Adirondack International Speedway
New Bremen, NY
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 15th, 2007
By AIS Public Relations
Contact: aispeedway@gmail.com
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LEE GILL WINS ON CHAMPIONSHIP NIGHT AT THE ADIRONDACK INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
NEW BREMEN, NY – As brisk windy weather greeted the fans this past Saturday, September 15th, all fans were enlightened with a full slate of action packed racing that closed out a breakout 2007 season and served as the rescheduled “Spirit of 76” at the Adirondack International Speedway.
With TJ Toyota of Potsdam presenting the days events that started at 2pm, the 76-lap main event for the Lyndaker Excavating & Trucking ASA Challenger Late Models displayed fantastic side-by-side racing at the ASA-sanctioned, Lewis County speedplant.
La Fargeville’s (NY) Lee Gill hauled from his 12th starting position and moved into the lead on lap 31 before leading the rest of the way in his Gillee’s NAPA No. 7 Ford Fusion. Other winners on the Season Finale included JR Mooney in the GotGoodCheese.com True Stocks, Chuck Powelczyk in the D&D Powersports Sport Compacts and David Beyer in the Westward Painting Company Light Trucks.
Shane Monnat and Josh Pieniazek led the field of ASA Challenger Late Models down to the green flag of Tim Barone with Pieniazek racing to the point and leading the first two circuits. Andre Roggie, who had started fourth was on the move early on and initiated the first lead change, moving past Pieniazek to take the lead on lap three. With the field of Late Models running two-wide for the entire length of the race track the first yellow would fly on lap six for a spinning car in turn four. On lap seven, Roggie maintained the lead with Jerry Dineen moving into second. Swiftly moving through the pack was Tommy Cloce and Lee Gill. At lap 20, Cloce and Gill sat second and third with Roggie holding a comfortable advantage in the first position. A lap 28 yellow flag soon closed the field back up and axed Roggie’s lead down to inches for a restart with Gill, Cloce, Bryant Trim, and John Papin on his back bumper. When the race resumed Gill began to look for a quick way around Roggie and on lap 30 Gill acted off of turn four making a run on Roggie and taking the lead on lap 31.
At the halfway point Gill remained the leader with Roggie, Cloce, Trim, and Papin filling the top-five. One lap later, on lap 39, caution lights were back on for a disabled car on the front stretch. At this time, point leader John Papin ducked into the pits for some adjustments, stirring the pot on the fate of his record fourth track title. As Papin returned, last weeks winner Jason Herrington sat fifth after a series of pit stops. On lap 45, yellow lights came back on for Tommy Cloce who spun off of turn four attempting a pass on Roggie. With 30 laps to go, Gill, Roggie, Trim, Herrington and Jerry Dineen rounded out the top-five. Taking on lap traffic with ease, Gill opened up a large advantage while Trim and Herrington made a pass on Roggie with 25 laps remaining. Soon after Herrington moved into second passing Trim in lap traffic and setting his sights on Gill. With ten laps to go Herrington showed strength closing in on Gill but had Trim to worry about. With Herrington and Trim waging battle for the second position, Gill rolled on to his fifth win of the year, and his fifth overall on the Adirondack asphalt. Trim, and Herrington finished second and third with Papin making a big comeback to finish fourth while Roggie tailed the front five. With his strong fourth place finish, Papin was granted his career fourth track title at the Adirondack International Speedway.
In the GotGoodCheese.com True Stocks, a 17-car field had Jason Dinzler taking the early advantage. Quickly on the fast pace was division point leader JR Mooney moving into second by lap five and beginning his hunt for the top spot. The Boonville (NY) resident made the bottom of the track stick in lap traffic, moving past Dinzler on lap 12. Once in front, Mooney motored away ending his season with an exclamation point on a fantastic five-win last half of the 2007 season. Because of his late-season successes, Mooney was awarded his first track championship of his career. Dinzler, Eddie Hayden, Duane Williamson, and Dave Fetterly rounded out the 20-lap races’ top five.
