McCREADIE, PLUMB, ORTIZ AND SMITH TAKE FEATURE WINS;
PAINE, CHRYSLER, MILLER AND RIZZO OFFICIALLY 2002 TRACK CHAMPIONS

CANANDAIGUA, NY...The heat was off in three of the four point races on the final night of track points last Saturday at Canandaigua Speedway. Only the Street Stock title was up for grabs.

Tim McCreadie won his third DIRT Modified feature of the year. Steve Paine's second place finish netted him the track championship by 51 points. In the Sportsman division John Plumb won his fifth Sportsman feature and again second place Randy Chrysler came home with the Canandaigua championship. Jon Miller finished second to Jipp Ortiz in the 25-lap Pro-Stock feature to take his first Canandaigua title. The real points race came in the Street Stocks where Blaine Smith finally won following five straight second place finishes through the months of July and early August. Nick Rizzo needed to finish at least tenth to claim the title. Rizzo came home in sixth.

The 50-lap DIRT Modified feature saw pole sitter Vince Vitale shot into the lead. He was being challenged by rookie driver Karl Comfort. Comfort ducked low to take the lead from Vitale on lap seven. Chuck Bower followed suit, pushing Vitale back to third. The first yellow flew on lap 10 when Steve Gray stopped in the third turn with a flat tire.

The restart saw Billy Decker use the high grove, and like shoot from a cannon, he passed the two leaders to grab the front spot. The yellow quickly flew as Steve Hulsizer and Scott Ridley came together in the fourth turn. Ridley ended up making contact with the inside fourth turn wall and Hulsizer limped into the pits. The restart saw the yellow out immediately as Bob McCreadie, who had been in the pits, screamed back onto the track and spun in the first turn.

Bower was now the hunter, taking first from Decker on lap 13. Tim McCreadie was the fastest car on the track, using the high line around the speedway. On lap 15 he passed Bower for the lead. Steve Paine pulled into second also. Paine then started to challenge McCreadie. On lap 20 the yellow was out again when Darryl Ruggles slowed on the track, exiting in the fourth turn.

The yellow was out again on lap 25, the halfway point, when Chuck Hebing slowed and spun due to contact in front of him in the second turn. McCreadie was now able to pull away from Paine on the restart. The only thing that slowed the two leaders was a late race yellow, lap 39, when Hebing again slowed on the track.

McCreadie took the win followed by Paine. Bower claimed third. Gary Tomkins, the points challenger to Paine, came home fourth. Rounding out the top five was Fonda Speedway regular Bobby Varin.

The 25-lap Sportsman feature saw John Plumb take the lead from Rob Bussey on the second lap. The race started off with Loren Lincoln slapping the backstretch wall and bending the rear end in his machine. (Lincoln's luck seemed extremely poor this evening as he blew the head gasket on his tow vehicle on the way into the track.)

Four yellows slowed Plumb's average speed, mostly for spin outs around the track. Randy Chrysler made a mid-race challenge to Plumb and stayed on Plumb's rear bumper from the last 14 laps of the race.

Plumb took the win followed by Chrysler, Todd Henderson, Paul Guererri and Fonda regular Jeremiah Munson. Chrysler's second place earned him the track title.

"You can not believe the power my God gives to me," stated Chrysler. "I'm just so proud to win this title."

The 25-lap Pr-Stock feature saw Jipp Ortiz grab the lead at the drop of the green in a side-by-side duel with Randy Chrysler's brother, Roger. Ortiz then screamed away with Chad Homan in second. On lap eight, James Henry passed Homan for second, only to slow to a stop two laps later with a flat tire.

Homan lost second to points leader Jon Miller on the restart as the two lead cars pulled out to a three car advantage over Homan. Miller, looking for the $300 JoshComp bonus if he could win, had to settle for second at the finish line behind Ortiz. Homan came home in third followed by Chrysler and Henry. For Henry's charge back through the field he picked up the $50 JoshComp Hard Charger Award.

The JoshComp Hard Luck Award went to Bob Bruno, who wasn't able to start the feature following a high flying flip in the first heat race, on the first lap. Bruno's tight rear caught the left rear of the Miller car, sending him up and over some ten feet in the air. Bruno was uninjured.

The 15-lap Street Stock feature sa Mike Rasbeck take the early lead as 26 cars answered the call to the green. Last week's winner Adam Depuy challenged Rasbeck, finally taking the lead by inches on lap seven, only to slide to a stop in the second turn with a flat tire.

