Season Kicks off at Local Speedway

April 29, 2010  
Filed under Play, Uncategorized

For months local racers have been preparing their racecars for opening weekend.  With the weather cooperating, it was perfect weather for racing.

Friday night action included late models, modifieds, street stock, and pure stock.  There was some great racing to kick off the season.  The night started out with a good showing in the pure stock heat races.

With 17 cars competing, the class held three heat races.  In the first heat of the season, pole sitter, Sean McBee raced car 35 to the first victory of the season followed by Brice Miesmer in heat two and Carl Sangrey in heat number three.  After multiple late race crashes, Brice Miesmer captured the win with Greg Azure, Jerry Sangrey Jr., Cody Ryan and Matt O’Connell rounding out the top 5.

For the street stocks, the night started strong with 16 cars on hand.  In all three heat races, the winners started on the front row with Marvin Gonzales, Micheal Price and Ron Weber grabbing the victories.  In the main event, Troy Weninger was able to improve from his seventh place starting position to capture his first main event victory.  Paul Lease was a close second with Billy Warehime, Beau Brown and Warren Samoy to round out the top 5.

The modified class had a small showing on opening night, so they were only able to hold one heat race.  Dave Freeman charged to the front and was able to hold on to the lead for the rest of the race.  In the main event, it seemed Freeman was going to pull of a sweep but instead, after holding half of a lap lead over the rest of the field, Freeman’s car broke leaving Mark Wermling to take the checkered flag.

11 late models showed up from around Montana and Canada to compete.  In the first of two heat Jim Zaremski was able to maintain his front row starting position and win his heat race.  In the second of the two heat races, Jody Kropp also started on the front row and held off the field to win. The main event proved to be similar to that of the heat races with the top two starting positions being held by Jim Zaremski and Jody Kropp, and the racers stayed in that order the entire race.  David Smith, David Vennard and Russ Wolfe rounded out the top 5.

Saturday brought in a much colder night, more wrecks and a class new to the Electric City.

The night started out with the cars it finished with the previous night.  With two more cars joining the field, 13 were present to begin the night but 13 were not present in the end.  Jim Zaremski kept the pace he set last night and won his heat race for the second night in a row.  The second heat race provided a little more action.  Going into turn 1 on lap 2 Tommy Eubank rolled his car into the catch fence.  After a delay while attempting to fix the fence, David Smith pulled out a heat race win.  In the main, Zaremski was edged by Rock Degle for the win, David Smith, Rory Minster and Jody Kropp rounded out the top 5.

The street stocks were only minus one car from the previous night due to a mechanical issue.  The first heat race consisted of eight cars with Warren Samoy charging the field from his last place starting position to win.  Heat number two saw Marvin Gonzalez capturing his second heat races win in as many days.  The main event was a close race between Nick Hunter, who had mechanical issues Friday night, Paul Lease and Gonzalez.  Hunter was able to hold off the others charges to hold the top spot.

Super stocks did not race on Friday, so their drivers were ready to jump start their season with 11 cars on hand.  In the first of two heat races, Pat Lamere pulled out a win.  The second heat race was very controversial with the leaders Pacer Popham and Casey Steffenson being black flagged leaving Bill Cooper to the win.  In the main event, heat one race winner gained the lead and never looked back.

Next up were the midwest modifieds, a new class to Electric City Speedway, there were five cars and the 01 of Paul Leach lead all 28 eight laps of their first event winning both the heat and main event.  On the final laps of the main event, the second place car of Jeremy Myers took a scary tumble down the frontstretch, rolling his car  four times. 

To end the night, 12 modifieds put on a show.  Gary Hill won the first heat race with Paul Leach winning the second.  In the main event, after going back and forth for the lead, Rock Degle was able to pull out his second win of the night. 

Races are scheduled to resume May 1, but with snow on the ground it is very likely they will be cancelled.  The most probable time for the next races are May 8, with late models, pure stock, street stock and midwest modifieds racing.

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