Submitted by Randy Albert
Luke Hoffner makes it win number four while Matt Heindl, Fuzzy Fields, and Shawn Fedder all notch win number two for the season
Falls Creek, Pa — Close racing action and exciting finishes continue to be a regular feature of the racing entertainment at Hummingbird Speedway. In another barn burner of a finish it was Luke Hoffner from Turbotville making a dash at the checkered flag on the last lap of the Limited Late Model division. Matt Heindl out of St. Marys held on for his second win of the season in his Pure Stock. Also with win number two for the year was Fuzzy Fields from Brockport in the Street Stock Class. Finally, not wanting to be left out for taking a second win this year was Shawn Fedder from Clearfield in the Front Wheel drive Four Cylinder class.
The Pure Stock class traded places with the Limited Late tonight taking to the track first for their feature race. The 88 car of Dustin Fields from Brockport led his competitors onto the track and to the green flag. He jumped out to an early lead followed closely by Steve Arthurs in the 01 car from Falls Creek, the 93 car of Zack Gustafson from Weedville, and Matt Heindl in the 471-machine from St. Marys. Behind them a gaggle of cars were mixing it up putting three cars where only two should fit in the turns. The 1* driven by Colton Joiner from DuBois was racing with the 46 of Dustin Challingsworth from St. Marys, the 10N of Justin Kanouff from Clearfield, and last weeks winner Mike Calhoun driving the 25 car out of Brockway. Racing was so close that something had to give and the unlucky recipient was Justin Kanouff who cut down a tire and had to head to the pits. On the restart Fields was once again in the lead but Heindl was working his way forward taking second place from Gustafson and quickly challenging for the lead. Once again three cars wedged into two slots as Arthurs, Gustafson, and Calhoun traded paint for third through fifth position. Fields faded high in turn two opening the way for Heindl to take the lead. Calhoun who had battled through the traffic followed Heindl into second. As Calhoun chased Heindl, Fields, Gustafson and Arthurs were nose to tail. Heindl held on for the win with Calhoun behind him. The exciting finish was for third place with Fields on the outside for the position with Arthurs and Gustafson to his inside stacked three wide. Winners in the heat races were Gustafson and Arthurs.
The Limited Late Model race was almost a carbon copy of last week’s exciting finish with one different player and one familiar face at the end. The different player in the action was Denny Fenton who placed the 55 car from Clearfield on the pole flanked by Eric Moore from Frenchville in the black 00 car. Fenton took to an early lead with Moore in hot pursuit. Moore looked like he was going to challenge early but had to leave the track with mechanical trouble. There was no shortage of challengers to take his place as John Chesnalavich Jr. in the 812 from Reynoldsville and Cody Schultz from Clearfield in the 7 car gave chase to the leader. Schultz moved into second place and worked high and then low on Fenton trying to take the lead. Toward the mid-point of the race Fenton slid a bit high giving Schultz an opening. As he shot into the lead Fenton came back strong on the backstretch retaking the lead when Schultz got loose in turn three spinning to a stop. On the restart he had to tail the field ending what looked to be another potential great run. Farther back in the pack the racing was fast and furious the familiar face of Luke Hoffner in the 15 machine from Turbotville, who started ninth, raced his way into the third position. Also on the move was Chris Farrell in the 53 car based in Clearfield. He had move from his next to last starting position into third and was trading places with Hoffner for second. While everyone seemed to like the high line Chesnalavich’s car was working down low and while he was fast there he just couldn’t quite get enough momentum to make a serious bid for the lead. As the laps wore down it looked like Denny Fenton was headed for his third win of the year. But as we saw last week when Luke Hoffner is on your tail there are no freebies. Hoffner was making up for the whisker close loss to Dwayne Brooks last week. This week he made the move a half lap earlier and it paid off. Fenton tired to retake the lead but Hoffner was a bit stronger and possibly a bit wiser after last weeks second place finish. I an exciting, on your feet type of finish, Hoffner took the checkered flag putting the 15 car in the winners circle for the fourth time this year. Fenton had to settle for second and Chesnalavich had another consistent finish in third.
Heat races were won by Fenton, Chesnalavich, and Moore.
The Street Stocks were next on the track led by the former go-cart and now successful street stock driver Colton Gearhart in the T-3 from DuBois. On his outside was Brockport’s Fuzzy Fields in the 28 car. Gearhart took to an early lead as everyone liked the low line pushing the front of their race car toward the tires lining the turns of the speedway. On lap three Fields nosed under Gearhart in turns 3 and 4 for the lead. Behind them some great racing was taking place between Brandon Connor from DuBois in the 17C, the 8R of Tom Slack from Sabula, and coming into the picture the 137 driven by Jamie Price from Clearfield. While Fields held the lead Slack moved into second place. Trading places behind them was Conner, Price, and Gearhart. Also making his way forward was last week’s winner Joe Kot in the 37 machine from DuBois. He was trying to make hole between the tires and his competitors just kissing the tires with the left front of the car. Fields continued to hold a reasonable lead and Slack was having a good run in second but didn’t have enough to challenge Fields for the lead. The heated battle continued to be for third through fifth with Price, Kot and Gearhart mixing it up for positions. Just behind them Connor had his hands full with Dan Smeal in the 44 car from Houtzdale until Smeal cut a tire on the dwindling laps slowing him down. In the end Fields had put together a strong run up front making it his second win on the season. In the heat races, Fields and Kot took first place.
