NEWS AND RESULTS:
Wall Speedway - Turkey Derby - November 2015
Sometimes a chain of events in a race day go your way in the end. That happened for Ryan Preece in his first Modified start in just over a month at Wall Stadium Speedway (NJ) for the running of their Turkey Derby XLII Tour-type Modified race.“That’s a race you always kind of want to win,” Preece told Speed51.com powered by JEGS. “Probably today was one of the days where I didn’t really expect it. We just struggled. It all worked out and it’s pretty cool.”Even after halfway through the 150-lap race, the 2013 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour champion appeared not to be a factor after incidents that sent him in the wrong direction twice.Matt Hirschman was the fast qualifier and was seemingly untouchable during the first 88 circuits. At that point, Hirschman and almost all of the leaders headed for the pits for the two tires they were permitted to change.In the midst of all the shuffling, Hirschman was clipped by another competitor and was forced to pit again to fix a tire rub, and Long Islander Dave Sapienza inherited the top spot until 38 laps remained.The whole complexion of the race changed when a light mist throughout the afternoon turned steadier and red flagged the event on lap 112.More than three hours later, the race resumed and it was Preece and Hirschman noticeably making their march to the front. Sapienza held the fierce competitors off for several laps, but Preece finally maneuvered below with 24 laps remaining and took off.Sapienza later ended up going around after contact from local favorite Jimmy Blewett. “It would have been nice if it ended with the rain,” Sapienza commented. “I would have liked to have walked out of here with a win considering last year I led so many laps. Those guys just get crazy. Everybody was going for the win and I understand it’s the Turkey Derby, but there’s consequences.”In the remaining laps it was an all-out battle between Preece and Hirschman. Hirschman challenged for every one of the last green flag circuits, but there was one main game-changer.“The cautions kind of flew right where they needed to,” Preece said. “(Hirschman) was really good. Every time we got a caution he would have to duel it out with (Doug) Coby or he would have to get momentum going. It all just worked out in our favor.”Another difference-maker that got Preece to the front was the strategy they decided on.“We late-pitted because we knew we didn’t really have a shot,” Preece explained. “When it came to straight up we weren’t as good as these guys. Right before that rain, the red flag came out right when we pitted so we never even put a cycle on the tires. I think that’s really what ultimately won us this race.”Hirschman had similar strategy late in the going, but the groove, or lack thereof after the rain, played the major factor.“For one, there was no outside after we went back out after the rain, so on the restarts where you have your best chance there was just nothingout there,” Hirschman said. “(Preece) did what he had to do. He protected the bottom. He did choke up his corner speed a little bit and I tapped him a few times, but I’m not dumping him and I’m not throwing away second place either.”
2015 NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour champion Doug Coby, local driver Anthony Sesely, and Ron Silk, driving for Danny Watts, rounded out the top five in a marathon of a day of racing to conclude the 2015 Modified racing season.
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During a weekend that offered as many slow speed track drying laps by safety vehicles and a jet dryer as it did high speed laps by powerful racecars Ryan Preece of Berlin, Ct. and Jimmy Blewett of Howell were crowned Modified champions during the 42nd Turkey Derby stock car classic at Wall Stadium. Despite the fact that the third mile paved oval had to be dried on Friday morning, Saturday morning, late Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning all racing events were completed.
In Saturday’s Tour Type Modified 150-lapper Matt Hirschman of Northampton, Pa. led early until slipping into the pit area for tires. Holmdel’s Andrew Krause was then the leader before Dave Sapienza of Riverhead, N.Y. took over the top spot. On lap 112 late on Saturday afternoon the rain started falling and it was over two hours before the track could be dried. Sapienza was still the leader when the race restarted but his tires were wearing which allowed Preece to take the lead late in the contest. Matt Hirschman came back from his pit stop for second with Doug Coby of Milford, Ct., Matawan’s Anthony Sesely and Ronnie Silk of Norwalk, Ct. wrapping up the top five.
The Wall/SK Modified 100-lapper was pushed back to Sunday after a late Saturday evening rain shower dampened the track. In the Wall/SK race track champion Steven Reed of Jackson was in control through lap 80 when worn tires forced him to spin. Derek Hopkinson of Toms River then moved to the front before Blewett, now an eight-time Turkey Derby winner, took over the lead in the final ten laps. Blewett then powered to the win with Hirschman posting his second runner-up finish of the weekend. Howell’s Eric Mauriello, Trevor Alspach of Willingboro and Brick’s Shawna Ingraham wrapped up the top five. Reed recovered from a late race pit stop for sixth.
TOUR TYPE MODIFIED – 150 Laps – 1. RYAN PREECE, BERLIN, CT., 2. Matt Hirschman, 3. Doug Coby, 4. Anthony Sesely, 5. Ronnie Silk, 6. Steven Reed, 7. Andrew Krause, 8. Shaun Carrig, 9. Brian DeFebo, 10. Austin Kochenash, 11. Woody Pitkat, 12. Dave Sapienza, 13. Max Zachem, 14. Eric Kocher, 15. Cory Midgett, 16. Joey Payne, 17. Keith Rocco, 18. Jimmy Blewett, 19. Jason Treat, 20. Andy Jankowiak, 21. Danny Bohn, 22. Zack Alspach, 23. Shawna Ingraham, 24. Les Hinckley, 25. Eric Mauriello
WALL/SK MODIFIED – 100 Laps – 1. JIMMY BLEWETT, HOWELL, 2. Matt Hirschman, 3. Eric Mauriello, 4. Trevor Alspach, 5. Shawna Ingraham. 6. Steven Reed, 7. Jason Hearne, 8. Shaun Carrig, 9. Jonathan Mandato, 10. Danny Bohn, 11. Chris Lane, 12. Jason Treat, 13. Justin Gumley, 14. Dom Fattaruso, 15. Michael Gervais, 16. Chas Okerson, 17. Chris Reynolds, 18. Derek Hopkinson, 19. Ken Matlach, 20. Andrew Krause, 21. Zack Alspach, 22. Adam LaCicero, 23. Anthony Sesely, 24. Ron Frees
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Checkmate for GBIII in High Speed Myrtle Beach Chess Match -
Having the right game plan was the key for southern Modified ace George Brunnhoelzl, III during Saturday’s UNOH Battle at the Beach at Myrtle Beach Speedway. Knowing when to take tires, as well as when to save, was part of the high speed chess match during the 125-lap Tour-Type Modified feature, and at the end of the day it was Brunnhoelzl proclaiming, “checkmate.”;
The victory for Brunnhoelzl, whose strategy was to pit twice for tires in the latter half of the race, was his first outside the NASCAR sanction as the event at Myrtle Beach was an independent Modified race.“I had a lot of faith in our car and I know we could pull it off,” said Brunnhoelzl. “I think we were sitting good on our two stop strategy, but when the caution came out again we said we came here to win, lets come in and make another change and make sure we have the best rubber.”;The late pit stops put Brunnhoelzl back to 16th and 10th, respectively, and he was able to charge forward each time. The final lead change took place on lap 116.“The crew never really knew how much I was riding,” added Brunnhoelzl. “I held back a lot because I wanted to be able to blow through the field if I needed to late in the race. We had the cautions work in our favor and we got the win.”;Brunnhoelzl also set fast time in the race that featured more riding then all out racing as the majority of drivers made an attempt to save tires.Brunnhoelzl passed Matt “Big Money” Hirschman for the win in the closing 10 laps. Hirschman never had been to Myrtle Beach and had a strategy to save tires and put fresh rubber on late.“I really had no idea what we needed to do to be in contention,” said Hirschman. “We figured it out and we learned a lot and I would come back for sure again.”;At the finish Brunnhoelzl was the winner as Burt Myers got to second by passing Hirschman with two laps to go. John Smith and Chris Pasteryak rounded out the top five.“The strategy we had would have worked, but the car was not where it needed to be,” said Myers. “I was thinking inside the car that we might have waited too long as we started fading late in the race, but we were able to come in and add tires and charge back to the front.”;
Over the course of the race several drivers took their turns out front as the leader. Jamie “The Jet” Tomaino actually pulled away so far that it looked as if he was lapping the field. He wound up 10th.
-By Elgin Traylor, Speed51.com Southeast Correspondent – Twitter: @ElginTraylor
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Hirschman Deflated After North South DQ – Bonsignore Inherits NSS Win
It wasn’t the way Justin Bonsignore wanted to win the 13th Annual North-South Shootout, but at the end of the night, he was standing in victory lane at Concord Speedway (NC) with the $10,000 check. Bonsignore inherited the win after apparent race winner Matt Hirschman was disqualified for an unapproved adjustment during a red-flag period with nine laps to go in the 125-lap event. “It’s obviously not the way you want to get it, but what’s right is right,” Bonsignore told Speed51.com. “He (Hirschman) outran us today and it would have been totally different if they didn’t do what they did. It sucks the way it happened. This is the second one this year that I’ve won in tech, but you take them any way you can, especially when it’s something with John Blewett’s name attached to it. That’s a huge honor.”
Hirschman was disqualified from the win for plugging a slow-leaking right front tire during a lap 116 red flag period. As of 9 p.m. ET Sunday night, Hirschman told Speed51.com that he had not been contacted directly by race director Tom Fox or any other official from the event. “I’ve been honest and up front right through the whole process with the officials and everyone,” Hirschman explained. “When we were under red flag on pit road and they said you were allowed to do tires, gas and windshields. We noticed our right front was soft. I wasn’t sure what to do and when I looked down pit road and (saw) other people were jacking cars; they had stagger boards out and they were putting fuel in. I didn’t know what to do. “I had a right front leak and I found where it was leaking. We put a plug in it and we did it in front of an official. It was not done trying to hide it or sneak it by. We plugged the tire right in front of an official. The official called up to the tower and told them what we did. It was OK’d and it was not addressed by (race director) Tom Fox.” Race promoter Darren Hackett informed 51 late on Sunday evening that he and Hirschman talked about the penalty for nearly one-hour after the race and that Hirschman was amicable and honest through the entire ordeal. Hackett also said that the official penalty has not been declared due to the fact that race director Tom Fox was still on a flight en route to his home in New England. “The stop-and-go official noticed that they were plugging the tire and tried to stop them,” Hackett said. “They went and plugged it and she radioed it into the tower that they had done it. Tom never responded back. He went back to green and did not assess a penalty. Tom was also in a hurry to catch his flight home and had to leave with five to go. He had to leave and I had to finish it. Now we’re at the point of what do we do to make it an even playing field for everyone involved?” Hackett also told 51 that both Patrick Emerling and Bobby Santos will be receiving penalized for making unapproved adjustments that included jacking up the car and using stagger boards. Hackett admitted that Hirschman, as well as the others, should have been penalized at the time of the infraction. “He should have been penalized (at that time),” Hackett stated. “There’s two more cars as well, the 15 (Santos) and 07 (Emerling) were told they were going to be penalized and then they didn’t get penalized. We’ve got three cars that didn’t get a penalty that we’re going to have to assess a penalty to and decide what to do because all three of them made changes to their cars at that time.” The exact penalty that Hirschman will receive is undetermined at this time due to Fox being unavailable as he travels home. An unofficial finish has also not been posted as of 10 p.m. ET. “I’m not going to say something I shouldn’t and I’m not going to say something that would make me stick my foot in my mouth later,” said Hirschman. “Basically I’ve been honest about it through the whole process; I didn’t hide anything and I told the officials after the race. Tom Fox was not available; he left on a plane before the race even concluded. It’s a shame because it was an absolutely fantastic race despite the weather conditions that have sucked since we got here.” While standing in victory lane after being declared the official winner, Bonsignore stated that he noticed “a lot of nonsense” taking place on pit road during the red flag period. “They had to make these calls,” Bonsignore said. “It’s unfortunate that they had to, but we played by the rules and what’s right is right I feel. Doug Dunleavy puts up a lot of money ($10,000 to the winner) and he was pretty disappointed on how things were going. It is what it is really, there’s no right thing to say right now.” Driving back home to Pennsylvania, Hirschman was still proud of his team and their performance despite the penalty. He said that the most frustrating part was having the flat tire and putting them in a position to have to plug it during the red flag period. “Besides the flat tire, the team that earned the win was in victory lane,” Hirschman said. “Unfortunately we had a flat tire and we had a red flag that allowed the air to leak out. If I was the 51 team or any other team, sure I’d take the win, but at the end of the day we performed best and it was just unfortunate I got a flat tire.”Speed51.com and the Speed51 Network will have more on this story and the finishing order on Monday.
In His Own Words: Tom Fox Recounts Confusing, Controversial North-South Shootout Event
On Sunday at Concord Speedway in Concord, N.C. hours after the conclusion of the John Blewett III Memorial 125-lap Tour Type Modified North-South Shootout event, it was announced that race winner Matt Hirschman was being disqualified for plugging a leaking tire during a red flag late in the event.Second place finisher Justin Bonsignore was declared the winner of the event. Hirschman was penalized to a 16th place finish. Also, top-10 finishers Patrick Emerling and Bobby Santos III were also penalized for doing work during the same red flag. Emerling was credited with a 17th place finish and Santos an 18th place finish. A story late Sunday on Speed51.com reported on the confusing closing of the event and eventual penalties.
The actual event ended after race director Tom Fox had left the track.
The race was under a red flag with nine laps remaining for weather when Fox was forced to leave the track. Before leaving the track Fox had suggested to race promoters Darren and Renee Hackett – the owners of Caraway Speedway in Sophia, N.C. – that they should red-checker the event and declare it finished.
Fox was unable to speak with Speed51.com for their race recap on Sunday evening. Monday Fox spoke with RaceDayCT and went over the issues that took place at the event, which was promoted by Caraway Speedway owners Darren and Renee Hackett.
Question: You had to leave the track because of commitments to flights and work?
Tom Fox: “I’m lucky that I was able to go down Thursday and Friday. This is my busy time of the year for the work I do and I’m out of vacation time. My boss was gracious enough to let me go down there. There was no way I could bang him for a Monday. This travel time and travel day has been scheduled for months. If there was legitimate concern we certainly could have done more to condense the pit party or eliminate it altogether. There was a lot of avenues that we could have went down. But at the end of the day, I think the safe bet would have been to pull the plug and we didn’t and we had some confusion at the end there unfortunately.”
Question: Can you talk about the aftermath of what you’re dealing with today?
Tom Fox: “There was a quote in a story that Matt [Hirschman] got the tire plug approved from Tom Fox, which didn’t happen. I just got off the phone with Matt a little while ago and he said that clearly he was told by his guys that I said he could plug it, but Matt never heard me say that and I never said that. You know how racing goes. Matt and I are good and he knows that what he attempted to do, he said ‘I got two choices here, I can either restart the race with a flat tire and pull in the pit area and change it and come back out and try to blast through the field or I can plug it and they’re going to put me to the back and I’m going to come down pit road.’ What he didn’t anticipate to happen was to get a penalty afterwards. And I agree with him, for what it’s worth. That’s a tough way to go.”
Question: Can you recount what was taking place with the officials and promoters near the end of the event?
Tom Fox: “We were in the middle of packing up and leaving. The event was running much longer than it was supposed to. Our flight was leaving. We had the rain start. The red flag came out and I pulled the cars down pit road. Darren and Renee came into the tower and they wanted me to finish the race. They wanted me to get the racecars on the racetrack to keep the track dry and finish the race. I told them it was time to red-checker the race. It’s a fuel mileage race. It’s 125 laps and every one of those Tour Type Modifieds have the big carburetor on it. Some people had elected to pit for a couple gallons of gas and some people were trying to conserve fuel. There was no way I thought it would be proper to run them around the racetrack to try to keep the track dry because that would change the face of the race. I elected to park them. We sat it out for a little while.
“Darren and Renee knew that sometimes around 5 o’clock was our deadline and they came up to the tower and I urged them to red-checker it. I said ‘Now is the time, I don’t foresee us getting this going again without having issues for various reasons with the fuel deal, pit stops, cars sitting for a while, tire pressures, just all that typical stuff. I’ve been there and done that. But he was determined to make it happen, so he reached out to Tom Mayberry [of the Pro All Stars Series] and asked him if he could have his Late Models, that were ready to go, on the racetrack to dry the track. Tom did that. Darren instructed me to get the Modifieds out there to follow them and I again told him, ‘You can’t do it because they’ll run out of fuel.’ So he said ‘Let them fuel up right now.’ So I announced on the radio they could add fuel because we’re going to go out and dry the racetrack. He took over the event at that point in time. And he knew that there was three potential penalties on the board as I was walking out the door. I looked at him and said ‘We’ve got three guys, including the leader that have potential penalties.’ And I say potential because typically what you would do in a scenario like that is you would call down to the pit road officials and you would say ‘Who had car 60? Who had car 07? You would ask them what they saw. Repeat what they saw to you. Verify that there was in fact some sort of a penalty. And then do the assessment certainly before you go racing again. I was not in charge. I was going out the door. I’ve apologized to two of the players so far. I still have to reach out to Bobby Santos just for any of my involvement to it, because I don’t want it to end that way at all. If I was in complete control of the event it would have been red-checkered, that’s all I can tell you. That would have been the smart thing to do. There was five more extra lap features to be run and it was quarter to five and there was more weather on the radar. I don’t think nine laps was a big deal.”
Question: Were you upset as the race director that suggestions for managing the end of the race were not heeded by the promoters?
Tom Fox: “It is what it is. At the end of the day everybody has a boss. It’s not my North-South event. It is awkward for sure. Watching the thousands of races of I’ve seen and certainly managing the hundreds that I’ve managed, I could foresee there being an issue if we tried to restart the event for various reasons based upon the content of that feature event. I couldn’t see it restarting without several issues. I couldn’t find a way, unless we could go out on the racetrack and run two caution laps within a couple of minutes and go right back to green, there was going to be some negative impact to what we had going on there. Been there and done that. For what it’s worth. I think we had some communication issues too between the tower and pit road and what the pit road officials were allowing. What my instructions and what my intent was versus what may have been carried out down there. Sometimes that differs as well.”
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WATERFORD - 9th in Tri-Track & 2nd in SK Nationals at Waterford’s Super Bowl.
WATERFORD – For much of the season of the 2015 season at the New London-Waterford Speedbowl the show at the front of the SK Modified field has involved showdowns between Keith Rocco and Ted Christopher.Fans still in the grandstands for the final feature event of the season Sunday got to see that act play out one final time this year, but with an added bonus player to the mix.Standout Matt Hirschman made his presence known as part of the Rocco/Christopher show Sunday, but in the end it was still Rocco, the 2015 SK Modified track champion, holding the throne.Rocco held off the charges of Christopher and Hirschman over much of the event to score the $5,000 payday as winner of the 75-lap Modified Nationals feature Sunday at the New London-Waterford Speedbowl’s Bemers Super Bowl of Racing.
“The car was awesome all night. … Pettit Horsepower under the hood carried us all the way on the restarts. We got up there and we were getting in all the wrong lanes and then this thing just started rolling on the top. I got to the front and you know, I thought when it was me and Ted it was going to be one of those nights where it was a race to the front. All year it was a race to the front and tonight me and him got to battle back and forth and that was a lot of fun. I’ve got a lot of respect for Ted. I thought it was going to go the whole race going back and forth.”With 61 laps left Christopher went to the lead past Craig Lutz with Rocco quickly following to second.Rocco went to the lead on a restart with 47 laps remaining, but Christopher wrestled the lead back six laps later.With 38 laps left Rocco went back out front as Hirschman peeked into the top-five. Hirschman got by Christopher for second on a restart with 12 laps remaining. The caution came out again with 10 laps left and on the ensuing restart Hirschman bid to stay outside of Rocco and battle for the top spot was quickly derailed when contact from Rocco sent him to the frontstretch wall.Hirschman saved his car from wrecking, fall back to third behind Christopher, before fighting back to second before the checkered.“That was the first restart that I was on the outside,” Hirschman said of his tangle with Rocco. “Ted wasn’t really able to stay next to him on most of his [restarts] and maybe I could see why. Keith just took me right out and put me right up against the wall there. I don’t think we were going to beat him, but I just wanted to have that outside line there and maybe get into second. … This is their house, I know that. I’m definitely an outsider coming in here. If you told me coming in that we were going to finish in the top-three with Keith and Ted that’s kind of a win for us because we don’t run here and they’re the best here.”
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Octoberfast 2015
ne of those true good guys of racing. A driver who runs everyone clean, is always capable of motoring to the front and has the knack to bring the car home in one piece. That trademark style is exactly what landed the Lafayette, NJ racer the biggest win of his 20 year career, scoring a rousing victory at Mahoning Valley Speedway’s Octoberfast 2015 worth $6000. With a dozen laps to go Coss went underneath leader Chip Santee for the top spot. He then held off Zane Zeiner over the remaining distance. Just prior to the winning pass Coss made a thrilling three-wide maneuver to the low side of Don Wagner and Bobby Jones that was nothing short of breathtaking. Ironically, Coss lost this race the same way in 2012 when he was passed 12 laps from the finish by then winner Matt Hirschman. “Without a doubt this is the biggest win of my career. We spent so much time this week working on everything and it’s really nice to have it pay off,” said Coss. “The first year that they had this race I finished second to Matt (Hirschman). He’s always tough to beat and second that day kind of hurt and I really wanted it and now we got it.”; This was the longest distance race ever run for the Modifieds at Mahoning Valley and throughout the entire race there was amazing action taking place. The majority was an ongoing two-wide duel between Chip Santee and Austin Kochenash. Santee drew the pole and had the early lead over third starting Coss. Kochenash, who has been outstanding on restarts, would use a lap 23 re-go to take over second. Coss would soon fade to the rear and would not be heard from again until it counted. At the front Santee and Kochenash would go toe-to-toe. Santee was holding his line on the bottom groove as Kochenash stayed alongside. As that battle pursued on, Bobby Jones ran third but was never quite able to strike at the leaders. The intense lead fight extended past lap 50, then 60 and was still going strong by halfway. And even though there would be a handful of cautions that would slow the action, the race for the lead always stayed fast and furious following the restarts.
Lap 90 and it was still two-by-two. At 100 circuits there no change as Santee and Kochenash kept everyone on the edge with their white-knuckle racing. And, while they kept their fight going, the action behind them was heating up as well. Don Wagner was giving the Matt Higgins owned No. 88w one heck of a ride as he had taken third at lap 75. At the same time Brian DeFebo had thrust into fourth and was having quite the dogfight with Wagner. DeFebo was able to clear Wagner on lap 91 and kept close watch of the lead pair. At lap 110 the caution was out. Under the yellow Kochenash made the decision to pit for new rubber. For Santee there was no relaxing despite that as DeFebo was now second and had Wagner and Jones on his rear bumper when the race resumed. Jones would be the mover at this point, zipping by Wagner and DeFebo then gaining on Santee. It was right back to side-by-side racing for the lead only this time Jones would successfully get around, taking his No. 1J to the front on lap 120. Santee was by far having his best run of the season and not about to give up. He returned the favor on Jones the very next go-around. As the race reached 25 laps to go, positions began to change rapidly. Wagner moved back ahead of Jones for second. Coss, who at one point was running in last spot after a pit stop on lap 74, was fourth while DeFebo slipped back to fifth. As for Santee, he was barely clinging to his lead as everyone was coming on strong. Wagner was giving an out effort for the lead and at the same time fending off Jones. Zeiner had come out of virtually nowhere and into the top five at the same time. Santee was under immense pressure as behind him there was incredible competition and one of the most dramatic portions of the race would occur when Coss pulled off his thrilling heroics. On lap 136 as Wagner was running underneath Jones, Coss saw a bit of an opening and seized the opportunity. It was suddenly a hold-your-breath three wide run into turn two. Coss incredibly would leap into second. He would then keep the momentum going and went after Santee, who was losing traction from worn tires. At the start of lap139 Coss went to the front and would not relinquish it from there to the finish, despite a fast approaching Zeiner. “In the beginning I was just riding behind Chip (Santee) and without radios it’s hard to know just how fast you’re going. I felt we were going to fast of a pace so on the one restart we just dropped to the back. I saw Matt (Hirschman) and Zane (Zeiner) back there and I figured that was a comfortable zone. I thought if they’re waiting then I’m going to wait to and it all paid off,” explained Coss. “Everybody ran clean and I didn’t want to get passed once I got back behind those guys in the front so as soon as I saw a hole and the opening was there I knew I had to make my move.”; Zeiner, a winner of Octoberfast in 2013 and second last year, did not have the time to make a run at Coss. “Congrats to Roger (Coss) he had a good car tonight. Believe or not we were fighting power steering issues all night and it was tough to just hold on,” said Zeiner, who had made several pit stops but then blasted through the pact in the waning laps.
“We made a lot of adjustments and just came up a little short. We’ll take second place after all that.”; For the fourth straight time Eric Beers finished third. 2015 track champion Earl Paules and Jones rounded out the top five. 15 of the 22 starters completed the 150 lap distance. Heat wins went to Earl Paules, Lou Strohl and Kochenash.
