Sundance Vacations Speedway- Awesome Asphalt Racing in The Pocono Foothills

Friday Night Thunder Sundance Victory Goes to Rusty Smith

By Gene Ostrowski

October 2, 2009

With the threat of rain on the radar and nearly missing the show due to a tie up in traffic, Rusty Smith of Oxford, NY held off Kyle Ebersole to score his second Modified feature win of the seat Friday evening at Sundance Vacations Speedway. Wayne Lowe of Mountain Top cruised to his second Factory Stock win of the year and Long Island’s Kevin Nowak notched his first INEX Legends victory at the speedway. Jerry Hildebrand of Wapwallopen rebounded from a string of bad mid-season luck to notch his third Late Model victory of the year in the rain-shortened event.

With the race winner guaranteed a starting spot in the upcoming “Fall Brawl” at Shangri-La II Speedway, twenty Modified drivers took to the track for 40-laps of action. And it was fierce.

After starting from the pole position, Brian Romig led the first lap. Barry Callavini then overtook him as the top five drivers began to shuffle for position. With four laps complete Callavini held the lead, followed by Dave Schneider, Nick Pecko, Rusty Smith and Todd Baer.

Smith raced with Pecko and eventually took the third spot before the caution waved on lap 11 when Anthony Sesely spun in turn four.

Smith overtook Schneider for second following the restart and Bobby Jones followed to third. John Fortin and Kyle Ebersole cracked the top five shortly after.

Smith completed an inside maneuver in turn two and overtook Callavini for the race lead on lap 16. Meanwhile, Ebersole began a fabulous charge toward the front. First he shot by Fortin to move into the fourth spot on lap 19 and then blasted by Jones and Callavini to claim second.

Comfortably in front, Smith began to “ride” and Ebersole reeled in the leader.

The fourth and final caution waved with a lap remaining when Amber Levandowski spun to the infield. Green flag racing resumed and Smith held off Ebersole, Fortin, Baer and Zane Zeiner to notch his second victory of the season.

Hest race wins went to Bobby Jones, Rusty Smith and Nick Pecko.

The front two cars tagged one another during the Factory Stock warm up lap. Unfortunately, Jeff Searfoss, who was scheduled to start second, headed pit side and never returned to the speedway. Things didn’t go much better for the other driver involved, Bob Wink.

Wink held the pole and shot out to the race lead in the 20-lap contest over Jay Gould, Paul Morgan, Jr, Mike Moyer, Jr. and Joe Helberg.

With a tire going down, Wink’s car scooted up high on the track and Wayne Lowe capitalized to take the race lead.

The caution waved on lap four when Wink’s car slowed.

Green flag racing resumed and Morgan battled with Gould for the second spot. The duo ran side by side of a number of circuits before Morgan was solely in second. However, that changed with two laps remaining when Morgan’s car went up in a flume of smoke.

Lowe, of Mountain Top, cruised to his second win of the season over Gould, Moyer, Helberg and Mike O’Byrne.

Heat race wins went to Bob Wink and Paul Morgan, Jr.

Karl Heisler overtook polesitter, Justin Grimm for the race lead at the start of the 20-Lap INEX Legends feature and appeared to have his first win sealed with Kevin Nowak, Grimm, Carroll and Raven Schrantz in tow for most of the event.

Heisler’s luck changed when he spun in turn three with five laps remaining. Nowak inherited the lead and drove off to his first Legends win at the speedway.

Heisler did rebound to finish in the second spot, followed by Carroll, Brandon Michael and Van Michael.

Jerry Hildebrand overtook polesitter, Jennifer Kutz when the green flag waved in the 21-lap Late Model main event. Kevin Metzger shot into second, followed by Mike Sweeney, Zane Zeiner and Travis Fisher.

Hildebrand began to check out from the field and the laps clicked off.

Zeiner in the meantime had fought his way to second and Mike Coll cracked the top five.

With rain beginning to move in, head flagger, Chris Walk, threw the yellow and checkered flags on lap 21, which made the race official.

Hildebrand took his third win of the season over Zeiner, Fisher, Metzger and Coll. With the win, Hildebrand earned a guaranteed starting spot in the “Fall Brawl” at Shangri-La II Speedway.

Heat race winners were Jerry Hildebrand and Kevin Metzger.

The show was postponed from Sunday, September 27 and despite the threat of rain Friday, track officials were determined to get the show in. With credit to the drivers and the fast-paced program format, the night of racing last an hour and forty-five minutes from start to finish.

Modifieds (40-Laps) 1. RUSTY SMITH 2. Kyle Ebersole 3. John Fortin 4. Todd Baer 5. Zane Zeiner 6. Bobby Jones 7. Barry Callavini 8. Anthony Sesely 9. Tommy Flannagan 10. Rich Parker 11. Nick Pecko 12. Harry Buchman 13. Wayne Szerencsits 14. Brian Defebo 15. Amber Fortin 16. Amber Levandowski 17.David Schneider 18. Tom Casagrande 19. Brian Romig 20. Geary Rinehimer

Late Models (21-Laps) 1. JERRY HILDEBRAND 2. Zane Zeiner 3. Travis Fisher 4. Kevin Metzger 5. Mike Coll 6. Larry Fisher 7. Mike Sweeney 8. Joe Hoffman 9. Joseph Burns 10. Jennifer Kutz 11. Mitch Hawk 12. Todd Geist 13. William Schneider

Factory Stocks (20-Laps) 1. WAYNE LOWE 2. Jason Gould 3. Mike Moyer Jr 4. Joe Helberg 5. Mike O'Byrne 6. Eric Wink 7. Kendal Foulk 8. Paul Morgan Jr 9. Bob Wink DNS: Jeff Searfoss

INEX Legends (20-Laps) 1. KEVIN NOWAK 2. Karl Heisler 3. Mike Carroll 4. Brandon Michael 5. Van Michael 6. Raven Schrantz 7. Justin Grimm 8. Barry Schrantz