2010 RoC Dart Dirt Tour T-Shirt
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Jerry Higbie Jr. Scores RoC Victory Friday At Accord |
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09/26/09 -
ACCORD, NY - A standing room only crowd filled the Accord Speedway arena on Friday evening to witness the annual running of the prestigious King of the Catskills Modified race and they came away agreeing it was one of the best racing events they witnessed in quite some time.
With the the ROC Modified Tour bringing their touring stars in for a battle with the tough field of Accord regulars, the stage was set for a showdown between the two factions. When the checkered flag fell at the end of 100 hard fought laps, 2009 Accord Speedway Modified Champion Jerry Higbie crossed the finish line first and celebrated the win in the Lucas Oil Products Winner Circle with his happy followers and his car owner Mike Petruska and the Altas Paving Team. The win for Higbie was his third of the season at Accord since taking over the controls of the Petruska owner racer. Bill Rumsey from the WLR Construction Team handed the winning $6,000.00 check over the Higbie in victory lane for his winning efforts.
Forty-Seven Modified hopefuls swelled the pit area and resulted in five heat events that resembled mini feature events. Jerry Higbie, Greg Hastie, Howard Jarvis, Danny Johnson and Vinnie DeCicco captured the heats wins with Stewart Friesen and Brett Hearn capturing the consolation events. After trackside introductions by announcers Steve Pados and Joel Murns, Bill Rumsey gave the drivers the cue to start their engines. Twenty Nine cars made up the starting field with Greg Hastie and Ricky Yetter making up the front row. At the drop of the green flag, it was the "Negotiator" Ricky Yetter taking his car topside and gaining control of the lead. Yetter led for two laps before yielding to the high-flying "Recycler" Mike Colsten as Colsten flexed his muscles with a power move off of turn two to assume the lead. Colsten had a quick race car and paced the field up until lap 19 when the "Wild Child" Andy Bachetti found a seam higher than the one used by Colsten and got the forward bite off the shelf to move past Colsten and take over the lead. A caution on lap-24 brought the field to a halt and on the restart it was Bachetti powering away with Colsten, DeCicco and Hastie challenging and with Jerry Higbie entering the picture. The laps clicked off with Bachetti finding incredible bit on the top shelf of the raceway and by lap-50 crossed the line to claim the $500.00 prize put up by the WLR Team for the halfway leader.
After the fuel stop, Bachetti once again took control of the event but now the pressure from Higbie was mounting. By the 70-lap mark, the pair had entered lapped traffic and Bachetti moved his car from the topside to the bottom of the raceway to maneuver around the slower cars. Higbie centerlined his racer looking for an opportunity to slip by. The opportunity came on lap-77 as Higbie found a small seam on the topside and moved past Bachetti to take over the lead. During the run through lapped traffic "Iron" Mike Ricci closed the gap in a hurry as he moved in behind the pair of front runners to make it an Accord 1-2-3. The final caution came on lap-89 when the great run by Bobby Trapper came to a halt on the frontstretch when he lost a wheel and ended his run from 28th starting place to seventh at the time of the incident.
When the race went back to green, Higbie got a remarkable restart and moved out to a couple of car length advantage the next time around over Bachetti and Ricci who was now slipping back a bit from the two leaders. As the the checkered flag fell it was Jerry Higbie capturing the win with Andy Bachetti in for the runnerup role, Mike Ricci in third from 14th starting position, Mike Colsten in a great drive for fourth and new series point leader Pat Ward rallying back from a 25th place start to complete the top five. Greg Hastie gained a ton of respect from his fellow drivers with a solid run to claim sixth place money and the "Middletown Missile" Chuck McKee drove a great race to finish in 7th place from his 24th place start. Kevin Duryea was 8th after starting 27th, Danny Johnson was ninth after going to the rear of the field at the break with a faulty rear tire and working his way back to a solid finish. Billy Pauch went pitside at the break and rallied back to claim 10th place at the finish. Stewart Friesen, Jamie Yannone, Brian Weaver, Clinton Mills and Brett Hearn competed the top fifteen placers.
Charlie Schwartz wired the field of Pro Stocks in a 25-lap main event that produced a two car battle between Schwartz and part-time runner at the speedway in 2009 Ron Nuzzaro. Nuzzaro stuck the nose of his race car underneath Schwartz on a number of occasions throughout the last half of the race but could never muster the bid to unseat Schwartz from the lead. At the end of the 25-laps it was Schwartz winning his second main event of the season with Ron Nuzzaro in second, Norbert Bracklow in third, Emerson Cargain Fourth and John Drake completing the top five.
