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06/25/2012


LADY LUCK SHINES DOWN ON MIKE LEATY
IN EXCITING DUNN TIRE RoC FEATURE

Admittedly Mike Leaty has never had any racing luck when it comes to competing at the Dunn Tire Raceway Park. On Saturday night in the RoC sanctioned 75 lap asphalt Modified feature lady luck certainly shined down on the Williamson, NY driver.

Running a patient third with less than a lap to go in the feature the top two cars of Chuck Hossfeld and Matt Hirschman tangled going into turn one racing for the lead. Leaty inherited the lead for a green, white, and checker finish then another accident occurred with less than a half a lap to go in the race resulting in a caution/checkered finish.

Under RoC race procedures the field is frozen at that point and scoring reverts back to the last completed lap for all cars running. Leaty was credited with the win. Ebersole ended up second with current point leader Daren Scherer in third, Sege Fidanza running the Kluth 44 finished fourth and Hossfeld was fifth.

“Yes it is nice to have lady luck on your side but all the credit for this win goes to my hard working crew“ said a very happy Mike Leaty in victory lane. “They worked their butts off all day long, I drew 97 to start the day off, this car wasn’t that good in the heat, and we they worked even more just to get it dialed in for the feature. Then we had a great pit stop and came out in second basically of the cars who pitted and at the end I knew there would be some fireworks because they (Hossfeld & Hirschman) have a past where they can’t race together for the win without fireworks and sure enough fireworks happened and we hung back and got the lead and win.“

Erick Rudolph and Tommy Cloce brought the field to the green of Larry Woodruff. Rudolph wheeling the Ed McGuire owned car rocketed into the lead followed by Sege Fidanza, Cloce, Daren Scherer, and Karl Hehr. The caution flew after one lap was scored when Doug Reaume and Chuck Hossfeld spun in turn three. Hossfeld restarted at the rear while Reaume was towed off with front end damage.

After a yellow on lap two the next 30 laps were caution free with plenty of passing taking place featuring Hossfeld coming from 22nd to fifth in just 30 laps and using every square inch of the racing surface.

With a yellow coming out on lap 32, eleven of the fifteen cars on the track pitted for a fresh right rear tire. When the race resumed Scherer was now in the lead with Matt Hirschman in second, Andy Walko in third, Bryan Sherwood in fourth, and by being the first out of the pits with a new right rear Hossfeld in fifth.

Mike Leaty who was running 14th before the yellow came out in second of the cars who pitted; Mike had this to say about his very quick tire change pit stop. “My dad called me in the pits and Rick Knapp, he’s the man who got me back out in second with that fast tire change.“

Hirschman used an inside turn one pass of Scherer for the lead on lap 34 and at the same time Fidanza suffered a flat tire and Hossfeld made contact with Sherwood sending him into the turn one wall to bring the yellow out. For his role in the contact Hossfeld was sent to the rear for over aggressive driving. Scherer vacated his second spot as he pitted for a new right rear.

With the race resuming on lap 35 Hirschman stayed out in front with Walko now in second followed by Leaty, Rusty Smith, and Billy Putney. Rudolph moved into fifth on lap 36 and at the halfway point Smith got past Walko for second and set his sights on Hirschman.

Rudolph moved past Walko for fourth on lap 39 with Kyle Ebersole moving into fifth on lap 40.
Following a lap 47 restart Rudolph showed he had the car to beat by passing Leaty on the outside for third. Meanwhile Hossfeld came out of nowhere to move into fifth on lap 48, into fourth on lap 49, and into third on lap 52.

The large crowd started to stand with 20 laps to go with Hirschman on old tires leading Rudolph and Hossfeld who both pitted for a new right rear.

Exiting turn four on lap 58 Rudolph got under Hirschman to grab the lead and Hossfeld seizing the opportunity rocketed into second right on the back bumper of Rudolph.

During a yellow on lap 60 Hirschman ducked into the pits for a new right rear tire.
On the restart Rudolph easily pulled away into the lead with all eyes on Hirschman restarting from rear and was using the top groove exclusively to pass.

During a yellow flag period on lap 63 disaster struck Rudolph as he coasted to a stop on the homestretch, out of fuel.
Hossfeld then inherited the lead on the restart with 11 laps to go, he was followed by Leaty, Ebersole, Scherer, and Hirschman.

With ten to go Hirschman moved into fourth and with eight to go he took third and one lap later he moved into second and was closing in rapidly on Hossfeld for the lead. The yellow came out with five to go for Putney who had a flat tire and this set up a five lap dash for the cash.

