01/06/2007

ABC Car Crushing Mountain Madness Frostbite 100 Runs Without Frost
by:  Walter Johnston

       97 cars and a truck arrived at Mountain Speedway for the ABC Car Crushing Mountain Madness Frostbite 100 yesterday under sometimes sunny, sometimes windy and cloudy conditions, but all prepared to have fun as they participated in the season opening event. New promoter Mike Odwazny introduced his track officials to all at the driver’s meeting, clarified the rules under which they would run, and prepared to send them on their way to staging two events that were run off with great precision and speed, which ended at exactly 3 PM, allowing everyone a decent amount of time to pack up in the daylight and head off to dinner and home.

       The first race of the day was for the 4 cylinder gang. After a few pace laps to verify the transponders working properly, the field took the green with the #6 John Saccomandi grabbing the early lead, hotly pursued by the #969 of Greg Kopin and the #666 of Duane Garrison. They were quickly joined by the #64 of Sterling Kepner and the #02 of Shawn Wanat. Kopin passed Saccomandi for the lead, but was quickly challenged by Garrison. By lap 4, Wanat had caught the pair, and passed both to takeover the front spot and dominate the early going, with the #38 of Bob Haeger in close pursuit, while Kopin ran 3^rd. Larry Fisher’s  #8 moved up to 3^rd by lap 15, and Wanat spun out of the lead on lap 19 just before the Start/Finish line, as Fisher inherited the lead after passing Haeger for 2^nd on lap 18. Wanat recovered quickly to rejoin the race immediately, but outside the top 15 at that point. On lap 24, Kopin hit 2 disabled cars as he came into turn 4, and that took him out of contention. By lap 25, Haeger had assumed the lead over Fisher, with the #08 of Jarrod Hayes now up to third, with Kepner and Saccomandi rounding out the top 5. Fisher regained the top spot on lap 29 in his battle with Haeger, and on lap 31, the first red flag of the day flew when the #1D of Deb Arner crashed going into turn 1, and ended up blocking the track. With green out once more, Fisher hung onto the lead, but Hayes was now running 2^nd in hot pursuit of Fisher, but the paced was slowed once more on lap 38 as 2 cars crashed hard in the backstretch and the race was stopped to check the driver’s condition. Green quickly came out once more, but 2 laps later, on lap 40, it was out again briefly for a turn 1 wreck. Under way again after that, Fisher, Hayes and Kepner continued their battle for the top spot, as Wanat was working his way back to the front, running in 7^th by lap 45. The racing was a bit more difficult now, as the field had to deal with two wrecked cars left from and earlier crash in the backstretch, but they all got used to them being there and handled it well. By lap 50, Wanat had worked his way back up to 3^rd, as Fisher and Hayes continued their battle up front and Kepner and the #70D of Denise Siegel watched from 4^th and 5^th.  By lap 65, only the top 3 were on the lead lap, and Wanat had gotten by Haeger for 2^nd, when on lap 66, Fisher spun into the infield, losing the lead in the process. One lap later, the #14M of Amanda Spots came to a stop in the infield after being black flagged for a fire in the rear of the car. Spots was transported by ambulance to the hospital, and the race was held up for about 25 minutes awaiting the arrival of another ambulance. When racing resumed, Wanat was all over Hayes for the lead, and he inherited it around lap 74, as Hayes pitted to change a flat, losing 5 laps in the process. Wanat lead once more, and was followed by Fisher and Haeger, the only 3 still on the lead lap. The race settled into a good rhythm at this point, with Wanat stretching his lead lap by lap, with Haeger falling a lap down to the leader on lap 90, but still maintaining the 3^rd running spot. Wanat had built his margin over Fisher to almost half a lap as they approached the end of the race, passing cars on the track with ease, to finish 1^st even with a car spinning right in front of him as the Checkered Flag waved. Unfortunately, post race inspection resulted in Wanat being disqualified for having what tech ruled were 2 different sized springs in the front, giving the victory to Fisher, with Bob Haeger taking home 2^nd place money, the #7 of Sam Ryan 3^rd, the 19B of Bobby Coco 4^th, and the 113 of Mark Spencer rounding out the top 5.

