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-Joey Colsten tops Race of Champions Dart Dirt Sportsman Tour event
The 2007 racing season at the Penn Can Speedway ended with a bang on
Sunday evening with the annual running of the “King of the Can”, which
featured the Race of Champions Dart Dirt Modified Series in a 100 lap
feature event. Jeff Rudalavage bested a star studded 51 car Modified
field to claim the “King of the Can” Championship, his second career
victory in the prestigious season finale event at Penn Can. Joey
Colsten
picked up his second victory of the 2007 season as he topped the 40 lap
Race of Champions Dart Dirt Sportsman feature. Steve “Hoss” Deinhardt
claimed his first career Penn Can Speedway victory in the 25 lap pure
Stock feature. All of the racing action was sponsored by Don’s
Automotive
Mall and Gary’s U-Pull It.
Jeff Rudalavage drew the pole for the start of the King of the Can
feature, and Jeff immediately jumped to the lead as the green flag
waved
over the 27 car starting field to start the 100 lap event. The early
stages of the event featured a battle for the top spot between the
Rudalavage brothers as Jeff’s brother Alan made his way into the
runner-up position and began to challenge Jeff for the top spot. Jeff
would lead the first 33 laps of the event before surrendering the top
spot to his brother on a lap 34 restart. Alan would lead five laps
before
Jeff retook the lead on a subsequent restart. Jeff would continue to
show
the way all the way to the halfway point of the event when the red flag
waved for a five minute fuel stop.
After crews were allowed onto the speedway to refuel the cars, once
refueling was complete and the track cleared, racing resumed with Jeff
Rudalavage still showing as the race leader. A new challenger soon
emerged as 2006 King of the Can winner Joey Grammes worked past Alan
Rudalavage and set his sights on race leader Jeff Rudalavage. After
several laps of hard racing between the two veteran drivers at the head
of the pace, Rudalavage was able to begin to move away from Grammes
just
a bit, but that advantage was erased on the 78th lap when Alan
Rudalavage’s strong drive came to and end as the left rear wheel broke
off his car, ending his race.
With this being the final caution flag of the race, the final 22 laps
were run under green flag conditions with Grammes one again pressuring
Rudalavage for the top spot. Jeff was able to hold off the challenge
and
over the closing laps once again opened up a bit of a lead. Jeff
flashed
under the checkered flag first to collect not only the $5,000 winner’s
share of the purse but also the $500 bonus for the highest finishing
small block machine as Jeff had a DIRTcar legal Morrison Small Block
between the rains of his Dag’s Auto parts/Pine Line Auto Sales Bicknell
machine. This was Jeff’s second King of the Can title as Jeff also won
the season finale event back in 2002.
Behind Rudalavage, Joey Grammes earned a solid runner-up finish, just
holding off a late charge by Stewart Friesen, who finished third in the
Grammes team’s back-up car. Pat Ward and newly crowned Penn Can
Speedway
Modified track champion Mike Gular completed the top five finishing
order. Danny Johnson charged from a provisional starting position to
finish sixth ahead of Craig Terrell, Dan Vauter, Alan Johnson, and
Billy
Decker.
In Sportsman action, Joey Colsten picked up the feature win in the 40
lap
race of Champions Dart Dirt Sportsman Series event. Mike Loney, the
2006
Penn Can Speedway champion, grabbed the early lead from his front row
starting position and led the first 16 laps of the feature event before
eventual winner Colsten was able to work past Loney into the top spot.
By the time the race had reached the halfway point, newly crowned Penn
Can Speedway Sportsman division champion Jeff Crambo was on the move,
slipping past Loney to move into a challenging position behind Colsten.
The second half of the race featured an exciting battle for the lead as
Crambo was putting heavy pressure on Colsten for the top spot. The two
young stars put on a show for the Penn Can fans as they battled for the
top spot as Crambo made repeated bids to try to take the top spot from
Colsten. At one point Crambo was able to slip past Colsten exiting the
second turn, but Colsten was able to get a big run off the turn and
drive
back past Crambo into the top spot.
This battle would rage all the way to the checkered flag with Colsten
just beating Crambo to the finish to earn the victory. Crambo settled
for
a strong runner-up position after a hard fought battle for the victory.
