6/7/08

J.R. HURLBURT BECOMES FIFTH DIFFERENT MODIFIED WINNER IN SIX RACES AT FIVE MILE POINT SPEEDWAY IN 2008.

 

KIRKWOOD , NY …J.R Hurlburt recorded his first Modified feature win at Five Mile Point Speedway on Saturday night.  In the process he became the fifth different Modified feature winner in six races this season at the competitive quarter mile oval.  Hurlburt led wire to wire in the 30 lap main event.

 

Brent Wilcox and Hurlburt led the twenty-five car starting field down for the green flag in the 30 lap Modified feature event.  Hurlburt immediately made his way in to the lead when racing got underway.  Wilcox ran in second place during the first half of the race but all eyes were on J.R. Crouse as he began to advance from his eleventh place starting position.  The first caution of the event would fly on lap 17 which saw Hurlburt early advantage wiped out.  Wilcox was still running in the second position at this juncture with James Cornell, Crouse and Tom McGurrin in the top five positions. 

 

When racing resumed Hurlburt continued his fast pace out front as Wilcox, Cornell and Crouse had a tremendous race for positions second through fourth.  On lap 25 Crouse moved in to second place and quickly tracked down Hurlburt for the race lead.  Crouse looked to have the momentum as he attempted to make the move for the lead only to see the caution fly on lap 27.  Hurlburt now knew he had company for the remaining three laps as the two battled to the finish.  At the stripe Hurlburt was able to hold off Crouse for a slim advantage and his first FMP victory.  Crouse wound up in second place with Wilcox, Cornell and McGurrin rounding out the top five.  Positions six through ten were filled by Frank Yankowski, Carl Nagel, Joey Grammes, Brian Weaver and Scott Brady.

 

Shaun Walker nabbed his second Sportsman victory of the season on Saturday night.  Walker started in the tenth position and avoided a multi car tangle at the start of the race to make his way to the front.  Aaron Shelton was the early race leader with Chris Wood taking the point on lap three.  It looked as if Wood could be headed to his first FMP victory as well as he continued to lead until the late stages.  On lap 19 Walker worked around Wood and would manage to hang on the final two circuits.  Wood finished second with Justin Holland, Brad Grim and Brian Puckett completing the top five.

 

Mike Stoddard took the lead from Jeremy Shaw on lap 17 of the IMCA Modified feature go and went on for his first win of the season.  Gary Dence led the early laps only to see Shaw take over on lap 7.  Two cautions slowed the action in what turned out to be a fantastic feature event.  Seventeen starters took the green.  Following Stoddard across the line were Gary Roberts, Cliff Pierce, Gary Dence and KC Cole.

 

Doug Stack returned to Pure Stock competition two weeks ago and it didn’t take him long to find his way to victory lane.  Stack passed Mike Codington on the 12th lap to notch his first victory of 2008.  Codington wound up second followed by Shane Wolf, Harry Marvin III and Tyler Yeagle.

 

Another busy night of action saw the Figure 8 division back in competition on Saturday night.  Mark Andrus made it two for two in 2008 by recording the victory.  Cody Decker was the winner in the first Lightning Cat main event for the third straight week.  Decker will now have a bounty placed on him this Saturday night.  Dave Simms recorded his first ever victory in the Lightning Cat night cap on Saturday.  Bryan Batzel was another first time winner in the Kiddie Cat class.

 

 

BY JR KENNERUP

Kirkwood, NY … 2006 Five Mile Point Speedway Modified track champion Brian Weaver of Windsor, NY showed on Sunday night that he still knows the quick way around the historic quarter mile oval. Starting 14th in the field of 26 Weaver used the low line to work his way into the top five by lap 14. Then Weaver switched grooves and used the “ Weaver High Line “ to grab the lead from James Cornell at the halfway point of the 40 lap feature.

Weaver’s march to the $1,500 win wasn’t easy by any means as he had to hold off 12th place starter Joey Grammes over the final ten laps to secure the win by four car lengths. Glenn Knapp, Jr. rim rode his way to a solid third place finish while Cornell who led laps three to 19 slipped back to fourth at the checkers. Chris Ostrowsky who started 22nd earned the Hard Charger Award of the race as he finished fifth.

