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STEWART FRIESEN WINS 46TH
HEATH MEMORIAL AT FIVE MILE POINT SPEEDWAY.
KIKRWOOD, NY…Five Mile Point Speedway held the 46th running of the Heath
Memorial this past Saturday night and Stewart Friesen became a second time
winner of the event. The Modified race
which honors the memory of track founders Irving and Anna Heath was 46 laps
this past Saturday and paid $2,000 to the race winner.
Twenty-six Modified teams
took to the quarter mile for the 46 lap feature event. For the second straight week Gary Tomkins
took off in the early race lead. Two lap
one cautions sorted the field out and the next 40 laps would go caution
free. Tomkins took advantage of the long
green flag run to open up a full straight away lead as he ran the very bottom
of the quarter mile. Once again all eyes
were on the “Canadian Flyer” Stewart Friesen as he began the race
in the sixteenth position. Friesen
wasted no time using all lines of the quarter mile to charge toward the front
of the field.
Nick Rochinski
ran in the second position in the early stages after starting in seventh. Kevin Bates and Bobby Puckett had a
tremendous battle for the third position during the first half of the
race. Friesen found himself in the
runner-up spot by lap 20 running the far outer reaches of the quarter
mile. As Tomkins continued to run the
bottom of the speedway Friesen reeled him in and the two ran side by side for
several laps prior to Friesen taking over for good. The race would go caution free until lap 41
as third place runner and last weeks winner Jim Gabriel, Jr. slowed with a left
rear flat tire. The restart would find
six lapped cars separating Friesen and Tomkins and Friesen quickly pulled back
away. Both Bates and Brian Puckett
hooked up in a great battle for the fourth slot as the laps wound down. At the finish it would be Friesen notching
his second Heath Memorial win and his seventh of the season. Tomkins and Rochinski
were second and third. Bates just edged
out rookie Brian Puckett for fourth.
Gary Griffin, Mike Colsten, Brian Weaver, Frank Yankowski and Brent
Wilcox rounded out the top ten.
Nick Petrilak won the 20 lap
Sportsman feature event as it went caution free once again on Saturday
night. Petrilak and Mike Loney had a
side by side battle for the lead during the first 15 laps of the event. Once Petrilak edged ahead he started to pull
away a bit as Justin Holland put his patented outside drive on as he charged
toward the front. On lap 16
The 20 lap Street Stock
feature event followed the trend of the evening as they too went caution free
in their feature. The race can be
described as one of the best in you could ever see. Defending Heath Memorial race winner Todd Sutliff lead to the mid-way point of the event only to
retire with an overheating problem in the number zero. Darl Ellis, Jr.
took over the point from lap 11 and immediately had to contend with Shane Wolf,
Jr., Tyler Yeagle, Charlie Gilbert and Wednesday
night winner Harold Humphrey. Ellis and
Wolf ran side by side during the final stages of the event and unfortunately
for Ellis his left rear tire began to lose air.
Over the final two laps Wolf tried all routes around as Gilbert waited
for a mistake in third. In turn three on
the final lap Ellis had the tire let go as Wolf would spin to avoid leaving
Gilbert to charge around them both for the victory. Jonathon Carpenter wound up in second at the
stripe followed by Humphrey, Doug Polhamus and Doug
Stack.
The 20 lap IMCA Modified
feature was slowed by only one caution as Mike Smith rebounded from a
devastating crash last Saturday to record the win in a new car this
weekend. Smith jumped a wheel in last
Saturday night’s event while running third and slammed the third turn
wall destroying his mount. Smith started
in sixth place and took the lead on lap 8 from Joe Cole. Smith pulled away during the late stages with
Kevan Cook putting his second straight top five finish in the books by finishing second. Matt Roberts wound up third with Scott Bennett
and K.C. Cole completing the top five.
A pair of Lightning Cat wins
went to Lancen Albanese in the Expert division and
Troy Kress in the Novice division.
