Stateline Speedway
  Saturdays May thru Sept.  Gates Open 5:30 pm. Racing at 7:00 pm.
4150 Kortwright Road, Busti NY      716-487-2368 / 814-688-4550

Chub Frank Wins the Renegade DirtCars
“Stars and Stripes 50” at Stateline

By Glenn Slocum

           A warm summer evening greeted the fans for the Dave Tuner Enterprises, Northwest Penn Auction and Seamen Autowrecking Renegade DirtCar “Stars and Stripes 50” at Stateline Speedway. Fifty-three Super Late Models were on hand for the event. Local racer Ron Davies was the fastest qualifier then finished fourth in the Isky Racing Cams dash for a fourth place starting spot in the main event. Jim Dandy Jr. won the dash and started on the pole with Chub Frank on the outside and Todd Andrews in the third spot. Frank’s experience showed as he passed Davies in traffic and led the remainder of the event. Dale Applebee won his first feature of the year in the E-Mod while Al Cressley won his second in the Limited Late Model division. Pat Passanise and Mark Ramsey were the winners of the Spectator features and Louie DeDionisio won the Outlaw Cadet feature. Mike Kosinski won his third feature in the Budweiser Super Sportsman class.

Twenty-six Super Late Models reported to the speedway for the “Stars and Stripes 50”. Twenty-two cars qualified through the qualifying events and four provisional starters were added, Steve Shaver and Rod Conley for the Renegades and John Lobb and Dave Hess Jr. for the Speedway. After a four wide parade lap with the American Flag waving in every drivers hand Jim Dandy Jr. and Chub Frank brought them down for Spanky Halls green flag. Jim Dandy Jr. dropped to the inside and led lap one with Frank in second and Ron Davies in third. Davies moved up beside Frank on lap five and passed for second on lap six but Steve Shaver was stopped in turn four for the first caution of the event. Shaver left the speedway and the field was realigned for the single file restart with Dandy in first, Davies second, Frank third and Andrews fourth. Davies set up outside on lap six with Dandy running tight to the inside. Mike Balzano was on the move and passed Andrews for fourth on lap nine. Davies high side groove allowed him to lead down the backstretch but lose the lead to Dandy at the start finish line. Finally on lap eleven Davies made it stick and moved to the front. Andrews had slipped to sixth by lap fifteen with Matt Miller in fifth. Frank and Balzano both passed Dandy by lap eighteen and took up the chase for Davies. Davies entered lap traffic on lap twenty and Frank caught him and passed for the lead but Davies fought back. Davies and Frank exchanged the lead several times with Frank shown on top at the half way mark. Greg Lucas tagged the back stretch wall on lap twenty-eight then collected Bruce Hordusky who came to a stop facing the wrong way in the middle of the back straight. With twenty-three laps remaining Frank was in the lead with Davies second, Balzano third. On the restart Balzano beat Davies for second and Frank moved out to a five-car lead. Davies high side was not working as well at this point in the event and Balzano and Frank extended their lead. Rick Aukland was now running fourth and beginning to challenge Davies for third. With ten to go Frank had a ten-car length lead over Balzano and Balzano led Davies by half a lap with Aukland right under Davies for fourth. Chris Hackett after running with the leaders for several laps spun on lap forty-five allowing the field to bunch up behind Frank. Balzano was second with Davies third Aukland fourth and Dave Lyon fifth. Early leader Jim Dandy had slipped to sixth, Earl Pearson was seventh and Andrews eighth. One lap later Davey Johnson spun in turn two and there were just five to go. Seventeen cars remained for the restart of lap forty-six. Jim Dandy and Jim Bernheisel tangled on lap forty-six and the caution flag was displayed once more. Robbie Blair slowed on the restart and once more the yellow came out with just three laps remaining.  Matt Miller has problems on this restart spinning in turn two. With two to go Davies slipped to fifth with Dave Lyon in fourth. The last lap saw Davies continue to fall back finally finishing seventh and Andrews got by for fifth. Frank won the event with Balzano in second, Aukland third and Lyon fourth.

Dale Applebee and Al Cressley crossed the line together on the first lap of the E-Mod feature with Applebee getting the lead one lap later and Cressley stumbled in turn four. Mike Potosky spun on lap four for the first yellow of the event. With five to go Applebee was out front by half a straightaway while Cressley and Mike and Dave Hess were fighting for the second spot. Cressley maintained the advantage for second with Dave Hess third and Mike Hess fourth. Applebee went on for the win his first of season.

