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Paine Wins DIRT Modified Main, Giguere Powers Crate Motor Home For First Sportsman Win CANANDAIGUA, N.Y. (July 9) – Steve Paine, from Waterloo, NY, picked up his second DIRT Modified feature win of the season Saturday at Canandaigua Speedway on Advanced Lubrication Specialties night. Paine, along with Vic Coffey and Gary Tomkins, have been the only regular season feature winners in this ultra-fast division at Canandaigua since the end of 2003.
Full-fender action resulted in Frank “Bubba” Burnell take his first Street Stock victory since 2001 at Canandaigua. He powered around the speedway over the final ten laps belching smoke through the turns.
The 35-lap DIRT Modified feature opened with Eldon Payne Jr. taking the lead at the drop of the green. Shannon Whaley ran a distant second followed by Chad Brachmann, Stewart Friesen and Karl Comfort. Slowly creeping forwards was Justin Haers, who swung outside of Friesen on lap six to take fourth. Haers suddenly On the restart Haers was able to follow Payne and pass him as they charged down the front stretch. Payne then touched the rear nerf bar on the Haers machine sending them both spinning into the first turn. With no where to go, Friesen made contact with the front end of the Payne car. This action sent the rear of his car around sideways and dug into the tacky surface. Friesen then barrel rolled twice, landing on his wheels. The youngster emerged from his car with a sore ankle and knee, but remained at the speedway for the rest of the race. The early mishap put Shannon Whaley in the lead yet he lost it on the ensuing restart to Karl Comfort with Steve Paine and Vic Coffey, driving his teammates, Tim McCreadie’s number 39, closing in. On lap 18, Ron Cartwright Jr. swung sideways on the front stretch yet gathered back his machine without making contact. He then slowed just past the start-finish line and Charlie Donk showed great skill by avoiding contact. Cartwright was later fined and black flagged when he went out of his position on the pace lap and made contact with another car. While Coffey passes Comfort for the lead on the next restart, Gary Tomkins slowed on the front stretch and finally coasted to a stop in the second turn with a broken rear end. Coffey was now being chased by Paine, with Comfort in third followed by Jeff Brownell Jr. and Todd Burley. On lap 30, Whaley, who later stated he had a tire going down, slowed on the track causing the yellow to fly for the final time in the race. At that point attrition had taken its toll and only 12 cars were left running. Paine led a mad dash to the checkers while Coffey, Comfort, Brownell and Chuck Bower rounded out the top-five finishers. The 25-lap Paine Motorsports Sportsman feature seemed to get off to a solid start with Mike Murphy taking the lead and establishing a six-car advantage over Giguere, Gus Hurlburt and Steve Doell. Murphy stretched out his lead to some 2.3 seconds before division points leader Paul Guererri had a flat tire and came to a stop in the fourth turn to take away this great advantage. On the restart Giguere took to the low side of the track and made his pass for the lead on lap 14. Three laps later Guererri again slowed on the track causing yet another yellow. Up front Giguere was able to hold back Hurlburt over the final eight laps and take the feature win, the first for a crate powered engine at Canandaigua. Hurlburt came home second followed by Loren Lincoln, last week’s feature winner Scott Schrader and Dan Wiesner in the top-five. “I never expected this, I just don’t know what to say,” related a happy winner. “I just want to thank DIRT for coming up with a less expensive way to race" (referring to the crate motor). Nearly a half-dozen Super Stocks signed in to bolster the Big Mike's Auto Repair Pro Stock field and the details of the combined class were ironed out in a pre-race drivers' meeting. Once under way the Super Stocks seemed more then capable in staying competitive with the Pro Stockers, even using their Black Rock Speedway gears. As the green flew for the 20-lap combined feature it was weekly Pro Stock runner Matt Grubbe grabbing the early lead. As the field exited the second turn on lap three Bill Miller drifted high making contact with Daryl Hilkert. The Hilkert car was then tagged by Bill Hallett, sending the Hilkert entry around backwards and slamming into the concrete back stretch wall. On the restart Grubbe held off the advances of Jipp Ortiz and Chad Homan for just one circuit before Homan out-dragged Grubbe and took the lead on lap five. On lap eight the yellow flew when Carl Cleveland lost a wheel on the front stretch. James Henry joined the front of the field on the restart and began to chase down Homan. Moving quickly towards the front was Jim Schuyler