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-Jamie Cortazar scores first career Sportsman victory
Windsor, NY’s Craig Terrell topped Friday night’s 30 lap Modified feature
on Rob’s Market/Susquehanna Beverage night at the Penn Can Speedway.
Jamie Cortazar drove to his first career Sportsman feature while Tracy
Gregory won his fifth Late Model feature of the season. Defending Super
Stock champion Denny Decker continued his winning ways as he won his
eleventh Super Stock feature of the season. Butch Green won his seventh
Pure Stock feature with John Hoover earning his fourth Four Cylinder
Stock win of the season.
Craig Terrell jumped to the lead as the green flag waved to start the 30
lap Modified feature. Terrell dominated the early portion of the feature
as he was able to open up a lead aboard his Champion Builders Teo Pro
Car. While Terrell was leading the event, the man on the move was current
point leader Mike Gular, who quickly made his way into the top five,
eventually moving to second behind Terrell.
The caution flag would erase Terrell’s big lead and put Gular right on
Terrell’s rear bumper, setting up a battle that would go right down to
the finish. A couple of more caution flags in the closing laps would slow
the action and keep the field bunched up. Each restart would find Gular
attempting to make a dive to the inside of Terrell, but each time Craig
was able to hold off the challenge.
The battle for the top spot would rage all the way to the finish as Gular
pressured Terrell all the way to the finish. Terrell was up to the
challenge as he was able to keep Gular behind him as the laps wound down.
Terrell flashed under the checkered flag just ahead of Gular to earn a
hard fought victory. Gular settled for a strong runner-up finish to
extend his point lead in his bid for his first Penn Can championship.
Brett Tonkin drove to a third place finish with Billy Thornton Jr. and
Rick Virkitis rounding out the top five finishers. Joey Grammes finished
sixth with Brian Weaver, Jeff Rudalavage, Chris Shupp, and Mike Nagel
completing the top ten finishing order.
For the second consecutive week, the Sportsman division saw a first time
winner as Throop, Pa’s Jamie Cortazar drove to his first career Sportsman
victory. Cortazar took advantage of an up-front starting position to grab
the lead at the start of the 20 lap feature. Though he would lead all 20
laps, it was far from and easy win for Cortazar. Over the second half of
the event, Cortazar had plenty of company at the head of the field as
defending track champion Mike Loney and Jeff Crambo were both in position
to challenge Cortazar.
A caution flag on the 18th circuit set up a two lap dash to the finish
with Cortazar scored as the race leader and Crambo in the runner-up
position. On the restart, Crambo made a move to the low side of Cortazar
as they entered the first turn. Jeff was able to pull alongside, but
Cortazar got a big run off the outside of turn two and was able to carry
enough momentum out of the turn to move back past Crambo down the
backstretch and into the third turn. This would prove to be the decisive
point in the race as Cortazar was able to hang onto the lead and drive on
to victory. Crambo finished a solid second, and in a show of
sportsmanship came to victory lane to offer congratulations to Cortazar.
Defending Sportsman champion Mike Loney finished third with Chris wood
and Mike Nagel Jr. fourth and fifth. Dwayne Robbins finished sixth with
ASCS Sprint Car star George Suprick seventh in his first Sportsman start
of the season aboard the Lartz Racing back-up car. Shaun Walker, Mike
Lartz, and Rick Brown completed the top ten.
In the 20 lap Late Model feature, Dalton, Pa’s Tracy Gregory out dueled
defending track champion Dave Zona to pick up his fifth victory of the
2007 season. The two veterans put on a show, racing several laps side by
side as they fought for the lead. Gregory was able to utilize the outside
groove to his advantage, holding off Zona to pick up the win with Zona
settling for a runner-up finish. Jamie Griffiths drove his Ford powered
machine to a third place finish with Jeremy Randall fourth. Dan Stone
started at the rear of the field but charged through the pack to finish
fifth. Bud Phillips, Chad Hollenbeck, Randall Paxton, Keith Mudge, and
Dan Snyder were sixth through tenth respectively.
Denny Decker continued his domination of the Super Stock division as the
Afton, NY veteran drove to his twelfth victory of the season. Decker
slipped past early leader Chris Strohl on the 14th lap to take over the
top spot, then led the final six laps to pick up the win. Strohl earned a
solid runner-up finish with Doug Polhamus, Tom Herman, and Pat Nolan
completing the top five. Frank Payne finished sixth ahead of Rich Post
and Matt Holmes. Darren Stout ran in the top five most of the event but a
flat tire on the final lap dropped him to ninth while James Millard
rounded out the top ten.
