May 17th, 2003 - Chub Frank Wins Costello’s Music Fan Appreciation Night
 at Stateline Speedway
By Glenn Slocum

            Overcast skies greeted fans on Fan Appreciation Night sponsored by Costello’s Music of Fredonia. The racing surface was tacky and very smooth. Chub Frank made an exciting high side pass of Dan Armbruster in the last corner of the last lap to win the Super Late Model feature. It was Franks third appearance and his second win of the season. Nate Lester and John Kelsey were the Spectator winners. Greg Johnson won his first Outlaw Cadet feature of the season. Joe Buccola Sr. won the Super Sportsman event with a last lap pass of Pete Volpe. Paul Briggs led from lap four of the Limited Late feature for his second win of the year. Al Cressley out dueled Dave Hess Jr. to win his first E-Mod feature of the season.  

             Rich Gardner and Dan Armbruster were in row one of the Super Late Model event with twenty-six late models behind them. Chub Frank was third with Scott Johnson fourth. The start was marred by Dick Litz whose car did not fire at the drop of the green immediately bringing the yellow out. Chad Valone slowed coming out of turn two on the restart collecting Al Crocker and once more the race fell under the yellow flag. The next attempt worked and Gardner led the lap followed by Armbruster and Frank but the caution appeared again as Randy Lobb had problems negotiating turn three on lap two. Andy Boozel stopped for the fourth caution with only one completed lap. Armbruster made the move by Gardner to lead lap two but once more the caution flew for Bryan Emory. Frank moved into the second spot on the restart and once again only one lap was completed before the yellow appeared for John Lacki who had spun to a stop in turn four. Two more laps were completed before the next yellow when Matt Urban tagged the retaining wall on the back straight and came to stop. Armbruster was still out front with Dave Hess Jr. second and Frank third, Johnson was fourth and Gardner had slipped to seventh. Armbruster and Hess moved to the outside on the restart leaving the bottom for Frank. One more lap was completed before an incident with Lobb and Fiesler stopped the race again.             Boozel stopped the race with one move complete as Hess faded to fourth and Johnson was now second behind Armbruster and Frank. Frank moved up the speedway on the single file restart and Johnson moved by for second spot. Johnson slowed to a stop five laps then drove into the pits once the yellow appeared. Armbruster was still the leader with Frank back in to the second position and Hess third followed by Chris Hackett, Scott Gurdak and Bill Cunningham. Rod Maloy was in the top six on lap seventeen passing Cunningham for the spot. With five remaining Armbruster led Frank by two car lengths and Hess was a distant third. Frank moved under Armbruster as the white flew then moved to the high side coming out of turn four beating Armbruster to the flag.  

             John Pencille and Brian Fardink brought out the Limited Late Models for their feature event. Pencille led lap one followed by Paul Briggs and Mike Moore. Briggs passed Pencille on the backstretch on lap four as Joe Weber and Bobby Rohrer battled for the fourth spot behind Moore. Moore took the second spot from Pencille four laps latter and Bob Vogt moved into the fray into the fourth spot. Rohrer had problems on lap eleven allowing Vogt third and Tom Hagberg the fourth spot. Vogt used lap traffic on lap fifteen to get by Moore and started running down Briggs. Briggs could not be caught as he won by several car lengths over Vogt. Moore was third and Hagberg fourth. 

             Veteran Boyd Whitehead was on the pole for the E-Mod main event but it was Matt Swanson that led lap one. A yellow caused by the spinning Quincy Turner slowed the race before the second lap could be completed. Al Cressley was third with Randy Parmenter fourth. Whitehead faded quickly on the restart with Cressley moving to second followed by Parmenter, Mike Hess and points leader Dave Hess Jr. Cressley won the race to turn one on the restart and Mike Hess moved by Parmenter for third behind Miller. Mike Hess moved to second on lap six and Dave Hess made the same pass for third one lap later. Miller spun on lap nine, as did four other cars to avoid him bringing out the caution. Cressley and two Hess boys moved away from the field on the restart. A spin slowed the race once more on lap thirteen with Cressley maintaining his lead in spite of the pressure caused by Mike and Dave Hess. The caution flew once more on the last lap when Shane Applebee spun in turn three. Dave Hess was shown second on the restart but Cressley held him off to win the event. Mike Hess was third followed by Dale Applebee.  

             Dana Wellington and Nate Lester were the leaders after the first lap on the first Spectator Feature. Mark Ramsey moved up to the second spot on lap five as Lester slid to third. Ramsey suffered a mechanical problem and left the speedway on the last lap as points leader Tommy Fox moved into second and Lester took the top spot, Wellington hung on for third.  

 Brian Graham lead lap one of the second Spectator feature with Joe Houser second and David McClanahan third. McClanahan moved by Graham at the half way mark followed by Chip Davis and John Kelsey. Kelsey made a next to last lap pass of McClanahan then McClanahan ran over an errant track tire bringing out the caution. Kelsey won the event with McClanahan second and Pat Passanise third.

