|
By Dave Sully
(Little Valley, NY) Victory starved Todd Andrews from Eldred, PA, won the 30 lap super late model feature before a packed house at Little Valley Speedway on Saturday, September 22, courtesy of hard luck Ron Davies. Davies, racing at Little Valley for the first time this year, after being a regular for many years, was the class of the field for twenty-eight laps and then a shredded tire sent him to the pits, giving the second place running Andrews the lead, the win, and the $3,000 winners check.
Davies, was running a car owned by Kevin and Bill Long from Erie, and which he debuted last week at Eriez, where he finished third. He started third this night but seemed destined to run away and hide from the strong field, which included Dick Barton, David Scott, and point leader Bob Close when he darted into the lead on the opening lap. After an early caution on lap two, the No. 71D of Davies drew out to a commanding lead while polesitter Brent Rhebergen, Barton, Jeff Hoffman and Andrews battled closely for second.
Barton fought past Rhebergen for second on lap three, with Andrews taking over third one lap later. A caution on lap seven, when Jason Dupont hit the turn two wall, bunched the field for the restart, with Andrews getting a great run off of turn two to claim second from Barton. He then applied some pressure on Davies before falling back. David Scott was on the move as well, taking over fourth on lap ten after starting twelfth.
While Davies widened his lead, the battle on the track was for fourth between Rhebergen and Scott, while Andrews and Barton were by themselves in second and third. Davies opened nearly a straightaway lead by lap twenty-four and seemed to be on cruise control when he slowed suddenly on lap twenty-nine and limped to the pits, giving the lead to Andrews, who merely had to finish to take the win as Barton was too far back to mount a challenge over the final lap.
At the line it was Andrews comfortably ahead of Barton, with Scott prevailing over Rhebergen for third. Bob Close, who had a solid point lead going into the race, and had two spectacular features races in a row with Scott and Vic Coffey, finishing second both times, rallied from fourteenth to finish fifth, clinching the title in the process.
Andrews, the benefactor of Davies misfortune, commented, “I could see Ronnie’s tire going down. That was the only chance we had, so we just had to take it. Every lap you have to concentrate, concentrate, concentrate. Sometimes it happens, sometimes it doesn’t.”
Davies knew he had a problem several laps before the tire went. He explained, “About five laps before the end, the car started tipping real bad coming out of the corner under fuel and all of a sudden I felt it shudder a littler bit. I knew I had a tire going soft. At those speeds, a tire going soft just won’t stay on the casing, and it just shredded it. I thought it was one lap to go. I thought I could make it around and finish in the top five because I was so far ahead, but I couldn’t make it. It would have torn the car up, so we just pulled in.”
The co-feature of the evening was the twenty-five lap T3 All Star 358 Modified Series event, and it turned out to be a sibling rivalry between the Van Pelt brothers, Curt and Billy, both of whom had won this race previously. After Curt established a good lead and withstood several challenges from Billy on restarts, the elder Van Pelt scored his second T3 win in three years. Last year’s T3 event fell to rain.
Another former winner at Little Valley, Chad Brachmann, started on the pole, courtesy of the redraw and held sway for the first five laps, when he suddenly spun by himself, collecting several cars, including Chris Clark, who was running third and heat winner Gil Tegg, both of whom went off on the hook, and banished Brachmann to the rear for the restart.
Curt Van Pelt from Elm Valley emerged with the lead after that melee and was able to hold the point the rest of the way. Brother Billy made his way to second from twelfth on lap seven, while Todd Burley made his way to third on lap ten after starting fourteenth. Billy got a peak underneath Curt on restarts on laps fifteen and twenty-two, but could never get a good run as Curt occupied the preferred line, which was outside. At the line it was Curt with a sizable lead on Billy, while Dale Welty finished third after going off from the thirteenth starting position. Burley ended up forth, followed by Brachmann, who made a stirring charge from the rear after his earlier mishap to finish fifth.
Curt Van Pelt noted, “I love racing with Billy. He keeps you honest, I’ll tell you. Once I saw him I knew the race was on, and I just had to not make any mistakes. If you make one mistake the kid makes you pay. I hade the preferred lane tonight. I think that was the big difference. We’ve had a ball racing each other all year long and the last couple years. We’ve swapped back and forth a lot this year.”
The twenty lap super stock feature had serious title ramifications as Steve Dixon led Randy Hall by a single point going into the event. Larry Knowles from Corning took the lead on lap four from Genesee regular Jon Rivers and was able to hold enough of a lead that attention turned to Hall and Dixon, who started ninth and sixth respectively.
Hall was able to move into third, but couldn’t get by Rivers, while Dixon took over fourth on lap thirteen. Needing to hold that position to forge a tie for the title, Dixon surrendered fourth to hard charging Bruce Miller, who had started second but fell back earlier in the race. That position change proved pivotal as Knowles went on for the win, withstanding a late bid by Rivers, when he hit a rut and the car bounced in the air and pushed. Rivers ended up second, Hall third and Miller fourth. That loss of fourth gave the championship to Hall by a single point.
