By NATHAN ALDRICH
SUSQUEHANNA, PA – Nick Petrilak celebrated his birthday in Penn Can Victory Lane Friday night after a full twelve round bout with Kevin Hartnett. The pair would lead the field to green as Alan Rudalavage followed into turn 1. By lap 3 Petrilak and Hartnett were door to door, working inches off of each other through the first eight laps. As the pair rocketed around the speedway, lapped traffic forced both drivers to change lanes multiple times, with each getting slowed up. With Brad Shaffer and Brian Franko racing for position down the backstretch, Hartnett and Petrilak made their moves at the same time, going four wide and using every inch of available racing surface. Petrilak would gain the advantage as he cleared Travis Brockner and Alan Komar, using the pair to wall off Hartnett and find some clean air.
Lap 13 brought out the first yellow as Brett Tonkin made heavy contact while working the inside of lapped traffic in turn 1. Tonkin was fourth at the time and would continue on from the tail of the field. The top 5 under yellow would include Petrilak, Hartnett, Rudalavage, Alex Stanton and Brian Malcolm. Petrilak would fire well on the restart but the field would only complete a lap before Brandon Fritsch ended up in the turn 2 wall. Hartnett would get the jump on the next restart, pulling ahead of Petrilak down the frontstretch, as Brett Tonkin and John Michael Phillips hooked on the back stretch bringing out another yellow. The lap would not be counted as the leaders made it to the backstretch, putting Petrilak back in control.
This time Petrilak changed it up, getting a much better launch after switching to the inside lane and leading by a car length into the first turn. The pair would dart around the speedway with Petrilak defending the bottom until catching traffic again on lap 24. This time Petrilak would use Shaffer to force a check up from Hartnett before making a daring move to squeeze in between Komar and the implement tire. With only two laps left Petrilak hugged the bottom, daring Hartnett to make a move on the top. Hartnett wouldn’t be able to make it work, trailing Petrilak by a half car length at the line as Rudalavage, Malcolm and Brad Szulewski rounded out the top 5.
Feature winner Nick Petrilak takes pride in the work of his crew and said it means just a little more to come out on top after battling with one of the best to ever do it at Penn Can. He thanked Kevin for racing him cleanly and pushing him. The biggest challenge of the race came on the restarts as he was in the zone while working lapped traffic. Nick would like to thank his family and friends, NEP Telephone, Sleepy Hollow Turf and Equipment, GRM Excavating and Paving, Hoffman and Trex Costline. He would also like to wish his mother a Happy Birthday.
Penn Can has a busy weekend coming up with its first community night of the season, all Susquehanna county residents are $5 Friday 5/26 with proper ID. The weekend will see the return of crate latemodels to the Can. Sunday May 28th will bring the NY Penn IMCA Series with sportsman, factory stocks and 4 cylinders rounding out the Memorial Day Special.
Stafursky Paving Modifieds
WINNER – 72 – NICK PETRILAK
2.) 5-Kevin Hartnett 3.) 145-Alan Rudalavage 4.) 119-Brian Malcolm 5.) 14Z-Brad Szulewski 6.) 117-Alex Stanton 7.) 22-Alex Tonkin 8.) 1-Darwin Greene Sr. 9.) 127-Frank Yankowski 10.) 27K-Brett Tonkin 11.) 73-Casey Plummer 12.) 88-Alan Komar 13.) 014-Brad Shaffer DNF 23JR-John Michael Phillips, 84Y-Brian Franko, 484-Travis Brockner, 52B-Brandon Fritsch
Erik Hines Trucking LLC 602 Crate Sportsman
WINNER – M7 – MIKE NAGEL JR
2.) 197-Mike Schane 3.) 1A-Brad Weaver 4.) 10K-Kolyn Schane 5.) 54T-Travis Rooney 6.) 14K-Alex Konopka 7.) 711-Ralph Mele 8.) 61-Dave Rosa 9.) 55-Marty Goodwin 10.) 11-Brett Wooster 11.) 7R-Tommy Groover 12.) 44-Jim O’Hara 13.) 70J-Joe Novak 14.) 16-Ned Fitch 15.) 32-Eddie Kudrako 16.) 3R-Ray Leonard 17.) 00-Bradley Burman 18.) 72-Josh Fedo
Factory Stock
WINNER – 617 – ERIC BEACH
2.) 3-Jason Rhodes 3.) 9J-Jordan Towner 4.) 28-Charlie Gilbert 5.) 28X-Adam Gilbert 6.) 19-Darren Davies 7.) 23S-Kyle Spoor 8.) 23B-Brad Chilson 9.) 83T-Rich Sharpsteen 10.) 919-Josh Towner 11.) 78-Cody Fassett 12.) 35H-Justin Slezak
A&E Tire and Auto Service Center 600cc Modifieds
WINNER – 28 – BRETT GRAY
2.) 5-Chuck Lohmeyer 3.) 29-Brenton Miller 4.) 28H-Sam Hubbard 5.) 1JR-Darwin Green Jr 6.) 30NN-Nate Oropallo 7.) 17-Jeff Baldwin 8.) 12J-John Dinniny 9.) 1*-Alan Bibalo 10.) 99K-Phil Burns 11.) 67-Tori Straway 12.) 999-Ethan Johnson
Gary’s U-Pull It 4 Cylinders
WINNER – 56 – JEFF STERLING
2.) 8W-Rich Wagner 3.) 23-Collin Mills 4.) 77-Brian Salmini 5.) 16-Kenny Underwood 6.) 5-Josh Wilder 7.) 354-Andy Bolles 8.) G55-Dakota Fuller 9.) 21-Scott Beach 10.) 22-Davd Benson 11.) 316-Michael Girjatowicz 12.) 32RW-Ronnie Welch 13.) 27RW-Leigh Fuller 14.) Jesse Lovejoy DNF: 5L-Bryant Beach DNS: 21MJ
Limited Sportsman
WINNER – 5T – CHARLIE TOWNER
2.) 88A-Amanda Scholtisek 3.) 711X-Dave Heater