Rookie Nick Rochinski finished an impressive third with Grant Hilfiger
and Jeff Leslie fourth and fifth. Teenage sensation Larry Wight
finished
sixth ahead of Danny Creeden, Mike Loney, Mike Lartz, and Les Gillette.
Steven “Hoss” Deinhardt closed out the 2007 racing season at Penn Can
as
he drove to his first career Penn Can Speedway feature win. Deinhardt
drove past Butch Green into the top spot on the 16th lap and led the
final nine laps to pick up the win over Green. Rich Talada finished
third
while Eric Beach and Shane Wolf were cored fourth and fifth
respectively.
Beach and Wolf moved up in the order when apparent top five finishers
Jon
Carpenter and Earl Zimmer failed to pass post race technical inspection
and were disqualified. Harry Marvin Jr., Dan Mazzerese, Toby Sparks,
Chad
stone and Kevin Davies rounded out the official top ten finishing
order.
The 2007 racing season is now complete at the Penn Can Speedway.
Speedway
management would like to express their thanks to all of the race teams
and fans that supported the speedway in 2007. Plans are already
underway
for the 2008 season with some exciting announcements to be made in the
near future. Continue to check this publication or log onto the
speedway’s official website at www.penncan.com for all of the latest
news
and information.
“KING OF THE CAN” RACE SUMMARY:
RACE OF CHAMPIONS DART DIRT MODIFIED (100 laps) 1. JEFF RUDALAVAGE 2.
Joey Grammes 3. Stewart Friesen 4. Pat Ward 5. Mike Gular 6. Danny
Johnson 7. Craig Terrell 8. Dan Vauter 9. Alan Johnson 10. Billy Decker
11. Jerry Higbie 12. Butch Getz 13. Wade Decker 14. Matt Smith 15. Alan
Rudalavage 16. Mike Colsten 17. Jason Hamilton 18. Steve Babicek 19.
Jeff
Strunk 20. Ronnie Johnson 21. Brian Weaver 22. Kevin Bates 23. Darwin
Greene 24. Chris Weaver 25. Ken Titus 26. Garth Tonkin jr. 27. Joel
Batzel DNQ: Scott Allen, Scott VanGorder, Brad Brightbill, Jeff
Bronson,
Tom Votra, Doug Manmiller, Brian Franko, Ryan Watt, Chris Grbac, Brent
Wilcox, Jim Harris, Denis Deatrich, Dave Calamqan, Bobby Trapper, Roy
Shields, Dave Jenkins, Billy Jenkins, Butch Cerullo, Chris Ostrowsky,
Mike Ricci, Jim Corcoran, Mike Ward, Scott Brady
RACE OF CHAMPIONS DART DIRT SPORTSMAN (40 laps): 1. JOEY COLSTEN 2.
Jeff
crambo 3. Nick Rochinski 4. Grant Hilfiger 5. Jeff Leslie 6. Larry
Wight
7. Danny Creeden 8. Mike Loney 9. Mike Lartz 10. Les Gillette 11. Chris
Wood 12. Nick Petrilak 13. Casey Williams 14. Mike Nagel Jr. 15. George
Suprick 16. Steve Yankowski 17. Mike Austin 18. Dan Pompey 19. Brian
Puckett 20. Eric Griffin 21. Kyle Weiss 22. Casey Plummer 23. Paul
Rooney
24. Paus Strohl 25. Jeremy Wilder DNQ Christine Martin, Justin Holland,
Ted Stout, Tom Umbenhauer, Butch Klinger, Ray Woodall
PURE STOCK (25 laps): 1. STEVE DEINHARDT 2. Butch Green 3. Rich Talada
4.
Eric Beach 5. Shane Wolf 6. Harry Marvin III 7. Dan Mazzarese 8. Toby
Sparks 9. Chad Stone 10. Kevin Davies 11. Tom Garren 12. Rick Banjamin
13. Denny Decker 14. Jason Lindquist 15. Glenn Robinson 16. Ryan Stone
17. Paul Carpenter 18. Dee Ramey 19. Daryl Ellis 20. Chris Shimer 21.
Bobby Boynton DQ: Earl Zimmer, Jon Carpenter
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