|
Decker, Johnson, Juhl, Behron & Peckham Knock Down Cayuga Co. Wins
Weedsport, NY – September 2, 2007 – By Gary M. Spaid, Cayuga County Fair Speedway PR
Track experience paid big dividends for Billy Decker and Alan Johnson on Sunday as the multi-time Weedsport track champions and feature winners each took their first lead two-thirds of the way through in the Advance Auto Parts Super DIRTcar Series Big-Block Modified Twin 53s presented by the Finger Lakes Radio Group and the Stafford Auto Group and coasted on to $3,000 victories at Cayuga County Fair Speedway.
John Juhl II and John Behron picked up DIRTcar Sportsman Modified feature wins Sunday, each winning 25-lap races while Nathan Peckham scored a narrow victory in the 20-lap UMP/DIRTcar Street Stock finale.
Decker started ninth in the lid-lifter and slowly worked his way forward in the LJL Motorsports no. 91 Gypsum Wholesalers-Stadium Int'l-Quality Hardwoods/Bicknell mount, overtaking 2007 Cayuga County points champion Jimmy Phelps on lap 36 and maintaining on for a four car-length victory margin at the stripe. Phelps secured runner-up laurels at the line followed by Steve Paine, Advance Auto Parts Series points leader Tim Fuller and Alan Johnson.
“The car was really good tonight, the guys made some changes before the feature and they panned out,” said Decker, following both his third tour win of the year in the Advance Auto Parts Series and first since 2003 at Cayuga County, a track at which he owns three season titles. “It was a tough deal out there, got three-wide one time with Matt (Sheppard) and we got clobbered a little bit then Brett (Hearn) came to the bottom and I couldn’t get out of there fast enough and got clobbered a little bit again. I really appreciate just to finish the race, it shows what a great job the crew does preparing the car. It took a little beating up tonight and still got the job done.”
Decker re-drew ‘9’ to invert the first five rows of the grid and when the green flag flew to begin round two, front row starter Hearn out-dragged pole-sitter Ryan Phelps to take an early lead in the 53-lap nightcap. Unlike the initial outing, the second race ran smoothly under green flag conditions until lap 11 when Dave Rauscher got sideways in turn two, was rammed by Russ Hefti and collected Joe Beyea to end the night for each. By lap 15 the top-three of Hearn, Phelps and Tomkins stayed the same with Alan Johnson and Paine hovering among the fast five.
‘A.J. Slideways’ moved in quickly to challenge Hearn and after a handful of laps jockeying side-by-side, grabbed his first lead on lap 36. DIRTcar NorthEast’s all-time winningest drivers swapped the point back and forth four times over the next six laps, with Johnson forging the final lead change on lap 42. Johnson never flinched after that and opened up a dozen car-length advantage over Hearn at the stripe. Phelps was officially crowned the 2007 Cayuga County Fair Speedway points king following his second top-three tally of the night, with Danny Johnson and Decker rounding out the final top-five.
“The car was good all night, just not too good in qualifying for some reason,” said Johnson, the seven-time and defending points champion at Cayuga County after posting his 58th career Big-Block feature win at the home of DIRTcar NorthEast. “We just can’t get it to go early on but when the track gets slick its dynamite.”
“Brett was good in no man’s land, it was pretty slick up top and I was getting some pretty good bite down low. After I got by him I moved up a little where it took rubber in the middle and I decided to stay there. It was better to start in the top-10 (for the 2nd race) especially when there’s only 50 laps. You really need to start up front … if we could just qualify better we’d be all set,” figured Johnson, after registering his second Advance Auto Parts Series win of the season which was just the fourth top-five tally in 21 outings for the driver of the yellow Wallace Stacey-owned no. 14j Bully's Truck Stop-CFF, Inc./Bicknell entry. Johnson, DIRTcar NorthEast’s all-time Big-Block Modified winner, set a new track record in Integra Shocks Time Trials last year at CCFS en route to claiming the 100-lap feature event.
On the Sportsman card, Juhl had won a feature before yet Behron was still in search of hos first so his victory lane celebration that carried on for five minutes was worth the price of admission.
