Mid-Atlantic Modified Report – Week 21

EASTERN STATES WEEKEND – ORANGE COUNTY FAIR SPEEDWAY10/24/20

Big Block Modified – 200 laps Eastern States

Larry Wight and Max McLaughlin lead the 38 car field to green for the 200 lap feature event.  Wight held the lead for 55 laps until Friesen took the lead over as Wight’s tires started to fade.  Friesen held the lead until lap 144 when his tires began to fade and both Matt Williamson and Mike Mahaney passed Friesen who then decided to pit for a new right rear during a lap 164 caution. After going to the rear of the field and back to 24^th place Friesen was already back to 4^th place by lap 178 and moving back in on Williamson and Mahaney.  Despite a lap 194 caution and double file restart Williamson was able to hold Friesen off by over a 3 second margin to take the “Big Money” race for the second week in a row with Friesen 2^nd place in both races which is a place Friesen is not accustom to be when it comes to the “Big Money” races.  Mike Mahaney got another podium finish which continues to add to his strongest and most consistent month of the season.

In victory lane Williamson noted “When we took the tires on the pit stop around lap 95 that won us the race.  We were able to hold Stewart off for the second week in a row which is really something.  We have been able to win a trifecta of the big races this month.”

The top 10 was rounded out with Friesen in 2^nd and followed by Mike Mahaney, Tim Sears Jr, Tyler Dipple, Jimmy Phelps, Pat Ward, Max Mclaughlin, Billy VanInwegen and Jeff Heotzler.

ORANGE COUNTY FAIR SPEEDWAY -EASTERN STATES WEEKEND BIG BLOCK MODIFIEDS FEATURE FINISH (200-LAPS):

1. Mat Williamson, 2 Stewart Friesen 3 Mike Mahaney 4 Tim Sears Jr. 5 Tyler Dippel
6 Jimmy Phelps 7 Pat Ward 8 Max McLaughlin 9 Billy VanInwegen 10 Jeff Heotzler
11 Tommy Meier 12 Peter Britten 13 Ryan Godown 14 Marc Johnson 15 Anthony Perrego
16 Jack Lehner 17 Dillon Steuer 18 Kevin Root 19 Allison Ricci 20 Jessica Friesen
21 Matt Hitchcock 22 Richard Smith 23 Tim Fuller 24 Ronnie Johnson 25 Andy Bachetti
26 Larry Wight 27 Billy Decker 28 Matt Sheppard 29 Shane Jablonka 30 Jimmy Horton
31 Tyler Trump 32 LJ Lombardo 33 Tyler Boniface 34 Bobby Henschel 35 Rocky Warner
36 Kyle Armstrong 37 JR Heffner 38 Jerry Higbie

DNQ – Duane Howard, Kenny Tremont, Craig Mitchell, Tuyler Jashenbowski, Corey Lowett,

Danny Ceeden, Ricky Davis, CG Morey, Bob McGannon, Sam Martz, Chris Shultz, Brad Rothaupt,

Jimmy Maher, Ken Anonsen, Kirk Horton, Steve Dodd, Brenden Finley, Jimmy Spellman, Kyle Armstrong

Pit Notes – Eastern States Big Block Modified

For the second “Big Money” race in a week it came down to Matt Williamson and Stewart Friesen’s crew playing cat and mouse with tires for 200 laps and Williamson coming out on top in both races as Friesen ran out of time to track down Williamson.

Mike Mahaney returned to form with another 3^rd place finish.  Coming out of Octoberfast week Mahaney was arguably the hottest driver on the tour with consistent top 3 and top 10 finishes.  He cooled off a bit at Port Royal with a 12^th place finish at the Port Royal 200 lap race but seemed to apply the lessons learned at last week’s 200 lap race and had one of the fastest cars on the track in the last 10 laps of this week’s race.

Of the drivers in the modified top 10; the driver with the best combined big block modified and small block modified finish was a surprising Tim Sears Jr.  Tim put together a performance of a lifetime with a 2^nd place small block finish which he followed with a 4^th place finish in the 200 lap big block race.  Sears was prepared to conclude his season after last week’s trip to Port Royal but made a last minute decision early in the week to attend one more race at the Eastern States and it turned out to be the highlight of the Sears team’s season.

