7/6/08

ERICK RUDOLPH GRABS MODIFIED WIN AND VISITS SST SPORTSMAN VICTORY LANE FOR FIFTH STRAIGHT TIME

 
Lancaster, NY: Erick Rudolph has been on a roll this season at Dunn Tire Raceway Park and Saturday, July 5th was no different. Rudolph continued his domination of the SST Sportsman division as he remained undefeated to date. In addition, Rudolph reached another milestone in his career by capturing his first Modified checkered flag. Other winners in the night's racing action included Ron Nurmi visiting Victory Lane in the Late Model division, Cory Gallagher picking up his first win of the season in the Street Stocks and Derek Wagner taking home the feature win in the 4 Cylinder Division.

The night's racing action began with the popular Thiel Motorsports 4 Cylinder Division. Cassie McGrath, daughter of Modified driver Tom McGrath, started on the pole and immediately jumped into the lead. She wasn’t without company as Matt Druar and Ken Hejna applied heavy pressure for the top spot. On lap 5, and seemingly out of nowhere, Derek Wagner, who had started tenth, made a successful low pass on McGrath to take the lead. Wagner immediately built a healthy lead on the field as he left McGrath, Tim Haniszewski Sr., Jesse Baker, and Druar to battle it out for second on back. Wagner easily cruised home to his first win of the season.

The Able Agency Street Stocks were up next on the schedule of events and ran an action packed feature event. Ed Nowak and Rick Ortwein lead the field to the green flag on the initial start and after racing side by side for a number of laps, Ortwein took possession of the top spot. Soon Mike Maggiore, who had started fourth, was applying heavy pressure on the leader. Lap 8 saw the pass for the lead as Maggiore dove low on Ortwein who had washed up a little high coming out of turn four. The heated battle for the lead continued with Ortwein giving Maggiore a run for his money. Soon Jim Bryant, Jim Stein, and Cory Gallagher had joined the top pack of cars after working their way up through the field. Stein took advantage of the highline and slotted into second with five laps to go. Stein’s bid for the top spot ended on lap 23 as he spun, bringing out the caution flag with just two laps to go. Unfortunately Maggiore’s bid for his first feature win ended as well as he was also involved in the caution. The restart saw Ortwein back in the lead and was followed by Gallagher, Dave Frieder, Bob Blaszak Jr., and Bryant. Gallagher took advantage of the late race melee and squeezed under Ortwein to take the lead and his first feature win of the 2008 season.

A season high 23 Lorigo Insurance SST Sportsman were on hand for the nights SST racing events. Sherri Hogan and Jerry Harding Jr. made up the front row for the start of the event and after they took the green flag drag raced side by side around the oval. After a few laps Harding cleared Hogan and inherited sole possession of the lead. Numerous yellow flag caution periods dotted the first half of the race, breaking up the flow of the race. A lap six restart had Harding, Eddie Murray, Andy Jankowiak, Hogan, and Tom MacLeod in the top five slots on the track. Murray took advantage of the situation and grabbed the lead on lap 8 with Jankowiak and MacLeod eventually following to take second and third. However, Erick Rudolph was on the move on his preferred outside line and by lap 13 had moved up into fifth from his eleventh place starting spot. Jankowiak soon made the move around Murray for the lead, but by lap 17 had a mirror full of Rudolph’s race car. Jankowiak held his ground, keeping Rudolph at bay as the two leaders pulled away from Murray and MacLeod. Rudolph was able to complete the pass for the lead on lap 25 and immediately began to distance himself from the field. Event a late race caution with five laps to go couldn’t keep Rudolph from remaining undefeated in the SST Sportsman division as he picked up his fifth win of the season.

The Bobcat of Buffalo Late Models took to the track next. Todd Hoddick and Matt Alix started first and second with Mark Pennell and Ron Nurmi taking the green flag right behind them. Alix immediately jumped into the lead while Nurmi grabbed second and Hoddick was shuffled back to third. On lap three Nurmi powered under Alix to take the lead and began building quite a lead on the rest of the field. By halfway, Hoddick had caught back up to Alix and began challenging for the second position. Hoddick repeatedly went low on Alix and would have to back off, not being able to complete the pass. Hoddick and Alix drag raced, door handle to door handle, around the track before Hoddick finally took sole possession of second place on lap 18. However, Nurmi had built a big enough lead where Hoddick was unable to mount a challenge for the lead before the laps expired. Nurmi took his second checkered flag of the season.

The final race of the night was the McGard Modified “Mr. Modified” 50 lap event. Rick Kluth, Dave Wollaber, Erick Rudolph, T.J. Potrzebowski, and Bill Mislin comprised the top five starters for the race and with the start of the race, Wollaber grabbed the top spot. Two cautions in the first five laps allowed Rudolph to slide into second, Buck Catalano to grab third, and Sege Fidanza to move into fourth. Catalano soon passed Rudolph and began applying pressure to the leader Wollaber. Lap 11 saw the pass for the lead as Catalano grabbed the top spot and taking Rudolph with him, slotting him into second. A lap 19 caution flag saw Wollaber duck into the pits, leaving Fidanza, Billy Putney, and Tom McGrath in positions third on back. The field finally settled into a long green flag run. Up front Rudolph was all over Catalano, and after a side by side battle, Rudolph took the lead on lap 23. At the halfway point of the feature it was young gun Rudolph in the lead with veterans Fidanza, Putney, Catalano, McGrath, and Potrzebowski behind him. As the laps clicked away, Rudolph built a bigger and bigger lead on the field and the top three of Rudolph, Fidanza, and now McGrath had spread out considerably. A lap 43 caution erased any lead that the leader had built and the single file restart had Fidanza, McGrath, Catalano, Potrzebowski, and Karl Hehr lined up behind Rudolph. Another caution two laps later made the 50 lap race a 5 lap shootout at the end. However, Rudolph continued to hit his marks and was able to build a lead once again in the closing laps of the feature, without sustaining any real challenge for the top spot. Rudolph completed the open wheel double for the night, capturing the SST win and taking home his first checkered flag in the “Mighty” Modified division.

