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By Dave Sully
(Little Valley, NY) “The King” is back on top. Veteran super late model driver Dick Barton, from Ashville, staged a brilliant dual with WOO Rookie of the Year hopeful Vic Coffey, from Leicester, en-route to a convincing victory over a quality field, in the 30 lap Super Later Model Feature at Little Valley Speedway on Saturday, June 7th. Barton and Coffey each led twice in the race, with Barton taking over for good on lap sixteen. From there, he drove away from Coffey to win by close to a straightaway.
Coffey started on the pole, courtesy of the redraw, but Barton was on the gas early, bolting to third on the first lap, after starting sixth. Following a lap two restart, he got by Brent Rhebergen in turn two to claim second and then set his sights on Coffey, who won in his only appearance at Little Valley last season, getting by him on the inside in turn four to take the top spot.
Following a lap five caution for a spin by previous race winner, Dutch Davies, Coffey lost the handle in turn two, dropping back to fourth, before recovering to regain the second position on lap nine, passing Jason Dupont and Bob Close in the process. A caution on lap eleven, when Dupont broke, set up a restart with Barton, Coffey, Close, and Rhebergen the chief combatants.
Coffey promptly drove past Barton on the outside in turn two to reclaim the lead, but a caution three laps later proved to be his undoing. Barton hounded the 32C of Coffey on the outside for two laps before steaming by on the outside in turn four to retake the lead for good. Coffey was unable to mount a comeback and Barton gradually extended his lead the rest of the way.
Coffey finished second, followed by Rhebergen, who had one of his best Little Valley runs in a while, David Scott, the “Slow Ride,” who made a gallant charge from nineteenth, and Close, who started on the outside pole, who couldn’t get into the mix for the win but had a good finish.
For Barton, it was like redemption, after not winning at Little Valley for so long. He remarked, “The old man can still get it done. It’s a credit to the team. They were willing to change a bunch of stuff on the car. At least tonight, it worked.” Regarding his race with Coffey, he explained, “At the beginning he was running the top, basically because I was on the bottom, but, when he got the lead, he chose to go to the bottom, and I followed him for a few laps. Actually I was as good as he was on the bottom, but not any better, so I went up and gave it a try, and ‘lo and behold,’ it worked pretty good.”
Coffey noted, “It was a good race. When he (Barton) got by me early and drove away I really didn’t think I had much for him, but we were on a harder tire than he was. I thought it would come around. It was a matter of time. I thought that would happen. I was able to get back by him and then get down to the bottom. It seemed like that was where he was making up all his time. I went to the bottom and it was pretty good. Then after the lap fourteen yellow it never quite felt the same again. I don’t know if the tire cooled off, but he was on softer tires and maybe the caution helped him. He found the middle and the top, and that was all she wrote. I was hoping my tires would come and his would go, but it didn’t happen.”
The twenty lap Super Stock Feature went to veteran Jeff Chesebro, from Smethport, PA, who took the lead from Matt Cobb on a lap three restart after going off eighth, and then fended off repeated challenges from Jim Johnson on four subsequent restarts in the caution-plagued event. Johnson could stay close but never get into position to make a move for the lead as Chesebro’s mount was just too strong.
Johnson settled for second, followed by Larry Knowles, Cobb, who started on the pole, and Bruce Miller, who probably passed more cars this night than anyone, as he came from the back twice after spins to finish fifth.
Chesebro offered, “The track definitely had more bite. We changed some stuff in the car. The car was running really good on the cushion. That was the main thing. We always run good when there’s a cushion.”
The E-Mods had a different winner for the first time in seven races, as Dave Hess from Waterford, PA, took advantage of good track position and some racing luck to claim the win. The previous six races had all been won by Rich Michael Jr. The race had an inauspicious start as the cars of Steve Dixon, Troy Carr, and TJ Downs got together hard in turn one, with Carr, from Kennedy, getting the worst of it, as he suffered an apparent back injury. The red flag flew and Carr was tended to by medical personnel, eventually being transported to the hospital by Life Flight, as a precaution. He was conscious and speaking to the medical team the whole time.
