Submitted by Randy Albert
Witherite and Shannon take their first checkered flag for 2011 with Calhoun and Surra each taking their fourth win this season
Falls Creek — Jason Witherite and Kyle Shannon make it to victory lane for the first time at the Hummingbird Speedway in 2011. Witherite won in the competitive Limited Late Model class and Shannon in the exciting Street Stock division. Repeat winners included Mike Calhoun in the Pure Stock class and Doug Surra in the Front Wheel Drive Four Cylinders. Both drivers now have four wins this season.
Saturday night was “Kids Banner Night” with a great bunch of young fans making banners of their favorite drivers. All the participants received a free gift card good for the concession stand. First place went to Zackary Hetrick from DuBois representing the #9 of John Reed and his Limited Late Model. Second place went to Hannah Buck from Clearfield. Her banner/model was for Aaron Luzier driving the 5L Front Wheel Drive Four Cylinder. Rounding out the top three was Levi Solada from Kersey who was a Mike Calhoun fan and his #25 Pure Stock.
22 Limited Late Model cars got off to a clean start and were led to the green flag ironically by the 22 car driven by Tim Steis from St. Marys. Wasting no time in taking the lead was Cody Shultz from Hyde in the #7 car who started on the outside pole. Behind him Bob McMillen in the 50 car from St. Marys looked on the outside of Steis while Dwayne Brooks from Falls Creek put the 1B car low, both drivers looking to take second place. An early caution forced a restart and racing room was hard to find. Tight racing forced Brooks to tangle with an infield tire in turn one and the resulting caution collected the 36 car driven by Paul Kot from Brockway. John Brady’s night also ended early attempting to avoid the mayhem in the 96 car out of Clearfield. On the restart Shultz held onto the lead with close racing for second place finding Jason Witherite in the 24M car out of Luthersburg taking the outside line around McMillen. Witherite then took to the inside to take the lead from Shultz but only for a lap. Shultz powered his way back to the front on the outside. As the race continued John Chesnalavich Jr. from Reynoldsville made his #812 car work on the bottom of the track moving up into fourth position behind McMillen and Witherite. Eric Moore in the 00 from Frenchville, who is always fast on the low side, followed Chesnalavich. On Lap 16 Shultz lost the handle in turn 3 relinquishing the lead to Witherite. Witherite ran the high line despite challenges from McMillen and Chesnalavich. From the back of the pack was last week’s winner, Luke Hoffner in the 15 car from Turbotville, who worked his way up into fifth place. McMillen began to follow Witherite on the outside trying to make something happen but he ran out of real-estate clipping the turn four wall and spinning 180 degrees coming to rest on the front stretch wall. He was able to climb out of the car but could not continue the race. The final caution set up the chase to catch Witherite. Eric Moore from Frenchville piloting the 00 car made a late charge on the low line. He looked like he had Hoffner for second place but Hoffner hung it out on the high side and slung shot around Moore back into second. Witherite took the win. This was Jason’s first win at Hummingbird Speedway this year. His second place finish last week makes the competition even tougher in the Limited Late Model class.
Heat races were won by Farrell, Moore, and Fenton.
In the Pure Stock race Matt Heindl from St. Marys driving the 471 car took to an early lead from his pole starting position. Zack Gustafson in the 93 car out of Weedville followed him in second but close behind was Colton Joiner from DuBois driving the 1* machine. Last week’s winner, Mike Calhoun in the 25 car out of Brockway wasted no time in moving forward from his last starting position. He moved up to second place by mid race working his way around Dustin Challingsworth from St. Marys in the 46 car then Gustafson and Joiner. For the last half of the race it was all Calhoun as he worked his way through lapped traffic extending his lead to 10 car lengths. No serious challengers made any move toward the front and the rest of the pack strung out and stayed in line for the remainder of the race. Calhoun took his fourth win of the season followed across the line by Heindl, Joiner, Challingsworth, and Gustafson.
Winners in the heat races were Gustafson and Heindl.
Bruce Hartzfeld from Stump Creek held the honors of the pole position in the 101 car with the 78 driven by Paul Blake from Weedville on his back bumper. Hartzfeld took the lead with Blake following close behind. The 17C car driven by Brandon Connor from DuBois began a strong run on the outside pole and dropped to the inside early to move into the lead on lap 4. It was short lived as a caution put him back into second place for the restart. There was no shortage of racing action up front with the top 8 positions seeing side by side racing. Conner took the lead only to find another caution slow the field. Luck was not on his side tonight when a flat tire forced him to the pits and to restart at the rear of the field. The lead was relegated to Kyle Shannon from Brockway in the 1S car. He took the green and black street stock to a sizeable lead while the others jockeyed for position. Behind Shannon Blake battled with Hartzfeld as Dan Smeal from Houtzdale in the 44 car, Joe Kot in the 37 car from Dubois and Eddie Conner in the 85 also from DuBois raced for fourth through sixth place. A late race caution brought Shannon back within sight of the pack and hopes they could keep him from the winner’s circle. Shannon proved too strong and determined remembering his way to the checkered flag from his Pure Stock days. He secured his first win of 2011 at The Bird in the competitive Street Stock Class.
