|
|
|
Rudalavage and Colsten Win At Penn-Can |
|
09/18/07 -
SUSQUEHANNA, PA - Sunday night the Penn – Can Speedway hosted round one of the Race of Champions Dart Dirt Modified & Sportsman Combination Races. The feature race action was outstanding all race long and when all was said and done two popular feature winners graced victory lane on Don’s Automotive Mall and Gary’s U – Pull – It night.
The 100 lap RoC Dart Modified feature was dominated by Jeff Rudalavage. The Olyphant, Pa. racer led all laps with the exception of laps 34 through 37 when his brother Alan Rudalavage caught Jeff in lap traffic to make the pass for the lead. Jeff regained the lead on a lap 37 restart and then had to withstand the late race challenge of defending race winner Joey Grammes. Jeff pulled away to win after the motor in the Grammes car started to overheat with Grammes holding on to second. Stewart Friesen racing the second Brad Grammes owned entry on the night ended up a tired third with RoC Dart Overall Modified point leader Pat Ward coming home in fourth and Penn – Can 2007 track champion Mike Gular came on strong late in the race to finish fifth.
The 40 lap RoC Dart Sportsman feature saw second generation racer Joey Colsten of Binghamton, NY win his biggest feature in his young racing career. Colsten took the lead from Mike Loney on lap 16 and then held off the relentless challenges of Penn – Can 2007 champion Jeff Crambo to take the win. Nick Rochinski followed the leading dup across the line in third with Grant Hilfinger in fourth and Jeff Leslie in fifth.
“ This just shows that you got to be up on your stuff “ said the very happy race winner who started second. “ I watched my brother win his heat form last and I said to myself I got to get into the first two redraw spots in my heat. I started it in eighth and I don’t think I was breathing for ten laps and I gave it a shot for the win. The heat race told the tale as I got into the redraw and after that my guys are good. We proved it last year with all the winning we did with Alan Johnson as I’m a half assed driver and he’s a good driver. “
Jeff spoke about his home track advantage on this night after racing here all year. “ I ran here all year and it definitely helped tonight. Look at last week I started 18th and ended up fourth, I just ran out of laps last week. We had something to tune on after last week as we had a DIRT legal small block with a 650 carb in the car after our big block started to push water after we won two races with it here this year. The boys made a couple of shock and gear changes and the car was right on. “
Jeff jumped out to the lead when the green flag dropped to start the race. Jeff opened up a huge lead at times and was in to lap traffic after only nine laps were in the books. Lap traffic would cost Jeff the lead as his brother Alan snuck past Jeff on lap 33 with an inside turn one pass. “ We were in lap traffic and I couldn’t get around that one ( Mike Colsten ) car. I asked my brother later if I couldn’t get past him how did you get past him and my brother said lower the blade. But that was okay that I lost the lead because I’m good on restarts. “
On a lap 37 restart Jeff regained the lead he would never give back. “ My brother took the bottom and I needed the outside because there was moisture up there. If there was moisture on the bottom I would have been chasing him instead. But it worked out good as I got the job done and got back out front and held my line and tried to diamond the track and keep the car going and not try to slide it in. The setup in our car is a little bit different because it feels like it is spinning the tires but it’s not. “
Jeff was asked if he was worried during the lap 50 fuel stop about his tires sealing over. “ We ground them pretty good so that wouldn’t happen. But the crew did do an air pressure adjustment and it seemed to hurt me for a good ten to twelve laps after the fuel stop. “
Two laps after the fuel stop Jeff got pressure heavily for the lead by Joey Grammes. “ I was off that first ten to twelve laps then the air pressures came back up and we got heat in the tires and we started to go better. I changed my line a little bit as I drove through the ruts up here in turn one and that was side bite and that helped me get off the corner. I tried the bottom and if the car felt slow I went back up top. If I kept the car straight I could get my left rear down in the brown stuff on the straights and that helped too as long as he couldn’t go around me and I was keeping my eye on that. “
“ This win is right up there with everything I’ve accomplished in racing “ said Jeff. “ My guys really wanted to win that championship. But this is better to me than winning a championship. This is one race where all the big dogs were here, they come into our house. Yes I had a good starting spot but they all had to come up and race me and they had 100 laps to get there. “
Jeff was very complimentary of everyone who put the show on. “ Al Wilcox does a great job on the track and Reed Miller does a great job promoting it. I’m thrilled to win a RoC race, I got second in a RoC race here in July so I did pretty good in the two RoC races here this year. Andy Harpell does a great job with RoC. “
“ I ran out of motor “ said second place finisher Joey Grammes who started 14th. “ My motor really started heating up and it cost me as I lost that 50 to 75 foot range off the corners. All I needed to do was get my nose alongside of Jeff because I knew he would have raced me clean. “
Joey continued on about his old motor. “ The motor was 235 at the break and I cooled it down to 215 and then it went back up after we got back racing after the break. The motor is a Tony Feil 430 piece from 1990 and we bought it from Shawn George. It sat in his garage for seven years before someone bought it and we bought it because we couldn’t afford a new high dollar motor. This is the fifth year that we’ve run this motor and the pieces are tired, we broke a rocker arm in this motor here last week. “
Last year Joey ran the extreme outside groove to win the race and tonight he was the first driver to get that groove working. “ Last week I felt pretty good there until we broke. Every week before that we tried that groove and we were horrible up there. So we changed some things with help from Dave Reedy at Penske Shocks and Jeff Strunk, I have to thank those two for their help. We got a lot better as now we’re in the ball park unlike where we’ve been here all year. “
“ I’m glad to see Jeff win it because he is the nicest guy you’ll ever meet in racing and he deserves a big win like this “ said Joey.
