HERRINGTON, RAMOS, SHAFER, AND KIRKBRIDE WIN ON GILLEE’S NAPA NIGHT AT THE ADIRONDACK INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY

NEW BREMEN (NY) – Jason Herrington of Troy took the lead with ten laps to go and ultimately stopped the two-race win streak of Lee Gill at the ASA-sanctioned Adirondack International Speedway this past Saturday night. Racing 51-laps in the Lyndaker Excavating & Trucking ASA Challenger Late Model division, Herrington took his Rifenburg Construction No. 37 underneath the double-checkers first, scoring his third victory of the year on Gillee’s NAPA Night.

Other winners included Mike Ramos, in the GotGoodCheese.com True Stocks, Scott Shafer in the D&D Powersports Sport Compacts and Levi Kirkbride in the Westward Painting Company Light Trucks.

Originally slated for 101-laps, a 20-car field of ASA Challenger Late Models had Herrington and Andre Roggie sitting on the front row by virtue of a top-twelve redraw. Herrington won the drag race to the first turn and maintained the top spot to lead the races first circuit. Herrington then jumped out to a comfortable advantage as Series hotshoe Bryant Trim pulled into second. With the races first yellow being thrown on lap ten the chaos would begin. A series of incidents slowed the race several times from lap 10 to 11 setting track management up to make the ultimate call in negating the main event to 51-laps. During the jumble a four-car pileup at the entrance of turn one stacked up point leader John Papin in the middle of the heap. Papin was forced to bring his No. 50 Monte Carlo to the attention of his pit crew. Returning with heavy body damage, Papin was back in the fight soon after but with the work cut out for him as he was restarting from the rear.

On the lap 11 restart, the top-five saw Herrington, Gill, Trim, Chris Ross, and Roggie pacing the field. On lap 16 an incident in turn two slowed the race once again and Trim made contact with a lap car putting them both out of commission as the race restarted with Erik Cupernall now joining the top-five. On lap 21 Gill made a clean pass on Herrington to take the lead and look to run away in search of his third straight in the division. At the halfway point the top-five showed Gill, Herrington, Ross, Roggie and Cupernall maintaining position. With leaders engaging lap cars lap-by-lap Herrington would close in on Gill and begin working on him for the top spot. Herrington soon took the position in turn one to begin lap 41. The two leaders off in a race of their own Herrington remained out front and protected his ground motoring on the victory with Gill, Ross, Roggie and Cupernall filling the front-five. Papin held on to finish sixth, a positive comeback to maintain his performance in the 2007 point standings.

Elated in victory lane, Herrington celebrated with a dash down the front stretch checkered flag in hand, in scoring his seventh win of his career at Adirondack . Although happy in victory lane, Herrington spoke positive with the move to go to 51-laps. “I was glad to see them bring the race to 51-laps early on. A lot of conflicts really slowed everything on the track and you can’t blame the tracks decision to cut the race short. We were really putting a poor showing on for ourselves with the accidents, and I apologize to the fans for not getting their monies worth with 101 laps of good racing,” quoted Herrington in victory lane. While the series of yellows during the lap 10 and 11 mark took several minutes to organize, it took several cars out of contention. Just 12 cars remained on the track after the series of incidents.

 After four straight wins in the GotGoodCheese.com True Stocks JR Mooney was at it again. However, a ringer by the name of Mike Ramos was first to the front and if Mooney was to make it a fifth, he’d have to out run Ramos. The two, who carry a friendship off the track, battled from lap two down to the bitter end with Ramos going on for his first win since July 14^th and the second of the season. Mooney, who had spun going for a pass on Ramos on lap 18 came back to finish fifth in the end. Dave Arbes, Dave Fetterly, and Williamson would fill the void to complete the top-five. The win for Ramos proved positive as motor problems knocked him out of the running for the 2007 track title as of last week. The comeback victory has propelled him just 22 points behind Mooney in first going into the final night of points next week. Smack dab between the two sits Arbes, 19 points behind Mooney. The trio will sure to put on a fantastic show in the season finale.

