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PAINE SWEEPS HIS FOURTH MODIFIED FEATURE WIN AT LAND OF LEGENDS CANANDAIGUA, NY...Waterloo, New York's Steve Paine padded his points lead at Canandaigua Speedway last Saturday by winning the $2,000 to-win 35-lap DIRT Modified feature. It was Paine's fourth win of the year at the fast half mile oval. Eldon Payne Jr. took top honors in the DIRT Sportsman feature, riddled with yellow flags that effected nearly every car on the speedway at one time or another. It was JoshComp's night to shine in the full fender divisions. Both Mike Minutolo (Street Stock) and Jipp Ortiz (Pro Stocks) brought their JoshComp sponsorship into victory lane. In Jipp Ortiz's case it was his 28th pro-Stock feature win breaking a tie of 27 wins with Tommy Barron. Ortiz's crew celebrated by presenting him with a huge trophy in honor of his accomplishment. Derrick Podsiadlo broke free at the start of the DIRT Modified main event to establish a solid lead over John Pfeffer, Ron White and Karl Comfort. Podsiadlo began to stretch this lead until the yellow had to be displayed when Danny Willmes lost his new modified and drove off the third turn. His car hit a rut and launched itself high into the air, landing on all four wheels. He quickly recovered and returned to the race at the back of the pack. Podsiadlo held strong on the restart and began to re-establish his dominance. That is, until multi-time feature winner Steve Paine broke free of traffic. On lap 12 Paine dove low and took the lead from Podsiadlo exiting the fourth turn. Gary Tomkins took third from Pfeffer and started to catch both Podsiadlo and Paine. Paine was in a "zone by himself", as he drove away from the field. The yellow flag cut his lead when it flew on lap 17 after Rom White's modified shed a left rear tire, which flew into the pit area. The wheels missed the people and landed harmlessly near the pit shack. The yellow came on one last time, on lap 19, when Allen Willoughby coasted to a stop on the back stretch. The rest of the race was the pack trying to chase down Paine. Each lap Paine seemed to stretch out his lead by another tenth of a second. With just three laps remaining the Paine lead looked to be a full straight away (4.7 seconds). At the finish line it was Paine followed by Tomkins, Chuck Bower, Vic Coffey and Chad Brachmann. Scott Boudinot, who came home in 14th, was the first 358-modified across the finish line. Paine averaged 91.334 mph in claiming the victory. The 20-lap Sportsman feature saw Mike Johnson take the lead. On lap three all hell broke lose. First Eldon Payne Jr. slammed head long into the second turn wall to cause the initial yellow. The restart saw Justin Henderson make contact with another car in a four wide formation, and drift high into both Ricky VanNeil and Scott Schrader. the next attempt at a restart saw a multi-car tangle exiting the fourth turn. Rob Bussey, who was running in third looped his car exiting the fourth turn and was facing traffic. A number of cars made contact. When the dust cleared only three cars remained unharmed. Starter Ben Vitale ruled that Johnson had caused the accident and he sent him to the rear of the field for the next attempted restart. Finally after one more aborted start the race resumed. John Plumb was now the leader following the penalty to Johnson. Paul Guererri was tight on Plumb's rear bumper. Todd Henderson brought out the yellow again on lap four when he slowed exiting the second turn. The next laps again saw yellow when Loren Lincoln saw the front end of his car collapse after contact with Payne Jr.. Finally when the race resumed it was Plumb building a substantial lead of nearly four seconds. On lap 17, the engine in the