Gaston, Fields, and Shannon Return to Victory Lane. White Picks up First Win at Thunder Mountain Speedway
August 27 , 2009
Knoxdale, PA-Racing action continued this past Friday night at the Thunder Mountain Speedway in Knoxdale, Pa. with Fan Appreciation Night. During intermission, the teams brought the cars to the speedway for a meet and greet session with the fans. As always, everyone had a wonderful time as the race teams passed out treats and gift bags to the fans. The racing season is in it’s final stages as only one more points race remains after Fridays show.
The Super Stocks started off the feature events with Fuzzy Fields and Dom Surra leading the way. Fields jumped out to the early lead with Surra riding in second. Surra would challenge Fields for the top spot several times during the early going, but was unable to wrestle away the lead. Skip Lindemuth worked his way into third and began to hound Surra for the second position while Fields started to pull away from the pack. Just before the half way point, Surra’s string of bad luck continued as the T-3 machine came to a stop in turn four. On the restart, Fields again pulled away while Lindemuth had his hands full with challenges from Brian Rhed for the second spot. The battle for fourth was also heating up as the #55 of Todd English and the #29L of Jonny Lindenpitz were mixing it up lap after lap. Fields completed his green to checkered dominance of the event taking the victory by a comfortable margin. The win was Fields’ second of the season and is sure to brighten the day of his son and fellow racer Josh who was injured in a car accident last week. Following Fields across the line were, Lindemuth, Rhed, English and Lindenpitz. Heat race wins went to Fuzzy Fields and Dom Surra.
The Steel Block Late Model Feature began with a parade lap in memory of Chucky Kennedy’s father, Chuck Sr. who passed away earlier in the day on Friday. The late models lined up in a Missing Man formation, leaving the pole position open in honor of Chuck. John Chesnalavich Jr. and Bruce Raybuck brought the field to the green flag, with Chesnalavich jumping out to the lead. The caution would fly for a spin by Rick Maxim in turn three before one lap had been completed. Chesnalavich would take the lead again on the restart, with Raybuck settling into second. Denny Fenton provided plenty of excitement in the first lap as he went from eleventh to sixth with daredevil type moves at both ends of the speedway. As the field entered turns one and two, Fenton and John Brady got together, spinning in front of the field, and collected Luke Hoffner and Matt Tifft in the process. Hoffner got the worst of the deal when his #15 slid into the side of the #55 of Fenton and then flipped onto it’s roof. All drivers were ok, but Tifft and Hoffner were done for the night. When the green flag flew again, Chesnalavich again took off into the lead with Raybuck in second. Terry Rayko was running in the third spot and quickly made his way around Raybuck to overtake the second position. Raybuck began to pressure Chesnalavich for the lead as Matt Gaston was starting to make some noise as he worked his way through the pack. Gaston used his signature high side moves to take fourth from Bill Davis, and third from Raybuck, then began to chase down the leaders. Rayko was all over Chesnalavich for the lead, but it was Gaston who was on the move. Gaston took second from Rayko just as Chesnalavich got sideways exiting turn two. Gaston had no where to go and slid into the side of the leader as Rayko raced by on the high side. Neither Gaston or Chesnalavich stopped during the contact but the yellow flag waved for debris before the field completed the lap. Chesnalavich was back up front for the restart as the line up reverted back to the last completed lap. Chesnalavich took off into the lead again as Gaston quickly took the second spot from Rayko. Gaston’s #47 was showering sparks from the right front as he entered the corners, but he continued on, taking the lead from Chesnalavich on the high side of turns one and two on the twelfth lap. From that point on, it was all Gaston as he pulled away in a shower of sparks to pick up the victory. Following Gaston across the line were, Rayko, Davis, Chesnalavich, and Maxim. Heat race winners were, Matt Gaston and Dave Buchanan.
The Pure Stocks were up next with Sam McClellan and Gabe Shaffer on the front row. McClellan took the lead with Zach Gustafson and Kyle Shannon falling in to second and third. The top three were putting on a show with lots of side by side racing. Shannon used the high line to take the second spot from Gustafson. Shannon quickly caught the #33 of McClellan and began to challenge for the lead. McClellan wasn’t ready to go away quietly as he ran side by side with Shannon for several laps. Smoke was beginning to show from the rear of McClellan’s car, but he maintained the lead each lap while racing door handle to door handle with Shannon. The caution flew on lap eight for a multi car spin in turns three and four. On the start, Shannon dove under the heavily smoking McClellan in turns one and two to take the lead. McClellan tried several times to regain the lead, but once out front, Shannon was able to turn away all the challenges on his way to victory lane. McClellan held on to the second position, with Gustafson, Shawn Lindemuth and Jason Joiner rounding out the top five. Heat race winners were Jason Joiner and Kyle Shannon.
The Front Wheel Drive Thunderbolt feature saw Chad Greely and Kenny White leading the field to the green flag. White jumped out to the lead on the start, and it was a lead that he would never relinquish as he would lead the entire distance. The big mover of the night was Adam Pletcher who started thirteenth and had worked his way to second by lap nine. Pletcher wasn’t able to reel in the leader as White went on to win his first feature event at Thunder Mountain. At the line it was White, Pletcher, Ryan Kemmer, Greely and Jon Miller. Heat race winners were Chad Greely and Kenny White.
Notes: Next week will be the final points night of the season as the speedway presents Season Championship Night with Double Points for all divisions. Speedway officials are looking at schedules to determine a date for a Super Stock Special at the track, stay tuned to the web site for more details as they become available. Join us next week for more racing action as we “Light Up the Night” at Thunder Mountain Speedway!
www.thundermountainspeedway.net
Full Results:
Super Stocks:
1. Fuzzy Fields
2. Skip Lindemuth
3. Brian Rhed
4. Todd English
5. Jonny Lindenpitz
6. Jeff Mease
7. Rich Howell
8. Alan English
9. Gary Luzier
10. Steve Barnes
DNF: Chad Obrien, Dom Surra, Bruce Hartzfeld, Jackie Peters.
DNS: Eric Baun
Steel Block Late Models:
1. Matt Gaston
2. Terry Rayko
3. Bill Davis
4. John Chesnalavich Jr.
5. Rick Maxim
6. Bruce Raybuck
7. Mike Zemrose
DNF: Denny Fenton, John Brady, Matt Tifft, Luke Hoffner
DNS: Dave Buchanan, Jeff Weakland
Pure Stocks:
1. Kyle Shannon
2. Sam McClellan
3. Zach Gustafson
4. Shawn Lindemuth
5. Jason Joiner
6. Steven Arthurs
7. Curtis Brown
8. Mike Calhoun
9. Ryan Jones
10. Lori Weaver
11. Jason Young
DNF: Gabe Shaffer, Steve Scaife
DNS: Pat Crawford
Thunderbolts:
1. Kenny White
2. Adam Pletcher
3. Ryan Kemmer
4. Chad Greely
5. Jonny Miller
6. Randy Rickard
7. Mike Fields
8. Randy Holliday
9. Chris Arnold
10. Rusty Murray
DNF: Kayla Bailey, Shawn Hadden, Dan Bish
DNS: Wayne Terwillinger, Cory Silvis
