Utica-Rome results 2005-05-29

TODD BURLEY HOLDS ON TO WIN ON PONDRA'S REALTY, TOMBSTONE SALOON, AND NYE AUTO GROUP NIGHT

VERNON, NY (MAY 29) - A packed pit and a full grandstand made for an exciting night of racing on Pondra' Realty, Tombstone Saloon, and Nye Auto Group night. Todd Burley held off a hard charging Mitch Gibbs to take the 358-Modifieds with Kyle Lewis netting his first Sportsman win. Jerry Holmes won the Pro Stocks with Russ Marsden again the winner in the Pure Stocks, Joey Delacruz took the Four Cylinder Super Stocks with Dan Kaszubinski was the victor in the Empire Super Sprint event and Don Harvey won the CNY Mini-Sprint main.

John Ramsey and Bobby Varin led the field down to Matt Burdick's green flag to start the 35 lap 358-Modified feature event, with scored the leader at the completion of lap 1. As Varin distanced himself from the field, Todd Burley was charging from his 10th starting spot, moving into 2nd by lap 2 but appeared to have nothing for Varin as he lost track position to the leader lap after lap. At lap 10, it was Varin, Burley, a fast closing Dave Camara, Ramsey, and Willy Decker in the top 5 positions.

A caution on lap 13 closed the field onto Varin's deck lid, adding some drama to the event. At the drop of the green, Burley quickly went to work on the leader Varin, just gaining the lead as the caution flew for the final time on lap 16. When green flag racing resumed, Mitch Gibbs, the 11th place starter, slipped by Varin to take the 2nd spot only to lose it the following lap. At the two-thirds point of the event, it was Burley, Varin, Gibbs, Camara, and Decker.

As the laps went by, Varin began to close in on Burley, with Gibbs close behind. Varin made several runs at Burley, but Burley slammed the door shut on every attempt. Meanwhile, Gibbs watched from behind and made his move with 2 laps remaining. Gibbs first got by Varin at the white flag waved and quickly caught the leader, but Burley held off Gibb's last ditch effort at the checkered, winning by a half car length. Varin, Camara, and Decker finished out the top 5.

Casey Williams and Tim Nye battled side by side for the early part of the 20 lap Sportsman main, with Williams holding off Nye for the first 8 circuits. Charging from 10th, Kyle Lewis threaded the needle between Nye and Williams to take the lead on lap 9. Lewis was searching for his 1st career Sportsman win but it seemed though he would have to wait another day as Shawn Donath took over the top spot on lap 13. Lewis wasn't going to give up easily though as he hounded Donath for the lead. Lap 16 saw Donath have mechanical problems, dropping him from contention. Lewis took over the top spot and was not going relinquish for the remainder of the race, despite a last lap run by Steve Way. Way would cross in a close 2nd, with Stafford, Alan Barker, and Nye rounding out the rest of the top 5.

Chad Ray and Mark Effner brought the Pro Stock down to the green for their 20 lap feature event with Effner gaining the early lead. Effner would use the high side to his advantage as he would lead until lap 7, giving up the top spot to Jerry Holmes. 2004 track champion Roy Fifield would slip by Effner a lap later and set his sights on the front running Holmes. Fifield would pull up to Holmes' rear deck by lap 13 and would look to get around Holmes, and doing so going down the backstretch on lap 16 with Holmes sweeping back around Fifield exiting turn 4 to lead lap 17. Mechanical woes would force Fifield to drop out the following circuit, giving Holmes some breathing room as he raced off to score the victory. Effner would net a fine 2nd place run with Jason Rood, Chad Ray, and Bret Belden filling out the top 5 spots.

In the Pure Stock main event, Rick Condes would lead from the start and looked strong in his attempt to win his first Pure Stock win. Russ Marsden, who has dominated the early part of the season at the Vernon oval, got a flat tire which looked to end his winning streak. Marsden was able to use a caution to his advantage and get back on the speedway without losing a lap and immediately started his march back up through the field. By lap 6, Marsden was back to the front and took over the top spot over a strong running Condes. Despite a late race run from Ron Hawker and a red flag for a scary flip by Rick Marshall, Marsden was not to be denied. Hawker finished in the runner-up spot with Glen Forward, Chris Cunningham, and George Schulz chasing.

Rich Murtaugh held the early lead of the Four Cylinder Super Stock main event, leading from drop of the green until lap 4 until his son, Joey Delacruz took over the top spot. Delacruz would hold on until the end of the 15-lap event despite a rash of late race cautions. It would be Delacruz's 2nd win of the year at the speedway. Kevin Fassett, Ken Carson, Chuck Powelczyk, and Lorraine Powelczyk would follow Delacruz across the line.

