St. Johns, PA - This past Saturday and Sunday was the ‘enduromaniac’s’ weekend get a away with the season finale ABC Car Crushing NEETS Holiday Stock Car Series ‘Mutha of all Enduros’ weekend sponsored by Valley Service Equipment Repair. Over 200 drivers and their automobiles lined the pits all weekend with hopes of claiming the $5000 grand prize in the Cottman Transmission 6/8 cylinder 300-lapper and the $2500 to win Valley Service 150-lapper (purse based on 100-car minimum in each class). . The kicker is that the winning car in each division was literally crushed into a cube by the portable ABC car crusher following tech inspection.
The race weekend started Saturday with qualifying heats for the huge double point Sunday shows. Any cars that did not run Saturday’s qualifiers were automatically put to the rear of the field for the start of Sunday’s main events. Six heat races were run for the Cottman Transmission 6/8 cylinders. Ray Fitzgerald, Shawn Gallucci, Richard Petey, Mark Spencer, Kyle Somers and Jeff Walls picked up the wins. Bob Haeger, Joe Grocholski, Robin Vollmoeller, Woot Lawrence, Mark Hammer and Maurice Ott notched heat wins in the Valley Service four-cylinder division. Also on the card for the day was the Norwich Construction Top 10 Challenge, where the top 10 in the point’s standings in each division ran a 20-lap ‘dash for cash’ race. Joe ‘millionaire’ Jentile and Woot Lawrence were victorious and each took home $200 for their efforts.
In an effort to help 4/6 cylinder truck racers, NEETS promoter, Billy Bartley decided to give the new ‘TRUX’ a whirl. Bobby ‘Peaseman’ Pease started on the pole and led early on, but a hard-driven John Cozza challenged Pease for the point. The two swapped the lead on six occasions before Cozza Ran through fluid in turn three. Out of turn four Cozza slammed the way and his day was complete. Pease drove off to the first ever 50-lap NEETS ‘TRUX’ enduro at Mountain over Terry Stiles, James Badalato, Rich Onorato and Andy Owen. “They proved themselves to be successful, and the trucks will definitely be a part of the ’06 schedule”, noted Bartley.
Sunday’s action began with seventy-five four cylinder set to take the green. The championship chase was on between the top three in the standings (Vollmoeller, Pease and Sager). Joe Grocholski led the field to the green and shot out front after starting from the pole position. It wasn’t until lap six when Bob Haeger took command.
Joe Heintzelman started near the rear of the field, but as he worked quickly through traffic, the battle was intense up front. Harry Sager caught and passed Haeger on lap fifteen, however, on the thirty-second circuit Heninzelman found himself out front over Sager, Mark Hammer, Luke Colleran and Grocholski.
The worst of the red flags flew for Ken Wallace when he collided with the outside turn two wall. Wallace was shaken up but appeared uninjured.
Problems struck Heintzelman, giving Sager grabbed the top spot back for good on lap forty-four. He cruised on to the win over Grocholski, Colleran, Larry Fisher and Woot Lawrence. Not knowing that Bobby Pease and Robin Vollmoeller had problems earlier in the event, he was surprised to be named the ’05 Valley Service four-cylinder champion.
Jeff Walls led the eighty-three-car Cottman Transmission 6/8-cylinder division to the green but Ray Fitzgerald led the first lap. A front stretch pile up brought out the red, which involved Joe Intermaggio, Rick Goeckel, Gary Pein and Carl Heater. When green flag racing resumed Rich Johnson passed Fitzgerald. Six laps later Petey took over the point, but lost it to Keith Bissinger on the following lap. Unfortunately for Bissinger, he was the start of the next red flag in turn four. The lap eighteen incident involved at least eight drivers in the pile up. Unlike many others, Bissinger was able to continue.
Petey inherited the lead from Bissinger’s misfortunes, but Fitzgerald was on a mission. The man who won three races out of three starts on the season had something to prove as he out dueled Petey for the lead. By lap twenty-six Fitzgerald led over Joe Heintzelman, Mark Spencer, Petey and Rob Pyle. Fitzgerald, along with Spencer looked unstoppable, as other drivers appeared to have their hands full with the lapped traffic. The Cottman Transmission 6/8-cylinder point lead (Joe Jentile) entered the top five by lap fifty-five.
The second to last red flag flew on lap ninety-nine when John Orourke went around on the front stretch. The incident collected the third place car of Petey, who was running third. Many more cars piled into Petey. He was able to continue after heading pit side.
Fitzgerald and Spencer continued out front, being the only two drivers on the lead lap. One lap past half way (lap 151) a few cars collected into the front stretch wall. The red flag was thrown. After surveying heavy damage to the retaining wall, NEETS Promoter, Billy Barley spoke with the drivers who were running in the top ten. “The damage to the wall was severe and would have taken hours to fix. For safety concerns, and being a Sunday we (Bartley and the officials) decided to call the race”. Fitzgerald was declared the winner over Spencer, Jentile, Heintzelman and Gallucci. Fitzgerald waved ‘bye-bye’ to the car that won helped him win four races in four starts. Jentile’s third place effort was strong enough for him to win his second straight NEETS title.
Up next is the ABC Car Crushing NEETS Holiday Stock Car Series 3rd annual banquet at Lobitz Hall in Hazleton, PA. The top ten drivers in each division will be honored, along with the champions. Many other awards and prizes will be given away December 10th at the affair.
The start of the ’06 NEETS season is right around the corner, starting off January 7th with the third annual Drews Enterprises ‘Beaters with Heaters’. Along with the mid-winter enduro action, Santa will be on hand, giving away toys to the boys and girls in the stands.
For all NEETS information, results and standings, please visit www.neetstour.net