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Hummingbird Speedway Race Report and Results


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#1 #17RaceTeam

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Posted 11 September 2016 - 05:38 PM

Hummingbird Speedway Race Report
Saturday September 10, 2016
By: Randy Albert

 

Hummingbird Speedway closed out its season on Saturday night with the Mark Deasey Memorial Late Model race.  Mark, a dedicated race fan and friend who rarely missed a race, unfortunately lost his battle with cancer in November of 2015.  He was a diehard Late Model fan as well as a big fan of the late Sheetz McGarvey.  Marks family made the night special presenting the winners with very nice trophies, sponsoring the “Dash for Cash”, and providing a special purse for the Pure Stock drivers.   A special thank you to the Deasey family for making the evening’s racing program special for everyone.

 

The BWP Bats Late Model cars were the feature event of the evening with a “Dash for Cash” and 35 lap feature race.  Andy Fries from Mercersburg bested the field in the main event with Mike Blose from New Bethlehem coming out on top in the dash.  Sunny 106.5 Pure Stocks were competing for a special purse also with Dustin Challingsworth coming out on top.  Other winners for the evening included Andrew Gordon in the Street Stocks and Eric Luzier from Clearfield in the Aarons of DuBois Front Wheel Drive cars. 

 

The Sunny 106.5 Pure Stock cars lined up for their feature race with Dustin Challingsworth and Matt Howell making up the front row and lightening threatening in the western sky.  The lead duo kept it tight staying side by side with Mike Miller and Ben Krause watching the action from the second row while Josh Fields moved up into the fourth position.  After a mid-race caution Challingsworth took the outside line for the restart leaving Howell to contend with Miller and Fields who was moving up with each lap.  Fields wedged his way forward in turn three passing Miller then made the same move in turn one to take Howell.  The three worked the racing surface to gain an advantage on each other as Challingsworth moved out to a five car length lead.  With the laps winding down Fields eventually cleared Miller and Howell but didn’t have enough time to catch Challingsworth before the checkered flag flew.  Challingsworth tops off another great season with the win.

 

Dustin Challingsworth also won the lone Pure Stock heat race.

 

Hummingbird Speedway opens up its rules for the final Late Model race of the season to allow aluminum block cars to compete with the regular drivers.  The BWP Bats sponsored race started 21 of 22 cars with Mike Blose lined up inside Andy Fries for the start of the race.  Bob Sullinger waved the green flag and the first of 35 laps was being contested.  Fries took the early lead while Blose dropped back into third behind Shawn Claar with Denny Fenton riding in fourth.  Both Chris Farrell from Clearfield and Duane Stiner from Houtzdale made up a lot of ground coming into the picture early but their progress slowed upon reaching the lead pack.  Blose continued to ride behind Claar but made the inside move half way through the race setting his sights on the leader.  Stiner and Farrell slipped by Fenton on a restart to do battle for the fourth and fifth spots while Close looked to “close” the gap on Fries.  Farrell moved forward under Clarr leaving Stiner to contend with Fenton who was coming back from losing the positions earlier.  Farrell looked like he may be on the move again as he worked under Claar after a caution restart. The familiar car of Paul Kot was beginning to come around as the tires heated up and either sent the competitors backward for forward.  Kot was definitely moving forward, Clarr was moving backward.  Kot was in typical form working down low inching forward on the other drivers with each lap.  Fries had his mirror full of Close with both cars working their way through slower traffic.  Blose came out of the jam in the lead and looked like he was going to pull away but a caution stopped his progress and reset the field.  On the restart Close had a small lead with Fries not letting him get away.  Farrell had Kot at his left door panel with Luke Hoffner and Ed Connor challenging Fenton on the outside farther back.  Farrell, Fries and Kot all wanted a shot at the leader, Close, going three wide at times trying to get near enough to make a pass.  Fries apparently felt the pressure moved away from Farrell and Kot up onto the back bumper of Close.  He nosed under him on the backstretch and held the low line into turns three and four to retake the lead.  Kot managed to make the pass stick on Farrell then charging hard into turn three under Close and elbowing his way through turn four coming out in second place on the front stretch.  Kot was trying to make up the ground on Fries but the laps were winding down and he was running out of time.  With the white flag flying Kot moved to within a car length down the back stretch and shot the nose of his car under the left rear of Fries.  For a moment it looked like he may have had enough to make another pass like the one earlier on Close but Fries was in control with a strong car keeping the local driver at bay and taking the win.  Kot settled for second a half car length behind with Blose in third and Farrell coming home fourth with Hoffner on his tail.

 

 
Three heat races in the Late Model division were won by Rodney Philips, Mike Blose, and Charlie Powell.

 

Street Stocks were next to line up and take a shot at the checkered flag and all the glory that goes along with it. Fuzzy Fields and Andrew Gordon graced the front row with Fields leading the first lap but Gordon not giving up the fight, coming back on the low grove to nearly lead the second.  He stayed in the skirmish making the pass a few laps later with Gary Luzier and Bill Philips Jr looking on from third and fourth.  Luzier followed suit but it took him a few tries to complete the inside pass on Fields.  He could get up alongside of him in turns three and four but couldn’t make it stick.  A late race caution put him back behind Fields but not for long.  With the white flag flying and Gordon leading by a straight away the only thing left to contest was second place.  Luzier again put the car down low starting the move in turns one and two and continuing it in turns three and four.  Coming out of the turn Fields nose was at Luzier’s rear wheel.  Just before the flag stand it was at his front wheel.  At the flag stand, where it counts he was just a nose short and the raced was over with Luzier taking second place behind the winner Gordon. 

