VIC VENA GRABS STREET STOCK MID SEASON CASH AT MCR
(E. Smethport, PA)
by Chris Zuver

Vic Vena of Olean NY began the season as the early point leader in the Emod division, but he know has the biggest Jerge's Scrap Metal street stock win of the season by grabbing the $650 to win Mid Season Championship at McKean County Raceway.  Rich Michael picked up the Emod Mid Season Championship, while Jeff Chesebro won the Wimpy's Place Super Stock mid season point race and Dave Burdick returned to victory lane with his second win of the year in the NE Micro Mini Stock Mid Season Championship race.  Jim Frank of Jamestown picked up his first ever win at MCR in the Maynard's FASTRAK Late Models as their event was a non points event on Johnson Distributing Mid Season Championship Night.

The Wimpy's Place Super Stock had their 20 lap Mid Season Championship and Smethport drivers, Jeff Chesebro and Steve Dixon would lead the field to Tony VanPelt's green flag.  Chesebro zoomed into the lead in his black #97 machine as Dixon and Ron Baker slipped into third on the opening lap.  Dan Cobb would get by Baker on lap three as Chesebro was distancing himself from Dixon early and quickly.  As lap five clicked off, John Lichy slid up to the third spot behind Dixon as Baker had slid back to fifth trying to hold off the challenge of point leader, Rich Michael.  On lap nine, Lichy made the move to second on the inside of Dixon and Michael was now in fifth.  Two laps later, Cobb would spin in turn two relinquishing the fourth position to Michael and Baker would now be back in fifth.  On the restart it appeared that maybe, Lichy may have something for Chesebro, but that was short lived as Chesebro #97 again started to pull away from the field.  Nobody had anything for Chesebro as he went on to win easily over Lichy, Dixon, Michael and Ron Baker rounded out the top five.    The Johnson Distributing, Mid Season Championship win should put him back on top of the point chart in the Wimpy's Place Super Stock division and tie him with Michael with two wins a piece in the division.  Lichy and Baker won the heat events for the super stocks.

Jeff Chesebro	Jon Lichy	Ron Baker

The Maynard's Electric FASTRAK Late Models had a non points event this evening due to a FASTRAK Regional event at Lakeville, Ohio.  Veteran, John Haggerty and late model newcomer, Jim Frank paced the FASTRAK late models to the initial green flag and Frank used the outside lane to his liking to inch ahead of Haggerty.  As lap five clicked off the books, Frank had built a comfortable lead over Haggerty and Tim Schram as Bob Kish was running impressively in fourth ahead of Chris Knuth.  The first yellow was flown one lap later for the slowing car of Dave Norton Jr.  On the restart, Haggerty stuck his nose under Frank, but Frank shut the door on Haggerty.  Knuth, last week's winner, John Lacki  and Mike Wonderling would get by Kish as he got high in turn two, but on lap nine, Knuth would loose the handle in turn two to bring out the yellow and giving fourth to Lacki.  On the restart, Wonderling and Kyle Drum bonsai passed Lacki, with Lacki getting back by Drum on lap eleven.  Knuth had worked his way back to seventh at the halfway point.  Haggerty was again all over Frank and looked to have the faster car, but could not get by the blue #14 of Frank.  With five to go, the #16 of Derrick Frank spun in turn two to bring out the yellow allowing Haggerty to get up next to Jim Frank one last time.  Frank restarted the field by using the upper third of the track and almost leaving the bottom open for Tim Schram to scoot by, but the #14 had enough forward bite of turn two to pull away to leave Haggerty and Schram battle for second.  Haggerty was comfortable in second with Schram in third but the wild battle was for fourth between Drum, Dan Stives, Mike Wonderling and John Lacki.  At the line it was Frank picking up his first ever FASTRAK Late Model win over Haggerty, Schram, Drum and Dan Stives.  Heat winners were:  Haggerty and Bob Kish.