Jimmy Phelps is another driver like Mahaney that has had a consistent and strong fall season in the past few weeks.  Phelps added another small block win and a 6^th place big block finish to his sweep of the Octoberfast event at Fulton were he won both the small block and big block title on the same night.

10/24/20 – Small Block Modified – 75 laps Eastern States

The 75 lap small block modified feature was another dominate performance by Jimmy Phelps from the pole who again led the race from green to checked flag his 3^rd win in the month of October.  Tim Sears Jr and Rocky Warner were out of towners who had impressive podium finishes at one of the biggest races of the year. 

Postrace Phelps noted “We hadn’t been on the track all day and together with a narrow track and constant lapped traffic that was the only thing that scared me and fortunately we were able to negotiate the lapped traffic without incident.”

The top ten was rounded out by Tim Sears Jr in 2^nd followed by Rocky Warner, Billy Decker, Larry Wight, Tyler Boniface, Anthony Perrego, David Schilling, Marc Johnson and Ben Bushaw.

ORANGE COUNTY FAIR SPEEDWAY – EASTERN STATES WEEKEND SMALL-BLOCK MODIFIEDS FEATURE FINISH (75-LAPS):

1 Jimmy Phelps 2 Tim Sears Jr 3 Rocky Warner 4 Billy Decker 5 Larry Wight 6 Tyler Boniface
7 Anthony Perrego 8 David Schilling 9 Marc Johnson 10 Ben Bushaw 11 Roger Henion Jr.
12 Tyler Dippel 13 Kevin Root 14 Mat Williamson 15 Neil Stratton 16 Chris Stevens
17 Bob McGannon 18 Joe Bonetti 19 Shane Jablonka 20 Corey Cormier 21 Allison Ricci
22 Patrick Reiser 23 Dave Constantino 24 Dillon Steuer 25 Stewart Friesen 26 Gary Edwards Jr.
27 Richard Smith 28 Pat Ward 29 Jackson Gill 39 Andy Bachetti 31 Dave Marcuccili

32 Billy VanInwegen 33 Frank Venezia 34 Tommy Meier 35 Louden Reimert 36 Bobby Flood

DNQ – Mike Mahaney, John Ferrier, Danny Morgiewicz, Ray Hall, Randy Green, Alissa Cody, Derrick McGrew, Jimmy Spellmon, Christopher Curtis, Craig Mitchell, Ryan Darcy, Johnny Gaurino, Leo Folopoulos, Kirk Horton, Jimmh Maher, Matt Shultz, Sean Mandel, Eric Holmgren, James Meehan,

Randy Green, Mike Kolka, Roddy Watts, Ryan Darcy

DELAWARE STATE CHAMPIONSHIPS – Delaware International Speedway

10/24/20 – Big Block Modified – 50 lap Feature

It was track regular Jordan Watson on the pole and he held off a list of out of town drivers for 50 laps and survived 6 lengthy cautions and restarts to take the win in the DIS season finale.  Watson lead from green to checkered and had a healthy 3 second margin over 2^nd place HJ Bunting in the # 65.

The top 10 was rounded out by HJ Bunting, Rick Laubach, Ryan Watt, JoJo Watson, Brandon Grosso, Jim Britt, Stan Frankenfield, Rick Regalski and Ryan Charland.

Modified Pit Notes – Delaware State Championships

Jordan Watson delivered a dominating performance leading all 50 laps from the pole as the 2020 DIS modified points champion made his 4th trip into the DIS victory lane.

HJ Bunting had his best outing of the season the Bobby Blades #65* entry with a 2^nd place finish from a 6^th place finish.

Watson and Bunting give the locals a 1-2 finish but the remainder of the top 10 were all cars and drivers visiting from other tracks.

Carson Wright worked his way up to the 6^th position from a 14^th starting position but on lap 36 the 91 entry got out into the loose and rough stuff and proceeded to barrel roll and end up on his lid to end his night.

Ricky Elliot in Gary Simpson had a great night going with a strong second place run for the first 36 laps only to pull off due to mechanical issues.

Rick Laubach decided to come south to Delmar instead of North to Middletown and it paid off for Laubach with two podium finishes.  Laubach finished 3^rd in the big block feature from a 7^th place starting position.  On Friday night he lead the first 25 on a flat left front and still came home with a 2^nd place finish.

