DTRP Closes out season with US Open finale

Jan Leaty wins Race of Champions 100 Lap Main Event

By: Lori Overdorf

Lancaster, New York - Dunn Tire Raceway Park closed the 50^th chapter of its story with an action packed “part three” of the US Open.  Rescheduled from the previous Sunday due to persistent rain shows, DTRP completed their stock car season with an action packed day of racing – under blue skies and sunshine!  Jan Leaty was the big winner, taking home the Race of Champions Modified Tour feature win while Jeff Brown scored his first career DTRP Late Model win, John Hewson captured the Street Stock victory, and Dave Wollaber was victorious once again in the TQ Midget division.  Two track champions were crowned as John Julicher Jr. won the Street Stock points battle and Ron Nurmi became the 2008 Late Model track champion.

The days feature action kicked off with the Late Models who were slated to run for 75 laps.  Twenty-four cars were on hand with a mix of DTRP regulars, expatriates, and invaders.  Jeff Brown started from the pole position and at the drop of the green gained control of the lead and as it turned out, it was a position he never relinquished.  Brown had a constant companion during the race as Dave Rigan was planted firmly behind him.  Rigan had a number of quality chances to pass Brown, but was never able to complete the pass.  Scott Skora ran much of the race in the third position but a late race restart on lap 73 changed that and the entire complexion of the race.  On the restart Skora broke and spun down the front stretch.  Bobby Weber and a number of other competitors were involved although Ron Nurmi received the worst of it as his car wound up sideways up on top of the wall between turns one and two.  Todd Hoddick was also collected in the accident.  In the preceding laps Late Model veteran Dave Heitzhaus had been moving through the field, clicking off cars and positions until he was up to fourth.  On the ensuing restart after the Skora and Nurmi accident, Heitzhaus threw everything he had at Rigan but Rigan was much better on the short runs and with only a few laps left, Rigan was able to hold off the hard charging Heitzhaus.  Brown went on to win his first career win at Dunn Tire Raceway Park after notching several second place finishes in previous seasons.  The race also served as the last points race for the Late Models and despite crashing, Ron Nurmi was crowned the 2008 Late Model Champion.

After the Late Models the TQ Midgets took to DTRP’s inner oval for their US Open feature event.  Dan Lawrence quickly took the lead and set sail ahead of the field.  However, the “Christiano Army”, which consisted of Dave Wollaber, Vinny Christiano Jr., Jamie Collard, and Bobby Holmes, began tracking Lawrence down.  Wollaber cleared his teammates and set his sights on the leader with five laps to go and it looked like Lawrence had enough room built up to hold onto the win.  However, on lap 21 the yellow flag appeared and a single file restart was called for, putting Wollaber right on Lawrence’s tail.  Wollaber pushed his TQ as hard as it would go, wheels off the ground, and took the lead with just 3 lap remaining. After he was out front, Wollaber began building ground on the rest of the field and went to win another TQ Midget US Open feature win.

The SST’s had officially already run their US Open feature, which was won by Erick Rudolph, last weekend but with the rescheduled date, the decision was made to add the SST’s on for a 35 lap non-points race.  Twenty-three SST’s took the green flag and Tom McGrath was immediately out in the lead.  He wasn’t alone up front though as Andy Jankowiak, Jonathon Price, and Pete Brittain were right on his heels.  Just under ten laps into the feature, on a restart, Price took control of second spot and immediately began challenging for the top spot on the track.  Price was strong on the shorter runs and repeatedly got a nose under McGrath but was unable to complete the pass.  Jankowiak, who had been shuffled back into third spot, attempted many times to regain his lost position, but Price was too tough for Jankowiak.  Brittain fell back slightly and cruised in fourth position.  With five laps left to go, Jankowiak threw everything he had at Price trying to pass him by, but Price held his spot.  Meanwhile leader McGrath had created a ten car length lead for himself and at the end of 35 laps, crossed the finish line first.  The win was McGrath’s first SST Sportsman feature win of his career.

The Street Stocks competed in the 50 lap Linda Tasca Memorial event as their US Open feature event.  Twenty-seven Street Stocks started the feature and Dave Frieder, who had started on the pole took possession of the lead at the drop of the green.  However he had close company as Cory Gallagher, John Hewson, and Jim Stein were right behind him.  Gallagher soon made the move to the top and became the race leader while Stein and Hewson tried to keep up with the leader.  Gallagher was unable to hold Hewson off for very long as he took the lead on lap 12.  A series of yellow flags kept the field together and Hewson up front as he was able to weather the challenges of multiple restarts.  Soon the top three of Hewson, Gallagher, and Jeff Guidotti had pulled away from Tim Garlock, Anton Anderson, Kevin Mendel, and Jim Stein.  As the laps clicked off the running order changed and soon Garlock was on the back bumper of Hewson while Gallagher ran in third.  Garlock began applying heavy pressure to the leader and looked inside and outside of Hewson, looking for any way around him.  It was not to be for Garlock however as Hewson captured the checkered flag and went on to US Open Street Stock Victory Lane.  The Street Stock race also served as a points race for the division and at the end of the night, John Julicher Jr. was crowned the champion of the division for the 2008 season, his first career Street Stock championship.

