another strong run but couldn’t make the pass on the final lap to get by Bresnahan.
“I didn’t want to see that caution at the end,” stated Bower. “He (Bresnahan) did a good job of protecting the bottom and I didn’t have time to build up any momentum on the outside.”
Lake Arial, Pa. driver, Kevin Bates finished the race in the third spot. Bates started 11th in the feature, and like Bresnahan and Bower, he worked the inside lane to get up to third.
“I may have had something for those two with a few more laps,” said Bates. “But with those cautions at the end of the race I couldn’t ever get in a rhythm to try and even make a run on those guys.”
Kenny Stafford, of Homer, N.Y. finished fourth and Alan Johnson completed the top five.
In other action, Dale Caswell won his fourth consecutive IMCA Modified 20-lap feature; Dan Williams won his sixth straight ESDCA Mod Lite feature; Claude Hutchings Jr. won the 15-lap 4-Cylinder Super Stock race; Josh Herbert won the 4-Cylinder Enduro.
Brewerton Bits
Heat races for the 27 cars in attendance were won by Bresnahan, Jimmy Phelps and Juhl. The 10-lap consolation event was won by Paul Kinney.
Vic Coffey had a top five finish go by the wayside with less than five laps remaining when he spun all by himself on the topside of turn two.
Jimmy Phelps was involved in an incident on lap 12 when Tom Sears spun collecting Phelps. Phelps raced back up through the field to finish seventh.
Tim Sears made the start aboard a car normally piloted by Bob Bennett.
DIRTcar MODIFIEDS (35-Laps) – ROY BRESNAHAN, Chuck Bower, Kevin Bates, Kenny Stafford, Alan Johnson, Johnny Hill, Jimmy Phelps, Willy Decker, Jim Witko Jr., Billy Dunn, Paul Kinney, Joe Isabell, Tom Juhl Jr., Kyle Lewis, Sean Beardsley, Dan Vauter, Tim Kerr, Billy Price, Vic Coffey, Rick Rogala, Mike Bowman, Tim Sears, Tom Sears Jr., Joe Isabell. DNS – Scott Prentice, Mike Defreitas, Jeff Isabell.
IMCA Modifieds (20-Laps) – DALE CASWELL, Kevan Cook, Rob Keller Jr., Pete Anderson, Bill Anderson Jr., Rich Riggs, Dave Barrows, J.J. Courcy, Coleen Finch, Tim Hearne, Rich Townsend, Brian Evenden, Pete Neff, Larry Bezner, Greg Kimball, Bill Anderson, Steve Coit, Ricky Orton, Johnny Bell, Bob Ridgeway, Dave Talbot, Calvin Painter, Mike Jones. DNS – Les Hubbard, Jeff Cardinale, Tony Finch.
ESDCA Mod Lites 20-Laps) – DAN WILLIAMS, Justin Chrisafulli, Joe Gwilt, Mike Mullen, Joe Garafolo, Lowell Zehr, Jeff Williams, Matt Magner, Jeff Barker, Andrew Schartner, Doug Williams, Rich Rainville, Adam Murphy, Barry Virts, Rocco Leone, Ken Gamlen, Matt Rainville, Mike Virginia, Jeff Blackburn, Mike Rainville, Kelly Skinner, Lisa Thomas, Terry Lapham, Ricky Yelle, Tommy Felicia, Lorrie Herbert, Jamie King, Tim Devendorf, Jeff Herbert, John Byrnes.
4-CYLINDER SUPER STOCKS (15-Laps) – CLAUDE HUTCHINGS JR., Matt Wetterer, Ed Granoski, Chris Kranz, Lee Hartzog, Steve Randall, Matt Fay, Andy Kieffer, Chuck Powelczyk, Jessica Herbert, Chad Dupra, Lorraine Powelczyk, Sam Carista, Aron Backus, Sam Curcie, Eric Kranz.
4-CYLINDER ENDURO (20-Laps, Top 5 Listed) – JOSH HERBERT, Jerry Herbert, Jerry Curcie Jr., Whitt Chilson, Chris Bonoffski.
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