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LATEMODELRACER >> NORTH REGION >> Fastrak NE at Trumbull County Fair - 6/29 Results
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Message started by LMR on 06/30/11 at 1:29am

Title: Fastrak NE at Trumbull County Fair - 6/29 Results
Post by LMR on 06/30/11 at 1:29am

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 29, 2011
________________________________________

KING OPENS BULLY DOG FASTRAK NORTHEAST LATE MODEL SPEEDWEEK WITH $2,000 VICTORY AT EXPO AS PART OF THE TRUMBULL COUNTY FAIR

By Mike Leone
CORTLAND, Ohio (June 29) - The Sweeney Chevrolet Buick GMC FASTRAK Northeast LateModel Touring Series held its fourth ever event at the Expo Speedway as part of the 165th annual Trumbull County Fair on Wednesday as the inaugural Bully Dog “Cross the Borders” Speedweek kicked off. The 29 cars that were on hand from four different states was actually arecord for the midweek event at the huge 5/8-mile oval, which starts at 6 p.m. due to no lights.

Russell King ran down early race leader George Kowatic and made the winning pass on lap 13 in lapped traffic. The duo made contact with Kowatic suffering a contact tire that ended his night with King going on for his first career FASTRAK victory in the 30-lap feature, which paid $2,000 to-win.

“I just had to get up on the wheel,” described the 22-year-old Bristolville, Ohio winner. “It’s tough to pass here so there was a little gouging going on. I just knew I was going to hold my ground on the bottom and the cars on the outside had the option to lift. This FASTRAK racing can’t get anymore closer than it is. I’m really pumped for everyone to win this, and I have thank everyone for supporting the fair.”

Kowatic drew the pole position and raced to the early. King started third, but drove hard into turn one making contact with Max Blair and in the meantime getting past 14-year-old “Futures Cup” contender Shane Weaver for runner-up. Blair, John Volpe, and eighth starting Steve Dixon were third through fifth after one lap.

By lap two, Kowatic and King began pulling away from the field. King closed on the leader on lap five, but Kowatic continued to set the pace. Kowatic opened up some breathing room as he had a clear track in front of him until lapped traffic came into play on lap nine. With Kowatic struggling to get by the lapped car of another “Futures Cup” racer in Bobby Rohrer, Jr., King zeroed back in on lap 11.

On lap 13, Kowatic came off turn two trying to get by Lauren Longbrake. The slight hesitation allowed King a clear run to the inside of Kowatic. The two made contact with King coming out in the lead; however, Joe Martin slowed to bring out the event’s first and only caution with 12 laps scored.

Kowatic regained the lead when racing restarted because the 13th lap wasn’t counted, but the contact had cut Kowatic’s tire down. Kowatic’s disabled race car made a couple laps falling back through the pack before exiting the event. Back up front, King was in control with Blair now second, Volpe to third, and 14th starting Dan Angelicchio up to fourth ahead of Mike Pegher, Jr.

As the laps ticked off, King pulled away, while the battle was on for second. Wayne Robertson, who started back 17th, joined the mix making it a five-car race for second. With five laps to go, King opened up a straightaway lead on Blair, who pulled away from Volpe, Angelicchio, Pegher, and Robertson.

King would take the King Bros.-owned, Essroc Italcementi/Integra Shocks/Schaeffer’s Oil-sponsored #56 to the victory in front of his hometown family and friends to become the 27th different FASTRAK Northeast Touring Series winner in 62 races run all-time.

Blair’s two-race win steak at the fair ended with a runner-up, but the current Northeast Touring point leader extended his lead to 18 over Pegher. Volpe edged out Angelicchio, Robertson, and Pegher for third in the Scott Bidwell #B1D, which carried driver Bobby Powell to the inaugural race victory in 2008.

Angelicchio continued his strong runs with his fourth consecutive top five finish and fifth of the season in seven Touring starts. It was quite a story for Robertson, who made the four and half hour tow from Corning, New York only to be delayed in traffic on I-90 forcing him to miss hot laps. In his first ever start at the track, Robertson progressed forward for a solid fifth place effort after getting by Pegher on lap 29. Robertson, who will be getting married this weekend, now has three top 10s in his three starts this year.

Pegher was sixth over his good friend Dixon. York, South Carolina’s Chris Steele was behind the wheel of a second Josh Holtgraver racing entry. After suffering a flat tire in the heat race, Steele won the B main from his fourth starting spot then advanced from 19th in the feature to eighth, which earned him one of the $1,000 Contingency Connection prizes presented by the Original Pizza Logs. Josh Double started right beside Steele on the outside of row 10 in the 20th starting spot and followed Steele forward for a respectable ninth. Butch Lambert was 10th for his fifth top 10 of the season.

“Futures Cup” point leader, Damian Bidwell, finished 13th and was the last car on the lead lap to earn the free Hoosier Tire presented by Utsinger’s Towing and regional Hoosier Tire distributors. Tom Copeland from nearby Warren, Ohio was the other recipient of the Contingency Connection package. Lambert, Alan Dellinger, and Blair won the heat races.

The E-Mods were also on the card and Joel Watson blew away the competition with a dominating run in the 15-lap $500 to-win feature. The Conneaut, Ohio driver started third and drove around Richard Michael, Jr. in turn four on lap two for the lead. Only one caution was all that slowed his run to a half-lap margin of victory over Michael.