“I just kept tracking sideways a little in the fourth turn and tried to keep it straight,” Behron related. His statement was followed by a “Yeah! Yippee and Woooo….” He danced on the roof of his car and waved the checkered flagged at the grandstands. He stated his engine was a two year old crate motor, but it was working fine.
The start of the first, rain-delayed Sportsman feature from August 12, saw pole sitter Keith Hotchkiss take the lead, only to have the yellow flew for a multi car accident in the first turn. Hotchkiss would lead until lap 12, when John Juhl II pulled to his outside down the front stretch. These two raced side-by-side, until Juhl II was able to pull away. Jeremy Pitcher, who was looking to widen the point’s gap over rivals Shawn Donath and Tim Currier, took second from Hotchkiss and attempted to run down Juhl II. A last lap effort fell short and Juhl II took his second feature win of the year. He was followed across the finish line by Pitcher, Hotchkiss, Dan Sellen and Anthony Steiner.
“My uncle Tom helped me to set up the car today,” commented Juhl II. He then proceed to redraw number 11, to invert that many for the start of the second feature.
The second 25-lap feature saw pole sitter Kevin Ridley take the early lead followed by John Behron. All Pitcher had to do was to start the feature and don’t finish worse then 18th to win the Sportsman track title.
A number of yellows slowed the race, many times for multi-car accidents as thirty cars started each feature event. Point-hunter Tim Currier, saw his race end on lap 10 exiting the fourth turn and spinning against the wall. The restart saw John Behron take the lead and start to stretch out a lead. One lap latter it was Donath, who blasted into second and took off after Behron.
A yellow on lap 14, bunched the field together, but Behron was up to the challenge and went on to pull away from Donath. Over the course of the final few laps Behron stretched out his lead. Donath came home in second followed by Ridley, Justin Wright and Pitcher, whose fifth place finish was more then enough to secure the Cayuga County DIRTcar Sportsman track tile.
Donath finished second in points 28 back from Pitcher. Currier rounded out his season with a third in points. Rookie driver Mike Mahaney came home fourth in track points followed by Juhl II in fifth. This victory lane interview was quite colorful and may go down as one of the happiest in track history.
The UMP Street Stocks took to the track with 13 entries for a feature-only finale. Following Steve Woodworth leading the first lap, Nathan Peckham used the outside grove to take the lead. Dave Mannise latched onto Peckham’s rear bumper and hounded Peckham till a yellow on lap 13. Suddenly Mannise was not longer in the picture, but in the pits and Phil Marsden was now running second. But on the charge, as he had been the night before at Canandaigua, Mike Welch was strong in third. Welch tried an inside move on the final lap. He did get second from Marsden, but failed to get by Peckham.
Peckham, Welch, Marsden, Nick Rizzo and Woodworth completed the top five. Rizzo’s fourth place netted him his first track title in his career. For Peckham it was his seventh DIRTcar UMP feature win of the year. “I just kept the car to the high side,” stated Peckham. “The track was really tacky up there.” As for Rizzo, “These guys at Cayuga County have been great to race with this year. Most of the year this track has had a beautiful surface and been a lot of fun to race.”
The 2007 season officially concludes in Weedsport the month of October with a trio of special events highlighting the autumn agenda.
During Super DIRT Week XXXVI, Cayuga County hosts a Caprara Bros. Outdoor Toy Store Mr. DIRTcar Street Stock Super Series showdown plus an ESDCA Mod Lite/New York Modified Midget twin-bill on Friday, October 5, then comes back the next night with the popular ‘Win & You’re In Twins’ for Modifieds along with a full show of BRP Late Models. The 'Goblin 200' BattleKarz Championship arrives for full-fender stockers on Sunday, Oct. 28 with all the action starting at 1 p.m.
ADVANCE AUTO PARTS SUPER DIRTcar SERIES NIGHT SUMMARY
UMP/DIRTcar STREET STOCK
FEATURE (20-laps): NATHAN PECKHAM, Mike Welch, Phil Marsden, Nick Rizzo, Steve Woodworth, Bobby Boynton, Jim Wallace, Kevin Collins, Van Grant, Chris Guererri, George LaVare Sr., Dave Mannise, and Mark Alnut.
