Press
Release: October 3rd, 2006
Drag Racing Results: By Dave Mance
It’s that time of year when the weather is going to be
unpredictable. Saturday, September 30th was a day when it wasn’t
sure whether or not it wanted to rain or shine, not only at
Spencer Speedway track but also at Maplegrove Raceway, where my
wife and I were for the weekend. I kept in phone contact with Big
John and Jeremy to see if they were having the same problems there
as they were down here in Pennsylvania. Spencer Speedway completed
a couple of time trials but had to postpone eliminations until
Sunday, October 1st. Sunday was as challenging as Saturday trying
to dodge the raindrops in Williamson. They did complete a few
rounds of eliminations before the curfew at 5:30 P.M... Therefore,
the driver’s that were still in eliminations decided to split
the purse in each class between the remaining drivers so they
would not have to run next Saturday (Oct. 7th) along with another
show. So, here are the names of all the winning drivers from each
class:
Super Pro: Jack Minardo, Tim
Hunter, Fred O’Neil, Tommy Calabrese, Bruce Sessions and Joe
Ragusa all split the purse.
Modified: John Cira Jr., Larry
Filmore, Nina McDonald, Bruce Sessions, Dan Tantalo, Don Gallioti
and Paul Diehl all split that purse.
Street: John Cira Jr., Sam Capizzi
Jr., Rich Garland and Gary French all split the “Street” class
purse.
No gamblers race was run due to
the weather and time. Next week I will have the race results from
our show on October 7th, if the weather permits us to do so. The
Pro’s ran their make-up race at Maplegrove and Suzi and I had
front row seats to see who would come out on top. Saturday was
basically a rain-out and we only saw three classes of qualifying
runs. Sunday morning started out rainy but by 10:00 A.M. the sun
came out and the track jet driers had the track dry and ready to
go by the 11:00 A.M. start time. We pulled into the track just as
the first run of Top Fuel dragsters were making their first runs
of the day. We couldn’t have timed it better! (Luckily we were
parked only 200 ft. from the grandstands). Top Fuel dragster was
won by J.R. Todd who is gunning for “Rookie of the Year” which
he probably has locked up being this is his third Top Fuel victory
of the year. Funny Car was won by Phil Burkart Jr. in a “peddle-fest”
against Robert Hight. Three time Pro Stock champ, Greg Anderson,
won his 42nd title and Karen Stoffer scored in Pro Stock
Motorcycle. Our local driver, Dan Fletcher, made it to the
semi-finals in Comp Eliminator and took the win in Super Stock in
his 1969 Camaro. Suzi and I had a great time walking around the
pits. I had my NHRA jacket autographed by John Force, Gary Densham,
Eric Medlen, Robert Hight, Ron Capps, Mike Ashley, Larry Dixon,
Gary Scelzi, Melanie Troxel, Doug Herbert, and none other than our
own, Dan Fletcher. We also had our pictures taken with some of
these guys. All in all, it was a great weekend for us. We got to
see what the commentator stated was “one of the best races this
year” and we couldn’t be happier that we got to see a big one
this year. I’m glad I took Monday off because it was a late
night Sunday getting home. Hope to see you at Spencer Speedway on
Saturday!!! My final words this week…”Show up to race or the
season is over!”
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