2010 RoC Dart Dirt Tour T-Shirt
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Friesen Wins First RoC Visit To Grandview |
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07/16/10 -
CVD’S FLAT HANDS THUNDER ON THE HILL RoC FEATURE TO FRIESEN AT GRANDVIEW
BY JR KENNERUP
Bechtelsville, Pa… It all came down to a battle between some of the hottest drivers racing at dirt surfaced tracks in the Northeast on Wednesday night at the Grandview Speedway in the Thunder on the Hill Series event.
First it was Wade Hendrickson of Bridgeport and Craig Von Dohren of Big Diamond and Grandview going all out for the win until a broken rod in the engine sidelined Hendrickson. Then Von Dohren and Duane Howard of RoC, Grandview, and Big Diamond battled for the top spot for a few laps before Von Dohren started to stretch the lead.
With 18 laps to go in the 60 lap feature Stewart Friesen of RoC, Five Mile Point, and Utica – Rome worked his way past Howard for second and began to reel in Von Dohren. It appeared that Von Dohren would be going on to record another big race, big money feature win until a slowly deflating right rear tire allowed Friesen to close in and with seven laps to go the right rear tire finally gave up on the Von Dohren machine.
Friesen then inherited the lead and led the final seven laps to claim the $5,000 win. Friesen also claimed an additional $1,000 in bonus money making it a $6,000 payday for the Niagara on the Lake Ontario driver.
Howard running his big block powered Troyer settled for a disappoing second with 21st place starter and new RoC Tour point leader Danny Johnson finishing third. Ryan Godown hung around the top five all night long in the Norm Hansell owned entry to end up in fourth and 12th place starter Frank Cozze finished in fifth.
“ This was a big one to get for Tad ( car owner Parks ) and the boys as we have let a few big ones get away this year, the car was unreal tonight “ said Friesen afterwards.
Wade Hendrickson and Craig Von Dohren brought the 29 car field to green with the driver known as the “ Flying Farmer “ grabbing the lead over Von Dohren, Ryan Watt, Duane Howard, and Stewart Friesen.
Von Dohren was just about to make a sweeping outside pass of Hendrickson for the lead when the yellow appeared for Rick Laubach who had flames shooting out from the right exhaust header. Laubach pulled to the infield and was checked over by track and fire personnel and allowed to continue.
Von Dohren grabbed the lead on the restart with Howard taking third away from Watt. Watt returned the favor two laps later by taking third back from Howard, Howard in heavy lap traffic on lap 14 took third for good from Watt.
On a lap 19 restart Hendrickson shocked everyone in attendance as he grabbed the lead from Von Dohren who has been unstoppable at Grandview for the past two months. Meanwhile Friesen blasted from fifth to third on the restart and one lap later Ryan Godown moved past Watt for fifth.
Hendrickson’s great run ended on lap 22 as a broken rod in the engine slowed him to a stop in turn four to bring out the yellow. “ Once Craig showed me where to run I knew that I had enough car to pass him and hold him off “ said Wade.
On the restart Von Dohren regained the lead only to have Howard now breathing down his neck for the lead. Godown moved past Friesen for third on lap 27 only to have Friesen pass him back for the spot three laps later.
Danny Johnson who started 21st was the fastest car on the track and he moved into fifth on lap 33.
A rash of yellow fever slowed the race up to lap 40 and once the race resumed Von Dohren raced out to a nearly full straightaway lead over Howard who now had to battle with Friesen for second.
Friesen let everyone know he was going to be a force to be reckoned with over the final laps as he passed Howard for second with 18 laps to go. Friesen started to reel the leader in partly due to a slowly deflating right rear tire on the Von Dohren machine.
Johnson meanwhile continued his charge as he took fourth from Godown with eight laps to go.
Exiting turn two coming around to complete lap 53 the right rear tire on the Von Dohren machine gave up and he limped the car into the infield.
Friesen inherited the lead and led the final seven laps unchallenged for his first career Grandview feature win.
“ I knew from racing here before that the bottom is always good here as you bump your way around the tires “ said Stewart when talking about watching the weekly racers and where they raced on this night. “ I was super, super tight on the top and when I got into the turn it would just shove. Then when we got around Duane there on the top, it was unreal as the car started coming to us. “
“ Craig and I were running the same line and he had a good lead. I knew that if I had a shot at catching him I had to try something. So I slowed down a little bit, hit my marks, and we started catching him. I think we had something for him even before he pulled off. I know I smelled smoke and then all of the sudden he pulled off and we’re in the lead “ said the sixth place starter.
