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ACCORD SPEEDWAY NEWS Accord, NY - Bachetti, Stortini, Dubois And Richardson (2) Score Wins in Saturday King Of The Catskills Events At Accord SpeedwayBy Steve Pados, Accord Media Bright sunshine and a favorable warm breeze gently rolled through the Hudson Valley on Saturday as Promoter Gary Palmer opened up his quarter mile playground for more than 120 eager participants to engage in the second day of competition of the King of the Catskills weekend. Another great crowd was on hand for the weekend of activities that began on Friday evening. A standing room only crowd on Friday evening witnessed an exciting 3-division show that found 10-time track Champion Rich Ricci Jr dominate not only the on-track action but the payoff window as well as the veteran New Paltz, New York campaigner led all 100-laps of the Modified portion to win nearly $6,300.00 in purse and lap bonus money. The win was not an easy one for Ricci as one of the all-time greats in the Modified wars, Brett Hearn, dogged him for more than half the race only to fall a car length short in winning the event himself. Two-time consecutive driving champion Don Williams was an easy winner in the 30-lap Enzo's Ristorante Pro Stock feature event and 2008 Accord Speedway Slingshot Champion RJ Smykla rallied with 2-laps remaining to capture Slingshot feature event from his sister Kayla, whose race car went sour in the waning laps of the 20-lap event. The Saturday portion of the weekend of racing featured the Camper's Barn Sportsman, Heart Chevrolet Spec Sportsman, Bryant's Towing Pure Stock, the Northeast Vintage Modifieds and the winged warriors of the CRSA 305 Sprint Car Series. A great field of Sportsman cars were on hand for the event and necessitated in four heats being run to establish the qualifiers. The "Taylor Twister" Mike Loney was one of the outside invaders making his presence known early on as he went out and captured the first heat over another strong outside invader, Hamburg, Pennsylvania's Kyle Weiss in his RAACE Foundation Sponsored racer. 2008 Accord Speedway Champion Brian Krummel established a heat win for the home team as he won over Mike Sabia.The third heat found Jesse Marks carving out a nice win over Jeff Hulseapple. The fourth and final heat found another outside invader Justin Holland taking his Rock Busters machine topside and dominating the action over another invader Eric Holmgren. Two consolations were needed and Darrell Ford won the first of such over a very determined scratch starting Larry Hendershot. David Coene captured the second consi over the hard charging Steve Krom. Heat winners for the remaining divisions included Chris Kanuk and Bill Judge in the Pure Stocks while track champion Jeff Richardson made short work of it in his heat with a stout win over rookie driver and much improved AJ Williams. The birthday boy, Ken Boniface, celebrated his 18th birthday with a solid win over "MVT" Mike Van Tassel. The CRSA Sprints took to the track for their heat races and the gifted Billy Van Inwegen drove the Tom Laner owned equipment to a sound win over Jeff Frasier in the first heat. Andy Bachetti, the 2008 Modified track champion at Accord, took his first ever competitive laps in the "Jerky Boys" numbered 91 in the heat and finished fifth as the more laps he drove, the faster he became. The second heat found Mike Van Dusen coming from back in the pack early on, only to find a torsion stop break and the car abruptly darted into the home stretch fence before flipping several times. Van Dusen was shaken but ok from the scary ordeal. Once the action resumed, it was "Flyin" Brian Davis taking his sprinter to the extreme topside of the raceway to win over the very fast John Matrafailo. The third heat of action found Dillsburg, Pennsylvania driving talent Todd Spangler making the long tow to Accord, and he dazzled the fans with a great run in capturing his heat event over Warren Alexson. The Northeast Vintage Dirt Modifieds took to the raceway for their feature event and Phil Recchio