ALLSTAR: Tri City Allstar Results 98-05-10

Tri-City Speedway, Franklin, Pa. - Sun 5/10/98

FRANKLIN, PA - Joey Saldana led wire-to-wire in the All Star sprint 30-lap feature Sunday night at Tri-City Speedway for his first series win of 1998. He had to battle his way through dense lapped traffic almost the entire 15 mile distance. With threatening skies, the show was run off in quick fashion.

"It helped a lot to start up front. The track was pretty slick," Saldana recalled, standing beside Steve Mox’s Chevrolet powered Stealth. "It was hard to pass, I don’t know how we would have done if we would have started fourth but luckily we won. The lapped traffic was terrible," he concluded.

New All Star points leader Jacobs came home second for the second night in a row. "I knew it was going to be hard to pass anybody," Jacobs recalled. "Joey drove a great race, he didn’t make a single mistake in 30 laps. When a guy doesn’t make a mistake and they’re as fast as he is, it’s real hard to beat that guy." Jacobs drives the Tim Hughes J&J with Kriner power.

Frankie Kerr started Stan Shoff’s Eagle on the ButlerBuilt hot seat pole with Saldana alongside. Fourth starting Shepard tried a low pass of Saldana for the lead on the third turn of lap one, and that’s as close he would get to the lead all night. "Our car wasn’t quite right, early in the race we weren’t real bad and I could catch those guys in traffic, but on the restarts I just didn’t have any left rear drive," Shepard recalled.

Saldana began stretching out his advantage over Shepard and Jacobs, with Kerr falling into fourth and Dean Jacobs fifth. By lap five Saldana was in traffic, with Shepard and K. Jacobs able to close slightly. A yellow for a Gale Ruth spin in turn two slowed the action, which included Judi Bates coming up on Ruth and colliding, ending her tenth place run.

With a clear track ahead, Saldana extended his lead as K. Jacobs did a nice low move pass of Shepard exiting turn four as the green appeared. Jacobs could not move up on Saldana until lapped traffic loomed ahead again. Then on lap 21 a Bruce Powell spin set up a nine lap dash to the end, but Jacobs had one lapped machine between himself and the leader on the restart

With two laps to go, traffic blocked Saldana for an instant, allowing Jacobs to close, but never allowing him to make a challenge for the win. At the end it was Saldana by four lengths over K. Jacobs with Shepard third and Dean Jacob’s Denny Ashworth Schnee a consistent fourth. Keith Kauffman started 13th and moved into fifth after the lap 22 restart, finishing there ahead of Kerr, 18th starting Kevin Huntley, ESS regular Mike Woodring, Tri City points leader Jimmy Hawley and second generation driver Tommy Quarterson.

The United Expressline heat fell to Keith Kauffman, the Southwest Expressline heat to Judi Bates and the Southwest Glass heat was won by Kevin Huntley. Joey Saldana won the Commercial Truck & Trailer Dash. Jeff Shepard’s 15.395 clocking was a new track record, breaking Lance Dewease’s mark set last June. Quick time was worth $250 in quarters from Carriage City Car Wash. Car Mate Trailers also posted bonus money for three top finishers with K. Jacobs pocketing $175, Shepard $75 and D. Jacobs $50. Time Trials: 1. Jeff Shepard, Double L 4J, 15.395; 2. Kenny Jacobs, Hughes 94, 15.504; 3. Joey Saldana, Mox 17, 15.526; 4. Frankie Kerr, Shoff 23s, 15.570; 5. Dean Jacobs, Ashworth 92, 15.627; 6. Tom Quarterson, R&R 27, 15.766; 7. Ed Lynch, Jr., Lynch 2L, 15.777; 8. Judi Bates, Mourar 121, 15.844; 9. Bob Felmlee, Felmlee 6, 15.926; 10. Mike Woodring, Woodring 19, 15.996; 11. Jimmy Hawley, Crawford C3, 16.112; 12. Scott Bonnell, Bonnell 3, 16.115; 13. Keith Kauffman, Johnson U2, 16.120; 14. Scott Jones, Jones 13, 16.130; 15. Craig Rankin, Guzzo 77, 16.158; 16. Brian Ellenberger, Ellenberger 20, 16.167; 17. Bobby Clark, Clark 8, 16.199; 18. Kevin Huntley, Daugherty 7, 16.237; 19. James Wray, Wray 24, 16.250; 20. Brad Ellenberger, Ellenberger 87, 16.578; 21. Brian Smith, Smith 2+, 16.760; 22. Gale Ruth, Jr., Ruth 5x, 17.445; 23. Bruce Powell, Powell 35, 17.663; 24. Skip Dougherty, Dougherty 27, NT. United Expressline Heat (8 laps): 1. Kauffman 2. Lynch 3. Woodring 4. Shepard 5. Kerr 6. Wray 7. Powell 8. Brian Ellenberger. Southwest Expressline Heat (8 laps): 1. Bates 2. K. Jacobs 3. Jones 4. D. Jacobs 5. Hawley 6. Brad Ellenberger 7. Ruth 8. Clark. Southwest Glass Heat (8 laps): 1. Huntley 2. Rankin 3. Saldana 4. Felmlee 5. Quarterson 6. Smith 7. Bonnell 8. Dougherty - DNS. Commercial Truck & Trailer Dash: (4 laps): 1. Saldana 2. Kerr 3. Shepard 4. D. Jacobs 5. K. Jacobs 6. Bates. A Main (30 laps): 1. Saldana 2. K. Jacobs 3. Shepard 4. D. Jacobs 5. Kauffman 6. Kerr 7. Huntley 8. Woodring 9. Hawley 10. Quarterson 11. Felmlee 12. Brian Ellenberger 13. Jones 14. Wray 15. Smith 16. Brad Ellenberger 17. Ruth 18. Powell 19. Rankin 20. Bates. DNS - Lynch, Clark, Bonnell, Dougherty. All Star Points: 1. Kenny Jacobs 777; 2. Joey Saldana 765; 3. Frankie Kerr 719; 4. Kevin Huntley 711; 5. Jeff Shepard 708; 6. Dean Jacobs 703; 7. Keith Kauffman 661; 8. Scott Jones 554; 9. Judi Bates 553;10. Brian Smith 480.