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MIKE GULAR TAKES BIG STEP TOWARD PENN CAN CHAMPIONSHIP WITH FEATURE WIN
Friday night at the Penn Can Speedway, Mother Nature threatened to end
the racing program early as a line of thunderstorms moved through the
area just as heat races were being completed. Speedway officials chose
to
wait out the rain and the track crew under the direction of co-promoter
Al Wilcox went to work to re-groom the racing surface. After abut a two
hour rain delay, racing resumed and the entire scheduled racing program
was run off.
In the Modified division, Harleysville, PA’s Mike Gular took another
step
toward his first ever Penn Can championship as Mike dove to victory in
the 30 lap Modified feature. The 30 lap feature event started with
Steve
Babicek grabbing the lead at the drop of the green flag. As Babicek set
the pace for the early part of the event, Gular was making his charge
from deep in the field on the tacky, fast racing surface that Gular
called the fastest surface he has ever seen at Penn Can.
Gular’s charge to the front was not an uneventful one as on at least
two
occasions Mike narrowly averted disaster as he made his way through the
field. The first time came when Carl Nagel got turned around in traffic
just in front of Gular, who was able to just manage to dodge to the
inside of Nagel’s spinning car. The second came as he and Brian Weaver
made significant contact while racing side by side for position.
Mike’s charge to the front found him taking over the top spot on the
23rd
circuit as he was able to get a big run entering the first turn and
slip
underneath Babicek to take over the top spot. Brain Weaver was also
able
to work past Babicek into the runner-up position. Over the closing
laps,
Weaver tried to make a run at Gular, but Mike was up to the challenge
as
he was able to maintain his advantage over Weaver all the way to the
checkered flag to pick up his third feature win of the season. Weaver
drove to a runner-up finish with Alan Rudalavage finishing third. Billy
Thornton and early leader Steve Babicek completed the top five. Garth
Tonkin Jr., Joey Grammes, Brett Tonkin, Rick Virkitis, and Mike Colsten
completed the top ten.
In Sportsman action, Mike Lartz won his third feature of the season.
Lartz passed early race leader Eric Griffin on a lap seven restart to
take over the top spot. Lartz then had to deal with a determined
challenge from Dan Pompey, who advanced to second and pressured Lartz
all
the way to the finish. Lartz was up to the task as he never wavered
from
his preferred inside line to earn the win by a narrow margin over
Pompey.
Dwayne Robbins finished third with current point leader Jeff Crambo
protecting his point lead with a fourth place finish. Defending track
champion Mike Loney finished fifth. Ryan Olsommer, Shaun Walker, Eric
Griffin, Chris Wood, and Joey Colsten made up the second half of the
top
ten finishing order.
The Late Models went to the post in a 20 lap feature that was part of
the
Bernheisel Race Components (BRC) Lazer Challenge Series. With BRC
Series
rules mandating a draw for starting positions, defending Late Model
track
champion Dave Zona had some good fortune in the draw as he pulled a
front
row starting position. Zona took advantage of the favorable starting
position as he jumped to the lead early in the event. Behind Zona, Dan
Stone was the man on the move. An early race incident saw Stone
restarting from the rear of the field, and Dan put on a show for the
Penn
Can fans as he sliced his way back through the field. Stone’s charge
got
him up to second, but Dan ran out of laps before he was able to
challenge
Zona for the top spot. At the checkered flag it was Zona holding on to
score the win over a fast closing Stone. Jeremy Randall finished a
solid
third after challenging Zona most of the event. Chad Hollenbeck and
James
Cornell completed the top five. Mike Decker finished a solid sixth in
his
second start aboard the DeLello owned #0 with Ben Whittaker seventh.
Bud
Phillips raced among the leaders most of the way, but a late spin
relegated him to an eighth place finish. Dan Snyder and Jamie Griffiths
were ninth and tenth.
A strong 21 car Super Stock field was on hand for the Trackside
Pruducts
Series event. Denny Decker continued his winning ways as he drove to
his
13th victory of the season. Decker started deep in the field, but made
his way quickly to the front of the field, a charge that included a
daring move to the outside of the speedway entering the third turn that
saw Denny move from sixth position to run second behind early race
leader
Frank Payne. One lap later, Decker took the measure of Payne to take
over
the top spot. Decker led the rest of the way to pick up the victory.
Promising rookie driver Frank Payne turned in his best finish of his
young career, a runner-up drive behind Decker. Jim Howard made his
second
Penn Can appearance of the season and came away with a third place
finish
with Scott Conover and Oliver Gage fourth and fifth. Neil Palladino
finished sixth ahead of Richard Post, Chris Piasecki, Jim Hewett, and
Neil DiBlasi.