COUNTER POINTS…The very special evening of racing saw former
driver’s returning to the speedway from as far away as Florida for the
Heath Memorial…Ten additions were named to the Greatest All Time Drivers
List at the speedway…Billy Decker, Gary Dence, Stewart Friesen, Mitch
Gibbs, Charlie Gilbert, Red Harrington, Gordie Isham, Danny Johnson, Gary Roberts, Brian
Weaver...Congratulations to those drivers on a great accomplishment…All
of the support division features were in the books by 8:00 p.m. as the speedway
then held it’s ceremony honoring the great drivers from the
past…The ultra wide quarter mile oval provided unbelievable racing on
Saturday with only five caution flag periods between six feature events…Sue
Goodwin (mother of Sportsman driver P.J. Goodwin) raised lap money and
contingency awards for the entire Sportsman field on Saturday…Martin and
J.R. Kennerup donated 50 dollars to the leader of lap
41 in the Modified feature in memory of Jane Kennerup
who passed away this past spring…
46th HEATH MEMORIAL OFFICIAL FEATURE FINISH
46 LAPS: STEWART FRIESEN, Gary Tomkins, Nick Rochinski,
Kevin Bates, Brian Puckett, Gary Griffin, Mike Colsten, Brian Weaver, Frank
Yankowski, Brent Wilcox, Joey Colsten, Jim Gabriel Jr., Shaun Walker, Brian
Malcolm, Eric Palmer, Carl Nagel, Ken Titus, Joe Krisovich, Glenn Knapp, Bobby
Puckett, J.r. Hurlburt, Barry White, Bobby Trapper,
Joe Eisenhauer, Tom Oleski, Mike Bowman. DNS Darrin Schuler.
SPORTSMAN OFFICIAL FEATURE FINISH
20 LAPS: NICK PETRILAK, Justin Holland, Mike Loney, Jamie Batzel, Chris Wood,
P.J. Goodwin, Steven Planck, Mike Austin, Mike Dougherty, Mike Nagel Jr., Gary
Plummer, Paul Strohl, Bryan Batzel, Jerry Tonti, Mike
Sabia.
IMCA MODIFIED OFFICIAL FEATURE FINISH 20 LAPS: MIKE SMITH, Kevan
Cook, Matt Roberts, Scott Bennett, Casey Cole, Joe Cole, Chris Fleming, Gary
Roberts, Mike Wilbur, Gary Dence, Brad Weaver, Tyler Stoddard, Howard Jones,
Shawn Bruce, Mike Stoddard, Patti Simpson.
STREET STOCK OFFICIAL FEATURE FINISH
20 LAPS: CHARLIE GILBERT, Jon Carpenter, Harold Humphrey, Doug Polhamus, Doug Stack, Mike Codington, Louie Gordinier, Jake Folsten, Darl Ellis Jr., Steve Polhamus,
Shane Wolf Jr., Joe Warren, Rob Snow, Duane Codington, Tyler Yeagle, Todd Sutliff.
LIGHTNING CAT EXPERT OFFICIAL FEATURE FINISH: LANCEN ALBANESE, Dan Wood, Nick Griest, Kenny
Underwood, Dave Simms, Mike Seaman, Bill Titus, Jeff Hayes, Dennis Keesler, Gary Kinne, Beezer Wilkie, Grayson Albanese,
22s, 8w, Ashley Jones, Rob Slezak, Tyler Harpell,
David Cook, Travis Hayes.
LIGHTNING CAT NOVICE OFFICIAL FEATURE FINISH: TROY KRESS, Mike McDaniels, Duane Kinne, Jerry Tunney, Kim Hayes, Tanner Harpell, Tyler
Belcher, Jason Colwell, Anthony Seward, Damen Basuenwein, Tom Desmond, Michelle Dowdle,
Chad Walters, Hank Bausenwein. DNS Dave Desmond.