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Chuck Hebing Repeats as Sprint Challenge Victor with Sunday Night Triumph at Rolling Wheels.
ELBRIDGE, N.Y. – The annual Sprint Car Challenge as the Rolling Wheels Raceway Park had to wait an extra 24 hrs., but that didn’t hinder the incredible season put forth by Ontario, N.Y.’s Chuck Hebing. The driver of his self-owned, familiar snake skinned #45 Maxim led from green to checker to back up his $3,000 victory from exactly one year ago which came in Guy Howie’s mount.
Heavy rains on Saturday night, which saw lightning strike a light pole next to the scoring tower, postponed the event after the six qualifying heats were run. It was decided to bring the Empire Super Sprint (ESS)/United Racing Club (URC) sanctioned event back to the ½ mile to complete the B-Mains and A-Main on Sunday night. A little over 30 winged sprinters came back from the original 67 to complete the program.
While another wire to wire triumph for Hebing sounded like a cake walk, he had two stiff challengers on this night which kept the crowds attention throughout the 25 lap affair. First came from Jason Barney aboard Jeff Walton’s #87 and then came the newly crowned ESS champion Steve Poirier who were ready to keep the ASCS Patriot Region champ from his fourteenth win of 2007.
“I knew it wasn’t going to be easy, even though we drew the pole with the best from all clubs here you just can’t take anything for granted.” said the driver who was piloting a Ford powered machine on this night. “I knew Jason would probably run down low so I had a plan of attack there, but, I didn’t realize that it was Steve that was right behind me when the laps were closing down. They said that he was catching me in turns one and two and that didn’t surprise me as that is where I was losing my speed. I guess it was going to be real close but he got caught by a spinning lap car.”
The A-Main had Hebing on the pole with URC feature winner Robbie Stillwaggon outside but when lap one was scored it was Barney in second and the chase was on. When the green lights stayed on it was Hebing opening up a sizeable advantage but when it came to restarts that is where Barney was ready to make his move.
“I could get a good run on him on restarts and if I could have gotten him just one time it might have been a little different.” said the young driver who just came off a well earned ninth place finish a few hours prior in the Rite Aid 200 at the New York State Fairgrounds. “But, for some reason on the last few restarts that put a lap car in there and I thought I passed that car and that hurt me some.”
On a lap 13 restart, Mares Stellfox was placed in between Hebing and Barney and this enabled Poirier’s #28FM to slip by Barney and take on the challenge of the “Cobra”. With laps closing down, lapped traffic on the mix it was Poirier closing in on the black sprinter that led all the laps from the start.
The action peeked on lap 23 when Poirier’s mount dipped under Hebing in turns one and two and pulled along side. When the duo entered turn three it was Hebing pulling out again. The very same scenario was showcased just one lap later but the drama had a new twist as this time it was Stellfox’s sprinter sitting sideways in turns three and four right in front of the leaders. Hebing had no troubles getting by but Poirier had to spin his sprint around to avoid contact and ended the challenge.
With a one lap dash to the $3,000 pay day it was Barney back for one more shot, but again there was a lap car in the fray and that was enough for Hebing to win the event with a comfortable margin. Under Kenny Marshall’s double checkered flag, Hebing bested Barney, who collected $1600 for second, with a late charging Blake Breen home for a fine third and $1,100. Current URC point leader and four-time champion Curt Michael was fourth with long-time ESS campaigner Tim Kelly taking fifth. Rounding out the top ten were former Patriot champ Bryan Howland, ESS’ Jessica Zemken, Stillwaggon, two-time ESS champ Lance Yonge and Jared Zimbardi who took second in points behind Hebing during the ’07 campaign.
Only four cautions slowed the pace and all were minor in nature. Kramer Williamson came to stop on lap five while running just outside the top five. Rick Wilson did the same one lap later and also Scott Kreutter on lap 13. The final caution was on lap 24 for the double spin by Stellfox and Poirier.
Taking the six heat wins on Saturday were Barney, Hebing, Kelly, Jeff Cook, Stellfox and Williamson. The two B-Mains held on Sunday night were won by Wilson and Bobby Breen.
Rolling Wheels Sprint Challenge Notes: A total 67 sprinters entered the annual event which has now been held by URC and ESS since 1994…With the rain on Saturday it set up a few unique circumstances on Sunday: Blake Breen hurt an engine during his heat and was going to run the A-Main with seven cylinders. With the rain, the team went home and made an engine switch…Tim Kelly was scheduled to fly out on Sunday morning to meet his wife for a vacation. After the rain out he drove his hauler to the Rochester airport to switch his flight to Monday morning…Jeff VanDusen flipped his main mount hard on Saturday, he went home, brought back a back-up and put that in the field through the B-Main…Not returning after qualifying for the A-Main on Saturday were Dave Ely, Becca Anderson, Jimmy Stitzel, Brian Seidel, in Guy Howie’s car this year, and Kevin Job…Davey Sammons also flipped his mount on Saturday…The scheduled Walt’s Hobby Dash was cancelled due to time restraints…Each sanction as well as the Patroit Region were awarded provisionals and they went to Joey Biasi (URC), Bubby Kerrick (ESS) and Kyle Moffit (ASCS).
CHALLENGE RESULTS:
Heat 1 - Jason Barney, Dave Ely, Michael Carber
Heat 2 - Chuck Hebing, Robbie Stillwaggon, Becca Anderson
Heat 3 - Tim Kelly, Blake Breen, Jimmy Stitzel
Heat 4 - Jeff Cook, Curt Michael, Lance Yonge
Heat 5 - Mares Stellfox, Steve Poirier, Brian Seidel
Heat 6 - Kramer Williamson, Tim Hogue, Kevin Job.
B-MAIN 1 – Rick Wilson, Jared Zimbardi, Bryan Howland, Scott Kreutter, Michael Parent, Jeff VanDusen
B-MAIN 2 – Bobby Breen, Jessica Zemken, Alain Bergeron, Mike Stelter, Bryan McDonald
Provisionals – Kyle Moffit, Bubby Kerrick, Joey Biasi.
Did Not Qualify - Lee Ladouceur, Normand Beaudreault, Tim Zack, Howard Singer, Tom Huppunen, April Wilson, Glenn Styres, Dave Ely, Jason Clauss, Josh Weller, Trevor Lewis, Dave Wickham, Derek Jonathan, Gary Troutman, Davey Sammons, Becca Anderson, Jimmy Stitzel, Adam Gordon, Stan Zanchin, Jared Fink, Mark Bitner, Keith Dempster, Gary Gollub, Ed Aikin, Dan Kaszubinski, Warren Alexson, Kyle Purks, Jay Pietz, Midge Miller, Chris Coyle, Craig Downie, Brian Seidel, Kevin Job, Justin Barger, John Ramsey, John Karklin Jr., Rob Pietz, Tommy Wickham, Daniel Lampron.
A-MAIN – Chuck Hebing, Jason Barney, Blake Breen, Curt Michael, Tim Kelly, Bryan Howland, Jessica Zemken, Robbie Stillwaggon, Lance Yonge, Jared Zimbardi, Jeff Cook, Bobby Breen, Kyle Moffit, Alain Bergeron, Brian McDonald, Mike Stelter, Jeff VanDusen, Steve Poirier, Bubby Kerrick, Michael Parent, Joey Biasi, Michael Carber, Mares Stellfox, Scott Kreutter, Rick Wilson, Tim Hogue, Kramer Williamson.
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