Uniontown’s Nelson captures third Street Stock victory
Bob Nelson of Uniontown captured his third Street Stock victory of the season at the Roaring Knob Motorsports Complex on Saturday evening. Other winners at the Markleysburg dirt track included Gary Dalton (Super Late Models), Rick Meglaye (Late Models), Rich Logan (Modifieds), and Mark Peck (Chargers).
Nelson took the lead at the drop of the green flag in the Street Stock feature. He had his hands full trying to hold off fellow Uniontown driver Tom Newman, and Mill Run’s Sam King the entire race, but was able to get the job done. Newman was second, while King came home third. Following King were Todd Dennis (Markleysburg), Jesse King (Munhall), Mike Duritsky (Uniontown), who won the prior week, Charlie McClain (Mt. Braddock), Marshall Coleman (Lemont Furnace), Chris Lucy (Chalk Hill), Mitch Wattelet (Scenery Hill), George Kelley (Waynesburg), EJ Rozak (New Salem), Bo Karwatske (Uniontown), Joe Wrona (Smithfield), Matt Franks (Smithfield), Josh Bendishaw (Uniontown), and Curt Bradford.
Wrona moved into the Street Stocks from the Charger division. McClain and Karwatske won the Street Stock heat races.
A great field of twenty-seven Super Late Models signed into the pits to take a shot at winning $2,000 in the special 40-lap feature. Robbie Scott took the early lead from his outside position in the front row. Scott maintained his lead until Chuck Harper got by him on lap 18. In the meantime, ninth starting Gary Dalton was picking his way through the field. The caution flag was displayed two laps later. Once again, Scott grabbed the lead on the restart. Dalton stayed glued to Scott’s bumper, and with three laps to go, he shot to the outside, passed Scott, and pulled away to his fourth victory of the season.
Dalton was victorious over Scott, Harper, Doug Horton, Greg Fetters, Keith Barbara, Butch McGill, Kris Eaton, Nolan Dalton, Nick Jones, Jim McCloud, Jeff Ferguson (Uniontown), John Over (Uniontown), Chuck Clise, Tracie Sampson, Rick Smith (Mt. Morris), Greg Gellner, Billy Holbert, Steve Booth, Bob Hershman, Tim Senic, Bob Gordon, Keith Jackson, Shaun Poling, Mike Steck, Todd Bachman, and Kris Southern.
The Super Late Model heat race winners were by Gary Dalton, Harper, and Fetters.
Late Model veteran Garry Sisson of Uniontown led the first six laps of the Late Model feature until being overtaken by Rick Meglaye, who went on to claim his second victory of the year. Point leader Robbie Black was a close second over Sisson, Dave Gump, Greg Hauger (Uniontown), Jim “Jimbo” Byers (McClellandtown), Fred Zeigler (Chalk Hill), Stanley Spooner, Bobby Marietta (New Salem), and Curt Hager (Markleysburg). Meglaye and Black won the heat races.
The Modified feature, a three-way dance between Phil Jeffries, Rich Logan, and Denny Perigo, thrilled the fans in attendance. Jeffries led the race until lap 12, when Logan made the winning move. Perigo came home second, while Jeffries was third. Nick Cramer, Matt Cosner, Todd Daughenbaugh, Andy Wolfe, Mike Errett, Brent Trimble, and Andre Layfield, rounded out the pack. Trimble and Layfield took the heat race wins.
Mark Peck of Lemont Furnace, won his heat race, and led every lap of the Charger feature to collect win number five of the season. Peck was followed to the checkered flag by Shawn Smith (Confluence), Bob Matthews (Lemont Furnace), 12th starting Don Miller (Farmington), Fred Spiker (Gibbon Glade), 14th starting Mason Zeigler (Chalk Hill), Bob Miller (Lemont Furnace), Shane Wheeler Jr. (Smithfield), Marty Oros (Farmington), John Matthews (Lemont Furnace), Adam McCormick (Fairchance), Marty Spade (Farmington), Frank Spade (Farmington), Jason Humberson (Grantsville, MD), Brad Jenkins (Uniontown), and Gary Koteles (Stockdale). Peck and Frank Spade were the Charger heat race winners.
Winning feature events at Jennerstown Speedway on Saturday evening were Jason Mignogna (Super Late Models), Adam Kostelnik (Street Stocks), and Dee Petrie (Hobby Stocks.
Mark Smith jumped into the lead at the onset of the Super Late feature, building a four or five car advantage. After four caution periods in the first fifteen laps, Mignogna started to put pressure on Smith. However, Garry Wiltrout, of Somerset, was racing through the filed at a torrid pace. By lap 20, he passed Mignogna and began to challenge Smith for the lead. On lap 25, Wiltrout, who was attempting to extend his winning streak to four wins in five tries, drove to the inside of Smith in turn one. Slight, unintentional contact was made. Smith spun and backed his car into the wall, rendering Wiltrout to the tail of the field.
The incident handed the lead to Mignogna, of Greensburg, who led the final 15 laps to grab his second feature win of the year. Finishing behind Mignogna were Barry Awtey, Mark Poole, Rick Boyer, Mark Cottone, and Kyle Martel. Wiltrout, who clearly had the fastest car on the track, rallied to finish 7th. Rounding out the top ten were Matt Howsare, Dusty Rhoads, and Andrew Wylie.
Hoss Grubbs of Stahlstown, and “Racin’ Jason” Holder, pulled away from the other Street Stock drivers in the feature. By lap five, Andrew Kostelnik and Bryan Awtey caught up to them, producing a four-car battle. After a restart on the eighth lap, the drivers raced three-wide into the third turn, with Andrew Kostelnik coming out of the bottleneck in front. However, his brother Adam Kostelnik , who started deep in the field, chased him down and the race for the checkered flag began. The two siblings ran side-by-side for the next several laps. A Lauren Butler spin on lap 18 brought out another yellow flag, setting up an intense two-lap dash to the checkered flag. Adam Kostelnik was able to prevail over Andrew, Holder, Awtey, Grubbs, Scott Bowman, Bob Young, Rookie Ted Gibala, Jr., Jonathan Hileman (Belle Vernon), and Butler.
With the victory, Adam Kostelnik tied Dink Colarusso on Jennerstown’s all-time Street Stock win list. The Kostelnik brothers have now won six out of the eight Street Stock features run at Jennerstown in 2007.
Dee Petrie of Greensburg passed Craig Livengood on lap three of the Hobby Stock feature, then drove to her first win of the year. She held off five-time winner Steve Long, who finished right on her rear bumper. Eugene Zerfoss, Matt Sever, Angelo Codispoti, Doug Long, Cliff Zerfoss, John Steeley, Woodrow McCulloch, and Livengood, rounded out the top ten.
The Race of Champions, scheduled for August 11th at Jennerstown Speedway, has been cancelled due to scheduling conflicts with the Nextel Cup drivers.
The Friday night races at Motordrome Speedway were rained out.
Dave Dragovich is a freelance motorsports journalist for the Herald Standard. A former competitor at Motordrome Speedway (1992-1998), Dragovich can be heard on Mike Lysakowski’s “Motordrome Live” broadcast on WMBS Radio 590AM, Fridays from 6PM to 7PM, and on Don Gamble’s “Rappin’ On Racin'” radio show on WEDO 810AM, Monday evenings from 6pm until 8:45PM. Dave may also be contacted via e-mail at somersetdave@comcast.net.