Modified Feature Finish (150 Laps): 1. Roger Coss, 2. Zane Zeiner, 3. Eric Beers, 4. Earl Paules, 5. Bobby Jones, 6. Don Wagner, 7. Glenn Slocum, 8. John Markovic, 9. Eric Kocher, 10. Todd Baer, 11. Brian DeFebo, 12. Ron Frees, 13. Chip Santee, 14. Terry Markovic, 15. Mike Quinn, 16. Calvin Carroll, 17. Austin Kochenash, 18. Matt Hirschman, 19. Lou Strohl, 20. Jimmy Zacharias, 21. Nick Baer, 22. Kevin Rex Jr. DNQ: Anthony Sesely
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MATT WINS 3rd RoC
Momentum and luck are often tough to beat when they are on the side of Matt Hirschman and team. That was the case for the second straight Sunday on the Race of Champions Asphalt Tour. The Northampton, Pennsylvania driver came from the back to the front shortly after halfway and then after a routine pit stop he took the lead for good again shortly after the three-quarter mark in the 65th Annual Race of Champions 200.It was Hirschman’s third victory in the prestigious race, this year held at Chemung Speedrome (NY) for the first time, and additionally resulted in his seventh career RoC Modified title. Much similar to the way circumstances have typically gone in 2015 and even compared to the 2012 running, there was an issue that was audible in victory lane as well as some adversity to overcome in order to complete the job.“Sometime around four or five to go we got a flat right rear, a slow leak, but enough that it got worse with each lap,” Hirschman told Speed51.com powered by JEGS. “I was kidding that my stomach was in my throat the last couple because I knew it was getting worse. I knew something was up, and it kind of reminds me of the first RoC we won at Oswego when we had a bad alternator and we were running out of volts to keep the motor running. I couldn’t even speak right after the race because I knew with a caution or anything we were done. That would have been such a heartbreaker.”Hirschman used one of his traditional strategies after a bad draw in a heat race loaded with talent. However, hanging around the rear of the field during the early stages nearly backfired at one point.The first few laps were meaningless in terms of achieving our goals today so we kind of took a conservative approach,” Hirschman explained. “Still actually had a close call and got turned around down there (in turn four). That wasn’t part of the plan, but it was no big deal. We continued on from that and we were able to advance to see what kind of car we had and try to set ourselves up for the finish.”Shortly after the yellow that was brought out due to his spin, Hirschman began his first march through the field. On lap 105, he took the top spot from Chemung’s weekly track champion Jimmy Zacharias.The next caution that flew on lap 119 initiated the opportunity for a number of Modifieds to take on fresh tires. Hirschman elected to stay out but came in a couple circuits later, meaning he would restart behind some cars that were sure to be contenders for the win.Nevertheless, Hirschman made it through to second and passed leader Daren Scherer, who was on ailing tires, with less than 50 laps to go.Hirschman’s closest competitor during the closing laps was Zane Zeiner, the 2011 Race of Champions event winner, invading for his first RoC start in more than two years.“I could see Matt getting tight and I was really going to attempt a bonzai move, but it just wasn’t quite there,” the Bath, Pennsylvania second-place finisher recapped. “If I could have gotten just a little bit closer I would have attempted something down in three and four like I passed Chuck (Hossfeld). All in all, I was very happy with the car. I felt like we made a lot of progress, and this car is going to be good down the road.” Zeiner additionally mentioned the great feeling to see some old friends after mostly concentrating on major events in Pennsylvania and New Jersey over the last couple years, and indicated a favorable chance at returning to the RoC Tour for 2016.Behind Zeiner, defending series champion and Race of Champions winner Chuck Hossfeld battled with another title hopeful Andy Jankowiak to finish in the third and fourth positions respectively.Perhaps the most intriguing run to watch late in the going was from early season point leader Mike Leaty. The L2 Autosport team decided on using a differing strategy from the leaders after starting the feature from the rear. They took one new tire early and then pitted several laps after the leaders for the remaining three fresh rubber to make their final climb to the front.However, fifth was as far as they were able to get.“In hindsight 20/20 I should have pitted when Matt did,” Leaty analyzed. “He got me up to second and I could have come into the pits withMatt, come out of the pits behind him, and then raced him for the win. But I thought I could get 30 or 40 more laps on their tires and then pit on my own, have the tire advantage, and we could probably drive back by everybody with it being a short field. It didn’t really work out.“With being 15 to 20 laps to go when I caught the top four they didn’t want to give me a lane and I don’t blame them. I wouldn’t either. It is what it is. We got out of here with a top five. We started dead last and worked our way up to the lead at one point so it was a good race. I just wish we would have had a little more time. Maybe 20 or 30 more laps I think we would have been right there racing for the win.”For Hirschman, it was certainly a different climb to the top compared to some of his other championship seasons where they were usually the dominant force or car to beat week in and week out.“If it makes any sense it’s probably the least enjoyable but the most rewarding of all the RoC championships we’ve won,” Hirschman admitted. “There were other years where we were winning more and just having more fun, and this year with the flat tires and all the things that kept happening it really took a lot of the fun out of it.“We didn’t give up, we kept working, and we finished strong. We won the two biggest races of the year and the championship in the last two weeks of the season. It was a trying year, but that’s just how racing goes sometimes. I’ve been in it long enough and been a part of it my whole life with my dad’s racing to know that you’re going to have years that things go better than others.” The 2015 RoC championship team now heads into some “Big Money” shows that they are best known for with momentum on their side, a characteristic that many teams will have to work hard at to outrun. “We’re peaking at the right time and we have all big races to go yet. It’s coming together at the right time and it’s a big momentum boost starting with Lancaster, the 200, and the championship. Hopefully we can continue.”
ROC 200 Finish from Chemung Speedrome:
1. 60 Matt Hirschman
2. 76 Zane Zeiner
3. 22 Chuck Hossfeld
4. 73x Andy Jankowiak
5. 25 Mike Leaty
6. 14 Doug Reaume
7. 9x Jimmy Zacharias
8. 3 Daren Scherer
9. 42 Nick Pecko
10. 95 Bryan Sherwood
11. 34 Rusty Smith
12. 26 John Wilber
13. 8 Bobby Holmes
14. 73 Paul Hartwig
15. 1 Chris Ridsdale
16. 10 Daryl Lewis Jr
17. 44 Rick Kluth
18. 94 Zach Curren
19. 51 TJ Potrzebowski
20. 21 Tony Hanbury
21. 53 Brian Defebo
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MATT WINS US OPEN - SEPTEMBER 25, 2015
It was a strategy that has worked many times throughout Matt Hirschman’s career, but simply had not entirely gone in his favor on the Race of Champions Asphalt Modified Tour during the 2015 season. Tire conservation and a maneuver at the right time would put a stop to that drought late in the 125 lap distance during the 27th Annual U.S. Open at Lancaster National Speedway (NY).Hirschman found a hole and made a daring pass under Mike Leaty in turn four with less than 20 laps remaining to lead for the first time Sunday afternoon. He would go on to take his fourth win in the prestigious Western New York event, but it was a long time coming to get back to that achievement on a tour he has often dominated in the past.“To be honest, we went several years where we were winning quite frequently that you would never think that you would go a season winless,” Hirschman told Speed51.com powered by JEGS. “The main thing is I really think late summer we got better and we were in position to win races and we still didn’t close the deal and win. I really had to step up my game and focus in. I was locked in on this race. There was a lot of thought and a lot of things that went into this; preparing the car and mentally preparing for this race.”Hirschman’s closest challenger near the conclusion was the most recent RoC winner Andy Jankowiak. Jankowiak used an almost identical game plan as Hirschman, running near the rear after a bad draw in the heat race and then running mid-pack at best during the first half of the feature.Hirschman took it to another level, backing off and running only car lengths ahead of early race leader T.J. Potrzebowski. Both drivers would begin to make their run after almost the entire field pitted shortly after halfway, but Hirschman would have an unexpected obstacle that would test him on a lap 85 caution.Top five contender Daren Scherer spun between turns one and two in front of most of the field, including Hirschman. The Northampton, Pennsylvania driver had to come to a complete stop to avoid running into Scherer. Due to not maintaining his speed, Hirschman was ordered to the rear of the field for the restart.“There were times we were saving to try and help the tires, and then there were times where we had to run just as hard as the leader,” Hirschman pointed out. “Then we had to run really hard and make up for all that lost ground. In the end we used up the tires on that last run.”A minor setback did not stop Hirschman by any means.“I was very determined; I didn’t give up on it,” Hirschman continued. “Made all the right moves, made them stick, and did them clean too. That was a nice way to win.”Jankowiak finished the race in second, and looking back realized some things he may have done differently if given the opportunity again.“I screwed up because I came out ahead of Leaty out of the pits and I wanted to save a little bit more so I kind of let him go,” Jankowiak explained. “I actually slapped the frontstretch wall trying to pass him, so we had a hard time getting back by him. One of the cars took us up and we got into the marbles badly. I thought I was going to hit the wall in two and Hirschman got by us there.“Matt was good, but I don’t think he would have had enough to pass us if we were one-two. We’ve had a very good stretch here so I guess I can’t be too upset.”Chuck Hossfeld rounded out the podium, but unlike Hirschman and Jankowiak he won his heat race and ran in the top five most of the day. The 2014 champion questioned the meaning behind their method to get to the front.“Unfortunately, we were the only car, in my opinion, that raced all day,” Hossfeld commented. “If you watch Matt, he barely ran his heat race and ran but half of the feature. That’s just no fun. I know he won it and I know that’s the goal, but I’ll try to make my car better and be able to run longer.“I compared it to deflategate, but this time it wasn’t with footballs. It was with real balls. These guys didn’t use their balls today and we did.”The points took a major swing leading into the final race next Sunday at Chemung Speedrome (NY) due to another top competitor’s misfortune. Coming off a best career second-place finish in the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway the day before, Patrick Emerling ran in the top five for most of the event.Unfortunately, on the same caution that Hirschman was sent to the back, Emerling’s Modified suddenly came to a stop. The issue caused the driver to beat for most of the season to lose two laps and relegated him to a finish outside the top 10.“It appears an alternator went, the battery died, the car shut off, got pushed in, and just couldn’t get the battery changed in time to get it back out there,” Emerling recapped. “We positioned ourselves perfectly, but just had circumstances like that happen.”As a result of his second subpar finish in a row, Emerling falls to second in the standings. He indicated post-race that the team will most likely forego their outside shot at the championship and compete at the Stafford Motor Speedway (CT) Fall Final instead.This gives Hirschman a comfortable lead heading into the finale, and while the unlikely can happen in the 65th Race of Champions 200 his closest competitors know who the favorite is and what they have to do to have any chance.“If there was a sure bet anywhere it would be those guys,” Jankowiak noted. “They’re just smart and experienced so it will be tough. We’re just going to go there and run our race.”“I’ve been racing for a long time, and the odds of a good car like Matt having an issue there isn’t probably going to happen and on top of that we need (Jankowiak) to have an issue,” Hossfeld added. “Bottom line is we have to win the race. If we do that, then we did the best we could.”Hirschman is aware that anything can happen and will be focused on the battle before the war much like he did at Lancaster.
“That’s going to be a wild race,” Hirschman predicted. “Chemung typically is and that’s a lot of laps there. There’s a lot that is going to happen in that race. Hopefully at the end of the day we’re on top.” Most important of all, Hirschman feels that they bring an unbelievable amount of momentum going in.“It’s a real great feeling going into next week with a positive day here,” Hirschman said. “That’s always something really good to have on your side and get everybody on the team’s spirits up going into next week. I definitely was focused on winning here and made a great weekend for my family and all our crew.”Part of the family celebration for the first time was son Matthew Christopher, who was born in January.“He was already at Mahoning in April when he was only three months old when the season started and it took until now, but it was great to have him here in victory lane with me,” Hirschman said. “This whole weekend spending it with my family was really a lot of fun. It’s something you probably remember more than some of these other wins just because of having him a part of it for the first time.”The odds are now in Hirschman’s favor next weekend to again be named the RoC champion, this time with his boy in his arms.
- By Aaron Creed, Speed51.com Pennsylvania/Central New York Editor – Twitter: @aaron_creed
RACE OF CHAMPIONS MODIFIED TOUR
Heat Winners: T.J. Potrzebowski, Partick Emerling, Chuck Hossfeld
Feature: MATT HIRSCHMAN, Andy Jankowiak, Chuck Hossfeld, Bobby Holmes, Rusty Smith, Karl Hehr, Will Thomas, George Skora III, Kevin Timmerman, T.J. Potrzebowski, Daren Scherer, Mike Leaty, Rick Kluth, Patrick Emerling, Dave Rigan, Amy Catalano, Bryan Sherwood, Kirk Totten, Sam Fullone, John Wilber, Tony Hanbury, Chris Ridsdale, Daryl Lewis, Jr., Donny Hartzell, Nick Pecko, Tommy Catalano, Bill Mislin
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Statement from Matt posted on Facebook about Tri Track Series:
The Tri-Track open modified series has to be the best thing to happen to modified racing in a long time. Proud to say we were 1 of 4 different race winners and the series champion. BIG THANKS to Dick Williams (The Racing Guys) & James Schaefer (Long Island Mod Maniac) for making this a reality. Also the series sponsors Alloy Wheel Repair, Seekonk Grand Prix, NE Race Cars, Dunleavy's Truck & Trailer Repair and the many people who sponsored laps and bonus awards. Last but not least my teams Bob Horn Racing, J&J Motorsports, all of our crew members and sponsors Bruce Brennenstuhl & Brian Sparky Denton. Looking forward to continued future success of the Tri-Track Series next month at Waterford on October 25th and in 2016.
RON SILK SCORES SPEEDBOWL WIN; HIRSCHMAN NOTCHES CHAMPIONSHIP
Sunday afternoon at New London-Waterford Speedbowl, modified racing fans were treated to an exciting day of racing where over forty cars packed the pit area.When it was all set and done, Ron Silk took the No. 50 machine into Northeast Race Cars and Parts Tri Track victory lane. It was his first ever win on the series in the midst of a deal that came together in the last few weeks.“I went down to their shop last week and put a seat in and we got it all ready. It was really a last minute deal,” Silk mentioned during post-race celebrations. He found himself just missing out on the redraw on Sunday, forcing him to begin his quest to victory outside the top ten.After originally scheduled to roll off 9th, Ted Christopher found himself leading the field of twenty eight modifieds to the green flag following a redraw on the track just before the motors came to life.He jumped out front early on with New London-Waterford Speedbowl SK Modified regular Keith Rocco and NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour points contender Woody Pitkat quickly in tow from the bottom lane. Outside polesitter Eric Berndt, driving for Cerevalo Motorsports, dropped back on the initial start with what appeared to be an ill-handling car.The first caution flag of the event flew on lap two when Dennis Perry spun his No. 6 into the wet infield down the frontstretch, but he was able to regain traction and continue at the tail end of the field. On the restart, Christopher went back to the point with Rocco second, but it was Doug Coby who made the biggest move. He charged from seventh into the top five and then charged by Berndt to fourth.While everyone got single file in the front, Christopher approached lapped car Rich Parker on lap eighteen and had to avoid hitting the back bumper in turn three. Tony Hanbury, who was a guaranteed starter because of his Race of Champions Tour victory last month, spun in turn two drawing the second caution on lap twenty.Rocco took his No. 68 into the pits under the caution finding a broken rocker arm that ended his day. He was joined in the pit area by Steve Masse and Berndt, who pitted for adjustments on ill-handling machines.Even though the green flag flew quickly, Parker and Rob Summers spun in turn three drawing the caution for the third time. Christopher continued his quest for victory by going back to the lead on the lap 22 restart, but a fourth caution came down when Jeff Gallup, Perry and Kurt Vigeant spun in turn two. Todd Annarummo, series points leader coming into the event, elected to take his Luff Industries No. 12 into the pit area under the caution and was followed by Andy Seuss, Berndt and Zane Zeiner.A restart saw the field get single file, attempting to get into a rhythm until another caution flew for Zeiner, who had a flat tire in turn four. Matt “Money” Hirschman was forced to pit from sixth spot with a flat tire on that caution and he was joined by Masse and Annarummo, who continued to struggle.Richard Savary made a move into second on the next restart but Doug Coby was one step quicker. He slid under Savary and grabbed the second position from him on lap 36, just before a caution for a single car incident with Vigeant. Points contenders Patnode, Pasteryak and Hirschman all elected to come down the pit lane under the caution and barely made it back out for the restart that ended up changing the complexion of the event.Coby tried the outside of Christopher going into turn one but contact between the two sent Coby up the track and to a stop, drawing the caution once again, the seventh one of the afternoon. Race control deemed that Coby would be penalized one lap for an intentional caution, ending his chances.Once the field got to the halfway point, Les Hinckley started making his move towards the front. Hinckley, who missed races this season with a back surgery, got under Pitkat on lap 43 when the two ended up making contact. Hinckley pulled off an impressive save, sliding through turn three and cutting the wheel back to the right and only losing a few positions.The points championship chase took a hit when Annarummo made contact with Coby on the frontstretch. His No. 12 machine ended up front first into the wall and banged the car up, ending his chances of becoming champion.Silk, the eventual winner, pitted on the lap 51 caution and set himself up for a charge. He restarted in the back when the race went green and Christopher rolled his way back to the lead. A ninth caution flag flew on lap 69 when Carl Medeiros Jr. spun in turn two. The next three laps included three cautions, the most important of which changed the battle at the front of the field.Christopher threw it in hard under Masse in the battle for the lead, got loose and spun down to the infield in turn four. That gave Masse the lead, who took it right down to the wire with Silk. A restart with nineteen laps to go saw Silk drive deeper then Masse into one and slide by. He drove into the sunset and scored his first win on the Northeast Race Cars and Parts Tri Track Open Modified Series.“My car was great on restarts all day, both top and bottom,” Silk said. “I knew if I could stay even with him and pin him down going into the corner we had a shot. This is a great series and there is a lot of money that has been raised for the racers. I am kind of speechless. I didn’t think we would have a shot to win; it feels great.”Behind Silk and Masse was Matt Hirschman in third. With the third place finish, Hirschman found himself carrying the 2015 Northeast Race Cars and Parts Tri Track Series championship. His best two finishes included a win at Monadnock Speedway in June and the third on Sunday afternoon.“I did this in two cars, it’s a nice accomplishment for everyone here,” Hirschman said. “This year hasn’t been getting me any breaks or going my way and this is a nice token. I’ve always liked the open shows where you bring guys from all over the place. We do a lot more traveling up in New York state but it is nice to make a few trips to this area and I look forward to it.”Unofficially, Hirschman won the championship by five points of Annarummo, with Woody Pitkat in third spot.The series now has a month off, before concluding the season with a non-points event at the Speedbowl on October 25. For more information, visit www.tritrackopenmodifiedseries.com.
Race Results; Tri Track Open Modified Series; New London-Waterford Speedbowl September 13:
Ron Silk
Steve Masse
Matt Hirschman
Ryan Preece
Les Hinckley
Andy Jankowiak
Norman Wrenn
Ted Christopher
Chris Pasteryak
Woody Pitkat
Mike Holdridge
Richard Savary
Eric Berndt
Carl Medeiros Jr.
Andy Seuss
Johnny Kay
Jeff Gallup
Zane Zeiner
Rich Parker
Kurt Vigeant
Anthony Nocella
Todd Annarummo
Doug Coby
Todd Patnode
Rob Summers
Dennis Perry
Keith Rocco
Tony Hanbury
QUALIFYING RESULTS REPORT; New London-Waterford Speedbowl Sunday September 13:
Heat One: Hometown Boy Notches Victory
Keith Rocco took his No. 68 modified to victory in the first qualifying heat on Sunday afternoon. The New London-Waterford Speedbowl regular started from the pole position and lead all twelve laps in route to victory.Steve Masse finished second, with Ron Silk and Mike Holdridge completing the qualified cars through the first heat. Just missing out from making the big show through the heats were Carl Medeiros Jr., Andy Jankowiak, George Sherman and Brian Chapin.
Heat Two: NASCAR Whelen Tour Star Coby Qualifies
Rich Parker and Zane Zeiner started heat two with a spin in turn one. Once the qualifier went back under green, Anthony Nocella smashed the first turn wall and drew the second yellow without a lap going up on the board. He ended up with extensive damage to the right front of his Nocella Paving No. 92.The green flag flew for the third time and this time the field got one lap clicked up on the board before Zeiner spun in turn one and Norman Wrenn spun to avoid, ending up with a flat left front tire.Doug Coby, driver of the Dunleavy Truck and Trailer Repair took the lead on the restart, but another caution slowed the field when Zeiner ended up riding the side of Brian McCarthy on the backstretch.The final ten laps of the heat event saw Coby drive away with the victory, giving himself a guaranteed starting spot in the feature event. Todd Patnode, Jeff Gallup and Rich Parker were on the only cars trailing him to the checkers due to the carnage early on. All four drivers locked a position in the 100 lap event.
Heat Three: Berndt Impresses In No. 16
Kurt Vigeant and Eddie Leclerc brought heat three to the emerald flag and Leclerc backed up on the top all the way to the tail end of the field by lap three. A debris caution slowed the field on lap three, but the track quickly squared the issue away and the field went green.Vigeant went back to the lead and Eric Berndt found himself on his tail. The No. 16, driven by Berndt found himself leading on lap seven and never looked back. He scored the victory in heat three, with Vigeant second, point leader Todd Annarummo third and Dennis Perry fourth, the final qualified car.Chris Pasteryak, Rob Richardi, Andy Seuss and Leclerc failed to qualify through the third heat event.
Heat Four: Seekonk Winner Savary Locks His Spot In Feature
Johnny Kay and Richard Savary brought the fourth heat to green and Kay was quick off the start, clearing Savary. Ryan Preece quickly made his presence known grabbing third and chasing down the top two while Jimmy Dolan was hanging on for dear life in fourth.That ended quickly for Dolan, who ended up spinning in turn two drawing the first caution. Once the race went back green, Savary took the lead from Kay and was followed by Ted Christopher, who moved into second spot.Savary held on for victory, with Christopher second, Preece third and Kay finishing the qualified cars. Rob Summers, Dan Meservey, Mike Benevides and Dolan completed the eight car field in round four.
Heat Five: Monadnock Winner Hirschman Wins Final Heat Race
Mike Douglas Jr. spun to draw the first caution in heat five on lap one with Matt “Money” Hirschman leading the charge. Tony Hanbury spun in turn two to draw the second caution, this time on lap two.Once the race got going, Hirschman was committed to scoring the victory. He was followed by Woody Pitkat in second at the end of the heat and Hanbury grabbed the final qualified position.
Consi One: Zeiner Rebounds From Heat Misfortune To Qualify With Win
Carl Medeiros Jr. lead the first of two consi events to the green at the Speedbowl on Sunday afternoon. Even though Medeiros Jr. was able to jump out and lead lap one, Zane Zeiner quickly grabbed the lead from him on lap three and pulled the No. 50ma by four car-lengths before long.With only three cars making the move up into the big show, the battle for that position at halfway was undoubtedly the place to keep an eye. Just as Dan Meservey Jr. looked to make a charge to the inside of Joe Doucette, the caution flew for a spin by Andy Jankowiak in turn three. Even though it appeared the caution would be quick, it was found that Jankowiak No. 27 hit fluid all through the first and second turn down the backstretch, making it a long caution.Even though the consi went green, it was quickly brought back to yellow when Dan Meservey spun in turn four on the restart. The ensuing green flag saw Zeiner go back to the point and eventually hold on to score the victory in the first consi event. Andy Seuss and Carl Medeiros Jr. closely followed, locking down the qualified positions. Jankowiak, Doucette and multiple others were forced to head to the B-main feature to attempt to qualify.
Consi Two: Pasteryak Qualifies With Victory
Chris Pasteryak, the winner at Lee USA Speedway earlier this season, found himself leading the consi to the green flag. At lap five, the first caution flew when Jimmy Dolan and Brian McCarthy ended up together in turn one.At the halfway point of the second consi event Norman Wrenn found himself sliding by Rob Richardi and into a qualified position. When the final laps clicked off, Pasteryak advanced with his victory followed by Rob Summers and Norman Wrenn.
Ballard Trucks 25 B-Main:
Recent Southern modified standout Andy Jankowiak lead the Ballard Trucks 25 lap B-main feature to the green flag with Rob Richardi and Joe Doucette quickly fighting for second.The race quickly moved to the halfway point without incident on the track, with lots of single file battling. The final laps saw Jankowiak drive away even more from his challengers, scoring the win and electing to advance to the feature event. Even though Jankowiak began the afternoon with a broken rocker arm, he rebounded and scored a huge win to advance.Doucette, Richardi, Mike Douglas Jr. and Mike Benevides completed the top five, all failing to qualify.
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September 4 - Jankowiak Goes From Worst to First for Oswego RoC Win
To the naked eye, it did not appear that Andy Jankowiak would have been a factor to win Friday at Oswego Speedway (NY). That was until about a third of the way into the Race of Champions Asphalt Modified Tour 100 when the Tonawanda, New York driver began his march to the front. A leaking power steering line forced Jankowiak to make an early exit from his heat race and as a result started at the rear of the field for the feature. From there, pit strategy would be the main difference when he and 2014 Oswego winner Chuck Hossfeld elected to pit for a fresh right rear tire during the first quarter of the attrition-filled event. Being the first race in which the RoC Tour switched from American Racer to Hoosier rubber played a part as well.“We started in the back and that was the hand that we were dealt,” Jankowiak told Speed51.com powered by JEGS. “We opted to pit early and try to go for the track position. We did some track testing on the Hoosiers and I was confident that we could make it from where we were, and we made it.”By a third of the way through the race Jankowiak made his first appearance in the top 10. Out front, Matt Hirschman was able to get the lead on an early restart from Daren Scherer and pulled away. The Northampton, Pennsylvania driver, who was surprisingly still searching for his first RoC win of 2015, elected not to come in for a fresh tire but appeared to be the car to beat during the middle stages.Jankowiak continued making his moves, advancing up to fourth when the flagman indicated halfway. The brightly colored No. 73x Modified worked by Hossfeld and T.J. Potrzebowski to move into second just 10 laps later.From there, Jankowiak’s pursuit for the top spot would not waver. A yellow flag involving Potrzebowski with 11 laps remaining bunched up the field. On the ensuing single-file restart, Jankowiak got a run along the outside and dove low clearing Hirschman in turn one.As it has been witnessed in Modified racing before, tires ended up making a difference between first and second in the end.“I love Matt Hirschman; I wasn’t going to do it dirty,” Jankowiak commented about his pass for the lead. “The guys were pumping me up on the radio and I was saying ‘if we get there then we get there’. I knew his tires were going a little bit because I knew he was on the no tire deal. He had trouble getting in the throttle on the one restart. I think his tires cycled out, and we had an opportunity and we just capitalized. I still can’t believe it.”Hirschman came up shy of the victory once again during the 2015 season. A lengthy caution came out in the second half when Hossfeld was sidelined due to a leaking rear end issue. That meant that continued laps on the tire would not fall in Hirschman’s favor.“The heat cycles just caught up to me on the tires with the pitting,” Hirschman explained. “The oil down and the long caution for the cleanup, that hurt. When it stayed green prior to that we were holding our own, but just came up a little bit short that way. Andy played the tire management game well today with the heat race on. He put himself in a good position in the event that we get those cautions. It definitely caught up to me.”With Hossfeld’s problems and also point leader Patrick Emerling being forced to the pits with a motor issue after running as high as third, Hirschman now finds himself five points out of the lead despite being without a win. Being in the championship hunt definitely plays into his overall strategy as well.“It’s important to bring the car home in one piece,” Hirschman mentioned. “That is something that does factor in. If you have less to lose maybe you take more risks and I’ve been a little conservative that way. That’s the position I’m in so I have to take responsibility.”Even with momentum going in Hirschman’s direction, he knows the performance, in relation to his closest competitors, has to be demonstrated on the track in order to win the title.(Emerling) had misfortune tonight and we’re obviously in position with two races to go, but we have to go to those two races and we have to outrace them and not anything else. We’ll see how it goes and see where the next two races take us.”Tony Hanbury, Nick Pecko, and Tyler Rypkema all survived the distance and rounded out the top five in that order.“I feel confident in our Hoosier program now,” Jankowiak said. “We practiced on old stuff and were confident where I was and we just absolutely nailed it. Just got to thank Ricky Kluth over at 2Kwik (Chassis) for working with me. He takes good care of me. I wouldn’t have had that setup without him so I owe him a lot of credit. He’s the smartest guy in the world.”On Friday night it was a Western New York celebration, albeit not entirely expected.I told the guys wouldn’t it be perfectly ironic for this season if we came to the big motor track where typically we would be less of a pick to win and ended up winning here. If I had to pick one to win this would have been it.”
