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Mountain Madness from July 15th

Fantastic racing kicked off Friday, but again, the threat of storms surrounded the area. Luckily, the weather held off for another great night of asphalt racing. It was really nice to see a large crowd on hand, and two very happy kids left the speedway with 20” bikes. Thank you to many teams, officials and team sponsors for the bike donations. Along with them, we can’t forget to thank the Kmart on Rt. 309 in Wilkes-Barre. On that note…on to a few awards:

It was good to see some of the regular Mahoning drivers in the Balliet’s Country Corners modifieds in the show. Kory Rabenold, Andy Walko and Bobby Jones all joined the Mountain regulars, with Walko earning a top five finish. While going for the lead, Dave Pecko made very hard contact with the front stretch wall. Glad to see he was all right, but with Defebo taking the checkers, and Pecko second in the standings, it hurt him in the point’s race. Steven Reed’s third place effort, along with a third and sixth last week, show that he’s on the fast track in the modified ranks. Reed, along with Tim Santee ran with the lead cars throughout the entire feature and if another caution had come out, they definitely would have had a legitimate shot for the win.

Double points were on the line for the late models. Larry Fisher’s second place effort extended his lead over Joe Hoffman, who finished right behind Fisher Friday night. Nice job by Jim Lamoreaux, as he picked up his third win of ’05. It was good to see Jerry Brightaupt, along with a few ‘newbies’ at the speedway, making for another great feature race. Barry Callavini has had some pretty rotten luck so far this season, but a fourth place feature finish adds Callavini to the late model Mountain Madness list.

Talk about some great racing in the street stock division! Tough luck for Jim Yamelski and Brad Kline, along with his third win of the season adds Scott Meckes to the championship chase. Meckes moved up to second in the standings, only a few markers out of Yamelski’s lead. We definitely have the closest point’s battle of all divisions on our hands! After a very rough start to the season, Todd Barbush hung in for to finish third, which is his best effort thus far. The turn around for ’05 puts Todd on the fast track to success in the street stocks.

Bill Verwys Sr, Joe Grocholski, Joe Heintzelman and Chris Walk not only completed the top four of the four cylinder thrillers, but also put on one heck of a show. Heintzelman, who had a very hard crash during his last outing, was offered a car from Grocholski to drive until he repairs the blue #18. Talk about respecting your competitors! Justin Nesbitt took a very hard lick from the guardrail…glad to see he was ok after the hit. Speaking of Grocholski, Joe won the opening day feature, but hasn’t won since. Friday’s second place finish, along with his lead in the standings and consistent finishes, put him on the fast track for consistency in the four cylinders. Congrats!

Well, it’s time to stop the ‘Madness’ for a week, but tune in after Friday, July 29th for more Mountain Madness.

Congrats to all the drivers who are ‘on the fast track’ to success at Mountain Speedway! You can pick up your awards at the photo booth after the drivers meeting. See you soon at Mountain Speedway for more Friday night thunder. Tune in next week for more ‘Mountain Madness’, brought to you by Valley Service Equipment Repair, J&J Contractors and CAD Visers, Inc.

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