BlackRockSpeedway.com

Aug 10, 2013 09:33 AM EDT

Robbie Stillwaggon Charges from Deep in the Pack to Score $4,000 A-Verdi Sprint Nationals at Black Rock

Rich Vleck, DUNDEE, NY, (August 9, 2013)- Robbie Stillwaggon struggled to move forward in his loaded heat race, putting him in the 16th starting position.  Being that deep in the pack, he decided to throw a radical setup in his No. 89 and his gamble paid off in a big way.
Stillwaggon, of Burlington, NJ, came together with leader Steve Collins with two laps remaining, spinning Collins’ No. 67 and then held on to claim the $4,000 top prize in the A-Verdi Sprint Nationals, presented by M&W Aluminum Products and S.P. Wilson Lakes Gas at Black Rock Speedway.  It was a wild win on a different night.
“This one is for Kramer,” declared Stillwaggon in Victory Lane referring to his beloved fellow competitor Kramer Williamson, who was taken from the racing world this past week.  “I’m sure he would have loved to have seen this one.”
“I feel bad for (Collins),” he added. “I had no intentions of doing that.”
Stillwaggon started from 16th on the feature grid of the URC/PST Challenge race, but was moving up the leader board before a lap was ever in the books. The first lap took four attempts to be completed, allowing Stillwaggon to move up to 12th.
“The beginning helped us out. A lot of chaos going on there for a while,” added the defending URC Champion.  Once a lap was in then he really got to work. “Starting that far back we knew we had to do something different and it worked great.”
The No. 89 was up to sixth place by lap four but cracking in to the top five was a taller task.  Steve Collins started on pole a paced the field for most of the race, keeping PST America Point Leader Scott Kreutter a safe distance behind him and appeared to be in position to score his first career feature win on a grand stage.
On lap 17, about the same time that Robbie Stillwaggon was moving in to third place, Collins began to reel in the back of the field during a long green flag run but struggled to move by them.  The track had become very equal and the top groove that Collins had lived in up until that point, began to give up bite.
As the leader’s car went away, Stillwaggon’s only got stronger as his tight setup for the bottom groove improved deeper in to the event.  He passed Kreutter for second on lap 23 and then wasted no time going for the lead.
As Collins slipped up entering turn one on lap 24, Stillwaggon drove to the inside and pulled even with the leader coming off of turn two.  The hard-charger drove up the track and made contact with Collins, sending the No. 67 for a spin.
“I swear I thought I had (Collins) cleared,” reaffirmed Stillwaggon.  “That last thing I wanted to do was wreck him.”
Stillwaggon was flawless in the final two laps as he would score his fourth URC win of the season, which was also his first win in an even with PST sanctioning.
Coming home in second for the third straight PST America event was defending series champion Scott Kreutter.  Kreutter was poised to make a late run at Collins, as he began to see the bottom getting quicker, but Stillwaggon pounced before he had a chance.  Still, Kreutter’s fourth straight top 2 finish helped to pad his slim point lead.
Bryan Howland was stagnant early in the feature but when Stillwaggon darted by on the bottom, the four-time PST Champion figured out that’s where he needed to venture as he used that information to drive up to finish in third.
Current URC Point Leader J.J. Grasso, like Howland and Kreutter, won his heat race early in the night and then held his ground in the feature, making a late charge to finish in fourth.
Jared Zimbardi moved by heat winner Justin Barger late in the event to crack in to the top five.  URC regulars Josh Weller, Davie Franek and Billy Pauch were next in line, with Geoff Quackenbush charging forward to round out the top 10.
A total of 34 sprints were in attendance on what turned out to be a beautiful night in Dundee after heavy rains blanketed the Finger Lakes region through the midday hours.  The red flag would wave just once on the night when Dylan Swiernik spun on the first lap of the feature and collected Blake Breen, who tipped over gently.  Both would continue and managed to drive back up to respectable 12th and 13th place finishes.
