Jun 21, 2015 04:18 PM EDT
Locals Defend Home Turf To Claim Jeff Searles Memorial Victories
DUNDEE, NY – For Immediate Release – June 21st, 2015 –
Friday night at the ‘Fast Four-Tenths-Mile’ will be a night not soon forgotten as everyone on hand paid tribute to a lost friend on Jeff Searles Memorial Race Night. ‘The Hurricane’ Steve Paine, Jason Benjamin, Jeff Daugherty all picked up wins in their respective divisions but it was Jared Hill and Rich Sharpsteen who defended home turf on a night dedicated to ‘Jeffy’.
The family of Jeff Searles and representatives from the Douglas B. Miles Agency, Seneca Lake Duck Hunter’s Association & Sutherland Builders were all on hand to pay tribute to the young man that was lost too soon in the offseason. Black Rock’s pit area was filled with racecars flying red rags for ‘Jeffy’ as waving a red rag was his trademark at all of his favorite racetracks.
The fans in the stands even got in on the action as they were handed a red rag at the front gate as they entered to wave on the wave lap of each feature event Friday night. A fitting and appropriate send off for one of auto racing’s biggest fans. A classmate to Searles in school, TJ Keyes, even stood high atop the Black Rock flag stand and waved a red rag to start one of the feature events.
Jared Hill from Dundee, NY picked up the win in the MRC Street Stock feature event, extending his point lead in the division. Hill used a daring move with two laps to go to get around early race leader Nate Daggett. Both the Daggett family driving a former Sutherland chassis and the Hill/Schuyler family were close to the Sutherland/Searles crew, which would have made a win by either driver a great story.
Daggett drove an inspired race in his family-owned 3D but a late race caution due to a racing accident amongst the leaders would set up a final restart with just two circuits remaining. Frank Chapman who was trying to power to the front got the worst of the damage as Daggett, Chuck Winslow and Hill all took evasive action to get by.
“I saw Chuck get to the inside of Nate and I saw Nate trying to protect the bottom. I thought if I could get it to stick in Turn 3 I’d get them and we did get them,” said Hill in Champion Power Equipment Victory Lane.
As the trio entered Turn 3 they went three-wide with Hill utilizing the outside lane and rocketing to the lead in the CSR, Beauty Craft powered #93. Hill would cruise away to victory #2 in his Potter chassis over Daggett, Jake Karlnoski, Winslow and Gene Balmer.
“What a night to win it, in honor of Jeffrey. When I started driving for Jim (Schuyler) I got real close to Jeffrey- what a night to win it,” said an emotional Hill after waving the red rags as he climbed from his car.
Another local driver out of Dundee defended home turf on Jeff Searles Memorial Night as Rich Sharpsteen picked up his third win of 2015 at ‘The Rock’. Sharpsteen also picked up his track-leading seventh heat race win earlier in the night.
Sharpsteen would have a to fend off challenges from another previous winner in 2015 in the 8 car of Jayson Smart. Chad Ayers also tried to put his hat in the race for the lead but there was no stopping Sharpsteen on this night. Smart settled for second, Ayers third, Dan Smart with his best finish of the season in fourth and young rookie Desi Force with her best finish of the season to round out the top five.
‘The Hurricane’ Steve Paine also collected his third win of 2015 Friday night, taking the lead from Ron Cartwright Jr with only three laps remaining. ‘Hollywood’ Daryl Hilkert after winning his heat race started on the pole and would lead the opening circuits until a problem forced him to the pits. He would make repairs and recover for sixth place, his best run to date in 2015.
That caution would hand the lead over to Cartwright who looked to capitalize on Hilkert’s misfortune. But out behind the driver of the DJ Beardsley 2B, a storm was brewing as the Waterloo pilot Paine was charging hard to the front.
Paine would stalk the back bumper of Cartwright with ten laps to go and continued to work the bottom lane of the speedway until there was an opening. That opening came as the pair completed lap 26 as Paine nosed underneath the 2B and drew to even terms at the line. ‘The Hurricane’ would take the lead for good going into Turn 3 and lead the final three laps for victory #93 of his career at Black Rock Speedway.
“He (Cartwright) had a really good car tonight, I’m not sure if he had a tire problem late there or maybe it was just giving up on him,” said Paine in SuperGen/Champion Victory Lane.
“I didn’t think with 5 or 6 to go that I was going to get him because he was really, really good. We’ve just got ourselves a really good car here,” talking about his Hig Fab Chassis #7x.
Cartwright would hold on for the runner-up finish, Dundee’s Brady Fultz came home third, Cory Costa with a great run for fourth and Joe Dgien would come home with another top five.
Jeff Daugherty once again pulled a rabbit out of his hat to make a last lap pass to get the win in the Creekside Entertainment Bandit feature- his sixth out of seven in 2015. Billy Bowers led every lap except the one that pays with a winner’s plaque to come home second, ShiAnn Labar had her best run of 2015 for third, Pixie Kinner fourth and Polly Anna Dean the top five.
The M&M Auto Sales & Service IMCA Modified Feature had several opportunities to get going on Friday night for their 20-lap feature event but could never get into any kind of rhythm to log laps. The first attempt at getting the feature going saw a handful of caution flags fly to get only 4 laps completed.
Promoter Mike Jackson and Race Director Greg Hixson chose to pull the IMCA drivers into the infield to ‘cool off’ and the Modified feature event was run. After the Modifieds completed their race, the IMCA’s were once again brought back to the racing surface and given a 20-minute limit to complete the remaining 16 laps. 3 green flag laps were completed but not before 3 more caution periods slowed to nearly fill the time limit given to the competitors.
The top five as the race was called complete at lap 7 was Jason Benjamin the winner with his second win of the season, Tony Harris second, Brad Sites third, Nicole Spalding fourth and Rodney Morgan.
