2010 RoC Dart Dirt Tour T-Shirt
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Johnson & Puckett Wednesday Five Mile RoC Winners |
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07/10/09 -
By JR KENNERUP
KIRKWOOD, NY - Three happy drivers visited victory lane at the Five Mile Point Speedway on Wednesday as the track hosted their 59th Anniversary Special which was sponsored by Gary’s U-Pull-It.
In the Race of Champions Dart Dirt Modified Tour 75 lapper Danny Johnson of Rochester, NY used his outside pole starting spot to lead all laps en route to the $4,500 win. In the Race of Champions Dart Dirt Sportsman Tour 40 lapper second generation driver Brian Puckett of Scranton, Pa. grabbed the lead on lap 13 and never looked back for the $1,000 win.
Jim Gabriel, Jr. and Danny Johnson brought the 28 car Modified starting field to green with Johnson motoring out to the lead followed by Gabriel, Eric Palmer, Jimmy Phelps, and Brett Hearn. Phelps would work his way under Palmer for third on lap six with Hearn repeating the same move to take fourth one lap later.
On a lap 11 restart Hearn powered by Phelps to get into third and three laps later motored under Gabriel for second. At the same time defending race winner Brian Weaver moved into fifth. Phelps passed Gabriel for third on lap 16 and the top five running order would stay the same until lap 23 when Weaver passed Gabriel for fourth.
With a wide racing surface seeing drivers using every available inch of racing surface the entertaining feature kept all racing fans eyes focused on all of the multiples of three and four wide racing taking place back in the pack.
Meanwhile up front it was becoming very apparent that Danny Johnson had his car dialed into perfection on this night. Each double file restart Johnson would simply pull away from his long time rival Brett Hearn when the green came out. The driver known as 'The Doctor' was setting a blazing pace around the table top smooth quarter mile oval.
Weaver passed Phelps for third on lap 30 and current Heath Family Memorial race winner Jerry Higbie, Jr. was starting to get the outside groove working his way as he took fifth on lap 35.
Between laps 36 and 39 a crowd pleasing three wide battle for fifth took place between Higbie, Gabriel, and Mike Colsten. The most serious accident of the entire racing program took place coming out of turn four to complete lap 40 as these three drivers all got together and made heavy contact with the outside homestretch concrete wall. Gabriel was able to continue after repairs while the cars of Higbie and Colsten were severely damaged, all drivers were uninjured.
The next to last restart of the race saw Palmer move back into fifth on lap 45. With the longest stretch of green flag racing taking place lap traffic would come into play. The heavy lap traffic was no trouble for Johnson as he raced his through it meanwhile it caused problems for everyone else.
With less than five laps to go the cars of the second through fifth place runners were beginning to bunch up due to the lap traffic. With the white flag waving the fourth place car of Phelps spun in turn two bringing out the yellow. The lineup would shuffle again as just before the green checker finish the right front tire on the Palmer machine went flat.
This development had no impact on the top three as Johnson cruised home to the $4,000 win which saw an additional $500 being added because he was the first small block to cross the line. Hearn ended up second to take over the RoC point lead with the finish with Weaver ending up third. Matt Sheppard came from 19th place starting spot to finish fourth with Kevin Bates ending up fifth.
Qualifying for the talented 43 car Modified field saw heat wins go to Hearn, Palmer, Colsten, Bates, and Joey Grammes while consi wins were captured by Bobby Trapper and Jackie Brown, Jr.
Brian Decker and Jeff Crambo led the 24 car Sportsman starting field to green with Decker jumping out to the lead over Crambo, Brian Puckett, Sammy Piazza, and Mike Nagel, Jr. Nagel wheeling the second Grant Hilfinger entry moved into fourth on lap two.
With the first ten laps going caution free the field was starting to get strung out, but there was one driver on the move. Puckett got the middle of the wide racing groove to work as he drove under Crambo for second on lap 11. Going low into turn three on lap 13 Puckett was able to pass Decker for the lead, Crambo would move into second on a lap 19 restart.
With the top three breaking away from the field a wild scramble was starting to develop for fourth between Piazza, Jimmy Howard, Justin Holland, and Brian White. Howard’s great run would end on lap 26 with a blown motor. Piazza would then start to drop back through the field and this left Holland and White to battle for fourth over the final laps with White getting fourth for good on lap 28.
At the checkers Puckett in for the $1,000 feature win over Crambo, Decker, White, and Holland.
Qualifying for the 27 car Sportsman field saw heat wins go to Nagel, Nick Petrilak, Holland, and Joey Colsten.
COUNTER POINTS: The table top smooth racing surface coupled with a five wide racing surface saw some great qualifying race action as only three yellow flags appeared throughout the entire 13 qualifying event program. Jeff Strunk was the last car to arrive as he just finished putting together a new big block Teo Pro car and impressively qualified through the heat with no laps on the car. Modified provisionals went to Stewart Friesen, Billy Van Pelt, Danny Creeden, and Ted Lamb, Jr. Van Pelt did the best of them with an impressive sixth place finish after starting 26th. Defending RoC Modified champion Pat Ward lost a certain top five finish with a flat tire during the final lap. Brett Tonkin was slated to drive the Josh Haney owned Sportsman but suffered terminal mechanical woes during hot laps. Grant Hilfinger and Mike Austin both blew engines during their respective heat races.
RoC MODIFIED FEATURE FINISH: Danny Johnson, Brett Hearn, Brian Weaver, Matt Sheppard, Kevin Bates, Billy Van Pelt, Rick Laubach, Danny Tyler, Jimmy Phelps, Eric Palmer, Pat Ward, Danny Creeden, Joey Grammes, Jeff Strunk, Frank Yankowski, Jackie Brown, Jr., Jim Gabriel, Jr., JR Crouse, Brent Wilcox, James Cornell, Nick Rochinski, Vinny DeCicco, Jerry Higbie, Jr., Mike Colsten, Stewart Friesen, Ted Lamb, Jr., Bobby Trapper, Gary Tomkins.
DNQ: Joey Colsten, Ryan Grim, Ricky Yetter, Stan Frankenfield, Scott Ferrier, Glenn Knapp, Ken Titus, Brian Malcolm, Jeremy Markle, Tim Votra, Chris Ostrowsky, Mel Schrufer, Jamie Yannone, Shaun Walker, Wade Decker.
RoC SPORTSMAN FEATURE FINISH: Brian Puckett, Jeff Crambo, Brian Decker, Brian White, Justin Holland, Jeff Leslie, Johnny Scarborough, Sammy Piazza, Nick Petrilak, Joey Colsten, Kyle Weiss, John Stangle, Kenny Hammond, John Morse, Charlie Hendrickson, Jr., Anthony Perrego, Dwayne Robbins, Casey Plummer, Chris Stevens, Chris Wood, Jimmy Howard, Jamie Batzel, Mike Nagel, Jr., Jerry Tonti.
DNS: Grant Hilfinger, Brett Tonkin, Mike Austin.
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