Mike Potosky was third. Jeff Johnson passed Kari Gasser on lap 12 to finish fourth. Gasser dropped to fifth. Sixth through 10th were Dwayne Clay, Bill Taylor, Andy Buckley, Brian Douglas, and Jason Longwell. Watson and Gasser won the heat races.

Sweeney Chevrolet Buick GMC FASTRAK Late Model Northeast Late Model Touring Series Race #8 (30 laps, $2,000 to-win): 1. RUSSELL KING (56) 2. Max Blair (111) 3. John Volpe (Bidwell B1D) 4. Dan Angelicchio (14) 5. Wayne Robertson (20) 6. Mike Pegher, Jr. (Geisler 1c) 7. Steve Dixon (50) 8. Chris Steele (Holtgraver 00X) 9. Josh Double (38) 10. Butch Lambert (27) 11. Josh Holtgraver (00) 12. Kyle Zimmerman (z17) 13. Damian Bidwell (17) 14. Shane Weaver (Ruffner 325x) 15. Chad Wright (6) 16. Bill Cunningham (59) 17. Lauren Longbrake (27) 18. Tom Copeland (98) 19. John Over (K2) 20. Bobby Rohrer, Jr. (11) 21. George Kowatic (5) 22. Alan Dellinger (Williams 8) 23. Joe Martin (55) 24. Clay Ruffo (14R)

B main non-qualifiers: 7. Nick Miller (97) 8. Chris Angelicchio (4) 9. Justin Kreider (29) 10. Brian Lessley (Powell 100)-DNS 11. Tyler Barris (32B)-DNS.

Heat winners: Lambert, Dellinger, Blair
B main winner: Steele
Feature lap leaders: Kowatic (1-12), King (13-30)
Car count: 29

Original Pizza Logs “Contingency Connection” $1,000 package winners:
Chris Steele & Tom Copeland
Utsinger’s Towing “Hoosier Tire” Giveaway: Damian Bidwell

E-Mods (15 laps, $500 to-win): 1. JOEL WATSON 2. Richard Michael, Jr.
(17x) 3. Mike Potosky (m20) 4. Jeff Johnson (27) 5. Kari Gasser
(0k) 6. Dwayne Clay (007) 7. Bill Taylor (41) 8. Andy Buckley (965)
9. Brian Douglas (Ailing 214) 10. Jason Longwell (24) 11. Blake
Wolfe (74)-DNS 12. Brian Hathaway (22)-DNS 13. Bob Diver (23)-DNS.

Updated FASTRAK Northeast Touring Series Points after Expo*

Pos. Car Driver Points
1 111 Max Blair 266
2 1C Mike Pegher, Jr. 248
3 14 Dan Angelicchio 212
4 27 Butch Lambert 199
5 50 Steve Dixon 198
6 55 Joe Martin 195
7 0 Josh Holtgraver 194
8 38 Josh Double 134
9 17 Damian Bidwell 117
10 5 George Kowatic 107
11 100 Brian Lessley 100
12 B1D John Volpe 94
13 84 Andrew Wylie 92
14 27 Lauren Longbrake 92
15 20 Wayne Robertson 90
16 5 Mike Blose 87
17 Z17 Kyle Zimmerman 83
18 135 Jamie Brown 72
19 W11 Rob Blair 67
20 2* Shane Hitt 61
21 1 Kyle Lukon 58
22 1P Darren Peters 55
23 6 Chad Wright 50
24 12 Ryan Montgomery 50
25 6T Adam Sixt 49
26 14R Clay Ruffo 49
27 50C Bobby Cossell, IV 40
28 38L Mike Laughard 40
29 11 Troy Shields 37
30 48 Rick Strickler 34
31 99 Rob Marhefka 34
32 32B Tyler Barris 32
33 59 Bill Cunningham 30
34 0 Junior Peters 29
35 3 T.J. Downs 27
36 44C Billy Cunningham, Jr. 25
37 51 Billy Stile, III 25
38 100 Bud Watson 17
39 11 Bobby Rohrer 16
40 2 Andrew Satterlee 10
41 79 Michael Hughes 10
42 39 Patrick Willar 10
43 33L Rich Logan 10
44 17B Russell Baird, Jr. 10
45 21B Scott Beitzel 10
*Note: Must be Northeast Touring Series member to receive points

Updated Bully Dog Speedweek Points after Expo*
Pos. Car First Last Points
1 56 Russell King 35
2 111 Max Blair 34
3 B1D John Volpe 33
4 14 Dan Angelicchio 32
5 20 Wayne Robertson 31
6 1C Mike Pegher, Jr. 30
7 50 Steve Dixon 29
8 00X Chris Steele 28
9 38 Josh Double 27
10 27 Butch Lambert 26
11 #00 Josh Holtgraver 25
12 Z17 Kyle Zimmerman 24
13 17 Damian Bidwell 23
14 325X Shane Weaver 22
15 6 Chad Wright 21
16 59 Bill Cunningham 20
17 27 Lauren Longbrake 19
18 98 Tom Copeland 18
19 K2 John Over 17
20 11 Bobby Rohrer 16
21 5 George Kowatic 15
22 55 Joe Martin 13
23 14R Clay Ruffo 12
24 32B Tyler Barris 10
25 29 Justin Kreider 10
26 100 Brian Lessley 10
27 8 Alan Dellinger 0
28 4 Chris Angelicchio 0
29 97 Nick Miller 0
*Only FASTRAK members receive Speedweek points