wasted no time in hustling the number-98 Gremlin skinned machine he was driving to the front. Robby Casti and Robby Rowe chased Recchio earkly on but Recchio was stretching his lead with each passing lap. After the halfway point, Recchio's great run ended in the fourth turn when the machine abruptly shut down. The restart found Richardson at the point and he drove the Bottcher look-alike replicar out to big advantage to capture the win. Rob Rowe raced his number-17 tub-coach to a great runnerup finish and Robby Casti had his immaculate Dodge coupe humming to perfection to finish in third place. Ray See Sr used a late race rally to drive his Grmlin home in fourth place and Howard Murphy completed the top five in his Johnny Harroll replicar. Mike Loney and Jeff Hulseapple brought the talented field down for the start of the 50-lap Sportsman headliner. The front row pair waged a war with each other as the close racing action saw Loney in front for the first four laps, Hulseapple the fifth, and Loney regaining the lead on lap-6 and holding it until lap-13. Hulseapple regained control of the lead at that point and led until lap-18 when a huge skirmish collected many drivers and the worst damage coming to the airborne machine of the "Easton Express" Rickie Raisner. When the racing resumed it was Hulseapple once again in command, but this time around Ryan Stortini found a racing lane he liked at the top of the raceway and began to reel in Hulseapple. Keeping up the revs and keeping the nose of the racer pointed forward, Stortini found the room he needed on lap-22 to assume command of the race lead. Even though Stortini took over the lead, things were about to get much tougher for him as Holland, Hulseapple, Marks, Sabia, Krummel, Loney, Weiss and Hentschel were looking for the same piece real estate being enjoyed by Stortini. The tight racing action caused a bit of bumping between the top running cars and Hulseapple ended up the worst with the front end of the Vitale Motorsports completely crushed from the heavy contact. Once the racing resumed, again it was Stortini at the point but this time with Holland and Hentschel providing the pressure. Lap after lap clicked off and even though Stortini drove his racer in too deep on a cople of occasions he was able to fend off his challengers. Hentschel would eventually slip by Holland to gain the runnerup slot and he challenged Stortini to the finish. Stortini was in a for a popular win, and with it punctuates a comeback season of sorts for him as he didn't begin racing until the mid-point of the season this year. Bobby Hentschel was second in a great run and Holland was third with a hard charging Darrell Ford in fourth place and Jesse Marks completing the top five. The second five consisted of Kyle Weiss, David Coene, Brian Krummel, Steve Meilleur and Kenny Moulton driving a racer out of the Jim House shop. The Bryant's Towing Pure Stock event was the Mike DuBois Show. Mike Deyo led the event for the first two laps before yielding to the hard driving DuBois who went topside to drive around Deyo. Once in front DuBois was flawless in recording the 20 lap feature win, an event that was stopped once around the mid-point of the race for the barrel-rolling Clarence Smith who met unsucessfully with the second turn boiler plate that sent him skyward once he made contact with it. Smith was shaken but ok from the hard contact. DuBois went on to record his fifth win of the season. Mike Deyo was solid in second with Joe Judge rallying from a 22nd place start to finish in third. Bill Judge enjoyed another steady run to finish fourth and the steady John Woinsoki completed the top five running order. The Heart Chevrolet Spec Sportsman event began with Mike Van Tassel showing the way for the six laps of the event. Richardson, who started 8th, made short work of the talented field to challenge MVT and on lap-7 was successful in slipping by taking over the lead. Once in front, Richardson was smooth as silk in recording another big win at the speedway. The finish seemed deva'vu as once again Anthony