Scott Shafer won his fourth win of the year in the D&D Powersports Sport Compacts. The race was a shear battle for the entire 15-lap distance. As last weeks winner Tom Dubach claimed the early lead, Oswego ’s (NY) Shafer proved the quickest pulling to the back bumper of Dubach in the later stages and nosing ahead with four laps to go. However, as the laps began to wind down, Dubach began to “wind up” reeling in Shafer and nosing up to the door to contend for the top position. However, Shafer would go on to prevail, taking the win by less than a second over Dubach with Larry Costa, Al Brigham and Rudy Widrick rounding out the top-five.

The 15-lap event for the Westward Painting Company Light Trucks was an action-filled event from green to checker with Levi Kirkbride going on to score the victory. Kirkbride who had started seventh moved into second on lap 11 and maintained position across the checkers. Bill Aganier, Jr., the original winner, was disqualified during post-race technical inspection handing the win over to Kirkbride. The victory marked the fourth of the year for the second generation driver out of Greig (NY). Rounding out the top-five was Keith Delles, Cooter Beyer, John Sullivan and point leader Zach Arthur.

The next event on the race schedule will mark the final event of the regular season at the Adirondack International Speedway. TJ Toyota of Potsdam will host “Spirit of 76” Night in effort of Military Appreciation Day. All active military will be admitted FREE of charge into the grandstand area. On tap will be a 76-lap ASA Challenger Late Model special plus all divisions. Gates will swing open at 12pm noon, with racing begin promptly at 2pm. For more information you can log on to www.adirondackspeedway.com or call the office at (315) 346-RACE.

Notes: American Speed Association (ASA) President; Dennis Huth, was in attendance for the nights events. Huth spoke briefly with Track Announcers; Gary Wilcox, and Skip Howe during a delay in the show. Huth spoke highly of the attrition rate at the Speedway, and how it has turned around positively rather than negatively like most local short-tracks in the nation. Huth's presence was well received by all in attendance. Huth also expressed that he hopes to be in attendance at the season-ending awards banquet in January.

Due in large support of a young race fan struck with Cerebral Palsy many race drivers and teams pitched in to donate with pledges for a walk-a-thon that was organized in support of this little boy. To the surprise of many, ASA Challenger Late Model feature winner, Jason Herrington donated his entire winnings of $1,000 to the cause. In addition, Sport Compact competitors such as Al Brigham, Rudy Widrick, Scott Shafer, Tom Dubach and others donated to the special cause. To cap the night, Gillee’s NAPA enlightened all the fans with a truckload of giveaways of all kinds.

GILLEE’S NAPA Race Summary – September 8^th, 2007

L.E.T. ASA Challenger Late Models (51-Laps): JASON HERRINGTON, Lee Gill, Chris Ross, Andre Roggie, Erik Cupernall, John Papin, Tommy Cloce, Carl Guilefuss, Bill Bertrand, Chris Raabe, Jerry Dineen, Billy Coyle, Bryant Trim, Shane Monnat, Joe Schneider, Jean Paul-Cyr, John Ventura, Jim Southard, Josh Lloyd, and Josh Pieniazek

GotGoodCheese.com True Stocks (20-Laps): MIKE RAMOS, Dave Arbes, Dave Fetterly, Duane Williamson, JR Mooney, Chris Typhair, Dennis Williamson, Joe Miller, Steve Burton, Josh Dunn, Todd Rhoads, Al Miller, Jason Dinzler, and Ben Vantassel

D&D Powersports Sport Compacts (15-Laps): SCOTT SHAFER, Tom Dubach, Larry Costa, Al Brigham, Rudy Widrick, Chuck Powelcyzk, Terry Ingersoll, David Rose, Derek Burgy, Lynn Morey, Lorraine Powelcyzk, and Tim Ingersoll

Westward Painting Company Light Trucks (15-Laps): LEVI KIRKBRIDE, Keith Delles, David Beyer, John Sullivan, Jr., Zach Arthur, Ray Richer, Jim Trombley, Chuck Snyder, Pat View, Bob McCanney, Jimmy Wood, Dan Bellinger, Steve Ellis, Jim Davis, Kenneth Kirkbride, Travis Edwards, Tom McIntyre, David Keefer, Kyle Weaver, Mike Bush, Matt Larrivee, John Vantassel, Uriah Kirkbride, David Black, Todd McIntyre, and Bill Aganier, Jr. (DQ)