- By Aaron Creed, Speed51.com Pennsylvania/Central New York Editor – Twitter: @aaron_creed
RoC Modified 100 Results
1 21 73 Andy Jankowiak 100
2 4 60 Matt Hirschman 100
3 10 21 Tony Hanbury 100
4 19 42 Nick Pecko 100
5 8 32 Tyler Rypkema 100
6 15 14 Doug Reaume 100
7 17 31 Nick Barzee 100
8 9 51 T.J. Potrzebowski 100
9 2 11 Kirk Totten 100
10 3 3 Daren Scherer 100
11 16 8 Bobby Holmes 97
12 7 27 Donny Hartzell 93
13 18 69 Tommy Cloce 80
14 12 22 Chuck Hossfeld 80
15 1 95 Bryan Sherwood 76
16 13 47 Jim Storace 72
17 11 07 Patrick Emerling 43
18 6 4 John Wilber 28
19 20 17 Ken Canestrari 16
20 5 19 Brandon Oltra 2
21 14 1 Chris Risdale 2
22 22 25 Mike Leaty DNS
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BLEWETT TOPS WOODY’S 105 FOR MODIFIEDS AT WALL STADIUM SATURDAY, AUGUST 22
Howell’s Jimmy Blewett found inspiration in the fact that his sponsor, Woody’s Roadside Tavern in nearby Farmingdale, was also the race sponsor at Wall Stadium Speedway Saturday night and raced from deep in the field to win the “Woody’s High Banks 105” for Downs Ford Modified stock cars. The win, Blewett’s first of the season here was worth $5105. Howell’s Eric Mauriello jumped to the lead from the front row after posting fast time in time trials. While Mauriello led the early laps Blewett immediately went to work advancing from his 13th starting spot. Using both the high and low lanes on the third mile paved oval Blewett advanced to fifth by lap 20, third by lap 31 and into second with an outside lane pass on lap 35. Blewett then cruised in the runner-up spot until lap 89 when he made an outside lane pass for the lead over Mauriello. The final 15 laps saw a flurry of caution flags but Blewett was able to hold off Mauriello on every restart. Chas Okerson of Freehold was third at the finish, while Anthony Sesely of Matawan came from 19th to finish fourth. Adam LaCicero of Lavallette was fifth. “We didn’t time very well, started 13th and my grandfather wasn’t happy,” Blewett said after the race. “I just decided to run hard and pass cars for my grandfather. I didn’t know if I would burn the tires off it or not. In reality the car was real good and I think I had some extra left at the end of the race.”
MODIFIED FEATURE – 105 Laps – 1. JIMMY BLEWETT, HOWELL, 2. Eric Mauriello, 3. Chas Okerson, 4. Anthony Sesely, 5. Adam LaCicero, 6. Steven Reed, 7. Justin Gumley, 8. Shawna Ingraham, 9. Ron Frees, 10. Zack Alspach, 11. Ken Matlach, 12. Scott Brannick, 13. Trevor Alspach, 14. Derek Hopkinson, 15. Chris Lane, 16. Jason Hearne, 17. Andrew Krause, 18. Jason Treat, 19. Shanon Mongeau, 20. Jonathan Mandato, 21. Kevin Davison, 22. Matt Hirschman
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August 8 - PATRICK EMERLING WINS TOMMY DRUAR/TONY JANKOWIAK MEMORIAL 110 AT LANCASTER
The return of the ground pounding, mighty Modifieds brought the fans out to Lancaster National Speedway & Dragway on Saturday for the Tommy Druar/Tony Jankowiak Memorial 110 Race of Champions Modified Tour event. The crowd was one of the biggest in recent years at the Western New York racing facility.
Patrick Emerling of Orchard Park, NY scored his first career Modified feature win at Lancaster as he captured the 110-lap feature. Emerling inherited the lead for good on lap 76 when Matt Hirschman pitted under caution for tires. He led the final 34 laps and survived a late-race challenge from Chuck Hossfeld to secure the victory.
Daren Scherer and former track champion, Dave Wollaber, led the field to the initial green flag. Scherer jumped out to the early race lead followed by Tyler Rypkema, Bobby Holmes, Hirschman and Tony Hanbury.Hirschman quickly picked his way through the top five and was up to second by lap 12. Four laps later he was able to pass Scherer for the top spot. Chuck Hossfeld eventually landed in the runner-up position, and both he and Hirschman pulled away from the rest of the field.The fourth caution of the race came on lap 31 when Tommy Catalano came to a stop in turn three. It was during this yellow flag period that Emerling pitted for right side tires. He was running in seventh place at the time.Hirschman and Hossfeld continued to dominate the proceedings until the yellow flag flew again on lap 56. Hossfeld took this opportunity to pit for tires under caution, as did many of the other front running cars. Hirschman and Andy Jankowiak elected stay out and were the only two cars remaining in the field that had yet to make a pit stop. This also moved Emerling into third as he was one of the first cars to pit.Hossfeld’s night almost came to an end just two laps after he made his pit stop. On lap 60, Hossfeld cut down a left rear tire and spun out in turn two. He was able to continue, but Karl Hehr and Rusty Smith crashed in the melee that ensued behind Hossfeld.When racing resumed Hirschman and Jankowiak paced the field. Hirschman racked up two lap leader bonuses while he dominated the middle portion of the event. He earned $370 for leading lap 37, in memory of Tommy Druar. Hirschman then pocketed $730, in memory of Tony Jankowiak, for leading lap 73. The bonus money was put up by racing supporter, Howie Markel.Hirschman and Jankowiak finally made their pit stop for tires on lap 76 when Paul Hartwig, Jr. brought out the caution flag. This handed the lead over to Emerling, who was followed by Holmes, Hossfeld, Hanbury and Mike Leaty. Hossfeld passed Holmes for second on lap 80 and then set his sights on Emerling.The final caution period of the night happened on lap 100 when Tommy Cloce stopped on the track with a flat tire. This set up a ten lap shootout to the finish between Emerling and Hossfeld.Emerling managed to hold off Hossfeld long enough to take the checkered flag first. Jankowiak made his way back to third by race’s end after restarting fifth with ten laps to go. Hirschman had to settle for fourth, while Hanbury rounded out the top five.“I knew it was going to be a hard fight battle holding off Chuck,” said Emerling, “at the beginning of the race we had flat right front which made us come in a little early than expected but it worked out for us.”;The win was Emerling’s third of the year on the Race of Champions Modified Tour. He also extended his series points lead over Hossfeld and Hirschman.“If we didn’t get that left rear flat I think we would’ve been better,” said Hossfeld, “you make adjustments thinking that tire is going to have 50 or 60 laps on it, and then you put a tire on it and changes the balance.”;The Race of Champions Modified Tour returns to Lancaster for the U.S. Open on Sunday, September 27.
RACE OF CHAMPIONS MODIFIED TOUR
Heat Winners: Daren Scherer, Patrick Emerling, Matt Hirschman
Tommy Druar/Tony Jankowiak Memorial 110 Finish: PATRICK EMERLING, Chuck Hossfeld, Andy Jankowiak, Matt Hirschman, Tony Hanbury, Bobby Holmes, Mike Leaty, Daren Scherer, Nick Pecko, Daryl Lewis, Jr., Brian DeFebo, Rick KLuth, Jimmy Zacharias, Tommy Cloce, Roger Coss, Chris Risdale, Paul Hartwig, Jr., TJ Potrzebowski, Sam Fullone, Karl Hehr, Rusty Smith, Bryan Sherwood, Tommy Catalano, Tyler Rypkema, Dave Wollaer, Bill Mislin DNS: Amy Catalano
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Chemung - RoC TOur Race: August 8
"Wow" was the word heard most often as fans left Chemung Speedrome Saturday night. They had just witnessed five great feature events. The weather was perfect and the crowd was revved up for action. Action they got, watching winners Tony Hanbury (RoC Modifieds), Gene Sharpsteen (Sunoco Modifieds), Charlie Sharpsteen (Super Stocks), Alexandria Smith (INEX Legends), and Damon Frutchey (INEX Bandoleros).The 100-lap Race of Champions Modified Tour race had a bit of everything and was viewed by many as one of, if not the, best RoC races ever contested at Chemung. Tony Hanbury won the race but the first 98 laps were full of drama and action leading up to the exciting finish.Jimmy Zacharias may not have won but he garnered the most attention. Early in the day he blew his motor and returned home for his back-up car. Heat wins went to Chuck Hossfeld, Patrick Emerling and TJ Potrzebowski. The top 4 in each of those heats then drew for the first dozen starting spots. Andy Jankowiak drew the pole while Zacharias drew outside pole. Hanbury and Chuck Hossfeld made up row 6.Trouble came early. When the field took the green flag eight cars spun in turn one, forcing a second attempt. That one worked, especially for Jankowiak. He led for three laps and then Zacharias took over on the fourth lap. The field ran a stretch of 43 laps caution-free with Mike Leaty, Hanbury and Matt Hirschman following the lead duo.During a lap 58 caution officials stopped Zacharias to check out a possible leak. They sent him to the pits for a repair, which his crew performed quickly. Zacharias restarted at the rear while the lead was handed over to Hanbury. He, Hirschman, Hossfeld, Mike Leaty and Roger Coss made up the first three rows. Over the next six laps Zacharias powered his way through the field, up to seventh and then to fifth. Two more cautions brought the leaders together for single file restarts but Hossfeld took the lead from Hanbury. He didn't hold it very long. Zacharias was relentless, passed Hanbury and reclaimed the lead on lap 92.Things got even more exciting when lap 98 went up on the scoreboard. Paul Hartwig spun, setting up a green/white/checkered finish with Zacharias, Hossfeld and Hanbury as the top three. Hossfeld got into Zacharias, whose spin brought out the caution and sent both to the rear for the restart. Once again Hanbury inherited the lead and just had to survive the final two laps. He got the big win over Hirschman, Coss, Emerling and Leaty. "I didn't have the fastest car but it came in, mid-race," he said from victory lane. "The last 20 laps I was holding on with the tires." Hanbury opted not to pit for a new right rear tire while several others did.irschman was happy, describing a fifth place car that came away with a second place finish. Regarding the final couple laps he said "I was looking at it all from the wrong place. I would rather be looking in the mirror laughing."Coss, making his first Chemung appearance, turned in a solid performance. "With the finish we had I won't be so nervous when we come back for the 200," he said, referring to the 65th running of the Race of Champions to be held at Chemung in October. Zacharias salvaged a ninth place finish, certainly not indicative of his hard-charging performance in an exciting race.
Finish from Chemung Speedrome (8/8/15): 1. Tony Hanbury 2. Matt Hirschman 3. Roger Coss 4. Patrick Emerling 5. Mike Leaty 6. Chuck Hossfeld 7. Brian Defebo 8. Andy Jankowiak 9. Jimmy Zacharias 10. Rick Kluth 11. Jim Storace 12. Paul Hartwig 13. John Wilber 14. Nick Pecko 15. Chris Ridsdale 16. Don Hartzell 17. TJ Potrzebowski 18. Daren Scherer 19. Tyler Rypkema 20. Brandon Oltra 21. Terry Potrzebowski 22. Bryan Sherwood DNS - Tommy Cloce
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August 1 - Zane Zeiner and Nevin George took victories in the Central States Modified Gamblers Series (CSMGS) Twin 50s Saturday night at Mahoning Valley Speedway.
Zeiner, of Bath, has not been a point racer for a number of years. George, from Kunkletown, has also stepped back from the grind of title chasing this season. Both look instead to the big shows thus they have made it a must on their calendar to be part of the high-dollar CSMGS. And while the field of weekly regulars is as tough as it gets, both veteran wheelmen proved their worth by turning in solid performances against a stout field.In the first 50, the line-up was determined after heats and a redraw. To begin the race the front row was made up of 15-year old Kyle Strohl and Eric Kocher. Strohl wasted no time in taking command while Bobby Jones quickly slipped into second. Fifth starting Zeiner was third. Under a blanket, the trio provided a thrilling display of close-knit action. Strohl was being heavily challenged by Jones while Zeiner stalked, ready to strike at any moment.After a lap nine restart Jones was able to take the lead but Strohl was not letting him gain ground as he stayed alongside. In an extended stretch of green flag laps, the battle for the lead became edge of the seat racing. Jones was showing the way but insistently Strohl was keeping stride and likewise Zeiner was hot on their heels.After laps of pressure, Strohl regained the top spot with an outside pass of lap 28. Two laps later Jones came back to the front. By this time Zeiner was no longer laying back and began his surge. He went around Strohl on lap 33 and then set sight on Jones. Zeiner was in the process to go underneath for the lead when the caution waved for debris. It would be on that restart which he would then use to make the race wining move.Strohl took second with 10 laps to go and two laps later Eric Beers joined in the battle. It was quite amazing too, watching young Strohl show no signs of intimidation while racing between a pair of well-seasoned veterans and two former Race of Champions 200 winners. “We’ll take this. We’ve been having good cars all year but just haven’t had Lady Luck on our side and I had said that once it breaks it will be a good thing and tonight it was,” said Zeiner. “We travel around to the big shows but I like to call Mahoning our home track and to come here and win is a wonderful feeling. Kyle (Strohl) drove a heck of race and Bobby (Jones) you could see that his car was tightening up but with his experience he made it work. We all had some side-by-side and a little rubbing but that’s what the fans come out for.”An invert of 11 was used to line-up the second 50 and George and Kocher shared front row honors. When the green waved to start the race George took the early lead while Kevin Rex Jr., moved to second. On the third circuit Austin Kochenash powered into third.Maintaining himself and able to control the pace, George was showing that he was going to be tough. Meanwhile Rex and Kochenash were in a dogfight for second. 14 laps in and Kochenash would finally win that battle.Afterwards Kochenash was on the rear bumper of the race leading No. 3 but despite a well-founded effort, George was the car to beat.Matt Hirschman, came into sight by lap 33, taking third but would not be able to match up with George and Kochenash as they sped to the checkers nose-to-tail. “Our focus is on these big shows here and the guys have done a great job getting us prepared,” said George, who was making just his fourth start of the season. “There’s a handful of cars that when you see them pull up alongside you have to be on your game and Austin (Kochenash) is one of those top guys here.
1st Modified Feature Finish (50 Laps): 1. Zane Zeiner, 2. Kyle Strohl, 3. Eric Beers, 4. Don Wagner, 5. Austin Kochenash, 6. Brian DeFebo, 7. Bobby Jones, 8. Kris Graver, 9. Kevin Rex Jr., 10. Eric Kocher, 11. Nevin George, 12. Todd Baer, 13. John Markovic, 14. Matt Higgins, 15. Matt Hirschman, 16. Lou Strohl, 17. Chip Santee, 18. Terry Markovic, 19. Earl Paules, 20. Calvin Carrol, 21. Paul Frantz
2nd Modified Feature Finish (50 Laps): 1. George, 2. Kochenash, 3. Hirschman, 4. Paules, 5. Kocher, 6. Baer, 7. Rex Jr., 8. Wagner, 9. Santee, 10. John Markovic, 11. Strohl, 12. Carrol, 13. Frantz, 14. Beers, 15. Terry Markovic, 16. Zeiner, 17. Strohl, 18. Jones, 19. Higgins, 20. Graver, 21. DeFebo
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7-11 Holland RoC
Patrick Emerling Had Time on His Side in RoC 100 at Holland It would be an understatement to say that certain factors played a role in Race of Champions Asphalt Modified Tour point leader Patrick Emerling’s victory in Saturday night’s annual return to Holland Motorsports Complex (NY). A timely restart in a time-shortened race brought Emerling back to victory lane.“In the race, how they changed to single file (restarts) and then counting cautions, that, I believe, helped me a little bit,” Emerling told Speed51.com powered by JEGS following his second career RoC win. “I just had some stuff figured out on restarts. We had an awesome car that rolled well. Towards the end of the race it came into our favor a little bit.”The first scheduled 100-lap feature of the 2015 season featured the first real opportunity to see pit strategy come into play, as the proverbial shuffling of the deck of competitors occurred when teams came in to take a fresh right rear tire at different times. Chuck Hossfeld jumped out to the early lead from his pole starting position before electing to come in for service at a lap 36 yellow. Emerling would follow, but for the both of them it was not the only time they would have to pit.Brian Defebo would stay out and lead a number of laps as he searched for his first career RoC victory, but 20 circuits later Hossfeld had found his way under him for the top spot once again. Nearly 20 laps after that, the complexion of the race would change as Hossfeld’s car was noticeably different forcing him to enter the pits on another occasion. He would not fully recover this time around and would finish eighth.“We made all the right decisions, but what happened was when we were leading with 30 to go, when we got the green, the car would not turn,” Hossfeld explained. “Turns out it was a right front flat, and once we put the sticker on the right front we couldn’t get any heat into it because it just took too long and I couldn’t make any progress. We really should have won and we would have been tough to beat. Bottom line is we had such a good car to drive; it was such a pleasure to drive. I was proud of everything we did. ”In the second half of the race Emerling and 2014 Holland winner Andy Jankowiak were working their way back up to the front , challenging drivers such as George Skora III and Brandon Oltra who were searching for their best ever RoC finishes. Emerling had to pit a second time earlier due to an issue with the right front.Ironically, it was Emerling’s contact with Oltra which powered him to get by Skora for the lead with less than 10 laps remaining.“What happened was we came in and got our right rear, and the pit road was so narrow that I actually bumped a wheel and pulled my right front back a little bit,” Emerling explained. “We towed it out major, so then we had to take another round and come in to get it a little bit closer. Actually a little later on I was racing with Brandon Oltra and we kind of got into each other a little bit and it seemed to knock it back in to where I liked it. I had an awesome racecar and I was confident going in. I have to thank (crew chief) Jan Leaty for that.”Jankowiak made his way to second, but with the feature being cut short due to more than one multiple-car altercation behind him it was evident that he was not satisfied with the finish.“Sometimes circumstances are just out of your control,” Jankowiak plainly stated. “Patrick ran a great race, congrats to those guys and we are in one piece and will go on to the next one.”;
Skora, a local favorite at the 3/8-mile high-banked facility, turned in a career run in third place. Despite losing the lead with only a handful of laps left, he was still all smiles after the race. The Eden, New York resident was the only driver in the field not to take on fresh rubber during the course of the race.“With the way we have been running this year, we are ecstatic with a third place,” Skora said. “To have a shot for the win and lead all the laps we did lead without taking a tire was pretty big for us. We’ve talked about it all year long that this is one stout field from first all the way back to 20th, and if you take that tire it’s not going to be easy to get back through the field. Just having the car underneath that drove good like it did was big for us, because we need the confidence going into the next couple races. If we would have gotten a tire, who knows, we could have been in one of those wrecks.” It was also the highlight of Brandon Oltra’s Modified career, climbing from a 26th starting spot after transferring in from a 10 lap consolation race earlier to finish fourth. In the pit area following the conclusion he called it “the fastest car I’ve ever driven”. Oltra’s former car owner that got him into Modified racing, Joe Kaminski, passed away recently, and it was clear that he was somewhat overcome with emotion after the stellar run the team had. After a review of what would eventually be the final lap of the race, Tommy Catalano was awarded a fifth-place finish. It was also the rookie’s best RoC run to date after climbing from the rear on two occasions.For Emerling, a driver that has never really focused on a championship before, those thoughts may be changing for him and the L2 Autosport team.“It was an awesome points night, which is great,” Emerling said. “I’m really happy we’ve got our program on track this year. We struggled a lot in past years, and we’ve just kept on getting better and better. I think we have an awesome thing going on.”;
Official R.o.C. Modified Holland Speedway Finish:
1) Patrick Emerling
2) Andy Jankowiak
3) George Skora, III
4) Brandon Oltra
5) Tommy Catalano
6) Matt Hirschman
7) Bryan Sherwood
_8) Chuck Hossfeld
9) Roger Coss
10) Tony Hanbury
11) Rick Kluth
12) Daren Scherer
13) Nick Pecko
14) Karl Hehr
15) Bobby Holmes
16) Daryl Lewis, Jr.
17) Kirk Totten
18) Jim Storace
19) Tyler Rypkema
20) Brian DeFebo
21) Tommy Cloce
22) T.J. Potrzebowski
23) Sam Fullone
24) Dave Wollaber
25) Amy Catalano
26) Mike Leaty
27) Chris Ridsdale
7-1 Seekonk Open Show
Pos. No. Driver Laps
1 99 Richard Savary 100 -$11,680 ( including $1480 in lap money, $100 CN Crown Award, $100 Seals-It
2 52 James Civali 100 -$4020 ( including $520 in lap money)
3 42 Woody Pitkat 100 - $5395 ( including $500 from Bridgewater Raynham Overhead Door and $2395 Coil Over Commander
4 12 Todd Annarummo 100 - $2000
5 3 Eric Beers 100 - $2500 ( including $1000 from Bridgewater Raynham Overhead Door
6 07 Patrick Emerling 100 -$1400
7 50 Matt Hirschman 100 -$1600 ( including $300 from Brian Sparky Denton
8 5ct Chris Pasteryak 100 -$1200
9 55 Joe Doucette 100 $1200 ( including $100 CN Crown & Diamond Hard Charger)
10 22n Chuck Hossfeld 100 $1000
11 22 Keith Rocco 100 -$950
12 28 Dwight Jarvis 100 $925
13 66 Austin Kochenash 100 $900
14 27 Andy Jankowiak 100 $875
15 92 Anthony Nocella 100 $1550( including $400 B feature lap money and $300 Coil Over Commander gift cert.
16 6 Ryan Preece 100 $800
17 9 Tommy Barrett, Jr. 99 $800
18 04 Brandon Dion 99 $800
19 53 Norm Wrenn 99 $800
20 89 Matt Swanson 99 $800
21 179 Jeff Rocco 97 $800
22 80 Dick Houlihan 96 $800
23 31 Steve Masse 74 $1400 ( including $300 from Brian Sparky Denton and
$300 from Masse's Modified Maniacs (Matthew Gilbert, Marty Griffin, Jessica Bradley, & Tanya Judkins)
24 05 Todd Patnode 72 $800
25 76 Zane Zeiner 72 $800
26 20 Doug Coby 72 $800
27 7ma Kurt Vigeant 37 $800
B feature payouts - Perry $700, Meservey $600, Fournier $500, Gallup $400, and $300 to McKennedy, Fredrickson, Grubisa, Dolan, Medrerios, Richardi, Zacharias, Dupuis,, Summers, Benevides, and K. James. $600 to Chapin ( including Hard luck award of $300) Holdridge ended up with $400 as he also got $100 from lap leader money.
Total payout $53,895
June 25 Lancaster RoC - 2nd
It was a Thursday night to be remembered in Lancaster, New York. Defending Race of Champions Asphalt Modified Tour titlist Chuck Hossfeld held off some fierce competition in front of numerous fans for his second win of the season. It was a gratifying win for the Ransomville, New York driver in many ways.“First of all, it’s good to see Lancaster on the upswing,” Hossfeld told Speed51.com powered by JEGS after the Ol’ Boy Cup 60-lap race victory. “To see the new pavement, the grass cut, new stands and a packed house on Thursday night was great.”;This was the first RoC show at Lancaster National Speedway since last year’s U.S. Open, and the improvements that have been made by new General Manager Melissa McGowan and team were noticeable.This was the inaugural running of the Ol’ Boy Cup, a 60 lap sprint in memory of Bill Colton, who was known, among many things, for innovating the soft Styrofoam-type walls to the 5/8-mile high speed facility in the early 1990s that later were introduced at other area tracks. They were in place yet again on this night and did come in handy during a heat race when Bobby Holmes’ car did not turn going into one and went straight into the wall. Holmes would be okay and his car would recover to finish sixth in the feature.Colton’s son Billy, the owner of Troyer Race Cars, and family were in victory lane with Hossfeld.“To win for Bill Colton Sr., who was a great friend of mine, I don’t know if everyone would know the story but he helped get me racing,” Hossfeld mentioned. “I still have sponsors today that he introduced me to. He was just a great friend of mine, as he was to a lot of racers.”;Despite setting the pace for the entire distance, Hossfeld would still have pressure from some of the usual RoC suspects. The redraw put him on the outside front row with fellow Western New Yorker Andy Jankowiak on the inside. Hossfeld would initially make the outside line stick on the fresh pavement out of the corner and would gain the lead. Jankowiak filed into second, but was forced to pit during a caution and had to make a valiant run the remainder of the race. It would not be enough as he would finish in fourth.Jankowiak was rather critical of himself after the race, which was not the first time this season that he was left feeling this way.“The radiator overflow hose fell off; I forgot to tighten it,” Jankowiak stated. “Just a steady consistency of beating ourselves, it’s really discouraging. Third time this year in RoC we’ve been running awesome in front of Chuck or Matt and just something broke.”;A late caution bunched the field with a hard charging Jankowiak as well as multiple-time RoC champion Matt Hirschman to contend with. Despite the shortest race distance of the year for the Tour, Hirschman had appeared to save his Modified for the end as he consistently does. He gave Hossfeld a challenge, but still did not have enough in the remaining laps.“I just steadily moved forward right from the start, and put ourselves in a position to contend,” Hirschman recapped. “We kind of made a run at it and gave it our best try. I was right there with them, but not enough to make a serious challenge.”;Hirschman was coming fresh off a win in the Tri-Track Challenge Series open show at Monadnock Speedway (NH), but has still yet to enter victory lane in RoC in 2015. He still feels optimistic with how the team has improved.“From where we started the season to where we are now we’re making progress,” Hirschman said. “We’re back to where the last three times I raced we were in a position to win, and like Monadnock sometimes that’s all you need to be is in position. We still have a little bit of work to do. We’re getting close, but we need to be one spot better.”;Hossfeld agreed that it was not an easy feat, but admitted that he had confidence in his equipment.“We had a great car,” Hossfeld said. “We had pressure from one of the best in the business in the closing laps. I knew when (Hirschman) started eighth that he would probably conserve a little bit, and running with Andy J and Tony Hanbury I did what I had to do. It was a great night for us.”;
While next up for the RoC Tour is Holland Speedway (NY) in two weeks, Hossfeld and team have added one more race to their 2015 schedule before then.“We were having so many rain outs that I don’t want to get rusty,” Hossfeld explained. “When it feels like we have such a great team and we’re not racing, we decided to go to Seekonk so hopefully we have a good run there. I did win a (NASCAR Whelen Modified) Tour race with Bob Garbarino there and had some good runs. I think we’ll be prepared and have a good showing.”;In addition to Hossfeld, Hirschman and Jankowiak are expected to compete in next week’s Seekonk Speedway (MA) Modified Madness show for the Tri-Track Open Modified Series.
