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SMITH ENDS HIS 11 YEAR DROUGHT BY WINNING HIS FIRST CAREER RoC WIN AT WYOMING COUNTY
BY JR KENNERUP ( RoC MEDIA )
Perry, NY ... For eleven years Rusty Smith has tried to win a feature event on the Race of Champions ( RoC ) Dart Asphalt Modified Tour. On Sunday afternoon at Wyoming County International Speedway Smith finally broke the RoC winless streak.
Smith who started 17th made a pit stop for a fresh right rear tire on lap 42. After pitting, Smith charged up through the field to take the lead on lap 62 when he made an inside turn two pass of Erick Rudolph.
Smith had to hold off the relentless challenges of Matt Hirschman over the final 12 laps for the win. Hirschman got alongside Smith on several occasions including the final lap entering turn three but Matt fell three feet short at the line.
Daren Scherer garnered his RoC career best feature finish with a third. Pete Brittain came back from being involved in two yellow flags to finish fourth with Billy Putney coming from the rear in the last ten laps to end up fifth.
“ It’s been 11 years as I started with RoC when I was 18 and I’m now 29 “ said the Oxford, NY third generation driver. “ It feels good as I’ve been the fastest car at a lot of these races and came up short in a lot of these races over the years. Finally today we played the right pit strategy and had the track position that we needed there at the end. “
Smith started 17th and hung around at the tail end of the field until pitting for a right rear tire on lap 42. After this Rusty motored to the front using a variety of grooves in making the passes to the front. “ The last couple of years here we been pretty fortunate when we pitted as we were the first car in the pits. Today we were the fifth or sixth car in the pits and every time we pit we usually have a pretty good stop and today we were the first out of the pits. That great pit stop gave us the track position that we needed and gave us some room on some of the other guys so we had time to work on passing people in front of us and we didn’t have to try and pass in desperation. “
Besides being first in line with a new right rear tire Rusty had one other huge advantage on this day. “ The front of the car stuck awesome in the corners “ said Rusty. “ I wasn’t too sure how it was going to stick with that new right rear on. The new right rear helped us getting in and coming out of the corners. But the car in the middle of the corner stuck to the bottom like glue. I knew I could run the bottom better than anyone else and once the track started coming apart there in four and we were able to keep it down low. If anyone was going to pass us coming out of turn four they were going to be in trouble due to all of the loose stuff in the high groove. “
Not only did Rusty use high side passes but the successful low side passes moved Rusty into fifth on lap 53, into second on lap 59, and into the lead on lap 62. “ I could put the car anywhere I wanted to and I could have passed more cars on the outside if I needed to. But I didn’t want that stuff in turn four to hamper me like it has the last two years here. Because both times that is how Matt has gotten past me and this year I knew that I wasn’t going to let that happen. “
Rusty spoke about Matt pulling alongside and racing him for the win. “ He got alongside of me going into turn three on the last lap just like he did on lap 71. He would have needed a dually there to stick coming off turn four. I really wasn’t worried as I raced him clean, I didn’t run him up the track and out of the way, I didn’t drive up the track and bump into him when he was out there. Because I knew that he was really going to have a tough time coming out of turn four. If he could have beat me that way, then so be it. But I think I could have held on for a few more laps. “
Rusty, who raced at another speedway on Saturday night and due to a rain delay didn’t get back home until 2:30 Sunday morning and had to leave at 5:30 Sunday morning to come here and race. He had this to say about his short night of sleep. “ Everybody has been at each others throat all day here today “ said the laughing Rusty. “ It’s been a long day here today and with the win it will make the ride home a good one. “
Two years ago Matt Hirschman thrilled the crowd with an exciting feature win. Last year Matt was alongside for the win and the yellow came out putting him back in second. This year another late race charge saw Matt alongside the leader several times for the lead. But just like last year the yellows didn’t go his way and he ended up second this year.
