By BILL FOLEY
Well, sometimes a two day show really isn’t that bad and that was the situation at the Brewerton Speedway on Friday night and early Saturday morning.
General Manager Corey Reed had said, “We have always wanted to have an ESS Speedweek show on our regularly scheduled Friday night and we really wanted to get this show in.”
Well, 99% of the race tracks I have attended would have pulled the plug at 4:30 p.m. when the last torrential downpour hit.
Walking to the tower and looking over the track the infield was flooded, yuke tires were under water, the liquid gold was out in the second groove at the south end of the speedway and the pits, well, and the pits brought back instant memories of those at the Syracuse Mile during Super DIRT Week.
Some crews brought along huge sheets of plywood to park their cars on while others rolled out all weather carpeting and Extreme Auto Recovery owner Joe Abass sent someone to the farm next to his home to bring back straw. I have to admit, you don’t usually have the smell of cows in the pits.
This was a night of determination by the track crew, the management, the drivers and their crews as well as the fans. It was one that from the very beginning everyone knew that this was indeed going to be a looooooonnnnnngggggg night. And it was.
It was 9 p.m .before the first heat took the track and it was 1:34 a.m. when Sportsman winner Alan Fink finished talking with track-side announcer Adam Buchanan. In between Chuck Hebing won the Sprint main, Larry Wight the Modified and Jeff Sykes the Mod Lites.
When it was over I really think some folks would not have been too upset if rain washed out Fulton which was scheduled to open 15 hours later.
The crowd is usually one of the tops of the year, but was down a bit.
However, this is a time when social media assisted. Photos and reports were being posted regularly. So beginning at 4:30 p.m. and continuing for the next four plus hours more pics and info were being posted by not only the track, but from the pits and grandstands. People continued to arrive as late as the first flag as they realized that there was going to be racing.
Many thanks to the Wight family for running this one. They could have lost thousands of dollars, but the show was going to happen one way or another.
This was one time that a two day show, starting Friday and ending Saturday, was okay.
Pit Stops
in the pits were 30 Sprints, 21 Mods, 23 Sportsman and 13 Mod-Lites…
Tyler Thompson had to load his Sportsman early. The first time cars hit the track the surface was to say the least “slick” and Tyler didn’t get through the first turn and ended up slamming the wall in one ending up on a pile of clay…
Sprinter Josh Flint continued a string of bad luck. He flipped in his heat in turn one and came down hard on the back end. According to folks with the team, “He was quite sore, but okay. Went to Fulton to talk to the drivers on Saturday and went home Sunday to work on the car. “
Josh was out for the second time this year and in the first race at Fonda he flipped and heavy damage was inflicted…
Sprint driver Chad Miller got to know the tow truck guys too well as he was assisted at least four times during the night…
Fans were treated to an outstanding rendition of the National Anthem by Melissa Lazzaro…
Sportsman driver Rich Townsend got the frontstretch wall in his heat. Jackson Gill had gotten together with Townsend inflicting right side body damage on the 60…
Interesting Sportsman heat winners including Chris Cunningham, Rocco Leone and Earl Rudy…
Patrick LaPage did something not many dared to do as he got bottled up took evasive action and drove full bore through the mud bog known as the infield…
Robbie Bellinger picked up a Mod heat win along with Jimmy Phelps and Larry Wight…
Sam Usborne had a nice run to win a prelim event in the Mod-Lites…
Sprint driver Mike Hagenbottom won the dash and really liked the track surface as it was close to the tracks he regularly won and not dry and slick. He said he tore off all his tear offs on the first lap of his heat race…
Larry Wight missed the Sprint draw as he was in the pay loader working the track. Someone else drew for him…
Yan Bilodeau rolled in the B Main…
Mod Lite main second place battle between Casey Sykes, Zach Babcock and Joe Isabell was fun to watch…
Brett Wright not only flipped entering the first turn, but ended up on top of the wall in the trees. The impact into the jersey barrier shifted it and it blocked the entrance to the track for the ambulance. The pay loader had to be brought out to move the barrier back in place and to allow the ambulance to move…
Keith Granholm rode the outside front stretch wall in the Sprint main while Brandon Kidd was nearly in the cockpit of Jeff Cooks car…
Wight had a nose wing collapse. He pitted under the red came back to finish fifth, but some teams complained that he worked under red and sought disqualification. Eventually he was given the spot back. Ironically, Larry was driving the pay loader that was pulling out Sprint haulers stuck at 3 a.m. on Saturday morning and among those was the guys who wanted him DQ’d…
Tim Sears arrived in Uncle Tom Sears hauler…
Tim Kerr led the early part of the Mod main. He was running second when he broke on lap 22…
On a restart midway through the main, Wight went from fourth to first with his patented outside high side run. From there he ran away for the feature victory…
Some feel good stories of the night as Matt Hulsizer was solidly in second at the end of the 35 lap feature..
Chad Phelps continued to get back in the more consistent mode with a fifth. He and third place finisher Jimmy Phelps had some solid side-by-side racing moments…
Gary Tomkins got a yuke tire, took out the orange starting cone and then tried to hatch another yuke tire as he ended up on top of it. Gary is not a fan of these tires…
Rich Scagliotta did not start the feature…
Watching Chuck Hebing run a Mod at Brewerton decades ago I kept saying, “He drives a Mod like a Sprinter.” Well, once again he showed how to do it in a Sprinter around the Demon.
Sportsman driver Rocco Leone had a solid runner up…
Rookie Jeff Taylor came home with a career best eighth in the Sportsman…
Ryan Holiday was out for the final time this year as he is headed to serve in the U.S. Army in Iraq…
Don’t go looking for a Makin’ Tracks Fulton edition this week. I was in Jersey for a family outing and got to spend time with my daughters and grand children (as well as son-in-laws)…
Congratulations to Tom Sears Jr., Jason Barney, Alan Fink, Billy Clark JR., Chad Homan and Jimmy Moyer on their feature wins…
Comments and news please send along to foley395@hotmail.com