Ryan Watt made his annual fall pilgrimage to Delmar and also had a great weekend of finishes.  On Friday night Watt finished 3^rd in the small block modified feature and on Saturday Watt got a 4^th place finish in the big block feature from a 16^th starting position.

10/23/20 – Small Block Modified – 50 laps Delaware State Championship Feature

The field was lead to green by Richie Pratt Jr and Ryan Krachun with Laubach a close 3^rd.  An early yellow turned into a red on lap 3 as a fog rolled into the turns of the track giving a dusty like visible haze.  The officials poled the drivers and the majority agreed that the visibility was acceptable and to continue racing.  As the race progressed the fog lifted and was no longer an issue.  After racing resumed; Laubach powered past Krachun on lap 4 and then inherited the lead on a lap 8 caution when the leader Pratt pulled into the pits during a caution for a Ryan Watt’s right front flat tire. Despite a flat left front tire Laubach continued to hold about a 1 second lead on a charging Krachun until lap 24 when lapped traffic was 2 wide and Laubach got bottled up on the high line and hindered by his left front flat while Krachun was able to get through with the low and make the pass for the lead.  From there Krachun was able to check out to nearly a 3 second lead and ride the next 26 green flag laps right into victory lane for his first win of the season.

In victory lane Ryan noted “I knew we were coming up on lapped traffic and Rick was dealing with a left front flat tire. From the start of my career Rick has been my mentor and it was great to run side by side with him on the way to my first win of the season.  I saw his car had been ill handling due to the front flat and knew it would eventually mess him up.  It was great to get this first win of the year in front of the Delaware fans.”

A very strong top ten was rounded out by Rick Laubach in 2^nd place, Ryan Watt, HJ Bunting, Richie Pratt, JoJo Watson, Jim Britt, Ryan Riddle, James Hill and Rick Regalski in 10^th.

Small Block Modified Pit Notes – Delaware International Speedway

Despite a temporary fog delay; Ryan Krachun parked his 29K in the Delaware International victory lane for his first win of the season in only his second trip to DIS.  Krachun has gotten red hot in the last month just in time for special events season with a # 1 qualifier at Bridgeport 100 lapper; 3^rd at New Egypt’s 100 lap All Star Cup; a 2^nd, 4^th & 4^th at the Big Diamond Nationals as well as finishing all 3 triple 20’s at Grandview with 50 cars on the grounds and now has added the long awaited trip to victory lane in only his second visit to Delaware International Speedway to top off a month long of strong performances week in and week out.  Krachun was ready for his long awaited trip to victory lane as he had entered the gambler’s race which increased his winnings from 3,000 to 5,000 for the night.  With two more big weekends to go in 2020 at Georgetown and Bridgeport Krachun is hoping this is just the beginning of the winning.

Rick Laubach made the trip to Delaware this year instead of going north and got his weekend of modified racing off to a good start with a 2^nd place finish in his 1K entry. Laubach got a flat left front tire around lap 5 but then showed his years of driving experience by taking the ill handling car to a second place finish only 3 seconds behind the winner Ryan Krachun and 10 seconds in front of the rest of the field. Post-race Laubach noted “I had to change my driving style and ease off the gas so the car didn’t lay over on the left front. When the lapped cars made erratic moves then I had to erratic moves to over-compensate for the left front and ultimately was the reason we gave the lead up.”

Delaware International Speedway has concluded their 2020 racing season.  2021 schedule to be announced.

GEORGETOWN SPEEDAY

10/23/20 – No racing this week.

Georgetown’s next scheduled event is Friday & Saturday October 30-31 for the Mid-Atlantic STSS Championships features modifieds and a full card with racing at 7:15 on Friday and 5:00 on Saturday.

BRIDGEPORT MOTORSPORTS PARK

10/24/20 – No big track racing this week.

Next event for Bridgeport is the URC High Banks Classic on November 6-8 with racing on November 6th starting at 7:30.   The 100 lap Danny Serrano Memorial feature has been rescheduled on November 8^th in addition to a 40 lap modified feature event.

PENN CAN SPEEDWAY

2020 Racing season has been completed.  2021 schedule to be announced.

NEW EGYPT SPEEDWAY

2020 Racing season has been completed.  2021 schedule to be announced.

BIG DIAMOND SPEEDWAY

Big Diamond has concluded their extended 2020 season.  2021 schedule to be announced.