- By Aaron Creed, Speed51.com Pennsylvania/Central New York Editor - Twitter: @aaron_creed
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When Chuck Hossfeld of Ransomville, NY made his first foray into stock car racing after some successful years in go-karts, one of his biggest supporters was the late Bill Colton, Jr. Hossfeld spent a season wheeling a Street Stock before graduating to the Modifieds at Lancaster National Speedway, and Colton was there to mentor and support the future champion.
Hossfeld got to pay tribute to his fallen friend on Thursday night at Lancaster as he captured the inaugural edition of the “Ol’ Boy” Cup Bill Colton Memorial 60 presented by Quaker Steak & Lube Race of Champions Modified Tour event.Hossfeld led nearly every lap of the race after starting from the outside pole position. Matt Hirschman finished second followed by Patrick Emerling, Andy Jankowiak and Jimmy Zacharias.Jankowiak led the field to the initial green flag with Hossfeld to his outside. The pair traded the lead back and forth during the opening laps until Hossfeld took control for good on lap four. Jankowiak remained glued to Hossfeld’s back bumper until the caution flag flew for the fourth time of the night on lap 16. It was during the caution period that Jankowiak gave up the runner-up spot to make a pit stop.This handed second place to Tony Hanbury in the Kurzejewski Racing #21, who had quickly moved up from the tenth starting position. Hanbury, the defending winner of the U.S. Open, looked poised to give Hossfeld a run for the top spot until contact with TJ Potrzebowski on lap 33 sent him spinning in turn two.Hanbury’s trouble moved Hirschman into second place followed by Emerling and Zacharias. The stage appeared to be set for another chapter in the storied rivalry between Hossfeld and Hirschman, but Hossfeld slowly pulled away from the field as the race entered its final stages.The one person on the race track that appeared to be faster than Hossfeld in the closing laps was Jankowiak. He had worked his way back through the field following his pit stop, and was in fourth place when the yellow flag flew for the final time on lap 51 for a spin by Bryan Sherwood.
Jankowiak’s comeback effort ran out of steam, however, after the final restart as the handling of the car appeared to have gone away.Hossfeld ran the final laps unopposed as he cruised to the win for his second Race of Champions Modified Tour victory of 2015.“Bill Colton (Jr.) was just a friend to auto racing and great friend to myself personally,” said Hossfeld. “I still have sponsors he helped me to get years and years ago, and without him I wouldn’t be racing.”;
SUNOCO RACE OF CHAMPIONS MODIFIED TOUR
Heat Winners: Rusty Smith, Mike Leaty, Matt Hirschman, Andy Jankowiak
“Ol’ Boy” Cup 60 presented by Quaker Steak & Lube Finish: CHUCK HOSSFELD, Matt Hirschman, Patrick Emerling, Andy Jankowiak, Jimmy Zacharias, Bobby Holmes, Rusty Smith, Daren Scherer, Tony Hanbury, Mike Leaty, Tyler Rypkema, Tommy Cloce, George Skora III, Roger Coss, Amy Catalano, TJ Potrzebowski, Bryan Sherwood, Jim Storace, Kirk Totten, Karl Hehr, TJ Zacharias, Tommy Catalano, Donny Hartzell, Chris Ridsdale, Dave Rigan, Todd Lorenzo, Sam Fullone, Daryl Lewis, Jr.
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Hirschman Wins Tri-Track Series at Monadnock - All About Right Place, Right Time Pass
Matt Hirschman was in the right place at the right time as he made the pass with five laps to go and won the NorthEast Race Cars and Parts Tri-Track Open Modified Series Riverside Reunion 100 at the Monadnock Speedway in Winchester, New Hampshire on Saturday night. Matt Hirschman celebreates winning the Riverside Reunion 100. Image Courtesy: Matt WiernaszMatt Hirschman celebreates winning the Riverside Reunion 100. The Northampton, Pennsylvania driver took advantage of some hard racing late in the event between leader #42 Woody Pitkat and second place #5 Chris Pasteryak, who was making a bid for the lead. Hirschman was in third at the time and drove under the pair after they went way up the race track off turn 2 on lap 95. Pitkat started from the outside pole and led the race from lap five to the 95th circuit, never pitting while out front. In victory lane Hirschman told 22News, “You’re not really expecting to win at that point. You’re looking at maybe a third, fighting for second. The 42 (Pitkat) did not pit for a tire, had an excellent race car tonight. If we didn’t get all those cautions he probably would have won. It’s 100 laps. I just tried to keep myself in position, and was in the right place there. Those two came together, I just cut it as hard to the left as I could, and held it to the floor. I didn’t know if they wrecked. I didn’t know if there was going to be a caution. I just tried to run away. We were one corner from finishing and then a caution came out. I had to do a few more restarts. It was hard earned. We really worked hard for it.”; Hirschman’s payday was $6,000 including lap money and bonus money. Following Hirschman to the checkered flag were Steve Masse, Mike Holdridge, Zane Zeiner, and Todd Patnode. Rounding out the top 10 were Anthony Nocella, Andy Jankowiak, Ryan Preece, Doug Coby (driving the Rick Czarnecki #20), and Todd Annarummo. The Cinderella story of the night belonged to Mike Holdridge. After failing to qualify through his heat and consolation races, he won the B Main, a non-qualifiers race for the eight cars that didn’t make the big show. Then came a game show moment: take a $1,000 and quit for the night or decline the loot and move up to the main event. Holdridge told the Monadnock crowd, “I’m here to race so I’m going to go racing!” By finishing third, he collected $2,600 which was more than two and a half times better than the $1,000 sure thing. But there was little on the plus side for Chris Pasteryak, who let his anger and frustration flow on the team radio after the incident with Pitkat. Pasteryak won the first Tri-Track Series race of the season in May at the Lee USA Speedway in New Hampshire. The Tri-Track Series attracts drivers from the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour, the Valenti Modified Racing Series, Race of Champions, as well as talented racers from weekly tracks. While the series tallies points it can still be a night off from chasing points where you race. So is the appeal of Tri-Track the competition or the money? Rowan Pennink runs the NWMT and is a champion in the VMRS. He told 22News, “We just come to all the races, put in our best effort, and don’t really worry about points. We try to get the best finishes we can, and try to win races too. I always run as hard as I can no matter what I’m driving. With it paying some lap money we might try to get up there a little bit faster than we would normally, and see if we can lead some laps and win some big money at the end of the day.”; For 16 year old Spencer Davis of Dawsonville, Georgia, Saturday was his first time racing at Monadnock. Davis drives for Hillbilly Racing, owned by the Hill family, based in Westfield, North Carolina. They raced last Wednesday night in the NWMT at Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park. With some hospitality from mod tour and Riverside alum Chris Kopec, the team stayed in Western Massachusetts and prepared the #79 for the Tri-Track show. Davis talked about the competition, the money, and an opportunity to prepare for running the NWMT at Monadnock in July as factors that made Saturday night special. “All the competition that’s here, all the cars that come, and the payout’s a big factor here, Definitely you can win a lot more than you can on the tour, so that’s definitely a plus. We’re already up here and we run a tour race here later in the year, so it’d be a no brainer to come here and race.”,
Matt Hirschman would come to the checkered flag to win the Riverside Reunion 100 Northeast Race Cars And Parts Tri Track Open Modified Series event.
An exciting evening of racing took place at Monadnock Speedway on Saturday, June 13, and when it was all over, it was Matt Hirschman taking down the win and the $6000 that came with it.Woody Pitkat was the dominant driver on the night leading over 90 laps but with just a few laps to go, it looked like Chris Pasteryak was set to pass him on the outside and take down his second consecutive Tri Track win. However, those two would tangle, leaving the bottom open for Hirschman, and with it, the lead. Hirschman, forced to run the consi, started 22nd on the night.Steve Masse, who started 10th, ran a strong race all night long. His second place earned him $3600 and moved him to the lead in the money won column for the first two races - With the $4400 he took home at Lee, his total for two races is $8000.But maybe the story of the night was Mike Holdridge. Coming back from Lee with a wrecked car, they managed to put it together, and after not qualifying via the heat race or consi, was forced to run the B feature. He went on to lead all 25 laps and take home the $1000 win. Where many assumed he would take the money and run, he handed back the money and decided to start at the rear of the field in the feature. His finish of 3rd was, without a doubt , many fans favorite performance of the night. He was rewarded with $2600 for this outstanding run.
Final running order and money won 1- Matt Hirschman - $6000 2- Steve Masse - $3600 3- Mike Holdridge - $2600 4- Zane Zeiner - $2050 5- Patnode - $1500 6- Nocella - $1400 7- Jankowiak - $1600 8- Preece - $1200 9- Coby - $1100 10 Annarummo - $1000 11 Savary - $975 12 Perry - $950 ?13 Pasteryak - $925 14 Davis - $2959.14 15 Pitkat - $3075 16 LeClerc - $850 17 Seuss - $825 18 Jarvis - $1400 19 Szegedy - $860 20 Wrenn - $800 21 Pennink - $800 22 Dolan - $800 23 Vigeant - $800 24 Douglas - $1500 25 Berndt - $800 26 Murphy - $800 27 Grubisa - $1000 28 Hersey - $800
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Shangri-La II Speedway - MAY 24 - 2nd
Patrick Emerling has competed in a Tour-Type Modified since 2010. Along the way he has recorded multiple top-five finishes and led a number of laps. But despite all of those results and close calls, a win was still missing from the Orchard Park, New York driver’s list of accomplishments.That all changed on Sunday afternoon at Shangri-La II Motor Speedway (NY) in the Race of Champions Asphalt Modified Tour’s third race of 2015. Emerling’s Leaty Racing machine was fastest out of the box in practice, finished a strong second in his heat race, redrew to start on the outside pole, and jumped out to the early advantage in the 75-lap feature.For the second half of the race, Emerling had two of the best in the business to keep behind him. Champions Chuck Hossfeld and Matt Hirschman proved no match for him on this afternoon with the strong performance and the team’s setup for the half-mile concrete oval. It was also his first win with their new Troyer TA1 chassis, which debuted with a runner-up finish the last time out at Oswego Speedway.“It was definitely the best car I ever had here,” Emerling told Speed51.com powered by JEGS. “Ever since we unloaded off the truck this car has been absolutely stellar. Me and Jan (Leaty) have been working together with the setup and showing up with a faster car. It has been showing; we’ve been putting so much thought into it and working real hard, especially Jan.”Equally as rewarding to Emerling was the fact that he had to outrun two drivers that have combined for the last six RoC championships.“I’ve been trying to catch them for years,” Emerling said. “They are as good as it gets, so to finally be faster than them it just feels excellent. I have so much respect for them guys, and to keep out ahead of them feels great.”Hirschman and Hossfeld were involved in quite the hard fought battle for the second position in the closing laps. Hossfeld worked Hirschman over in several attempts to gain the position, but the Northampton, Pennsylvania driver successfully held off the Ransomville, New York racer for his best finish of the 2015 season.“For us it’s been a pretty poor start to the season, probably the worst that I can remember in a long time,” Hirschman stated. “It’s really a good boost today just to have a good run. We just haven’t been performing the way we need to. That’s not to take away anything from the Leaty group with two back to back wins.”Tony Hanbury backed up a Sportsman Modified victory the previous day at the track to finish fourth. Jimmy Zacharias overcame a hurt right ankle after a mishap working on his car in the pits prior to the green flag to round out the top-five.The middle of the race was marred by a multiple-car wreck that began in turn four and concluded past the start-finish line coming to complete lap 30. Tommy Catalano suffered the hardest hit after advancing into the top 10, and was taken to a nearby hospital for further evaluation. The Ontario, New York rookie driver in the series posted on social media Sunday night that the doctor said he sustained cracked ribs, a damaged lung, and a concussion as a result of the impact.
Also involved in the incident was the points leader heading into the event, Oswego winner Mike Leaty. Miraculously, he was able to drive the new LFR chassis he was piloting for car owner Jeff DeMinck away after track crews detached it from some of the other cars involved, and continued on for a top-10 finish.“My front bumper is perfect, but I was somehow shoved up in the air and on top of people,” Leaty explained about the accident. “I knew I really didn’t hit anything that hard. I just kind of pirouetted along tops of racecars and came to a stop. We had to change the left front brake caliper because the bleeder got knocked off it, so we changed the caliper and away we went again. My crew did awesome and I made my way back up through. We got eighth instead of about 25th by going back out.”Leaty will be back in his team’s Troyer that won Oswego at the next race, his home track at Spencer Speedway (NY), before bringing the LFR out for some more track time at Lancaster National Speedway (NY) at the end of June.What was most satisfying for Leaty on this day was seeing his teammate Emerling get the victory. The two have teamed up the last few years to help them prepare their cars for races on both the RoC and NASCAR Whelen Modified Tours.“I’m just as happy that he won as if I would have won the race,” Leaty said. “That whole family, they work their butt off. They have been in this sport for years now. We maintain their car in our shop, and we put just as much time on that thing as we do with my cars. He’s a really good kid, and the first one is the hardest to get and I really think you could see a lot more out of him.”The next race presents an interesting conflict for Emerling and crew. Over the past four years Emerling has concentrated more on the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour, but with the Stafford Motor Speedway (CT) and Spencer races falling on the same day they will have to choose one or the other.“Right now we’re leading the points in the RoC, I believe, so it’s hard to say at this point,” Emerling said. “I’ve never ran for a championship ever. Since we’re in position here we might have a pretty tough decision to make.”No matter the decision, at this moment there is a different team and a different group of drivers on top of their game on the Race of Champions Tour.
- By Aaron Creed, Speed51.com Pennsylvania/Central New York Editor – Twitter: @aaron_creed
- Photo credit:
RoC Modifieds 75 Results
Shangri-La II Speedway – May 24, 2015
1 2 07 Patrick Emerling 75
2 3 60 Matt Hirschman 75
3 8 22 Chuck Hossfeld 75
4 9 21 Tony Hanbury 75
5 12 71 Jimmy Zacharias 75
6 5 8 Bobby Holmes 75
7 4 27 Andy Jankowiak 75
8 18 1L Mike Leaty 75
9 10 65 George Skora III 75
10 23 47 Jim Storace 75
11 16 34 Rusty Smith 75
12 29 69 Tommy Cloce 75
13 21 53 Brian Defebo 75
14 22 19 Brandon Oltra 75
15 1 51b T.J. Potrzebowski 74
16 20 95 Bryan Sherwood 74
17 7 42 Nick Pecko 74
18 6 11 Kirk Totten 74
19 26 64 Amy Catalano 73
20 27 1 Chris Risdale 73
21 19 94 Zack Curren 66
22 13 32 Tyler Rypkema 44
23 17 51r Lee Sharpsteen 42
24 14 3 Daren Scherer 30
25 11 66 Austin Kochenash 30
26 15 54 Tommy Catalano 30
27 24 59 Karl Hehr 29
28 30 17c Roger Coss 27
29 28 17 Ken Canestrari 20
30 25 9x TJ Zacharias 16
Thirty Modifieds packed the pits as the Sunoco Race Of Champions Tour rolled into the Shangri-La Motorsports Complex Sunday afternoon, and when the checkered flag flew, it was Patrick Emerling smiling in Victory Lane, taking his first win in a R.O.C. Tour main event. R.J. Zacharias took home the gold in the Street Stock feature and Matt Kurjewski topped the INEX Legends show. Emerling hit the track for practice on Saturday night during the first half of the special weekend at the concrete half mile, and it paid off, as the car and driver were at the top of their game right from the moment they rolled off the trailer Sunday. He set fast time during practice, ran second in his qualifying heat, and drew outside pole for the 75 lap feature. From then on everyone else spent their afternoon trying to catch the #07. Andy Jankowiak powered into the runnerup spot as Matt Hirschman, T.J. Potrzebowski, and Bobby Holmes gave chase. A quick yellow on lap 28 bunched the field, and two laps after the restart disaster struck. Tommy Catalano, who had moved into the top ten after starting fifteenth, slid up out of the groove in turn four and made heavy contact with the wall. The ensuing melee collected Austin Kochenash, Daren Scherer, Mike Leaty and Bryan Sherwood, with a number of other drivers having incidental contact as they attempted to avoid the accident. All drivers were treated on site and released, but the incident created an extended red flag period for track cleanup. On the restart, Jankowiak got shuffled to the outside, and slid back in the pack and Hirshman took over the second spot. The next five or six positions were closely contested over the next few laps. Chuck Hossfeld recorded the fastest lap of the race just past the halfway point as he batled his way to the third spot and began to close in on Hirschman. A couple of cautions grouped the leaders in the closing laps, but Emerling pulled away on each restart. Hossfeld kept the pressure on Hirschman, but could never quite get alongside and had to settle for third at the finish. Tony Hanbury delivered a solid performance coming home in the fourth spot, but one of the big stories at the finish was Jimmy Zacharias. Jimmy was injured earlier while preparing his car for the feature and had to be helped into the car. He hung around in the bottom half of the top ten for much of the race, but as the laps wound down he went to the outside and put on a driving clinic, running the ragged edge and moving up the order. He was unable to complete the pass on Hanbury through many tries and had to settle for fifth.
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TRI TRACK : LEE SPEEDWAY MAY 17 : 28
Chris Pasteryak didn’t want to sit home and watch piles of snow build up on his lawn this past winter. He wanted to go racing, so that’s what he did. Pasteryak and his Connecticut-based team loaded up his No. 5 Troyer Modified and headed south to compete in a pair of KOMA Unwind Modified Madness Series events in North Carolina. That experience racing at Ace Speedway and Hickory Motor Speedway was an experience that paid off Sunday afternoon in New Hampshire.Pasteryak rocketed to the lead on lap 90 and survived a late restart to win the 2nd Annual Tri-Track Open Modified Series Bullring Bash at Lee USA Speedway (NH).
“Going down there definitely paid off today,” Pasteryak told Speed51.com powered by JEGS. “We came here, unloaded and the car wasn’t great. I just said, ‘What did we have at Hickory?’ I put exactly what we ended up with at Hickory (NC) in the car here today and it worked really good in the race.”In a race that rewarded the conservation of tires, as well as the knowledge of the right time to shift it into high gear, Pasteryak played it perfect. Starting from the fifth spot, the Lisbon, Connecticut native conserved his tires early on while others set a torrid pace up front. He began to turn it on near the halfway point of the race and made his charge to the front. When early leader Steve Masse slipped and nearly made contact with the outside wall with 10 laps to go, Pasteryak pounced on his opportunity.“What is in my head is that I lost a couple of races to Tommy Barrett like this,” Pasteryak said when asked about his strategy in a race like this. “I lost a couple of races to Matt Hirschman like this. I lost races to guys like that. When it comes time to go with 20 laps to go, now you’re in a track position game. Now if you pit, you’re coming in before everybody else and you’re taking tires. The race worked out perfect for me to win. Had it gone different, it might not of.”Once he took over the top spot, the 34-year-old Modified pilot set sail until the second and final caution of the event occurred with just three laps remaining. The caution set up a restart that would see Woody Pitkat to his outside and Todd Annarummo behind him. That wouldn’t be enough to stop Pasteryak on this day, however. A great restart allowed Pasteryak to clear the rest of the field into turn one, and he never looked back from there.“I would’ve much rather not had the restart,” Pasteryak said with a laugh. “But the car was good and it was easy on the rear tires the whole run. The car took off and I was actually kind of shocked it too off as good as it did. It was like I was worried about nothing.”Annarummo made a late race charge to get by Pitkat and claim runner-up honors. Pitkat, who led a number of laps early on, finished third after setting a torrid pace early on.“I didn’t really push it, I kind of wanted to get a good jump the first five laps and kind of slow it down and maintain,” said Pitkat. “I think Masse was just kind of doing what I did. We got the tail end of the field and we were lucky we didn’t get crashed. After that I just wanted to set my own pace and get some lap money.“I think if I could have gotten in front of him (Masse) for the lead before Pasteryak got him then maybe that would have been a little harder, but Chris had a good car. Some of those lapped cars, I don’t know what they were doing. I’ll remember that for the Tour race, some of those guys that I race with.”Defending NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour champion Andy Seuss returned to his home state of New Hampshire on Sunday and finished fourth. Anthony Nocella rounded out the top-five after making a strong charge towards the front late in the race.For his win on Sunday, Pasteryak will be able to cash a paycheck well over $5,000 after lap leader money is factored in. Although the money is nice, he admitted that it’s not why he comes to the race track.“It always helps (the prize money), but we’re not lacking for anything to be brutally honest,” said Pasteryak. “We have as good of stuff as the next guy. We don’t run NASCAR because we like coming and running these races.”Prior to his win on Sunday, Pasteryak’s last win in Tour-Type Modified competition was a Valenti Modified Racing Series win at Stafford Motor Speedway (CT) on September 9, 2011. The two-time VMRS champion was very happy to end his winless streak with a win in a high profile race such as the Bullring Bash.
“This is one heck of a confidence builder and a great way to break the streak.”-By Brandon Paul, Speed51.com Editor – Twitter: @Brandon_Paul51
Chris Pasteryak ($5640)
Todd Annarummo ($3000)
Woody Pitkat ($2960)
Andy Suess ($2000)
Anthony Nocella ($1500)
Richard Savary ($1400)
Norman Wrenn III ($1300)
Todd Szegedy ($1200)
Todd Patnode ($2500)
Ryan Preece ($1000)
Rowan Pennink ($1000)
Branden Bock ($1000)
Dwight Jarvis ($1300)
Steve Masse ($4400)
Mike Douglas Jr. ($1000)
Andy Jankowiak ($1300)
Zane Zeiner ($1200)
Jon McKennedy ($1000)
Kirk Alexander ($1000)
Doug Coby ($1000)
Garrison Grubisa ($1000)
David Sapienza ($1000)
Kirk Vigeant ($1000)
Carl Mederios Jr. ($1000)
Spencer Davis ($1800)
Dennis Perry ($1000)
McKeage ($1000)
Matt Hirschman ($1300)
EDITOR’S NOTE: 51’s X-Factor is a new feature on Speed51.com that features opinions from 51 columnists on racing’s hottest topics. Rob Blount, the author of this editorial, is the Northeast Editor for Speed51.com. The views which are expressed in the following column are his own and not necessarily the views of Speed51.com and/or its partners.)There are few, if any, race fans who have the passion for short track racing that New York native James Schaefer has. The man known as the ‘Long Island Modified Maniac’ has been doing fundraising for the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour events at Riverhead Raceway (NY) for quite a few years to raise bonus money for drivers electing to compete in the Tour’s two events at the Long Island bullring.A year ago, Schaefer had an idea and he decided to take his fundraising efforts a step further.He helped start the Tri-Track Open Modified Series in an effort to help the purses at the Seekonk Speedway (MA) and Star Speedway (NH) already-established open shows. He and Dick Williams added a third race of their own, one at Lee USA Speedway (NH) in an effort to give teams another opportunity to race for big money and give fans the opportunity to have some more fun.All signs indicated that the Bullring Bash at Lee would be a race that many fans and teams would want to attend. Over 40 teams promised that they’d attempt to race for the $5,000 winner’s purse, but only 35 actually showed up. Still a strong field, but not what was expected, and honestly not what Schaefer deserved.Schaefer busted his tail to try to spread the word about the event to as many race fans as possible, but only about 1,500 people walked through the gates. Unfortunately, that wasn’t much of a surprise. The race took place on Mother’s Day, and many cited that as the reason why they didn’t go, racers included.This year, Schaefer learned his scheduling lesson. The race is not on Mother’s Day, which just passed. It’s this Sunday afternoon, May 17. Now, there’s absolutely no reason to not get out and support the event.Talking from a racer’s perspective, this is a great race to attend. The winner will receive $5,000 in guaranteed money. With all of the lap bonuses available, there’s a chance that the winner could receive an additional $4,000.From a fan’s perspective, it’s a great day of racing. $25 gets you through the door to see the Modifieds, North East Mini Stock Tour, and the inaugural North East Street Stock Tour race, plus heat races for each division. The Mini Stocks will run a 50-lap feature and the Street Stocks will run 35 laps. There’s also a B-Main for the Modifieds that will pay out an unheard of $1,000 to the winner.This year the preliminary entry list boasts over 45 teams. Even if they all don’t show up, it will still be one of the largest and most talented fields of Tour-Type Modifieds seen all year long anywhere in the country.Some of the best drivers in the Northeast will be there, like Doug Coby (Two-time NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour champion), Ryan Preece (2013 NWMT champion), Matt Hirschman (defending Bullring Bash winner), Woody Pitkat, Jon McKennedy, and even Andy Seuss (defending NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour champion) who will be travelling up from North Carolina to run this race.It’s almost impossible to say that this day won’t be worth the price of admission.There’s also a bit of an added incentive for the fans to come out. For the last few years, many fans have said that they long for the days of big Modified purses. Well, here’s your chance to see a large purse.Schaefer has decided that if 3,000 paying fans walk through the gates on Sunday afternoon, another $5,000 will be given to the race winner.
Unfortunately, no matter what happens on Sunday, this will be the last time this race will be held. Amazingly, a lot of negativity comes with trying to do a good thing for racers and fans. Schaefer announced on Facebook that he won’t be bringing back the Tri-Track Series (which expanded to four races this year with a race at the New London-Waterford Speedbowl in Connecticut in September) due to the negativity.Quite frankly, this writer can’t blame him one bit. He’s not a race promoter by trade. He’s not swimming in money, either. He’s a retired Long Island school teacher. He’s a fan, just like the rest of us. He just decided that as purses kept getting smaller and smaller, he wanted to find a way to get more money to the racers that he loves watching.Modified race fans are some of the most passionate race fans out there. Maybe you’re not all maniacs like James Schaefer. And that’s okay, you don’t have to be. But prove your passion. Help out the most passionate among you. Get to Lee USA Speedway on Sunday.
-By Rob Blount, Speed51.com Northeast Editor -Twitter: @RobBlount
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OSWEGO RACE OF CHAMPIONS MAY 9
Sometimes where you finish in your heat and the redraw for your starting position is of the utmost importance in short track racing. That was certainly the case during Saturday evening’s Richie Evans Memorial 75 Race of Champions Asphalt Modified Tour event at Oswego Speedway (NY).
Williamson, New York second generation driver Mike Leaty won his heat race, while some other top competitors would not even be able to move up into a top-three finishing position in order to be eligible for the redraw. Leaty drew the number-one pill, and that’s where he would stay from start to finish.
“It’s well known that this race at the beginning of the year is hard,” Leaty told Speed51.com powered by JEGS. “There’s not much outside, because there’s no rubber built up out there. The cars going around the bottom really get the inside groove really fast. Drawing the number one pill was the lucky break today.”