In the heat races, Kot, Rhed and Smeal took first place.
Doug Surra from Kersey in the T-3 Front Wheel Drive Four Cylinder class is competitive from where ever he starts the race. Starting on the outside pole made it even tougher on his competitors. On the pole for the race was Chad Desmet from Curwensville in the 26 car. Surra jumped to an early lead and really had no challengers due to his fast car and the caution free race. Back in the pack the 38A driven by Shawn Fedder from Clearfield, the 7 driven by Chuck White, the 5L driven by Aaron Luzier from Clearfield and Bryan Warren in the 5 car from Curwensville fought for second through fifth position raced three wide early in the race. Toward the end of the race the field stretched out and no major changes in position took place. In the end it was Surra by almost half a track for the win followed by Fedder, White, Luzier, and Warren.
White and Fedder won the Front Wheel Drive Four Cylinder heat races.
Notes:
62 cars registered at Hummingbird Speedway for this week’s racing action. 22 Limited Late Models, 11 Pure Stocks, 19 Street Stocks, and 12 Front Wheel Drive Four Cylinders made up the field.
Next week’s program consists of the regular 4 division racing action and the always-popular “Fan Appreciation Night”. Come to the track and mingle with your favorite drivers, look over the cars close up, and, get some autographs. Trophies next week will be courtesy of Rosebud Mining. Gates open at 4:30 PM and racing action starts at 7:00 PM.
For more information visit us on the web at www.hummingbirdspeedway.com.
Full Results
Limited Late Model
1. 24M Jason Witherite Luthersburg
2. 15 Luke Hoffner Turbotville
3. 00 Eric Moore Frenchville
4. 53 Chris Farrell Clearfield
5. 812 John Chesnalavich, Jr. Reynoldsville
6. 55 Denny Fenton Clearfield
7. 7J Josh Young Berwick
8. 10J Bruce Raybuck Falls Creek
9. 9 John Reed Reynoldsville
10. 22 Tim Steis St. Marys
11. 1E Loren Sallack Johnsonburg
12. 77R Roswell Babcock Curwensville
13. 50 Bob McMillen St. Marys
14. 7 Cody Schultz Hyde
15. 99X Kyle Beimel St. Marys
16. 10 Ryan Christoff Houtzdale
17. 3D Bill Davis Luthersburg
18. 36 Paul Kot Brockway
19. 14R Derek Rodkey Osceola Mills
20. 1B Dwayne Brooks Falls Creek
21. 96 John Brady Clearfield
22. 34 Joe Malobicky Jr. St. Mary
Street Stock
1. 1S Kyle Shannon Brockway
2. 37 Joe Kot DuBois
3. 69R Brian Rhed Brockport
4. 85 Eddie Connor DuBois
5. 137 Jamie Price Clearfield
6. 28 Fuzzy Fields Brockport
7. 17C Brandon Connor DuBois
8. 37A Jim Bloom Curwensville
9. 96E Tim Fannin Ridgway
10. 3 Rich Howell Clearfield
11. 00 Randy Sterling Morrisdale
12. 68 Don Henry Brockway
13. 101 Bruce Hartzfeld Stump Creek
14. 78 Paul Blake Weedville
15. 44 Dan Smeal Houtzdale
16. 88 Kenny White DuBois
17. 29L Johnny Lindenpitz Knoxdale
Pure Stock
1. 25 Mike Calhoun Brockway
2. 471 Matt Heindl St. Marys
3. 1* Colton Joiner DuBois
4. 46 Dustin Challingsworth St. Marys
5. 93 Zach Gustafson Weedville
6. 44 Jim Challingsworth St. Marys
7. 10N Justin Kanouff Clearfield
8. 24 Devin Yeaney Brookville
9. 4 Paul Beil Lamar
10. 57T Todd Bailey Brockway
11. 01 Steve Arthurs Falls Creek
Front Wheel Drive Four Cylinders
1. T3 Doug Surra Kersey
2. 38A Shawn Fedder Clearfield
3. 7 Chuck White DuBois
4. 5L Aaron Luzier Clearfield
5. 5 Bryan Warren Curwensville
6. 30N Jacob Kline DuBois
7. 99 Rich Lucas Wallaceton
8. 26 Chad Desmett Curwensville
9. 357B Kody Barrett DuBois
10. 81 Stephanie Lucas Philipsburg
11. 08 Mike Fields Brookville
12. 37 Mike Lucas Philipsburg