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June 8th, 2009
Thunder Mountain Speedway
June 5th, 2009.
The racing action at Thunder Mountain Speedway this
past Friday night was another crowd pleaser as some
new faces graced "victory lane" for the
first time in 2009, with Smokin' Dave Jenkins
winning the Road Bandit feature, and Matt Lipka
flashing across the finish line first in the Road
Warrior finale.
The Doug's Trash Removal Hurricane Street Stocks
were first in the feature line-up as 19 cars started
the 20 lap event. Rookie Rick Frisco jumped to
the point on the first circuit as he would
relinquish that spot to Rollin' Thunder Rich Green
on lap 2. Rich would continue to lead until
twin sibling Butch wrestled the lead away on lap 5.
These two brothers would duke it out until lap 8
when Rich would run out of real estate coming
through turn 4 on the low side, and met his match
with the yuke tire ending his night. The
Hill's Automotive #39 of Battlin' Butch Green would
continue leading the event as last weeks' feature
winner John Cooper Jr. applied heavy pressure lap
after lap to the finish. Green would capture
win number 3 on the season with John Cooper Jr. 2nd,
Jason Roads with his best finish of the season in
3rd, Gene Sharpsteen 4th, and Chargin' Charlie
Gilbert in 5th.
The Hunt's Auto Service Modified Sportsman didn't
disappoint on this night as well, as Berkshire N.Y.
driver Brett Welch jumped out to the lead at the
drop of the green flag from his pole starting
position. Welch woiuld survive some early
caution flags, and continue to hit his marks lap in
, and lap out throughout the 20th lap until Fast
Eddie White in his familiar Gary's Auto Service # 20
would blast by on the top side into the lead, and
coast home to the checkers with his 3rd win of the
season. Welch finished a career best 2nd, with
White's team mate, Gary Card Jr. in 3rd, and father
and son racers, Larry Hillis and Richie Hillis
finishing 4th and 5th respectively.
The Road Bandit division raced to the starting line
with 14 cars making the grid, as Smokin' Dave
Jenkins put on a clinic with a green to checker win.
The driver from Chenango Bridge, N.Y. was not to be
denied on this evening as he hugged the cushion for
his first win of the season beating Bobby Edwards,
Jarryd Oneil, Cody Nielson, and Lance Albanese to
the checkers.
As is a regular occurrence in the Doug's Speed Shop
I. M.C.A. division, the #44 machine of Barton's
Tommy Eicklor is the man to beat usually. This
race would again substantiate that claim as he moved
into the lead from his 7th place starting spot on
lap #3, and put on a dominating performance as the
feature went the rest of the way without a caution
marking the 4th trip to "victory lane" for
the Wagner Logging 09' Harris chassis.
"Rookie of the year" candidate Mike Wilbur
Sr. finished a distant 2nd, Tyler Stoddard 3rd, Mike
Stoddard 4th, and Eric Redmond in the 5th spot.
The last feature of the night was the Road Warriors
as Matt Lipka picked up win number one on the season
with a last turn pass on leader Royce Currie to nip
the Camaro at the stripe. Currie dominated the
early portion of the event with back to back
cautions on laps 4 and 5 bunching the field together
for the restarts. The R2 was glued to the
ultra smooth, tacky track as Lipka looked several
times to the inside of Currie only to be denied the
chance to steal the top spot because of the
"bite" the Currie machine was getting at
the time. As the race wore on Currie looked to
be slowing a bit, as the #33M of Lipka was gettiing
better. That would hold true as Lipka was able
to power by on the last corner, and bring home the
win. Currie was 2nd, Matt Sistein a solid 3rd,
Harold Walburn 4th, and Gary Brown 5th in the
Country Folks Diner El Camino.
