By BILL FOLEY
Tough night for passing as many of the anticipated Modifieds didn’t get to the front of the pack, but the result was a wild flurry with Jim Witko Jr, Andrew Ferguson, Pat Ward, Mike Bowman and Max McLaughlin for most of the way with Chris Hile, Billy Decker and Tim Sears Jr. making their presence felt at the end.
Witko chalked up the first Demon win of his career and said, “This is like winning the Daytona 500 to me.”
The race long “Witko leads, Ferguson leads” confrontation between the two was classic. Neither had been up front that long at Brewerton and I think they and fans anticipated that eventually someone would challenge them.
Witko led lap one, Ferguson went outside turn two on the fourth lap to lead and on the 12th lap restart Witko went back in front. Ferguson high off two and leads on 15, but 24 low and leads two laps later.
Lat 19 the 34 went to the front again and the rest of the race was basically side-by-side swapping the top two positions.
It appeared Ferguson had the momentum with four laps to go, but the yellow came out once again and they tightened up. Witko seemed to slow a bit entering one, but said, “The car had momentum around the rest of the track.” And that paid off.
Witko won by .235 of a second over Ferguson and 1.3 seconds over Ward with Max 1.6 seconds behind.
Talk about tough years, Ferguson has had one top five finish in six races at Brewerton this year and Witko didn’t have a top ten in six starts.
Witko entered the night 19th in points and his challenger 16th in the championship standings.
So I guess you could say the end result was pretty surprising.
This was the “lunch pail” top two. Witko and his wife Barb are basically it (but other teams do help at times if there is a problem) while Ferguson lost his major sponsor at the end of last year and he and his dad are doing everything to keep the big-block program moving.
It was just one of those “feel good” nights at the races as every so often the little guys get their moment.
The Pennsylvania veteran and the Syracuse second year driver really put on a crowd pleasing performance at the Demon.
Story Behind the Bartlett Car
Ryan Bartlett had a totally different looking car pitside.
It wasn’t his regular 93, but 393 which is a combination of his brother and his number on the side of his dad’s car.
Where cars come from is usually easier to answer than when your grandchild asks you “where did I come from?”
Ryan said, “This is a 2009 Troyer car and it was Jimmy Phelps Syracuse car which was hanging from the rafters of the Quaker Steak and Lube in Rochester. We bought it last year at the Weedsport Flea Market.”
Todd Root Is Back
Anyone who was at Can-Am Speedway a week ago Wednesday was amazed that Sportsmen driver Todd Root walked away from a scary crash.
When an accident happens at full speed there it means there will be some heavy damage done. Todd got hit a ton in the left rear which cracked the frame and then another broadside hit sent another car over on top of him.
When they uncovered the crumpled 15 you knew that this contending driver for track championships at other venues was in trouble.
He hopped into Jake Davis 15 to keep his points going at Brewerton and found another ride for Saturday at Fulton.
At Brewerton, Todd said, “We got back out for Weedsport with this car on Monday, but it was basically a shakedown. Tonight we hope to get going again.” He was able to come home eighth.
Looking at his car you could see the Larry Wight red hood on the yellow car. He said, “The rear clip was gone and cracked, we needed a new body, carburetor, two wheels, two tires, all nerf bars and body braces.”
Todd had lots of help and thanks the guys on his crew, but he also said, “I wouldn’t be here tonight if it wasn’t for Scott Jeffery’s who straightened out the frame and rear end and Larry Wight who did the welding. They are the reason I’m here.”
Another First Time Winner
Stephen Denton was emotional as he climbed from his Sportsman in victory lane for the first time in his career.
Teenager Tyler Trump did everything in his power to try to get past the Denton Carpentry car, but fell two-tenths of a second off as the checker waved.
Denton said, ”This is the first ever in my Sportsman career. I’ve been trying for seven years and I always felt I was gonna get it. Tonight we found a broken shock after the head and had other issues, but we made adjustments.”
