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By Steve Pados, Accord Speedway Media
A beautiful warm spring day in the greater Hudson Valley coupled with the long Memorial Day weekend offered up a great night of racing action at Gary Palmer's "Gem in the Catskills" Accord Speedway on Friday night. Another banner crowd eagerly moved through the speedway gates to witness the five division show sponsored by HigFabrications and delayed more than twenty-five minutes to allow the late-arriving fans an opportunity to grab a seat for the great show ahead of them.
David Bush and Mel Schrufer brought the 22-car starting field down for the start for the start of the Rhinebeck Ford Modified feature event. Schrufer was quick on the topside of the speedway and moved out front for the first five laps of the feature until Rich Ricci lost the handle on the topside of turn one and spun to the inside of the raceway collecting Barry Davis, Tommy Demarmels and Mark Pullen with Demarmels getting upside down in the melee. On the restart, Schrufer again raced out front with Modified rookie Vinny DeCicco, Rich Eurich, Mike Ricci and hard charging Bobby Trapper all moving into contention.
While the race for the lead was exciting enough, the racing action in the middle of the pack was phenomenal. "The Doctor" Danny Johnson broke free from his 15th starting spot and began to make his presence known using a variety of lanes on the multi-channeled raceway to move forward quickly. Jerry Higbie and Andy Bachetti also moved around the raceway to find their way foward and challenge the leaders. Johnson moved into the runnerup slot after the 20-lap mark and began to seek out a way around Schrufer who was running a great line on the second floor of the raceway. Johnson looked high and low and although was able to move the nose of his Atlas Paving sponsored race car underneath on Schrufer, just couldn't get the drive off of the bottom to complete the pass. With the laps clicking off, Johnson drove his car deep into turn one, got a tremendous drive off of the bottom of turn two and slid his race car up in front of Schrufer and completed the pass on lap-27 and drove on to capture his third win of the young racing season at the speedway.
Schrufer drove a solid race to finish second with Mike Ricci capturing third place in a fine drive. Vinny DeCiccio drove a great race to finish fourth and defending champion Andy Bachetti enjoyed a tremendous second half of the race as he drove from 19th starting position to round out the top five. The second five consisted of Jerry Higbie, Bobby Trapper, John McGill, Richie Eurich and rookie Rob Rowe.
The Elwood Hewitt's Matco Tool Pro Stock division feature featured three leaders in the lead spot in the 20-lap event. Bill Rion lead the event for the first four laps before Chrissy Rider took over. Rider, returning to action on a full-time basis this year, led the next five laps before Mike Garaguso surged into the lead. Garaguso led the remaining laps to capture his first career victory in the Pro Stock ranks. Don Williams closed fast on Garaguso in the final laps and tried numerous times to wrestle away the lead from Garaguso but his efforts fell a bit short and finished in the runnerup slot. Rider did an excellent job to fight a car that developed a handling problem hafway through the event to finish third and Pat Zimmer continued his great work to finish fourth with Bill Deak Sr completing the top five.
The Camper's Barn Sportsman feature event was truly the Howard Jarvis show. "Highside" Howard took the lead at the drop of the green flag and led all 25-laps to return to victory lane for the first time in 2009. Brad Rothaupt, who continues to impress in his second season of racing, finished second in a great drive in his Brown Built Fabrications sponsored machine. Al Archiere was third with Greg McCloskey finishing fourth and David Coene completing the top five in the quickly paced event.
The Bryant's Towing Pure Stock event had Ray Tarantino leading the first four laps of the event before yielding to Kyle Wright on a fifth lap restart. On lap six, "Iron" Mike DuBois surged into the lead and went on to capture his second win of the 2009 racing season. Kyle Wright did a great job to hang on for second position as Gary Ronk, Tommy Johnson, Ray Tarantino and Joe Judge all challenged for the runnerup role in a wild scramble to move forward.
In the Ruge's Parts Center Spec Sportsman event, "The Hinsch Mob" struck again as David Hinsch wired the field to win his second event of the season in his Pleasant Valley Landscaping sponsored machine. Anthony Perrego, who seemingly has acquired a passion for second place finishes, once again found himelf in the runnerup role with another solid drive. Kyle Rohner, who was the fastest car on the racetrack in the waning laps of the event, came up a bit short but enjoyed a great run to nip Jeff Richardson at the line for third with Richardson in fourth and "The Twister" Tyler Boniface completing the top five.
MUDPLUGS:
Even with the late start and Murphy's Law threatening to dismantle the evening, the entire program was run off with time to spare as the racing was completed at 10:47 PM. Gary Palmer continued to work his magic with the raceway as he had to smoooth out a few spots in the turns and his hard work made for a great race track that offered multiple channels of racing lanes for the drivers to work with. An electrical problem had portions of the grandstand tower without power but great work from Davis Sound Systems saved the day as they were summoned and solved the problem quickly.
