Kish and Carley Record BRP CanAm Victories / Points Scramble

St. Catharines, ONT…A blockbuster BRP CanAm Super Stock Series weekend produced two outstanding programs with so many stories that railbirds can spend the entire week rehashing all that happened. Meanwhile, the Series prepares for the season finale at Little Valley Speedway on Saturday September 25.

The double header started with the Series’ annual trip to the Friesen family’s Ransomville Speedway for their part in the King of the Hill racing weekend where Darren Kish turned his luck around [or so it seemed] and won the Bob Mullin Pro Speed A-Main. After all night efforts by several race teams and lots of travel by all teams, the action moved southeast from Ransomville, NY to Woodhull, NY for the Series’ first ever event at Scott and Amy Drake’s Woodhull Raceway. There Ed Carley rebounded from a DNQ at Ransomville to win the Layfield Racing Connection A-Main.

Ransomville…Kish, the Pt. Colborne, ONT speedster who won, but was disqualified for a short wheelbase in the Series opener at Little Valley, had been struggling with minor mechanical failures and plain old bad luck such that he even skipped Bradford and the second Genesee event. Friday night it appeared that Darren’s race program had turned the corner. Kish lead the final 25 laps of the 30 lap A-Main and proudly parked his car in Ransomville Victory Lane for interviews and photos. When Kish refired his Atkinson’s Delivery Shaw Taurus, some bad looking smoke appeared. Water and oil in a cylinder or cylinders will do that! The trip to Woodhull and the dream of back-to-back wins went up in smoke.

Three caution periods marred the Ransomville A-Main. The first yellow resulted from a crash involving Paul Grigsby and Neil Patterson with just two laps in. Behind these two, as some slowed to avoid the crash, others did not. Caught in that chain reaction were Ron Baker, Dustin Croft, and Jim Johnson. Grigsby and Patterson were done for the weekend. Johnson lost laps in the pits while his Upstate Utilities Rocket Mustang was repaired. One lap later, there was a quick yellow for debris. Then on lap 13, Series championship contender Andy Miller did what nobody in the recorded history of Ransomville Speedway had ever done. Miller rode his R&M Amsoil Grand Prix out of the park without knocking down the fence. Miller was not injured, but his race car was destroyed and he had lost his point lead to Todd Rice. He quickly loaded his wasted race car on the trailer and headed home to Wellsville to begin the all night project of preparing another car for Woodhull.

Woodhull...31 BRP CanAm teams entered the inaugural Woodhull event. For most, it was the first time they had ever been to Woodhull, let alone raced there. An exception was Ed Carley, who not only had raced at Woodhull, but had won there. Bob Babbitt took off from his pole starting position like a scared rabbit and led the first 22 laps with hopes of winning his first ever Series A-Main. Babbitt lost the top spot to Bob Dixon on lap 23, but powered around the outside of Dixon to lead laps 24 through 27. On lap 28, car 28, with Ed Carley tied down in the Kirkey of Dick Bradigan’s Shaw Grand Prix, found room way down on the bottom to grab the top spot. Neither Babbitt nor Dixon was done yet. They chased Carley with reckless abandon. Each had different reasons for wanting the win, Babbitt for his first Series win and Dixon to honor the memory of his wife, Teresa. They both ran out of laps and neither accomplished his goal. Dixon did come out of that dog fight ahead of Babbitt.

Two caution periods slowed the BRP CanAm drivers’ attack on the Woodhull high banks The first yellow showed on lap 22 when Jason Dupont lost grip with his Zippo Manufacturing Shaw Monte Carlo while running fourth. Dupont continued to finish a disappointing 14th. Two laps later, the yellow was out again when Todd Rice and Tim Dunham locked horns while battling for sixth position. They continued to finish at the tail of the lead lap in 16th and 17th respectively.

Points…Andy Miller had the Series point lead entering the Ransomville event. However, Miller’s out of the park crash not only cost him his race car, but it cost him the point lead. Todd Rice used his fourth place points to retake the point lead. Rice had the Woodhull problem discussed above and turned the top spot over not to Miller, but to Bob Dixon. Dixon, the defending Series champion, had been steadily climbing the point standings list after DNFs at Freedom and Merrittville. The Dixon Race Team left Woodhull with an eight point advantage over Miller and 22 points over Rice The stage is now set for not only a great race at Little Valley on Saturday, but also a dramatic chase for the $18,000 championship. Jeremy Wonderling and Tim Rockwell still have a mathematical chance to win the six foot trophy as well. Complete point standings are available at www.brpcanamsuperstockseries.com.