Hirschman immediately jumped to the outside when the race resumed in an attempt to pass Hossfeld for the lead. But each attempt made by Hirschman at both ends of the race track was blocked by Hossfeld, who ran a tad higher line on the track. Just after receiving the two to go signal entering turn one Hirschman tried to fake high dive low move on Hossfeld.

The move almost worked as Hirschman got under Hossfeld in turn two but ran out of real estate to get the lead. With the white flag waving Hirschman dove low exiting turn four and entering turn one contact between Hossfeld and Hirschman saw both drivers spin out in turn one to bring out the yellow.

By RoC rules the race must finish green, white and checker and the lap counter was turned back to lap 73 with Leaty now in front followed by Ebersole, Scherer, TJ Potrzebowski, and Fidanza.

Now a two lap shootout was set and all was calm until exiting turn two after receiving the white flag. Scherer and Potrzebowski got together with JR Kent jumping over the right rear tire of Potrzebowski and nearly going out of the ball park instead making hard contact with the outside concrete retaining wall.

The yellow came out immediately and with a potential of a long cleanup RoC officials called for a yellow checker finish with scoring frozen at the last completed lap for all cars running at this point.

Leaty was the winner followed by Ebersole, Scherer, Fidanza, and Hossfeld.

“This place has never been good to me" recalled Mike. “I’ve been in position to win here before but Chuck Hossfeld is so good here and Hirschman is always good here and my dad had always been fast here. So if you came out of here with a third or fourth place finish typically you’re doing pretty good. There’s been twice here where I come out of the pits in second, looks like I have a shot for the win and have the right front roll off the rim. I’ve never had any good luck here but I think it all came back to me today.“


Second place finisher Kyle Ebersole had this to say about his second place finish. “I went from the middle to the back to the front during the race. I held my line and let stuff happen all around me and ended up second, we’ll take that.“

Qualifying events for the 24 car field saw heat wins go to Reaume, Scherer, and Hirschman.

By finishing ninth Bobby Holmes won the Gater Racing News $500 cash bonus for being the highest finishing B Modified in the feature.

NOTES: The large gathering of race fans were treated to a very exciting feature with plenty of passing taking place. Current B Modified point leader TJ Zacharias blew an engine in the first hot lap session. Tom Wiest offered his B Modified to use for the remainder of the racing program to retain his lead in the B Modified points. Once again another strong run by Rusty Smith was ended this time by a broken rear end on lap 51 and he was in second. Bryan Sherwood was transported and admitted to a Buffalo, NY hospital for a suspected compound fracture of his arm following his lap 34 accident after contact between him and Chuck Hossfeld saw the second generation racer receiving a broken left front wheel assembly and the contacting the outside turn one wall. RoC would like send wishes for a speedy and full recovery to Bryan who was expected to be operated on at 7 am Sunday morning. TDH Refrigeration awarded a $100 cash bonus to the top three finishers in the feature while huge race fan Howie Markel awarded cash bonuses of $300, $200, and $100 to the top three drivers at lap 38. The RoC Mods are right back at it this Saturday night at the Holland Speedway for a 100 lap feature with all laps being sponsored with a minimum of $20 per lap with half of the money going to the leader and the other half going to a another driver on that lap. The other driver receiving the lap money will be determined by draw.

RACE REPORT - DUNN TIRE RACEWAY PARK 75

FINISH; Mike Leaty, Kyle Ebersole, Daren Scherer, Sege Fidanza, Chuck Hossfeld, Billy Putney, Matt Hirschman, TJ Potrzebowski, Bobby Holmes, JR Kent, Andy Walko, Erick Rudolph, Rusty Smith, Karl Hehr, Jimmy Zacharias, Byron Sherwood, Jim Storace, TJ Zacharias, Tony Hanbury, Tommy Cloce, Mike Fiebelkorn, Jr., Mike Odwazny, Doug Reaume.
SCRATCHED; Tom Wiest

LAP LEADERS; Rudolph (1-32), Scherer (33), Hirschman (34-57), Rudolph (58-63), Hossfeld (64-73) Leaty (74 -75).

AMERICAN RACER TIRE HARD CHARGER AWARD; Leaty (18th to 1st).
AMERICAN RACER TIRE HARD LUCK AWARD; Cloce (2nd to 20th)
HOWIE MARKEL HALFWAY BONUS; $300-Hirschman, $200-Smith, $100-Walko.
TDH REFRIGERATION TOP THREE FINISHERS BONUS $100 EACH; Leaty, Ebersole, Scherer.
GATER RACING NEWS $500 CASH BONUS HIGHEST B MODIFIED FINISHER; Holmes..

  Source: JR Kennerup / RoC Asphalt Modified Tour
Posted: June 25, 2012

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