TRACKS: Ricci gives self a belated birthday present with win at Lebanon Valley
2 July 2000
WET LEBANON, NY- Rich Ricci Jr. celebrated his first victory in the Gable
Motorsports #1R Modified with an ICE-COLD COORS LIGHT Saturday night one day
after celebrating his birthday. J.D. Handling also helped sponsor the night's
festivities and three finger Mortorky Brown once again proved why his
fireworks extravaganzas are the best around.
Roy Bridge was victorious in the 20-lap sportsman main. Pete DeFiglio took a
career first win in the 20-lap street stock feature. Don Denue picked up his
second win in a row in the IMCA modified feature.
Once the 30-lap modified feature got started Maynard Forrette was the
leader of the race. J.R. Heffner slowed suddenly on the frontstretch on lap
one. As the field slowed up Dave Leckonby got spun around in turn one and
collected Dickie Larkin as well. Leckonby made it back into the race and
Larkin was done for the night. Donnie Corellis went pitside under the caution
with transmission problems and returned without losing a lap. He made nine
more circuits around the track before something went in the rear end on lap
ten.
Guy Sheldon, Rich Ricci Jr and Chris Moore were putting on quite a show
as they were racing hard for the fourth spot. Sheldon and Ricci went door to
door for three laps neither driver willing to give an inch. Sheldon would
finally take command of the position and set after the third place car of
David Sanchez. The caution came out for the second time on lap eight as Al
McCoy came to a standstill at the end of the frontstretch. The top five at
this point were Forrette, Jason Goff, Sanchez, Sheldon and Moore. Goff had a
great restart and took the lead from Forrette with Sheldon leaping into
second and Ricci moving up to third. Sheldon's good run turned bad on lap
eleven when he tagged the wall in turn four. Sanchez made heavy contact with
Sheldon's racecar and he was finished for the night. Sheldon did return to
the race but was well off the pace.
Ricci used the restart to apply pressure on Goff and made the pass for
the lead on lap 12. Jason Goff saw his night end early as he slowed and went
pitside on lap 13. Johnson made the pass on Forrette for third on lap 14.
Ricci opened a ten-car lead over Moore with ten laps remaining. The battle
for fifth was the one to watch in the final stages as Chris Kokosa and
Forrette went head to head. Ricci was very strong on the front and took home
his first win of the season. Moore came home in second, Johnson third, Dwyer
fourth and Kokosa fifth.
Six cautions slowed the first half of the 20-lap sportsman feature. The
first of two cautions on lap one came out for John Alberti as he sat disabled
on the frontstretch. K.C. Goewey and Jeff Cassidy got together and brought
out the second lap one caution. Art Collins spun around in turn one and
collected up Lorne Browe on lap two. Bridge got around Mike Boomhower for the
lead before the one-quarter mark of the race. Sparky Lowe got around
Boomhower for second on lap five. The top five at the halfway point were
Bridge, Lowe, Smith, Boomhower and George Marcus. A lap ten restart allowed
Marcus to get up to fourth and move to third on lap 14. Art Collins recovered
from his early race incident to run fifth by lap 14.
Goewey recovered from his early race woes as well to get up to seventh by
the end of the race. Bridge was motoring away on the front and had opened up
a half-straightaway lead by lap 16. Lowe made a bonsai move on Bridge after a
lap 17 restart but could not make the pass stick. Lowe had to hold off a late
race challenge from Marcus and could never mount another challenge for the
lead. Bridge held on for his first victory of the season.
Things got off to a rough start in the 20-lap street stock feature.
Polesitter, Jim Lagenback looked to have trouble getting up to full song and
the field had to check up behind him. Kirk Stanaway went spinning off the
racing surface and Todd Goldstein was sporting some damage on the left front
of his car. Goldstein did return, but would not be a factor in the outcome of
this event. When the green flag racing resumed Pete DeFiglio was on the point
holding off a strong challenge from Adam Haas. The top four began to steadily
pull away from the rest of the pack on lap five. Haas held off a challenge
for second by Robbie Speed on lap seven.
Dan Burl slipped by Speed to take third at the halfway point of this
event. Some great three-wide racing for the fifth position between Danny
Sanchez, Bob Duzlak and Ed Bachand. The action got really hot and heavy when
Duzlak and Sanchez came together and spun in turn one. Sanchez attempted to
return but there was too much damage to the car. Al Blackburn was also
collected up in the incident. He was able to continue, but dropped from the
race on lap 18.
Lagenback made a late race charge to finish in the seventh position by
the end of the feature. The most serious challenge that DeFiglio faced came
with one lap to go as one of the slower cars spun out right in front of the
lead pack. No one could challenge DeFiglio on the restart and he held on to
take his first career street stock feature. Haas came across the line in
second with Burl third, Speed fourth and Bachand fifth.