Leaty pointed out some similarities to his win earlier in the season at the “Steel Palace” in 2006, in which he powered by Ryan Preece early from a front row starting position and held off a charging Matt Hirschman for the win on that day.Hirschman was in the field again as well as Chemung winner Chuck Hossfeld, and former NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour champion Bobby Santos III driving a new LFR Chassis fielded by Oswego Supermodified owner and driver Ray Graham. All three were expected to move up from their starting positions in the second half of the field, but with passing opportunities only at a premium there would not be much success. Hirschman was the top finisher among the three, coming home in eighth-place.Behind Leaty, the fight of the night was for the runner-up position. Tyler Rypkema, who entered this race with a best career finish of fifth at this same event last year, held off a hungry Patrick Emerling for the spot until a late caution set up a green-white-checkered finish. Emerling would dive to the inside and take the spot coming to the white flag, allowing Tony Hanbury to follow by for the final podium position. Rypkema still salvaged a fourth-place finish, the best in his brief RoC career.“I knew the restart was going to be kind of tricky, because I knew the car was starting to fade a little bit,” the teenage Rypkema said. “If I was in the position he was in I would have done the same move. Just another racing deal, you just move on. We still had a good run, the car is in one piece, and we were very competitive so all in all it was a good night.”Rypkema now heads to his home track, Shangri-La II Motor Speedway (NY), the site of the next RoC race on Memorial Day weekend.It definitely gives us a lot of momentum,” Rypkema said. “We know how to set up a car there a little better. We know the ins and outs of the track. I have a lot more experience at the track, so all of that helps.”Emerling, also a NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour regular, matched his best career RoC finish with the daring move at the end after searching high and low for several laps.I was just working on him the whole race, and he was protecting the bottom really good,” analyzed Emerling. “You’re just going to waste your time going to the outside here. Finally I saw a hole when I saw he was kind of slow on the restarts. With my car it started off real loose and just kept on getting better and better as the run went on.”His finish completed a one-two sweep for Leaty Racing, in which both competitors were utilizing the new Troyer TA1 Modified chassis.“It was the second time out with Mike’s and the first time out with mine, and we’ve been really happy with the car and all,” Emerling said. “(Crew chief) Jan Leaty and the whole crew did a phenomenal job setting up the car.”
Mike Leaty, who has several RoC victories but has previously never won more than once throughout the course of a season, feels like the new car has helped bring his team’s performance to another level.“Troyer Race Cars has always been great to work with,” applauded Leaty. “They worked with my family and my dad for years. (Owner) Billy Colton is just a great down to earth guy. We have a great relationship.“But this racecar, I went and took it to Chemung the day before we raced. It turns; it’s unlike all the ’08 style cars I’ve ever had. I just can’t explain it. At Chemung we had a flat right rear early in the race. I was 24th or 25th and drove all the way to sixth with minimal cautions. Nobody really noticed, but I passed a lot of cars that day and I knew that if I had track position at any point in the race I could have raced with the leaders. So I was really excited to come here with the same racecar at a racetrack with a setup that Troyer recommended and here we are.”
Leaty looks forward to the schedule ahead, including an upcoming race at his home track Spencer Speedway (NY). But despite the early success in the Troyer, he will be racing another chassis for another team for the next time out.“When we go to Shangri-La II, believe it or not, we’ve got a new LFR for there,” Leaty said. “I’m going to drive for Jeff DeMinck. We’ve got really good equipment, and who knows. Things are really looking up for us.”
- By Aaron Creed, Speed51.com Pennsylvania/Central New York Editor – Twitter: @aaron_creed
Richie Evans Memorial 75 Results
1 1 25 Mike Leaty
2 4 07 Patrick Emerling
3 6 21 Tony Hanbury
4 3 32 Tyler Rypkema
5 5 34 Rusty Smith
6 7 3 Daren Scherer
7 8 51b T.J. Potrzebowski
8 14 60 Matt Hirschman
9 11 8 Bobby Holmes
10 12 69 Tommy Cloce
11 10 53 Brian Defebo
12 20 22 Chuck Hossfeld
13 24 65 George Skora III
14 9 57x Andy Jankowiak
15 26 90 Bobby Santos III
16 23 54 Tommy Catalano
17 2 45 Kevin Timmerman
18 16 51r Lee Sharpsteen
19 27 10 Daryl Lewis Jr.
20 15 11 Kirk Totten
21 22 47 Jim Storace
22 17 95 Bryan Sherwood
23 18 59 Karl Hehr
24 25 13 Jim Steffenhagen
25 21 42 Nick Pecko
26 19 64 Amy Catalano
27 13 48 Sam Fullone
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Race of Champions First Tour Race May 3, 2015
Chemung, NY…(By JR KENNERUP) When a driver redraws the worst ( 12th ) starting position in a 75 lap feature on the very competitive Race of Champions Asphalt Modified Tour, a driver knows he is going to have a long night of racing.On Sunday afternoon at the Chemung Speedrome, defending RoC Tour champion Chuck Hossfeld was in that position, but that poor starting position didn’t hamper the positive feeling that the All Metal Works / Jerry Gradl Motors sponsored team has had since last year.The Ransomville, NY driver took advantage of some racing luck throughout the entire feature distance to move from his 12th place starting position to fourth within the first ten laps of the feature. After settling into third Hossfeld let two young guns in Jimmy Zacharias and Andy Jankowiak duke it out for the feature win.With nine laps to go Zacharias retired with motor issues handing the lead to Jankowiak, but he only held if for the next five laps. Just after receiving the five to go signal Jankowiak who was battling a leaking rear end fluid problem almost spun out his car in turns one and two. This bobble by Jankowiak was all that Hossfeld needed as he scooted around Jankowiak exiting turn two to take the lead.Hossfeld then led the final four laps unchallenged to claim the win over Jankowiak, TJ Potrzebowski, Lee Sharpsteen, and Austin Kochenash.“I don’t think we had the fastest car out there today, we had a fast car and we were running third. The two young guys in front of me were racing hard for the lead and they’re both great racers. Jimmy ( Zacharias ) had a mechanical problem and that gave the lead to Andy. We got past Andy when he had a mechanical problem, we were fresh and had a good carat the end of the race. The bottom line is our car is mechanically sound and sometimes you win a race like that and sometimes you win a race by sheer driving. We’ll take a win no matter how we get them and the truth is that we have never won at Chemung. I’m proud of the team to come out right from the get go and get a win and hopefully we’ll have another great year this year like we did last year. “Jimmy Zacharias and Andy Jankowiak brought the impressive field of 28 full blown Modifieds to the green flag of starter Steve Kellogg. Zacharias jumped into the lead over Jankowiak, Brian DeFebo, Tony Hanbury, and Lee Sharpsteen.Zacharias a multi time Chemung Speedrome track champion opened up a huge lead until the first yellow was displayed on lap nine when Patrick Emerling tried to duck under DeFebo going into turn one and spun out.On the double file restart Jankowiak was able to squeeze Zacharias to the bottom of the track to take the lead with Sharpsteen now in third followed by 12th place starter Chuck Hossfeld and Austin Kochenash.Hossfeld spoke about his bad redraw numbers and his early race strategy. “ When it comes to drawing numbers, I am the worse. You have to be patient at the start and be careful, we were lucky there when Emerling tried to get past somebody and ran into the wall. We had a little racing luck on our side today as he only got into our sidebar and not into our tire when he spun in front of us. If we damaged a tire in that, our whole day would have been different because I know we wouldn’t have won with a bent wheel, a tow in problem, or had to pit to change a tire. It worked out well for us, this is what I race for a day like today as feature wins keeps me energized. “Matt Hirschman now joined in the battle for fifth as he took that spot away from Kochenash one lap later and immediately glued himself to the back bumper of Hossfeld. When Sharpsteen slipped out of the groove in turn two on lap 12 Hossfeld and Hirschman both moved past him.Meanwhile up front Zacharias with a powerful turn four inside move that got him the lead back on lap 15 and just like before when he had the lead, Jimmy Z. opened up a huge lead. Just like the movie Groundhog Day the huge lead of Zacharias would be wiped out by a yellow once again as Tommy Cloce rolled to a stop in turn four on lap 30 with brake failure.On the double file restart once again Jankowiak squeezed Zacharias to the bottom of the track to get the lead. Hirschman got past Hossfeld for third while Kochenash moved past Sharpsteen for fifth, Sharpsteen returned the favor by retaking fifth once lap later.Hirschman and Hossfeld staged their own private battle for third as they exchanged that position for three consecutive laps before Hossfeld took control of third on lap 36. Hirschman then developed a problem and he pitted during a lap 41 caution flag period in which a right front tire was changed.With 30 laps to go contact between leader Jankowiak and second place Zacharias caused third place Hossfeld to back off as he let the two kids’ race for the win. Zacharias once again made a horsepower move coming out of turn two to regain the lead on lap 48.With 15 laps to go the lead pack which consisted of Zacharias, Jankowiak, and Hossfeld entered heavy lap traffic. At almost the same time smoke started to come out of the right bank of headers on the Zacharias machine signifying a problem.Just as Zacharias received the ten to go signal his engine gave up the fight entering turn one and he lost all power and pulled into the pit area. Jankowiak now inherited the lead and immediately Hossfeld turned up the pressure on the second generation driver for the lead.Jankowiak received the five to go signal and when he entered turn one he almost spun out due to a rear end leaking grease. Hossfeld took to the outside groove to get around Jankowiak to grab the lead exiting turn two.Hossfeld only worry was a yellow which came out with a lap to which caused a green, white, checker finish. In the end it was no worry for Hossfeld as he claimed his first career Chemung Speedrome feature win over Jankowiak, Potrzebowski, Sharpsteen, and Kochenash.“I’m excited “ said Chuck. “ We get to go home with a smile on our face and get ready to go to Oswego on Saturday. “With many normal top runners of the RoC Tour experiencing trouble on this day. Hossfeld was asked if the change in weather caused a problem as the heats were contested under cloud cover while the feature was conducted under sunny skies. “The track was very green yesterday when we came to practice “ answered Chuck. “ The track took more rubber as the day went on yesterday and it took more rubber today, it did get greasy at times today. But you’re lucky with a Modified that the kind of weather change we went through today doesn’t throw that much of a wrench into it because of the wide tires. If we were running skinnier tires then there would have been a problem. “Chuck added, “This RoC Series, 28 cars, it is pretty healthy. A lot of great teams, a lot of great young drivers, I’ll tell you one thing it is not going to be a cakewalk for whoever wins the championship this year. I’m pretty excited about this deal as everyone has pretty good equipment and I think a lot of people are too, just look at the crowd that was here today, that was impressive in itself. “For Andy Jankowiak finishing second was a hard pill to swallow. “It’s just me doing things the wrong way “ said Andy. “ We got doing things in a hurry, we were putting the rear end together late one night and I didn’t have the right tool, I should have waited until the next day. It wasn’t a bad leak, it was just once in a while it would leak. When Chuck got me I thought I was going around, we straightened the thing out, it’s tough to lose one like that, I’m beating myself up right now as my guys deserve better than that. We’ll go into Oswego with a good attitude and take things from there. “Third place finisher TJ Potrzebowski was looking for longer green flag periods as his car was getting better the longer the race stayed green. “ On that long run ( laps 42 to 74 ) I could see I was reeling them in, a couple of times I caught lap cars in bad places which cost me. Really can’t complain coming from tenth, but we had a really good car during long runs today. It took me two laps after a restart and the car would take off and I thought we would be in trouble there at the end. I was hoping for some “ Chemung Luck “ where the top two would take each other out and I could get a win. This is a good way to get our deal ( with Ed McGuire ) started, as we’re in it for the long haul this year, going to chase the points and this was a good start. “Qualifying races for the 28 car field saw American Racer Tires heat wins captured by Patrick Emerling, Brian DeFebo, Matt Hirschman, and Tony Hanbury with Tommy Cloce winning the Sunoco Race Fuels / Insinger Performance Products B Main.SPEEDROME
NOTES; Over 20 RoC Modifieds were on hand for the Saturday test and tune session with Ben Reynolds the only car not returning to race on Sunday. All racing teams placed decals on their cars with a picture of former RoC driver / crew member Matt Clemens who passed away one week earlier. Matt the past few years helped Zacharias Racing and in honor of Matt they lettered up a Modified in Matt’s number 9x and it paced the feature field with Matt’s brother Chris handling the driving duties. Brandon Oltra changed his car number from 9 to 19 on this day in honor of Matt. Chris Ridsdale battled a skipping motor all day long while Rusty Smith suffered clutch problems a majority of the day. Patrick Emerling changed transmissions after hot laps as the original transmission had the backup ( rear ) gear go bad and it didn’t allow the car to be backed up. Many teams suffered punctured tires throughout the feature which derailed several good performances. Mike Leaty pitted on lap nine with a flat and came all the way back to sixth at the end while his teammate Patrick Emerling pitted twice and raced his way back to seventh in the end. Having a teammate on the RoC Tour is a big theme this year as there were six different two car teams in competition on this day. If all indicated reports stay correct a RoC Modified field of over 30 cars will be on hand at Oswego this Saturday night for the Richie Evans Memorial.
RACE REPORT RACE OF CHAMPIONS ASPHALT MODIFIED TOUR RACE #1
FINISH; Chuck Hossfeld, Andy Jankowiak, TJ Potrzebowski, Lee Sharpsteen, Austin Kochenash, Mike Leaty, Patrick Emerling, Tyler Rypkema, TJ Zacharias, Matt Hirschman, Brandon Oltra, Tony Hanbury, George Skora, III, Rusty Smith, Brian DeFebo, Roger Coss, Doug Reaume, Bryan Sherwood, Amy Catalano, Zack Curren, Kirk Totten, Nick Pecko, Jimmy Zacharias, Daren Scherer, Tommy Cloce, Tommy Catalano, Daryl Lewis, Jr., Chris Ridsdale.
PROVISIONALS; Totten, Ridsdale.
LAP LEADERS; J. Zacharias ( 1 – 9 ), Jankowiak ( 10 – 14 ), J. Zacharias ( 15 – 30 ), Jankowiak ( 31 – 47 ), J. Zacharias ( 48 – 65 ), Jankowiak ( 66 – 70 ), Hossfeld ( 71 – 75 ).
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On the Race of Champions Asphalt Modified Tour, defending champion Chuck Hossfeld seemingly can never be ruled out for the victory until the checkered flag flies. The Ransomville, New York veteran came into the season opener at Chemung Speedrome (NY) without a previous win at the 3/8-mile facility and was most likely not the fastest car in the field on Sunday afternoon.After climbing from his 12th starting spot and riding around in the third position for a majority of the 75-lap race, fate would change for the better with 10 laps remaining for Hossfeld.Front row starters after a redraw, Jimmy Zacharias and Andy Jankowiak, each took turns in the lead with Zacharias being able to stretch his advantage when out front. On lap 65, Zacharias’ machine began to show smoke and would slow.Hossfeld kept up with Jankowiak as the laps would wind down, but with four laps remaining Jankowiak would uncharacteristically slip up in the second turn allowing Hossfeld to go around the outside for the lead and eventual win.“We had two good drivers up front, Andy J. and Jimmy,” Hossfeld told Speed51.com powered by JEGS following his 24th career RoC victory. “Jimmy looked like he had a motor problem and I was able to work over Andy and put a good race on. (Jankowiak) had, I guess, a mechanical problem.“The bottom line is we won not only because we had a fast car but mechanically we were prepared and in a position to win.”Jankowiak would go on to salvage a runner up finish, but was very critical of himself post-race.“We blew a tube steel in the rear end,” Jankowiak explained. “It just stepped out on me and never gave me any warning. It’s my fault. I put that rear end together quick and I didn’t have the right tool to put the steel in. Kind of disappointed with myself; I just don’t seem to learn.”Despite the bitter end result, the Western New York driver who often ran up front with the championship contenders last season is optimistic heading into next weekend’s race.“We’re going to go into Oswego with a positive mind-frame,” Jankowiak said. “If you would have told me at the beginning of the day we were going to run second I would have been happy with it, but it sucks giving one away like that.” Perhaps the biggest heartbreak of the afternoon happened to Zacharias. The motor turned out to be the culprit leaving the Candor, New York driver shaking his head when all was said and done.“I just don’t know when it’s going to end,” said a noticeably disappointed Zacharias. “It started showing signs the first restart when Andy was outside of me. It started spitting and sputtering a little bit. He cleared me and once the momentum kicked in it showed that I was the best car today.”This was far from the first occurrence in which bad luck bit the four-time defending Chemung track champion late in an event.“Between last year and carrying over to this year it’s about probably the ninth race we should have won, and have a mechanical failure,” Zacharias said. “We had the race locked up here until the last restart last year and broke an axle. At Shangri-La we blew a rear end, at Oswego I was leading the (Race of Champions) 200 and an oil line broke; stupid stuff that sometimes is controllable and sometimes isn’t.”It was even harder to take after a difficult week for Zacharias and the entire RoC and Chemung family. Matt Clemens, a fellow racer, crew member, close family friend, and always smiling face in the pit area, passed away unexpectedly the previous Sunday.“Matt was always my right hand guy,” said an emotional Zacharias. “When nobody else could go to the races, it was just me and him. We would take four hour truck rides by ourselves. Wherever I went, he went with me whether it was to Florida or Connecticut. Whatever he had to do, if he had to work, he didn’t care. He drove all night to make sure he was at the races with me, and now it’s nowhere near the same without him today.”In a fitting tribute, Clemens’ brother Chris paced the field prior to the green flag in a Modified assembled by the Zacharias team with Matt’s familiar No. 9X on the side.It was an electric day to open the RoC and Chemung seasons, with sunny skies, close to 80 degree weather, and a full field of 28 Modifieds. “What a great weekend for racing here,” Hossfeld commented. “The series looks good and healthy with a lot of great young drivers and good cars and equipment.”
- By Aaron Creed, Speed51.com Pennsylva
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“Money” Matt Hirschman Ready For Tri Track Open Modified Series
NORTHAMPTON, Pa. — Story by Race Chaser Online New England Correspondent Kyle Souza — Crystal Snape photo –
When modified race fans think of a race that includes a big payout, one name comes to mind — Matt Hirschman.
Hirschman has competed at multiple different venues during the course of his career but had one common result — a late-race charge and a victory in a long distance and big paying race. His plans for 2015 have now started to fall in place — plans that include the Tri Track Open Modified Series.
“I have always liked the open show format and the variety of competitors that will compete,” Hirschman told Race Chaser Online. “What I like the most about the Tri-Track Series is the tracks the races are held at. I have the most fun racing a modified at quarter- to three-eighths mile short tracks.” He collected the victory at the first of the Tri Track Open Modified Series at Lee USA Speedway in 2014. “I will miss … going to Star — that was one of my best tracks — but I really liked Monadnock the two times I have been there,” Hirschman said. “The money is great too. With the lap money and other bonuses the potential is there to make money and not just for the winner.” Even though some people would think his travel distance may be too far, Hirschman takes the opportunity with open arms.
“It certainly is worth traveling for. I’m not looking to make 8 to 14 hour round trips to New England every week but I will definitely be making at least four this season.”
The Tri Track Open Modified Series is a four race series that will include races at Lee USA Speedway on May 17, Monadnock Speedway on June 13, Seekonk Speedway on July 1 and New London-Waterford Speedbowl on September 13. For more information on the Tri Track Open Modified Series visit www.tritrackopenmodifiedseries.com.
APRIL 11, 2015 Opening Night Mod 125 Win to Don Wagner
Ace’s High For Don Wagner In Mahoning Valley Speedway Opening Night Modified Gamblers Series
By DINO OBERTO
(LEHIGHTON, Pa. 4-11-15) Don Wagner got his 2015 season off to a great start by taking the victory in the opening round of the Central States Modified Gamblers Series at Mahoning Valley Speedway. The Opening Night 125 lap feature netted the Wharton, NJ veteran $5000, an Ace card and the early division point lead.Wagner waged a great duel with Zane Zeiner over the final 50 laps before grabbing the lead with 23 circuits to go and remained solid en route to his 17th career Mahoning win.“We’ve been shooting for a big race like this for a long time. It helps pay the bills. It was some good racing upfront and Zane (Zeiner) gave me room,” said Wagner. “We raced hard but we would never turn each other. I love racing with the guy.”;Kevin Rex Jr., came on strong in the final laps to earn second with Zeiner, Nevin George and 2014 track champion Kris Graver rounding out the top five.After starting eighth, Wagner was running fourth by lap 51 and keeping close tabs behind the front trio of Matt Hirschman, Eric Beers and Lou Strohl. It was right after a mid-race mandatory pit stop that Wagner got his big break. When the event restarted Beers edged into the lead over Hirschman, however, no sooner did he do so he then spun after being nudged under very tight quarters. Likewise did Hirschman and Strohl and afterwards all were relegated to the rear of the pack. Wagner averted the skirmish by quickly wheeling to the outside and was now the new race leader. “When I got up to the top five I knew I had more than those the guys ahead of me. We made the tire change at the halfway break and I don’t know if the car was as good as it was before that but we still had a good piece. Ed Flemke up at Race Works built us a great car,” said Wagner. “Circumstances did fall the way they did for us to get the lead but, we did race hard to get up there too.”;When the race went back green Wagner’s lead did not last long, however, as Eric Kocher out-raced him on the restart. Wagner would return the favor on a similar move two laps later and was now being pressured by Zeiner. Zeiner, who came from 18th on the grid, powered his way to the front at the completion of lap 74.In what was a very even matchup as the next 50 laps became a dogfight between Zeiner and Wagner. Numerous cautions also played into keeping the action close as extended green flag runs were few and far between. It wasn’t until the later laps that Wagner began clicking off his fastest times. Once he made his race winning pass Zeiner’s car began tightening up and he was unable to keep pace. “We just got super tight there in near the end and over-used the car up. When (Kevin) Rex got me there at the end I was trying to figure out what was wrong with the car and it appeared there was a brake caliper sticking and that was making it tight on early entry,” said Zeiner.“All in all we’re happy with the run. It was clean racing with Donny (Wagner). We may have bumped and banged a little but we would never take each out. I got him a little free a couple times but I let him straighten out because I just don’t want to win like that.”;In the final 10 laps Wagner held a car length advantage. At the same time Rex, as well as George, where both battling with Zeiner. Rex, made it up to second with three laps remaining but there was no catching Wagner at that point. “He (Zeiner) was strong but the longer we ran green the tighter he got. I saw him shove in the nose and I saw that he had a little too much wheel in it and I took advantage from that,” said Wagner. Heat wins for the 29 Modifieds checked went to Jimmy Zacharias, Austin Kochenash, who also led the first 14 laps of the feature and Hirschman. The split consi were annexed by Kyle Strohl and Bobby Jones.
Because of time constraints the Street Stock and Dirt Mod features were postponed and will be made up in short order.
Modified Feature Finish (125 Laps): 1. Don Wagner, 2. Kevin Rex Jr., 3. Zane Zeiner, 4. Nevin George, 5. Kris Graver, 6. Todd Baer, 7. Chip Santee, 8. Eric Beers, 9. Austin Kochenash, 10. Eric Kocher, 11. Matt Hirschman, 12. Anthony Sesely, 13. Lou Strohl, 14. Paul Frantz, 15. Pat Verwys, 16. John Markovic, 17. Mike Quinn, 18. Kyle Strohl, 19. Bobby Jones, 20. DJ Wagner, 21. Paul Hartwig, 22. Earl Paules, 23. Jimmy Zacharias DNQ: Brian DeFebo, JP Curry, Calvin Carroll, Vincent Biondilillo, Terry Markovic, Neil Rutt III
Excitement building for Mahoning Valley Speedway Opening Night
(LEHIGHTON, Pa. 4-9-15) This coming Saturday night, April 11 starting at 6:00 pm, the green flag drops to officially begin to the 2015 season at Lehighton’s Mahoning Valley Speedway and keeping in tune with previous Opening Night shows, promoter Floyd Santee will present a high paying Modified feature as the winner will pocket $5000 for going the 125 lap distance. It will be race number one in the six race Central States Modified Gamblers Series events.Late Models, Street Stocks, Dirt Mods, Pro 4s and Hobby Stocks will also be in action with regular distance feature races.100+ Modified features have become great season kickoff shows at Mahoning. The first was in 2006 with perennial Eastern Pennsylvania asphalt Modified star Brian DeFebo coming from 16th to first in claiming the $3000 victory. In 2007 New York state invader Rusty Smith beat the home track regulars and won his only Mahoning race.Lou Strohl pulled off a daring pass on Pete Brittain with two laps to go and took a stunning victory as well as the $3000 first place prize money in 2008.“The Master of Going Faster” Eric Beers, cruised out front for all 100 laps in a dominating run to open the 2009 season. The following year it was Matt Hirschman who at the time won his second career Mahoning 100-lapper and has since gone on to earn a record 11 extra distance races.In 2011 rain wiped out back-to-back tries of running 100 laps. The first race turned out to be a regular 35-lapper three weeks in but still it was still worth $3000 to winner Earl Paules who had his winnings matched by long-time sponsor John Schneider of Schneider and Sons, Inc., Scrap Medal of Allentown, making it the most money every won for a regular Modified feature.Zane Zeiner opened the Santee promoted era with his win in 2012. That too was a regular show.Mahoning’s lid-lifter in 2013 was a memorable one for then 17-year old Austin Kochenash as he won his career first Modified feature, a 50-lap main worth $2000 and then came back later in the night to claim the Late Model feature and pocket an additional $1000.Last year Beers, fresh off his title winning year of ’13, started out with another win in a long list of 100 lap Mahoning victories.And now it’s time for another go at the big cash, only this time it will be $5000, the highest amount ever offered for a Mahoning Opening Night feature and know that there will be an unbelievable field assembled. Every one of the past Opening Night winners are expected to be on hand plus many others, making this an amazing night to start off the year.Along with the host of local talent, race teams are coming in from New Jersey, New York and Connecticut.Grandstands open at 4:00 pm. Admission is $20 and no discounts for this event. Children 10 and under are free.Pits gates open at 11:00 am. There will be early paid practice from noon to 3:00 pm. Warm-ups will run from 4:00 – 5:00 followed by a mandatory drivers meeting at 5:10.Heats will begin at 6:00 pm. All drivers will pick for heat race starting spots. All feature line-ups will be heads up from the heat finishes.Additional news can be found on the track’s official site at www.mahoningvalley-speedway.com or on Facebook at Mahoning Valley Speedway and on Twitter at twitter.com/MahoningSpeed. You can also call the track hotline on race day at 570-386-4900.