Jim Frank	John Haggerty	Bob Kish

The Jerge's Street Stocks has been the strongest field all season at MCR and on Johnson Distributing Mid Season Championship night, extra cash was being awarded along with double points and the feature lineup being settled by a pair of dashes.  Point leader Chris Austin and former track champion, Adam Ashcroft would pace the twenty four car field to the go flag and it was Austin leading the first lap by a fender over Austin, Andy Michael, Darren Morgan and Brett Smith.  On lap three Ashcroft would use the high line to grab the top spot from Austin and by lap five, it would be defending track champion, Andy Michael nipping Austin at the line for second and using the low line to sneak by the cushion loving Ashcroft on lap six.  Lap eight would see Vic Vena move into third from his seventh place starting spot and he and Ashcroft would put on a great battle for second until he got by on lap eleven when he decided to hound Michael.  With ten to go Michael had his #17x in front still as he was getting to the tail of the field and Vena was glued to the back bumper.  The duo had separated themselves from Ashcroft, while Austin and Rich Hemphill rounded out the top five.  With five to go the second yellow of the event came flying out for Damon Lewis�s spin in turn 2 and the fans got to see a new leader as Vena got by Michael to take over the lead.  After a pair of restarts on lap 21, Vena would try to distance himself from the field as Ashcroft went topside again to grab second on lap twenty two and three when the yellow came out one more time.  With two to go, it was going to be a barn burner of a finish but as lap twenty four was completed, fifth place running Brett Smith and Rich Hemphill made contact resulting in the #2x of Smith sitting sideways in turn four making a one lap dash for the win. Michael would hit the pits with a right front flat giving up third place.  But, Vena was too strong on the restart and would win over Ashcroft, Austin, Hemphill and Lance Palmer. Jerge's Street Stock heats were won by, Jason Schoonmaker, Chris Austin, Brett Smith, Vena.  Joe White won the consolation, while Austin and Ashcroft won the dashes to start on the front row for the Johnson Distributing Mid Season Championship event.

Chris Austin	Jason Schoonmaker	Brett Smith

The Emods entered the 1/3 mile speed plant for their mid season title event.  Kyle Scott and Bob Connor would lead the seventeen car field to the green and Connor would use the outside groove to lead lap one as Rich Michael followed Connor's tracks and then would swoop around Connor on lap two and never looked back.  Darren Tarabori would bring his V6 powered machine to third on lap three and dispose of Connor on lap five for second.  Fourth place running, Kyle Bedell would get extremely high in turn two and would lose a bunch of spots on lap seven as last week's winner, Ryan Bright and Kyle Scott would now slip into fourth and fifth.  As the field crossed the stripe at the halfway point it was Michael holding a comfortable ten car length lead over Tarabori, followed by Connor and Bright as they battled door to door for third and Tim Peterson was now fifth.  Bright would get around Connor as the battle for fifth was heating up between Scott, Peterson, Asel, Kyle Bedell and John Woodward.  With six to go, the second yellow of the event flew for a four car melee in turn two.  Tarabori and Bright now sat on the back bumper of Michael, but Michael just pulled away.  Tim Peterson would regrab fifth from Kyle Scott with five to go and the final five laps would see the top five stay the same as Michael would pick up his second win of the season in the Emod division.  Michael was followed by Tarabori, Bright, Connor and Tim Peterson.  Heat winners were Kyle Bedell and John Woodward.
 

