Despite some afternoon showers, last Saturday
night's racing card at the Lake Moc-A-Tek Speedway went on as scheduled
with fans in attendance being treated to a fabulous fireworks display in
addition to plenty of hot racing action on the track. Mike Ricci picked
up his sixth 358 Modified feature win, with Nate Evans claiming win #6 in
the Pure Stocks. Mike Marold picked up his first career feature win in
Sportsman action with Bill Rosengrant also a first tie winner in the
Street Stock ranks. Current point leader Richie Harman picked up his
fifth win of the season in the 250cc Micro Sprint action.
Ricci's win in the 25 lap 358 Modified feature was a dramatic
one.
Bobby Puckett led the majority of the race, but as the race entered its
closing stages, Ricci had moved into a challenging position aboard his
Apple Greens Golf Course/Gen Plus Electrical #76 Teo Pro Car. With only
two laps remaining in the event Ricci made his move, going to the high
side of the track exiting the fourth turn. This power move turned out to
be the winning move as Mike drove around the outside of Puckett to take
over the lead with only two laps left to race. Puckett made a final run
at Ricci on the final lap, but Mike was too strong and went on to claim
the win. Puckett crossed the line second trailed by Joey Grammes, George
Hildebrandt, and Gary Griffin. John Leiby, Brian Malcolm, Bill Grammes,
Ed Strada Jr., and Billy Thornton completed the top ten.
Honesdale, Pa.'s Mike Marold picked up his first career win in
Sportsman competition. It was a hard fought and well deserved victory
for Marold as he had plenty of company over the final laps as defending
track champion and current point leader Ralph Mele was working all over
the back of Marold's pink and black Troyer machine. Despite the heavy
pressure from Mele, Marold drove a flawless race as he never gave Mwele a
chance to make the pass. At the finish it was Marold by about 2 car
lengths over Mele. Rookie Chris Kresge turned in another solid drive to
finish third ahead of Tom Gervasi and Alex Knopka. Brad Grammes, Bob
Grammes, Rocky Rosetti, Mike Schane, and Darren Stourt made up the second
half of the top ten.
Bill Rosengrant picked up his first career feature win in the
Street
Stock ranks as he led the 20 lap feature from green to checkered. A last
lap caution flag provided some anxious moments for Rosengrant as the one
lap sprint to the checkered flag found defending track cchampion Mike
Loney poised right on Rosengrant's tail. Bill was able to run off the
final lap without Loney finding a way past to earn his first feature win
in two seasons of trying. Loney gave Rosengrant all he had before
settling for second at the finish. Jim Sykes finished third ahead of Tom
Herman and Nick Petrilak. Mike Van Tassel, Rick Lazar, Nate Evans, Adam
Jones and Ed Kudrako made up the remainder of the top ten finishing
order.
Current Pure Stock point leader Nate Evans picked up his sixth
feature win of the season in that division. He took advantage of a late
race restart to wrest the lead away from Franklin Bush, then pulled away
from the field in the closing laps to secure the win. Bush had his car
shut off exiting the fourth turn on the final lap but was able to coast
to the finish, narrowly holding on for second as Don Leiper made a run
for the spot but wound up finishing third by a scant margin. Jason
Martin finshed a season best fourth with Eric Schmidt fifth. Ron Blake,
Greg Brunges, Keith Villano, Floyd Schmidt, and George Ippolito completed
the top ten.
Richie Hartman continued his domination of the 250cc Micro Sprint
division, picking up his fifth win of the season. Davie Franek tried to
run Hartman down, but could not get close enough to challenge and settled
for second behind Hartman. Ralph Utter Jr., Stephanie Stevens, and Jason
Frantz rounded out the top five. Alan Shiffler, Kevin Horton, Richie
Drake, Darrell Cobb and newcomer Paul Effrig rounded out the top ten.
RACE SUMMARY:
358 MODIFIEDS : 1. MIKE RICI 2. Bobby Puckett 3. Joey Grammes 4. George
Hildebrandt 5. Gary Griffin 6. John Leiby 7. Brian Malcolm 8. Bill
Grammes 9. Ed Strada Jr. 10. Bill Thornton Jr. 11. Everett Haubrich 12.
Josh Beierle 13. Jim Allen 14. Bobby Trapper 15. Russ Strausser 16. Barry
White 17. Tom Oleski 18. Alan Kellogg 19. Johnny Sanders 20. Tom
Rudalavage 21. Nick Barassi 22. Dom Roselli 23. Bill Reese
SPORTSMAN: 1. MIKE MAROLD 2. Ralph Mele 3. Chirs Kresge 4. Tom Gervasi 5.
Alex Knopka 6. Brad Grammes 7. Bob Grammes 8. Rocky Rosetti 9. Mike
Schane 10. Darren Stout 11. Ted Stout 12. Ricky Rutt 13. Mike Mondak 14.
Ron Frable 15. Buddy Altemose 16. Tom Laner Jr. 17. Chris Clemons 18.
Bill Moyer 19. Greg Morgan 20. Brian Ace 21. LeRoy Long
STREET STOCK: 1. BILL ROSENGRANT 2. Mike Loney 3. Jim Sykes 4. Tom Herman
5. Nick Petrilak 6. Mike Van Tassel 7. Rick Lazar 8. Nate Evans 9. Adam
Jones 10. Ed Kudrako 11. David Luff 12. Neil DiBlasi 13. Jim Hughes Jr.
14. Greg Buchannon 15. Jared Schultz 16. Joe Krisovich 17. Rick Smith 18.
Jerry Van Tassel 19. Bill Saxe 20. Kevin Simko 21. Chuck Davis
PURE STOCK: 1. NATE EVANS 2. Franklin Bush 3. Don Leiper 4. Jason Martin
5. Eric Schmidt 6. Ron Blake 7. Gregg Brunges 8. Keith Villano 9. Floyd
Schmidt 10. George Ippolito 11. Tom Cilurso 12. Ira Landrum
250CC MICRO SPRINT: 1. RICHIE HARTMAN 2. Davie Franek 3. Ralph Utter Jr.
4. Stephanie Stevens 5. Jason Frantz 6. Alan Shiffler 7. Kevin Horton 8.
Richie Drake 9. Darrell Cobb 10. Paul Effrig 11. Michele Conway 12. Rich
McKay 13. Brian Duffin Jr. 14. Todd Hanlin 15. Ryan Marsonhalter 16.
Michael Garber 17. Greg Stevens 18. Geoff Quackenbush 19. Fred Vanenza
20. Drew Arntz