Dan Kaszubinski held off a late charge from Lance Yonge to win the 25 lap ESS main. Don Harvey held off a strong field of mini-sprints to win the CNY Mini-Sprint event.

NOTES- 166 race cars filled to the pits to capacity, with ESS (35) and the CNY Mini-Sprints (32) accounting for 67 of them. Rick Marshall had a hard flip in the Pure Stock main, bringing out the red flag. Marshall was transported for precautionary reasons, as he was alert when removed from his wrecked racer. 17 heats, 2 B Mains, a dash event, and 7 feature events (27 events) gave the fans their money's worth.

The "Action Track of the East" will roar back to life this Sunday, June 5, when Dig Safely New York presents a regular show of 358-Modifieds, Sportsman, Pro Stocks, Pure Stocks, IMCA Modifieds, and Four Cylinder Super Stocks. Gates will open at 3 p.m. with racing at 5:30 p.m. Remember, the racing action never stops on the official Utica-Rome Speedway website where you can view the speedway's weekly highlight show. The web address is www.uticaromespeedway.com, which besides weekly highlights, it is packed full of information such as point standings, past winners, track champions, and much more. For more information on weekly events, the speedway phone number is (315) 829-4557.

PONDRA'S REALTY/TOMBSTONE SALOON/NYE AUTOMOTIVE RACE SUMMARY

358-MODIFIED FEATURE FINISH (30 LAPS)- TODD BURLEY, Mitch Gibbs, Bobby Varin, Dave Camara, Willy Decker, John Ramsey, Brian Weaver, Gus Schmidt, Ron Holmes, Mark Flach, Paul Kinney, Don Mattison, Ted Lamb, Keith Flach, Bob Henry, Mark Tily, David Orr, Ken McGuire, Jamie Christian, Rich Scagliotta, and Darren Keyser.

SPORTSMAN FEATURE FINISH (20 LAPS)- KYLE LEWIS, Steve Way, Kenny Stafford, Alan Barker, Tim Nye, Billy Price, Paul Carey, Mike Button, Boyd McTavish, Casey Williams, Jessica Zemken, Tim Mayne, John Cunningham, Brad Alger, John Scarborough, Jeremy Vunk, Jeff Leslie, Bob Mills, Matt Janczuk, Michael Teachout, Mike Zimmerman, Brian Johnson, Pat O'Hanlan, Shawn Donath, Waylan Wilczek, and Michael Barney.

PRO STOCK FEATURE FINISH (20 LAPS)- JERRY HOLMES, Mark Effner, Jason Rood, Chad Ray, Bret Belden, John Pietrowicz, Tom Denton, Bill Knapp, Eric Vanderhoof, AJ Digsby, Scott Tift, Ed Ostrander, Jim Normoyle, Roy Fifield, Don Decker, and Craig Hale. DNS-Dave Moyer.

PURE STOCK FEATURE FINISH (15 LAPS)- RUSS MARSDEN, Ron Hawker, Glen Forward, Chris Cunningham, George Schulz, Rick Condes, Jim Thomas, Dave Janczuk, Phil Norman, Tim Janczuk, Herm Staats, Art Newman, George Ritchie Jr., Dan Hofmann Sr., Mike Harrison, Rick Marshall, Chuck Cushman, Shawn Dunn, Chris Mackey, Abbey Thorp, Keith Stevenson, and Dan Hill. DNS- Jay McGillicuddy.

FOUR CYLINDER FEATURE FINISH (15 LAPS)- JOEY DELACRUZ, Kevin Fassett, Ken Carson, Chuck Powelczyk, Lorraine Powelczyk, Terry Onyan, Jack Hill, Rich Murtaugh, Doug Farnsworth, Chris Kranz, Robert Burke, and Mike Stringer.

EMPIRE SUPER SPRINT FEATURE TOP 10- DAN KASZUBINSKI, Lance Yonge, Dave Ely, Jeff Cook, Jeff VanDusen, Bryan Howland, Warren Alexson, Shawn Donath, RC Faigle, and Mike VanDusen.

CNY MINI-SPRINT FEATURE TOP 10- DON HARVEY, Rick Hench, Jared Fink, Skip Travis, Mike Kiser, John Guarino, Jamie Kiser, Rich Wood, Pat Kuerner, and Bob Sergeant.

-urs-