Tracks: Sheldon takes Modified Main on Funplex night at Lebanon Valley
9 July 2000
WEST LEBANON, NY- Guy Sheldon ended a long winless drought by capturing the
30-lap modified feature Saturday night. Art Collins took home his fourth
victory of the season in the 20-lap sportsman feature. Todd Goldstein was the
winner of the 20-lap street stock feature and Don Denue won the IMCA modified.
David Sanchez was the early leader in the 30-lap modified main event. He
would lead until the first caution flag flew on lap eight. The top five at
this point were Sanchez, Guy Sheldon, Russ Blair, J.R. Heffner and Chris
Moore. Sheldon used the restart to jump into the lead while Moore and Heffner
battled for third. Dave Leckonby tagged the turn four wall on lap ten and
dropped from the event several laps later. Heffner was able to fend off
Moore's charge and set his sights on Sanchez by lap eleven. Ronnie Johnson
had cracked the top five by the midway portion of the event.
Sheldon had opened up almost a straightaway lead early in the race.
Heffner was steadily chopping away at that advantage and caught Sheldon by
lap 20. Moore made his way around Sanchez for third on lap 19. The leader
began to encounter heavy lapped traffic by lap 20. The caution came out on
lap 23 as John Lutes spun around in turn four. The top three pulled away from
the pack on the restart as things really got hot behind them. Dwyer and
Tremont came together on the backstretch with Tremont making contact with the
wall. The two would be towed off the frontstretch after an on-track
confrontation.
Johnson grabbed fourth on the restart. Ricci cracked the top five on lap
25. Jason Goff spun in turn four to bring out the final caution of the race.
Heffner made several serious attempts to make a pass on Sheldon in the late
stages of the race, but could never make the pass stick. The two drivers
raced hard side by side but never banged off each other. Sheldon was able to
end a four-year drought as he held on to take the victory. Heffner finished
second, Moore third, Johnson fourth and Ricci rounded out the top five. Ricci
took over the point lead as a result of his top five performance.
Things got bad in a hurry in the 20-lap sportsman feature. Turn two was
turned into a parking lot as ten cars came together. Jeff Watson wound up on
the top of the Stan Jablonka racecar, fortunately all the drivers were okay.
When the green flag came back out Lorne Browe was in command of the event.
Art Collins was charging to the front early as sat fifth by lap two. Hawley
Smith, Ed Harkin and Art Collins went three wide for the third position on
lap three. Smith held onto third for the time being, but would lose it to
Collins on lap eight. The top five running order at the halfway mark was
Browe, Collins, John Hotchkiss, Smith and Frank Harper.
The caution flag came out twice on lap ten, the first for two cars in
turn four and the second when Collins jumped the restart. The most serious
incident of the race came on lap eleven when Charlie Hume hit the turn three
wall hard; he was shaken but otherwise okay. Collins tried to duck under
Browe on the restart and almost looped it in turn one. He did a stellar job
by not spinning out, but lost some serious ground on the leader. Harper used
the restart to move into the third spot. Hotchkiss saw his good run end early
as the suspension broke on lap 13. Collins had run Browe back down by the
three-quarter mark of the race. Browe tried desperately to hang onto the lead
but by lap 17 Collins was in control of the race. Collins quickly motored
away to take his fourth win of the season. Browe had a very strong second
place run with Bobby Knipe third, Harper fourth and Smith fifth.
Ed Bachand was the early leader in the 20-lap street stock feature race.
Al Blackburn was running in the top five when he slowed dramatically on the
frontstretch. Several cars got together in the back of the back as the yellow
flew for Blackburn. Ironically Al's brother, Bobby was involved in the turn
one incident and was done for the night as well. Jim Lagenback, Kirk Stanaway
and last week's winner, Pete DeFiglio, were all involved in the turn one
melee as well. Rob Yetman had a very anxious moment on lap five as he went
flying down the inside of the frontstretch. As he came back out onto the
racing surface he made contact with Steve Brownell and spun out in turn one.
Todd Goldstein used the restart to move into the runner-up position. A
big wreck was narrowly avoided on lap six when the leader, Bachand, blew up
going into turn one. Everyone was able to avoid the disabled racer and
Goldstein inherited the lead. Lagenback was coming back from his early race
problems to grab fourth on the restart. Danny Sanchez did a masterful job as
he almost spun on the lap six restart. Adam Haas brought out the caution on
lap seven as his racecar went up in smoke. The brother's Duzlak were in hot
pursuit of Goldstein by lap eight. Sanchez and Robbie Speed both went pitside
on lap ten as the attrition rate began to rise.
