Aug 9, 2015 01:54 PM EDT
Banner Night For Siri Racing; David Ragan Wins MRO Celebrity Match Race
DUNDEE, NY – For Immediate Release – August 9th, 2015 – Curtis Berleue Photo –
It’s no secret at all that Siri Racing has been on quite a roll so far in 2015 at their Friday night home at Black Rock Speedway and their Saturday home at Five Mile Point.
Father, Tyler Siri, has picked up two feature wins at ‘The Rock’ while his son Jordan has one victory in the Crate Sportsman division. The father-son combo made their first start together in the Modified division Friday night- Tyler in a Big Block and Jordan in the Superior Crushing 5*x Small Block. An impressive driving performance saw Tyler lead every lap to win the 30-lap feature and Jordan pull off his first top five in his first Modified start at Black Rock.
Brady Fultz and newcomer Mike Bowman led the field to Scott Hixson’s green flag and calamity ensued in Turn 1. Fultz had a big bobble underneath his No. 70 Troyer and looped the car with the entire field bearing down on him. A 12-car pileup ensued with over half the field involved. Some heads up driving on the part of several drivers made it so the damage suffered in the accident was not substantial.
14 cars started the feature with only two of them not getting a piece of the pileup. All but two drivers returned for the restart of the event as Dale Welty and Derrick Podsiadlo had damage that wouldn’t allow them to continue.
Tyler Siri inherited the lead and would show the dominance of the Commonwealth Equipment 5* that race fans have seen on display over the course of the 2015 season. Siri would lead every lap to the checkered flag and was never really challenged for the victory.
Mike Bowman had an impressive second place showing in what was his second start in 2015 at the ‘Fast Four-Tenths-Mile. Bowman has taken a liking to Black Rock and his efforts Friday night had to only add to that. He drew within 2 car lengths of Siri in the corners but the Big Block power under the hood of the 5* was supreme down the straightaways to open the gap back up.
There was also a great battle going on between Joe Dgien, Cory Costa, Jordan Siri and dirt modified legends Alan Johnson and Steve Paine. Paine and Johnson were involved in the opening lap accident but recovered well to battle for sixth place at the finish.
Johnson was in his first ride in the Kim and Brad Herrington-owned No. 1 which is a ride for ‘AJ Slideways’ that will at least be for that event and Tuesday at Woodhull Raceway. He will compete in the Short Track Super Series event there on Tuesday night at a track where the Herrington family has a rich history.
Paine extended his point lead Friday night as he finished two spots ahead of Ron Cartwright Jr, who was coming back on Friday after having motor troubles on July 31st.
“This is awesome, we couldn’t plan it any better,” said the jubilant father Siri.
“We didn’t do too much to it tonight, we were good in the heat race. I adjusted a little bit but not as much as I usually do and it paid off.”
It’s been an up and down season for the Siri team with a lot of bad racing luck early in the year, but Siri talked about the team continuing to push through it all.
“I kept telling the guys once we get the bad luck off our back I think we will do good.
Not only was he excited to win the race himself, Siri took time to reflect on the incredible run his son had in his first Black Rock Modified start.
“I’m so proud of my son to come home in 5th place for his first time ever. I was nervous with that car because I didn’t have any gears or shocks for it, but I told him to just go with it.”
It was a Modified sweep for the team as well as David Ragan wheeled one of the Superior Crushing cars to victory in the MRO Celebrity Match Race earlier in the night. Ragan got that win over Michael McDowell, Trevor Bayne, Alex Bowman and Bob Decker.
Several celebrity drivers, crew members and media members as well as staff from Motor Racing Outreach were on hand to take in the action on the dirt. The silent auction on the midway behind the grandstands was incredibly successful with fans and a few drivers in the pit area taking home some autographed items signed exclusively for this event.
Jared Zimbardi picked up the 25-lap win for the Patriot Sprint Tour after a great battle early on in the event with Bryan Howland. Howland had a tough break that put him out while Zimbardi cruised to his second victory of 2015 at “The Rock”. The Patriot Sprint Tour will have full details in their official press release at www.patriotsprintour.com
The Crate Sportsman division ran their feature-only program as the second feature event of the night and had several chain-reaction accidents that slowed the field early. The support divisions were lined up based on a draw through the pit gate and it was Steve Gray who came out victorious for his seventh victory and sixth points paying win of 2015.
Gray started in the sixth spot and made quick work getting to the front. Ross Vleck led the event early in a rare start for the Rochester, NY driver after starting the season at Black Rock.