“ This is an absolutely huge win for us “ said the smiling race winner. “ This is a volunteer crew team; we had some really good insights from Teo – Pro car and Bilstein Shocks. Me and Matt work really good together, we don’t second guess each other and it seems like we make the right call together when we go to a track. The car was scary tight early but that last green flag run the car was perfect. “
Stewart spoke about the significance of his first career Grandview feature win. “ This is a culmination of all the time we put in here, this is big. We ran super good in the big block race here a couple of weeks ago. I knew how to run the top and bottom here and when you give me a race car that can run anywhere on the track, this is what you get. “
Second place finisher Duane Howard knew that an early day decision ended up costing him a win. “ We’re really disappointed as at the last minute we decided to bring the big block “ said Duane who started fourth. “ Looking back it was probably a mistake as the lap times were the same as they are on a Saturday night in a small block with the track being worse than it was tonight. We were bad tonight quite honestly, the car is the oldest Troyer we have in the stable and we threw some things at it and it didn’t work. “
New RoC Modified point leader Danny Johnson was satisfied with a third after starting 21st. “ We had a fast hot rod and a better starting spot would have definitely helped us. But lately we have had some good starting spots and we’re due for a bad starting spot once in a while. “
Qualifying for the 40 car field saw heat wins go to Ray Swinehart, Ryan Watt, Jeff Strunk, and Von Dohren. The twin B Mains were captured by Johnson and Rick Laubach.
The companion RoC Sportsman Tour event saw youngster Anthony Perrego vault from third to first and open up a huge lead by rim riding around the high banked oval. Bradley Brightbill who started seventh hooked up on the bottom and reeled Perrego in. Brightbill took the lead just past the halfway point and opened up a big lead while staying committed to the bottom groove.
The final five laps of the 40 lap $1,000 to win feature saw Brightbill enter heavy lap traffic. Bradley stuck to his guns by staying in the bottom groove and this slowed his progress and this allowed Perrego to close in. The final lap saw Brightbill barely hold off Perrego for the win; Mike Loney was third, Justin Holland fourth, and Jarred Miller was fifth.
Qualifying for the 34 car Sportsman field saw heat wins won by Bob Lineman, Jr., Brightbill, Ryan Beltz, and Pat Wall while Jeff Crambo won the consi.
RoC THUNDER ON THE HILL NOTES; plenty of credit for the show goes to co – promoters Bob Miller and Bruce Rogers. They could have easily postponed the show as it rained at the track until early mid afternoon. However they waited out the rain survived a shower two hours before race time and was rewarded with a highly entertaining evening of racing. Credit also goes to track crew of Kenny Rogers and Brad Missimer who provided a smooth, wide racing surface that allowed plenty of entertaining racing to take place all evening long. Jimmy Horton, Jr. blew the engine in hot laps ending his night while in the Sportsman Bob Burgess III qualified in the consi however hit the wall after the checker, the damage was severe enough that he was unable to start the feature. For the first time in over four years in the RoC Modified Tour points a driver other than Pat Ward is leading the points as Danny Johnson is now the point leader with three races to go.
RACE REPORT RACE OF CHAMPIONS DART DIRT MODIFIED TOUR THUNDER ON THE HILL / BPG RACING 60
Official Finish Posted in Results Section.
DNQ’S; Dave Calaman, Danny Tyler, Frank Cozze, Jr., Stan Frankenfield, Jr., Jimmy Horton, Jr., Bobby Trapper, Tommy Scheetz, Jr., John Guarino, Kirk Horton, Kevin Hirthler, and Tom Carberry.
LAP LEADERS; Hendrickson ( 1 – 4 ), Von Dohren ( 5 – 19 ) Hendrickson ( 20 – 22 ) Von Dohren ( 23 – 52 ), Friesen ( 53 – 60 ).
DART MACHINERY SMALL BLOCK BONUS $500; Friesen.
FIVE MILE POINT / GRANDVIEW BONUS $500; Friesen.
RACE OF CHAMPIONS PROVISIONALS; Weaver, Creeden
GRANDVIEW PROVISIONALS; Willman, Missimer.
FIVE MILE POINT PROVISIONAL; Bates.
SPORTSMAN FINISH; Bradley Brightbill, Anthony Perrego, Mike Loney, Justin Holland, Jarred Miller, Craig Whitmoyer, Jared Umbenhauer, Mike Mammana, Bob Lineman, Jr., Ryan Beltz, Kevin Beach, Brad Grim, Joe Funk, Chad Barney, Clay Butler, Jamie Batzel, Kevin Smith, Pat Wall, Nick Rochinski, Sammy Piazza, Brad Szulewski, Jeff Crambo, Dave Dissinger, Mike Lisowski, Jr., Nick Petrilak, Charlie Hendrickson, Jr.
SCRATCHED; Burgess.
ALTERNATE; Smith.
RoC PROVISIONALS; Batzel, Hendrickson.
DNQ’S; Bob Burgess, III, Joe Masaido, Troy Gibson, Kevin Brady, Jeremy Hertzog, Brad Force, Kevin Vaclavicek, and Warren Floyd.
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