Mahoning Valley Speedway Opening Night agenda set
(LEHIGHTON, Pa. 4-6-15) Mahoning Valley Speedway’s 2015 Opening Night is fast approaching and there is a high amount of excitement leading into the April 11 lid-lifter, especially after the recently held Test and Tune days that saw a preview of what’s to come as well as so many of the Mahoning faithful having to withstand a long harsh winter. Everyone is ready for racing.All indications are that the pit area will be filled solid and to better ease the day track officials have announced the tentative schedule of events and fees.Pits gates open at 11:00 am. There will be early paid practice from noon to 3:00 pm. The cost is $25 per car for early practice. Warm-ups will run from 4:00 – 5:00 followed by a mandatory drivers meeting at 5:10.Pit fees are $30 for members and $40 for non-members. Modified teams please note there is a $50 entry fee to run the Central States Modified Gamblers Series 125.Grandstands open at 4:00 pm. Admission is $20 and no discounts for this event. Children 10 and under are free.Heats will begin at 6:00 pm. All drivers will pick for heat race starting spots. Driver sign-in will take place from 3:00 – 4:15. A valid driver’s license is required when renting a transponder.All feature line-ups will be heads up from the heat finishes. The Modified feature will start 20 cars with two provisionals if needed. If no provisionals are used then the field will be 22 starters with the additional cars coming from the consi. Provisionals are awarded to the top-10 from final 2014 points.All feature qualified Modifieds must run the main with the same tires used in their heat. They can, however, change tires for the consi but must then replace with their heat run tires if they qualify for the feature. The running order will be Hobby Stocks – 20 laps, Pro 4s – 20 laps, Late Models – 25 laps, Modifieds – 125 laps, Street Stocks – 30 laps and Dirt Mods – 25 laps. Modified 125 payout is as follows: 1. $5000, 2. $2800, 3. $1800, 4. $1400, 5. $1100, 6. $1000, 7. $900, 8. $700, 9. $600, 10. $550 11 – 15. $350, 16 – 18. $325, 19 – 22. $300
Big Daddy: Matt Hirschman Still Mapping Out Racing Schedule For 2015 Season
Matt Hirschman can’t be blamed for not being quite sure just where his racing endeavors will be taking him for the 2015 season.As of right now the focus for the Northampton, Pa. driver is more on racing to change diapers rather than set a scheduleHis son, Matthew Hirschman Jr. was born on January 14.“Right now I don’t really have any set plans,” We had a baby boy last week. I knew that was coming so that was kind of the first priority of the new year. My plans aren’t set but I have a general idea of what I’m looking at and we just haven’t really got together as a group and nailed down exactly what we’re going to do.”;What Hirschman does know is that, as of now, the 2015 season will not see him returning to full-time competition on the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour.Hirschman ran the Whelen Modified Tour last year in a combination effort with team owner Wayne Darling. Hirschman started 12 of 13 events in 2015. He ran his own car for five of the events and Darling’s car for seven races.It wasn’t the first time Hirschman has done the combination plan. In 2008 he finished second in the Modified Tour standings running a collaborative effort between Darling and team owner Ed Bennett.Last year Hirschman finished 13th in the series standings after missing one event, with two top-five finishes and six top-10’s.“Doing that with Wayne again is off the table,” Hirschman said. “He decided that his interests weren’t to do any [Whelen Modified Tour] races this year. We didn’t have any type of fallout or anything like that. We got along great. It just wasn’t going to work out for him to continue doing the Tour stuff. Doing what we tried to do is tough. We did something similar years ago and had success with it, but to compete with the elite Whelen Tour teams today, I’m not sure that I’ve put myself in the best position to compete with those teams in recent years.”;Hirschman isn’t ruling out competing in select Whelen Modified Tour events in his own equipment in 2015, but he said financially it’s not the best idea.“Right now a few [Whelen Modified Tour] races are possible with my own equipment, but I’m just not sure that it makes sense financially for me to only do a partial schedule,” Hirschman said. “Without doing all the races, you’re losing out on the point fund money, there’s bonus money you’re losing and there’s been tires going to the top-15 in points. So if you don’t run the full season or put some type of partnership together like I did last year, it makes it a lot tougher financially. I’m not sure that it really makes sense for me to do that. But I’m not ruling out a few races.”;What Hirschman is committing to is running again in the Tri-Track Open Modified Series once again. The Tri-Track Series will run events this year at Lee USA Speedway in Lee, N.H. (May 17), Monadnock Speedway in Winchester, N.H. (June 13) and Seekonk (Mass.) Speedway (July 1).Hirschman was victorious in the first ever Tri-Track Series event last year at Lee USA Speedway. He has earned his nickname “Big Money Matt” for his success throughout the Northeast when the big money is on the line for Open Modified events.“I’ll definitely do those races,” Hirschman said. “That type of format is definitely where I feel I have the most fun racing, at those short track type venues where those races at. And they come with a good purse.”;Hirschman said he’ll likely fill out his schedule running ROC Tour events, select events at Mahoning Valley Speedway in Lehighton, Pa. and doing some select events in Modifieds and SK Modifieds for Connecticut team owners Rob Gallear and Bob Horn.“I don’t mind travelling to the New England states, but it is a lot more difficult towing out of where we are in Pennsyvlania to head in that direction,” Hirschman said. “We find our travels much easier and enjoyable heading into New York state. And it is nice when there’s a special race close to home, to be able to compete there. I’ve had some success right here at our closest track to home at Mahoning Valley Speedway. They have about a five special races throughout the year that range from [$3,000 to $6,000] to win and it’s only 25 minutes from home. It’s really hard to pass up events like that to go travel four or five or six hours away – a lot of times for a multi-day event – when I can do just as well, if not better, right in my backyard.“I’m definitely going to try to put myself in the best position for not only to have success but to also have fun and really enjoy it. That’s going to be my goal for the year. But I think the ROC Tour, the open shows and racing special events close to home is probably what I enjoy to do the most. If a few [Whelen Modified Tour] races fit into that schedule then great, but if it doesn’t it really won’t bother me at all.”;
Zeiner, of Bath, has not been a point racer for a number of years. George, from Kunkletown, has also stepped back from the grind of title chasing this season. Both look instead to the big shows thus they have made it a must on their calendar to be part of the high-dollar CSMGS. And while the field of weekly regulars is as tough as it gets, both veteran wheelmen proved their worth by turning in solid performances against a stout field.In the first 50, the line-up was determined after heats and a redraw. To begin the race the front row was made up of 15-year old Kyle Strohl and Eric Kocher. Strohl wasted no time in taking command while Bobby Jones quickly slipped into second. Fifth starting Zeiner was third. Under a blanket, the trio provided a thrilling display of close-knit action. Strohl was being heavily challenged by Jones while Zeiner stalked, ready to strike at any moment.After a lap nine restart Jones was able to take the lead but Strohl was not letting him gain ground as he stayed alongside. In an extended stretch of green flag laps, the battle for the lead became edge of the seat racing. Jones was showing the way but insistently Strohl was keeping stride and likewise Zeiner was hot on their heels.After laps of pressure, Strohl regained the top spot with an outside pass of lap 28. Two laps later Jones came back to the front. By this time Zeiner was no longer laying back and began his surge. He went around Strohl on lap 33 and then set sight on Jones. Zeiner was in the process to go underneath for the lead when the caution waved for debris. It would be on that restart which he would then use to make the race wining move.Strohl took second with 10 laps to go and two laps later Eric Beers joined in the battle. It was quite amazing too, watching young Strohl show no signs of intimidation while racing between a pair of well-seasoned veterans and two former Race of Champions 200 winners. “We’ll take this. We’ve been having good cars all year but just haven’t had Lady Luck on our side and I had said that once it breaks it will be a good thing and tonight it was,” said Zeiner. “We travel around to the big shows but I like to call Mahoning our home track and to come here and win is a wonderful feeling. Kyle (Strohl) drove a heck of race and Bobby (Jones) you could see that his car was tightening up but with his experience he made it work. We all had some side-by-side and a little rubbing but that’s what the fans come out for.”An invert of 11 was used to line-up the second 50 and George and Kocher shared front row honors. When the green waved to start the race George took the early lead while Kevin Rex Jr., moved to second. On the third circuit Austin Kochenash powered into third.Maintaining himself and able to control the pace, George was showing that he was going to be tough. Meanwhile Rex and Kochenash were in a dogfight for second. 14 laps in and Kochenash would finally win that battle.Afterwards Kochenash was on the rear bumper of the race leading No. 3 but despite a well-founded effort, George was the car to beat.Matt Hirschman, came into sight by lap 33, taking third but would not be able to match up with George and Kochenash as they sped to the checkers nose-to-tail. “Our focus is on these big shows here and the guys have done a great job getting us prepared,” said George, who was making just his fourth start of the season. “There’s a handful of cars that when you see them pull up alongside you have to be on your game and Austin (Kochenash) is one of those top guys here.
1st Modified Feature Finish (50 Laps): 1. Zane Zeiner, 2. Kyle Strohl, 3. Eric Beers, 4. Don Wagner, 5. Austin Kochenash, 6. Brian DeFebo, 7. Bobby Jones, 8. Kris Graver, 9. Kevin Rex Jr., 10. Eric Kocher, 11. Nevin George, 12. Todd Baer, 13. John Markovic, 14. Matt Higgins, 15. Matt Hirschman, 16. Lou Strohl, 17. Chip Santee, 18. Terry Markovic, 19. Earl Paules, 20. Calvin Carrol, 21. Paul Frantz
2nd Modified Feature Finish (50 Laps): 1. George, 2. Kochenash, 3. Hirschman, 4. Paules, 5. Kocher, 6. Baer, 7. Rex Jr., 8. Wagner, 9. Santee, 10. John Markovic, 11. Strohl, 12. Carrol, 13. Frantz, 14. Beers, 15. Terry Markovic, 16. Zeiner, 17. Strohl, 18. Jones, 19. Higgins, 20. Graver, 21. DeFebo
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7-11 Holland RoC
Patrick Emerling Had Time on His Side in RoC 100 at Holland It would be an understatement to say that certain factors played a role in Race of Champions Asphalt Modified Tour point leader Patrick Emerling’s victory in Saturday night’s annual return to Holland Motorsports Complex (NY). A timely restart in a time-shortened race brought Emerling back to victory lane.“In the race, how they changed to single file (restarts) and then counting cautions, that, I believe, helped me a little bit,” Emerling told Speed51.com powered by JEGS following his second career RoC win. “I just had some stuff figured out on restarts. We had an awesome car that rolled well. Towards the end of the race it came into our favor a little bit.”The first scheduled 100-lap feature of the 2015 season featured the first real opportunity to see pit strategy come into play, as the proverbial shuffling of the deck of competitors occurred when teams came in to take a fresh right rear tire at different times. Chuck Hossfeld jumped out to the early lead from his pole starting position before electing to come in for service at a lap 36 yellow. Emerling would follow, but for the both of them it was not the only time they would have to pit.Brian Defebo would stay out and lead a number of laps as he searched for his first career RoC victory, but 20 circuits later Hossfeld had found his way under him for the top spot once again. Nearly 20 laps after that, the complexion of the race would change as Hossfeld’s car was noticeably different forcing him to enter the pits on another occasion. He would not fully recover this time around and would finish eighth.“We made all the right decisions, but what happened was when we were leading with 30 to go, when we got the green, the car would not turn,” Hossfeld explained. “Turns out it was a right front flat, and once we put the sticker on the right front we couldn’t get any heat into it because it just took too long and I couldn’t make any progress. We really should have won and we would have been tough to beat. Bottom line is we had such a good car to drive; it was such a pleasure to drive. I was proud of everything we did. ”In the second half of the race Emerling and 2014 Holland winner Andy Jankowiak were working their way back up to the front , challenging drivers such as George Skora III and Brandon Oltra who were searching for their best ever RoC finishes. Emerling had to pit a second time earlier due to an issue with the right front.Ironically, it was Emerling’s contact with Oltra which powered him to get by Skora for the lead with less than 10 laps remaining.“What happened was we came in and got our right rear, and the pit road was so narrow that I actually bumped a wheel and pulled my right front back a little bit,” Emerling explained. “We towed it out major, so then we had to take another round and come in to get it a little bit closer. Actually a little later on I was racing with Brandon Oltra and we kind of got into each other a little bit and it seemed to knock it back in to where I liked it. I had an awesome racecar and I was confident going in. I have to thank (crew chief) Jan Leaty for that.”Jankowiak made his way to second, but with the feature being cut short due to more than one multiple-car altercation behind him it was evident that he was not satisfied with the finish.“Sometimes circumstances are just out of your control,” Jankowiak plainly stated. “Patrick ran a great race, congrats to those guys and we are in one piece and will go on to the next one.”;
Skora, a local favorite at the 3/8-mile high-banked facility, turned in a career run in third place. Despite losing the lead with only a handful of laps left, he was still all smiles after the race. The Eden, New York resident was the only driver in the field not to take on fresh rubber during the course of the race.“With the way we have been running this year, we are ecstatic with a third place,” Skora said. “To have a shot for the win and lead all the laps we did lead without taking a tire was pretty big for us. We’ve talked about it all year long that this is one stout field from first all the way back to 20th, and if you take that tire it’s not going to be easy to get back through the field. Just having the car underneath that drove good like it did was big for us, because we need the confidence going into the next couple races. If we would have gotten a tire, who knows, we could have been in one of those wrecks.” It was also the highlight of Brandon Oltra’s Modified career, climbing from a 26th starting spot after transferring in from a 10 lap consolation race earlier to finish fourth. In the pit area following the conclusion he called it “the fastest car I’ve ever driven”. Oltra’s former car owner that got him into Modified racing, Joe Kaminski, passed away recently, and it was clear that he was somewhat overcome with emotion after the stellar run the team had. After a review of what would eventually be the final lap of the race, Tommy Catalano was awarded a fifth-place finish. It was also the rookie’s best RoC run to date after climbing from the rear on two occasions.For Emerling, a driver that has never really focused on a championship before, those thoughts may be changing for him and the L2 Autosport team.“It was an awesome points night, which is great,” Emerling said. “I’m really happy we’ve got our program on track this year. We struggled a lot in past years, and we’ve just kept on getting better and better. I think we have an awesome thing going on.”;
Official R.o.C. Modified Holland Speedway Finish:
1) Patrick Emerling
2) Andy Jankowiak
3) George Skora, III
4) Brandon Oltra
5) Tommy Catalano
6) Matt Hirschman
7) Bryan Sherwood
_8) Chuck Hossfeld
9) Roger Coss
10) Tony Hanbury
11) Rick Kluth
12) Daren Scherer
13) Nick Pecko
14) Karl Hehr
15) Bobby Holmes
16) Daryl Lewis, Jr.
17) Kirk Totten
18) Jim Storace
19) Tyler Rypkema
20) Brian DeFebo
21) Tommy Cloce
22) T.J. Potrzebowski
23) Sam Fullone
24) Dave Wollaber
25) Amy Catalano
26) Mike Leaty
27) Chris Ridsdale
7-1 Seekonk Open Show
Pos. No. Driver Laps
1 99 Richard Savary 100 -$11,680 ( including $1480 in lap money, $100 CN Crown Award, $100 Seals-It
2 52 James Civali 100 -$4020 ( including $520 in lap money)
3 42 Woody Pitkat 100 - $5395 ( including $500 from Bridgewater Raynham Overhead Door and $2395 Coil Over Commander
4 12 Todd Annarummo 100 - $2000
5 3 Eric Beers 100 - $2500 ( including $1000 from Bridgewater Raynham Overhead Door
6 07 Patrick Emerling 100 -$1400
7 50 Matt Hirschman 100 -$1600 ( including $300 from Brian Sparky Denton
8 5ct Chris Pasteryak 100 -$1200
9 55 Joe Doucette 100 $1200 ( including $100 CN Crown & Diamond Hard Charger)
10 22n Chuck Hossfeld 100 $1000
11 22 Keith Rocco 100 -$950
12 28 Dwight Jarvis 100 $925
13 66 Austin Kochenash 100 $900
14 27 Andy Jankowiak 100 $875
15 92 Anthony Nocella 100 $1550( including $400 B feature lap money and $300 Coil Over Commander gift cert.
16 6 Ryan Preece 100 $800
17 9 Tommy Barrett, Jr. 99 $800
18 04 Brandon Dion 99 $800
19 53 Norm Wrenn 99 $800
20 89 Matt Swanson 99 $800
21 179 Jeff Rocco 97 $800
22 80 Dick Houlihan 96 $800
23 31 Steve Masse 74 $1400 ( including $300 from Brian Sparky Denton and
$300 from Masse's Modified Maniacs (Matthew Gilbert, Marty Griffin, Jessica Bradley, & Tanya Judkins)
24 05 Todd Patnode 72 $800
25 76 Zane Zeiner 72 $800
26 20 Doug Coby 72 $800
27 7ma Kurt Vigeant 37 $800
B feature payouts - Perry $700, Meservey $600, Fournier $500, Gallup $400, and $300 to McKennedy, Fredrickson, Grubisa, Dolan, Medrerios, Richardi, Zacharias, Dupuis,, Summers, Benevides, and K. James. $600 to Chapin ( including Hard luck award of $300) Holdridge ended up with $400 as he also got $100 from lap leader money.
Total payout $53,895
June 25 Lancaster RoC - 2nd
It was a Thursday night to be remembered in Lancaster, New York. Defending Race of Champions Asphalt Modified Tour titlist Chuck Hossfeld held off some fierce competition in front of numerous fans for his second win of the season. It was a gratifying win for the Ransomville, New York driver in many ways.“First of all, it’s good to see Lancaster on the upswing,” Hossfeld told Speed51.com powered by JEGS after the Ol’ Boy Cup 60-lap race victory. “To see the new pavement, the grass cut, new stands and a packed house on Thursday night was great.”;This was the first RoC show at Lancaster National Speedway since last year’s U.S. Open, and the improvements that have been made by new General Manager Melissa McGowan and team were noticeable.This was the inaugural running of the Ol’ Boy Cup, a 60 lap sprint in memory of Bill Colton, who was known, among many things, for innovating the soft Styrofoam-type walls to the 5/8-mile high speed facility in the early 1990s that later were introduced at other area tracks. They were in place yet again on this night and did come in handy during a heat race when Bobby Holmes’ car did not turn going into one and went straight into the wall. Holmes would be okay and his car would recover to finish sixth in the feature.Colton’s son Billy, the owner of Troyer Race Cars, and family were in victory lane with Hossfeld.“To win for Bill Colton Sr., who was a great friend of mine, I don’t know if everyone would know the story but he helped get me racing,” Hossfeld mentioned. “I still have sponsors today that he introduced me to. He was just a great friend of mine, as he was to a lot of racers.”;Despite setting the pace for the entire distance, Hossfeld would still have pressure from some of the usual RoC suspects. The redraw put him on the outside front row with fellow Western New Yorker Andy Jankowiak on the inside. Hossfeld would initially make the outside line stick on the fresh pavement out of the corner and would gain the lead. Jankowiak filed into second, but was forced to pit during a caution and had to make a valiant run the remainder of the race. It would not be enough as he would finish in fourth.Jankowiak was rather critical of himself after the race, which was not the first time this season that he was left feeling this way.“The radiator overflow hose fell off; I forgot to tighten it,” Jankowiak stated. “Just a steady consistency of beating ourselves, it’s really discouraging. Third time this year in RoC we’ve been running awesome in front of Chuck or Matt and just something broke.”;A late caution bunched the field with a hard charging Jankowiak as well as multiple-time RoC champion Matt Hirschman to contend with. Despite the shortest race distance of the year for the Tour, Hirschman had appeared to save his Modified for the end as he consistently does. He gave Hossfeld a challenge, but still did not have enough in the remaining laps.“I just steadily moved forward right from the start, and put ourselves in a position to contend,” Hirschman recapped. “We kind of made a run at it and gave it our best try. I was right there with them, but not enough to make a serious challenge.”;Hirschman was coming fresh off a win in the Tri-Track Challenge Series open show at Monadnock Speedway (NH), but has still yet to enter victory lane in RoC in 2015. He still feels optimistic with how the team has improved.“From where we started the season to where we are now we’re making progress,” Hirschman said. “We’re back to where the last three times I raced we were in a position to win, and like Monadnock sometimes that’s all you need to be is in position. We still have a little bit of work to do. We’re getting close, but we need to be one spot better.”;Hossfeld agreed that it was not an easy feat, but admitted that he had confidence in his equipment.“We had a great car,” Hossfeld said. “We had pressure from one of the best in the business in the closing laps. I knew when (Hirschman) started eighth that he would probably conserve a little bit, and running with Andy J and Tony Hanbury I did what I had to do. It was a great night for us.”;
While next up for the RoC Tour is Holland Speedway (NY) in two weeks, Hossfeld and team have added one more race to their 2015 schedule before then.“We were having so many rain outs that I don’t want to get rusty,” Hossfeld explained. “When it feels like we have such a great team and we’re not racing, we decided to go to Seekonk so hopefully we have a good run there. I did win a (NASCAR Whelen Modified) Tour race with Bob Garbarino there and had some good runs. I think we’ll be prepared and have a good showing.”;In addition to Hossfeld, Hirschman and Jankowiak are expected to compete in next week’s Seekonk Speedway (MA) Modified Madness show for the Tri-Track Open Modified Series.
- By Aaron Creed, Speed51.com Pennsylvania/Central New York Editor - Twitter: @aaron_creed
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When Chuck Hossfeld of Ransomville, NY made his first foray into stock car racing after some successful years in go-karts, one of his biggest supporters was the late Bill Colton, Jr. Hossfeld spent a season wheeling a Street Stock before graduating to the Modifieds at Lancaster National Speedway, and Colton was there to mentor and support the future champion.
Hossfeld got to pay tribute to his fallen friend on Thursday night at Lancaster as he captured the inaugural edition of the “Ol’ Boy” Cup Bill Colton Memorial 60 presented by Quaker Steak & Lube Race of Champions Modified Tour event.Hossfeld led nearly every lap of the race after starting from the outside pole position. Matt Hirschman finished second followed by Patrick Emerling, Andy Jankowiak and Jimmy Zacharias.Jankowiak led the field to the initial green flag with Hossfeld to his outside. The pair traded the lead back and forth during the opening laps until Hossfeld took control for good on lap four. Jankowiak remained glued to Hossfeld’s back bumper until the caution flag flew for the fourth time of the night on lap 16. It was during the caution period that Jankowiak gave up the runner-up spot to make a pit stop.This handed second place to Tony Hanbury in the Kurzejewski Racing #21, who had quickly moved up from the tenth starting position. Hanbury, the defending winner of the U.S. Open, looked poised to give Hossfeld a run for the top spot until contact with TJ Potrzebowski on lap 33 sent him spinning in turn two.Hanbury’s trouble moved Hirschman into second place followed by Emerling and Zacharias. The stage appeared to be set for another chapter in the storied rivalry between Hossfeld and Hirschman, but Hossfeld slowly pulled away from the field as the race entered its final stages.The one person on the race track that appeared to be faster than Hossfeld in the closing laps was Jankowiak. He had worked his way back through the field following his pit stop, and was in fourth place when the yellow flag flew for the final time on lap 51 for a spin by Bryan Sherwood.
Jankowiak’s comeback effort ran out of steam, however, after the final restart as the handling of the car appeared to have gone away.Hossfeld ran the final laps unopposed as he cruised to the win for his second Race of Champions Modified Tour victory of 2015.“Bill Colton (Jr.) was just a friend to auto racing and great friend to myself personally,” said Hossfeld. “I still have sponsors he helped me to get years and years ago, and without him I wouldn’t be racing.”;
SUNOCO RACE OF CHAMPIONS MODIFIED TOUR
Heat Winners: Rusty Smith, Mike Leaty, Matt Hirschman, Andy Jankowiak
“Ol’ Boy” Cup 60 presented by Quaker Steak & Lube Finish: CHUCK HOSSFELD, Matt Hirschman, Patrick Emerling, Andy Jankowiak, Jimmy Zacharias, Bobby Holmes, Rusty Smith, Daren Scherer, Tony Hanbury, Mike Leaty, Tyler Rypkema, Tommy Cloce, George Skora III, Roger Coss, Amy Catalano, TJ Potrzebowski, Bryan Sherwood, Jim Storace, Kirk Totten, Karl Hehr, TJ Zacharias, Tommy Catalano, Donny Hartzell, Chris Ridsdale, Dave Rigan, Todd Lorenzo, Sam Fullone, Daryl Lewis, Jr.
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Hirschman Wins Tri-Track Series at Monadnock - All About Right Place, Right Time Pass
Matt Hirschman was in the right place at the right time as he made the pass with five laps to go and won the NorthEast Race Cars and Parts Tri-Track Open Modified Series Riverside Reunion 100 at the Monadnock Speedway in Winchester, New Hampshire on Saturday night. Matt Hirschman celebreates winning the Riverside Reunion 100. Image Courtesy: Matt WiernaszMatt Hirschman celebreates winning the Riverside Reunion 100. The Northampton, Pennsylvania driver took advantage of some hard racing late in the event between leader #42 Woody Pitkat and second place #5 Chris Pasteryak, who was making a bid for the lead. Hirschman was in third at the time and drove under the pair after they went way up the race track off turn 2 on lap 95. Pitkat started from the outside pole and led the race from lap five to the 95th circuit, never pitting while out front. In victory lane Hirschman told 22News, “You’re not really expecting to win at that point. You’re looking at maybe a third, fighting for second. The 42 (Pitkat) did not pit for a tire, had an excellent race car tonight. If we didn’t get all those cautions he probably would have won. It’s 100 laps. I just tried to keep myself in position, and was in the right place there. Those two came together, I just cut it as hard to the left as I could, and held it to the floor. I didn’t know if they wrecked. I didn’t know if there was going to be a caution. I just tried to run away. We were one corner from finishing and then a caution came out. I had to do a few more restarts. It was hard earned. We really worked hard for it.”; Hirschman’s payday was $6,000 including lap money and bonus money. Following Hirschman to the checkered flag were Steve Masse, Mike Holdridge, Zane Zeiner, and Todd Patnode. Rounding out the top 10 were Anthony Nocella, Andy Jankowiak, Ryan Preece, Doug Coby (driving the Rick Czarnecki #20), and Todd Annarummo. The Cinderella story of the night belonged to Mike Holdridge. After failing to qualify through his heat and consolation races, he won the B Main, a non-qualifiers race for the eight cars that didn’t make the big show. Then came a game show moment: take a $1,000 and quit for the night or decline the loot and move up to the main event. Holdridge told the Monadnock crowd, “I’m here to race so I’m going to go racing!” By finishing third, he collected $2,600 which was more than two and a half times better than the $1,000 sure thing. But there was little on the plus side for Chris Pasteryak, who let his anger and frustration flow on the team radio after the incident with Pitkat. Pasteryak won the first Tri-Track Series race of the season in May at the Lee USA Speedway in New Hampshire. The Tri-Track Series attracts drivers from the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour, the Valenti Modified Racing Series, Race of Champions, as well as talented racers from weekly tracks. While the series tallies points it can still be a night off from chasing points where you race. So is the appeal of Tri-Track the competition or the money? Rowan Pennink runs the NWMT and is a champion in the VMRS. He told 22News, “We just come to all the races, put in our best effort, and don’t really worry about points. We try to get the best finishes we can, and try to win races too. I always run as hard as I can no matter what I’m driving. With it paying some lap money we might try to get up there a little bit faster than we would normally, and see if we can lead some laps and win some big money at the end of the day.”; For 16 year old Spencer Davis of Dawsonville, Georgia, Saturday was his first time racing at Monadnock. Davis drives for Hillbilly Racing, owned by the Hill family, based in Westfield, North Carolina. They raced last Wednesday night in the NWMT at Thompson Speedway Motorsports Park. With some hospitality from mod tour and Riverside alum Chris Kopec, the team stayed in Western Massachusetts and prepared the #79 for the Tri-Track show. Davis talked about the competition, the money, and an opportunity to prepare for running the NWMT at Monadnock in July as factors that made Saturday night special. “All the competition that’s here, all the cars that come, and the payout’s a big factor here, Definitely you can win a lot more than you can on the tour, so that’s definitely a plus. We’re already up here and we run a tour race here later in the year, so it’d be a no brainer to come here and race.”,
Matt Hirschman would come to the checkered flag to win the Riverside Reunion 100 Northeast Race Cars And Parts Tri Track Open Modified Series event.