In Pure Stock action, Jon Carpenter drove to his second victory of the
season. Current point leader Butch Green appeared to have the race in
hand as he had opened up a lead over Carpenter, but Lady Luck was not
riding with Green as a broken wheel just four laps from the finish
ended
Green’s race. Carpenter was able to take advantage of the situation,
leading the final four laps of the event to pick up the victory. After
driving the Green #56 the past few weeks, Rich Talada was at the
controls
of his own car this week and drove to a solid runner-up finish. Charlie
Gilbert, Chad Stone, and Scott Smith completed the top five. Steve
Polhamus finished sixth ahead of Paul Carpenter. Gregg Brunges made his
first start of the season, finishing eighth with newcomer Dan Mazzerese
ninth and Shane Wolf tenth.
Garry Kinne picked up his second victory of the season in Four Cylinder
Stock action. Gary had to hold off a strong challenge from Nick Grist
to
pick up the win. Current point leader Nick Stark finished third with
Joel
Austin and Ray Swanson completing the top five. John Hoover, Phil
Clapper, Josh Mudge, Dave Crossman, and Pat Murray were sixth through
tenth.
Racing continues this Friday night with a big racing card featuring all
six of Penn Can’s regular racing divisions. The Modified division takes
center stage with their final point race of the season as the 2007
Modified track championship will be decided. The Sportsman, Late
Models,
Super Stocks, and Pure Stocks will all see action in regular features
before their championship events on Sept. 7th. The Four Cylinder Stock
feature winner will earn a guaranteed outside pole start in the Sept.
15th National Four Cylinder Championship event. Rounding out the car
will
be the Tobias Sportsters in their only Penn Can appearance of the
season.
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. MIKE GULAR 2. Brian Weaver 3. Alan Rudalavage 4.
Billy Thornton 5. Steve Babicek 6. Garth Tonkin Jr. 7. Joey Grammes 8.
Brett Tonkin 9. Rick Virkitis 10. Mike Colsten 11. Craig Terrell 12.
Chris Shupp 13. Brian Franko 14. Jeff Rudalavage 15. Bill Miller 16.
Darwin Greene 17. Rick Amo 18. Mike Nagel 19. Jim Corcoran 20. Carl
Nagel
21. Chris Weaver 22. Eric Bonahm DNS: Brian Corcoran
SPORTSMAN (20 laps) 1. MIKE LARTZ 2. Dan Pompey 3. Dwayne Robbins 4.
Jeff
Crambo 5. Mike Loney 6. Ryan Olsommer 7. Shaun Walker 8. Eric Griffin
9.
Chris Wood 10. Joey Colsten 11. Paul Strohl 12. Bob Janesky 13. Rick
Brown 14. Steve Yankowski 15. Casey Plummer 16. Steve Chapple 17. Grany
Hilfiger 18. Bob Ferguson 19. Paul Rooney 20. Mike Nagel Jr. 21. Alex
Konopka 22. Nick Petrilak 23. Tom Witko 24. Jamie Cortazar 25. Greg
Swendson
BRC LAZER CHALLENGE SERIES LATE MODELS (20 laps): 1. DAVE ZONA 2. Dan
Stone 3. Jeremy Randall 4. Chad Hollenbeck 5. James Cornell 6. Mike
Decker 7. Ben Whittaker 8. Bud Phillips 9. Dan Snyder 10. Jamie
Griffiths
11. Keith Mudge 12. Curt Tunillo 13. Jim O’Hara 14. Tracy Gregory 15.
Bill Ropp 16. Randall Paxton 17. Junior Grebe
TRACKSIDE PRODUCTS SERIES SUPER STOCKS (20 laps): 1. DENNY DECKER 2.
Frank Payne 3. Jim Howard 4. Scott Conover 5. Oliver Gage 6. Neil
Palladino 7. Richard Post 8. Chris Piasecki 9. Jim Hewett 10. Neil
DiBalsi 11. Matt Holmes 12. Tom Herman 134. Mark Hiller 14. James
Millard
15. Jim Sykes 16. Chris Strohl 17. Doug Polhamus 18 Fred Christ 19.
Jason
Rhodes DNS: Carl Heater, Dick Koch
PURE STOCKS (20 laps) 1. JON CARPENTER 2. Rich Talada 3. Charlie
Gilbert
4. Chad Stone 5. Scott Smith 6. Steve Polhamus 7. Paul Carpenter 8.
Greg
Brunges 9. Dan Mazzarese 10. Shane Wolf 11. Mahlon Shoemaker 12. Butch
Green 13. Dee Ramey 14. John Cooper 15. Chris Shimer 16. Matt Spencer
DNS: Ryan Stone
FOUR CYLINDER STOCKS (12 laps) 1. GARY KINNE 2. Nick Grist 3. Nick
Stark
4. Joel Austin 5. Ray Swanson 6. John Hoover 7. Phil Clapper 8. Josh
Mudge 9. Dave Crossman 10. Pat Murray 11. Dan Wood DNS: Leo Shew
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