yet on lap 11 he slowed through the first and second turns and turned his Super Stock pit-side. The last yellow flew on lap 14 for debris setting up a final dash to the checkers. Homan took the victory, his fifth of the season and second in a row. Henry, Ortiz, David Yehl, in the first Super Stock across the line, and John Rutkowski rounded out the top-five finishers. Burnell led the entire 15-lap distance to take the victory in Parts Plus Auto Stores Street Stock action. The race seemed longer than normal as only three yellows slowed the racing. On lap four, former winner Blane Smith lost a wheel in the second turn and Mike Rasbeck came around the track with a broken right front suspension immediately after. One lap later, Don Whiteside tagged the fourth turn concrete wall hard and had to have his car cradled back to the pits. The final yellow came on lap nine when second-lace running Scott Smith spun to the inside of the second turn and had to be removed by tow truck from the track. Burnell, who’s car seemed to smoke through the turns, took the win followed by Leroy Lewis, who has to be credited with the most daring move of the race. On lap 12, Lewis slid to the middle of the track then in a three-wide maneuver with Mike Minutolo and Mike Welch was able to take second from his fourth-place position. Welch finished third followed by Minutolo and Nate Peckham. LEGENDS LEDGER: The track crew worked extremely hard as a late day rain shower soaked the area. Large puddles were every where but after a number of laps with packer vehicles the crew had a race ready surface….Congratulations to Todd Burley and his wife on the birth of their first baby. Saturday, July 16, Parts Plus Auto Stores sponsors Autograph Night at Canandaigua Speedway. The pits will open one hour early, at 3:30 p.m., to allow the teams to unload their cars and go to the back of the grandstands for a special autograph session for the fans. Autographs will be made available until 6 p.m., when the cars will be called back to the pits to prepare for hot laps to begin at 6:20. Race time is set for 7 p.m. sharp. The DIRT MotorSports™ Advance Auto Parts Modified Series is brought to fans across the Northeast by several sponsors and partners, including series sponsors Advance Auto Parts, Dynomax Performance Exhaust, Hoosier Racing Tire and Sunoco Race Fuels. Promotional Partners include Stacker 2®, AMB i.t., RACEceiver, Zippo Lighters and F.X. Caprara Car Companies and the contingency sponsors are DART Machinery, Bicknell Racing Products, Bilstein Shocks, MSD Ignitions and Wrisco Industries. ADVANCED LUBRICATION SPECIALTIES NIGHT SUMMARY PARTS PLUS AUTO STORES STREET STOCK HEAT 1: M. Rasbeck, L. Lewis, M. Schultz, N. Peckham, C. Vohs. FEATURE (15-laps): FRANK BURNELL, Leroy Lewis, Mike Welch, Mike Minutolo, Nate Peckham, Steve Faulkner, Mike Schultz, Nick Rizzo, Kevin Collins, Jim Burba, Nick Dandino, Chris Jacobs, Mike Shaw, Beatle Peters, Scott Smith, Scott Statton, Charlie Vohs, Mike Rasbeck, Don Whiteside, Blane Smith, Chris Gingrich, Chris Sealy, Brian Leoyd, DNS: Adam DePuy, George LaVare. BIG MIKE’S AUTO REPAIR PRO STOCK/SUPER STOCK HEAT 1: J. Henry, C. Cleveland, M. Grubbe, D. Yehl. FEATURE (20-laps): CHAD HOMAN, James Henry, Jipp Ortiz, David Yehl (ss), John Rutkowski, Matt Grubbe, Quinn Sutherland (ss), Andy Krall (ss), Jim Schuyler (ss), Carl Cleveland (ss), Bill Miller (ss), Daryl Hilkert, Bill Hallett. PAINE MOTORSPORTS SPORTSMAN HEAT 1: M. Murphy, G. Hurlburt, S. Schrader, S. Doell. FEATURE (25-laps): ERIC GIGUERE, Gus Hurlburt, Loren Lincoln, Scott Schrader, Dan Wiesner, Steve Doell, Mike Johnson, Kevin Ridley, Rob Bussey, Paul Guererri, Rick Miller, Tom Jansch, Mike Murphy. ADVANCE AUTO PARTS DIRT MODIFIED HEAT 1: T. Burley, C. Brachmann, K. Comfort, S. Whaley, C. Donk. FEATURE (35-laps): STEVE PAINE, Vic Coffey, Karl Comfort, Jeff Brownell Jr., Chuck Bower, Justin Haers, Todd Burley, John Pfeffer, Todd Henderson, Scott Boudinot, Brian Michaels, Mike Ward, Shannon Whaley, Gary Tomkins, Ray Bliss, Charlie Donk, Ron Cartwright Jr., Eldon Payne Jr., Stewart Friesen, Chad Brachmann, Steve Pesarek, Don Slover, Mike Bliss, DNS: Allen Willoughby. |
In Sportsman action it was Eric Giguere taking the feature victory driving a crate motor powered car. It was the first win for a crate motor at Canandaigua and also Giguere’s first feature win ever in Sportsman action. 
A number of the Super Stock cars from nearby Black Rock Speedway, which races regularly on Friday, joined in the Pro Stock action. The five new cars added to the field helped to enhance the racing action and make for a better feature run. 
found himself in third as Brachmann slowed exiting the second turn and tried to move pit-side with mechanical problems. The yellow flew to help remove the Brachmann car from the track.