An exciting evening of racing took place at Monadnock Speedway on Saturday, June 13, and when it was all over, it was Matt Hirschman taking down the win and the $6000 that came with it.Woody Pitkat was the dominant driver on the night leading over 90 laps but with just a few laps to go, it looked like Chris Pasteryak was set to pass him on the outside and take down his second consecutive Tri Track win. However, those two would tangle, leaving the bottom open for Hirschman, and with it, the lead. Hirschman, forced to run the consi, started 22nd on the night.Steve Masse, who started 10th, ran a strong race all night long. His second place earned him $3600 and moved him to the lead in the money won column for the first two races - With the $4400 he took home at Lee, his total for two races is $8000.But maybe the story of the night was Mike Holdridge. Coming back from Lee with a wrecked car, they managed to put it together, and after not qualifying via the heat race or consi, was forced to run the B feature. He went on to lead all 25 laps and take home the $1000 win. Where many assumed he would take the money and run, he handed back the money and decided to start at the rear of the field in the feature. His finish of 3rd was, without a doubt , many fans favorite performance of the night. He was rewarded with $2600 for this outstanding run.
Final running order and money won 1- Matt Hirschman - $6000 2- Steve Masse - $3600 3- Mike Holdridge - $2600 4- Zane Zeiner - $2050 5- Patnode - $1500 6- Nocella - $1400 7- Jankowiak - $1600 8- Preece - $1200 9- Coby - $1100 10 Annarummo - $1000 11 Savary - $975 12 Perry - $950 ?13 Pasteryak - $925 14 Davis - $2959.14 15 Pitkat - $3075 16 LeClerc - $850 17 Seuss - $825 18 Jarvis - $1400 19 Szegedy - $860 20 Wrenn - $800 21 Pennink - $800 22 Dolan - $800 23 Vigeant - $800 24 Douglas - $1500 25 Berndt - $800 26 Murphy - $800 27 Grubisa - $1000 28 Hersey - $800
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Shangri-La II Speedway - MAY 24 - 2nd
Patrick Emerling has competed in a Tour-Type Modified since 2010. Along the way he has recorded multiple top-five finishes and led a number of laps. But despite all of those results and close calls, a win was still missing from the Orchard Park, New York driver’s list of accomplishments.That all changed on Sunday afternoon at Shangri-La II Motor Speedway (NY) in the Race of Champions Asphalt Modified Tour’s third race of 2015. Emerling’s Leaty Racing machine was fastest out of the box in practice, finished a strong second in his heat race, redrew to start on the outside pole, and jumped out to the early advantage in the 75-lap feature.For the second half of the race, Emerling had two of the best in the business to keep behind him. Champions Chuck Hossfeld and Matt Hirschman proved no match for him on this afternoon with the strong performance and the team’s setup for the half-mile concrete oval. It was also his first win with their new Troyer TA1 chassis, which debuted with a runner-up finish the last time out at Oswego Speedway.“It was definitely the best car I ever had here,” Emerling told Speed51.com powered by JEGS. “Ever since we unloaded off the truck this car has been absolutely stellar. Me and Jan (Leaty) have been working together with the setup and showing up with a faster car. It has been showing; we’ve been putting so much thought into it and working real hard, especially Jan.”Equally as rewarding to Emerling was the fact that he had to outrun two drivers that have combined for the last six RoC championships.“I’ve been trying to catch them for years,” Emerling said. “They are as good as it gets, so to finally be faster than them it just feels excellent. I have so much respect for them guys, and to keep out ahead of them feels great.”Hirschman and Hossfeld were involved in quite the hard fought battle for the second position in the closing laps. Hossfeld worked Hirschman over in several attempts to gain the position, but the Northampton, Pennsylvania driver successfully held off the Ransomville, New York racer for his best finish of the 2015 season.“For us it’s been a pretty poor start to the season, probably the worst that I can remember in a long time,” Hirschman stated. “It’s really a good boost today just to have a good run. We just haven’t been performing the way we need to. That’s not to take away anything from the Leaty group with two back to back wins.”Tony Hanbury backed up a Sportsman Modified victory the previous day at the track to finish fourth. Jimmy Zacharias overcame a hurt right ankle after a mishap working on his car in the pits prior to the green flag to round out the top-five.The middle of the race was marred by a multiple-car wreck that began in turn four and concluded past the start-finish line coming to complete lap 30. Tommy Catalano suffered the hardest hit after advancing into the top 10, and was taken to a nearby hospital for further evaluation. The Ontario, New York rookie driver in the series posted on social media Sunday night that the doctor said he sustained cracked ribs, a damaged lung, and a concussion as a result of the impact.
Also involved in the incident was the points leader heading into the event, Oswego winner Mike Leaty. Miraculously, he was able to drive the new LFR chassis he was piloting for car owner Jeff DeMinck away after track crews detached it from some of the other cars involved, and continued on for a top-10 finish.“My front bumper is perfect, but I was somehow shoved up in the air and on top of people,” Leaty explained about the accident. “I knew I really didn’t hit anything that hard. I just kind of pirouetted along tops of racecars and came to a stop. We had to change the left front brake caliper because the bleeder got knocked off it, so we changed the caliper and away we went again. My crew did awesome and I made my way back up through. We got eighth instead of about 25th by going back out.”Leaty will be back in his team’s Troyer that won Oswego at the next race, his home track at Spencer Speedway (NY), before bringing the LFR out for some more track time at Lancaster National Speedway (NY) at the end of June.What was most satisfying for Leaty on this day was seeing his teammate Emerling get the victory. The two have teamed up the last few years to help them prepare their cars for races on both the RoC and NASCAR Whelen Modified Tours.“I’m just as happy that he won as if I would have won the race,” Leaty said. “That whole family, they work their butt off. They have been in this sport for years now. We maintain their car in our shop, and we put just as much time on that thing as we do with my cars. He’s a really good kid, and the first one is the hardest to get and I really think you could see a lot more out of him.”The next race presents an interesting conflict for Emerling and crew. Over the past four years Emerling has concentrated more on the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour, but with the Stafford Motor Speedway (CT) and Spencer races falling on the same day they will have to choose one or the other.“Right now we’re leading the points in the RoC, I believe, so it’s hard to say at this point,” Emerling said. “I’ve never ran for a championship ever. Since we’re in position here we might have a pretty tough decision to make.”No matter the decision, at this moment there is a different team and a different group of drivers on top of their game on the Race of Champions Tour.
- By Aaron Creed, Speed51.com Pennsylvania/Central New York Editor – Twitter: @aaron_creed
- Photo credit:
RoC Modifieds 75 Results
Shangri-La II Speedway – May 24, 2015
1 2 07 Patrick Emerling 75
2 3 60 Matt Hirschman 75
3 8 22 Chuck Hossfeld 75
4 9 21 Tony Hanbury 75
5 12 71 Jimmy Zacharias 75
6 5 8 Bobby Holmes 75
7 4 27 Andy Jankowiak 75
8 18 1L Mike Leaty 75
9 10 65 George Skora III 75
10 23 47 Jim Storace 75
11 16 34 Rusty Smith 75
12 29 69 Tommy Cloce 75
13 21 53 Brian Defebo 75
14 22 19 Brandon Oltra 75
15 1 51b T.J. Potrzebowski 74
16 20 95 Bryan Sherwood 74
17 7 42 Nick Pecko 74
18 6 11 Kirk Totten 74
19 26 64 Amy Catalano 73
20 27 1 Chris Risdale 73
21 19 94 Zack Curren 66
22 13 32 Tyler Rypkema 44
23 17 51r Lee Sharpsteen 42
24 14 3 Daren Scherer 30
25 11 66 Austin Kochenash 30
26 15 54 Tommy Catalano 30
27 24 59 Karl Hehr 29
28 30 17c Roger Coss 27
29 28 17 Ken Canestrari 20
30 25 9x TJ Zacharias 16
Thirty Modifieds packed the pits as the Sunoco Race Of Champions Tour rolled into the Shangri-La Motorsports Complex Sunday afternoon, and when the checkered flag flew, it was Patrick Emerling smiling in Victory Lane, taking his first win in a R.O.C. Tour main event. R.J. Zacharias took home the gold in the Street Stock feature and Matt Kurjewski topped the INEX Legends show. Emerling hit the track for practice on Saturday night during the first half of the special weekend at the concrete half mile, and it paid off, as the car and driver were at the top of their game right from the moment they rolled off the trailer Sunday. He set fast time during practice, ran second in his qualifying heat, and drew outside pole for the 75 lap feature. From then on everyone else spent their afternoon trying to catch the #07. Andy Jankowiak powered into the runnerup spot as Matt Hirschman, T.J. Potrzebowski, and Bobby Holmes gave chase. A quick yellow on lap 28 bunched the field, and two laps after the restart disaster struck. Tommy Catalano, who had moved into the top ten after starting fifteenth, slid up out of the groove in turn four and made heavy contact with the wall. The ensuing melee collected Austin Kochenash, Daren Scherer, Mike Leaty and Bryan Sherwood, with a number of other drivers having incidental contact as they attempted to avoid the accident. All drivers were treated on site and released, but the incident created an extended red flag period for track cleanup. On the restart, Jankowiak got shuffled to the outside, and slid back in the pack and Hirshman took over the second spot. The next five or six positions were closely contested over the next few laps. Chuck Hossfeld recorded the fastest lap of the race just past the halfway point as he batled his way to the third spot and began to close in on Hirschman. A couple of cautions grouped the leaders in the closing laps, but Emerling pulled away on each restart. Hossfeld kept the pressure on Hirschman, but could never quite get alongside and had to settle for third at the finish. Tony Hanbury delivered a solid performance coming home in the fourth spot, but one of the big stories at the finish was Jimmy Zacharias. Jimmy was injured earlier while preparing his car for the feature and had to be helped into the car. He hung around in the bottom half of the top ten for much of the race, but as the laps wound down he went to the outside and put on a driving clinic, running the ragged edge and moving up the order. He was unable to complete the pass on Hanbury through many tries and had to settle for fifth.
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TRI TRACK : LEE SPEEDWAY MAY 17 : 28
Chris Pasteryak didn’t want to sit home and watch piles of snow build up on his lawn this past winter. He wanted to go racing, so that’s what he did. Pasteryak and his Connecticut-based team loaded up his No. 5 Troyer Modified and headed south to compete in a pair of KOMA Unwind Modified Madness Series events in North Carolina. That experience racing at Ace Speedway and Hickory Motor Speedway was an experience that paid off Sunday afternoon in New Hampshire.Pasteryak rocketed to the lead on lap 90 and survived a late restart to win the 2nd Annual Tri-Track Open Modified Series Bullring Bash at Lee USA Speedway (NH).
“Going down there definitely paid off today,” Pasteryak told Speed51.com powered by JEGS. “We came here, unloaded and the car wasn’t great. I just said, ‘What did we have at Hickory?’ I put exactly what we ended up with at Hickory (NC) in the car here today and it worked really good in the race.”In a race that rewarded the conservation of tires, as well as the knowledge of the right time to shift it into high gear, Pasteryak played it perfect. Starting from the fifth spot, the Lisbon, Connecticut native conserved his tires early on while others set a torrid pace up front. He began to turn it on near the halfway point of the race and made his charge to the front. When early leader Steve Masse slipped and nearly made contact with the outside wall with 10 laps to go, Pasteryak pounced on his opportunity.“What is in my head is that I lost a couple of races to Tommy Barrett like this,” Pasteryak said when asked about his strategy in a race like this. “I lost a couple of races to Matt Hirschman like this. I lost races to guys like that. When it comes time to go with 20 laps to go, now you’re in a track position game. Now if you pit, you’re coming in before everybody else and you’re taking tires. The race worked out perfect for me to win. Had it gone different, it might not of.”Once he took over the top spot, the 34-year-old Modified pilot set sail until the second and final caution of the event occurred with just three laps remaining. The caution set up a restart that would see Woody Pitkat to his outside and Todd Annarummo behind him. That wouldn’t be enough to stop Pasteryak on this day, however. A great restart allowed Pasteryak to clear the rest of the field into turn one, and he never looked back from there.“I would’ve much rather not had the restart,” Pasteryak said with a laugh. “But the car was good and it was easy on the rear tires the whole run. The car took off and I was actually kind of shocked it too off as good as it did. It was like I was worried about nothing.”Annarummo made a late race charge to get by Pitkat and claim runner-up honors. Pitkat, who led a number of laps early on, finished third after setting a torrid pace early on.“I didn’t really push it, I kind of wanted to get a good jump the first five laps and kind of slow it down and maintain,” said Pitkat. “I think Masse was just kind of doing what I did. We got the tail end of the field and we were lucky we didn’t get crashed. After that I just wanted to set my own pace and get some lap money.“I think if I could have gotten in front of him (Masse) for the lead before Pasteryak got him then maybe that would have been a little harder, but Chris had a good car. Some of those lapped cars, I don’t know what they were doing. I’ll remember that for the Tour race, some of those guys that I race with.”Defending NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour champion Andy Seuss returned to his home state of New Hampshire on Sunday and finished fourth. Anthony Nocella rounded out the top-five after making a strong charge towards the front late in the race.For his win on Sunday, Pasteryak will be able to cash a paycheck well over $5,000 after lap leader money is factored in. Although the money is nice, he admitted that it’s not why he comes to the race track.“It always helps (the prize money), but we’re not lacking for anything to be brutally honest,” said Pasteryak. “We have as good of stuff as the next guy. We don’t run NASCAR because we like coming and running these races.”Prior to his win on Sunday, Pasteryak’s last win in Tour-Type Modified competition was a Valenti Modified Racing Series win at Stafford Motor Speedway (CT) on September 9, 2011. The two-time VMRS champion was very happy to end his winless streak with a win in a high profile race such as the Bullring Bash.
“This is one heck of a confidence builder and a great way to break the streak.”-By Brandon Paul, Speed51.com Editor – Twitter: @Brandon_Paul51
Chris Pasteryak ($5640)
Todd Annarummo ($3000)
Woody Pitkat ($2960)
Andy Suess ($2000)
Anthony Nocella ($1500)
Richard Savary ($1400)
Norman Wrenn III ($1300)
Todd Szegedy ($1200)
Todd Patnode ($2500)
Ryan Preece ($1000)
Rowan Pennink ($1000)
Branden Bock ($1000)
Dwight Jarvis ($1300)
Steve Masse ($4400)
Mike Douglas Jr. ($1000)
Andy Jankowiak ($1300)
Zane Zeiner ($1200)
Jon McKennedy ($1000)
Kirk Alexander ($1000)
Doug Coby ($1000)
Garrison Grubisa ($1000)
David Sapienza ($1000)
Kirk Vigeant ($1000)
Carl Mederios Jr. ($1000)
Spencer Davis ($1800)
Dennis Perry ($1000)
McKeage ($1000)
Matt Hirschman ($1300)
EDITOR’S NOTE: 51’s X-Factor is a new feature on Speed51.com that features opinions from 51 columnists on racing’s hottest topics. Rob Blount, the author of this editorial, is the Northeast Editor for Speed51.com. The views which are expressed in the following column are his own and not necessarily the views of Speed51.com and/or its partners.)There are few, if any, race fans who have the passion for short track racing that New York native James Schaefer has. The man known as the ‘Long Island Modified Maniac’ has been doing fundraising for the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour events at Riverhead Raceway (NY) for quite a few years to raise bonus money for drivers electing to compete in the Tour’s two events at the Long Island bullring.A year ago, Schaefer had an idea and he decided to take his fundraising efforts a step further.He helped start the Tri-Track Open Modified Series in an effort to help the purses at the Seekonk Speedway (MA) and Star Speedway (NH) already-established open shows. He and Dick Williams added a third race of their own, one at Lee USA Speedway (NH) in an effort to give teams another opportunity to race for big money and give fans the opportunity to have some more fun.All signs indicated that the Bullring Bash at Lee would be a race that many fans and teams would want to attend. Over 40 teams promised that they’d attempt to race for the $5,000 winner’s purse, but only 35 actually showed up. Still a strong field, but not what was expected, and honestly not what Schaefer deserved.Schaefer busted his tail to try to spread the word about the event to as many race fans as possible, but only about 1,500 people walked through the gates. Unfortunately, that wasn’t much of a surprise. The race took place on Mother’s Day, and many cited that as the reason why they didn’t go, racers included.This year, Schaefer learned his scheduling lesson. The race is not on Mother’s Day, which just passed. It’s this Sunday afternoon, May 17. Now, there’s absolutely no reason to not get out and support the event.Talking from a racer’s perspective, this is a great race to attend. The winner will receive $5,000 in guaranteed money. With all of the lap bonuses available, there’s a chance that the winner could receive an additional $4,000.From a fan’s perspective, it’s a great day of racing. $25 gets you through the door to see the Modifieds, North East Mini Stock Tour, and the inaugural North East Street Stock Tour race, plus heat races for each division. The Mini Stocks will run a 50-lap feature and the Street Stocks will run 35 laps. There’s also a B-Main for the Modifieds that will pay out an unheard of $1,000 to the winner.This year the preliminary entry list boasts over 45 teams. Even if they all don’t show up, it will still be one of the largest and most talented fields of Tour-Type Modifieds seen all year long anywhere in the country.Some of the best drivers in the Northeast will be there, like Doug Coby (Two-time NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour champion), Ryan Preece (2013 NWMT champion), Matt Hirschman (defending Bullring Bash winner), Woody Pitkat, Jon McKennedy, and even Andy Seuss (defending NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour champion) who will be travelling up from North Carolina to run this race.It’s almost impossible to say that this day won’t be worth the price of admission.There’s also a bit of an added incentive for the fans to come out. For the last few years, many fans have said that they long for the days of big Modified purses. Well, here’s your chance to see a large purse.Schaefer has decided that if 3,000 paying fans walk through the gates on Sunday afternoon, another $5,000 will be given to the race winner.
Unfortunately, no matter what happens on Sunday, this will be the last time this race will be held. Amazingly, a lot of negativity comes with trying to do a good thing for racers and fans. Schaefer announced on Facebook that he won’t be bringing back the Tri-Track Series (which expanded to four races this year with a race at the New London-Waterford Speedbowl in Connecticut in September) due to the negativity.Quite frankly, this writer can’t blame him one bit. He’s not a race promoter by trade. He’s not swimming in money, either. He’s a retired Long Island school teacher. He’s a fan, just like the rest of us. He just decided that as purses kept getting smaller and smaller, he wanted to find a way to get more money to the racers that he loves watching.Modified race fans are some of the most passionate race fans out there. Maybe you’re not all maniacs like James Schaefer. And that’s okay, you don’t have to be. But prove your passion. Help out the most passionate among you. Get to Lee USA Speedway on Sunday.
-By Rob Blount, Speed51.com Northeast Editor -Twitter: @RobBlount
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OSWEGO RACE OF CHAMPIONS MAY 9
Sometimes where you finish in your heat and the redraw for your starting position is of the utmost importance in short track racing. That was certainly the case during Saturday evening’s Richie Evans Memorial 75 Race of Champions Asphalt Modified Tour event at Oswego Speedway (NY).
Williamson, New York second generation driver Mike Leaty won his heat race, while some other top competitors would not even be able to move up into a top-three finishing position in order to be eligible for the redraw. Leaty drew the number-one pill, and that’s where he would stay from start to finish.
“It’s well known that this race at the beginning of the year is hard,” Leaty told Speed51.com powered by JEGS. “There’s not much outside, because there’s no rubber built up out there. The cars going around the bottom really get the inside groove really fast. Drawing the number one pill was the lucky break today.”
Leaty pointed out some similarities to his win earlier in the season at the “Steel Palace” in 2006, in which he powered by Ryan Preece early from a front row starting position and held off a charging Matt Hirschman for the win on that day.Hirschman was in the field again as well as Chemung winner Chuck Hossfeld, and former NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour champion Bobby Santos III driving a new LFR Chassis fielded by Oswego Supermodified owner and driver Ray Graham. All three were expected to move up from their starting positions in the second half of the field, but with passing opportunities only at a premium there would not be much success. Hirschman was the top finisher among the three, coming home in eighth-place.Behind Leaty, the fight of the night was for the runner-up position. Tyler Rypkema, who entered this race with a best career finish of fifth at this same event last year, held off a hungry Patrick Emerling for the spot until a late caution set up a green-white-checkered finish. Emerling would dive to the inside and take the spot coming to the white flag, allowing Tony Hanbury to follow by for the final podium position. Rypkema still salvaged a fourth-place finish, the best in his brief RoC career.“I knew the restart was going to be kind of tricky, because I knew the car was starting to fade a little bit,” the teenage Rypkema said. “If I was in the position he was in I would have done the same move. Just another racing deal, you just move on. We still had a good run, the car is in one piece, and we were very competitive so all in all it was a good night.”Rypkema now heads to his home track, Shangri-La II Motor Speedway (NY), the site of the next RoC race on Memorial Day weekend.It definitely gives us a lot of momentum,” Rypkema said. “We know how to set up a car there a little better. We know the ins and outs of the track. I have a lot more experience at the track, so all of that helps.”Emerling, also a NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour regular, matched his best career RoC finish with the daring move at the end after searching high and low for several laps.I was just working on him the whole race, and he was protecting the bottom really good,” analyzed Emerling. “You’re just going to waste your time going to the outside here. Finally I saw a hole when I saw he was kind of slow on the restarts. With my car it started off real loose and just kept on getting better and better as the run went on.”His finish completed a one-two sweep for Leaty Racing, in which both competitors were utilizing the new Troyer TA1 Modified chassis.“It was the second time out with Mike’s and the first time out with mine, and we’ve been really happy with the car and all,” Emerling said. “(Crew chief) Jan Leaty and the whole crew did a phenomenal job setting up the car.”
Mike Leaty, who has several RoC victories but has previously never won more than once throughout the course of a season, feels like the new car has helped bring his team’s performance to another level.“Troyer Race Cars has always been great to work with,” applauded Leaty. “They worked with my family and my dad for years. (Owner) Billy Colton is just a great down to earth guy. We have a great relationship.“But this racecar, I went and took it to Chemung the day before we raced. It turns; it’s unlike all the ’08 style cars I’ve ever had. I just can’t explain it. At Chemung we had a flat right rear early in the race. I was 24th or 25th and drove all the way to sixth with minimal cautions. Nobody really noticed, but I passed a lot of cars that day and I knew that if I had track position at any point in the race I could have raced with the leaders. So I was really excited to come here with the same racecar at a racetrack with a setup that Troyer recommended and here we are.”
Leaty looks forward to the schedule ahead, including an upcoming race at his home track Spencer Speedway (NY). But despite the early success in the Troyer, he will be racing another chassis for another team for the next time out.“When we go to Shangri-La II, believe it or not, we’ve got a new LFR for there,” Leaty said. “I’m going to drive for Jeff DeMinck. We’ve got really good equipment, and who knows. Things are really looking up for us.”
- By Aaron Creed, Speed51.com Pennsylvania/Central New York Editor – Twitter: @aaron_creed
Richie Evans Memorial 75 Results
1 1 25 Mike Leaty
2 4 07 Patrick Emerling
3 6 21 Tony Hanbury
4 3 32 Tyler Rypkema
5 5 34 Rusty Smith
6 7 3 Daren Scherer
7 8 51b T.J. Potrzebowski
8 14 60 Matt Hirschman
9 11 8 Bobby Holmes
10 12 69 Tommy Cloce
11 10 53 Brian Defebo
12 20 22 Chuck Hossfeld
13 24 65 George Skora III
14 9 57x Andy Jankowiak
15 26 90 Bobby Santos III
16 23 54 Tommy Catalano
17 2 45 Kevin Timmerman
18 16 51r Lee Sharpsteen
19 27 10 Daryl Lewis Jr.