 Al Cressley moved from his E-Mod to his Limited Late and took the lead in the Limited Late Model feature with Paul Briggs second and Mike Moore third. Eight time winner Pat McGuire was mired in sixth until a lap eight pass of Bear Moynihan moved him to fifth. A spin by Briggs, Aaron Robinson and Ed Simmer on lap twelve caused the first caution of the event. Briggs was given his spot back because he spun after the yellow was shown. Cressley led them all to win his second feature of the season, Briggs finished second with Moore third.

           After an exciting three wide battle for the lead Dave Johnson became the leader of the first Spectator feature event. Johnson survived two yellows but was passed by Pat Passanise on the third one with one lap to go. Passanise won with Johnson second and Rich Becker third.

           Mark Ramsey survived five cautions to win the second Spectator feature. Steve Keith finished second with Merle Burlingame third.

           Louie DeDionisio led the Outlaw Cadets into turn one of their feature event when a accident collected ten cars and halted the race before one lap was complete. Nathan Short tapped the leader DeDionisio on the restart and was disqualified. The third attempt to start the race was successful. DeDionisio led the next two laps until a spin by Mark Hall and Phil Knight slowed the field once more. Jeff Campbell was second and Bill Dunn third on the restart.  Campbell got up beside DeDionisio during the remainder of the laps but could not make the pass. DeDionisio won his first feature with Campbell second and Bill Dunn third.

           Don Stanley led lap one of the Budweiser Super Sportsman event with Don McGuire second and Mike Kosinski third. Stanley fell to fourth on lap four as Kosinski took over the lead with Don McGuire second and Robert Nocero third. Dave Cummings passed Nocero for third on white flag lap but could not get by McGuire. Kosinski won for the third time with McGuire second and Cummings third.

Results:

   Spectators:

      Heat 1: Mike Boyd, Brian Larson, Rick Sperry

      Heat 2: Mark Ramsey, Jason Stetson, Pat Passanise

      Heat 3: Vic Earle Sr., Bill Baker Jr., Steve Huling

      Feature 1: Pat Passanise, Dave Johnson, Rich Becker

      Feature 2: Mark Ramsey, Steve Keith, Merle Burlingame

   E-Mods

      Heat 1: Bill Thomas, Mike Samuelson, Tink Mealy

      Heat 2: Dave Hess, Kevin Decker, Dale Applebee

      Feature: Dale Applebee, Al Cressley, Dave Hess, Mike Hess, Kevin Decker, Mike Samuelson, Bill Thomas, Holly Nelson, Shane Applebee, Tink Mealy

   Outlaw Cadets

      Heat 1: Louie DeDionisio Nathan Short, Mark Hall

      Heat 2: Jeff VanArsdale, John Pencille, Bill Dunn

      Feature 1: Louie DeDionisio, Jeff Campbell, Bill Dunn, Chris Blose, Jim Hilyer, Jeff VanArsdale, Terry Daniels, Dan Slye, Shane Jones, Matt Lamphere

   Limited Late Models:

      Heat 1: Al Cressley, Les Lyon, Andy Knight

      Heat 2: Paul Briggs, Bobby Rohrer, Aaron Robinson

      Heat 3: Mike Moore, Bear Moynihan, Chad Ramsey, Tom Schnars

      Feature: Al Cressley, Paul Briggs, Mike Moore, Bobby Rohrer, Pat McGuire, Steve Moynihan, Chad Ramsey, Les Lyons, Tom Hagberg, Tom Schnars

   Budweiser Super Sportsmen:

      Heat 1: Dave Cummings, Mike Kosinski, Scott Bayle

      Heat 2: Joe Buccola Jr., Pete Volpe, Don Stanley

   Feature: Mike Kosinski, Don McGuire, Dave Cummings, Robert Nocero, Pat McGuire, Scott Bayle, Joe Buccola Jr., Don Stanley, J.R. Nocero

   Renegade DirtCar:

      Fast Time: Ron Davies

      Heat 1: Dave Scott, Ron Davies, Chub Frank, Dan Armbruster

      Heat 2: Earl Pearson, Bruce Hordusky, Mike Balzano, Rick Aukland

      Heat 3: Matt Miller, Dave Lyon, Todd Andrews, Greg Lucas

      Heat 4: Jim Dandy Jr., Chad Ruhlman, Matt Lux, Davey Johnson

      Consolation 1: Bill Cunningham, Robbie Blair, Jim Bernheisel, Randy Lobb

      Consolation 2: Dick Barton, Scott Gurdak, Chris Hackett, Rod Conley

      Isky Racing Cams Dash: Jim Dandy Jr., Chub Frank, Todd Andrews, Ron Davies, Mike Balzano, Earl Pearson Jr.

      Feature: Chub Frank, Mike Balzano, Rick Aukland, Dave Lyon, Earl Pearson, Todd Andrews, Ron Davies, Scott Gurdak, Chad Ruhlman, Davey Johnson