TOMKINS TOPS CANANDAIGUA

CANANDAIGUA, NY...A full night of racing saw Gary Tomkins, from Phelps, NY, pick up his first DIRT Modified feature victory of the year at Canandaigua Speedway. Steve Gray held off last year's Sportsman track champion, Karl Comfort to secure his second win of the 2001 Canandaigua campaign. Jipp Ortiz and Richard Briggs also earned their respective second Pro-stock and Street Stock feature victories of the year. Lance Yonge topped the ESS A Main. Result from that series can be found elsewhere in this publication.

Twenty-six mighty DIRT Modifieds took Tom Burton's green flag, as Dave Axton jumped into the lead from his inside second row starting position. He battled side-by-side with Ray Bliss Jr. for three circuits until Bliss Jr. was able to pull ahead. Axton, running second now found his hands full with third place runner Chuck Hebing and fourth place Rich Swarthout.

Running fifth was Gary Tomkins, in his own battle to hold off Vince Vitale. Hebing slipped high on lap eight to allow both Swarthout and Tomkins to each gain a position. A lapped car helped Axton to drop back to fifth and on lap 10 Tomkins passed Swarthout for second behind Bliss Jr..

On lap 11 the yellow flag flew when Hebing made contact with the front stretch wall exiting the fourth turn. The restart saw Tomkins and Bliss battle for the front spot. Two laps later track points leader Steve Paine made contact with another car and looped his Terrell Potato Chips number 7x in the third turn. He collected a number of cars in the incident, including Bob McCreadie, Vic Coffey and Axton.

Gary Tomkins now blasted into the clear as Bliss faded on the restart. Billy Decker, Jim Gabriel Jr., Danny Johnson and Tim Fuller rounded out the top five. Tomkins pulled out to a fifteen car lead over Decker. On lap 24, Gabriel Jr. retook third from Johnson with a daring move.

At the finish line it would be Tomkins for the win followed by Decker, Gabriel Jr., Johnson and Tim McCreadie.

The 20-lap Sportsman feature saw 24 cars take the green with Rick Miller building a tremendous advantage over Brian Somerville, Mike Majors and David Allen. Miller had extended his lead to nearly 20 car lengths when the yellow flew on lap 10 as rookie driver Jason Whipple stalled his disabled racer in the pit entrance lane.

On the restart Steve Gray, who had just taken second, passed Miller for the lead. The green conditions on the track did not remain long as Eldon Payne Jr. spun in the fourth turn to bring out the yellow.

Gray spent the final half of the race building a lead over Miller, Karl Comfort, Dan Wiesner and Joe Beyea. On lap 14, Comfort passed Miller for second, with Wiesner grabbing third. Beyea was able to pass Wiesner with one lap remaining to take third. Rounding out the top five at the finish were David Allen and Justin Haers.

The 20-lap Pro-stock main saw Tiger Chapman pull away from the rest of the starting field to establish a dominating lead for the third week in a row. A yellow on lap four, when Robin Smith looped out in the fourth turn, bunched the field together and ruined Chapman's lead. Jipp Ortiz, using the low line exiting the fourth turn, was able to pass both Chapman and Shove to take the lead on lap five.

The yellow flew again on lap seven when Shove slowed on the front stretch and rolled to a halt in the first turn. This moved Mike Cooper into third. Cooper was able to pass Chapman on lap 10 to grab second. Ortiz had now established a firm lead.

On lap 14 the yellow flew when Daryl Hilkert blew an engine on the front stretch. The final yellow flew with just one lap remaining in the race. Officials then checkered the race due to the hour of the night.

The final race of the night was the Street Stock division, in which thirty cars were called to the line and only 27 showed.

A full card of racing, including the ESS, which had 39 cars on hand, forced the Street Stocks to for go their normal heat races and line up based on handicapping.

Doug Smith was recorded as the leader of the first lap as a major shunt took place exiting the second turn, involving five cars. Richard Briggs took the lead on the restart as Smith fell out of the race. Mike Welch and Nick Rizzo closed in on Briggs, but constant yellow flags did not allow either to get a full run on the leader.

Five yellow flags plagued the 12-lap race in which only eleven cars finished the grid. Briggs took the win followed by Rizzo and Welch. Welch was penalize for a jump on the final restart, lap 10, and pushed back to fifth in the finish order.