Scott Jeffery’s Busy
It’s that time of year where the tour starts to pick up and garage work for all teams is of major importance.
Scott Jeffery’s cranked it out this past week. After the destroyed 99L was brought back to the shop from Utica-Rome on a rollback plans changed in the garage. There was no way it could have ever been loaded in the Gypsum hauler.
So Larry was behind the wheel of the car he drove at Charlotte in winning his first SDS show of the year at Airborne. There was a need for another car.
On Tuesday the call went to Bicknell and it arrived at Brewerton at 6:30 p.m. Friday.
Now it time to put it together.
Scott said, “We hope to have it together for next Friday night and take it to Eldora.”
Of the crashed car from U-R. It was destroyed.
Pit Stops
Chuck Powelczyk had trouble once again as he has a hurt motor and it isn’t firing properly. He dropped out of the main…
Jimmy Phelps, third in Mod points, had to pit, but came back for and finished 13th. Had a good talk with him and will be doing a feature for DTD later next week. You will find it interesting. Don’t’ forget the Phelps family SDS show at Weedsport on this coming Tuesday night…
Wight high point man settled for ninth, runner up in points Billy Decker sixth, fourth in points Matt Hulsizer 17th and fifth in point Max McLaughlin fourth…
John West had his 4w back in the Modified pits…
Four Cylinder Jamie Radley got up above the cushion in his heat, tried to save it, but ended up head on into the concrete wall sustained extensive front end damage…
Joe Isabell, running right near the front of the Mod Lite feature, had his right front end collapse. In his heat the left front tire set an altitude record as it soared above the trees in turn one…
Justin Williams went up in smoke leading his Mod Lite heat. Apparently it was just a hose and was out for the main to finish second to Casey Sykes…
Max McLaughlin is one intense young driver. He came home with a second from the sixth row at the SDS show at Airborne, but he wasn’t content with that. Thought that on a late restart he might have a shot at Wight, but his plan didn’t work out. His dad Mike said, “He’ll get one someday”. Max is beginning to show he can contend where ever he goes…
Gary Tomkins started up front in his heat, but got pinched and forced high up the track where he lost several positions. Tough night for 84 as he was second car out of the main after 12 laps…
Tim Sears Jr. and Matt Hulsizer didn’t get handicapped spots in heats and started was back in the Mod field. Sears went off 21st and rallied for fifth. He moved to ninth by the 12th lap and was seventh halfway. Hulsizer started 19th , but only got to 17th…
Sportsman driver Rocco Leone made contact with the wall after suffering a flat tire in his heat…
Chris Bonoffski must have had post race difficulties as teammate Nate Powers pushed him on the scales…
Joe Garafolo had his best Mod Lite finish of the year in third and won his heat…
Lowell Zehr also a heat winner for the Mod Lites…
Great comment from Four Cylinder winner Dakota Bechler who said, “This is my new favorite track.”…
Mod Lite main leaders were in tough spots. Sam Usborne bobbled on lap eight and Garafolo leads and one lap later Brian Meyers leads off two passing the 55. Then he spins and Sykes takes the lead for good…
Sportsman main saw Ron Davis III come home third and teenager Jackson Gill was fourth for his best finish of the year…
Three time feature winner Alan Fink settled for seventh…
Bailey Groves ran well in her heat, but dropped out on the 19th lap of the Sportsman feature…
Sportsmen point standings had leader Alan Fink finish seventh, second in points Todd Root eighth, Ronnie Davis third and third while fourth place Brent Joy was ninth at the checker and fifth place Zach Sobotka was 11th. Not a good night for most of the top five…
Not a ton of cars as 22 Mods, 19 Sportsman, 12 Mod Lites and a dozen Four Cylinders…
Racing over at 10:03 p.m after concluding in the wee hours of the morning last week…
Good to see Candyman Jeff back at the track after some medical issues…
Dave Farney on hiatus and Ricky Breed flagged high above the frontstretch…
Well, it was a night to remember and any news, comments etc. send along to foley395@hotmail.com