“ It’s all timing to when the cautions come out here “ said Matt who started 12th. “ Two years ago the caution came out at the right time and I was able to go to the outside and pass for the lead. Last year I was past Earl ( Paules ) and the caution came out. This year I was on my way by Rusty and the caution came out. It really could have been three years in a row that we won this race, but that is a part of racing. “
Matt along with Rusty Smith hung around at the back of the field during the first 42 laps of the feature that went caution free. Once the first yellow came out for the stopped car of Pete Brittain in turn one, Matt ducked into the pits to put on a fresh right rear tire.
“ Again it’s timing, just like the cautions “ said Matt when talking about when to pit or not pit. “ There’s no guarantee that a pit stop is going to work whether it’s here or at Oswego. Sometimes you can stay out front and lead the whole race and other times you take a tire and come from the back. No one strategy wins a race here it’s something different each year. That’s the game we played here today, we put ourselves in a position to win the race but we just didn’t get it done. “
After pitting Mat entered the top five just twenty laps later but he was already behind Rusty Smith. Matt followed Rusty as he moved his way through the top five finally reaching second on lap 63. Matt was slightly gaining on the outside of Rusty and pulled even on laps 66 and 71. Both times the yellow came out slowing the momentum of Hirschman. Matt gave the win one final shot on the last lap pulling even entering turn three. But with the gritty outside groove taking its toll Hirschman was unable to find enough bite to get out of the corner and settled for second.
Matt summarized his day by saying. “ Anytime you end up in the top two or three you shouldn’t complain. “
“ I’m happy as this is my best RoC finish “ said third place finisher Daren Scherer of Binghamton, NY. “ This is one of the first times that the car handled good, it was loose in the beginning and we came in ( lap 42 ) and changed the right rear tire. “
“ Everything worked out just perfect as we had a little push early after the tire change and then the tire came in and we went to the front. I was going to try and give the front two a shot at the end but the late race yellows must have done something to my stagger as I had nothing for them at the end “ concluded Scherer who started 11th in the feature.
Qualifying for the 19 cars in attendance saw heat wins captured by Putney, Phil Slater, and Mike Leaty.
BULLRING NOTES; RoC would like to thank track management for moving the Modified portion of the show up on the schedule due to rain in the area. This decision turned out to be a blessing in disguise as with the track breaking up the SST feature that was slated to be after the Modifieds was postponed due to unsafe track conditions. Bobby Holmes had a certain top five finish go away due to a severe overheating problem late in the race. Ron Smith, brother of Rusty drove the second Smith Racing entry on the day. Grinding crashes in the feature ended the fine runs of Potrezbowski, Sherwood, and Slater. RoC would like to send a speedy recovery wish out to RoC official Ed Conoran who is currently in the hospital. RoC makes a return trip to the track in one month.
RACE REPORT RACE OF CHAMPIONS DART ASPHALT MODIFIED TOUR NORTH REGION RACE # 1
FINISH; Rusty Smith, Matt Hirschman, Daren Scherer, Pete Brittain, Billy Putney, Rick Kluth, Erick Rudolph, Mike Leaty, John Markovic, Todd Smith, Chris Zacharias, Matt Clemens, Doug Reaume, Bobby Holmes, Phil Slater, JR Swansbrough, TJ Potrzebowski, Lee Sherwood, Ron Smith.
LAP LEADERS; Markovic ( 1 – 43 ), Rudolph ( 44 – 61 ), Ru. Smith ( 62 – 75 )
DART MACHINERY AWARD $1,100 VALUE SET OF HEADS; Potrzebowski
GATER RACING NEWS DRIVER BONUS DRAW $500; Slater
HOOSIER RACING TIRE HARD CHARGER AWARD; Ru. Smith ( 17th to 1st )
HOOSIER RACING TIRE HARD LUCK AWARD; Potrzebowski ( 5th to 17th )
NEXT RoC DART RACE; Saturday June 23rd – Wall Township Speedway – Central Region Race # 3