BUCKWALTER AND TRENT VICTORIOUS IN ARDC TWIN 20’s AT BRIDGEPORT
MILLER
NOTCHES THIRD WIN IN ARDC FINALE AT SSP
Newberrytown, PA - Mike Miller blasted from his fourth starting position
to grab the lead on the opening lap, then led the rest of the way
to win the ARDC Midget feature in last Saturday night’s Candy
Bowl at Susquehanna Speedway Park.
After his third win of the season, the Birdsboro, PA resident explained
his strategy. “It’s always good to get to the front early,”
Miller pointed out. “And it’s easiest to make a big move
on the start, or on a restart. When they dropped the green, the holes
opened up, and I was able to get the lead, which is what I wanted
to do as quickly as I could.”
Miller wasn’t the only car on the move in the early stages of
the 20-lapper. As he went to the front, Ed Stimely, Andy Martin, and
Steve Buckwalter moved to the top of the race track, and came charging
toward the head of the pack. Stimely rocketed from 8th on the starting
grid to second on the first lap, while Martin (from 11th) and Buckwalter
(from 13th) gassed their midgets to third and fourth, respectively.
Stimely and Martin traded the runner-up spot on the second and third
revolutions as Miller opened up some daylight over his pursuers. Martin,
the rookie from Gordonville, PA, then stalked the TQ Fiberglass/ Yetter
Racing no. 6 of Stimely for five trips around the super-fast oval
before sliding back into second place. Martin steadily closed the
gap between himself and the leader, and appeared ready to take command
as they approached lapped traffic with 14 circuits in the books.
Slower cars were running three abreast just in front of the leaders,
and Miller ducked to the low side in an attempt to pass them going
into turn one. Martin wanted to go high, but one of the slower cars
drifted up, forcing the Gordonville Flash to change his line.
“When that car came up the track, I shot to the bottom,”
explained Martin. “I went into one so fast and caught Mike so
quickly, that it was either hit him and possibly take us both out,
or spin myself out. I didn’t want to hit him, so…”
Martin’s spin put Stimely back into the runner-up slot, and the
1997 ARDC Champion tried to dive inside the leader on the restart.
Miller rebuffed that challenge, but Stimely gave it another shot on
a restart with two to go. Miller, steering his Victory Motorcycle/
All Seasons Motorsports no. 7, kept his foot in the throttle and remained
in front, finally taking the checkered flag ahead of Stimely and Steve
Buckwalter. Hank Rogers, Jr. and Ray Bull completed the top five when
it was over.
Miller and Bull captured a pair of heat races for the ARDC competitors.
NOTES FROM THE CANDY BOWL
AT SSP:
By taking the green flag in his heat race, Ray Bull clinched the 2005
ARDC Driver’s Point Championship. This is the sixth consecutive
title for the Raging Bull from Bloomsburg, PA.
“It’s special because of all the hard work we had to do
this year,” noted Bull. “My Mega Motorsports crew worked
so hard because of the mechanical problems we had during the season.
And my teammate, Dave Shirk, gave up his ride to me when we had some
of those problems. This team just makes this championship very special.”
Buckwalter’s series-leading eight wins, along with his second-place
effort in driver’s points gave Miller Racing its first car owner’s
title in ARDC competition.
And it was a very big night for the wheel-twister of car no. 5, too.
Buckwalter hopped out of the midget after his third-place run, and
ran to a passenger vehicle where his girlfriend, Mindi Buch, was waiting.
They hustled over to Linda’s Speedway, where the Royersford Rocket
had qualified a 270cc micro sprint on Friday evening. Buckwalter made
it to the Jonestown, PA quarter-mile in time to start the Micro Sprint
National Open, where he finished second.
Invader Brad Loyet, from Sunset Hills, Missouri, raced with ARDC on
Saturday. The 17 year-old USAC driver, who is currently leading the
National Midget Rookie of the Year point standings, was impressive
in his first outing on the Susquehanna clay. Starting near the back
of the 21-car field, the teenager passed Buckwalter for third with
five laps to go. As he dueled with Stimely for the runner-up position
on lap 19, Loyet either hooked a rut or something broke on his no.
05, resulting in hard contact with the wall in turn one. The winner
of an RMMRA event in Erie, Colorado and a big Ford Focus Midget event
in Duquoin, Illinois, this year, was unhurt in the crash. The same
could not be said of his Beast/Gaerte midget, however.
The night’s first scary-looking crash occurred on the opening
lap, just as the field was taking the initial green flag. Three-time
winner in 2005, Donnie Trent, flipped wildly coming off turn four.
Steve Lenig and Kathy Kurtz were also involved. Trent, the throttle-jockey
from Honeybrook, PA, had no idea what caused his high-flyer.
“I went to the top for the start, and I was rolling into the
gas. I remember looking down the homestretch, and it was all clear.
I thought I was going to have a great start, and then all of a sudden
a car; I have no idea who it was; came from the left and got into
me. And then I was flipping, and it seemed like forever until I landed.”