Heat races for the five divisions were run off quickly as rookie Jason Roe, Anthony Perrego and Kyle Rohner captured the Spec Sportsman heat event and Kyle Wright and John Woinoski were victorious in the Pure Stocks. Pro Stock heats went to Bill Rion, Chrissy Rider and Mike Garaguso while the Modified heats were captured by David Bush, Mel Schrufer and Richie Eurich. The Sportsman heats were won by Brad Rothaupt, Mike Ruggerio and Howard Jarvis while Kenny Ferrier captured the consolation event.
Veteran Pro Stock racer Roy Williams made his debut in the Sportsman ranks, while Sammy Dwy and Tony Suozzo made their season debuts in the Spec Sportsman ranks. Lebanon Valley driver Don Miller visited the speedway for the first time but left before the feature event rolled out onto the raceway.
Drew Harrington made his debut in the Pure Stock ranks as more and more drivers arrive at the speedway to test their luck on the Accord high banks.
Stephanie Wegner, the daughter of car owner Rick Wegner Sr and brother of Modified campaigner Rick Wegner Jr, traveled from North Carolina to take in the racing action offered at Accord. Stephanie is a recent graduate of Sand Hills Community College and enjoyed her first visit to the speedway.
Additional pictures and information from the loyal fan base at Accord, will continue to grace future editions of the speedway program, "The Accordian" as Sara Fredericks continues to add to the already great racing publication. Tom and Lynn Osterhout provided some great photos on Friday for a future program edition and some photos were placed in the Announcer's room anonymously. The speedway staff thanks everyone in advance for sharing the memories of past racing at the speedway.
Lex Burritt, a standout in the 270 and 600 ranks, continues to improve with his first racing efforts in the big car divisions.
This coming week, May 29th, will feature another special event as $2,500.00 will be on the line for the Modifieds with the Five Mile Point Speedway Southern Tier Qualifier up for grabs on Camper's Barn night at the speedway. Additional cars are expected in for another great night of racing action.
June 3rd is the opening of the Mid Week Madness shows at the speedway as two nights of racing action will continue through mid-September. The quick hitting Wednesday evening shows begin at 7 PM and are exciting and jam packed full of action and very affordable as the admission for the Wednesday shows is just $3.00.
The first appearance of the popular CRSA sprint car series comes to the speedway on June 12th and the early season fields number around the 30-car mark as they travel the New York Speedways on a weekly basis. Accord Resident and defending champion Jeremy Quick is expected in the field and it is hoped that Andy Bachetti will have a car available to him as well. Bachetti's first and only appearance in the series netted him a feature event win in last year's King of the Catskills racing event.
RESULTS:
Bryant's Towing Pure Stock: Mike DuBois, Kyle Wright, Gary Ronk, Tommy Johnson, Ray Tarantino, Joe Judge, Mike Deyo, Paul Aragon, John Woinoski, Chris Kanuk, Joe Knoth, Robert Ball, Will Dietz, Ryan Johnson, Phil Johnson, Steve Cooper, Aaron Williams, Rich Stickle, Eugene Helms
Rhinebeck Ford Modifieds: Danny Johnson, Mel Schrufer, Mike Ricci, Vinny DeCicco, Andy Bachetti, Jerry Higbie, Bobby Trapper, John McGill, Richie Eurich, Rob Rowe, Scott Ferrier, Jackie Brown Jr, David Bush, Greg Hastie, Mark Pullen, Rick Wegner, Rich Ricci Jr, Kevin Duryea, Barry Davis, Rick Mill, Tommy Demarmels, Lex Burritt
Ruge's Parts Center Spec Sportsman: David Hinsch, Anthony Perrego, Kyle Rohner, Jeff Richardson, Tyler Boniface, Phil Recchio, Scott Mathews, Jason Thew, AJ Williams, Kenny Hinsch, Tom Cole, Chris Stevens, Steve Eubanks, Mike Sabia, Sam Dwy, Eric Moon, Kyle Plumstead, Ken Boniface, Tony Suozzo, Don Miller, Jason Roe
Campers Barn Sportsman: Howard Jarvis, Brad Rothaupt, Al Archiere, Greg McCloskey, David Coene, Ray See Jr, Jesse Marks, Kevin Ward, Jeff Hulseapple, Brian Krummel, Darrell Ford, Mike Ruggerio, Clinton Mills, Ryan Stortini, Kenny Ferrier, Shane Jablonka, Steve Meilleur, Joe Giachinta, John Sundlof, Roy Williams
Elwood Hewitt's Matco Tool Pro Stocks: Mike Garaguso, Don Williams, Chrissy Rider, Pat Zimmer, Bill Deak Sr, Bill Deak Jr, Jon Routhier, John Roese, Larry Temple Jr, Bill Rion, Emerson Cargain, Clarence Smith, Russ Nuzzaro, John Rood, Charlie Schwartz, Hank Morin, Wayne Hajek, John Drake, Ralph Ronk, Shawn Temple, Torin Betterton, Chris Zeko
For further updates and information regarding the great racing at the Accord Speedway, logon to their completely revamped website at: http://www.accordspeedway.com or call the speedway hotline at: 845 626 3478 |
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