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BEERS DOMINATES MAHONING VALLEY TO CLAIM FIRST 2007 RoC DART ASPHALT MODIFIED TOUR WIN
BY JR KENNERUP
Lehighton, Pa… For the second consecutive Race of Champions ( RoC ) Dart Asphalt Modified Tour race at the Mahoning Valley Speedway. Eric Beers of Northampton, Pa. showed everyone at the tight quarter mile oval the quick way around. Last October in the final 2006 RoC race of the year Beers dominated on a very sticky racing surface to claim the win.
On Saturday night Beers driving the Horwith Freightliner sponsored Modified started sixth and used a third groove pass of Dave Wallace to take the lead on a lap 13 double file restart. Once in front Beers easily outdistanced the talented field to win his first feature of 2007 in the Northeast, Beers won one race in Florida in February.
Defending RoC Overall Champion and current Mahoning Valley point leader Earl Paules settled for second after starting 11th. Paules had several chances to see if he had anything for Beers with a couple of late race restarts. But Earl had nothing for the fast Beers car on this night.
Former dirt track Modified racer Kevin Graver, Jr. ended up third in a stellar effort after starting 15th. Pete Brittain also turned in a stellar driving performance by finishing fourth after pitting for a tire problem on lap two. Rusty Smith ended up fifth, the hard charger of the race after starting 23rd and making one pit stop on lap 18.
“ Finally I won one “ said the $2,851 winner. “ It’s been a while since February in Florida. “
“ We came here and ran one of those 100 lappers they have here earlier this year “ recalled Eric. “ I came here with a completely different setup to try something. We finished second to Earl and I said I’m never doing that again. I put the car back to where it should be for here and it showed. The car stayed good and the track surface was awesome tonight. “
Eric moved into the top five from his sixth place starting spot on lap three. Then into fourth on the next lap and into third on the following lap and finally into second on lap eight. On the lap 13 restart Eric made a third groove high side turn three pass of leader Dave Wallace for the lead that he would never give up.
Eric spoke about that high side pass for the lead. “ Dave was running a high line and the thing just stuck and I went right around him. I had the left side tires in the groove but the right side tires were up where there was no rubber and it still stuck. I was pretty surprised that it stuck that good in that gray area of the track. “
“ They ran a whole round of practice with the cones out there to work in the outside grooves. I think it definitely helped the top of the race track; it was really good as there were definitely two grooves out there tonight. You could do whatever you wanted to do on the race track tonight as you could race on the bottom, on the top. The crew gave me a great racecar that I could do anything with tonight “ commented Eric.
Once in front Beers just started to dominate the event as he opened up huge leads only to lose them each time the yellow came out. After the restart Eric would once again open up a huge lead. Eric said this about his car. “ We had a really good racecar and I didn’t want to kill the thing once we were out in front. Every time after a restart it took two laps for the right front to get hot and once that happened we got back to turning good laps. The car was so good in the middle of the race ( consistent 9.9 laps ) I was slowing down and my crew kept telling me I was pulling away. I would slow down and ease off the throttle more and they say I’m still pulling away. How much slower do I have to go ? When you ease off throttle here and take it easy and don’t upset the chassis here the thing just stuck to the race track. The slower you go here the faster you’re going to end up going here, it doesn’t make any sense but in theory it works once you learn it. “
Eric spoke about his late race competition for the win from Earl Paules. “ Earl is racing here weekly now and he is really getting quick here. I’m just glad that we held him off and won the thing. “
“The end of the race your tires are a little wore out, you don’t know if Earl was saving anything “ said Eric when talking about the last three restarts with Paules on the outside of him. “ So you really have to be careful and not screw up on a restart because when you’re leading it’s your race to lose. So you got to do all of the restarts right, the one restart ( lap 62 1st restart ) I might have went a little bit early. But the officials wanted me to go at the cone so they threw the caution and we did it again. I just didn’t want to do anything stupid and lose it on a restart. We had restarts that we were dead even with Earl at the cone. Earl I’m sure wasn’t happy with second but we were happy with a win tonight. “
The happy go lucky winner won his 21st career Modified feature at Mahoning Valley on this night. Eric spoke about this accomplishment. “ I love this place, I started racing Modifieds here. We only raced three full seasons here with a Modified and we been coming back for four to five a shows a year here since. To have 21 wins basically running only four full seasons here is pretty good. Maybe when I’m 50 or 60 and I’m still racing I’ll come back here in my final season and race at this place if it is still around. “
“ The car just got too tight “ summed Earl Paules after finishing second. “ We got wrecked a couple of weeks ago and we just never got the camber right for the right front of the car. We still don’t have it right as it stills rolls over on the right front, we’ll get that fixed for next week. “
Earl who started 11th in the field of 26 moved into fifth by lap 11. Two laps later Earl moved into fourth and then a terrific eight lap battle between him, Dave Wallace, and Zane Zeiner took place with Earl finally grabbing third on lap 21. Earl moved into second on a lap 37 restart but really didn’t have anything for the high flying Eric Beers.
