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Hirschman wins
Nascar whelen modified event
JENNERSTOWN, PA (July
9, 2005) … Tony Hirschman Jr dominated the Wheeler Bros.150 NASCAR
Whelen Modified Tour event at Jennerstown Speedway Saturday evening, but
ended up beating back a strong challenge from second place finisher
Chuck Hossfeld to win by a car length at the checkered flag.
Hirschman, the
defending tour champion, who also captured the last modified event
contested at the Somerset County paved oval back in 1999, took the lead
from Jerry Marquis on Lap 48 and pulled away from the pack, lapping up
to the fourth place car before a late race yellow bunched the field with
six-laps remaining. The caution sent the top-4 cars to the pits for new
tires, and set-up a shoot out at the finish.
“The car was just
perfect,” Hirschman said. “We were actually hoping for a pit stop
between lap 75 and 100. We really didn’t want one that close to the end.
We only put two tires on to get back out in front of everybody. Chuck (Hossfeld)
was really strong at the end, but we got the job down.”
Hossfeld got a wheel
inside Hirschman several times, but then went to the top of the race
track on the final circuit and actually pulled even going down the back
stretch.
“I knew he was there,”
said Hirschman, who hails from Northampton. “He was looking top and he
was looking bottom.”
Eddie Flemke Jr
finished third, ahead of Marquis and Jamie Tomaino. Rick Fuller, Zach
Sylvester, Chris Kopec, Greg Shivers, and Hirschman’s son, Matt, rounded
out the top-10.
In NASCAR Dodge Weekly
Series Wheeler Bros super late model action, Meyersdale's Mark Smith
nailed down his fourth win of the year, after overtaking Tommy Beck
following a late race restart in the the 50-lap event.
Beck was running away
with the race before a vicious crash involving his wife, Jayme, brought
out the red flag on Lap 44. Beck hit the outside retaining wall on the
front straight, then clipped the car of Barry Awtey, which launched her
into the inside wall. The car became airborne, and eventually ended up
against the outside wall of Turn 1.
Beck had to be cut
from the car and was transported to the hospital for a hairline fracture
of her left leg.
Smith out jumped Beck
on the ensuing restart, and pulled away going down the back straight.
“Thank God everyone
was all right in the crash,” Smith said. “We really needed a yellow flag
bad. I knew we could get Tommy if we could get to him, but we could have
never run him down.”
Beck held on for
second ahead of last week’s winner, Dave Houpt, Garry Wiltrout and Mark
Cottone.
Rick Boyer and Dusty
Rhoads battled side-by side for most of the 25-lap late model feature,
before Boyer was able to pull away on the 17th go round.
Andrew Wylie was
third, followed by Mel Wilt and Daniel Angelicchio.
In the PA legacy
feature, PJ Ehrlich survived three yellow flags to claim his fifth win
of the season. Chris Brink, who spun on Lap 10, recovered to earn
second. David Campbell, Kyle Martel and Lauren Butler were third through
fifth.
Jason Holder dodged a
late race accident to win his first feature in the 20-lap Advance Auto
Parts street stock main. Richard Nicola was second, followed across the
line by Greg Praysner, Roger Onstead, and Phil Grubbs.
Johnstown’s Patrick
Parlock, who started 11th, made a bold pass around race
leader Gregory Lohr with four laps remaining and went on to capture the
victory in the 15-lap Pizza Hut hobby stock finale. John Steeley also
got by Lohr to claim second. Cindy Shaulis and Deidre Petrie nailed down
fourth and fifth.
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Complete Race Results
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