Lenig, who started on the inside of row eight, said that “a whole
bunch of cars came down when they saw Donnie flip, and they forced
me into the inside guardrail. I was on the brakes hard, but I couldn’t
stay off the rail. It bent the front axle and some other stuff, but
the car’s not too bad, overall. Just enough damage to knock me
out of the race.”
Bull was involved in a lap three incident with Eric Heydenreich and
Dave Shirk. Michele Miller also made a pit stop under caution, but
all four drivers were able to restart and end the season with top-ten
efforts. Michele planted her nose on Bull’s rear bumper, following
him through the field. Bull ended the night in fifth spot, with Michele
sixth. Heydenreich, a Rookie of the Year contender, wound up seventh,
and Shirk rebounded to take the checkered in the eighth position.
Great runs were turned in by Bill Case, Jr. and rookie Jeff Schell,
with Case finishing ninth and Schell authoring a tenth-place effort.
Micro sprint racer P.J. Gargiulo took his first ride in a midget at
SSP on Saturday. Piloting the Miller Racing Beast no. 00, Gargiulo
got faster as his comfort level increased. He stayed out of trouble,
running a smart, steady race, and finished 12th. It was reported that
Gargiulo and his family are negotiating with Miller to purchase the
car.
With the racing season now complete, the American Racing Drivers Club
will immediately turn its attention to off-season events. A general
membership meeting will follow a Board of Governor’s meeting
on Sunday, November 13th, at Lobitz Catering Hall in Hazleton, PA.
The general membership meeting begins at 1 p.m.
The annual ARDC Awards Banquet is scheduled for Saturday, November
26, with cocktails at 5 p.m. and dinner at 6:00. The banquet will
also be held at Lobitz Catering Hall.
RESULTS:
WINGLESS ARDC MIDGET FEATURE (20 laps): 1.Mike Miller 2.Ed Stimely,
Jr. 3.Steve Buckwalter 4.Hank Rogers, Jr. 5.Ray Bull 6.Michele Miller
7.Eric Heydenreich 8.Dave Shirk 9.Bill Case, Jr. 10.Jeff Schell 11.Andy
Martin 12.P.J. Gargiulo 13.Lew Blair 14.Bobby Goerner 15.Scott Zipp
16.Chris Zrinski 17.Brad Loyet 18.Billy Pauch, Jr. 19.Donnie Trent
20.Steve Lenig 21.Kathy Kurtz DNS: Carey Becker.
BUCKWALTER
AND TRENT VICTORIOUS IN ARDC TWIN 20’s AT BRIDGEPORT
Bridgeport, NJ - He’d been leading the three previous feature
races, with victory seemingly in his grasp. But mechanical gremlins
surfaced each time, causing a tremendous amount of frustration and
costing him the point lead. But last Saturday night, at the Bridgeport
Speedway, Steve Buckwalter got himself back on track by winning the
first of Twin 20-lap main events for the ARDC Midgets.
Honeybrook, PA’s Donnie Trent picked up his third win of the
season in the second race, capping off a great night. Trent led the
early stages of the opener and wound up in third place as the checkered
flag waved.
That first feature was run in wingless fashion on Bridgeport’s
spacious 5/8-mile oval. Trent started on the inside of row three,
but he accelerated to the top of the track as the green appeared.
Wheeling the Equipment Service Company no. 18, Trent swept by the
four cars in front of him, snatching the top spot from Jeff Schell
as the field exited turn two. As Trent motored away from the pack,
Buckwalter (from 11th) and Ray Bull (from 14th) threaded their way
through the field. Buckwalter, the Royersford Rocket, blasted into
third position on lap two, with Bull stomping into fourth spot on
the next trip around the speedway.
Runner-up Hank Rogers, Jr. fell victim to Buckwalter’s charge
on the fifth circuit, where the pilot of the Victory Motorcycle no.
5 found himself almost a full straightaway behind the leader. Two
caution flags in the next four laps would wipe out Trent’s advantage,
however, putting Buckwalter on his rear bumper.
As the front-running duo raced side-by-side on lap nine, Buckwalter
edged ahead of Trent in turns three and four. Storming down the front
stretch, this year’s seven-time winner cleared Trent’s machine,
taking a lead that he would not relinquish for the remainder of the
event.
Bull darted under Trent in turn one just after the halfway mark, but
the Bloomsburg, PA throttle-jockey could not mount a serious challenge
to Buckwalter. The second half of the 20-lapper went non-stop, with
Buckwalter scoring his eighth triumph of the campaign.
Feature number two was contested with wings on Bridgeport’s quarter-mile,
providing a stark contrast to the first race.
Scott Zipp, from nearby Bridgeport, PA, grabbed the lead from pole-sitter
Bobby Goerner on the first tour of the tacky and smooth short track.
Zipp went on to set the pace for the first eight revolutions, before
fifth-starting Trent used Kathy Kurtz as a pick in turns one and two.
Pinning Zipp behind Kurtz in the low groove, Trent utilized the high
side to grab the lead.
The only yellow flag of the event occurred on lap 13 for a slowing
Goerner. On the restart, things got interesting in the battle for
second place, as Dave Shirk and Buckwalter scooted by Zipp. One circle
later, Buckwalter slipped under Shirk to steal the runner-up slot.