Once in second it seemed that earl had nothing for Beers as Eric opened up an unheard of 15 car length lead at Mahoning Valley. Then near the completion of the race it appeared that Paules held something in reserve as he challenged Beers for a couple of laps after each restart. “ On that one restart ( lap 57 ) my crew said we were pulling away from the third place car so I knew that I could try it on the outside and it wouldn’t cost me a position “ said Earl. “ I tucked behind Eric and he was really bad and I thought to myself wow I wish I had a yellow. Then the yellow came out and I said now I’m going to try him and we were up alongside him ( lap 62 1st restart ) and the yellow came back out. Then he got a good jump the next time ( lap 62 2nd restart ) and I could never get going again. “
“ I’m happy with second as we had a second place car tonight and that is where we finished “ stated Earl. “ The track had a really good outside tonight and if I knew we had been good on the bottom and still a little bit tight I knew that we were going to be bad up on the top. That is how it works here normally and I just couldn’t get along side Eric. “
Paules did have his late race shots at Beers on double file restarts that took place on lap 57 and twice on lap 62. “ I had him beat on that one restart ( 1st one on lap 62 ) but the yellow came back out. Congratulations to Eric, he did a great job and he knows his way around this place too. “
Earl continued on by saying. “ We’re pretty happy with second, probably took over the point lead in the Super Seven Series and we’re doing pretty good in the Central Region with a fifth and a second. We’ll see what happens in the end. “
“ Starting 15th and getting third was just awesome “ said the smiling third place finisher Kevin Graver, Jr. “ We got a lot of breaks, we were fourth and Scott Lesher got a flat tire who was third. But those are the breaks you need sometime; we missed the setup a little bit tonight. We were close on the setup but we needed to be a little bit closer on the setup and I think we would have had something for those guys. “
Graver methodically picked his way up through the field finally moving into fifth on lap 21. Kevin took over fourth on lap 37 and moved into third when the flat tire of Lesher happened on lap 58. Kevin raced solidly for the remaining laps in third with no one really applying any pressure on him for third. “ On the long runs I think I was just as good as Eric and Earl were. The difference was that they pulled me in the beginning of the race and I had to use my car up a little more than they did to get to the front “ summarized Kevin.
Qualifying in this event which is a part of the Super Seven Modified Series at Mahoning Valley saw time trials run with the top 12 times going directly into the feature. Pete Brittain driving the former Chuck Winslow owned car set quick time of the 26 cars in attendance with a lap of 9. 848. The two qualifying heat races were captured by Rod Synder, Jr. and Chip Santee.
MAHONING NOTES; Once again time trials at were interesting looking at just how close and quick everyone is at the track. The top 11 all broke into the nine second barrier with the overall breakdown showing quick time at 9. 848, 12th at 10. 010, 26th at 10. 620. The top four times ( Brittain, Paules, Zane Zeiner, and Matt Hirschman ) all received the five bonus points. Matt Hirschman was driving the J & J Motorsports entry that he will be running on a limited basis this year. Matt who started second had trouble keeping the car running during the pace laps for the feature ending up blowing the motor seven laps into the race. Bob Dillner who works for SPEED was in attendance and donated $51 in the name of SPEED51.com to the leader of lap 51 in the feature. David Gilliland who drives the M & M entry in Nextel Cup competition was in attendance watching one of his crewmen Brent Wentz race in the Modified portion of the show. Scott Lesher was slated to go first in time trials had a left rear flat and took one lap at the end. That lap was good enough to get him in the top 12 and he ended up seventh on the night. All drivers did a great job racing on a very sticky and quick racing surface with only Daren Scherer ( broken steering column ) having to be towed off the racing surface during the entire Modified portion of the show. RoC Dart Asphalt Modified Tour returns to Mahoning on August 18th for the final Central Region point race.
RACE REPORT RACE OF CHAMPIONS DART ASPHALT MODIFIED TOUR CENTRAL REGION RACE # 2 MAHONING VALLEY SPEEDWAY
FINISH; Eric Beers, Earl Paules, Kevin Graver, Jr., Pete Brittain, Rusty Smith, John Markovic, Scott Lesher, Don Wagner, Zane Zeiner, Glen Correll, Rod Synder, Jr., Lee Sherwood, Troy Bollinger, Phil Slater, Mike Quinn, Todd Baer, Dave Wallace, Brent Wentz, Bobby Jones, Kevin Brown, Chip Santee, Brian DeFebo, Daren Scherer, Matt Hirschman, John Bennett, Matt Clemens.
LAP LEADERS; Hirschman ( 1 – 2 ), Wallace ( 3 – 13 ), Beers ( 14 – 75 ).
DART MACHINERY SET OF HEADS AWARD $1, 100 VALUE; Hirschman
GATER RACING NEWS DRIVER BONUS DRAW $500 ; Brown
HOOSIER RACING TIRE HARD CHARGER AWARD; Smith 23rd to 5th
HOOSIER RACING TIRE HARD LUCK AWARD; Hirschman 2nd to 24th
NEXT RoC DART ASPHALT MODIFIED TOUR EVENT; Sunday June 17th – North Region Race # 2 – Wyoming County International Raceway – Perry, NY 2:30 pm