A major accident on the front stretch took out several cars after they made hard contact with one another and the outside retaining wall. Zach Ziegenhagen and Jason Scales made contact on the front stretch sending Scales into the wall. Joe Cook checked up to avoid the wreck and found himself with a trunk lid full of Eric Bell. Cook and Bell had to be towed back to the pit area along with Scales with heavy damage.
Once the green flag came back out Gray was not to be denied of the victory. The Proctor Enterprises 29g has been on a roll lately and that did not change on Friday night. Gray went on to the win, Loren Lincoln second, Casey Pavlick third, Jordan Siri fourth and Chris Fisher rounded out the top five.
“The luck of the draw allowed us to start up front and that definitely helped us out,” Gray said.
“Everybody knew their fate was going to be based on the draw tonight, so you just had to run your line and hope your line rolled well.”
Talking about any changes to the car or his line between the grit show Tuesday and Friday night- Gray made none.
“Actually, everything we did is almost to a ‘T’ as to what we did on Tuesday. We just put new tires on the car and got after it.”
The Morseman Racing Chassis Street Stocks were on hand as well Friday night with point leader Jared Hill looking to bounce back from bad luck the last two to three races. Hill bounced back in a big way as he led every lap to win the 20-lap feature event.
Not only did Hill go on to pick up his third victory of 2015, he would extend his point lead over CJ Guererri and Nate Daggett with just four point races remaining. CJ Guererri was involved in an accident in Turn 4 when Chuck Winslow’s right front tire went down and made contact with the CJ1, sending the Guererri machine around and suffering damage.
Hill and Jeremy Potrzebowski had a great battle out front with Gene Balmer for the lead but lap after lap Hill was up to the task, utilizing the outside lane with his 2015 Potter Chassis. Hill made a change on tires this week and it appeared to pay off.
“We all needed this win tonight. We changed tires and went back to the wider tires like CJ and Nate run, scaled it back up and it worked,” Hill said about the recent change.
It wasn’t just a walk away for Hill though. He had to survive a caution flag and restart on the last lap to secure the victory- certainly not what he wanted to see. When asked what he was thinking when the yellow came out, Hill was quite animated.
“No way! We could have had a caution any where in there but not on the last lap.”
Hill would get the victory over Potrzebowski, Kurt Stebbins, Frank Chapman and Nate Daggett.
In the NAPA Know How 4 Cylinder Feature event it was Erica Bell taking her first victory of 2015 and her first feature win in 6 years at Black Rock Speedway. Bell received an incredible ovation from the crowd while being interviewed in Victory Lane. While Bell celebrated, there was a little bit of controversy that led to the win for Bell.
Rich Sharpsteen in the Flyin’ X was the class of the field as he has been much of the 2015 season. In recent weeks, the driver of the X had been warned about lagging back on restarts, allowing his car to get an unfair advantage on competitors going into Turn 1. Up until Friday night, Sharpsteen had not been penalized for such a move or advantage. That changed on Friday night.
On the last restart of the event, Sharpsteen held back on the restart and passed several cars prior to entering Turn 1. Race Control decided to issue a penalty to the X machine two spots for the restart infraction, however the caution flag would not come back out before the end of the event. He would be penalized from the lead back to a third place finish.
Meanwhile, Bell and Chad Ayers were battling for what they thought was second place but turned out to be for the win. On the final lap, Bell and Ayers battled side by side for the win off Turn 4 with Bell taking the popular victory over Ayers, Sharpsteen, Jayson Smart and Jeremy Trank.
“I said ‘are they sure?’ because I thought Richie was out front,” Bell said in Champion Power Equipment Victory Lane.
“All I did was kept looking at the scoreboard to see who was there and I saw he was there. I was so nervous.”
Jeff Daugherty did what Jeff Daugherty does on Friday night- win the Creekside Entertainment Bandit 10-lap feature in convincing fashion. Brandon Kinner led lap 1 and had a great run himself but Daugherty has proved that he is ready to take the next step in the 4 Cylinder ranks as he has been the class of the field.
ShiAnn Labar had her best run of the season for third, turning some of her fastest laps of the season to keep pace with Kinner. Polly Anna Dean, Pixie Kinner and Billy Bowers rounded out the Bandit 6-car field.
“It means a lot to win tonight with a big crowd and it’s my grandpa’s birthday,” said Daugherty.
“The track has been so much better the last couple of weeks, it’s been fun racing out there.
The Creekside Entertainment Bandits will take center stage next Friday night as they will race in a 15-lap special- 5 laps longer than their regularly scheduled distance. Race fans will have the opportunity to see each driver outside their vehicle for driver introductions, as these drivers are the future of racing at Black Rock Speedway.
