|
|
|
Gillette Wins Sportsman 100 At Five Mile Point; Creeden Takes Championship |
|
10/14/07 -
By JR KENNERUP ( RoC MEDIA )
KIRKWOOD, NY - The final race in the season long Race of Champions Dart Dirt Sportsman Tour took place on Friday night at the Five Mile Point Speedway.
Les Gillette in his first full season of Sportsman racing took full advantage of his outside pole starting spot. As he led all 100 laps to claim the $2,000 win in a dominating performance.
Danny Creeden who took his guaranteed starting spot status to gain entrance to the feature finished second after starting 25th. The finish was enough to earn Creeden his second consecutive Race of Champions Dart Dirt Sportsman Tour championship.
Pole sitter Richard Wallace chased Gillette all race long only to blow a right-rear tire on the final lap coming out of turn four and had to settle for third. Big Diamond (Pa.) Raceway regular Jarrad Miller pitted once and came back to make a three wide pass at the finish line to claim fourth with Penn – Can track champion Jeff Crambo settling for fifth.
“Starting up front made all the difference tonight," said the smiling race winner. “I was able to run easy and save my tires because I knew it was going to be a tire wear race the longer the race went on. "
Les admittedly only ran the car hard twice during the entire feature. “I ran the car hard at the start to get the lead and then ran it hard when Mike (Loney) got by me (lap 40) during the race. Then when I passed Mike back in turn four on the same lap I knew he had a problem and after that I never pushed the car. "
After the race many pitside observers were shocked with how much tire was left on the Gillette car.
“Starting up front made all the difference in the world. I didn’t have to push my car, I didn’t have to abuse the tires, I drove the race how I wanted to drive it," said Gillette.
Loney was the only driver who was able to challenge Gillette for the lead at any time during the century grind event. The former Street Stock racer who was a winner in that division has now put everyone on notice that he will be a force to contend with in 2008 with this dominating performance.
“My biggest moment in racing up to tonight was last year at Big Diamond in my fifth ever Sportsman race," recalled Les. “I was leading until my carburetor acted up and I finished third and I was excited with that. Tonight is my biggest win in racing and now it’s my biggest moment in racing."
Les finished off by thanking one crew member that has helped him to make all of this possible.
“Josh Edwards, he helps out Brian Malcolm and he’s been helping me this year. That makes a huge difference for me as Josh sets the car up for me and he makes where I can win with his setup in the car. He’s going to be with me next year and I plan on doing good in the Race of Champions Dart Tour next year."
"I just tried to save my tires as much as I could early in the race," said RoC Dart Sportsman champion Danny Creeden who finished second. “I went with a 50 and a 44 and I tried not to slide the car around a lot in the beginning."
Creeden failed to transfer through the heat race and decided against racing in a consi and took his guaranteed starting spot status to get into the feature. Once the feature started Danny played a patient game trying to keep his nose clean.
Danny took his time working to the front as he knew from his prior racing experience that tire management was going to be a key to his efforts. Danny entered the top ten on lap 58 and moved into fifth on lap 77. Creeden got into fourth on lap 83 and with six laps to go moved into third and on the final lap coming out of turn four he took second with Richard Wallace who was in second developed a flat right rear tire.
“It’s awesome to win two championships in a row and it is a great way to leave the class “ said Danny. “We’re all done with Sportsman now as I’m putting a 358 in this car to race here on Saturday night. That’s probably it for me in Sportsman."
Qualifying for the 40 Sportsman in attendance saw heat wins go to Nick Rochinski, Crambo, Andy Stout, and Ladd Yeomans while Brad Grim and Joey Colsten won the consi’s.
COUNTER POINTS; Aaron Shelton impressively qualified the second Butch Klinger entry. Garth Tonkin, Jr. was in the Jamie Cortezan entry on this night. Kyle Weiss in the Andy Miller owned car on this night. John Liendecker running the second Brad Grim entry. Geoff Powell was deemed to be running softer compound tires than allowed by RoC Dart rules and was disqualified from his heat race finish, he loaded up and left. Brad Alger missed his heat race and that cost him dearly as he failed to qualify through the tough consi’s. Mike Loney’s dream of winning the race and possibly the championship went away as he pulled into the infield after momentarily getting the lead coming out of turn two on lap 40. Many of the drivers in the field never raced in a 100 lap distance event before and found if difficult in pacing themselves. Bob Lineman, Jr. used a buy – in to get into the feature was as high as fifth before tire wear slowed his efforts. Joey Colsten manhandled his ill handling car the entire night and came out of it with a seventh after starting 22nd and finished second in points. With the win Gillette moved from 12th to sixth in the final point standings.
RACE REPORT RACE OF CHAMPIONS DART DIRT SPORTSMAN TOUR
NATIONAL QUARTER MILE DIRT TRACK CHAMPIONSHIP SPORTSMAN 100
FINISH; Les Gillette, Danny Creeden, Richard Wallace, Jarred Miller, Jeff Crambo, Nick Rochinski, Joey Colsten, Bob Lineman, Jr., Brad Grim, Eddie White, Jamie Batzel, Andy Stout, Dusty Jagger, Jeff Leslie, Grant Hilfinger, Ladd Yeomans, Billy Moyer, Jr., Steve Yankowski, Justin Holland, Larry Wight, Brian White, Paul Rooney, Casey Williams, Mike Mamama, Mike Loney, Kyle Weiss, Jerry Tonti, Aaron Shelton, Butch Klinger.
DNQ’S; Vinnie Gress, Brad Alger, Garth Tonkin, Jr., Rich Post, Jack Admonson, Kenny Ferrier, Nick Petrilak, Ray Flyer, John Liendecker, Dan Pompey, Geoff Powell.
LAP LEADERS; Gillette ( 1 – 100 )
GUARANTEED STARTER; Creeden.
BUY – IN PROVISIONAL; Hilfinger, Weiss, Lineman, Jr., Batzel.
TOP 15 IN FINAL POINTS; Creeden – 658, Colsten – 598, Loney – 583, Wilder – 536, Williams – 536, Gillette – 521, Wight – 514, Rochinski – 509, Holland – 496, Weiss – 484, Lartz – 478, Janczuk – 475, Alger – 465, Way – 440, Barker – 438.
|
|
