Dan Vauter Takes 358 Modified Feature in 1st Ever Trip to Woodhull Raceway,
Pecko, Lawson, Wonderling, and Marlatt also Grab Wins
Woodhull, NY… The high banks of Woodhull Raceway usually provide a tough learning curve for visiting drivers, but Five Mile and Penn Can regular Dan Vauter quickly mastered the tricky slick surface and brought home victory in his first ever appearance at the Steuben County speed plant. The Tobias Speedsters were also on hand to compliment the regular six divisions as 164 cars jammed the Woodhull pits.
Twelve Tobias Speedsters took the green, with NASCAR Sprint Cup car owner Ray Evernham and former ESS and World of Outlaws standout Erin Crocker gracing the field. Two second generation drivers headed up the feature finish, as Nick Pecko bested Rich Tobias for the win. Billy Vaninwegen brought home third, with Doug Rose gathering up fourth. Erin Crocker made a late race charge from the rear of the field to secure a top five finish.
Kevin Chilson and Lucas Schroth paced the 24 car field of LJ Kennedy Trucking 358 Modifieds to the drop of the green. Chilson darted to the early lead, with Bryan Terwilliger closely in tow. Terwilliger was able to make the pass on Chilson for the lead, as Ray Bliss Jr. followed tightly in third. Caution bunched the field back together, and allowed Chilson to regain the lead and Ron White pulled off a double pass of both Terwilliger and Bliss for second. Meanwhile, newcomer Dan Vauter had already passed Schroth and put himself in the fifth position. Soon, Terwilliger, White and Vauter began to wage a three car battle for the runner up spot, with Chilson still enjoying a slight lead. Vauter had his ride hooked to the very low side of the track as the three vaulted off turn four side by side. Vauter’s momentum allowed him to make the move for second on the front stretch and then immediately dive under Chilson for the lead as they entered turn one. As Vauter took command, Terwilliger moved up to challenge Chilson for second. By the mid point of the race, Vauter had opened up a sizeable lead, but the brothers VanPelt had been methodically working their way through traffic and were approaching the top five. As Vauter stretched his lead to ten car lengths, Curt VanPelt dove to the bottom of the speedway and passed both White and Bliss to grab fourth. The next lap, VanPelt took over third, disposing of Terwilliger. As Curt moved to the high side and claimed second from Chilson, brother Billy was passing Bliss for fourth. As Vauter encountered heavy lap traffic, his 12 car length lead over Curt VanPelt was in jeopardy of disappearing. However, Vauter sliced through lap traffic as if he’d raced at Woodhull for years, and took the win to the cheers of the crowd, as Curt VanPelt could do no better than the runner-up position. Billy VanPelt made a last lap pass of Chilson to snag third, with Bliss hanging tough for fifth.
AJ Costley looked to capitalize on his pole position for the S&W Crate Sportsman feature, as he motored to the point at the wave of the green flag. As Costley set sail, Art Goodier and Tony Hooker waged a spirited battle for second. A quick caution bunched up the pack and on the ensuing restart, Bill Brewer powered by Hooker for third as Costley kept his lead over Goodier. Brewer’s pass left the door open for multi feature winner Donnie Lawson to make quick work of Hooker and take fourth. While Costley continued to hold the lead, Goodier, Brewer and Lawson swapped positions back and forth, with the group running three wide on several occasions. Lawson finally cleared Brewer and Goodier and set sail for Costley. The two competitors soon opened up six car lengths over Brewer and Goodier, still battling hard for third and a charging Chris Silvers, who had worked his way into the top five. Try as he may, Costley couldn’t hold off the charging Lawson, as the veteran took the low line and the lead. While Lawson pulled away for his sixth victory of the season, Costley finished off his impressive run in second. Brewer got the edge over Goodier for third and Silvers held tight for his best finish of the season in fifth.
The NAPA 360 Late Models ran two features Saturday night, as they made up their rained out Jim Williams Memorial race with Glenn Whritenour taking home his fourth win of ’08. In the make-up feature, two time feature winner Jeremy Wonderling was involved in a wreck on the front stretch, which caused extensive damage to the rear of his #3J machine, which raised some question about Wonderling’s ability to run the second feature. Not only did he put the doubts about running the second feature to rest, he turned his evening’s fortune around by making a late race pass of race leader Wayne Robertson to earn his third win of the year. Robertson crossed the stripe just ahead of earlier winner Whritenour, who capped off a very productive night in third. Bob Buono ran in the top five all evening and claimed fourth, with Bruce Miller holding back a charging Darwin Davis for fifth.
Brian Knowles grabbed the point early in the Morgan’s Auto Repair Street Stock feature and appeared to be on his way to yet another victory. However, last week’s feature winner Brett Marlatt had blazed his way through the field and was challenging Knowles for the lead as caution flew with two laps remaining. The rookie showed his toughness, as he muscled by Knowles on the last lap to net his fourth win of the season. Knowles held back Marlatt’s teammate Cliff Moss for second, and Zack Sutton put together an impressive run from the back to finish fourth. Former two-time track champion Mike Williams rounded out the top five.