Once the IMCA field cleared the racing surface, circumstances outside of track management’s control did not allow them to start another feature event to race the Crate Sportsman feature. Jackson and Hixson were very disappointed in having to make that call, but will race this feature event Friday night before the weekly racing program.
Crate Sportsman & IMCA make up Features:
In the Crate Sportsman make up feature from June 5th, Canandaigua’s Doug Smith in the Wheeler Motorsports #01 ran the race of his life. Smith has been knocking on the door for his first win at Black Rock Speedway all season long after using the early season practice sessions to get acclimated with the ‘Fast Four-Tenths-Mile’.
Smith would lead from the drop of the green flag, but a late race restart would see Smith get trapped on the outside going into Turn 1 on the white flag lap. Campbell, NY’s Josh Keesey would scoot by to get his first win of 2015. Heartbreak for the Smith crew still saw the 01 car bring it home second, Jordan Siri with another impressive run for third, Jake Dgien fourth and Steve Gray the top five.
In the M&M Auto Sales & Service IMCA Modified makeup feature Todd Stone finally shook the gremlins to pick up feature win #1 of the season. Stone is another driver that has been painfully close to winning his first of the year but has always found bad luck. The driver of the 28 car has even led several feature events in 2015 before having a problem of some kind.
On Friday night however, Stone put all the pieces together to lead all 20 laps of the IMCA makeup feature event. Stone dominated over Tony Harris, Brad Smith Rich Karlnoski and Jason Benjamin the top five.
“I just want to thank my crew, man these guys have been helping me day and night on this car to get it ready. We just haven’t had a lot of luck this season,” said Stone with his crew in Champion Power Equipment Victory Lane.
An announcement made on Sunday in regards to the next two weeks of racing action is a change in the lineup of make up features to be run. Friday June 26th will see the Crate Sportsman make up their Feature from this past Friday 6/19 and the MRC Street Stocks will also make up their 6/5 feature event.
Friday July 3rd will see Black Rock’s $10,000 Fireworks Show lift off with all weekly divisions and make up features for the Modifieds and NAPA Know How 4 Cylinder division.
General admission is set at $12.00 with Seniors and ages 12-17 paying $10 for admission. Children under 12 are always free at Black Rock so don’t forget to bring the kids! Gates open at 5PM with the first green flag waving at 7PM. For more information log on to www.blackrockspeedway.com or visit Black Rock Speedway on Facebook and Twitter.
Modifieds (30 Laps): STEVE PAINE (3), Ron Cartwright Jr, Brady Fultz, Cory Costa, Joe Dgien, Daryl Hilkert, Derrick Podsiadlo, Chris Ostrowsky, Marcus Dinkins, Tyler Siri, Dale Welty, Alan Johnson, Stacey Jackson
Heats: Daryl Hilkert, Joe Dgien
M&M Auto Sales & Service IMCA Modifieds (7 Laps due to too many accidents/yellows): JASON BENJAMIN (2), Tony Harris, Brad Sites, Nicole Spalding, Rodney Morgan, Rich Karlnoski, Mark Griffin, Eddie Sites, Ken Buck, Brandon Mathews, Brad Smith, Keith Lamphere, Scott Sebring, Bob Maynard, Todd Stone, Brandon Smith, Harry Ely, Sparky Hills
Heats: Brad Smith, Jason Benjamin, Eddie Sites
Morseman Racing Chassis Street Stocks (20 Laps): JARED HILL (2), Nate Daggett, Jake Karlnoski, Chuck Winslow, Gene Balmer, Dennis Cummings, Bob Buono, Ralph Champion, Tracy Dunn, CJ Guererri, Roger Kerrick, Bill Miller, Bruce Kinner, Frank Chapman, LaVerne Knickerbocker, Harold French, Arty Teed, Rich Rider, Allison Teed, Carl Cleveland, John Burritt DNS: Jeremy Potrzebowski, Kurt Stebbins
Heats: CJ Guererri, Jake Karlnoski, LaVerne Knickerbocker
NAPA Know How 4 Cylinders (20 Laps): RICH SHARPSTEEN (3), Jayson Smart, Chad Ayers, Dan Smart, Desi Force, David Whetham, Chris Davis, Erica Bell, Amy Buck, Jimmy VanEtten, Zach Teed, Jeff Moore, Jarod Brown, Jeremy Trank, Rick Horton DNS: Scott Bradley, Del Cummings, Chris Percy
Heats: Jeremy Trank, Rich Sharpsteen
Creekside Entertainment Bandits (10 Laps): JEFF DAUGHERTY (6), Billy Bowers, ShiAnn Labar, Pixie Kinner, PollyAnna Dean
Lap Leaders: Bowers 1-9, Daugherty 10
M&M Auto Sales & Service IMCA Modifieds June 5th make up (20 Laps): TODD STONE (1), Tony Harris, Brad Smith, Rich Karlnoski, Jason Benjamin, Nicole Spalding, Ken Buck, Harry Ely, Brandon Smith, Sparky Hills, Brandon Mathews, Rodney Morgan, Keith Lamphere DNS: Bruce Tinsley, Logan Terry
Lap Leaders: Stone 1-20
Crate Sportsman June 5th make up (25 Laps): JOSH KEESEY (1), Doug Smith, Jordan Siri, Jake Dgien, Steve Gray, Dale Welty, Chris Silvers, Casey Pavlick, Russ Morseman, Lance Irwin, Zach Ziegenhagan, Chris Fisher, Brent Ayers, Loren Lincoln DNS: Bill Laviolette, Chris Mashewske, Chad Dailey, Mike Buchanan
Lap Leaders: Smith 1-24, Keesey 25