Knowles win was his first at Little Valley and had special value to him. He explained, “We won the memorial race at McKean this year and that was probably one of the biggest wins of my career, but this is as close as you can get to that. It’s very important to us.”
Rich Michael from Ishua made short work of the E-Mod field, cruising to an easy win in their twenty lapper, completing a sweep of the five races contested this year, easily winning the title, his fourth different track championship this year. He was never threatened after starting on the pole. Quincy Turner finished a distant second. Asked how he was able to dominate this season, the soft-spoken Michael replied, “After winning a couple of races in the street stock years ago, we hadn’t won anything until this year, and then we won all of them. It’s unbelievable. We got a new car this year and a new engine. We tried some stuff, and it worked here.”
Finally, Justin Tatlow from Franklinville made a dramatic pass of Chris Austin on the final lap to win the fifteen lap street stock feature. Austin, who won the title, had led from the start before Tatlow executed the crucial move. He explained, “I knew the car was real good. We were just waiting for a good time to pass. He kind of messed up a little coming out of turn two and let me get underneath him, and then he pushed a little coming out of four. Once we got by the second place car of Dan Giboo, the car was fast.”
NOTES: There were a hundred twenty-seven cars in the pits for the final event of the Little Valley season, including thirty-seven 358 modifieds, with one of the largest crowds of the season on hand………….A special guest in attendance was Shawn Wood from the DIRT Channel, who was scouting locations for possible filming of events for broadcast in the future. He observed that he was impressed with the racing and the facility……..The program was greeted by perfect weather, which was in stark contrast to past dates, which saw three rainouts in the seven race special events only schedule. Only one of those three could be made up, leaving the track with five races completed for the year……………. Track officials would like to thank all drivers, fans, sponsors, advertisers, volunteers, and overall supporters for a successful season, despite the adverse weather, and look forward to a successful 2008.
RESULTS:
Late Models: (30 laps) Todd Andrews, Dick Barton, David Scott, Brent Rhebergen, Bob Close, Gregg Oakes, John Lobb, Jeff Hoffman, Kirk Bradley, Al Brewer, Doug Ricotta, Bob Wearing, Ron Davies, Paul Briggs, John Haggerty, Dave Osteberg, and Jason Dupont. DNS: Rick Isadore. Heat winners were Dupont and Oakes.
T3 All Star 358 Modifieds: ( 25 laps) Curt Van Pelt, Billy Van Pelt, Dale Welty, Todd Burley, Chad Brachmann, Brad Rapp, Robbie Krull, Ray Bliss Jr., Eldon Payne, Mark Frankhouser, Bryan Terwilliger, Ron White, Greg Galligan, Ken Peoples Jr., Scott George, Dylan Dewart, Brian Swarthout, Serenity Sutherland, Eric Fisher, Ron Cartwright, Dave Dubois, Kevin Chilson, Ray Dann, Rick Richner, Gil Tegg Jr., and Chris Clark. Heat winners were Dewart, Tegg, Clark, and Billy Van Pelt. Consi winners were Payne and Sutherland. DNQ: Trevor Sutherland, Jon Miller, Rick Hoctor, Mike Stine, Steve Miller, Sam Crogan, Craig Gardner, Frank Dunning, George Bosse, Tim Jones, and Mark Chiddy.
Super Stocks: (20 laps) Larry Knowles, Jon Rivers, Randy Hall, Bruce Miller, Steve Dixon, Todd Hansen, Dan Cobb, Jeff Chesebro, Tom Schnars, Paul Grigsby, Jeremy Wonderling, John Waters, Tim Peterson, Junior Peters, Butch Talbot, Mike Smith, Mike Wonderling, John Kemp, Dan Dunham, Jon Lichy, Ron Baker, Alan Wais, and Jason Tingue. Heat winners were Miller, Chesebro, and Hall.
E-Mods: (20 laps) Rich Michael Jr., Quincy Turner, Ed Carley, Tim Peterson, Todd Roncaglione, Jim Myers, Darren Tarabori, Ron Roncaglione, Justin Carlson, Craig Bedell, Troy Carr, Kevin Kohl, Brian Fardink, Mike Samuelson, TJ Downs, Mike Eschrich, Brad Wall, Kyle Bedell, Gary Eicher, and Junior Green. Heat winners were Green, Todd Roncaglione, and Turner.
Street Stocks: (15 laps) Justin Tatlow, Chris Austin, Dan Giboo, Jason Schoonmaker, Colton Chappius, Adam Ashcroft, Joe White, Ron Wojtowicz, Matt Palmer, Tim Bruce, Doug Jones, Ron Hebner, Justin Baxter, Jack Doxey, Jason Dobson, Allen Neamon, Bill McKinney, Kevin Hill, Brett Smith, Jeremy Bucktooth, Rob Stromecki, Darren Morgan, and Adam Sixt. DNS: Steve Sklar. Heat winners were Tatlow, Sixt, and Ashcroft.
|
|
