THE REDWOOD ROCKET WINS SECOND IN A ROW AT ADIRONDACK; ARBES, COSTA AND RAMOS ALSO CLAIM VICTORIES

NEW BREMEN, NY – John Papin out of Redwood used a lap-43 restart to get by Morrisonville’s Bryant Trim to win Saturday night's 50-lap L.E.T. ASA Challenger Late Model feature event at the ASA-sanctioned Adirondack International Speedway on Gillee’s NAPA Night.  The second win of the 2007 season for Papin, who came from the eighth starting position, was worth $1,000 plus several hundred dollars in contingencies. Other winners were Dave Arbes in the GotGoodCheese.com True Stock division, Larry Costa for the D&D Powersports Sport Compacts, and Mike Ramos in the Westward Painting Company Light Trucks.

ASA Challenger Late Model upstart Carl Guilefuss led the headline feature down to starter Tim Barones green flag to take the lead in the 50-lap affair. Immediately, local boy Shane Monnat fired from his outside pole position to take the lead at the end of the first circuit. Just one lap later Monnat surrendered his point position to fourth place starter Bryant Trim. Trim, clearly the class of the field held the lead from lap two on, while a barrage of close racing action ensued behind him.

The yellow flag flew on lap three for a three-car melee in turn one. This incident took sophomore sensation Josh Lloyd out of the running along with long-time veteran Jim Southard. Eric Cupernall, also involved, was able to continue on with minimal damage. Five laps in and the heavy hitters maintained the top-five positions. Trim leading the way was being chased by Tommy Cloce in a freshly prepared Toyota Late Model. Behind him saw John Papin, Jason Herrington and Lee Gill. Gill and Herrington waged battle for the fourth position and Gill, clearly the quicker car poked a nose to the rear of Herrington sending Herrington’s mount around on the backstretch causing a yellow flag. The altercation sent Gill to the rear for his involvement along with Herrington, both continuing on with no damage. Soon after a lap seven restart, Papin moved ahead of Cloce on lap-11 and began his strategy to overtake Trim for the lead. The two went nose to tail for a number of laps with Trim clearly showing his #59 out front putting a clinic on ahead of Papin. By lap 13 Gill moved back into the top-five with Herrington chasing. At the halfway point the top-five showed Trim in the lead with Papin, Cloce, Gill and Cupernall in tow. The top-five remained idle for a number of laps as the men jockeyed through lap traffic all swapping grooves high and low. By lap 33 Herrington rejoined the top-five however that was short-lived as Billy Coyle gained the fifth position just two laps later. With 24 consecutive green flag laps being ran off, the yellow showed for the last time on lap 43 as Guilefuss went around the frontstretch. Gathering it back up, Guilefuss continued on just as the yellow hit the track. Haunting Trim at the point, it was the last thing the young shoe wanted to see with arguably the best driver to hit the Adirondack surface on his tail for a lap-43 restart. Trim, firing first, maintained his position for three-quarters of a lap when Papin danced to the highside in his Monte Carlo and driving around the Trim machine taking the top spot with six laps to go. Filing off the remainder of the event the top-five finish saw Papin collect his 16^th win at the Lewis County oval. Second went to Trim with Cloce, Herrington and Cupernall rounding out the top-five. 

”I feel awful bad for Bryant, I was pulling for him and I would have liked to see him get a win, I know he hated to see that caution. He is a heck of a driver, and a win for him is long overdue,” quoted Papin, paying his respects to Trim. “During that restart, I knew it would be my only chance to get him so I gambled and went high and it all worked out for us. Hats off to Bryant though he drove a great race and had it of stayed green he would be the one down here in victory lane.” In true professional fashion Papin also thanked Gillee’s NAPA for sponsoring the nights events.

In the 20 lap GotGoodCheese.com True Stock race Rome, NY’s Dave Arbes rocketed from his third starting position to claim the lead on the opening lap. Immediately in tow was Duane Williamson who started fifth. With Arbes pacing the field, Williamsons night went to shambles on lap three as he spun in turn four. Overtaking the second position was Tommy Markham as he and Mike Ramos waged battle behind Arbes. With the action hot behind him, Arbes motored on for his first win of the year. After going winless in 2006, Arbes’ return to AIS’ victory lane was for the first time since August of 2005.