The Junior Slingshots were showcased for the firt time as part of the King of the Catskills weekend and the youngsters put on an exciting show for the fans as the "Stars of Tomorrow" quickly got their rhythm on the Accord high banks and lots of side by side action produced a great event. Mathew Gaughan was the eary leader until yielding to the 2009 Accord Speedway champion Jesse Leiby. Leiby reeled off consistent 16.6 second laps to move out to a safe advantage as the checkered flag flew and Leiby claiming his 8th win at Accord in 2009. Tyler Dippel claimed the runnerup money with first time speedway entrant "Thrillin" Dylan Martin racing to third place in his Mark Gray Automotive sponsored machine. Another first time speedway entrant, "Slick" Ricky Raisner was fourth in his Express-Times mount and rounding out the top five was another first time entrant Chris Kurtz in his CK Transport sponsored machine.
The ruglar Slinghsot event proved to be the Kyle VanDuser show As Van Duser took the lead at he start of the event and led all laps to claim the win, his fifth in a very productive racing season at Accord. Richie VanOrden was the runnerup with Anthony Perrego borrowing the Todd Dippel owned race car and claiming third place. Ricky Yetter did double duty and was fourth in his slingshot and Charlie Lawrence raced from 12th starting postion to complete the top five.
MUDPLUGS:
Gary Palmer worked extremely hard on his racetrack all week long and the track was good from wall to wall with the topside being the quicker way to the front on this night of racing. The visiting drivers commended Palmer on his pristine speedplant as did many of the visiting fans from around the East Coast.
Brett Deyo returned to the raceway to talk about his upcoming Short Track Nationals event at the Five Mile Point on October 10th. Brett also made note of the many improvements Promoter Gary Palmer continues to make at the speedway and was impressed with the great racing done in all divisions. A qualifying spot for the Short Track Nationals was up for grabs and was claimed by Jerry Higbie.
Many visiting speedways were on hand for the event and most brought their pace trucks that in a dazzling display of colors and race track unity.
Notable no-shows among the ROC Touring group included Matt Sheppard who came into the event in third place in the rankings but will fall quickly with his absence. Billy Decker was another no-show and he was residing in 8th place prior to the event but more than likely will fall from the top ten after the event. Mike Gular and Jeff Strunk were no shows as well. Billy Pauch Jr was on hand for the event but was turning the wrenches for his Dad. Invaders Billy Van Pelt, Joey Grammes, Ricky Holsten and Bobby Puckett didn't fare well in qualifiying and Accord regulars Richie Eurich, Mel Schrufer, Lex Burritt,
John McGill, Danny Tyler, Scott Ferrier, Robbie Green and Jackie Brown all had their share of problems and failed to transfer into the main event.
Brett Hearn was involved in a couple of skirmishes in the course of the evening and as a result, much of the right side body was gone from his racer. Hearn toughed out and even though going down a lap was fifteenth in the event but in the process losing the series point lead to Pat Ward. Jeff Richardson stepped up to the Modifieds as he jumped into the second Jeff Mastrocola owned car and won a heat and was scored 18th in the feature event. Driver Tom Demarmels is moving to North Carolina as he recently purcahsed a mobile home park and will make his future residence in the Hickory area of North Carolina.
Shaun Walker made his first Accord apperance and did a great job qualifying for the main event and running among the top six when he was involved in a skirmish that ended his night. Brent Boyer made the trip in from Bloomsburg and did a great job until being sideleined with mechanical woes.
Two more races make up the remaining ROC schedule. The King of the Can will unfold at Penn Can on October 24th and the Five Mile Point Spectacular will follow on October 31st and those events will determine the the title winner for 2009.
RESULTS:
Elwood Hewitt's Matco Tool Pro Stocks: Charlie Schwartz, Ron Nuzzaro, Norbert Bracklow, Emerson Cargain, John Drake, Torin Betterton, Bill Rion, Tom Vasta, John Roese, Bill Knapp, Hank Morin, Wayne Hajek, Clarence Smith, Ralph Ronk
Rhinebeck Ford Modifieds: Jerry Higbie, Andy Bachetti, Mike Ricci, Mike Colsten, Pat Ward, Greg Hastie, Chuck McKee, Kevin Duryea, Danny Johnson, Billy Pauch, Stewart Friesen, Jamie Yannone, Brian Weaver, Clinton Mills, Brett Hearn, John Lutes Jr, Russ Zimmerman, Jeff Richardson, Vinnie DeCicco, Rick Mill, Bobby Trapper, Brian Malcolm, Brent Boyer, Jeremy Markle, Danny Creeden, Shawn Walker, Ricky Yetter, Mark Pullen, Howard Jarvis
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