“ I can’t thank these guys enough ( Brad Grammes Racing ) for providing me the car to come down here and race “ said third place finisher Stewart Friesen who started tenth. “ It’s a great run for Brad to have his cars second and third, Rudalavage was the class of the field. “
Stewart had this to say about his finish and his long day of racing. “ I’m super happy to finish third at Penn – Can. From lap 80 on I was just beat as I was literally falling out of the seat. I was way too tight to run the top so I had to concentrate and hit my spots on the bottom. “
Qualifying for the 51 Modifieds in attendance saw heat race wins go to Alan Rudalavage, Dan Vauter, Kevin Bates, Craig Terrell, Jeff Strunk, and Friesen with consi wins going to Steve Babicek, Garth Tonkin, Jr., and Joel Batzel.
RACE REPORT RACE OF CHAMPIONS DART DIRT MODIFIED TOUR COMBINATION RACE #1 PENN CAN SPPEDWAY “ KING OF THE CAN 100 “
FINISH; Jeff Rudalavage, Joey Grammes, Stewart Friesen, Pat Ward, Mike Gular, Danny Johnson, Craig Terrell, Dan Vauter, Alan Johnson, Billy Decker, Jerry Higbie, Jr., Butch Getz, Wade Decker, Matt Smith, Alan Rudalavage, Mike Colsten, Jason Hamilton, Steve Babicek, Jeff Strunk, Ronnie Johnson, Brian Weaver, Kevin Bates, Darwin Greene, Chris Weaver, Kenny Titus, Garth Tonkin, Jr., Joel Batzel.
LAP LEADERS; J. Rudalavage ( 1 – 33 ), A. Rudalavage ( 34 – 37 ), J. Rudalavage ( 38 – 100 )
SMALL BLOCK BONUS $500; J. Rudalavage
TOP 5 GUARANTEED STARTER; B. Weaver
BUY – IN PROVIONALS; Colsten, Titus
DNQ’S; Jeff Bronson, Ryan Watt, Billy Jenkins, Roy Shields, Kurt Spotts, Kirk Horton, Mike Ricci, Doug Manmiller, Scott Allen, Scott Brady, Jim Cocoran, Brent Wilcox, Colt Harris, Chris Grbac, Brian Weaver ( 9r car ), Bobby Trapper, Bradley Brightbill, Dave Jenkins, Chris Ostrowsky, Mike Ward, Butch Cerullo, Scott Van Gorder, Brian Franko, Tim Votra, Dave Calaman.
SPORTSMAN MODIFIED TOUR COMBINATION RACE # 1 PENN – CAN SPEEDWAY “ KING OF THE CAN 40 “
FINISH; Joey Colsten, Jeff Crambo, Nick Rochinski, Grant Hilfinger, Jeff Leslie, Larry Wight, Danny Creeden, Mike Loney, Michael Lartz, Les Gillette, Chris Wood, Nick Petrilak, Casey Williams, Mike Nagel, Jr., George Suprick, III, Steve Yankowski, Jr., Mike Austin, Dan Pompey, Brian Puckett, Eric Griffin, Kyle Weiss, Casey Plummer, Paul Rooney, Paul Strohl, III, Justin Holland, Jeremy Wilder.
LAP LEADERS; Loney ( 1 – 15 ) Colsten ( 16 – 40 )
BUY – IN PROVISIONAL; Lartz, Williams
DNQ’S; Jamie Batzel, Jordan Umbenhauer, Butch Klinger, Christine Martin, Ray Woodall, Jr., Ted Stout, Rich Post.
|
|