The opening race of the Troyer Race Cars T3 All Star Series presented by L. J. Kennedy Trucking was slated to be raced on Saturday night at the Five Mile Point Speedway. With one qualifying event left on Saturday rain moved into the area postponing the show until Sunday evening.

The entire racing program was sponsored by Ostrowsky Construction and Tracey Road Equipment.

“ This car was real fast tonight as Randy ( car owner Decker ) has a phenomenal setup for here that is really working here right now “ said the smiling feature winner. “ It’s just the matter of getting up through the pack and having those extra laps tonight helped getting up through the field. Andy ( track promoter Harpell ) has a nice surface on the track right now and it’s not eating tires. I thought the track was really fast tonight. We came off the trailer fast today and we were fast in warm-ups and starting 14th I thought we would have had a tougher time coming up through the field. Fortunately the guys left a lane at the bottom and we were able to work our way up through. “

Weaver driving the Randy Decker Motorsports owned Bicknell chassis with sponsorship help from Decker Logging and Whiplash RC Racing took 14 laps to reach fifth position. Brian still working the bottom groove took fourth on lap 16 and one lap later snuck under Glenn Knapp, Jr. for fifth.

Then following the second restart on lap 17 Weaver jumped up to his customary high groove that he uses with success at Five Mile Point to get by laps one and two race leader JR Hurlburt for second. Running even a higher line than he did the lap before to take second Weaver motored around Cornell to get the lead just as the halfway signal was given.

Brian spoke about his switch to the outside line. “ I try and watch to see and pick the right time to move to the top. But when the bottom lane is open and working well like it was tonight you have to take that lane if you’re gaining on the leaders. Then we got into a situation where we had two fast cars in front of me and I got to thinking about my options and being the 17th lap I didn’t want to wait too long. So I tried to sweep around the outside of them and it took a few laps to get the momentum up and it worked out really well. “

Running the outside was a tough proposition on this night according to Brian. “ Running on the outside in turn one was nice but in turn three you had to hit it right or you would catch a rut. You had to swing out and around them in turn three and I missed them a couple of times and that cost me and those mistakes allowed Joey to get close to me at the end, too close for my own personal comfort. “

Many thought the key point of the race occurred on lap 31 as Grammes pulled alongside Weaver to battle for the lead just as the final yellow appeared. After the yellow Weaver switched from the bottom back to the top as his spotter told him via hand signals that someone was coming to challenge him.

“ Being honest with you I didn’t see Joey up there “ said Brian. “ Fortunately for me I have a great crew and they pay attention during the race to all of the little strategic games going on out there. Craig ( Decker ) is my man as he gives me the directions and he helped me out a ton tonight. He got us pointed in the right direction and there at the end Joey showed his nose under me and I got a good run off the corner the one time that I was able to get back on the bottom. Because I knew if I stayed on the top I was toast. “

“ It wasn’t a tough decision at all to come here and race today and miss the race at Weedsport “ said Brian. “ Randy and I talked about that earlier in the week as the weather didn’t look too promising. The situation with me at Weedsport is a low buck learning kind of thing and I’m not use to that black and slick race track up there. I’m fortunate that Randy stepped it up and went ahead to race here at Five Mile Point on Saturday nights this year. “

Brian just like tonight will be running a Terry Brown sponsored Wally Fiehl built small block weekly at Five Mile Point. “ This little Wally Fiehl motor is an awesome motor and once again Terry Brown has really stepped up the last two years. Terry has some fantastic motors that he’s paying for and we’ve never had the opportunity to have this kind of engine before. “

“ Kenny Shupp’s T3 Series is a fantastic thing; he works so hard at getting contingencies and sponsors. We got a beautiful eagle trophy tonight and I’m glad that we were able to come back here tonight and prove ourselves by winning one of his T3 races “ summarized Brian.