Butch Green out dueled twin brother Rich as the Mirror Image Racing Team
swept the top two positions in the 2o lap Pure Stock feature. Butch
worked past early race leader Charlie Gilbert to take over the top spot
then held off a late run from his brother to pick up the win. Gilbert
finished third with Shane Wolf and Tom Garren third through fifth. Ryan
Stone, Dee Ramey, Mike Coddington, Carl Shiner, and Chad Stone scored
sixth through tenth.
John Hoover topped the Four Cylinder Stock feature to earn his fourth win
of the season. Nick Stark led the early stages before Hoover drove past
to take over the top spot. Stark hung on to finish second over a fast
closing Nick Grist. Gary Kinne and Leo Shew completed the top five.
Racing continues this Friday night with a big racing card featuring the
return of the ASCS Patriot Sprint cars. The Patriot Sprints will be
making up their feature that was rained out back in June plus running a
complete show. The Modified, Sportsman, Late Models, Super Stocks, and
Pure Stocks will all be in action as well. The Late Models, super Stocks,
and Pure Stocks will be running a features only format. Racing gets
underway at 7:15 PM. For all of the latest news and up to date
information, log onto the speedway’s official website at www.penncan.com
RACE SUMMARY:
MODIFIEDS (30 laps): 1. CRAIG TERRELL 2. Mike Gular 3. Brett Tonkin 4.
Billy Thornton 5. Rick Virkitis 6. Joey Grammes 7. Brian Weaver 8. Jeff
Rudalavage 9. Chris Shupp 10. Mike Nagel 11. Carl Nagel 12. Chad Cook 13.
Brian Franko 14. Alan Rudalavage 15. Mike Colsten 16. Darwin Greene 17.
Bill Miller 18. Jim Corcoran 19. Brian Corcoran 20. Scott Ferrier 21.
Steve Babicek 22. Bobby Trapper 23. Garth Tonkin Jr. 24. Jason Rudalavage
SPORTSMAN (20 laps): 1. JAMIE CORTAZAR 2. Jeff Crambo 3. Mike Loney 4.
Chris Wood 5. Mike Nagel Jr. 6. Dwayne Robbins 7. George Suprick 8. Shaun
Walker 9. Mike Lartz 10. Rick Brown 11. Joey Colsten 12. Ryan olsommer
13. Eric Griffin 14. Alex Konopka 15. Nick Petrilak 16. Casey Plummer 17.
Bob Janesky 18. Paul Strohl 19. Steve Chapple 20. Steve Yankowski 21. Dan
Pompey 22. Paul Rooney 23. Tom Witko 24. Gary Card Jr.
LATE MODELS (20 laps): 1. TRACY GREGORY 2. Dave Zona 3. Jamie Griffiths
4. Jeremy Randall 5. Dan Stone 6. Bud Phillips 7. Chad Hollenbeck 8.
Randall Paxton 9. Keith Mudge 10. Dan Snyder 11. Ben Whittaker 12. Junior
Grebe 13. Bill Ropp 14. Brett Spoor 15. Jim O’Hara
SUPER STOCKS (20 laps): 1. DENNY DECKER 2. Chris Strohl 3. Doug Polhamus
4. Tom Herman 5. Pat Nolan 6. Frank Payne 7. Rich Post 8. Matt Holmes
9.Darren Stout 10. James Millard 11. Jason Rhodes 12. Dick Koch 13. Scott
Conover 14. Jim Sykes 15. Mark Hiller DQ: David Brown
PURE STOCKS (20 laps): 1. BUTCH GREEN 2. Rich Green 3. Charlie Gilbert 4.
Shane Wolf 5. Tom Garren 6. Ryan Stone 7. Dee Ramey 8. Mike Coddington 9.
Carl Shimer 10. Chad Stone 11. Jon Carpenter 12. Steve Polhamus 13. Scott
Smith 14. Eric Beach
FOUR CYLINDER STOCKS (12 laps): 1. JOHN HOOVER 2. Nick Stark 3. Nick
Grist 4. Gary Kinne 5. Leo Shew 6. Mike Taylor 7. Pat Murray 8. Robbie
Welsh DNS: John Darah |
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