Ed Strada Jr. picked up his second win of the 2001
season at Lake Moc-A-Tek last Saturday night in 358 Modified action.  The
win came on a good night as Strada earned the right to represent Lake
Moc-A-Tek in the 358 Modified event during Eastern States Weekend at the
Orange County Fair Speedway.  Defending Sportsman champion Ralph Mele
also earned a guaranteed starting spot in the Barbara Luce Memorial 75
for the DIRT Sportsman division  during Eastern States Weekend with his
win in Saturday night's Sportsman feature.  Defneding champion and
current point leader Mike Loney picked up the Street Stock win in a wild
finish while Richie Hartman won yet another 250cc Micro Sprint features.
The Pure Stocks had a pair of features on Saturday night with Todd
Houghtaling winning his first ever in the first one while Franklin Bush
drove his four cylinder powered car to victory in the nightcap.
     Tom Rudalavage took advantage of a pole starting position to grab
the lead at the start of the 25 lap 358 Modified feature.  Rudalavage led
the early stages of the event, but by halfway he was under heavy pressure
from Mike Ricci.  Ricci made the pass for the lead on lap 13 and looked
to be on his way to yet another victory, but the entire complexion of the
race changes when the caution flag was displayed with two laps remaining
for an incident in the middle of the pack.
     As the field came down for a restart, leader Ricci had mechanical
problems as a broken universal joint found his #76 not coming up to speed
and setting off a wild scramble behind him.  In addition to Ricci, this
incident also spelled disaster for Bobby Puckett, who had raced in the
top five the entire distance, but was eliminated when he got tangled up
as the field took evasive action to clear Ricci's stalled mount.  When
the race went back to green it was Strada now setting the pace over
Rudalavage and Joey Grammes.  There would be no changes among the top
five over the remaining distance and Strada stated in victory lane that
he will accept the Eastern States spot and represent Lake Moc-A-Tek in
that event.  Rudalavage finished second with Joey Grammes third.  Gary
Griffin and Jason Rudalavage completed the top five.  Bill Thornton Jr.
Everett Haubrich, Tom Oleski, Bill Grammes and Brian Malcolm completed
the top ten.
     The 20 lap Sportsman feature saw longtime Lake Moc-A-Tek veteran Ron
Shauger take advantage of a front row starting position to grab the early
lead.  Shauger looked like a man on a mission in search of his first ever
victory, leading the first 17 laps of the feature.  A late race restart
would prove to be Shauger's downfall as the restart found defending
champion and current point leader Ralph Mele right on Shauger's tail.
The two battled hard for the top spot, coming together several times as
they raced for the win.  Mele was able to get a run under Shauger to take
the lead on lap 18 as there was considerable contact made during what
would prove to be the winning pass.  Mele was able to complete the pass
and go on for the win.  Shauger held off a late charge from Tom Laner Jr.
to finish second while Laner settled for third at the finish.  Ted Stout
and Darren Stout completed the top five.  Previous winner Brian Ace, Cory
Jennings, Tom Gervasi, Greg Morgan and Mike Marold completed the top ten.
     The Street Stock feature was also not decided until the final lap.
First year campaigner Rick Smith grabbed the early lead and looked to be
on his way to his first career victory, but it was not to be as there was
a major shake-up on the final alp.  Rick Lazar mounted a late charge art
Smith and on the final lap the two made contact which resulted in Smith
spinning out while Lazar went on to cross the line for the apparent
victory.  Track officials enforced a penalty on Lazar for his contact
with Smith, dropping him one position behind Smith in the final rundown.
This gave the win to point leader Mike Loney, who was running third
behind Smith and Lazar on the final lap.  David Luff scored his best
finish of the season with a second place effort ahead of last week's
winner Joe Krisovich.  Ed Kudrako and Nick Petrilak finished fourth and
fifth respectively.  Jim Redner Jr., Adam Jones, Jerry Liford, Tony
Nalaschi, and Jim Sykes were the sixth through tenth place finishers.
     The Pure Stocks ran a pair of features on Saturday night.   The first
feature saw Todd Houghtaling pick up his first ever Lake Moc-A-Tek
victory as he held off a late run by Franklin Bush to pick up the win.