Next week five divisions will be in action with the
I.M.C.A. Modifieds racing at Redline Raceway in a
World Products Empire Series event. The
National Parts Peddler Micro Sprints will return
this evening with the 270 Micro Sprints merging in
with the 600's to race in qualifying events as well
as a feature event. The merge is an experiment
to see if it is a feasible way to expand the car
count in this division while still providing the
action these little "hot rods" display.
While the 270 Micros probably won't compete for the
overall win, there will be an incentive for the top
finishing 270 Micro in the feature event.
Thunder Tidbits:
Threatening skies produced a smaller than usual
turnout in the pits and the grand stand areas, with
70 cars racing in the 5 division program. A
total of 16 Modified Sportsman, 10 I.M.C.A.
Modifieds, 19 Hurricane Street Stocks, 11 Road
Warriors, and 14 Road Bandits competing in the race
program which ended at about 10:15 p.m., just over 3
hours long with a "Hot Dog Race" staged
during intermission. The action continues to
be fantastic as the track has been extremely fast
and smooth throughout the entire program. The
outcome of most of the events has been determined
late in the race events. New faces continue to
arrive as the season progresses with Kurt Decker
unveiling his Hurricane Street Stock for the first
time at Thunder in 2009, as well as Scott Conover
making a rare visit in his A.J. Rhodes Tribute #26
Modified Sportsman.
Thunder Mountain Speedway races at 7:00 p.m. every
Friday night with gates opening at 5:00 p.m.
Thunder Mountain Speedway is located off Interstate
81 exit 8 (Whitney Point), then route 79 west for 5
miles to Hunts Corner Rd. Race day information
call (607)849-7889, and during the week
(607)533-4118 or (607)227-9602.
SPORTSMAN
1 20 Ed White
3 00 Brett Welch
2 2X Gary Card Jr
4 31 Larry Hillis
5 31 II Richie Hillis
6 58L Jim LaRock
7 51Z Ryan Olsommer
8 24 Bob Mills
9 26 Scott Conover
10 2D Chad Dailey Sr.
11 56 Brian White
12 55 PJ Goodwin
13 00Jr Joe Reeves
14 V29 Nick Galayda
15 V28 Westley Campbell
DNS 20Jr Nicky White
STREET STOCKS
1 39 Butch Green
3 4R John Cooper Jr.
2 3 Jason Rhodes
4 7 Gene Sharpsteen
5 28 Charlie Gilbert
6 06 Mike Wilbur Jr.
7 71 Marshall Balzar
8 89 Kurt Decker
9 OH7 Rich Talada
10 5X Darl Ellis
11 12A TJ Anderson
12 2 Chuck Culbertson
13 X2 Rick Frisco
14 83 Steve Mattscheck
15 35 Rich Green
16 109 Mike Wilbur Sr.
17 15 Buck Mills
18 26 Ricky Marsh
19 17 Randy Marsh
IMCA MODIFIEDS
1 44 Tom Eiklor
3 SIX Mike Wilbur Sr.
2 32 Tyler Stoddard
4 23 Mike Stoddard
5 01R Eric Redmond
6 2T Bruce Tinsley
7 00 Jasper Redmond
8 10 Chris Fleming
9 9C Philip Clapper
10 57 Dave Barrows
BANDITS
1 31J Dave Jenkins
3 81 Bobby Edwards
2 56 Jarod O'Neill
4 00 Cody Nielson
5 14A Lanson Albanese
6 88B George Brown
7 31R Ray Oakley
8 19J Jeremie Hale
9 4S Michael Seamon
10 17 Chris Taylor
11 8 Rob Storey
12 86 Dan Rowlands
13 11 Louise Wilcox
14 123 Steve Marks
WARRIORS
1 33M Matt Lipka
2 R2 Royce Currie
3 8 Matt Sisenstein
4 3B Gary Brown
5 85R Brandon Nielson
6 88 Harold Walburn
7 55 Don Lantz Jr.
8 67 Don Swansbrough
9 15 Buck Mills Jr.
DNS 1K Ken Winn
DNS 14 Rob Compton
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