7-01 COOR'S LIGHT / J.D. HANDLING MODIFIED SUMMARY (30 LAPS) - 1) RICH RICCI
JR, 2) Chris Moore, 3) Ronnie Johnson, 4) Tim Dwyer, 5) Chris Kokosa, 6)
Maynard Forrette, 7) Kenny Tremont Jr, 8) John Hewitt, 9) Matt Quinn, 10)
Russ Blair, 11) Rob Pitcher, 12) J.R. Heffner, 13) Steve Devine, 14) Chip
Mitchell, 15) Dave Mosher, 16) Mike King, 17) Guy Sheldon, 18) John Lutes Jr,
19) Dave McFeeters, 20) Jason Goff, 21) Dave Leckonby, 22) David Sanchez, 23)
Donnie Corellis, 24) Ron Blake, 25) Al McCoy, 26) Mark Fluery, 27) Dickie
Larkin
SPORTSMAN SUMMARY (20 LAPS) - 1) ROY BRIDGE, 2) Sparky Lowe, 3) George
Marcus, 4) Hawley Smith, 5) Bobby Knipe, 6) Art Collins, 7) K.C. Goewey, 8)
Mike Boomhower, 9) Jeff Carr, 10) Jeff Cassidy, 11) Mike Visconti, 12) Frank
Harper, 13) Mark Flach Jr, 14) Don Miller, 15) Jeff Watson, 16) Stan
Jablonka, 17) Paul Gilardi, 18) Jason Tompkins, 19) Luke Badaracco, 20)
Charlie Humes, 21) Mike Mason, 22) Lorne Browe, 23) John Hotchkiss, 24) John
Alberti
IMCA MODIFIED SUMMARY (10 LAPS) - 1) DON DENUE, 2) Chris Crews, 3) Joe
Fachini, 4) Steve Hough, 5) Paul LaRochelle, 6) Dan Galullo
STREET STOCK SUMMARY (20 LAPS) - 1) PETE DEFIGLIO, 2) Adam Haas, 3) Dan Burl,
4) Robbie Speed, 5) Ed Bachand, 6) Scott Govertsen, 7) Jim Langenback, 8) Rob
Yetman, 9) Steve Brownell, 10) Bobby Blackburn, 11) Todd Goldstein, 12) Bob
Duzlak, 13) Al Blackburn, 14) Ted Teal, 15) Danny Sanchez, 16) Joe Humet, 17)
Tom Brandt, 18) Kirk Stanaway, 19) Ricky Duzlak, 20) Paul Rogers
ROOKIE S/S SUMMARY (8 LAPS) - 1) GEORGE STALKER JR, 2) Dave Colwell, 3) Jery
Helms, 4) Brian Keough, 5) Chris Claus, 6) Dan Humes, 7) Phil DeFiglio, 8)
Rick Spencer, 9) John Santolin, 10) Jerry Wright Jr, 11) Rick Fosby, 12) Tony
Gale, 13) Walt Clark, 14) John Hynes, 15) Mike Kratz, 16) Kevin Arnold
PURE STOCK "A" SUMMARY (8 LAPS) - 1) JACOB COONS JR, 2) Jeff Douglas, 3) Jay
Martin, 4) Doug Moore, 5) Rich Douglass, 6) Marcus Tifft, 7) Dean Cushman, 8)
Art Lafferty, 9) Bill La Pointe, 10) Chad Ritrovato, 11) Bruce Pecorella, 12)
Ken Scofield, 13) Adam Unberger, DQ) Jonathan Coon, DQ) George Miles Jr, DQ)
Mark Houston
PURE STOCK "B" SUMMARY (8 LAPS) - 1) JIM HANKEY, 2) Anthony Cotugno, 3) Wally
Engel, 4) Earl Soulier, 5) Scott Kilmer, 6) Brian Sandstadt, 7) Jim Dellea,
8) Steve Hatch, 9) Lloyd Fosby, 10) Philip Moffit, 11) Donald Coon, 12) Bruce
Moffitt, 13) Bob Gibson, 14) Lloyd Tomlin, 15) Keith Barlow
PURE STOCK "C" SUMMARY (8 LAPS) - 1) RYAN CRELLIN, 2) Pete Wiegand, 3) Bob
Palmer, 4) Richard Harkins, 5) Fran Marchand, 6) Joe Mottoshiski, 7) Ron
Tritschler, 8) Brian Tator, 9) Mark Forrest, 10) Gary Ashley, 11) Ronnie
Jacobsen, 12) Kevin Dolan, 13) Phil Decker Jr, 14) Rich. Schumann, DQ) Bill
Hughes
TOP TEN MODIFIED POINTS AS OF 7-01 1) Kenny Tremont Jr 592, 2) Rich Ricci Jr
572, 3) John Hewitt 524, 4) Chris Moore 516, 5) Donnie Corellis 474, 6)
Dickie Larkin 465, 7) Ronnie Johnson 442, 8) J.R. Heffner 440, 9) Chris
Kokosa 437, 10) Dave Leckonby 435,