“ We’re all psyched to be racing here on Saturday nights once again this year “ said Brian. “ To start 14th and come up through the pack to win, it’s a confidence builder for the team. I feel really good about it. “

“ I don’t think the caution cost us on lap 31 “ said second place finisher Joey Grammes. “ I had my opportunities after that and I cleared him coming out of turn two on lap 37. I could have slid up the groove and took his line away but I’m not going to race him like that. It might have been different if it’s a five or ten thousand to win show but it’s early in the year and you don’t want to make enemies this early in the year. I’m just happy to see both of us run good. “

Qualifying events on Saturday for the 37 Modifieds on hand saw Swarthout Recycling heat wins go to Frank Yankowski, Bryan Terwilliger, JR Crouse, Brent Wilcox, and Mitch Gibbs. Tim Sebring Suzuki sponsored consolation races saw those captured by Dylan Dewert on Saturday evening and Dale Welty on Sunday evening.

RAIN WAS A BLESSING

The rain that hit the speedway and caused the postponement on Saturday was a blessing in disguise for Bryan Terwilliger. Bryan impressively won his heat race in his first race this year. However at the end of the heat race Bryan pulled off the track immediately due to a crack in the motor. Bryan lined himself up a ride in the backup Ray Bliss, Jr. machine for the feature and if it was raced on Saturday night Bryan would have had to start last due to a change of cars used. However with the rainout Bryan was able to save his ninth place starting spot in the feature on Sunday due to cars not being impounded. This meant that any driver already qualified could have used a different car come Sunday.

WHERE WAS BILLY ?

The only champion that the Troyer Race Cars T3 All Star Series has ever had is Billy Van Pelt and he was missing on Saturday night. Billy was doing a rain dance for Saturday as he couldn’t make it due to a surprise party for his brother Curt. This party was planned well in advance of any racing schedules coming out and it was just one of those things that you have to do once in a while. Although it did rain out on Saturday Billy was unable to race on Sunday due to no new cars being allowed to race that weren’t in attendance on Saturday night.

WHAT POWER

Two drivers used Sportsman legal mounts to qualify for the 358 Modified Troyer Race Cars T3 All Star Series feature. Joey Colsten raced his legal Sportsman car as is and qualified it with ease through the heat race. Joey was running the same exact car in the companion Sportsman feature. Meanwhile Greg Doust qualified his normal Sportsman ride that he races at the Skyline Raceway with. The only difference was that the car had a four barrel carburetor on it instead of the normal two barrel Sportsman carburetor that is used.

DECISIONS, DECISIONS

The rain also made a few drivers make a hard decision on what their plans were going to be for Sunday. Mitch Gibbs impressively won a heat race in the Gary Mann owned 358 Modified on Saturday night. Come Sunday Mitch was missing due to the fact that he was racing at the Utica – Rome Speedway as it was their opening night and Mitch is considered one of the favorites to win the $8,000 track championship.

Brian Weaver has slated Sunday racing at the Cayuga County Fair Speedway in his own car that carries sponsorship help from Ron Diffenbach. Brian made the decision to forgo the Sunday trip and stick close to home to run the Randy Decker Motorsports car.

Greg Doust who is heavily involved in youth hockey programs that his children play in. On Sunday it was a tough day as the season ending party was taking place which saw Greg leave early to come and race.

Mike Colsten had a prior commitment already set for Sunday and he was forced to miss the show.

FINISH; Brian Weaver, Joey Grammes, Glenn Knapp, Jr., James Cornell, Chris Ostrowsky, Brent Wilcox, Michael Schane, JR Hurlburt, Joel Batzel, JR Crouse, Joey Colsten, Brad Rapp, Grant Hilfinger, Dale Welty, Carl Nagel, Mark Frankhouser, Frank Yankowski, Kenny Titus, Kenny Peoples, Jr., Ron White, Bryan Terwilliger, Ray Bliss, Jr., Dennis Dietrich, Greg Doust, Dylan Dewert, Barry White.

Provisionals; Frankhouser, Peoples.

DNS; Mitch Gibbs, Mike Colsten.

DNQ’S; Josh Pursell, Chris Grbac, Chris Clark, Ron Mawson, Jr., Jim Mahaney, Darrin Schuler, Josh Holden, Chris Weaver, Jamie Sowle.