NOTES:

  • Doug Ricotta returned to the Series in Don Wagner’s L.C. Transportation Shaw Grand Prix. Ricotta was the defending race winner at Ransomville where he finished fifth. Ricotta was 12th at Woodhull. He hopes that Wagner stays in Florida but sends his car to Little Valley for Championship Night.
  • Dave Miller was his usual fast self at Ransomville. Dave went looking for cushion on the top of turn two at the mid point of the A while running second and perhaps faster than race leader Kish. The cushion was gone and Dave rode his wife’s GRT Grand Prix on top of the steel barrier for about 30 feet. When he came down, he drove straight to the pits.
  • Andy Miller planned to use Bo Clark’s car at Woodhull; however, at about 4AM, in the preparation process, they found major chassis damage with Clark’s b10. At that point, Dad [Dave] turned his car, which also needed lots of repair work, over to Andy. All this was in the early hours of the morning, all in hopes of Andy winning the Series Championship. Andy adapted well to his borrowed hot rod and drove it to a strong 7th place Woodhull finish.
  • Barry Tingue [Pete’s son] replaced his cousin, Jason, in Bill Tingue’s Emerling Auto Group Shaw Taurus for the weekend. Barry was 10th at Ransomville and 18th at Woodhull in his first ever Series starts.
  • Ransomville Speedway management exercised its option to start more than the contract minimum of 24 cars They added the top four from the B-Main rather than the formula minimum of two. Those “Lucky Dogs” were Jon Rivers and Mark Schultz. Schultz was the hired gun for Jerry Bentley.
  • Dustin Croft dropped his 5x off at the Holmes race car shop in Chaffee, NY on his way home from Ransomville. Croft had to go out of town on business Saturday and Holmes’ own car was without an engine. Holmes was his usual fast but unlucky self at Woodhull in the 5x. He was fourth when a front suspension part broke. He manhandled the car home 8th.
  • Jim Johnson recovered from the disappointment of Ransomville for a very strong fifth in his first ever trip to Woodhull.
  • Ed Carley earned a $50 bonus from The Can & Bottle Return of Kanona.
  • New drivers to the 2004 Series included Barry Tingue, Mark Schultz, Doug Ricotta, Don Barnes, Joe Layfield, Shaun Ferdinand, and Ron Hurd. The total number of different drivers for 2004 now stands at 81.

Ransomville Results:

Bob Mullen’s Pro Speed 30 lap A-Main: DARREN KISH, Bruce Miller, Tim Rockwell, Todd Rice, Doug Ricotta, Jason Dupont, Jeremy Wonderling, Bob Dixon, Jr. Peters, Barry Tingue, Alan Wais, Chad Arnold, Ron Baker, Bo Clark, Mark Schultz, Bob Babbitt, Dustin Croft, A.J. Young, Jon Lichy, Tim Schram, Jim Johnson, Andy Miller, Jon Rivers, Dave Miller, Paul Grigsby, Neil Patterson - DNQs Dave Dubois, Mike Wonderling, Jr., Don Barnes, and Ed Carley

Heat winners: Todd Rice, Andy Miller, Tim Schram, and Paul Grigsby

B-Main winner: Alan Wais

Woodhull Results:

Layfield Racing Connection 30 lap A-Main: ED CARLEY, Bob Dixon, Bob Babbitt, Bruce Miller, Jim Johnson, Jeremy Wonderling, Andy Miller, Bill Holmes, Rick Tingue, A.J. Young, Tim Schram, Doug Ricotta, Jon Rivers, Jason Dupont, Jack Harrington, Todd Rice, Tim Dunham, Barry Tingue, Matt Cobb, Jon Lichy, Jr. Peters, Chad Arnold, Ron Baker, Tim Rockwell – DNQs Brian Kotarski, Jay Deming, Shawn Ferdinand, Mike Wonderling, Jr., Ron Hurd, Alan Wais, Joe Layfield

Heat Winners: Bill Holmes, Ed Carley, Bruce Miller, A.J. Young

B-Main winner: Barry Tingue

Top 12 Points: 1. Bob Dixon - 750, 2. Andy Miller - 742 , 3. Todd Rice - 728, 4. Tim Rockwell - 679, 5. Jeremy Wonderling – 678, 6. Bruce Miller – 607, 7. Jr. Peters – 591, 8. A.J. Young – 579, 9. Jim Johnson – 578, 10. – Jason Dupont, 11. Ron Baker – 528, 12. Bill Holmes - 510

The BRP CanAm Super Stock Series is designed to promote the extremely competitive weekly Super Stock programs at Bradford [PA] Speedway, Freedom [NY] Raceway, Genesee [NY] Speedway, and McKean County [PA] Raceway. The 2004 BRP CanAm Super Stock Series includes 12 programs with events scheduled at the weekly tracks plus, Little Valley [NY] Speedway, Merrittville [Ont] Speedway, Ransomville [NY] Speedway, and Woodhull [NY] Raceway. For more information visit www.brpcanamsuperstockseries.com or contact Gary Montgomery at 315-536-3728