Tracks: Lape Claims 88th Victory on Leader Herald Night at Fondo, NY
30 April 2000
Checkers to Odasz, Catanzano, Gates, Horning, Jr. and BabcockApril 29, 2000 - Fonda, NY Dave Lape of Canajoharie brought out his Teo Pro car and cleaned up like a pro at Fonda on Saturday. Lape took the lead on lap two of the green to checker event and was never challenged. Mod rookie, Alton Palmer put in a strong run but Lape was the leader all the way on Leader Herald night.
It was a great start to the season for the Fonda veteran, who was happy to get a win this early in the year.
Ryan Odasz of Ballston Spa, NY was a first time winner in the sportsman main event. Odasz was ecstatic and did a few doughnuts on the track before he brought his No. 88 to Checkerboard Square where he continued his celebration with a roof dance.
Kenny Gates of West Winfield, NY was the winner in the pro-stock feature. The I.M.C.A. feature win went to George Catanzano of Ghent, NY. Street Stock winners were John Babcock and Dave Horning, Jr.
Tanya Nichols of Johnstown, NY won the Powder Puff event.
John Kollar lead the modified field to the green but a crafty Dave Lape, quickly made his way around Kollar's No. 10% for the lead on lap two. Kollar held onto second for two more laps until Alton Palmer put his No. 76 past Kollar for second. Palmer would remain in the second spot for the rest of the event.
Kollar, Ken Hanson and Bob Sitterly battled for the next three positions until the halfway mark when Sitterly began to drop off the pace in turn four. This left Kollar and Hanson in a battle for third, followed by John Marsh and Bobby Varin.
There were no cautions to slow the event. Lape encountered his first lap car on lap 12 when he passed the No. 4 of Lou Lazzaro.
Dave Camara, Mike Romano and Jeff Trombley were on a steady charge from deep in the field but ran out of time to challenge the top five runners. Jack Johnson began his charge early but was unable to get higher than a seventh place finish.
The field began to shake up in the last five laps of the event. Although Lape the leader and Palmer in second could not be touched the third and fourth spots were up for grabs. Bobby Varin was able to move into third around Kollar on the 29th lap.
Lape was never challenged for the lead and went on to take the checker for the 88th time of his Fonda career.
Modified heat wins went to Ken Hanson, Alton Palmer, and Dave Lape. Jeff Trombley and Mike Fusco took the consolation checkers.
The yellow flag flew three times before the sportsman could complete one lap. First it was a heavily smoking No.1z of Ray Zemken.
On the restart Drew Fallis and Jeff Holt tangled in turn four sending Holt to the pits on the tow truck his first night back after a year hiatus.
The next restart came after the No. 74 of Robert Perry spun mid field on the front stretch. This sent the No. 58 of Nichols, and the No. 78 of Hoard, Jr. to the pits.
On the final try to restart the event, Ryan Odasz grabbed the lead from Joe Rando who had lead at the start of the event. Odasz put his orange No. 88 out in front and continued to put space between himself and second place runner, Rando.
Odasz never looked back and went on to picked up his first ever win at Fonda.
Joe Rando, Robert Perry, and Ryan Odasz won the sportsman heats.
In I.M.C.A. action, eventually winner George Catanzano led at the green and held on through the caution plagued event to pick up his first win of the season at Fonda. The first yellow flew on lap two for a spinning Steve Bidwell. On the restart Jim Raczji was squeezed into the inside barrier in turns three and four and the yellow flew again.
When the field finally straightened out it only lasted four laps. The caution came out again for the No. 25 of Pete Campione in turn one.
Catanzano held the lead on the restart and by lap nine Bidwell, who started in the rear on lap two, was in the runner up spot. By lap 12 Bidwell was reeling in the No. Z1 of Catanzano on the frontstretch but Catanzano was able to pull away on the backstretch.
With only two laps remaining, Catanzano seem to have a burst of power and pulled away from Bidwell.
Unlike the luck that befell him two weeks ago when his car slowed on the backstretch while he was in the lead on the final lap this week Catanzano held off Bidwell, Priest, Batella and Proctor to record his first win at Fonda.
Four cautions slowed the pro-stock main event. The most severe took out Jim Burton with a damaged front end. The melee began when Hondo Carpenter go very wide in turn four and lost the handle on his No. 9. Carpenter bounced off the frontstretch wall and spun in front of field, collecting Burton, Chris Morris and Luke Klob.
Tom Denton took the lead on the restart and held it until lap eight when Kenny Gates powered by him on the backstretch. Denton continued to chase Gates for the next eight laps, closing in on several tries but never able to regain the lead.
