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Friesen & Holland Top Five Mile Point RoC Events |
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08/09/08 -
By JR KENNERUP
KIRKWOOD, NY - Two famous last names in racing all found their way victory lane on Wednesday night at the Five Mile Point Speedway. Third generation racer Stewart Friesen won the 75 lap Race of Champions Dart Dirt Tour event while another third generation driver Justin Holland won the 40 lap Race of Champions Dart Dirt Sportsman Tour event.
The evening of racing was sponsored by Gary’s U-Pull-It.
The 27 car Modified starting field was brought to green by the front row tandem of Rick Laubach and Dustin Delaney. JR Crouse shocked everyone as he bolted from his third place starting spot to grab the lead on the opening lap. He was followed by Laubach, Delaney, Pat Ward, and Kevin Bates.
Following a lap six restart Laubach using an Enders built big block on this night powered around Crouse to grab the lead. Bates in the Billy Reese owned car impressively moved into third with Stewart Friesen passing Ward for fifth. Two laps later a bobble by Bates allowed Delaney to move back into third with Ward trapping Friesen behind Bates to take fourth.
Just after the green flew to restart the race on lap 15 Ward took to the high groove to go from fourth to second. Meanwhile with all of the passing going on in the pack leader Laubach was running the high groove with clear sailing.
During this long stretch of green flag conditions Friesen, who started sixth started to show his strength on this night. He moved into fifth on lap 18 and then after catching Delaney he passed him for fourth on lap 32. Friesen continued his charge to the front when he passed Crouse for third on lap 40 and three laps later slid under Ward to take second.
While Friesen was making his move toward the front another driver was doing the same. Billy Van Pelt driving his brother Curt’s car on this night was capturing the attention of everyone as he was on a mission to the front of the field. Van Pelt lined up in 15th to start the race used the bottom groove exclusively in his charge to fifth on lap 39. Now with positions two through sixth all bunched up Van Pelt moved past Delaney for fourth on lap 44.
During a yellow flag period on lap 47 the right rear tire on the Laubach machine started to lose air after contact with a lap car earlier in the race. Laubach would only hold the lead until lap 52 when the right rear finally exploded in turn two bringing out the yellow. The great run of Laubach came to an end as he pitted and returned but was never a factor for the remainder of the race.
Friesen now inherited the lead but he had Ward on his back bumper along with Van Pelt. The great run of Van Pelt ended on lap 59 with a blown motor. The final 16 laps were anti climatic as Friesen went on to win the feature worth $4,500. Ward settled for second with 13th place starting Jeff Rudalavage coming on strong at the end to finish third. Crouse hung on for fourth with 11th place starter Brett Hearn finishing fifth.
"Man I’m so happy as this is one of the biggest wins I’ve ever had," said Friesen in victory lane. "It’s just awesome to win at a place like Five Mile Point that means so much to my family in racing; it’s truly special to win here at Five Mile Point.
"I run a little bit of a softer tire than anyone else does here so that is why I have to diamond the corners off here. That keeps the car straight coming off the corner and helps on the tire wear, the tire wear wasn’t bad at all tonight as Andy really has done wonders to this track and tire wear is not a factor here."
Qualifying events for the 33 car Modified field saw heat wins go to Ward, Brian Weaver, Mike Colsten, and Bates while Wade Decker captured the B Main.
Shaun Walker and Charlie Hendrickson Jr. paced the RoC Dart Dirt Sportsman field to the green. Walker jumped out to the lead followed by Jamie Batzel, Matt Janczuk, Hendrickson, and Justin Holland. Holland moved into fourth on lap two and moved into third following a lap seven restart.
A trio of yellows on lap 18 caused a big shuffle in the standings and when racing resumed Walker now had Holland right on his back bumper racing for the lead. Holland running the cushion took advantage of Walker giving him that groove to grab the lead at the halfway mark.
Once in front Holland continued to run the high line and survived a red flag period and one yellow flag period to grab the $1,000 win. Walker ended up second with Janczuk finishing third, Nick Rochinski in fourth, and Mike Nagel, Jr. in fifth.
Since this was the last RoC Dart Dirt Sportsman Tour race before the final two championship events a $500 bonus was on the line for the point leader. Unofficially as of press time that extra money will be split between Brad Alger and Janczuk who are tied in the points.
"We were pretty quick and I didn’t think Shaun Walker was going to give me the outside," said Justin.
"He was just as fast as us but we had the outside and he gave us the room to make the pass as the outside was quicker tonight for sure. I have to thank Sharkey’s Fuels as they came on board with some sponsorship money tonight and that enabled us to buy a new right rear tire, which helped a lot."
Qualifying events for the 18 car field saw heat wins go to Earl Paules, Brian Puckett, and Holland.
Modified Finish: Stewart Friesen, Pat Ward, Jeff Rudalavage, JR Crouse, Brett Hearn, Kevin Bates, Mike Colsten, Dustin Delaney, Brent Wilcox, Wade Decker, Danny Creeden, Brian Weaver, Joey Grammes, Rick Laubach, Jim Mahaney, Jackie Brown, Jr., Darwin R. Greene, Bob Hamm, Jr., Tim Votra, Billy Van Pelt, Carl Nagel, Frank Yankowski, Kenny Titus, JR Hurlburt, Tom McGurrin, James Cornell. DNS; Bobby Trapper. DNQ’S; Dave Calaman, Scott Brady, Glenn Knapp, Jr., Jared Keeney, Chris Ostrowsky, Roy Shields.
$500 Dart Machinery Small Block Bonus; Friesen.
Accord Provisional; Brown.
Five Mile Point Provisional; Hurlburt.
Penn-Can Provisional; Greene.
Sportsman Finish: Justin Holland, Shaun Walker, Matt Janczuk, Nick Rochinski, Mike Nagel, Jr., Mike Loney, Brad Alger, Jeff Crambo, Frank Doty, Jamie Batzel, Brian Puckett, Damien Reynolds, Harold Humphrey, Joey Colsten, Charlie Hendrickson, Jr., Steve Yankowski, Jr., Chris Wood, Earl Paules.
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