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Mountain Madness from Friday, June 17th

Well, already week #8 is in the books at Mountain Speedway.

Since last week’s late model feature was postponed, we have two drivers to mention this week. First, for the make up feature: What a crazy race that was! Half the field was involved in a turn one incident on only lap one. So much for saving equipment for the second feature! I’ll make it short and sweet. Paul Koehler Jr. may not have run every week this season, but improves his finishes every time out. As matter of fact, Paul is the only driver in the top seven who is winless in ’05. For his fourth place finish in one wild late model feature, Paul Koehler Jr. is on the fast track to success at Mountain.

Even though the Balliet’s Country Corners mod count wasn’t the greatest; it was still a great show. Defebo had a great charge to the point, and Santee finally walked away with a solid top 5 finish. Kromer also looked strong early on in the event. Heck, we even got a sneak peek of driver frustration after the feature.

Let’s point out the second place finisher, Mike Adams. Still winless in the feature races thus far in ’05, Adams had a great run. Heck, I’m sure Mike was happy just finishing the race! After all, he is coming off a streak of DNF’s. Mike, for your second place finish and turning your luck around, you’re definitely the driver on the fast track for week 8.

In another wild race, Brad Kline paid attention on the lap three restart and moved from fourth to second in the street stocks. In my opinion, that was the move of the race. Eric Danyluk had another great run, as did Jim Yamelski, after having problems early.

The best action was between three practically identical cars. Man, I thought for sure Wanamaker, Ahner and Labar would be cause for the next caution. One good thing is that all their colors match, so if they do swap paint with each other, it matches! Speaking of Ahner, this driver was leading the points early in the season, but a few bad runs and luck dropped him to third. For some great racing Friday, and a strong third place finish, Todd is on the fast track to success in the street stocks.

Now we move on to the second late model feature, or as Jim Lamoreaux called it, a demo-derby. Can you believe that Larry Fisher didn’t win this one? (Although he was pretty close). Whatever didn’t get used up after the first feature was definitely used by the end of the second! Still, many drivers did display patience.

Great Job by Jackie Ziegler. Even though she started on the pole, Jackie led the first 14 laps in the caution-filled race. Jackie lost the lead after the sixth caution, and then spun in turn three. Even though she didn’t finish the race, the 14 laps led and 7th place finish, along with holding off a bunch of guys put Jackie on the fast track to success at Mountain.

Last but no least, the 4 cyl. thrillers. In my opinion, they had to be one of the cleanest races of the evening, much different than just a few weeks ago. Joe Heintzelman picked up his first win of the season after Pat Verwys got disqualified for not having a Mountain tech inspection sticker on his car. Not to take anything away from Heintzelman though, he was right there with Verwys for practically the whole event! Grocholoski scored another top five, adding to his point’s lead, while Chris Meeker had another strong run in the sixteen-car field. Chris Walk has a strong showing, but he literally drove the wheels off of it, which ended his day.

The driver on the fast track for week 8 finished fourth, that being Southampton, New York’s Jimmy White, Jr. Jimmy did start from the pole, but he also had to deal with some pretty heavy hitters. Different from past weeks, White displayed a lot of patience, and didn’t seem to be overdriving his racecar. Keep up these strong finishes Jim & you’ll be in victory lane!

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 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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