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Report 5/10/2008
Woodhull, N.Y. – It was Doug Gross Construction and Insinger Fuels night at the Woodhull Raceway on May 10th, 2008. There were 160 cars on hand for the evenings racing action. Considering the poor economy and the high gas prices, this car count is huge and shows that racers will do what it takes to have fun on a Saturday night. There were a total of 29 cars in the 358-Modified division.
The Modified feature started 24 cars with Mike Jackson leading the field to the green with Curt VanPelt starting on the outside pole.
It seems that track position really played a part for Curt to take the checkers.
“Starting on the outside pole, I think it had a lot to do with getting the win, the track was extremely slick and a little icy. It’s tough to pass; we made some adjustments after the heat, but nowhere near enough to come deep from the pack (at least my feelings). The car went straight but you had to be very careful with it.”
Billy VanPelt, Curt’s younger brother finished second, and Curt didn’t know who it was behind him, I asked him if he knew he was there.
“I could hear somebody but didn’t know who was behind me, but you never count Billy out, because you know he is coming. All you do is not make any mistakes and all I had to do was go around a couple lap cars and it was kind of hard getting around a few lap cars.”
Behind Curt, followed Billy VanPelt who started in the eleventh starting spot and by lap six he already had moved up into the fifth position. By lap, ten Billy would use the high groove in turns one and two and get around the third place-running car of Mike Jackson.
“I was trying to just get around those guys, because they were slowing down but I thought if I could sneak in there and get it back out of there, just to see if I could get by them.”
Billy also mentioned that he didn’t have much for his brother;
“I couldn’t get him reeled in, he (Curt) thinks he didn’t have a real fast car, but definitely he was a lot faster, it is what it is. He got a chance to start up front and I didn’t get a chance to put any pressure on him.”
Ray Bliss worked his way up to third from starting sixth on the grid. He was up front most of the night. He would pass Mike Jackson around lap nine for second place and Billy Van Pelt would charge ahead of him on the next lap putting Bliss in third place. Ray was in the backup car of Ron Whites no.5 numbered machine as Ray had engine problems at Black Rock Speedway on Friday night. Ray will have his own car ready for next Saturday and will be back to the high banks at Woodhull.
“We stayed close to him (Curt VanPelt), if I could stay on the bottom but as I moved off the bottom he got away from me. He was better going through lap traffic. The right rear tire we had on it was like two years old, so that didn’t help too much (laughing).”
“We blew the motor up at BlackRock and Ron (White) just lives about 5 miles from me and we always park next to each other, so Ron just said I could use his backup.”
That is really cool that racers can work together and show good sportsmanship in their hobby they call dirt racing!!
At the checkers, following the VanPelt brothers was Ray Bliss in third and Mike Jackson in fourth and rounding out the top five was Dale Welty.
The heat action in the Modifieds was rather exciting and it showed that opening night usually has its difficulties.
I don’t think I have ever written as many notes for a heat race in my life for any division or at any track that I have ever visited. Anyways heat one took at least, if not more than 25 minutes to finish and the heat didn’t even get to do the scheduled number of laps.
In the drivers meetings, Vern Wasson (track owner) has told them that he wants to get the show moving along rather quickly and try to get the fans on their way home at a decent hour. Therefore, this means if there is a problem getting a heat or a feature in, necessary actions would be taken to speed up the show. For example, in the season opener, on April 19th, the feature for the 360 Late Models ended up reduced from 25 laps to 20 laps due to numerous cautions.
The heat only went five laps. It was announced off the loud speaker that enough was enough, and management decided to fly the checkers. Ray Bliss wound up taking the win. On Lap one, Travis Shutz, Brooks Leach and Dale Welty tangle in turn one and the yellow is thrown. The restart was waved off, and they lined them up again and tried over. Then Brooks Leach spins and stops in turn one. After the restart, Josh Purcell looked strong and was charging through the field until he went high in turn four and came to a stop. By now Ryan Gordner was in the lead and management decided to line them up single file. On the restart Don Lawson was running high and came down into the car of Ron White who then collected and pushed Brook Leach along with Josh Pursell into the yuke tire in turn one. Leach’s car would get the hook due to a broken front end. Dale Welty would take the lead coming out of turn four while Bliss would get him at the line for first place. Travis Shultz spins in turn four and the yellow is thrown. This is when they came around to get the one to go for the green, the checkers were flying. I was just hoping that this wasn’t going to be a sign of thing s to come during the night.
Dave DuBois in the No.6 Modified took the heat two win over Curt VanPelt followed by Kevin Chilson. Heat two would see some rather exciting action. Curt VanPelt would end up getting into the side of Billy VanPelt going into turn one and Billy would hit the yuke tire and receive body damage to the right rear quarter panel and would continue. Tim Guild would end up being sent pitside for spinning by himself twice during the heat.
Stacy Jackson slows in turn two, was unable to finish the heat, and was sent pitside.
Heat three got underway and it seemed it was going to go smoothly until the car of Ray Pursell would slow in turn four. Lucas Schroth spun in turn four also. Management decided to start the cars in single file again as a result of the past heat races. The rest of the heat went fine and Roger Williams took the win over Mike Jackson and following them in third place was Frank Dunning.
The season opener for the Modifieds was a great successful show and props go to the management for doing their best to get the show moving along. Thanks for a great show, and next week will be a regular night for the Modifieds as the ASCS Patriot Sprints will be visiting the speedway.
Here is the results for the Modifieds, stay tuned for the next edition of “The Write Track” with full results of the racing action and a detailed report of the Scott Dennision memorial race for the 360 late Model race.
Results:
L.J. Kennedy Trucking 358 Modifieds (25 laps) 29 Cars
Heats: Ray Bliss, Dave DuBois, Roger Williams
Consi: Stacy Jackson
Feature: Curt VanPelt, Billy VanPelt, Ray Bliss, Mike Jackson, Dale Welty, Ron White, Kevin Chilson, Steve Hartman Jr, Frank Dunning, Kenny Peoples Sr, Greg Galligan, Dave Dubois, Ryan Gordner, Roger Williams, Don Lawson, Chris Clark, Josh Pursell, Marc Benson, Ray Dann, Herb Wright, Stacy Jackson, Joe Buck, Ray Pursell, Brooks Leach
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