DIRTcar SPORTSMAN MODIFIED
FEATURE (25-laps): JOHN JUHL II, Jeremy Pitcher, Keith Hotchkiss, Dan Sellen, Anthony Steiner, John Behron, Shawn Donath, Michael Storms, James Spano, Kevin Ridley, Mike Conrow, Justin Wright, Tim Currier, Todd Town, John Venuto, Steve Crouse, Brett Ford, Mark Dixon, Steve Planck, Marcus Dinkins, Rick Quick, John Fitzsimmons, Fran Hilton, Alan Fink, John Juhl, Mike Mahaney, Bill Coleman, Jeff Isabell Jr., Danny Varin, John Petrowicz.
FEATURE (25-laps): JOHN BEHRON, Shawn Donath, Kevin Ridley, Justin Wright, Jeremy Pitcher, John Venuto, Mike Conrow, Michael Storms, Anthony Steiner, Steve Crouse, John Petrowicz, Jeff Isabell Jr., Alan Fink, Todd Town, Danny Varin, Mark Dixon, James Spano, Mike Mahaney, John Juhl II, Marcus Dinkins, Brett Ford, Dan Sellen, Keith Hotchkiss, John Juhl, Rick Quick, Steve Planck, Tim Currier, Fran Hilton, Bill Coleman.
DIRTcar BIG-BLOCK MODIFIED
HEAT 1: Paine, Sheppard, Planck, Cozze, R.Phelps.
HEAT 2: Decker, Hearn, J.Phelps, Beardsley, Bowman.
HEAT 3: Fuller, D.Johnson, Tonkin, Bower, A.Johnson.
HEAT 4: Haers, Bates, Podsiadlo, Hefti, Bellinger.
CONSI 1: Tomkins, Isabell, Tittle, Homan, Beyea.
CONSI 2: Dunn, C.Phelps, Coffey, Rauscher, Vitale.
ADVANCE AUTO PARTS FEATURES
#1 (53-laps): BILLY DECKER, Jimmy Phelps, Steve Paine, Tim Fuller, Alan Johnson, Gary Tomkins, Matt Sheppard, Brett Hearn, Ryan Phelps, Vic Coffey, Danny Johnson, Kevin Bates, Billy Dunn, Dale Planck, Jeff Isabell, Derrick Podsiadlo, Frank Cozze, Chad Homan, Sean Beardsley, Chad Phelps, Rob Bellinger, Mike Bowman, Butch Tittle, Joe Beyea, Brett Tonkin, Russ Hefti, Dave Rauscher, Vince Vitale, Justin Haers, Chuck Bower.
#2 (53-laps): ALAN JOHNSON, Brett Hearn, Jimmy Phelps, Danny Johnson, Billy Decker, Tim Fuller, Steve Paine, Billy Dunn, Mike Bowman, Kevin Bates, Jeff Isabell, Frank Cozze, Derrick Podsiadlo, Matt Sheppard, Sean Beardsley, Vic Coffey, Chuck Bower, Chad Phelps, Rob Bellinger, Brett Tonkin, Dale Planck, Ryan Phelps, Gary Tomkins, Chad Homan, Justin Haers, Butch Tittle, Dave Rauscher, Joe Beyea, Russ Hefti, Vince Vitale.
The Advance Auto Parts Super DIRTcar Series for Big-Block Modifieds is brought to fans across the Northeast by several sponsors and partners, including series sponsors Advance Auto Parts, Hoosier Racing Tire and Sunoco Race Fuels. Promotional partners include AMB i.t., F.X. Caprara Car Companies, Rite Aid Corporation and the University of Northwestern Ohio and the contingency sponsors are Bert Transmission, Bicknell Racing Products, Bilstein Shocks, Brodix Cylinder Heads, Integra Shocks, MSD Ignitions, Miller Electric Manufacturing Company and Wrisco Industries.
|
|