 

Fuzzy Fields was the winner of the lone Street Stock heat race.

 

 

Closing out the nigh of racing entertainment was the Aarons of DuBois Front Wheel Driver Four Cylinder cars.  This was also a short field of cars but not without their own drama and excitement.  Mike Lucas and Eric Luzier set the pace for the start of the race.  Luzier stepped out to the early lead and Tom Peters move up inside Lucas to look for second place.  Lucas held his ground on the outside with Jerry Walls tucking in behind Lucas or Peters depending on who looked like they were going to make the pass but Peters eventually had to check up and tangled with a couple cars behind him leaving Lucas and Walls to chase Luzier.  On the restart it was Luzier, Lucas and Walls nose to tail with Peters making up ground in fourth.  Peters eventually caught the pack and ducked down low coming out of turn four.  He couldn’t hold the line coming into turn one and faded high into the loose dirt eventually tagging the wall hard coming out of turn two ending his night.  On the restart Lucas ducked low to try and find the way to the front allowing Walls to move up on his outside.  Lucas lost ground down low giving second place to Walls on the white flag lap.  Race car drivers, be it full blown late models or front wheel drive, never want to settle for second place.  Walls saw the light at the end of the tunnel and dropped low on Luzier on the last lap coming down the back stretch.  Lucas by then had slid around behind walls and got back in the high grove coming up on the outside of Walls reversing the order from a lap earlier.  With Luzier holding on and taking the checkered flag Lucas came back to take the second position away from Walls under Bob Sullinger’s perch by a third of a car length. 

 

Mike Lucas won the lone heat race.

 

That race closed out the 2016 season of racing at Hummingbird Speedway.  The Caltagarone family would like to thank everyone for their support throughout the year.  Without car owners, drivers, track workers, and especially the fans Hummingbird could not bring local dirt track racing to central Pennsylvania.

 

The annual award banquet is scheduled for October 15, 2016,,6:00 PM at the Bellamauro Banquet Hall in Reynoldsville.  Come and enjoy good food and entertainment with your favorite drivers.  For more information or tickets call the track office at 653-8400 or visit the track’s website at www.hummingbirdspeedway.com.  

BWP BATS BLOCK LATE MODELS

 

1. 82 Andy Fries   Mercersburg
2. 36 Paul Kot   Brockway
3. 5 Mike Blose   New Bethlehem
4. 53 Chris Farrell   Clearfield
5. 15 Luke Hoffner   Turbotville
6. 102 Ed Connor   DuBois
7. 55 Denny Fenton   Clearfield
8. 20 Shawn Claar   Imler
9. 99S Duane Stiner   Houtzdale
10. SR-1 Tom Shaffer   Punxsutawney
11. 77R Roswell Babcock  Curwensville
12. 44 Dan Smeal   Houtzdale
13. 01 Steve Arthurs   Falls Creek DNF
14. 33K Kyle Knapp   Brookville DNF
15. 91 Tommy Beck   Murrysville DNF
16. 14R Derek Rodkey   Osceola Mils DNF
17. 22C Mike Blazer   Foot of Ten DNF
18. 1P Rodney Philips   Punxsutawney DNF
19. 10 Bruce Raybuck   Falls Creek DNF
20. 60 Jeff Taylor   Corsica  DNF
21. 25 Curtis Teats   Morrisdale DNF
22. 94 Charles Powell JR  Brookville DNS 

 

Street Stocks

 

1. 911 Andrew Gordon DuBois
2. 960 Gary Luzier  Luthersburg
3. 28 Fuzzy Fields  Brockway
4. 23JR Bill Philips Jr
5. 1S Kyle Shannon  Brockway
6. 23R Raymond Reynolds
7. 77 Nathan Brady  Clearfield
8. 9S Sammy Swanger

 

Sunny 106.5 Pure Stocks

 

1. 46 Dustin Challingsworth  St Marys
2. 78 Josh Fields  Brockway
3. H8 Matt Howell  Clearfield
4. 88 Mike Miller  Rockton
5. 44 Jim Challingsworth St Marys
6. 30K Jeff Kronenwetter
7. 55X Andrew Frey  St Marys
8. 10  Ben Krause  Houtzdale DNF
9. 46H Matt Heindl  Johnsonburg
10. 71S Richard Herman Osceola Mills

 

Aarons of DuBois Front Wheel Drive Four Cylinders

 

1. 6 Eric Luzier  Clearfield
2. 81 Mike Lucas  Philipsburg
3. 92 Jerry Walls  Sykesville
4. 8J Jason Henry  Reynoldsville
5. 71 Tom Peters  Clearfield
6. 17Z Zach Lennox  Sykesville
7. 23A Austin Hockenbury Morrisdale
8. 11 Jim Boyer  Penfield





 




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