June 16, 2006

O’Brien, Bellinger, and Pope are Victorious

Evans Mills… Mother Nature finally graced us with a beautiful night of racing after a week of rain at the Thunder Alley Speed Park in Evans Mills NY. The Central New York State Mini Sprints were on hand along with the Modifieds, Sportsman, Street Stocks, and all Thunder Car divisions.

The Sportsman division kicked off our feature action with Brandon Sweet and Chris Higgins filling out the front row. Higgins took the early lead with Brandon Sweet, Russ Hefti and Chris Raabe filling out the top four. Hefti and Raabe quickly moved under Sweet to take over the second and third positions. On a lap 2 restart, Chris Higgins, Russ Hefti, Chris Raabe, Brandon Sweet and Ray Besnahan led the field. Robbing Bellinger powered under Brandon Sweet, Chris Raabe and Roy Breshahan to take over the third position. Bellinger moved under Hefti and began to apply pressure to leader Higgins. Jack Meeks made his presence known as he slid under Mark Webb to take over the sixth position. Robby Bellinger raced side by side with Higgins before sliding under him to take over the lead. While Higgins and Hefti applied pressure to Bellinger it was not enough as Bellinger went on to collect the win.

In the Modified Feature, Lance Willix and Tyler Bartlett led the field to Matt Burdick’s green flag with Willix taking the command of the field. Pat O’Brien slid under Tim Sears and began to apply pressure to Tyler Bartlett as he took the third position. Meanwhile Bill Gill and Frankie Caprara slid under Sears to take over the fourth and fifth positions. Pat O’Brien then commanded under Tyler Bartlett to take over the second position and set his sights on Lance Willix. On a lap 10 restart, Frankie Caprara took moved under Tyler Bartlett and Bill Gill to take over third while O’Brien began to apply pressure to Willix. O’Brien moved around Willix as they split a lap car to take the lead while Caprara began to apply pressure to Willix. Willix and Caprara were unable to pass O’Brien as he went on to pick up the checkers.

Dave Pope and Keith Doxtater led the field to green in the purestock feature with Pope taking the early lead. Josh Verne slid under Keith Doxtater to take over the second position while Eric Stores moved under Dana Aikins to take over fifth. Aikins quickly took back over the fifth position. Josh Verne would look to take the win away from Pope but was unsuccessful, as Pope would collect win number one at Thunder Alley in 2006.

In the four cylinder foreign feature, Don Woodworth and Robert Martin led the field to green with Nelson Bice taking over the lead from his fourth place starting position. On a lap four restart, Michael Stewart and Mike Durham slid into the top two pushing Martin back to third and Bice back to fourth. Martin fought back as he and Durham moved into one and two pushing Stewart back to fourth. When the checkered flag flew, Martin was able to pick up the win over Durham and Stewart.
In the four cylinder domestic feature, Robert Scott and Dave Travis led the field to green with Scott taking the early lead. On lap three, Travis was able to get underneath Scott to take the lead. Mike Trapp slid under Travis to take over the lead while Scott, Jake McConnell and Chuck Monica rounded out the top five. Trapp would then stretch out his lead on the field and go on to take the win.
In the truck feature, Mike Durham and John Van Tassell sat on the front row with Durham taking over the lead on the field. Kevin Bice would move into the second position, while Kris Bice would fight back. Kevin Bice would eventually take over second again with Durham taking the win.

In the 6/8 Cylinder Feature, Cole Murphy and Verne Harris led the field to green with Bill Youngs taking over the early lead. Al Harris and Matt Zira held out positions one and two. When the checkered flag flew, Bill Youngs picked up the 8 Cylinder Feature and Verne Harris picked up the 6 Cylinder win.

For more information on the CNYMS Feature race, please see the CNYMS Press Release. Next week at Thunder Alley all regular divisions will be back in action, including the thunder car division. The Midstate Vintage Stock Car Club will be in appearance in a two day trip to Thunder Alley and our sister track Can-Am. For more information contact the speedway office at (315) 658-4431 or our website at www.thunderalleyspeedpark.com

Quick Results

Modified (30 Laps) PAT O’BRIEN(SB), Lance Willix (SB), Frankie Caprara, Tyler Bartlett, Paul Kinney(SB), Bill Gill, Ryan Bartlett, Jason Potter, Tim Sears, Tim Harris, Bob Bennett, Cricket Mandigo(SB), Tim O’Brien, Mike Adderly (DNS), Scott Parliament (DNS), Justin Mason (DNS)

Sportsman (20 Laps) – ROBBY BELLINGER, Chris Higgins, Russ Hefti, Ray Bresnahan, Chris Raabe, Jack Meeks, Mark Webb, Amanda Whitney, Jordan Bennett, Tyler Rand, Jeff Robinson, Brandon Sweet, Rick McCready, Bobby Herrington, Kevin Philips II

Street Stocks (15 Laps) – DAVE POPE, Josh Verne, Keith Doxtater, Jack Johnson, Dana Aikins, Eric Stores, Ken Hamm, Brian Holder, Dave Mannise, Dave Fetterly

Thunder Car Divisions:

4 Cylinder Foreign – ROBERT MARTIN, Mike Durham, Michael Stewart, Colby Goodale, OJ White, Travis Rivers, Morgan Young, Danny Brown, Don Woodworth, Kevin Bice, Nelson Bice, Steve Morris, John Holder, Mike Durham, JR Durham

4 Cylinder Domestic – MIKE TRAPP, Jake McConnell, Dave Travis, Dan Way, Steve Malbouf, Chuck Monica, Robert Scott, Jim Quinn, Rick Petrie, Bob Teft, Jock Symonds, Larry Teft, Thren Pankey, Brian McConnell, Randy Bowman, OJ White, Ben VanTassell (DNS)

6/8 Cylinder – VERNE HARRIS, Matt Zira, Russell Bice, Cole Murphy (DNS), Bill Youngs, Al Harris

Trucks – MIKE DURHAM, Kevin Bice, Kris Bice, Russell Bice, John Van Tassell