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Steve Gray and Nate Peckham Share Cayuga County Fair Speedway Victory Lane
Weedsport, NY – August 31, 2008 – By Dan Kapuscinski, Cayuga County Fair Speedway PR and Promotions Coordinator
Steve Gray took the lead from track champion Jeremy Pitcher on lap-15 of the DIRTcar Sportsman Modified feature event at Cayuga County Fair Speedway Sunday night, and sped to his third career win at the Weedsport oval. Pitcher managed to hold onto the runner-up position and clinch his second consecutive Cayuga County Fair Speedway Sportsman Modified track championship.
Jim Spano, Dave Marcuccilli, and Todd Town completed the top five runners in the 25-lap main which went green to checkered.
“We’ve had some issues here this season with the other car, so we brought this car here tonight and things worked out,” said Gray in victory lane. “I really expected the no. 14 to be all over me there at the end, but we had it together. Everyone raced clean tonight, it was a fun race.”
Nate Peckham grabbed the win in the DIRTcar Street Stock 20-lap finale Sunday. Nick Rizzo, driving the Crouse no. 02 machine from Fulton Speedway, came home in the 4th position and as a result won his second consecutive Cayuga County Fair Speedway track title.
The Advance Auto Parts Super DIRTcar Series events were taken by Alan Johnson and Billy Decker. With finishes of first and fifth on the evening, AJ Slideways was able to overcome a 15-point deficit to clinch the 2008 Cayuga County Fair Speedway Championship over Jimmy Phelps.
Advance Auto Parts Super DIRTcar Series PR Director Tom Skibinski’s full story will follow.
Todd Town and Fran Hilton started at the head of the 25-lap Sportsman Modified main, and it was Town gaining the advantage looking for his second win of 2008. By the 5th circuit Town had built a healthy lead on the field, but Pitcher was on the move sliding into second underneath Hilton on lap-5.
Pitcher came into the feature event leading Kevin Ridley by just seven championship points. Ridley, who had already won a track title at Canandaigua Speedway, broke in his heat race and had to start dead last for the main event. As the race wore on it became clear however that Pitcher was going to be the man to beat for the title, as Ridley could manage only an 11th place finish at the end of the night.
Pitcher began to pressure Town for the lead at around lap-8. The no. 14 slowly began to creep up on Town and by lap-10 Pitcher found the bite he was looking for and drove into the lead low off of turn two. Steve Gray watched all of this happen and followed Pitcher through the hole on the next circuit from his 5th starting position.
Gray, who had not won a feature at Cayuga County Fair Speedway since 2001 and was struggling some in 2008 at the Weedsport oval, surprisingly reeled Pitcher right in for the race lead. Just three laps after moving into second, Gray slung the Fox’s Auto no. 29g low out of turn four and passed Pitcher for the point.
From that point it was all Gray on his way to his third career Sportsman win at Cayuga County . Pitcher stayed strong for second ahead of Spano, Marcuccilli, Town, Mike Entwistle, Justin Wright, Tim Currier, Tom Juhl, and Daryl Hilkert in the top ten.
Jeremy Pitcher was all smiles after winning his second consecutive title at Cayuga County , and second of 2008 after winning the Fulton title as well.
“It feels good to win the Championship,” said Pitcher. “We would have liked to have won tonight though and beaten Steve, but he was good tonight. But in the end we won the Championship and that’s what we wanted. I think we are going to stick with the Sportsman for another few years, unless somehow we can come up with the money to move up.”
The 20-lap DIRTcar Street Stock main saw Mike Vaughn grab the early event lead, but received some slight contact from Steve Woodworth going into the first turn and spun the no. 11 out front. Woodworth was sent to the rear, and Vaughn restarted at the tail side.
When the field came back to green Nate Peckham was out front with Chris Fisher hot on his heels. Early on Peckham and Fisher built quite the lead over Nick Rizzo, Bubba Burnell and Mike Schultz. However, on lap-7 Fisher began to slow allowing Rizzo, Burnell and Schultz to all slide by. Fisher eventually dropped out of the event on lap-9.
From that point on Peckham ran away with the event ahead of Burnell, Schultz, Rizzo, and Mike Welch. Rizzo’s 4th place finish was more than enough to claim another track championship. Rizzo piloted the Crouse no. 02 machine Sunday night, as his no. 115 mount ran into trouble the night before at Fulton Speedway.
For more information call the DIRTcar NE Headquarters at 315/834-6606 or visit www.cayugacountyfairspeedway.com.
Taylor Rental of Auburn/Advance Auto Parts Event Summary (8-31-08):
DIRTcar Street Stocks
Heat #1: Burnell, Rizzo, Woodworth, Boynton, Hoffman Jr., Hoffman Sr., Grant, Hogan
Heat #2: Peckham, Schultz, Vaughn, Fisher, Welch, Marvin III, Krebs, Collins
Feature (20-laps): 1) 90- NATE PECKHAM, 2) 57b- Bubba Burnell, 3) 16- Mike Schultz, 4) 02- Nick Rizzo, 5) 00- Mike Welch, 6) 3L- Bob Boynton, 7) 71- Dan Hoffman Sr., 8) 41- Daryl Krebs, 9) 2- Steve Woodworth, 10) 8m- Harry Marvin III, 11) 70- Kevin Collins, 12) 11- Mike Vaughn, 13) 7- Chris Hogan, 14) 17- Dan Hoffman Jr., 15) 37- Chris Fisher, 16) E4- Van Grant
Bud Light $25 Wheel of Fortune Bonus: 00- Mike Welch
2008 DIRTcar Street Stock Track Champion: 115- Nick Rizzo
DIRTcar Sportsman Modifieds
Heat #1: Entwistle, Gray, Town, Spano, Currier, Olmstead Jr., Hilkert, Wheeler, Davis, Sellen
Heat #2: Pitcher, Marcuccilli, Juhl, Wright, Hilton, Hitchcock, Rudy, Hoteling, Ferguson , Ridley
Feature (25-laps): 1) 29g- STEVE GRAY, 2) 14- Jeremy Pitcher, 3) jvs1- Jim Spano, 4) m1- Dave Marcuccilli, 5) 17t- Todd Town, 6) m93- Mike Entwistle, 7) 19w- Justin Wright, 8) 10- Tim Currier, 9) 17d- Tom Juhl, 10) 4- Daryl Hilkert, 11) 20x- Kevin Ridley, 12) 11- Ben Wheeler, 13) 3- Fran Hilton, 14) 16- Earl Rudy, 15) 33- Matt Hitchcock, 16) 17m- Mark Olmstead Jr., 17) 44- Gary Hoteling, 18) 12- Dan Sellen, 19) 172- Bryan Davis, 20) 12f- Andrew Ferguson
Currier Plastics $50 Wheel of Fortune Bonus: 3- Fran Hilton
2008 DIRTcar Sportsman Modified Track Champion: 14- Jeremy Pitcher
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