The Signs Plus Mini Stocks were on the track doing battle as the skies opened up on lap eleven, putting an end to the night’s events. Next week, the Mini Stocks will pick up where they left off, running the last 9 laps of their feature event at the beginning of the evening. The LaBarron Brothers Front Wheel Drive division will run double features, as their 20-lap main event fell victim to Mother Nature as well.
WOODHULL RACEWAY QUICK RESULTS
Multi Media Services, Elmira Jackals & Chucks General Contracting & Rentals Night
08/09/08
NAPA 360 Late Model Make-up Feature
20 lap make-up feature: Glenn Whritenour (4), Larry Knowles, John Waters, Mike Wonderling, Wayne Robertson, Bruce Miller, Jared Dennis, Dave Miller, Sparky Hills, Bob Buono, Darwin Davis, Bryce Davis Josh Smith, Dan Guild, Steve Williams, Mike Smith, Nate Daggett, Steve Kent, Wally Wade, Jeremy Wonderling, Mick Seeley
Tobias Speedsters (12 Cars)
Heats: Rich Tobias, Willy Evernham
Feature: Nick Pecko, Rich Tobias, Billy Vaninwegen, Doug Rose, Erin Crocker, Jeff Gallup, Andy Burkhart, Billy VanPelt, Willy Evernham, Ray Evernham, Paul Lotier Jr., Steve Hicks
L.J. Kennedy Trucking 358 Modifieds (31 cars)
Heats: Curt VanPelt, Roger Williams, Don Silvernail
12 lap B-Main: Dave DuBois
25 lap feature: Dan Vauter, Curt VanPelt, Billy VanPelt, Kevin Chilson, Ray Bliss Jr, Ron White, Bryan Terwilliger, Steve Hartman Jr, Frank Dunning, Dale Welty, Roger Williams, Ken Peoples Sr, Greg Galligan, Stacy Jackson, Don Silvernail, Lucas Schroth, Brian Doolittle, Dave Dubois, Ray Dann, Tim Guild, Brooks Leach, Ryan Gordner, Tony Harris, Lee Bills DNQ: Donnie Potter, Marc Benson, Chris Brockway, Don Lawson, Jared Keeney, Joe Buck, Ray Hyer
S&W Awards and Photos Crate Sportsman (29 cars)
Heats: Donnie Lawson, Bill Shea, Bill Brewer
Consi: Kenny Peoples Jr
20 lap feature: Donnie Lawson (6), AJ Costley, Bill Brewer, Art Goodier, Chris Silvers, Bill VanEtten, Joe Dgien, Bill Shea, Scott Brown, Ray Smith, Mike Jackson, Larry Keegan, Casey Pavlick, Kevin McPherson, Gary Lampman, Dave Youse, Bob Paul, Frank Kline, Kreg Crooker, Nick Galayda, Donny Knowles, Tony Hooker, Nate DeLong, Kenny Peoples Jr DNQ: Mike Buchanan, Wesley Campbell, Bob Johnson, Aaron Carl, Brett Buono
NAPA 360 Late Models (29 cars)
Heats: John Waters, Wayne Robertson, Glen Whritenour
25 lap feature: Jeremy Wonderling (3), Wayne Robertson, Glenn Whritenour, Bob Buono, Bruce Miller, Darwin Davis, Jeff Cheeseboro, Jason Knowles, Larry Knowles, Jared Dennis, Bruce Ross, Sparky Hills, Matt Cobb, Dan Guild, Mike Wonderling, Bob Lubberts, Mike Smith, Nate Daggett, Bryce Davis, John Waters, Steve Kent, Jay McConnell, Josh Smith, Dave Miller DNQ: Clint Button, Steve Williams, Wally Wade
Morgan’s Auto Repair Street Stocks (19 cars)
Heats: Rod Mullen, Jeff Smith, Zack Sutton
20 lap feature: Brett Marlatt (4), Brian Knowles, Cliff Moss, Zack Sutton, Mike Williams, Russell Morseman III, Todd Burgess, Jeff Smith, LaVern Knickerbocker, Kevin Patton, Butch Dibble, Rod Mullen, Brian Butler, Tony Foth, Josh Nobriga, Dan Gordon, Brett Crawford, Jared Hill, Mike Kerr, Cory McConnell, Jeff Ameigh, Ron Brown
Signs Plus Mini Stocks (25 cars)
Heats: Chris McCann, Rich Sharpsteen, Chris Woodard
20 lap feature: Rain Delay, Finish last 9 laps on 8/16/08
LaBarron Brothers Repair and Parts FWD Division (19 cars)
Heats: Ron Hill, Mark Schenck
20 lap feature: Rained Out -Make-up 8/16/08