Zane Zeiner is King of the Mountain and
Earl Paules Clinches Championship at Sundance
With $5000 to win for the Modifieds and double points on the
line for all divisions, the Sunday portion of the championship
deciding “King of the Mountain” was the show to watch in
Northeastern, Pennsylvania. Zane Zeiner of Bath, held off
several challenges from Matt Hirschman to take his second career
King of the Mountain Modified main event and Earl Paules took
the division championship. Richie DiMarco of Holland, claimed
his second King of the Mountain Street Stock win and Joe Barbush
barely took the championship in the class. Dave Freundt of
Lehighton, not only won the FWD portion of the show, but he also
won the divisional championship.
Thirsty one Modified drivers ran time trials and the fastest
time was set by Matt Hirschman. The top 15 drivers made it in
the 150-lap $5000 to win show on time and five were taken from
the consi, which was won by Eddie Brunnhoelzl III. The remainder
of the field was filled with drivers who won race qualifiers and
drivers that used provisional starting spots for being in the
top ten in Sundance points.
The top ten redrew for starting spots and Pete Brittain led the
field to the drop of the green. The yellow flag waved on lap 20
for a turn one spin. Brian DeFebo ran second at the time,
followed by Zane Zeiner, Justin Gumley and Earl Paules. Green
flag racing resumed and DeFebo took the lead.
Matt Hirschman started ninth on the grid and overtook Paules for
fourth on lap 27. He then got by Zeiner for third a lap later
and then overtook Brittain of second on lap 36. Four laps later
he shot by DeFebo and into the lead.
Hirschman held the lead at the halfway (lap 75) fuel stop.
Gumley gave up the fifth spot to pit for rubber and DeFebo,
Zeiner, Paules and Anthony Sesely lined up behind the leader for
the restart. Rusty Smith came in under the competition yellow as
well.
Zeiner wasted no time and moved by DeFebo to take the second
spot following the restart. Hirschman continued out front and
fended off the second place driver as they approached lapped
traffic. While trying to lap one of his competitors, Hirschman
was tagged and spun in turn four. The yellow flag was displayed
and nearly the entire field headed pit side for tires.
The change of events gave Smith the lead. Billy Weichert lined
up in second with Tommy Farrell, Dave Schneider and DeFebo, who
were the first driver out of the pits, in tow.
The green flag was back out and a turn two melee on lap 103
slowed the action. The cars that emerged from the turn two
wreckage were Mike Speeney, Farrell, Schneider, Kyle Ebersole,
Nick Pecko, Brittain and Matt Wentz.
Green flag racing resumed and Zeiner drove down to the bottom of
Smith for the lead in turn one. The lap 106 pass for lead was
risky, as contact was made and the two cars slid sideways. Both
drivers held on to their machines and Zeiner came out with the
lead.
Smith fell back a few spots following the contact and on lap 115
Zeiner led over Hirschman, who mounted a great late race charge
back through the top 10. Sesely ran third, followed by DeFebo
and Smith.
Despite several attempts to make the race winning pass on the
high side, Hirschman could not get around Zeiner, who took his
second career Modified King of the Mountain victory. He also
became the second driver in track history to win the season
ending event in both a Modified and Late Model. With the win
Zeiner earned a guaranteed starting spot in the upcoming
North/South Shootout and also the Turkey Derby.
“We’ve had some great runs but couldn’t win one of these things
for Gary Cretty (car owner)” said Zeiner in victory lane. “It
feels great to win this race as the first for him”.
Hirschman settled for second, followed by DeFebo, Smith and
Sesely. Earl Paules finished in the seventh spot and earned his
first career Modified track championship.
Looking to win his first track championship, Joe Barbush led the
pack of Street Stock drivers to the drop of the green flag in
the 50-lap $1000 to win King of the Mountain show. Barbush
however didn’t have it easy by any means, as he had to be sure
that he didn’t finish more than three positions behind the
second place driver in the standings, Scott Meckes.
The green flag dropped and Chris Turbush led the first lap.
Barbush regained the race lead a lap later before Scott Meckes
climbed to the lead following a lap seven restart.
With 10 lap complete, Meckes continued to lead over Barbush,
followed by Mitch Hawk, Richie DiMarco and Chip Wanamaker. That
all changed two laps later when Hawk got into Barbush as they
challenged for position. Barbush spun and has to restart from
the tail end of the field.
It wasn’t the only scrape for Barbush either. Lap 21 saw a hard
crash between Chris Burge and Hawk. Barbush got a small piece of
that incident as well.
DiMarco just edged Meckes for the lead as the yellow flag waved
on lap 25. Drivers were told that the second 25 laps would be
run following the modified feature.
