April 16th, 2005
Chad Ruhlman Wins on the 50^th Opening Night at Stateline Speedway
By Glenn Slocum

 Busti , NY : Mother Nature was on her best behavior for the 50^th Opening night at Stateline Speedway. Local racing legend Emory Mahan was on hand to drop the first green flag of the year. Mahan was the first Late Model winner on opening night in 1956. Chad Valone and Andy Kania squared off in the first Budweiser King of the Hill Challenge for Super Late Models with Valone coming out on top. Chad Ruhlman won his twelfth Stateline Super Late Model feature. Lester Shoff was the Spectator winner, Nathan Short was the Outlaw Cadet event. Chad Carlson won the Budweiser Super Sportsman race and Dave Hess Jr. moved from third to first on the final lap to win the Emod event over Randy Hall and Dale Applebee.

             Twenty Seven Super Late Models started the feature event with Chad Valone on the pole. Chad Ruhlman used his outside pole starting spot to take the lead. Contact around the speedway was the rule for the first four laps with several cars using the infield but the race stayed green until Super Late Model Series Champ Rich Gardner suffered a mechanical failure causing him to stop on the exit of turn four for the first caution. Ruhlman, Valone remained the led after the restart but one lap later George LaBarbera, Wendell Pinckney and Brady Wonderling tangled in turn two for the second caution. Pinckney slowed one lap after the restart for caution three. The next five laps went quickly with Ruhlman out front leaving Valone and Scott Gurdak fighting for the second spot with John Lobb and Rod Maloy rounding out the top five. With ten laps remaining Ruhlman was in heavy lap traffic with a fifteen car length lead over Valone. Lobb passed both Gurdak and Valone to take the second spot with eight laps remaining and with five to go Dave Hess Jr. slowed to stop up against the fence on the back stretch for the third caution. Matt Lamphere and Andy Boozel tangled with four remaining. Miles Stitzinger stopped on the back stretch during the restart then retired. The restart saw Maloy grab the number three spot. Ruhlman won the event for his twelfth feature event win at Stateline.

             Rick Thompson brought out the Spectator feature event by virtue of his win in the first Spectator qualifying event. Lester Shoff started second and grabbed the lead from Thompson on the first lap. Pat Landy brought out the caution on lap two. Shoff remained in control after the restart with Thompson second and Nate Lester in the third spot. Shoff was into lap traffic at the half way point with a fifteen car length lead over Thompson. Lester tapped Thompson with one to go but Thompson recovered to keep his second place finish as Shoff became the first feature winner of the new season.

            Andy Knight and Nathan Short were on the front row of the Outlaw Cadet feature event. Short beat Knight in to turn one for the early lead. Dana Wellington spun bringing out the caution with four laps complete. Short, Knight and Ron Seeley were the leaders after the restart. Short began lapping cars with seven laps remaining. Short built his lead through out the remaining laps until a smoking Wellington brought out the caution once more. The lap fourteen restart ended with Mike Moore sitting in the infield off of the back stretch for the third caution of the event. Short remained the leader after a successful restart winning his first of the season.

            Chad Carlson and Don McGuire were the early leaders in the Budweiser Super Sportsman feature. John Volpe was third with Mike Kosinski fourth. Veteran Pat McGuire brought out the caution with three laps complete then retired for the event. Kosinski jumped into the second spot on the restart as Carlson started to run away from the field. Young Volpe spun in turn two placing Bobby Rohrer in the third sport with Bob Van Arsdale fourth. The line up remained the same after the restart and for the finish with Carlson first to the checkers.

            Twenty-five Emods started their feature event with Randy Hall and Dale Applebee on the front row. Several cars were involved in a turn two incident including Justin Carlson, Tommy Fox and Dave Surrena which a required a complete restart of the race. Hall won the dash to turn one on the start with Applebee and Dave Hess Jr. trailing. Holly Nelson slowed to a stop on the back stretch with four laps complete for the second caution. The field started to string out after the restart with Hall in front by ten car lengths over Applebee and Hess with Quincy Turner fourth. Applebee caught Hall on lap twelve as the top three took the one to go nearly on top of each other. A slowing car in turn two trapped Hall and Applebee low allowing Hess to use the high side to gain the top spot on the last lap.

Spectators:

Heat 1: Rick Thompson, Nate Lester, Bill Reeves
Heat 2: Lester Shoff, Jason Genco, Travis Swabik

Feature: Lester Shoff, Rick Thompson, Nate Lester, Jason Genco, Bill Reeves, Clarence Dickerson, Steve Huling, Pat Passaniese, Dana Wellington, Pat Landy

Outlaw Cadets:

Heat 1: Andy Knight, Paul Norman, Dennis Lunger
Heat 2: Nathan Short, Mark Hall, Jamie Erhard

Feature: Nathan Short, Andy Knight, Ron Seeley, Mark Hall, Paul Norman Jr., John Cline, Dave Tackett, Phil Knight, Mike Moore, Jamie Erhard

Budweiser Super Sportsman:

Heat 1: Chad Carlson, John Volpe, Pat McGuire
Heat 2: Don McGuire,

Feature: Chad Carlson, Mike Kosinski, Bobby Rohrer, Bob Van Arsdale

E-Mod:

Heat 1: Dale Applebee, Dan Nocero, Dustin Eckman
Heat 2: Randy Hall, Tom Hagberg, Keith Bidwell
Heat 3: Dave Hess Jr., Mike Munsee, Mike Hess

Feature: Dave Hess Jr., Randy Hall, Dale Applebee,

Super Late Model:

Heat 1: Chad Valone, Scott Gurdak, Rich Gardner, John Lobb, Doug Eck
Heat 2: Chad Ruhlman, Dick Barton, Scott Johnson, Brady Wonderling, Randy Lobb

Heat 3: Miles Stitzinger, Rod Maloy, George LaBarbera, Andy Kania, Paul Briggs

Feature : Chad Ruhlman, John Lobb, Rod Maloy, Chad Valone, Scott Gurdak, Dick Barton, Chris Hackett, Scott Johnson, Paul Briggs, Andy Kania, Brady Wonderling, Bump Hedman, Dave Lyon, George LaBarbera, Andy Boozel, Bob Craig, Wally Fox, Mike Knight, Mile Sitzinger, Steve Halpainy, Dave Hess Jr., Matt Lamphere, Doug Eck, Wendell Pinckney, Randy Lobb, Rich Gardner, Jason Morel

Ladies Super Challenger

Heat: Hilary Scott, Leslie Armstrong, Kari Moore

Feature: Leslie Armstrong, Hilary Scott, Kari Moore, Amber Belson, Mary Hammond

 Super Challenger:

Heat 1:Butch Camarata, Luke Rutsky, Ben Burgess Jr.
Heat 2: Jermin Strickland, Mike Beatman, Gary Fisher

Heat 3: Dereck Frank, Aaron Dascomb, Sam Courson

Feature 1: Aaron Dascomb, Dereck Frank, Butch Camarata, Len Strange, John Mease