Chuck Powelczyk, a well-known wheelman on the dirt, made his return to the asphalt midway through the 2007 season and went from finishing at the back of a given feature to winning when it counted most. Powelczyk took advantage of his front row starting position and took the 20-lap D&D Powersports Sport Compact win in grand fashion. Fending off the best of the division, Powelczyk out raced 2005 track champion; Tim Dunn, as well as Rudy Widrick. Tom Dubach and Scott Shafer rounded out the top-five. Finishing seventh was good enough for Al Brigham to go on in accepting his first track championship at Adirondack.
Capping off the 2007 season, 26 trucks took the green flag in the Westward Painting Company Light Trucks and with 20-laps the contest the race was red flagged on lap eight for a major accident in turn two. Two trucks getting the wrath of the damage was Steve Ellis and Danny Varin. Varin, looking to avoid the on-track incident, destroyed his Pat View owned machine after broadsiding Ellis, who was spinning down to the grass. Shaken up, Ellis was transported to a local hospital for check-up and was released.
When racing resumed David Beyer maintained the lead over David Keefer. Keefer, with a very fast machine, took the lead on lap 12 and looked to be on his way to his second win of the season. However, Beyer stayed on his tail applying heavy pressure towards races’ end. With the two dicing through lap traffic Beyer took the advantage back on the final lap and held off the Keefer en route to his first career win in his rookie season. Keefer took second with Chuck Snyder finishing third. John Sullivan, Jr. and Uriah Kirkbride completed the top-five. Not having to even start the feature, Zach Arthur of Lyons Falls (NY) was crowned the 2007 track champion. The title was a career first for the teenage college student.
The next scheduled event at the speedway is the “Halloween Motor Mayhem” that will take place on Saturday, October 27th. The event rules are completed and will be released shortly. They will be viewable on the speedway website at www.adirondackspeedway.com or by calling (315) 346-RACE.
NOTES: With car count down in the ASA Challenger Late Model division a private drivers-only meeting was conducted by the track staff. Because of much equipment being unusually torn up just one week ago, 16-cars took the green flag and in turn all 16 cars finished the 76-lap event. While Ellis was transported to the hospital, a 30-minute break in waiting for a back-up ambulance had officials stopping all trucks down on the front stretch. During the break all champions were brought down to victory lane for their crowing. A total of 36 campers filled the track campground celebrating the best season to date at the Adirondack International Speedway.
“TJ Toyota of Potsdam/Spirit of ‘76” Race Summary – September 15th, 2007 L.E.T. ASA Challenger Late Models (76-Laps): LEE GILL, Bryant Trim, Jason Herrington, John Papin, Andre Roggie, Tommy Cloce, Jerry Dineen, Erik Cupernall, Josh Pieniazek, Spencer MacPherson, Joe Schneider, Carl Guilefuss, Bill Bertrand, Chris Raabe, Shane Monnat, and Zach Arthur. Heat Winners – Andre Roggie, Bryant Trim
2007 Track Champion – John Papin
Heat Winners – Tom Markham, Mike Ramos 2007 Track Champion – JR Mooney
D&D Powersports Sport Compacts (20-Laps): CHUCK POWELCZYK, Tim Dunn, Rudy Widrick, Tom Dubach, Scott Shafer, Terry Ingersoll, Al Brigham, Nate Plantz, Lorraine Powelczyk, Lynn Morey, Claude Hutchings, Jr., David Rose, Andrew Boston, Derek Burgy, and Tim Ingersoll. Heat Winners – Chuck Powelczyk, Rudy Widrick 2007 Track Champion – Al Brigham
Westward Painting Company Light Trucks (20-Laps): COOTER BEYER, Dave Keefer, Chuck Snyder, John Sullivan, Jr., Uriah Kirkbride, Todd McIntyre, Levi Kirkbride, Derek Smith, Kenneth Kirkbride, Jimmy Wood, Dan Bellinger, Ray Richer, Jim Trombley, Mike Bush, Kyle Weaver, Travis Edwards, Jim Davis, Zach Arthur, Nick Rombough, John Vantassel, David Black, Steve Ellis, Danny Varin, and Keith Delles. Heat Winners – Danny Varin, Dave Keefer, Zach Arthur 2007 Track Champion – Zach Arthur |