Dunn Tire Raceway Park’s next race is Saturday, July 19th as the Thiel Motorsports 4 Cylinders, Probity Group T.Q. Midgets, Able Agency Insurance Street Stocks and Super Stocks take to the track. The Street Stocks will be racing a 50 lap feature and will also be competing in a “Dash For Cash”.

McGard Modified Feature Finish (7/5/08):
1. (3) ERICK RUDOLPH #45 - first career Modified victory
2. (7) Sege Fidanza #77
3. (9) Tom McGrath #12
4. (6) Buck Catalano #40
5. (4) T.J. Potrzebowski #51
6. (11) Karl Hehr #59
7. (2) Dave Wollaber #5
8. (7) Billy Putney #88
9. (1) Rick Kluth #44
10. (10) Mark Tychoniewicz #01
11. (12) Chris Ridsdale #1
12. (16) Dan Chimera #44x
13. (15) Sean O'Neill #7
14. (13) Patsy Catalano #45C
15. (17) Tom Wiest #35
16. (18) Kevin Lewis #49
17. (14) Don Stevens #4
18. (5) Bill Mislin #81

Lap Leaders: Laps 1-11 Wollaber, laps 13-22 B. Catalano, Laps 23-50 Rudolph

Heat Winners: Billy Putney, Buck Catalano

Bobcat of Buffalo Late Model Feature Finish (7/5/08):
1. (4) RON NURMI #2
2. (1) Todd Hoddick #49
3. (2) Matt Alix #72
4. (3) Mark Pennell #54
5. (6) Rick Widmer #78
6. (7) Richard Arndt #29
7. (5) Frank Green #52

Lap Leaders: Laps 1-2 Alix, laps 3-25 Nurmi

Heat Winner: Todd Hoddick

Lorigo Insurance SST Sportsman Feature Finish (7/5/08):
1. (9) ERICK RUDOLPH #45 - fifth straight victory
2. (8) Andy Jankowiak #57
3. (4) Eddie Murray #37
4. (5) Tom MacLeod #32
5. (2) Jerry Harding, Jr. #57R
6. (15) Billy Putney #88
7. (10) Tom McGrath #12
8. (16) Rick Kluth #48
9. (7) Jon Price #13
10. (13) Jerry Gradl, Jr. #2
11. (14) Russ Gian #9
12. (20) Kevin Lewis #41
13. (6) Craig Dolphin #98
14. (3) Frank Batista, Jr. #97
15. (21) Jeff Ruddy #9x
16. (17) Don King #43
17. (18) Dave Tedesco #44
18. (1) Sherri Hogan #74
19. (12) Bobby Holmes #8
20. (23) Steve West #18x
21. (11) Scott Reece #36
22. (22) Ed Schueler #18
23. (19) Jason Kline #77

Lap Leaders: Laps 1-7 Harding, laps 18-24 Jankowiak, laps 25-35 Rudolph

Heat Winners: Sherri Hogan, Erick Rudolph, Bobby Holmes

Able Agency Insurance Street Stock Feature Finish (7/5/08):
1. (9) CORY GALLAGHER #24
2. (16) Dave Frieder #7
3. (12) Jim Bryant #49
4. (8) Bob Blaszak, Jr. #53
5. (2) Rick Ortwein #58
6. (5) Scott Mutka #23
7. (18) Wayne Lavis #1
8. (25) Matt Jurek #57
9. (17) Paul Tessier #12
10. (6) Joe Haley #43
11. (7) Kris Hamann #8
12. (20) Steve Cochran #70
13. (19) Gary Denea #33D
14. (1) Ed Nowak #96
15. (14) Jim Stein #21
16. (26) Debbie Jurek #65
17. (4) Mike Maggiore #28
18. (23) Joe Light #44
19. (15) Mike Nash #13
20. (24) Gary Light #40
21. (13) John Julicher, Jr. #9
22. (21) Bobby Hanel, Jr. #33
23. (3) Jeff Guidotti #20
24. (10) Gary Bartella #99
25. (22) Shane Porter #11
26. (28) T.J. Cochran #06
27. (11) Kevin Mendel #77
28. (27) Jim Ling #7
DNS: #54

Lap Leaders: Lap 1-2 Nowak, laps 3-9 Ortwein, laps 10-21 Maggiore, lap 22 Stein, lap 23 Ortwein, laps 24-25 Gallagher

Heat Winners: Scott Mutka, Jim Stein, Mike Maggiore

Thiel Motorsports 4 Cylinder Feature Finish (7/5/08):
1. (10) DEREK WAGNER #125 - first career victory
2. (13) Tim Haniszewski, Sr. #02
3. (3) Matt Druar #37
4. (7) Jesse Baker #79
5. (4) Ken Hejna #9
6. (6) Mike Tedesco #77
7. (5) Tim Durfy #25
8. (9) Waylon Price #80
9. (8) Tony Caruana #6
10. (12) Kalie Clementi #29
11. (1) Cassie McGrath #11
12. (2) Dean Siminski #8
13. (11) #45

Lap Leaders: Laps 1-4 McGrath, laps 5-20 Wagner

Source: Lori Overdorf/Dunn Tire Raceway Park PR
Additions: Mark Southcott/NYRaceZone.com
Posted: July 6, 2008; updated: July 8, 2008