Mike Johnson mount exploded down the back stretch to bring out the final yellow of the event. This bunched the field together again. Eldon Payne Jr., running in fourth, used the high grove around the speedway to grab second. He then closed in on Plumb. On lap 22, Payne Jr. went high exiting the second turn and drove by Plumb for the lead. Payne Jr. took the win on his sponsor's night. John Plumb, Schrader, Gus Hurlburt and Guererri rounded out the top five finishers. Jipp Ortiz waited until lap 12 to make his move to take the lead in the 20-lap Pro-Stock main. To that point it had been Chad Homan's race to lose. Daryl Hilkert hounded Homan for the lead, but each lap Homan was able to keep the position. That is until lap 12 when Jipp Ortiz sailed high in the second turn to pass for the lead. Ortiz held a two second lead over Homan when the checkers fell. Ortiz averaged 83.396 mph in taking the victory. Hilkert, Bill Hallett and James Henry rounded out the top five. The 15-lap Street Stock main went green-to-checkers. The race saw three lead changes. Nick Dandino was credited with leading the first lap. Jason Whipple then took over the front spot holding on for two circuits. On lap four, Mike Minutolo shot by to take the lead. He then proceeded, as there were no yellows, to build a solid advantage over Mike Murphy in second. On lap nine, Murphy suddenly turned right into the pits off turn three and out of the race. Minutolo took the win followed by Leroy Lewis, Adam Depuy, Blane Smith and Roco Conte. CANANDAIGUA BATTER: Rains around the area were the cause of a number of race teams to miss the night of action. Rains fell as close a the Town of Victor to the north of the speedway...Sportsman runner Dan Wiesner was absent due to the lack of another motor. He blew his regular power-plant up at Cayuga County last week...Chad Brachmann turned in the fastest lap of the night, turning a fantastic 102.5 mph laps during his heat race...Races ended at 9:25 p.m. so fans could go out and enjoy the County Fair atmosphere. This Saturday will see Star Headlight and Lantern and Geneva Harley-Davidson sponsor the night of racing at the fast half mile oval. On tap on the speedway will be the DIRT Modifieds, Sportsman, Pro-Stocks and Street Stocks. Race time begins at 7 p.m. sharp. CANANDAIGUA CHRYSLER-DODGE/PAYNE'S CONSTRUCTION presents the STREET STOCKS HEAT 1: M. Minutolo, M. Murphy, B. Smith, L. Lewis, D. Jones, R. Conte. FEATURE (15-laps): MIKE MINUTOLO, Leroy lewis, Adam Depuy, Blane Smith, Roco Conte, Jason Whipple, Mike Welch, Nat Peckham, Nick Rizzo, Daryl Barrett, Jeff Smith, Kevin Collins, Chuck Pruden, Jason Quigley, Jesse Pruden, Corey Hunt, Chris Jacobs, Charles Vohs, Mike Murphy, Don Jones, Car 47w, Nick Dandino, DNS: Chris Force, Rod Comfort,Jr. PRO-STOCKS HEAT: C. Homan, D. Hilkert, B. Thompson, B. Hallett, F. Guererri Jr., J. Ortiz. FEATURE (20-laps): JIPP ORTIZ, Chad Homan, Daryl Hilkert, Bill Hallett, James henry, Billy Brown, Frank Guererri Jr., Doug Smith. SPORTSMAN HEAT 1: R. Bussey, R. VanNeil, L. Dusett, G. Hurlburt, M. Johnson. FEATURE (25-laps): ELDON PAYNE JR., John Plumb, Scott Schrader, Gus Hurlburt, Paul Guererri, Ricky VanNeil, Justin Henderson, Fran Hilton, Todd Henderson, Mike Johnson, Rob Bussey, Loren Lincoln, Phil LaVare, Steve Doell, Lance Dusett. DIRT MODIFIEDS HEAT 1: C. Bower, D. Podsiadlo, C. Graham, S. Paine, M. Bliss. FEATURE (35-laps): STEVE PAINE, Gary Tomkins, Chuck Bower, Vic Coffey, Chad Brachmann, Charlie Donk, Karl Comfort, Darryl Ruggles, Justin Haers, Chuck Graham, Derrick Podsiadlo, Brian Michaels, John Pfeffer, Scott Boudinot, Mike Ward, Mike Payne, Danny Willmes, Ron White, Allen Willoughby, Mike Bliss, Dale Kissel, Don Slover, Ron Cartwright Jr. |