This moved Nathan Peckham into third and Jim Cologgi into fourth.

Canandaigua Notes: Some 144 cars were present at the speedway for the night of racing including 27 modifieds, 24 sportsman, 30 street stocks, 24 pro-stocks and 39 ESS sprint cars...Fireworks topped of a full program, ending at nearly 11:30 p.m...The ESS ran three heats, a Dash, a C main, B Main and an A Main.

This Saturday will be Phelps Cement and the Ontario County Fairboard night honoring Earl 'Hoot' Frarey a former Ontario County Fairboard member. DIRT Modifieds, Sportsman, Pro-stocks and Street Stocks will be in action. race time will be at 7 p.m., with gates opening at 4:30 p.m. sharp.

The Canandaigua Speedway is located just east of the village of Canandaigua, NY, on County Road 10, at the Ontario County Fairgrounds.

FA PRODUCTS-VICTOR REINZ NIGHT SUMMARY

STREET STOCKS

FEATURE (12-laps): RICHARD BRIGGS, Nick Rizzo, Nathan Peckham, Jim Cologgi, Mike Welch, Chris Jacobs, Brandon Smith, Frank Burnell, Kevin Collins, Adam DeLong, Eric Giguere, Randy Peters, Shawn Lloyd, Kent Fletcher, Ray Cooper, Mike Resbeck, Robert Pierce, Terry Telter, Patrick Gibson, Doug Smith, Willy Grant, Tim Burnell, Brian Lloyd, Kevin Schrader, Brad Steinruck, Mike Shaw, Leroy Lewis, DNS: Fred Salzberg, Jared LaBarge, James Henry.

PRO STOCKS

HEAT 1: T. Chapman, L. Burnett, Z. Shove, S. Miller, M. Cooper, J. Miller, P. Hobbs, C. Homan.
HEAT 2: J. Boyle, J. Ortiz, W. Ellison, B. Brown, D. Hilkert, D. Conant, J. Rutkowski, C. Nugent.

FEATURE (19-laps): JIPP ORTIZ, Mike Cooper, Steve Miller, Jason Boyle, Jon Miller, Lee Burnett, Patrick Hobbs, Chad Homan, Dave Conant, John Rutkowski, Scott Fremouw, Steve Pesarek, Kevin Smith, Wayne Ellison, Tiger Chapman, Billy Brown, Rick Kline, Phil Barone, Tom Jansch, Daryl Hilkert, Chad Nugent, Zack Shove, Robin Smith, Jimmy Brown.

SPORTSMAN

HEAT 1: K. Comfort, C. Parmelee, P. Guererri, B. Somerville, Ri. Miller.
HEAT 2: J. Plumb, J. Beyea, M. Majors, D. Wiesner, T. Ross.
HEAT 3: D. Allen, S. Gray, E. Payne Jr., R. VanNeil, J. Haers.

FEATURE (20-laps): STEVE GRAY, Karl Comfort, Joe Beyea, Dan Wiesner, David Allen, Justin Haers, Rick Miller, Clay Parmelee, Paul Guererri, John Plumb, Bob Henry Jr., Eldon Payne Jr., Rick VanNeil, Loren Lincoln, Larry Beardsley, Brian Somerville, Walt Chyrywaty, Scott Joy, Rob Bussey, Tony Ross, Adam VanPatten, Mike Majors, Wade Czymmek, Jason Whipple.

MODIFIED

HEAT 1: T. McCreadie, S. Ridley, C. Hebing, R. Bliss Jr., V. Vitale, T. Fuller.
HEAT 2: C. Bower, D. Ruggles, D. Johnson, P. Ward, R. Swarthout, D. Axton.
HEAT 3: B. McCreadie, S. Paine, G. Tomkins, B. Decker, J. Gabriel Jr., J. Ventura.

FEATURE (35-laps): GARY TOMKINS, Billy Decker, Jim Gabriel Jr., Danny Johnson, Tim McCreadie, Tim Fuller, Pat Ward, Steve Paine, Ron Smoker, Chuck Bower, Charlie Donk, Darryl Ruggles, Rich Swarthout, Gil Tegg Jr., Ray Bliss Jr., Vic Coffey, John Ventura, Randy Miller, Ed Monroe, Aaron Blowers, Bob McCreadie, Vince Vitale, Dave Axton, Chuck Hebing, Greg Tatich, Scott Ridley.