In Front Wheel Drive Four Cylinders feature, Shawn Fedder from Clearfield was out to an early lead from his starting position on the pole in the 38A car. As Fedder began to stretch out an early lead the 26 car driven by Josh Frantz from Falls Creek followed him. Close behind them trading paint was the theme with the 5 of Bryan Warren from Curwensville, the T-3 driven by Doug Surra from DuBois, and Aaron Luzier in the 5L also from Clearfield. Fedder stretched his lead to as much as 10 car lengths followed by Frantz. Luzier was having trouble working his was around Surra and Warren as well as dealing with lapped traffic. He finally broke from the pack at the half way point and put on the chase for the front. Fedder had taken advantage of the caution free event as well as the racing behind him and held a wide lead at the white flag. Luzier had managed to work his way around Frantz into second but ran out of time to get anywhere close to Fedder. This was Shawn’s second win of the season. Fedder and Luzier won the Front Wheel Drive Four Cylinder heat races.
Notes:
56 cars registered to compete at Hummingbird Speedway with 54 making the call for the feature races. 19 Limited Late Models, 13 Pure Stocks, 11 Street Stocks and 11 Front Wheel Drive Four Cylinders made up the field.
As the season finale looms the point battles in three out of four classes remains tight. Dwayne Brooks holds the lead in the Limited Late Model class with 955 poiints in spite of a non-typical eleventh place finish tonight. Close behind him is the hard charging Luke Hoffner with 924. In third with 906 is the consistent John Chesnalavich Jr. Street Stock’s Joe Kot hold a comfortable lead over Dan Smeal and Jamie Price. Kot has 1011 points with 908 and 864 for Smeal and Price respectively. Mike Calhoun holds a narrow margin in the Pure Stock class with 989 points while Steve Arthurs is in second with 981. Also within striking distance is Matt Heindl in third with 974 points. The closest margin is in the Front Wheel Drive Four Cylinder division. Bryan Warren holds only a two-point lead over Shawn Fedder. Warren has 989 and Fedder has 987 points. Third in the standings is Doug Surra with 926 points.
The Season Championship and the Eric McGarvey Memorial race will be the highlight of the evening on August 27, 2011 at Hummingbird Speedway. It’s down to the wire in all point races and you can bet they won’t be leaving anything on the table. Of course those who are not in the point chase will be competing seriously for the win and the night’s trophy giving no ground to the championship want to be(s). The McGarvey Family will sponsor trophies in memory of local racer Eric McGarvey. 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
Pure Stock
1. 471 Matt Heindl St. Marys
2. 25 Mike Calhoun Brockway
3. 88 Dustin Fields Brockport
4. 01 Steve Arthurs Falls Creek
5. 93 Zach Gustafson Weedville
6. 1* Colton Joiner DuBois
7. 46 Dustin Challingsworth St. Marys
8. 42 Dave Kohler Rockton
9. 44 Jim Challingsworth St. Marys
10. 24 Devin Yeaney Brookville
11. 15M Shawn Munoz Punxsutawney
12. 57T Todd Bailey Brockway
13. 10N Justin Kanouff Clearfield
14. 21(DNS) Nathan Yeaney Brookville
Limited Late Model
1. 15 Luke Hoffner Turbotville
2. 55 Denny Fenton Clearfield
3. 812 John Chesnalavich, Jr. Reynoldsville
4. 53 Chris Farrell Clearfield
5. 50 Bob McMillen St. Marys
6. 15S Eddie Connor DuBois
7. 3D Bill Davis Luthersburg
8. 7J Josh Young Berwick
9. 14R Derek Rodkey Osceola Mills
10. 36 Paul Kot Brockway
11. 1B Dwayne Brooks Falls Creek
12. 99X Kyle Beimel St. Marys
13. 14 Orvie Newcome III Punxsutawney
14. 10J Bruce Raybuck Falls Creek
15. 7 Cody Schultz Hyde
16. 11G Dan Gill Clearfield
17. 9 John Reed Reynoldsville
18. 77R Roswell Babcock Curwensville
19. 00 Eric Moore Frenchville
Street Stock
1. 28 Fuzzy Fields DuBois
2. 8R Tom Slack DuBois
3. 137 Jamie Price Clearfield
4. 37 Joe Kot DuBois
5. 17C Brandon Connor DuBois
6. 78 Paul Blake Weedville
7. 44 Dan Smeal Houtzdale
8. 96E Tim Fannin Ridgway
9. 68 Don Henry Brockway
10. 38 Todd Mathews Sanborn
11. T3 Colton Gearhart Dubois
12. 85(DNS) Eddie Connor DuBois
Front Wheel Drive Four Cylinders
1. 38A Shawn Fedder Clearfield
2. 5L Aaron Luzier Clearfield
3. 26F Josh Frantz Falls Creek
4. T3 Doug Surra Kersey
5. 5 Bryan Warren Curwensville
6. 37 Hunter McCracken Curwensville
7. 26 Chad Desmett Curwensville
8. 357B Kody Barrett DuBois
9. 21R Bill Weber Clearfield
10. 08 Mike Fields Brookville
11. 2B Rusty Murray Mayport