Perrego was behind Richardson at the conclusion of the event. "Dynamite" Danny Cross was third in a great run and Steve Eubanks returned to action in his own race car to finish in fourth place. Bobby Hassenmayer was persistent as he overcame one problem after another to complete the five finish. Twenty-five wing sprint cars came off of the fourth turn to begin the CRSA 30-lap headliner. Warren Alexson was hammer down all of the way and led the race early on and withstood the advances of one driver after another. Jeff Frasier was the first to challenge but soon fell out of the race. Billy Van Inwegen showed why he was chosen to be part of the Evernham Development Group as the youngster displayed a lot of talent behind the wheel of the Laner owned machine. Jeff Van Steenburg was among the drivers finding their way forward, but all had trouble finding their way around Alexson, who was running a perfect racing line. Around the mid-point of the race, Andy Bachetti kept moving to the front from his 20th starting position. Moving into third place on lap-18, Bachetti would slip by Billy V one lap later with an inside maneuver. Bachetti, who made most of his passes top the front from the bottom side of the raceway, first tried Alexson on the bottom but found the veteran driver a tough act to pass. Bachetti backed out of the bottom on lap-20 and went topside much to the delight of the Bachetti faithful who came to cheer for their Superstar talent. Bachetti became an instant hit at the top as he quickly made his way around Alexson to take over the lead for good on lap-22. Once in front, Bachetti drove off to a comfortable distance to win the feature event in the first time he ever competed behind the wheel of the sprint car. Warren Alexson drove a great race to finish in the runnerup slot with Jeff Van Steenburg finishing in third. Billy V was fourth in a stellar performance and the veteran Danny Ody brought his Spray-Nine Sponsored sprinter home in fifth place. Defending series Champion Chuck Alessi was sixth with hard driving Todd Spangler coming home in seventh. Matt Tanner, Brian Davis and Matt Demitraszek completed the top ten. A complete recap of the King of the Catskills weekend will follow shortly. Northeast Vintage Modifieds: Jeff Richardson, Rob Rowe, Robby Casti, Ray See Sr, Howard Murphy, Tom Cole III, Jeff Hager, Jim Halpin, Russ Nuzzaro, Mike Brown, Phil Recchio Bryant's Towing Pure Stocks: Mike DuBois, Mike Deyo, Joe Judge, Bill Judge, John Woinoski, Steve Smalley, Andy Briggs, Phil Johnson, Bill Merten, Paul Aragon Jr, Richard Stickle, Joel Murns, Chris Kanuk, Tommy Johnson, Will Dietz, Lloyd Tomlin, Ray Tarantino, Robert Ball, Doug Rau, Chad Arsenault, Clarence Smith Jr Heart Chevroley Spec Sportsman: Jeff Richardson, Anthony Perrego, Danny Cross, Steve Eubanks, Bobby Hassenmayer, Danny Conklin, Scott Mathews, Kyle Rohner, John Alimurat, Jeff Hager, Frank Venezia, AJ Williams, Tyler Boniface, Tony Suozzo, Ken Boniface, Mike Van Tassel, Mike Sabia, John Aumick Campers Barn Sportsman: Ryan Stortini, Bobby Hentschel, Justin Holland, Darrell Ford, Jesse Marks, Kyle Weiss, David Coene, Brian Krummel, Steve Meilleur, Ken Moulton Jr, Ken Ferrier, Mike Loney, Steve Krom, Joe Giachinta, John Sundlof, Jeff Hulseapple, Mike Sabia, Mike Senecal, Erik Holmgren,Rick Raisner, Clinton Mills, Larry Hendershot, Charlie Winne, Nick Rochinski (DQ) CRSA Sprint Cars: Andy Bachetti, Warren Alexson, Jeff Van Steenburg, Billy Van Inwegen, Danny Ody, Chuck Alessi, Todd Spangler, Matt Tanner, Brian Davis, Matt Demitraszek, Jeremey Quick, Dylan Swiernik, Tim Damiani, Kory Gurney, Jim MaCaffrey, Billy Jaycox, Jr, Greg Hoffman, John Leombruno, Peter Sindt, Bruce Evans, Chad King, Curt Bradshaw, Jeff Frasier, John Lodini, Marshall Gogg For further updates and information regarding the great racing at the Accord Speedway, log on to the their newly constructed website at: http://www.accordspeedway.com or call the speedway hotline at: 845 626 3478 A TRAIL OF DIRT LEADS RIGHT TO OUR DOOR |
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