Brad Knab won the Original Pizza Logs Four Laps of Fame Dash while Bruce DeWick won the B-Main, each doing so in convincing fashion.
Aside from the sprint car competition, there was a healthy contingent of weekly action utilizing a features-only format once again on this night which made for some wild twists and turns.
After getting off to a fine start to 2013, and then scoring a win, things unraveled Nicole Hoag; but because of her strong handicap position, Hoag capitalized on her front row starting spot and never looked back.
Hoag scored her second sportsman win of the season, leading all 20 laps and never facing a challenge to get back in to Victory Lane.  Dale Welty was second for the second time this season, while Brent Ayers finished third for his second-straight podium finish.  Veterans Fran Hilton and Ray Bliss rounded out the top five.
After going winless in weekly late model competition at Black Rock in 2012, Jason Knowles has certainly got back to his winning ways as he led wire-to-wire for his third feature win of the season in the No. 4.
Knowles, of Painted Post, took the lead on lap 2 of the 20 lap feature and never looked back as he looked dominant throughout the event.  Knowles was unable to pinpoint after the race whether he has just gotten better this season compared to last or if there are other circumstances that have led to his resurgence, but the former track champion has now taken the point lead with just a pair of races left.
Defending track champion John Waters drove up to second while Jared Hill held off Brian Knowles for third.  Jon Rivers completed the top five.
Dave Matwiejow was a feel-good story in the street stock feature as the veteran competitor finally broke through dominating the 20 lap event.
Matwiejow led wire-to-wire in his No. 13x, building a steady lead early in the event and then keeping a safe distance over Jake Karnloski.  Last week’s winner Chuck Winslow rallied from an early incident to claim third in front of Nate Daggett and Rich Sharpsteen II.
It took Phil Yaw a number of years to win his first IMCA Modified-Sanctioned event, but after claiming his breakthrough win last week, he wasted no time revisiting Victory Lane as he went back-to-back to take back the point lead.
Yaw took the lead on a lap 3 restart and then drove away from Brad and then Eddie Sites on ensuing restarts to score the victory.  Eddie Sites would hold on for second while Bruce Tinsley got around Brad Sites. Todd Stone completed the top five.
Once again it was James Kreidler III ending up on top of the heap in the RWD 4-cylinder feature.  Kreidler won his fifth feature of the season by once again using the bottom groove.  He took the lead on lap 10 from Chris Mashewske and never looked back to pad his already healthy point lead.  Mashewske would hold on for second while Jayson Smart completed the podium positions.  The FWD 4-cylinders ran at the same time with the RWD cars, with Craig Mahrt out-dueling Jeremy Trank for his second win of the year.
Early in the night, Matt Mashewske won his second bandit feature of the year dominating the event to revisit Victory Lane.  Point leader Allison Teed got caught up in an early incident but rallied to run back up to a second place finish, just ahead of Joey Rodbourn.
The popular MRO Celebrity Match Race did not disappoint once again this year with Michael McDowell claiming his second win in the row, this time charging from mid-pack to move by Trevor Bayne for the win.  It was smiles all around for each of the 10 competitors. 
Next week will be the annual free grandstand admission night with all the weekly divisions running a full show, including the RWD and FWD competitors running double features.  For more information visit www.BlackRockSpeedway.com. 
Black Rock Speedway Results: 8/9/2013- 
Celebrity Night presented by A-Verdi Storage Containers, SpeedEats.com, S.P. Wilson Gas, M&W Aluminum Products
PST/URC Sprint A-Main (25 Laps)- 1. Robbie Stillwaggon (89), 2. Scott Kreutter (52), 3. Bryan Howland (51), 4. J.J. Grasso (25J), 5. Jared Zimbardi (35), 6. Justin Barger (5), 7. Josh Weller (29), 8. Davie Franek (28F), 9. Billy Pauch Jr. (36), 10. Geoff Quackenbush (25), 11. Tommy Wickham (75), 12. Dylan Swiernik (7c), 13. Blake Breen (8), 14. Brad Knab (38), 15. Kevin Ward Jr. (13), 16. Don Adamczyk (21), 17. Steve Collins (67), 18. Brian Carber (8c), 19. Scott Just (54JX), 20. Troy Betts (22), 21. Bruce DeWick (22D), 22. Scott Lutz (33), 23. Steven Hutchinson (2), 24. Randy West (56), 25. Clint Ide (3), 26. Kevin Prutzman (28).