Trent was firmly in control of this one, though, and Buckwalter, who
started 14th, would have to settle for second. Shirk duplicated his
best finish of the season, placing third.
Working his way into the top five after some entertaining duels with
Michele Miller and Ed Stimely, Bull (who began the race in 13th) finally
wrestled the fourth position away from Zipp with three to go. Zipp’s
night ended with a fifth-place finish.
NOTES FROM BRIDGEPORT:
Despite the fact that he finished first and second in the two features,
Buckwalter’s night was not incident-free. “It was getting
hot,” he noted after his victory. “But it ran good, and
it’s a relief to finally finish the job,” he added, referring
to his troubles while leading the last three events. Asked why he
slowed noticeably near the end of the initial practice session, Buckwalter
smiled. “The throttle was sticking, and I didn’t want to
knock the wall down.”
Trent was very pleased because he not only won the second feature,
but he learned a lot throughout the entire evening. “We put four
new VRP shocks on the car, and I’m learning how to adjust them.”
After leading the first nine laps of the opener, he slid back to third.
“I’m not happy about that, but it was just a matter of not
having the right shock package during that race. It really messed
me up in the first turn; my entry into that corner was a big problem.
It’s been a good year, though. We have three wins, and we’re
finally finishing races again. We’re not breaking, and even more
important, we’re not wrecking.”
Dave Shirk, the 2004 ARDC Rookie of the Year, was quick to credit
his new chassis for his third place run in the nightcap. “What
a difference,” stated the Mohnton, PA chauffeur. “The old
chassis must have been wracked, and a lot of the stuff we took off
it was really in bad shape. This new one really works…racing
was fun again tonight.”
Shirk was running as high as fifth in the first feature, before falling
back to eighth due to overheating problems. He pulled off with two
to go, deciding to skip the final laps on the big track rather than
hurt the engine.
Butch Zipp, the crew chief on brother Scott’s no. 99, was all
smiles after the second feature. “I don’t know why he faded
back to fifth, but I don’t care,” he explained. “We
broke a rocker arm in the first one, the same rocker arm we broke
at Clinton County (in the tour’s last event on September 17).
I am just happy and relieved that we ran good, and the car finished.”
Andy Martin weaved his way into fifth during the opener, and he was
challenging Hank Rogers, Jr. for fourth as the laps wound down. Martin’s
pace slowed, however, after the car developed a vibration. A clod
of mud packed one of the wheels, but Andy didn’t know that, so
he took it easy just so he would make it to the checkered. Steve Lenig
squeezed by Martin with a pair of circuits remaining, putting the
rookie in sixth as the race concluded.
In the second feature, on the quarter-mile, Martin wound up ninth.
“It just felt like the rev-limiter kicked in around 7500 rpm,
and it just wouldn’t go,” he said.
Billy Pauch, Jr. was buckled into Doug Starrett’s no. 49 at Bridgeport.
Unfortunately, his evening ended early as he suffered a broken piston
in the first 20-lapper.
Mike Miller also suffered terminal mechanical ills during the pace
laps preceding the first feature, sidelining him for the night. A
hole in one of the pistons was deemed as the culprit. “Must have
happened right at the end of warm-ups. He couldn’t tell that
anything was wrong until he got pushed off before the first feature,”
pointed out crew chief Jeff Kuhns.
“I had it flat to the floor,” is how Ray Bull summed up
his chase of Buckwalter in the opener. “I was pedaling as hard
as I could, but I just couldn’t catch him.” Bull managed
to hang on the point lead, however, with his runner-up and fourth
place efforts in the Twin 20’s. Even though he finished first
and second, Buckwalter only cut 15 points off Bull’s lead. The
points are being checked and double-checked as this is written, but
it appears that Bull merely needs to show up for the final event at
Susquehanna Speedway Park in order to sew up his sixth consecutive
ARDC championship. The race at Susquehanna is scheduled for Saturday,
October 29.
RESULTS:
FIRST 20-LAP FEATURE (WINGLESS ON THE 5/8-MILE OVAL):
1.Steve Buckwalter 2.Ray Bull 3.Donnie Trent 4.Hank Rogers, Jr. 5.Steve
Lenig 6.Andy Martin 7.Ed Stimely, Jr. 8.Michele Miller 9.Carey Becker
10.Jeff Schell 11.Lew Blair 12.Bobby Goerner 13.Dave Shirk 14.Kathy
Kurtz 15.Bill Case, Jr. 16.Ted Schmid 17.Billy Pauch, Jr. 18.Scott
Zipp DNS: Mike Miller.
SECOND 20-LAP FEATURE (WINGED ON THE 1ž4-MILE OVAL):
1.Donnie Trent 2.Steve Buckwalter 3.Dave Shirk 4.Ray Bull 5.Scott
Zipp 6.Ed Stimely, Jr. 7.Michele Miller 8.Hank Rogers, Jr. 9.Andy
Martin 10.Steve Lenig 11.Carey Becker 12.Bill Case, Jr. 13.Jeff Schell
14.Lew Blair 15.Kathy Kurtz 16.Bobby Goerner DNS: Billy Pauch, Jr.,
Ted Schmid, Mike Miller.