Jim Normoyle and Rob Noviczski battled for the third position until Noviczski was forced to pits on lap 16 with a right front flat tire.
Second place runner, Denton pitted on the final caution of the event. This gave the wily Phlan Hart his change at a top spot. Hart now second, chased Gates for the final three circuits getting close enough to show Gates his front bumper on the final lap. Normoyle remained in the third spot.
Mike Fritz moved into the fourth position on lap 17, followed by the No. 1 of Steve Welch.
Pro-stock heat winners were Bryan Jordan, Mike Noble, and Tom Denton.
The Street Stock "A" event went green to checker with John Babcock leading all 12 laps to pick up the win. Skip Pabis and Jim Olsen chased the Babcock No. 99 for the entire event. First Pabis sat in the runner up position and then on lap four Jim Olsen took over. Olsen did everything possible to pass Babcock but there was no getting by the determined leader.
In Street Stock "B" action Dan Rickard led the field to the green and led for the first two laps. On lap three Bob Van Aernam took the top spot. Bob held off the constant challenges his son Rob VanAernam until Dave Horning, Jr. got in the mix and spoiled the chances of either VanAernam picking up the win on this night. This was Horning's second win of the 2000 season.
Modified finish (30 laps) 1) DAVE LAPE, 2) Alton Palmer, 3) Bobby Varin, 4) John Kollar, 5) Ken Hanson, 6) John Marsh, 7) Jack Johnson, 8) Dave Camara, 9) Jeff Trombley, 10) Bob Savoie, 11) Bobby Albert, 12) Tony Pepicelli, 13) Mike Romano,14) Harry Shaffer, II, 15) Craig Criscone, 16) A. J. Romano, 17) Lee Nutting, 18) Ronnie Holmes, 19) Tim Fuller, 20) Mike Fusco, 21) Brian Purdy, 22) Bob Vedder, 23) Frank Hoard, 24) Bob Sitterly, 25) Lou Lazzaro, 26) Seth Gano
Sportsman finish (20 lap) 1) RYAN ODASZ, 2) Joe Rando, 3) Jim Davis, 4) John McAuliffe, 5) Johnny LeClair 6) Mike Ballestero, 7) Bob Hackel, 8) Tony Farone, 9) Drew Fallis, 10) Tim Mayne, 11) Steve Davis, 12) Rich Wozniak, 13) Jermiah Munson, 14) Eddy SanSoucie, 15) Craig Boehler, 16) Mike Fraiser, 17) Mike Ketchum, 18) John Constantino, 19) Robert Perry, 20) Joe McCallion, 21) Shawn Lawyer, 22) Frank Hoard, Jr. 23) Jeff Jones, 24) Nick Nichols, 25) Jeff Holt, 26) Ray Zemken
Pro-Stock finish (20 laps) 1) KEN GATES, 2) Phlan Hart, 3) Jim Normoyle, 4) Mike Fritz, 5) Steve Welch, 6) Dave Viall, 7) Bryan Jordan, 8) Bubba Tanner, 9) Jeff Patrick, 10) Chris Morris, 11) Jay Resch, 12) John Roese, 13) Mark Lighthall, 14) Kerry Jordan, 15) Mike Noble, 16) Chuck McSpirit, 17) Joey Duncan, 18) Rob Noviczski, 19) Luke Klob, 20) Tom Denton, 21) Mark Sullivan, 22) Tom LaPlante, 23) Jamie Proctor, 24) Evan Grahan, 25) Steve Burega, 26) Hondo Carpenter, 27) Jim Burton
I.M.C.A. finish (15 laps) 1) GEORGE CATANZANO, 2) Steve Bidwell, 3) Kevin Priest, 4) Kevin Battella, 5) George Proctor, 6) Mike Bungay, 7) Joe Locorini, 8) Aaron Jacobs, 9) Pete Campione, 10) Jim Rajczi
Street Stock "A" (12 laps) 1) JOHN BABCOCK, 2) Jim Olson, 3) Skip Pabis, 4) Jerry Pepper, 5) Keith Ackerknecht, 6) Chris White, 7) Eric Harper, 8) Mark Saglimbeni, 9) Guy Klob, 10) Dan Daniels, 11) Paul Chichester, 12) Don Warner, 13) John Mastrianni
Street Stock "B" (12 laps) 1) DAVE HORNING, JR. 2) Rob VanAernam, 3) Bob VanAernam, 4) Ken Barth, 5) Dick Nichols, 6) Dave Bayes, 7) Randy Cannell, 8) Dan Daniels, 9) Unknown, 10) Andrew Snider, 11) Carol Parker, 12) Shawn Simmons, 13) Dan Rickard, 14) Rocky Warner, 15) Dave Hewitt.