When green flag racing resumed DiMarco began to distance himself
from the field. Meckes held second, followed by Craig Lutz and
Steve Shultz.
As DiMarco drove away from the competition over the closing
laps, all eyes were on Barbush as he fought back into
championship contention. He fought with Turbush for a top six
spot before overtaking Wanamaker for fifth with only a handful
of laps remaining.
DiMarco claimed his second career King of the Mountain crown
over Shultz and Meckes. Lutz had a stellar run in fourth and
Barbush finished fifth and took his first career championship.
Mitch Hawk, Chip Wanamaker and Scott Meckes scored heat race
victories. Paul Frantz won the consi.
Less than 20 points separated Dave Freundt and Mike Kline as the
duo headed into the FWD portion of the King of the Mountain
events. Freundt sat on the pole for the 40-lap event, but things
weren’t easy for the racing veteran.
Freundt led the opening lap with Bill Verwys, Jr., Kline, Eric
Banashefski and Jay Skupski in tow.
The caution flew on lap 125 when Freundt lost the muffler on his
car. The debris was removed from the track and with a push from
Kline, Verwys overtook the leader. Kline followed through for
second and then rubber fenders with Verwys to take the lead on
lap 28.
Verwys pushed up the track following the contact and that
allowed Freundt to take second. He then mounted a charge on
Kline over the remaining laps and the two ran side by side
toward the finish. Freundt completed the pass on lap 39 and then
took the checkers a lap later to score his first King of the
Mountain victory and also the division championship. Kline, B.
Verwys, Jr., Banashefski and Bill Verwys, Sr. completed the top
five.
Heat race victories went to Dave Freundt and Kevin Stein.
The Sundance Vacations Contingency Program winners were Tommy
Farrell, Brian Wozniak and Frank Katona.
Sundance Vacations is a national wholesale travel company that
specializes in providing wholesale travel and discount vacations
to travelers who appreciate budget-friendly travel. Founded in
1991 by John and Tina Dowd, Sundance Vacations’ mission is to
provide quality discount vacations at a fraction of the retail
rate. A destination-based discount travel program, Sundance
Vacations enables customers to enjoy discount vacations in many
popular resort areas across the United States.
Sundance Vacations Speedway is just minutes from Hazleton, Pa,
located on St. John’s Road, between Routes 93 and 309.
Grandstand admission for all regular events is just $10 for ages
11 and older. Children 10 years of age and younger are admitted
for free.
Please visit www.sundancevacationsspeedway.com for the entire
2010 schedule, point standings and up to date news and
information.
Modifieds (150-laps) 1. ZANE ZEINER 2. Matt Hirschman 3. Brian
DeFebo 4. Rusty Smith 5. Anthony Sesely 6. Todd Baer 7. Earl
Paules 8. Eddie Brunnhoelzl III 9. Chuck Hossfeld 10. David
Schneider 11. Bobby Jones 12. Nick Pecko 13. Matt Wentz 14.
Billy Weichert 15. Tommy Farrell 16. Kyle Ebersole 17.Pete
Brittain 18. Mike Speeney 19. Jimmy Zacharias 20. Wayne Kocher
21. Justin Gumley 22.Barry Callavini 23. Allen Creveling 24.
Daren Scherer DNQ: Joe Mooney, CJ Jones, Jim Storace, Brian
Romig, Matt Higgins, John Ramsey, Dan Speeney
Street Stock (50-laps) 1. RICH DIMARCO 2. Steve Shultz 3. Scott
Meckes 4. Craig Lutz 5. Joe Barbush 6. Chris Turbush 7. Chip
Wanamaker 8. Brian Brown 9. TJ Gursky 10. Brian Wozniak 11. Josh
Mooney 12. Paul Frantz 13. Nick Shaw 14. Stephen Steigerwalt 15.
Frank Scimeca 16. Robert Fink 17.Chris Burge 18. Mitch Hawk 19.
Jeff McGrath 20. Kevin Higgins DNQ: Greg Long, Paul Morgan, Jr,
Tony Hilliard, Ralph Gargiulo, Dale Santee, Jamie Smith
FWD (40-laps) 1. DAVE FREUNDT 2. Mike Kline 3. Bill Verwys Jr 4.
Eric Banashefski 5. Bill Verwys Sr 6. Frank Katona 7. Jay
Skupski 8. Kevin Stein 9. Rick Banashefski 10. Joe Katona 11.
Trevor Ahouse 12. John Smith 13. Frank Hughes Jr 14. Jack Bodnar
Source: Geno Ostrowski/Sundance
Vacations Speedway PR
Posted: October
11, 2010