The Modifieds, Crate Sportsman, M&M Auto Sales IMCA Modifieds, MRC Street Stocks, NAPA Know How 4 Cylinders and Creekside Entertainment Bandits will all be on the racing card.
Pit gates open at 4PM, Grandstands at 5PM, Hot Laps at 6PM and Racing taking the first green flag promptly at 7PM. General admission is $12 for adults, $10 for seniors and ages 12-17 with children under 12 always FREE at Black Rock Speedway.
For more information including weekly recaps, driver profiles, results, points and information on the $100,000 Contingency Connection Rewards Program race over to www.blackrockspeedway.com or visit Black Rock Speedway on Facebook at www.facebook.com/BlackRockSpeedway or follow us on Twitter @BlackRockSpeed
Black Rock Speedway is proud to partner with the Contingency Connection in 2015 to offer their race competitors over $100,000 in prizes. Drivers lucky enough to be awarded Contingency Connection books will save thousands of dollars on the parts, pieces and products that they use each week and every winter.
M&W Aluminum/A-Verdi Storage Containers Night Official Results 8/7/2015:
Modifieds, 15 cars (30 Laps): TYLER SIRI (3), Mike Bowman, Joe Dgien, Cory Costa, Jordan Siri, Alan Johnson, Steve Paine, Brady Fultz, Ron Cartwright Jr, Fran Hilton, Randy Brokaw, Mike Richmond, Dale Welty, Derrick Podsiadlo DNS: Chris Ostrowsky
Lap Leaders: Siri 1-30
Heats: Tyler Siri, Steve Paine
MRO Celebrity Match Race, 8 cars (12 Laps): DAVID RAGAN- NSCS #55 (1), Michael McDowell NSCS #95, Trevor Bayne NSCS #6, Alex Bowman NSCS #7, Bob Decker Nascar Crew Member, JJ Yeley NSCS #23, Matt Dibennedetto NSCS #83, Kevin White NSCS Crew Member #55
PATRIOT SPRINT TOUR 360 SPRINTS, 22 cars (25 Laps): JARED ZIMBARDI, Sammy Reakes IV, Danny Varin, Kyle Drum, Jonathan Preston, Paul Habeck, George Suprick, Darryl Ruggles, Steve Collins, Joe Trenca, Tyler Graves, Dave Just, Jake Muench, Will Glover, Alysha Ruggles, John Azzi, Dave Wickham, Derrick Juliano, Pete Richardson, Bryan Howland, Scott Just DNS: Jimmy Stitzel
Lap Leaders: Zimbardi 1-7, Howland 8-12, Zimbardi 13-25
Heat Winners: Danny Varin, Jared Zimbardi, Sammy Reakes IV
Dash Winner: Jonathan Preston
Patriot Sprint Tour American Tour Champion: Sammy Reakes IV
Crate Sportsman, 22 cars (50 Laps): STEVE GRAY (7), Loren Lincoln, Casey Pavlick, Jordan Siri, Chris Fisher, Ross Vleck, Chris Silvers, Mike Buchanan, Doug Smith, Dale Welty, Jake Dgien, Stacey Jackson, Brady Fultz, Brent Ayers, Jon Ellsworth, Zach Ziegenhagen, Jason Scales, Eric Bell, Russell Morseman, Joe Cook, Nick Guererri, Mike Williams
*Feature Only
Morseman Racing Chassis Street Stocks, 19 cars (20 Laps): JARED HILL (3), Jeremy Potrzebowski, Kurt Stebbins, Frank Chapman Jr, Nate Daggett, Carl Cleveland, Dennis Cummings, Bill Miller, Dave Matwiejow, Chuck Winslow, CJ Guererri, Ralph Champion, John Cooper, LaVerne Knickerbocker, Bruce Kinner, Gene Balmer, Allison Teed, Roger Kerrick, John Burritt
*Feature Only
NAPA Know How 4 Cylinders, 18 cars (20 Laps): ERICA BELL (1), Chad Ayers, Rich Sharpsteen (penalized two spots for Restart Infraction), Jayson Smart, Jeremy Trank, Scott Bradley, JJ Kreidler, Dan Smart, David Whetham, David Kinner, Jarod Brown, Rich Post, Kenny Evans, Desi Force, Ashley Sutryk, Jeff Moore, Bruce Kinner, Mike Webster
*Feature Only
Creekside Entertainment Bandits, 5 cars (10 Laps): JEFF DAUGHERTY (12), Brandon Kinner, ShiAnn Labar, Polly Anna Dean Pixie Kinner, Billy Bowers
Lap Leaders: Kinner 1, Daugherty 2-10