To close out the day, and the season, the Modifieds took to the track as the last race.  Daren Scherer had redrawn the pole position and put his redrawing luck to good use as he immediately took control of the lead on the start.  Dave Wollaber, Billy Putney, JR Kent, and Matt Hirschman followed him in the initial laps.  Scherer set a wicked pace and was soon comfortably ahead of the pack.  Pete Brittain was the man on the move though as he clicked off cars and positions and was in the second running spot by lap 30.  A yellow flag on lap 31 saw over half the field pit, including Brittain, Billy Putney, Sege Fidanza, Kent, and Erick Rudolph, and shuffled the running order of the 100 lap feature.  The double file restart still saw Scherer on the point with Jan Leaty, Hirschman, Mike Leaty, and Bobby Holmes as the top five cars.  On the restart Hirschman snuck by J. Leaty and took the second spot and went on to challenge Scherer for the top spot.  At the halfway point in the race Scherer still had a comfortable lead on the field while Hirschman, J. Leaty, Brittain, Putney, Fidanza, and M. Leaty followed.  It was Fidanza’s return to the track after a hard hit the week before.  Again, Britain showed serious horsepower as he powered by cars, taking the third spot on lap 54.  Putney and Fidanza also were moving through the field.  Lap 61 saw another yellow flag and headed pitside this time were Jan and Mike Leaty, leader Scherer, and a host of others.  The yellow flag had been displayed for a wreck that ended the day for Tom Weist, Tom McGrath, and Billy Putney.  With Scherer pitting, Hirschman now had inherited the lead and had Brittain, Fidanza, Rudolph, and Rick Kluth right behind him.  Jan and Mike Leaty had restarted in the ninth and tenth spots respectively but they wouldn’t stay there for very long as the father and son team quickly set out up through the field.  Up front Fidanza was right on the bumper of Hirschman and repeatedly looked for a way around him to no avail.  Laps 80 and 83 saw yellow flags and restarts that bunched the field up together, allowing for some quick passing.  The Leatys had made their way up to fifth and sixth position with Jan leading the way through the field.  Jan passed Rudolph for the fourth position on lap 84 but Mike bobbled and was forced to work over Rudolph while Jan set sail for the front of the pack. Just two laps later Jan passed Brittain for the third spot and quickly caught Fidanza, passing for the second position on lap 92.  Jan was the fastest car on the track and was soon dueling with Hirschman.  A late race yellow flag on lap 98 gave Leaty the last piece of ammunition that he needed as a single file restart put him right on the back bumper of Hirschman.  Leaty took advantage of the situation and passed Hirschman on the low side and took control of the lead.  Once out front, Leaty built a lead on the rest of the field and went on to win the 20^th Annual US Open Modified feature event.

 RESULTS 

 Modified Feature Finish:  Jan Leaty, Matt Hirschman, Sege Fidanza, Daren Scherer, Mike Leaty, JR Kent, Erick Rudolph, Mark Tychoniewicz, John Markovic, Terry Cheetham, Rick Kluth, Jimmy Zacharias, Bobby Holmes, Kris Hillegeer, Billy Putney, Tom McGrath, Dave Wollaber, Tom Wiest, Brett Scherrer, Doug Reaume, Karl Hehr, Billy Ray Pruitt, Matt Clemens  DQ: Pete Brittain

 Late Model Feature Finish:  Jeff Brown, Dave Rigan, Dave Heitzhaus, Chriss Ross, Rich Skora, Bobby Weber, George Skora, Joe Brainard, Glenn Gault, Scott Nurmi, Mike Fiebelkorn, Jimmy Weller, Tommy Cloce, Sam Fullone, Scott Skora, Ron Nurmi, Todd Hoddick, Dan Habuda, Richard Arndt, Will Thomas, Joe Carbone, Driver 91X, Mark Pennell, Rick Widmer

 SST Sportsman Feature Finish:  Tom McGrath, Jon Price, Andy Jankowiak, Billy Putney, Rick Kluth, Bobby Holmes, Pete Brittain, Phil Johnson, Russ Gian, Sherri Hogan, John Barber, David Tedesco, Kevin Lewis, Don King, Dick Kluth, Jack Grainy, Don Wylie, Patti Pruitt, Scott Reese, Jerry Harding Jr., Jake Logsdon, Driver 1, Craig Dolphin

 Street Stock Feature Finish:  John Hewson, Tim Garlock, Cory Gallagher, Scott Mutka, Kristopher Hamman, Anton Anderson, Mike Nash, Jeff Guidotti, Jim Stein, John Julicher Jr., Joe Haley, Dave Frieder, Gary Bartella, Mike Maggiore, Tim Neis, Gary Denea, Jim Ling, Hershel Twoguns, Kevin Mendel, Bob Blaszak, Tom DeVille, Rick Ortwein, Debbie Jurek, Ed Nowak, Driver 81, Matt Jurek

 TQ Midget Feature Finish:  Dave Wollaber, Vinny Christiano Jr., Jamie Collard, Dan Lawrence, Bobby Holmes, Jonathan Reid, Mark Schulz, Russell Knutsen, Driver 10, Driver 21, Dean McConnaughey, Mike Blair, AJ Hessler, Shawn Szejenar, Cam Barber, Driver 42, Jim Fleischman, Driver 43