Lap Leaders- Collins 1-23, Stillwaggon 24-25.
Heat Winners- Grasso, Kreutter, Howland, Barger
B-Main Winner- DeWick
Original Pizza Logs Dash Winner- Knab
Did Not Qualify: Dan Mazy (X), Dave Just (54J), J.R. Berry (74), Tyler Graves (25G), Dave Wickham (80), Jonathan Swanson (17J), Vinnie Vitale (X1), Jason Barney (87).
MRO Celebrity Race in Sportsman (8 Laps)- MICHAEL McDOWELL, Trevor Bayne, Alex Bowman, David Ragan, Bob Dillner, Kevin White, Blake Koch, Josh Wise, Dave Blaney, David Gilliland.
Lap Leader- Bayne 1, McDowell 2-8.
Hoselton Auto Mall Crate Sportsman Feature (20 Laps)- NICOLE HOAG, Dale Welty, Brent Ayers, Fran Hilton, Ray Bliss, Ricky Newton, Chris Fisher, Rob Humphreys, Donnie Lawson, Eric Bell, Brady Fultz, Russ Morseman, Josh Butler, Chris Daugherty, Loren Lincoln, Joe Cook Jr., Mike Buchanan, Josh Keesey, Ross Vleck, Josh Agnew (DNS), Chris Silvers (DNS).
Lap Leader- Hoag 1-20.
Late Model Feature (20 Laps)- JASON KNOWLES, John Waters, Jared Hill, Brian Knowles, Jon Rivers, Carl Cleveland, Brandon Smith, Quinn Sutherland, Bruce Miller, Sparky Hills, Steve LeBarron.
Lap Leaders- Hills 1, J. Knowles 2-20.
Street Stock Feature (20 Laps)- DAVE MATWIEJOW, Jake Karlnoski, Chuck Winslow, Nate Daggett, Rich Sharpsteen II, Rich Sharpsteen I, Gene Balmer, Jeremy Potzrebowski, Jeremy Perkins, Alan Crooker, Carl Cleveland, Bob Maynard, Harold Fenton, Larry Fenton Jr., Dylan Cecce (DQ), Rich Rider (DNS).
Lap Leaders- Matwiejow 1-20.
IMCA Modified Feature (20 Laps)- PHIL YAW, Eddie Sites, Bruce Tinsley, Brad Sites, Todd Stone, Jared Spalding, Matt Jones, Jake Maynard, Brad Smith, Scott Sebring, Rich Karlnoski, Tony Harris, Rich Howard Jr. 
Lap Leaders- Sites 1-2, Yaw 3-20.
Signs Plus of Kanona/ Watkins Glen NAPA 4-Cylinder Feature (20 Laps)- JAMES KREIDLER III, Chris Mashewske, Jayson Smart, Bobby Teed, Russ Wassner, Chad Ayers, Rick Horton, Erica Bell, Del Cummings, Chris Percy, Chris Ayers, Kailey Crandon, Bruce Kinner, Brian Grant, Scott Bradley, Cory Glover.
Lap Leaders- Smart 1, Mashewske 2-9, Kreidler 10-20.
Front Wheel Drive 4 Cylinder Feature- CRAIG MAHRT, Jeremy Trank, Adam DelGrosso.
Home Necessities Bandits (10 Laps)- MATT MASHEWSKE, Allison Teed, Joey Rodbourn, Brandon Mathews, Desiree Force, Trista Teed.
Lap Leaders- T. Teed 1, Mashewske 2-10.

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