Rich Michaels	Kyle Bedell	John Woodward

The NE Micro Mini Stocks finished the evening's race program as the 4cylinders had their Johnson Distributing Mid Season Championship event.  Levi Watson and Dave Burdick paced the bumblebees to green and it was Watson leading lap one over Burdick, Nick Snayzcuk, Dave Lowe and point leader Steve Mowery.  Burdick would move to the inside of Watson in turn three and four to grab the lead on lap four while Mowery was now in second.  Burdick would start to pull away in his orange #47 while Watson and was trying to get back by Mowery.  The battle for second was fierce between Mowery and Watson as the #26 appeared to be a little faster off the corners, but it was Mowery keeping Watson at bay.  With four to go, Watson would use the outside groove and snooker Mowery who was keeping his machine tucked to the bottom of the track and on lap twelve Mowery got into the back of Watson in turn two resulting in Watson spinning and Mowery being shown the black flag. With second and third being removed from the running order the restart had Burdick, Snayzcuk, Jeff Buhl, Dave Lowe Jr and his father Dave Lowe Sr. now being scored as the top five.  Burdick refired on the restart and made sure nobody was going to defeat him as he pulled away from Snayzcuk.  Last weeks winner Daniel Cunningham slipped into fifth as he came from the rear from a lap three spin.  With the white flag flying, Cunningham now grabbed fourth from the younger Lowe, but at the checkers it was the Redneck, Dave Burdick winning the mid season championship event over Snayzcuk, Buhl, Cunningham and Dave Lowe Jr.  With the win, Burdick should now be the new Mini Stock point leader.  Heatwinners were:  Levi Watson and Nick Snayzcuk.

Dave Burdick	Nick Snayzcuk	Levi Watson

MCR will be back in action on Thursday night as the second edition of MCR's THURSDAY NIGHT THUNDER will see the return of the United Late Model Series.  The high flying super late models will be running the second annual Dave Lundgren Memorial that will pay $3000 to win.  David Scott, Mike Knight, Bob Close, Todd Andrews, Dick Barton will be a handful of some thirty plus super late models that will be on hand.  The Emods will be running a $650 to win special along with a full card of street stocks, super stocks and mini stocks.  MCR will return to its normal Saturday night racing on July 7.  For more information log onto MCR;s website at www.mckeancountyraceway.com or www.unitedlatemodelseries.com

RESULTS:

MAYNARD FASTRAK LATE MODELS:
JIM FRANK, John Haggerty, Tim Schram, Kyle Drum, Dan Stives, Mike Wonderling, John Lacki, Bob Kish, Chris Knuth, Joe Watson, Derrick Frank, Dave Norton Jr.

WIMPY'S PLACE SUPER STOCKS:
JEFF CHESEBRO, John Lichy, Steve Dixon, Rich Michael, Ron Baker, Tim Peterson, Jr. Peters, Dan Dunham, George Ritter, Dean Layfield, Dennis Peters and Dan Cobb.

JERGE'S STREET STOCK:
VIC VENA, Adam Ashcroft, Chris Austin, Rich Hemphill, Lance Palmer, Derrick Frances, Jeff Hellwig, Bruno Mowery, Matt Palmer, Brad Bigley, Tim Bruce, Damon Lewis, Dennis Asel, Andy Michael, Brett Smith, Joe Layfield, John Ritter, Kelly Green, Darren Morgan, Jason Schoonmaker, Ed Coast, Justin Tatlow, Joe White, Ken Shelley.  DNQ.  Barry Mushaweck,
Paul Gerace, Allan Neamon and Jeremy Bucktooth.

EMODS:
RICH MICHAEL, Darren Tarabori, Ryan Bright, Bob Connor, Tim Peterson, Kyle Scott, Travis Asel, Jeremy Ensell, Kyle Bedell, Vic Vena, John Woodward Jr., Damon Lewis, Kevin Kohl, Dana Wellington, Bob Mohney, Craig Bedell, Bob Stilson, Ed Carley (DNS)

NE MICRO MINI STOCKS:
DAVE BURDICK, Nick Snayzcuk, Jeff Buhl, Daniel Cunningham, Dave Lowe Jr., Dave Lowe Sr, Amanda Close, Levi Watson, Justin Yohe, Chris Parr, Donald Yard, Tyler Carlin, Steve Mowery, Norm Varner (DNS), Herm Burrows (DNS)