The restart saw Blaine Smith pass Rasbeck for the lead. Smith held the lead until the end of the race. A last lap caution cost Mike Minutolo any chance at challenging Nick Rizzo for the track title. Minutolo's car started to lose fluid and overheat badly. Minutolo dropped from second back to 12th on the final lap.

Following Smith in second was Jared LaBarge. Leroy Lewis, Mike Murphy and Brad Steinruck rounded out the top five finishers. Rizzo's sixth place earned him the 2002 Street Stock title.

Canandaigua Speedway will be closed this Saturday, to make room in the extremely busy Fall schedule for other DIRT Championship Races. Canandaigua Speedway reopens for the season finale on Saturday, September 14, for the Document Reprocessors Finger Lakes Championships for DIRT Modifieds and Pro-Stocks, in the Wesley Construction Top Gun One ShootOut. Also on the race card that night will be the Street Stocks and Mid-State Vintage Racers. Race time will be at a special time, 5 p.m. that evening.

LABATT/OWASCO BEVERAGE-PAINE MOTORSPORTS NIGHT SUMMARY

STREET STOCKS

HEAT 1: L. Lewis, J. LaBarge, N. Rizzo, R. Cooper, J. Brown.
HEAT 2: T. Burnell, B. Smith, B. Steinruck, M. Murphy, S. Washburn.
HEAT 3: A. Depuy, M. Rasbeck, M. Welch, S. Deline, M. Minutolo.

FEATURE (15-laps): BLAINE SMITH, Jared LaBarge, Leroy Lewis, Mike Murphy, Brad Steinruck, Nick Rizzo, Jimmy Brown, Scott Deline, Adam Depuy, Chris Jacobs, Kevin Collins, Mike Minutolo, Kyle LaVare, Fran Furch, Mike Rasbeck, Jim Burba, Tim Burnell, Ray Cooper, Brian Hoisington, Chris Cooper, Brian Lloyd, Mike Welch, Mike Cuppernell, Corey Loucks, Jeff Freeland, Steve Washburn, DNS: Ken Pierce, Ryan Depuy.

PRO-STOCK

HEAT 1: J. Henry, C. Homan, J. Miller, D. Conant Jr.
HEAT 2: M. Cooper, R. Chrysler, J. Ortiz, J. Underwood.

FEATURE (25-laps): JIPP ORTIZ, Jon Miller, Chad Homan, Roger Chrysler, James Henry, Billy Brown, Glenn Peters, Dave Conant Jr., John Underwood, Mike Cooper, DNS: Bob Bruno.

SPORTSMAN

HEAT 1: R. Bussey, R. Chrysler, W. Chyrywaty, R. Miller, A. Pfeffer.
HEAT 2: E. Payne Jr., L. Lincoln, J. Plumb, R. Briggs, J. Pfeffer.
HEAT 3: T. Henderson, P. Guererri, S. Joy, D. Fallis, P. LaVare.

FEATURE (25-laps): JOHN PLUMB, Randy Chrysler, Todd Henderson, Paul Guererri, Jeremiah Munson, Drew Fallis, Richard Briggs, Rob Bussey, Eldon Payne Jr., Gus Hurlburt, John Pfeffer, Rick Miller, Walt Chyrywaty, Tim Burns, Amy Pfeffer, Scott Joy, Tom Jansch, Keith Stell, Phil LaVare, Frank Burnell, Scott Mitchell, Loren Lincoln.

MODIFIED

HEAT 1: B. Decker, V. Coffey, V. Vitale, S. Ridley, B. Varin.
HEAT 2: G. Tomkins, B. McCreadie, S. Paine, K. Comfort, S. Hulsizer.
HEAT 3: S. Gray, T. McCreadie, C. Bower, J. Beyea, R. Bliss Jr.

FEATURE (50-laps): TIM McCREADIE, Steve Paine, Chuck Bower, Gary Tomkins, Bobby Varin, Steve Gray, Billy Decker, Vic Coffey, Bob McCreadie, Karl Comfort, Joe Beyea, Chuck Hebing, Greg Tatich, Mike Ward, Joel Thomas, Ed Monroe, Darryl Ruggles, Vince Vitale, Allen Willoughby, Ray Bliss Jr., Randy Miller, Scott Ridley, Steve Hulsizer.