 Greg Johnson, Phil Knight and Louie DeDionisio were out front on lap one of the Outlaw Cadet feature. Knight was challenging Johnson when the caution flew for Scott Lewis who had spun almost collecting the leaders. Jeff Van Arsdale took the third spot on the restart. A lap eleven caution caused by Terry Daniels and John Boardman allowed the field to close up behind the leaders. Van Arsdale moved to second when the race was restarted followed by DeDionisio. Van Arsdale could not catch Johnson who won the event. DeDionisio finished third.

 Pete Volpe got the big jump at the start of the Super Sportsman feature and had a quarter of a lap lead when Jim Leonard spun on lap five. Volpe started rebuilding his lead when the green reappeared and Joe Buccola Sr. took the second spot. On lap eight Jim Leonard and Mike Corrigan left the racing surface going over the back stretch wall. Neither driver was injured. Buccola made a strong move under Volpe with three to go but Volpe moved down the speedway causing Buccola to slow. Dave Cummings Jr. spun on lap eleven bringing out the caution. A piece of debris collected by Bob Van Arsdale on the restart caused the yellow to reappear. Buccola made the move stick on the last lap winning the event with Volpe second and Randy Parmenter third. 

Results:

   Spectators:

      Heat 1: Wade Mohawk, Eugene Stetson, Brian Graham

      Heat 2: Dave Auge, Pat Passanise, Chris Couchenour

      Heat 3: Rush Firestone, Dana Wellington, Mark Ramsey

      Feature 1: Nate Lester, Tommy Fox, Dana Wellington, Dave Auge, Steve Keith, Mark Hall, Vic Earle, Rush Firestone, Barrett Brown, Kevin Brummet

      Feature 2: John Kelsey, Dave McClanahan, Pat Passanise, 68, Wayne Watson, Joe Houser, 97, Dave Surrena, Danielle Wilbur, Mike Weldon

  Outlaw Cadets

      Heat 1: Phil Knight, Ron Seeley, Louie DeDionisio

      Heat 2: John Boardman, Matt Lamphere, Mark Hall

      Feature 1: Greg Johnson, Jeff Van Arsdale, Louie DeDionisio, Phil Knight, Mark Hall, Ron Seeley, Pete Alspaugh, Nathan Short, Bill Dunn, Dustin Eckman

  E-Mods:

     Heat 1: Justin Carlson, Matt Swanson, Quincy Turner

      Heat 2: Al Cressley, Dave Hess Jr., Mike Hess

      Feature: Al Cressley, Dave Hess Jr., Mike Hess, Dale Applebee, Randy Parmenter, Justine Carlson, Tim Rater, Quincy Turner, Bill Thomas, Dan Nocero

   Budweiser Super Sportsmen:

      Heat 1: Dave Cummings Jr., Randy Parmenter, Pat McGuire

      Heat 2:, Tom Kosinski, Chris Kuschel, Bob Van Arsdale

      Feature: Joe Buccola Sr., Pete Volpe, Randy Parmenter, Aaron Robinson, Dana Cummings, Tom Kosinski, Mike Murray, Robert Nocero, Chris Kuschel                                                                  

   Limited Late Models:

      Heat 1: Bob Vogt, Paul Briggs, Les Lyon

      Heat 2: Chad Ramsey, Mike Coyle, Steve Moynihan

      Heat 3: Bobby Rohrer, Pat McGuire, Mike Moore

      Feature: Paul Briggs, Bob Vogt, Mike Moore, Tom Hagberg, Pat McGuire, Less Lyon, Andy Sweetland, Chad Ramsey, Tom Schnars, Steve Moynihan

   American Racer Dash: Rich Gardner, Dan Armbruster, Chub Frank

   Super Late Models:

      Heat 1: Dan Armbruster, Bryan Emory, Al Crocker, Chris Hackett, Bill Cunningham

      Heat 2: Rich Gardner, Scott, Johnson, Dave Hess Jr., Randy Lobb, Matt Urban

      Heat 3: Chub Frank, Chad Valone, Rod Maloy, Doug Eck, Scott Gurdak

      Feature: Chub Frank, Dan Armbruster, Dave Hess Jr., Chris Hackett, Scott Gurdak, Rod Maloy, Bill Cunningham, Rich Gardner, Bumpy Hedman, Steve Halpainy, Wally Fox, Scott Johnson, George LaBarbera, John Lacki, Randy Lobb, Randy Shearer, Keith Zimmerman, Ted Kosinski, Doug Eck, Dusty Franklin, Chris Blose, Ward Schell, Dick Litz, Andy Boozel, Brad Fiesler, Brian Emory, Matt Urban, Chad Valone, Al Crocker