20 15 11 Kirk Totten
21 22 47 Jim Storace
22 17 95 Bryan Sherwood
23 18 59 Karl Hehr
24 25 13 Jim Steffenhagen
25 21 42 Nick Pecko
26 19 64 Amy Catalano
27 13 48 Sam Fullone
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Race of Champions First Tour Race May 3, 2015
Chemung, NY…(By JR KENNERUP) When a driver redraws the worst ( 12th ) starting position in a 75 lap feature on the very competitive Race of Champions Asphalt Modified Tour, a driver knows he is going to have a long night of racing.On Sunday afternoon at the Chemung Speedrome, defending RoC Tour champion Chuck Hossfeld was in that position, but that poor starting position didn’t hamper the positive feeling that the All Metal Works / Jerry Gradl Motors sponsored team has had since last year.The Ransomville, NY driver took advantage of some racing luck throughout the entire feature distance to move from his 12th place starting position to fourth within the first ten laps of the feature. After settling into third Hossfeld let two young guns in Jimmy Zacharias and Andy Jankowiak duke it out for the feature win.With nine laps to go Zacharias retired with motor issues handing the lead to Jankowiak, but he only held if for the next five laps. Just after receiving the five to go signal Jankowiak who was battling a leaking rear end fluid problem almost spun out his car in turns one and two. This bobble by Jankowiak was all that Hossfeld needed as he scooted around Jankowiak exiting turn two to take the lead.Hossfeld then led the final four laps unchallenged to claim the win over Jankowiak, TJ Potrzebowski, Lee Sharpsteen, and Austin Kochenash.“I don’t think we had the fastest car out there today, we had a fast car and we were running third. The two young guys in front of me were racing hard for the lead and they’re both great racers. Jimmy ( Zacharias ) had a mechanical problem and that gave the lead to Andy. We got past Andy when he had a mechanical problem, we were fresh and had a good carat the end of the race. The bottom line is our car is mechanically sound and sometimes you win a race like that and sometimes you win a race by sheer driving. We’ll take a win no matter how we get them and the truth is that we have never won at Chemung. I’m proud of the team to come out right from the get go and get a win and hopefully we’ll have another great year this year like we did last year. “Jimmy Zacharias and Andy Jankowiak brought the impressive field of 28 full blown Modifieds to the green flag of starter Steve Kellogg. Zacharias jumped into the lead over Jankowiak, Brian DeFebo, Tony Hanbury, and Lee Sharpsteen.Zacharias a multi time Chemung Speedrome track champion opened up a huge lead until the first yellow was displayed on lap nine when Patrick Emerling tried to duck under DeFebo going into turn one and spun out.On the double file restart Jankowiak was able to squeeze Zacharias to the bottom of the track to take the lead with Sharpsteen now in third followed by 12th place starter Chuck Hossfeld and Austin Kochenash.Hossfeld spoke about his bad redraw numbers and his early race strategy. “ When it comes to drawing numbers, I am the worse. You have to be patient at the start and be careful, we were lucky there when Emerling tried to get past somebody and ran into the wall. We had a little racing luck on our side today as he only got into our sidebar and not into our tire when he spun in front of us. If we damaged a tire in that, our whole day would have been different because I know we wouldn’t have won with a bent wheel, a tow in problem, or had to pit to change a tire. It worked out well for us, this is what I race for a day like today as feature wins keeps me energized. “Matt Hirschman now joined in the battle for fifth as he took that spot away from Kochenash one lap later and immediately glued himself to the back bumper of Hossfeld. When Sharpsteen slipped out of the groove in turn two on lap 12 Hossfeld and Hirschman both moved past him.Meanwhile up front Zacharias with a powerful turn four inside move that got him the lead back on lap 15 and just like before when he had the lead, Jimmy Z. opened up a huge lead. Just like the movie Groundhog Day the huge lead of Zacharias would be wiped out by a yellow once again as Tommy Cloce rolled to a stop in turn four on lap 30 with brake failure.On the double file restart once again Jankowiak squeezed Zacharias to the bottom of the track to get the lead. Hirschman got past Hossfeld for third while Kochenash moved past Sharpsteen for fifth, Sharpsteen returned the favor by retaking fifth once lap later.Hirschman and Hossfeld staged their own private battle for third as they exchanged that position for three consecutive laps before Hossfeld took control of third on lap 36. Hirschman then developed a problem and he pitted during a lap 41 caution flag period in which a right front tire was changed.With 30 laps to go contact between leader Jankowiak and second place Zacharias caused third place Hossfeld to back off as he let the two kids’ race for the win. Zacharias once again made a horsepower move coming out of turn two to regain the lead on lap 48.With 15 laps to go the lead pack which consisted of Zacharias, Jankowiak, and Hossfeld entered heavy lap traffic. At almost the same time smoke started to come out of the right bank of headers on the Zacharias machine signifying a problem.Just as Zacharias received the ten to go signal his engine gave up the fight entering turn one and he lost all power and pulled into the pit area. Jankowiak now inherited the lead and immediately Hossfeld turned up the pressure on the second generation driver for the lead.Jankowiak received the five to go signal and when he entered turn one he almost spun out due to a rear end leaking grease. Hossfeld took to the outside groove to get around Jankowiak to grab the lead exiting turn two.Hossfeld only worry was a yellow which came out with a lap to which caused a green, white, checker finish. In the end it was no worry for Hossfeld as he claimed his first career Chemung Speedrome feature win over Jankowiak, Potrzebowski, Sharpsteen, and Kochenash.“I’m excited “ said Chuck. “ We get to go home with a smile on our face and get ready to go to Oswego on Saturday. “With many normal top runners of the RoC Tour experiencing trouble on this day. Hossfeld was asked if the change in weather caused a problem as the heats were contested under cloud cover while the feature was conducted under sunny skies. “The track was very green yesterday when we came to practice “ answered Chuck. “ The track took more rubber as the day went on yesterday and it took more rubber today, it did get greasy at times today. But you’re lucky with a Modified that the kind of weather change we went through today doesn’t throw that much of a wrench into it because of the wide tires. If we were running skinnier tires then there would have been a problem. “Chuck added, “This RoC Series, 28 cars, it is pretty healthy. A lot of great teams, a lot of great young drivers, I’ll tell you one thing it is not going to be a cakewalk for whoever wins the championship this year. I’m pretty excited about this deal as everyone has pretty good equipment and I think a lot of people are too, just look at the crowd that was here today, that was impressive in itself. “For Andy Jankowiak finishing second was a hard pill to swallow. “It’s just me doing things the wrong way “ said Andy. “ We got doing things in a hurry, we were putting the rear end together late one night and I didn’t have the right tool, I should have waited until the next day. It wasn’t a bad leak, it was just once in a while it would leak. When Chuck got me I thought I was going around, we straightened the thing out, it’s tough to lose one like that, I’m beating myself up right now as my guys deserve better than that. We’ll go into Oswego with a good attitude and take things from there. “Third place finisher TJ Potrzebowski was looking for longer green flag periods as his car was getting better the longer the race stayed green. “ On that long run ( laps 42 to 74 ) I could see I was reeling them in, a couple of times I caught lap cars in bad places which cost me. Really can’t complain coming from tenth, but we had a really good car during long runs today. It took me two laps after a restart and the car would take off and I thought we would be in trouble there at the end. I was hoping for some “ Chemung Luck “ where the top two would take each other out and I could get a win. This is a good way to get our deal ( with Ed McGuire ) started, as we’re in it for the long haul this year, going to chase the points and this was a good start. “Qualifying races for the 28 car field saw American Racer Tires heat wins captured by Patrick Emerling, Brian DeFebo, Matt Hirschman, and Tony Hanbury with Tommy Cloce winning the Sunoco Race Fuels / Insinger Performance Products B Main.SPEEDROME
NOTES; Over 20 RoC Modifieds were on hand for the Saturday test and tune session with Ben Reynolds the only car not returning to race on Sunday. All racing teams placed decals on their cars with a picture of former RoC driver / crew member Matt Clemens who passed away one week earlier. Matt the past few years helped Zacharias Racing and in honor of Matt they lettered up a Modified in Matt’s number 9x and it paced the feature field with Matt’s brother Chris handling the driving duties. Brandon Oltra changed his car number from 9 to 19 on this day in honor of Matt. Chris Ridsdale battled a skipping motor all day long while Rusty Smith suffered clutch problems a majority of the day. Patrick Emerling changed transmissions after hot laps as the original transmission had the backup ( rear ) gear go bad and it didn’t allow the car to be backed up. Many teams suffered punctured tires throughout the feature which derailed several good performances. Mike Leaty pitted on lap nine with a flat and came all the way back to sixth at the end while his teammate Patrick Emerling pitted twice and raced his way back to seventh in the end. Having a teammate on the RoC Tour is a big theme this year as there were six different two car teams in competition on this day. If all indicated reports stay correct a RoC Modified field of over 30 cars will be on hand at Oswego this Saturday night for the Richie Evans Memorial.
RACE REPORT RACE OF CHAMPIONS ASPHALT MODIFIED TOUR RACE #1
FINISH; Chuck Hossfeld, Andy Jankowiak, TJ Potrzebowski, Lee Sharpsteen, Austin Kochenash, Mike Leaty, Patrick Emerling, Tyler Rypkema, TJ Zacharias, Matt Hirschman, Brandon Oltra, Tony Hanbury, George Skora, III, Rusty Smith, Brian DeFebo, Roger Coss, Doug Reaume, Bryan Sherwood, Amy Catalano, Zack Curren, Kirk Totten, Nick Pecko, Jimmy Zacharias, Daren Scherer, Tommy Cloce, Tommy Catalano, Daryl Lewis, Jr., Chris Ridsdale.
PROVISIONALS; Totten, Ridsdale.
LAP LEADERS; J. Zacharias ( 1 – 9 ), Jankowiak ( 10 – 14 ), J. Zacharias ( 15 – 30 ), Jankowiak ( 31 – 47 ), J. Zacharias ( 48 – 65 ), Jankowiak ( 66 – 70 ), Hossfeld ( 71 – 75 ).
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On the Race of Champions Asphalt Modified Tour, defending champion Chuck Hossfeld seemingly can never be ruled out for the victory until the checkered flag flies. The Ransomville, New York veteran came into the season opener at Chemung Speedrome (NY) without a previous win at the 3/8-mile facility and was most likely not the fastest car in the field on Sunday afternoon.After climbing from his 12th starting spot and riding around in the third position for a majority of the 75-lap race, fate would change for the better with 10 laps remaining for Hossfeld.Front row starters after a redraw, Jimmy Zacharias and Andy Jankowiak, each took turns in the lead with Zacharias being able to stretch his advantage when out front. On lap 65, Zacharias’ machine began to show smoke and would slow.Hossfeld kept up with Jankowiak as the laps would wind down, but with four laps remaining Jankowiak would uncharacteristically slip up in the second turn allowing Hossfeld to go around the outside for the lead and eventual win.“We had two good drivers up front, Andy J. and Jimmy,” Hossfeld told Speed51.com powered by JEGS following his 24th career RoC victory. “Jimmy looked like he had a motor problem and I was able to work over Andy and put a good race on. (Jankowiak) had, I guess, a mechanical problem.“The bottom line is we won not only because we had a fast car but mechanically we were prepared and in a position to win.”Jankowiak would go on to salvage a runner up finish, but was very critical of himself post-race.“We blew a tube steel in the rear end,” Jankowiak explained. “It just stepped out on me and never gave me any warning. It’s my fault. I put that rear end together quick and I didn’t have the right tool to put the steel in. Kind of disappointed with myself; I just don’t seem to learn.”Despite the bitter end result, the Western New York driver who often ran up front with the championship contenders last season is optimistic heading into next weekend’s race.“We’re going to go into Oswego with a positive mind-frame,” Jankowiak said. “If you would have told me at the beginning of the day we were going to run second I would have been happy with it, but it sucks giving one away like that.” Perhaps the biggest heartbreak of the afternoon happened to Zacharias. The motor turned out to be the culprit leaving the Candor, New York driver shaking his head when all was said and done.“I just don’t know when it’s going to end,” said a noticeably disappointed Zacharias. “It started showing signs the first restart when Andy was outside of me. It started spitting and sputtering a little bit. He cleared me and once the momentum kicked in it showed that I was the best car today.”This was far from the first occurrence in which bad luck bit the four-time defending Chemung track champion late in an event.“Between last year and carrying over to this year it’s about probably the ninth race we should have won, and have a mechanical failure,” Zacharias said. “We had the race locked up here until the last restart last year and broke an axle. At Shangri-La we blew a rear end, at Oswego I was leading the (Race of Champions) 200 and an oil line broke; stupid stuff that sometimes is controllable and sometimes isn’t.”It was even harder to take after a difficult week for Zacharias and the entire RoC and Chemung family. Matt Clemens, a fellow racer, crew member, close family friend, and always smiling face in the pit area, passed away unexpectedly the previous Sunday.“Matt was always my right hand guy,” said an emotional Zacharias. “When nobody else could go to the races, it was just me and him. We would take four hour truck rides by ourselves. Wherever I went, he went with me whether it was to Florida or Connecticut. Whatever he had to do, if he had to work, he didn’t care. He drove all night to make sure he was at the races with me, and now it’s nowhere near the same without him today.”In a fitting tribute, Clemens’ brother Chris paced the field prior to the green flag in a Modified assembled by the Zacharias team with Matt’s familiar No. 9X on the side.It was an electric day to open the RoC and Chemung seasons, with sunny skies, close to 80 degree weather, and a full field of 28 Modifieds. “What a great weekend for racing here,” Hossfeld commented. “The series looks good and healthy with a lot of great young drivers and good cars and equipment.”
- By Aaron Creed, Speed51.com Pennsylva
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“Money” Matt Hirschman Ready For Tri Track Open Modified Series
NORTHAMPTON, Pa. — Story by Race Chaser Online New England Correspondent Kyle Souza — Crystal Snape photo –
When modified race fans think of a race that includes a big payout, one name comes to mind — Matt Hirschman.
Hirschman has competed at multiple different venues during the course of his career but had one common result — a late-race charge and a victory in a long distance and big paying race. His plans for 2015 have now started to fall in place — plans that include the Tri Track Open Modified Series.
“I have always liked the open show format and the variety of competitors that will compete,” Hirschman told Race Chaser Online. “What I like the most about the Tri-Track Series is the tracks the races are held at. I have the most fun racing a modified at quarter- to three-eighths mile short tracks.” He collected the victory at the first of the Tri Track Open Modified Series at Lee USA Speedway in 2014. “I will miss … going to Star — that was one of my best tracks — but I really liked Monadnock the two times I have been there,” Hirschman said. “The money is great too. With the lap money and other bonuses the potential is there to make money and not just for the winner.” Even though some people would think his travel distance may be too far, Hirschman takes the opportunity with open arms.
“It certainly is worth traveling for. I’m not looking to make 8 to 14 hour round trips to New England every week but I will definitely be making at least four this season.”
The Tri Track Open Modified Series is a four race series that will include races at Lee USA Speedway on May 17, Monadnock Speedway on June 13, Seekonk Speedway on July 1 and New London-Waterford Speedbowl on September 13. For more information on the Tri Track Open Modified Series visit www.tritrackopenmodifiedseries.com.
APRIL 11, 2015 Opening Night Mod 125 Win to Don Wagner
Ace’s High For Don Wagner In Mahoning Valley Speedway Opening Night Modified Gamblers Series
By DINO OBERTO
(LEHIGHTON, Pa. 4-11-15) Don Wagner got his 2015 season off to a great start by taking the victory in the opening round of the Central States Modified Gamblers Series at Mahoning Valley Speedway. The Opening Night 125 lap feature netted the Wharton, NJ veteran $5000, an Ace card and the early division point lead.Wagner waged a great duel with Zane Zeiner over the final 50 laps before grabbing the lead with 23 circuits to go and remained solid en route to his 17th career Mahoning win.“We’ve been shooting for a big race like this for a long time. It helps pay the bills. It was some good racing upfront and Zane (Zeiner) gave me room,” said Wagner. “We raced hard but we would never turn each other. I love racing with the guy.”;Kevin Rex Jr., came on strong in the final laps to earn second with Zeiner, Nevin George and 2014 track champion Kris Graver rounding out the top five.After starting eighth, Wagner was running fourth by lap 51 and keeping close tabs behind the front trio of Matt Hirschman, Eric Beers and Lou Strohl. It was right after a mid-race mandatory pit stop that Wagner got his big break. When the event restarted Beers edged into the lead over Hirschman, however, no sooner did he do so he then spun after being nudged under very tight quarters. Likewise did Hirschman and Strohl and afterwards all were relegated to the rear of the pack. Wagner averted the skirmish by quickly wheeling to the outside and was now the new race leader. “When I got up to the top five I knew I had more than those the guys ahead of me. We made the tire change at the halfway break and I don’t know if the car was as good as it was before that but we still had a good piece. Ed Flemke up at Race Works built us a great car,” said Wagner. “Circumstances did fall the way they did for us to get the lead but, we did race hard to get up there too.”;When the race went back green Wagner’s lead did not last long, however, as Eric Kocher out-raced him on the restart. Wagner would return the favor on a similar move two laps later and was now being pressured by Zeiner. Zeiner, who came from 18th on the grid, powered his way to the front at the completion of lap 74.In what was a very even matchup as the next 50 laps became a dogfight between Zeiner and Wagner. Numerous cautions also played into keeping the action close as extended green flag runs were few and far between. It wasn’t until the later laps that Wagner began clicking off his fastest times. Once he made his race winning pass Zeiner’s car began tightening up and he was unable to keep pace. “We just got super tight there in near the end and over-used the car up. When (Kevin) Rex got me there at the end I was trying to figure out what was wrong with the car and it appeared there was a brake caliper sticking and that was making it tight on early entry,” said Zeiner.“All in all we’re happy with the run. It was clean racing with Donny (Wagner). We may have bumped and banged a little but we would never take each out. I got him a little free a couple times but I let him straighten out because I just don’t want to win like that.”;In the final 10 laps Wagner held a car length advantage. At the same time Rex, as well as George, where both battling with Zeiner. Rex, made it up to second with three laps remaining but there was no catching Wagner at that point. “He (Zeiner) was strong but the longer we ran green the tighter he got. I saw him shove in the nose and I saw that he had a little too much wheel in it and I took advantage from that,” said Wagner. Heat wins for the 29 Modifieds checked went to Jimmy Zacharias, Austin Kochenash, who also led the first 14 laps of the feature and Hirschman. The split consi were annexed by Kyle Strohl and Bobby Jones.
Because of time constraints the Street Stock and Dirt Mod features were postponed and will be made up in short order.
Modified Feature Finish (125 Laps): 1. Don Wagner, 2. Kevin Rex Jr., 3. Zane Zeiner, 4. Nevin George, 5. Kris Graver, 6. Todd Baer, 7. Chip Santee, 8. Eric Beers, 9. Austin Kochenash, 10. Eric Kocher, 11. Matt Hirschman, 12. Anthony Sesely, 13. Lou Strohl, 14. Paul Frantz, 15. Pat Verwys, 16. John Markovic, 17. Mike Quinn, 18. Kyle Strohl, 19. Bobby Jones, 20. DJ Wagner, 21. Paul Hartwig, 22. Earl Paules, 23. Jimmy Zacharias DNQ: Brian DeFebo, JP Curry, Calvin Carroll, Vincent Biondilillo, Terry Markovic, Neil Rutt III
Excitement building for Mahoning Valley Speedway Opening Night
(LEHIGHTON, Pa. 4-9-15) This coming Saturday night, April 11 starting at 6:00 pm, the green flag drops to officially begin to the 2015 season at Lehighton’s Mahoning Valley Speedway and keeping in tune with previous Opening Night shows, promoter Floyd Santee will present a high paying Modified feature as the winner will pocket $5000 for going the 125 lap distance. It will be race number one in the six race Central States Modified Gamblers Series events.Late Models, Street Stocks, Dirt Mods, Pro 4s and Hobby Stocks will also be in action with regular distance feature races.100+ Modified features have become great season kickoff shows at Mahoning. The first was in 2006 with perennial Eastern Pennsylvania asphalt Modified star Brian DeFebo coming from 16th to first in claiming the $3000 victory. In 2007 New York state invader Rusty Smith beat the home track regulars and won his only Mahoning race.Lou Strohl pulled off a daring pass on Pete Brittain with two laps to go and took a stunning victory as well as the $3000 first place prize money in 2008.“The Master of Going Faster” Eric Beers, cruised out front for all 100 laps in a dominating run to open the 2009 season. The following year it was Matt Hirschman who at the time won his second career Mahoning 100-lapper and has since gone on to earn a record 11 extra distance races.In 2011 rain wiped out back-to-back tries of running 100 laps. The first race turned out to be a regular 35-lapper three weeks in but still it was still worth $3000 to winner Earl Paules who had his winnings matched by long-time sponsor John Schneider of Schneider and Sons, Inc., Scrap Medal of Allentown, making it the most money every won for a regular Modified feature.Zane Zeiner opened the Santee promoted era with his win in 2012. That too was a regular show.Mahoning’s lid-lifter in 2013 was a memorable one for then 17-year old Austin Kochenash as he won his career first Modified feature, a 50-lap main worth $2000 and then came back later in the night to claim the Late Model feature and pocket an additional $1000.Last year Beers, fresh off his title winning year of ’13, started out with another win in a long list of 100 lap Mahoning victories.And now it’s time for another go at the big cash, only this time it will be $5000, the highest amount ever offered for a Mahoning Opening Night feature and know that there will be an unbelievable field assembled. Every one of the past Opening Night winners are expected to be on hand plus many others, making this an amazing night to start off the year.Along with the host of local talent, race teams are coming in from New Jersey, New York and Connecticut.Grandstands open at 4:00 pm. Admission is $20 and no discounts for this event. Children 10 and under are free.Pits gates open at 11:00 am. There will be early paid practice from noon to 3:00 pm. Warm-ups will run from 4:00 – 5:00 followed by a mandatory drivers meeting at 5:10.Heats will begin at 6:00 pm. All drivers will pick for heat race starting spots. All feature line-ups will be heads up from the heat finishes.Additional news can be found on the track’s official site at www.mahoningvalley-speedway.com or on Facebook at Mahoning Valley Speedway and on Twitter at twitter.com/MahoningSpeed. You can also call the track hotline on race day at 570-386-4900.
Mahoning Valley Speedway Opening Night agenda set
(LEHIGHTON, Pa. 4-6-15) Mahoning Valley Speedway’s 2015 Opening Night is fast approaching and there is a high amount of excitement leading into the April 11 lid-lifter, especially after the recently held Test and Tune days that saw a preview of what’s to come as well as so many of the Mahoning faithful having to withstand a long harsh winter. Everyone is ready for racing.All indications are that the pit area will be filled solid and to better ease the day track officials have announced the tentative schedule of events and fees.Pits gates open at 11:00 am. There will be early paid practice from noon to 3:00 pm. The cost is $25 per car for early practice. Warm-ups will run from 4:00 – 5:00 followed by a mandatory drivers meeting at 5:10.Pit fees are $30 for members and $40 for non-members. Modified teams please note there is a $50 entry fee to run the Central States Modified Gamblers Series 125.Grandstands open at 4:00 pm. Admission is $20 and no discounts for this event. Children 10 and under are free.Heats will begin at 6:00 pm. All drivers will pick for heat race starting spots. Driver sign-in will take place from 3:00 – 4:15. A valid driver’s license is required when renting a transponder.All feature line-ups will be heads up from the heat finishes. The Modified feature will start 20 cars with two provisionals if needed. If no provisionals are used then the field will be 22 starters with the additional cars coming from the consi. Provisionals are awarded to the top-10 from final 2014 points.All feature qualified Modifieds must run the main with the same tires used in their heat. They can, however, change tires for the consi but must then replace with their heat run tires if they qualify for the feature. The running order will be Hobby Stocks – 20 laps, Pro 4s – 20 laps, Late Models – 25 laps, Modifieds – 125 laps, Street Stocks – 30 laps and Dirt Mods – 25 laps. Modified 125 payout is as follows: 1. $5000, 2. $2800, 3. $1800, 4. $1400, 5. $1100, 6. $1000, 7. $900, 8. $700, 9. $600, 10. $550 11 – 15. $350, 16 – 18. $325, 19 – 22. $300
Big Daddy: Matt Hirschman Still Mapping Out Racing Schedule For 2015 Season
Matt Hirschman can’t be blamed for not being quite sure just where his racing endeavors will be taking him for the 2015 season.As of right now the focus for the Northampton, Pa. driver is more on racing to change diapers rather than set a scheduleHis son, Matthew Hirschman Jr. was born on January 14.“Right now I don’t really have any set plans,” We had a baby boy last week. I knew that was coming so that was kind of the first priority of the new year. My plans aren’t set but I have a general idea of what I’m looking at and we just haven’t really got together as a group and nailed down exactly what we’re going to do.”;What Hirschman does know is that, as of now, the 2015 season will not see him returning to full-time competition on the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour.Hirschman ran the Whelen Modified Tour last year in a combination effort with team owner Wayne Darling. Hirschman started 12 of 13 events in 2015. He ran his own car for five of the events and Darling’s car for seven races.It wasn’t the first time Hirschman has done the combination plan. In 2008 he finished second in the Modified Tour standings running a collaborative effort between Darling and team owner Ed Bennett.Last year Hirschman finished 13th in the series standings after missing one event, with two top-five finishes and six top-10’s.“Doing that with Wayne again is off the table,” Hirschman said. “He decided that his interests weren’t to do any [Whelen Modified Tour] races this year. We didn’t have any type of fallout or anything like that. We got along great. It just wasn’t going to work out for him to continue doing the Tour stuff. Doing what we tried to do is tough. We did something similar years ago and had success with it, but to compete with the elite Whelen Tour teams today, I’m not sure that I’ve put myself in the best position to compete with those teams in recent years.”;Hirschman isn’t ruling out competing in select Whelen Modified Tour events in his own equipment in 2015, but he said financially it’s not the best idea.“Right now a few [Whelen Modified Tour] races are possible with my own equipment, but I’m just not sure that it makes sense financially for me to only do a partial schedule,” Hirschman said. “Without doing all the races, you’re losing out on the point fund money, there’s bonus money you’re losing and there’s been tires going to the top-15 in points. So if you don’t run the full season or put some type of partnership together like I did last year, it makes it a lot tougher financially. I’m not sure that it really makes sense for me to do that. But I’m not ruling out a few races.”;What Hirschman is committing to is running again in the Tri-Track Open Modified Series once again. The Tri-Track Series will run events this year at Lee USA Speedway in Lee, N.H. (May 17), Monadnock Speedway in Winchester, N.H. (June 13) and Seekonk (Mass.) Speedway (July 1).Hirschman was victorious in the first ever Tri-Track Series event last year at Lee USA Speedway. He has earned his nickname “Big Money Matt” for his success throughout the Northeast when the big money is on the line for Open Modified events.“I’ll definitely do those races,” Hirschman said. “That type of format is definitely where I feel I have the most fun racing, at those short track type venues where those races at. And they come with a good purse.”;Hirschman said he’ll likely fill out his schedule running ROC Tour events, select events at Mahoning Valley Speedway in Lehighton, Pa. and doing some select events in Modifieds and SK Modifieds for Connecticut team owners Rob Gallear and Bob Horn.“I don’t mind travelling to the New England states, but it is a lot more difficult towing out of where we are in Pennsyvlania to head in that direction,” Hirschman said. “We find our travels much easier and enjoyable heading into New York state. And it is nice when there’s a special race close to home, to be able to compete there. I’ve had some success right here at our closest track to home at Mahoning Valley Speedway. They have about a five special races throughout the year that range from [$3,000 to $6,000] to win and it’s only 25 minutes from home. It’s really hard to pass up events like that to go travel four or five or six hours away – a lot of times for a multi-day event – when I can do just as well, if not better, right in my backyard.“I’m definitely going to try to put myself in the best position for not only to have success but to also have fun and really enjoy it. That’s going to be my goal for the year. But I think the ROC Tour, the open shows and racing special events close to home is probably what I enjoy to do the most. If a few [Whelen Modified Tour] races fit into that schedule then great, but if it doesn’t it really won’t bother me at all.”;