Floyd Schmidt, Keith Villano, and Jason Martin finished in the top five.
Behind them were Don Leiper, Nate Evans, Grant Hilfiger, Tom Cliurso, and
Jim Balutis.  After finishing second in the first feature, Franklin Bush
came back to win the nightcap, his second win of the season aboard his
four cylinder powered entry.  Jim Balutis, Erick Schmidt, Todd
Houghtaling, and Nate Evans made up the remainder of the top five.
Positions six through ten in the nightcap went to Gary Schoch, Don
Leiper, Keith Villano, Gregg Brunges, and Tom Cilurso.
     Shoemakersville, Pa.'s Richie Hartman won his sixth Micro Sprint
feature of the season.  Hartman defeated Terry Schaffer to take the win
and lengthen his point lead in the 250cc Micro Sprint division.  Davie
Franek, Jason Frantz, and Greg Stevens all scored top five finishes while
Mike Garber, Kevin Dries, Stephanie Stevens, Todd Hanlin, and Eric Eckert
rounded out the top ten.
358 MODIFIEDS : 1. ED STRADA JR. 2. Tom Rudalavage 3. Joey Grammes 4.
Gary Griffin 5. Jason Rudalavage 6. Billy Thornton 7. Everett Haubrich 8.
Tom Oleski 9. Bill Grammes 10. Brian Malcolm 11. Bill Reese 12. Troy
Weisenfluh 13. Joe Uliana 14. Josh Beierle 15. Mike Ricci 16. Bob Puckett
17. Jim Allen 18. George Hildebrandt 19. Phil Recchio 20. Brian Cobb 21.
Nick Barassi
SPORTSMAN: 1. RALPH MELE 2. Ron Shauger 3. Tom Laner Jr. 4. Ted Stout 5.
Darren Stout 6. Brian Ace 7. Cory Jennings 8. Tom Gervasi 9. Greg Morgan
10. Mike Marold 11. Larry Hendershot 12. Alex Konopka 13. Bob Grammes 14.
Chris Kresge 15. Brad Grammes 16. Rocky Rosetti 17. Steve Kizer 18. Mike
Schane 19. Jim O'Hara 20. Mike Trautschold 21. Chris Clemons
STREET STOCK: 1. MIKE LONEY 2. David Luff 3. Joe Krisovich 4. Ed Kudrako
5. Nick Petrilak 6. Jim Redner 7. Adam Jones 8. Jerry Liford 9. Tony
Nalaschi 10. Jim Sykes 11. Rick Smith 12. Rick Lazar 13. Neil DiBlasi 14.
Gene Beadle 15. Tom Herman 16. Bill Rosengrant 17. Jared Hayes 18. Mike
Van Tassel 19. Brian Petrilak 20. Chuck Davis 21. Nate Evans 22. Brian
Duffin 23. Carl Heater
PURE STOCKS: 1. FRANKLIN BUSH 2. Jim Balutis 3. Eric Schmidt 4. Todd
Houghtaling 5. Nate Evans 6. Gary Schoch 7. Don Leiper 8. Keith Villano
9. Gregg Brunges 10. Tom Cilurso 11. Grant Hilfiger 12. Floyd Schmidt 13.
John Walsh 14. Jason Martin
PURE STOCKS (HELD OVER) 1. TODD HOUGHTALING 2. Franklin Bush 3. Floyd
Schmidt 4. Keith Villano 5. Jason Martin 6. Don Leiper 7. Nate Evans 8.
Grant Hilfiger 9. Tom Cilurso 10. Jim Balutis 11. Eric Schmidt 12. Gregg
Brunges 13. Ron Blake
250cc MICRO SPRINTS: 1. RICHIE HARTMAN 2. Terry Schaffer 3. Davie Franek
4. Jason Frantz 5. Greg Stevens 6. Mike Garber 7. Kevin Dries 8.
Stephanie Stevens 9. Todd Hanlon 10. Eric Eckert 11. Pat Potter 12. Geoff
Quackenbush 13. Rich McKay 14. Don Colaluce 15. Kyle Pickering16. Joe
Scanlon 17. Mike Ricci 18. Glen Clark 19. Cheryl Clark 20. Mike Keppler
21. Ralph Utter Jr. 22. Richard Croaker