Press release from Wyoming County International Speedway:
By Dan Turner, track announcer
It has been many, many months since the racers of the Wyoming County International Speedway got the chance to “Feel the Need for Speed." This past Saturday night (may 18) was their first time in 2019 to do just that.
Racers for north of the border, from Canada, were in attendance as well as some teams from near the Pennsylvania border. A total of 24 modified teams 15 4 cyl., 7 SST Super Stocks, 11 Super 6 cars, were ready to stretch their legs and see if all their hard off season work and upgrades would net them the winner’s trophy and prize money that goes hand in hand.
Opening night was sponsored by the Churchville Fire Equipment Co.
Mother Nature cooperated and has given the track a fantastic afternoon and evening for racing. Just one ominous feature of the night was the dreaded FULL MOON…
As on most nights at the Blacktop Bullring the mighty 4 cylinders lead off the program. The 4 bangers as usual put on a great race with a great mix of Hondas, Saturns, Acuras and other makes mixed in. The qualifying went off pretty much hassle free. Then the redraw took place during intermission and that shuffled up the top 6 racers. The feature would run to about half way before a caution would fly for a simple spin.
At this point is was a 2-car race between the #8 of Dave Heims and the #51 of Greg Moldt. Officals would see the exhaust pipe was dragging on the Moldt ride. For safety purposes the #51 had to go pit side and have the crew fix or remove it and not cause a dangerous racing situation if, it was ran over by another car and cause a wreck.
This I believe was the twisted sense of humor of the full moon. But now we had the fastest 4 cyl. In the tail of the field and less than 10 laps to gain as many spots as possible before the checkers waved. Well, Moldt put on the blinders and focused on moving his car to the front.
Drop the green and Moldt passes 5 cars on the back straight, 4 more on the front straight. Now 6th and every lap getting pasted 1 or 2 cars. With the white in the air Moldt put it besides the #8 of Heims. There was nothing Heims could do, but watch Moldt pick up feature #1 on opening night.
Well over 17 cars are registered to run the SST Super Stock class but only 7 cars were in attendance on opening night. Many of the drivers and crews stating they will be ready next week on Military Appreciation Night. All our perennial runners were on hand and the much awaited return of 3-time track champion, Dave Krawczyk. It was only awaited by the fans, most of the teams in the Super Stock division know that the 11k is the car to beat on most nights.
Tonight was no exception as it was only a handful of laps the the Krawczyk and his 11k were out front. Eric Hastreiter and Paul Flye, both graduates of the 4 cylider class have started making noise in the thou small, but tight class at the bullring.
A new addition to the weekly racing program is the Super 6 class that got its start in Spencer Speedway a few years back. Being the primary entry-level racing division, it keeps the cars very basic. It keeps the cars on OEM rims, bodies, engines and transmission, though the car must have all the safety gear to prevent injuries in case of a wreck at speed on the track.
This class over the years was a 6 to 8 car field. With the class getting more and more competitive, its growing to a very respectable 11 car field, pretty respectable for opening night. During the meet and greet it was Flyin Brian Hallett saying that he did not think that the car was winner capable. But a great start and starting spot helped put the 36 out front early and Brian was not going to let it get away. Hallett was chaced across the line by Cocilova, new comer Chris Deyoe.
Just for fun lets shuffle up the top 12 SST Modified drivers and see what happens. Neil Dietz would lead this full field of Mods to green. Dietz would take the early command of the race and yes he was getting challenges from, Timmy Lewis in the #41 and the #27 of Kevin Lewis. On lap 15 of the 30 lap main, the first of a few yellows waved.
This with the cars of Virts, Logsdon, Dennie, Fuchs and Kosachook. Only Dennie, Logsdon and Zack Kosachook could restart, the rest would watch the conclusion from the grandstands. Lap 18 came and possible damage from the previous wreck may have caused Logsdon to bring out caution 2 in turn one.
The cream was rising to the time and it was clear Bookmiller brought his A game along with John Barber, Danny Majcrhzak, Kevin Timmerman and fan favorite Gary Coon. With only 2 laps remaining, Bookmiller was applying pressure and Dietz was fighting them off. Off turn 3 Dietz entered the turn wide and Bookmiller took his shot and dove deep into the turn three at the apex, Dietz slammed the door and Bookmiller was coming fast. They made contact and it was Dietz spinning off turn four and Bookmiller powered through.
Yellows flew and officials deemed Bookmiller to join Dietz in the rear with only a one lap shoot out. Did I already mention the full moon? Green, white checker is ready now with Timmy Lewis on the pole, Majchrzak outside and Barber in the #01 behind Lewis.
Clean start and Barber helped push Lewis past Majchrzak and it was a two-car battle and barber had the bottom off turn 2 Lewis up high and they had contact and both Lewis and Barber slid they the wet infield grass off turn two. Majchrzak would capitalize on the aggressive misfortune of Lewis and Barber.
“I could sorta see that these two were not going to lift, so I just held my breath and took full advantage of the spin," said Majchrzak in Victory lane.
4 cylinders
1)Greg Moldt, 2)D.Hiems, 3)J.Gustafson, 4)B.Woch, 5)J.Anastewicz, 6)K.Ricketson, 7)M.Hurlburt, 8)B.Dils, 9)R.Laskowski, 10)J.Landwehr, 11)J.Kriebs, 12)J.Klamat,13)E.Reardon, 14)K.Kocher, 15)J.Sass
Super 6
1)Brian Hallett, 2)A.Cocilova, 3)C.Deyoe, 4)r.Cassidy, 5)J.Parthemer, 6)F.Parsons, 7)A.Knoepfler, 8)P.Rodriguez, 9)J.Welton, 10)A.Parthemer, 11)D.Parsons
SST Super Stocks
1)Dave Krawczyk, 2)E.Hastrieter, 3)P.Flye, 4)J.Horvatits, 5)F.Kline, 6)R.Richter, 7)S.Gleed
SST Modifieds
1)Daniel Majchrzak, 2)K.Timmerman, 3)G.Coon, 4)R.Nugent, 5)B.Dennie, 6)A.Bookmiller, 7)K.Lewis, 8)N.Dietz, 9)B.Kosachook. 10)J.Barber, 11)T.Lewis, 12)P.Townsend, 13)C.Jenkins, 14)C.Lanni, 15)C.Logsdon, 16)Z.Kosachook, 17)N.Michielsen, 18)T.Alloco, 19)M.Virts, 20)S.Fuchs, 21)G.Sharkey, 22, B.Chandler, K.Woody DNS