The top six cars were nose to tail just past the halfway point of the
race. Things heated up on lap 16 as Lagenback and Scott Govertsen got
together in turn four, Lagenback got a left front flat tire and retired from
the event. Bobby got around his younger brother to take second by the end of
the race. Goldstein took home his first victory of the season followed by Bob
Duzlak, Ricky Duzlak, Dan Burl and Ted Teal. Govertsen
7-08 FREIHOFER BAKING CO. / FUNPLEX FUNPARK MODIFIED SUMMARY (30 LAPS) - 1)
GUY SHELDON, 2) J.R. Heffner, 3) Chris Moore, 4) Ronnie Johnson, 5) Rich
Ricci Jr, 6) Donnie Corellis, 7) David Sanchez, 8) Russ Blair, 9) John
Hewitt, 10) Chris Kokosa, 11) Maynard Forrette, 12) Dickie Larkin, 13) Rob
Pitcher, 14) Chip Mitchell, 15) Ron Blake, 16) Dave Mosher, 17) Jason Goff,
18) John Lutes Jr, 19) Dave McFeeters, 20) Mike King, 21) Tim Dwyer, 22)
Kenny Tremont Jr, 23) Wayne Figler, 24) Dave Leckonby, 25) Mark Fluery, 26)
Matt Quinn
SPORTSMAN SUMMARY (20 LAPS) - 1) ART COLLINS, 2) Lorne Browe, 3) Bobby Knipe,
4) Hawley Smith, 5) Frank Harper, 6) Roy Bridge, 7) Sparky Lowe, 8) K.C.
Goewey, 9) George Marcus, 10) Jason Tompkins, 11) Jeff Cassidy, 12) Darral
Hulbert, 13) Mark Flach Jr, 14) Stan Jablonka, 15) Phil Arnold, 16) Jay
Casey, 17) Jeff Carr, 18) Paul Gilardi, 19) Ed Harkin, 20) Gary Graham, 21)
Don Miller, 22) John Hotchkiss, 23) Charlie Humes, 24) Mike Boomhower, 25)
Mike Visconti, 26) Jeff Watson
IMCA MODIFIED SUMMARY (10 LAPS) - 1) DON DENUE, 2) Paul LaRochelle, 3) Joe
Fachini, 4) Chris Crews, 5) Steve Hough, 6) Pete Tucker, 7) Dan Galullo
STREET STOCK SUMMARY (20 LAPS) - 1) TODD GOLDSTEIN, 2) Bob Duzlak, 3) Ricky
Duzlak, 4) Dan Burl, 5) Ted Teal, 6) Earl Mellan, 7) Paul Rogers, 8) Jim
Langenback, 9) Scott Govertsen, 10) Rob Yetman, 11) Robbie Speed, 12) Danny
Sanchez, 13) Kirk Stanaway, 14) Adam Haas, 15) Ed Bachand, 16) Pete DeFiglio,
17) Bobby Blackburn, 18) Al Blackburn, 19) Steve Brownell
ROOKIE STREET STOCK SUMMARY (10 LAPS) - 1) BRIAN KEOUGH, 2) Dave Colwell, 3)
Rick Fosby, 4) Geo. Stalker Jr, 5) Dan Humes, 6) Walt Clark, 7) Chris Claus,
8) John Danylicko, 9) Lawrence Ball, 10) Tom Fredericks, 11) Tony Gale, 12)
Phil Wood, 13) Kevin Arnold, 14) Mike Kratz, 15) John Santolin, 16) Pete Jeske
PURE STOCK "A" SUMMARY (8LAPS) - 1) GEORGE MILES JR, 2) Keith Barlow, 3) Earl
Soulier, 4) Guy Hughes, 5) Bruce Pecorella, 6) Phil Decker Jr, 7) Jeff
Douglas, 8) Bob Gibson, 9) Dean Cushman, 10) Ken Scofield, 11) Dan Crosby,
12) Gary Ashley, 13) Kevin Dolan, 14) Bill La Pointe, 15) Jay Martin, 16) Bud
Noble
PURE STOCK "B" SUMMARY (8LAPS) - 1) SCOTT KILMER, 2) Wally Engel, 3) Jim
Hankey, 4) Tom Sanchez Jr, 5) Steve Hatch, 6) Brian Sandstadt, 7) Mark
Houston, 8) Don Collins, 9) Rich Douglass, 10) Chad Ritrovato, 11) Marcus
Tifft, 12) Mark Forrest, 13) Chris Streeter, 14) Jacob Coons Jr, 15) P.
Fitzpatrick, 16) Donald Coon, DQ Lloyd Fosby
PURE STOCK "C" SUMMARY (8LAPS) - 1) PETE WIEGAND, 2) Joe Mottoshiski, 3) Bob
Palmer, 4) Fran Marchand, 5) Bill Hughes, 6) Ronnie Jacobsen, 7) Richard
Harkins, 8) Rich. Schumann, 9) Philip Moffit, 10) Ron Tritschler, 11) Bruce
Moffitt, 12) Art Lafferty, 13) Stephen Post, 14) Anthony Cotugno, 15) Ryan
Crellin, 16) Brian Tator
MODIFIED TOP TEN IN POINTS AS OF 7-08 1) Rich Ricci Jr 620, 2) Kenny Tremont
Jr 613, 3) Chris Moore 568, 4) John Hewitt 564, 5) Donnie Corellis 520, 6)
Dickie Larkin 499, 7) J. R. Heffner 496, 8) Ronnie Johnson 492, 9) Chris
Kokosa 475, 10) Dave Leckonby 455.