As it has been seen so far in 2007 Larry Costa has been consistant in the top-five. Often doing battle outside the top-three of Rudy Widrick, Al Brigham and Tom Dubach, Costa found himself at the top of the pile when it counted most, and taking his first career win, he had to hold off the best in the business to do it. The rookie driver out of Canton took the lead on lap four of the D&D Powersports Sport Compact 15-lap event and contrary to prior weeks, he held it. With point leaders Rudy Widrick and Al Brigham on his tail from lap seven on, Costa wheeled the previously driven Andre Roggie GEO Storm to victory for the first time in his rookie season, just three races young. Widrick, congratulating Costa on his triumph finished second with Brigham taking the third spot.

Sponsored by the Westward Painting Company the WPC Light Trucks made history tonight running in a 25-lap event for the first time with a grand prize of $400. Rookie True Stock driver and former Light Truck champion Mike Ramos took his Ford Ranger out of storage, brought both machines out for action and played the double duty role in search of the hefty prize money. Easily listed as the most competitive class at the Speedway, Ramos started 15^th in the 21 truck field and working his way up, wasn’t able to overtake the top spot until lap 16 passing Keith Delles on the top of turns three and four. Delles, running his best race in recent memory held the lead from lap one on, and maintained the second position until lap 24 when two-time feature winner Todd McIntyre passed him in chase of Ramos. McIntyre ran out of time however and held on for second with Delles, Steve Ellis and Zach Arthur rounding out the top-five. A prolonged tech inspection went into effect for the class as pistons were checked and evaluated for legality. All top-five runners passed inspection and were granted their purse, the highest in the history of the division.

Coming up this Saturday June 9th at the Adirondack International Speedway is the L.E.T. ASA Challenger Late Models in a 50-lap event with a regular show of GotGoodCheese.com True Stocks, D&D Powersports Sport Compacts and Westward Painting Company Light Trucks. Race time is set for 6:30pm. For more information, contact the track office at (315) 346-RACE or visit www.adirondackspeedway.com

PIT NOTES – All divisions ran off a clean show with minimal yellow flag periods, and the entire four-division show was wiped clean in three hours time. Ramos’ performance marked the first time in history that a driver has done double duty racing in two divisions and was able to finish each event in the top-five. Ramos also sold his truck on this night, as he made likely his last start in a Light Truck at the New Bremen half-mile. Tommy Cloce debuted a brand new Howe Chassis in the Late Model feature event. Equipped with a Chevrolet crate motor, Cloce will continue using this mount in weeks to come. Jason Herrington was in competition with the normally driven Phil Arnold Monte Carlo. Herrington’s primary #37 underwent motor trouble after last week’s fifth place tally and looking to fellow Troy, NY resident Arnold loaned his ride so Herrington could maintain his top-five run in the point standings. There were no disqualifications all night after two consecutive weeks of DQ’s coming from three of the four divisions.

June 2^nd, 2007- Gillee’s NAPA Race Summary

L.E.T. ASA Challenger Late Models (50-Laps): JOHN PAPIN, Bryant Trim, Tommy Cloce, Jason Herrington, Eric Cupernall, Carl Guilefuss, Shane Monnat, Lee Gill, Billy Coyle, Josh Pieniazek, Andre Roggie, Jim Southard, Josh Lloyd, Mark Scoville, Jerry Dineen, and Luke Plante.

Heat Winners – Lee Gill, Bryant Trim
 

GotGoodCheese.com True Stocks (20-Laps): DAVE ARBES, Tommy Markham, Dylan Bancroft, Chris Typhair, Mike Ramos, JR Mooney, Rick Mooney, Randy Widrick, Willie Redmond, Steve Burton, Ben VanTassel, and Duane Williamson. DNS – Bill Mono

Heat Winners – Dylan Bancroft, Tommy Markham

D&D Powersports Sport Compacts (15-Laps): LARRY COSTA, Rudy Widrick, Al Brigham, Terry Gardner, Tim Ingersoll, Scott Shafer, Jiggs Jones, and Jack Jones.

Heat Winner – Al Brigham

Westward Painting Company Light Trucks (25-Laps): MIKE RAMOS, Todd McIntyre, Keith Delles, Steve Ellis, Zach Arthur, John Sullivan, Jr., Bob McCanney, Tom McIntyre, Cooter Beyer, Jim Trombley, Dan Bellinger, Jr., Kyle Weaver, Duane Williamson, Kenneth Kirkbride, Uriah Kirkbride, Hannah Burton, David Black, Ray Richer, John VanTassel, and Levi Kirkbride. DNS – Al Miller

Heat Winners – Keith Delles, Steve Ellis