    Very quickly, the 6/8 cylinder event hit the pavement, and as before, after a couple of pace laps, the green flew as Pole Sitter #78 of Aaron Miller grabbed the early lead. But many collisions took place all around the track, and the order quickly changed, with the 31x of Jeff Walls taking the lead, with the 17R of Ray Rothfuss, the 5 of Tim Pauch, and the 17x truck of Rob McCormick making up the top 4 runners early on. With the laps passing by quickly, by lap 15 Walls controlled the lead spot, as behind him Rothfuss hung on for 2^nd, but the 98 of Dominic Ranieri had moved up to 3^rd, and the 04 of Donnie Stewart had moved up to 4^th, while McCormick hung on in 5^th spot, while they all carefully avoided the spins and wrecks of others. Walls continued to lead by lap 20, as Ranieri had now moved up to run 2^nd, Rothfuss was 3^rd, and Pauch and the #23g of Shawn Gallucci rounded out the top 5. 10 laps later, Pauch had fought his way back up to 2^nd, as the other top 5 runners hung on, but on lap 44 red came out after the 33D of Charlie Nansteel smacked the turn 2 wall hard, not stopping until the car was in turn 3. Green came out once more, and Walls held the lead comfortably, even as two cars came together in turn 3, spilling water all over, but the race continued on, as Walls held the lead over Pauch, while Ranieri, Gallucci and a resurgent McCormick ran in the top 5. By lap 60 of this fast paced race, McCormick had worked his way to 4^th spot, with Gallucci running 5^th, but by lap 70, the two had switched positions again, while up front, Walls continued to skillfully hold the lead while avoiding the immobile cars left from earlier incidents at various spots around the track. McCormick fell a lap down on lap 71 as Walls passed him, still building his overall lead over Pauch, who was at least 1/3 of a lap back at that point. Pauch had his own concerns, however, as Ranieri was only about 5 cars lengths behind at any moment, while Gallucci finally fell of the lead lap as Walls passed him on lap 78. Now with a very comfortable lead, Walls is still cruising, Jolly Roger flying from his trunk, as he isn’t even being challenged for the lead, while Pauch and Ranieri valiantly continue their race way behind him. Walls cruised to the win in less than perfect shape though, proving the luck was riding with him, as his right front tire went flat, and his water pump gave out as he took the checkered flag for the win, with Pauch, Ranieri, Gallucci and McCormick rounding out the top 5.

New and Notes: It was fun to get to a race track once again after a few months off, and even more fun to do it in the weirdly wonderful weather we’ve experienced lately all over the Northeast…while it was a bit chilly during periods of cloud cover, it got fairly warm when the clouds parted…a good sized crowd was in attendance, no doubt because of the combination of good weather, getting to see a race and a decent admission price ($5) and they were treated to a very efficiently run show, which despite an ambulance break during the 4 cylinder race, was over at exactly 3 PM…Other than the issue of one driver who’d not cut a proper hole in his car for a transponder, no real issues arose (In the tower) during the event…with red flags only being used for safety issues, with disabled cars being left in place, the whole show was run quickly and with minimum interruption…the starting orders for both races was done based on numbers that were drawn by each competitor as they arrived, and a coin toss at the drivers meeting. The quarter came up heads, so the field was lined up according to low number to high number…it seemed like the most popular number for the 4 cylinder drivers is 19, as 5 of the 48 starters in the race had some variation of the number…this event was also the last one to be called by Gene ‘Geno’ Ostrowski, as he is moving on to dedicate his efforts to a new job at a local newspaper, leaving a void in the announcers booth and elsewhere at the track that will take a really good person to fill. We wish all the best to Geno, who also has been a great help to us at RacerHub in all our years of covering the events at Mountain Speedway…Until our next event coverage, we wish you all happiness. I’d make that warmth and happiness, but I know you’ve already got the warmth…please be safe and live well.

Source: Walter Johnston/RacerHub.com
Posted:  January 7, 2007