When the race resumed, Tim Peterson, from Wilcox, took the point and looked to be on his way to the win when fate intervened. With Hess in second, having moved up from eighth, Peterson’s No. 07P blew its engine on lap fourteen, giving the lead and the win to Hess. It was no cakewalk for Hess, however, as a caution on lap eighteen, put the hard charging Ed Carley on his bumper for a two lap shootout. Hess was able to turn back a determined effort by Carley to take the victory. John Woodward finished third, with John Lacki, and polesitter Craig Bedell rounding out the top five.
In Victory Lane, Hess commented that he could make progress on Peterson at times, adding, “I knew if we had some longer runs, my tires would have come in a bit better. Our cars were real close. Then I saw that smoke coming. It was just some good luck for us tonight.”
Finally, Rob Stromecki, from Freedom, dominated the fifteen lap street stock event, only to fail teach, handing the win to young Adam Ashcroft, from Arcade, his second straight victory. Ashcroft started on the pole, but lost the lead to Stromecki on a lap one restart when he drifted too high in turn one. He remained in second position the rest of the way, and then was awarded the win. Defending champion, Chris Austin, ended up second in the final accounting, followed by former champion Brett Smith, Rich Wojtowicz and Adam Sixt.
NOTES: The show was delayed for an hour due to a late afternoon dousing by a passing shower. The track crew did a great job restoring the track and it was in excellent shape for all the races……………The heat races produced some drama this night, the most intense being a nip and tuck battle between Coffey and Close in the second super late model heat, with Coffey prevailing as the two cars banged together coming to the line.
Close felt that Coffey pinched him and drove into the back of Coffey after the race to show his displeasure. Coffey later explained that he did go a bit wide coming out of the fourth turn, but didn’t know Close was there. He noted that he apologized to Close afterward. Ironically, the two started the feature side by side on the front row………..David Scott, from Garland, PA, a former winner of nine straight super late model features, was uncharacteristically loose in his heat race, slapping the wall twice as he tried his patented rim-riding that eventually caused him to retire from the event and meaning that he had to start last. As noted, he made a stirring recovery to finish fourth.
Super Late Models: (30 laps) Dick Barton, Vic Coffey, Brent Rhebergen, David Scott, Bob Close, Todd Andrews, Mickey Wright, Greg Oakes, Boom Briggs, Jipp Ortiz, Doug Ricotta, Al Brewer, Jeff Hoffman, John Haggerty, Dave Hess, Wayne Mohawk, Jason Dupont, Dutch Davies, and Ron Davies. Heat winners were Andrews, Coffey, and Ron Davies.
Super Stocks: (20 laps) Jeff Chesebro, Jim Johnson, Larry Knowles, Matt Cobb, Bruce Miller, Todd Hansen, Mike Williams, Jr. Peters, Neil Patterson, Dan Cobb, Steve Dixon, Kyle Inman, Jon Lichy, Don Krug, Alan Wais, John Waters, Butch Talbot, John Kemp, Paul Grigsby, Jeff Meyers, and Jason Knowles. Heat winners were Matt Cobb, Patterson, and Miller.
E-Mods: (20 laps) Dave Hess, Ed Carley, John Woodward, John Lacki, Craig Bedell, Rich Michael Jr., Nathan Hill, Steve Dixon, Wayne Mohawk, Greg Oakes, Justin Tatlow,
Kevin Kohl, Randy Hall, Carl Ballinger, Brad Wall, Al Brewer, Tim Peterson, TJ Downs, Mike Eschrich, and Troy Carr. Heat winners were Hess, Bedell, and Woodward.
Street Stocks: (15 laps) Adam Ashcroft, Chris Austin, Brett Smith, Rich Wojtowicz, Adam Sixt, Josh Wilcox, Dan Giboo, Ron Hebner, Matt Palmer, Damon Lewis, Ben Asel, Jack Doxey, Allan Neamon, Brian Peterson, Tim Bruce, Bill McKinney, Justin Baxter, Mark Loveland, Chris Conkey, Dan Morgan, and Rob Stromecki (DQ). DNS: Cliff Johnston.
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