The pandemic lockdown is over; the northeast modified racing is slowly returning back to normal and the first stop was a surprise last minute visit to BAPS speedway for the “Modifieds Make Their Return” event. Cars were in attendance from Grandview, Big Diamond, Bridgeport and New Egypt with many making their first on track appearance of the season. A stellar field of modifieds were on hand chasing the $4,000 prize for the 30 lap feature.
Rich Laubach ran a very tactical race using all three grooves of the track to hold off the hard charging duo of Jeff Strunk and Tim Buckwalter to take his first win of the 2020 season and first win at “Susky” since 2003.
The 30 lap feature actually started to play out during the track run-in. Duane Howard had a steering box failure during the track run-in which eliminated Howard from starting on the pole in the feature before the green flag ever dropped. Jeff Strunk was dominate early on the high side but the multi groove BAPS surface provided 3 wide racing and passing opportunities on both high, low and middle groves during the feature. A lap 12 restart had Strunk choose the high side of the front row which put Laubach on the inside front row which is right where he wanted to be. Laubach grabbed the lead on lap 13 and ran various lines to strategic defend 1st place and extend his lead. A spirited top five of Strunk, Buckwalter, Cozze and Kressley swapped positions and raced hard allowing Laubach to settle in with his favorite the low line and extended his lead. Despite several cautions Laubach was able to use the low line to his advantage and take the checkered flag over a top five of Tim Buckwalter, Frank Cozze, Jeff Strunk and Ryan Watt.
In the winner’s circle interview Laubach reflected on his history with BAPS speedway and how the race unfolded “I use to race here at “Susky” when I first started racing and I qualified for my very first feature here. I knew Jeff (Strunk) was faster than I was tonight; so I settled in and waited for the yellow to try something on the restart. Once I got out in front; I tried to be unpredictable, high, low, here and there hoping to shake them up until I got in a rhythm and settled into the bottom line.”
Modified Pit Notes
Brett Kressley used his usual high line of the track to move from 6th starting position in the heat to a 3rd place qualifying position with the expectation that high side would be better in the feature after more cars on the track would widen the track during the course of the night. With the exception of Kressley; most of the passes during the heats were underneath on the low groove of the track. During the feature Kressley went from 12th starting position to 5th by lap 20 using the high side. But on lap 24; Kressley’s night came to end as mechanical wows caused him to retire to the pits with 6 laps to go.
Billy Paunch Jr had a roller coaster of a night with a multi car tangle taking him out of his heat race early and sending him to a 9th place starting position in an 8 lap consolation race which only transferred 2 to the feature. But this time he was able to find a path through a multi car melee and get the 2nd place and final transfer position into the feature. Paunch Jr started 24th in the feature and methodically worked his way up to 10th only to have a broken rear end his night on lap 24.
Ryan Watt came from 8th to 5th in his heat race to get heat race transfer spot in the feature. Watt started 20th in the feature and was able to work his way through the field for a 4th place finish.
Kyle Weiss continues to have good results on his Pandemic road trip away from his home track of Grandview. Weiss started 16th in the feature and was able to crack the top 10 with an 8th place finish.
Several other drivers had the new season blues. Joe Funk had terminal mechanically issues as the car smoked during the heat race and was a DNS for the consolation event. John Willman was unable to start his heat race and got in a tangle during the consolation and his night ended on the hook.
A couple of New Egypt cars were oh so close to making the show as Ryan Krachun and Steve Davis ran 3rd in the consolation events which only transferred the top 2 cars.
Heat race positions were based on random draws. Tim Buckwalter and Jeff Strunk drew the 10th position in their respective heat race and were able to finish 3rd and 2nd respectively and earn a heat race transfer spot into the feature.
Dominic Buffalino was able to make some adjustments after falling from 2nd to 6th during his heat race. Dominic started on the pole in his consolation event which he won. In the feature Buffalino was able to move forward 10 positions from a 22nd starting position to a 12th place finish.
| BAPS Results – 6/06/20 | ||
| Driver | Finish | Start |
| Rich Laubach | 1 | 5 |
| Tim Buckwalter | 2 | 9 |
| Jeff Strunk | 3 | 2 |
| Ryan Watt | 4 | 20 |
| Frank Cozze | 5 | 7 |
| Danny Bouc | 6 | 3 |
| Doug Manmiller | 7 | 6 |
| Kyle Weiss | 8 | 16 |
| Jared Umbenhauer | 9 | 4 |
| Alex Yankowski | 10 | 8 |
| Dan Waisempachuer | 11 | 18 |
| Dominick Buffalino | 12 | 22 |
| Brett Kressley | DNF-13 | 12 |
| Ryan Grim | DNF-14 | 15 |
| Wayne Witmer | DNF-15 | 17 |
| Craig Von Doren | DNF-16 | 11 |
| Billy Pauch Jr | DNF-17 | 24 |
| Briggs Danner | DNF-18 | 10 |
| Kevin Hirthler | DNF-19 | 21 |
| Ray Swinehart | DNF-20 | 19 |
| Cale Ross | DNF-21 | 14 |
| Mike Lisowski | DNF-22 | 23 |
| Matt Stangle | DNF-23 | 13 |
| Ryan Howard | DNS-24 | 1 |
| Ron Kline | DNQ | |
| Mike Butler | DNQ | |
| Nat Brinker | DNQ | |
| Louden Reimert | DNQ | |
| T.J. Lilly | DNQ | |
| Kevin Beach | DNQ | |
| Brad Grim | DNQ | |
| Ryan Krachun | DNQ | |
| Justin Grim | DNQ | |
| John Willman | DNQ | |
| Craig Whitmoyer | DNQ | |
| Shawn Fitzpatrick | DNQ | |
| Joe Funk | DNQ | |
| Trent Van Vorst | DNQ | |
| Steve Davis | DNQ | |
| JR Fulmer | DNQ |
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