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              Eriez

Halpainy Gets Second 1999 Win, Foster Sportsman Champ at Eriez

Eriez Speedway, August 29, 1999... Steve Halpainy won from the pole position for the second time in 1999 at Eriez Speedway Sunday night Halpainy gained the front starting spot by virtue of winning the first heat At the start Halpainy pulled away from outside front row sifter Chris Brockway and pulling away until the first of only two cautions was displayed for a spin in turn four by fourth running Matt Urban and Frank Poniatowski. Urban, who has a slim point lead at Eriez, and Poniatowski were able to continue. On the restart Chad Ruhlman was able to get by Brockway and attempted to get by the leader, but was unable to complete the pass until the second turn of lap thirteen. Unfortunately for Ruhlman, Poniatowski spun out again, necessitating another caution and relegating Ruhlman back to second. Again on the restart Ruhlman made several attempts to get by Halpainy, but eventually slipped back to third behind Brockway on lap twenty-four. Halpainy, Brockway, Ruhlman and Doug Eck finished in that order with Merle Terry getting by last week’s winner Pat McGuire on the final lap for fifth. After McGuire, brothers Randy and John Lobb, Scott Johnson, and Urban rounded out the top ten. Seventeen cars took the green flag for the twenty-five lap event. Besides Halpainy, Brockway and Ruhlman won heat events.

Ashtabula, OH’s Mike Horton led the eighteen Limited Late Models to the green flag for their main event Horton then led until getting to turn three and spinning out. As it was on the opening lap, a complete restart was necessary, allowing Horton to revert to his starting pole position. This time, Horton led for the first six laps until being overtaken by Ron Olson. Olson went on for his first win of the 1999 season at Eriez Speedway. Horton maintained second to the checkers followed by last week’s winner Pat McGuire, Pete Wokulich and Jake Lechtner. Kevin Decker and Chris Hackett won the preliminaries.

It was championship night for the Sportsman class with fifteen cars taking the green for the fifteen lap event. Vern Plymier took the immediate lead and held on for the first eight laps. On lap nine Gary Foster assumed the lead which he held to the finish. Randy Parmenter ended the event second with Don McGuire third, Plymier fourth and Cris Dahlgren fifth. Matt Green, Dan Nocero, Jr, and Foster came away with heat wins.

An added feature was held for the eight visiting 4 cylinder cars. The ten lap feature was run caution free and won by Darrell Moody. It was Moody’s first ever race win. Second was Roger Frost with Jeff Moody third.

Greg Johnson took the lead from Greg Hoover on lap eight of the first Cadet feature and was pressured the remaining distance by Jeff Gunnell, but Gunnell was never able to mount a serious challenge on Johnson, who went on for his second Eriez victory of 1999. Gunnell wound up second with Steve Yokum third, point leader Wade Slaney fourth and Chris Withers fifth.

Chad Carlson charged through the seventeen car starting field to take the lead from Gary Eicher on lap five of the second Cadet finale and go on for his twelfth victory of 1999. Eicher continued to a second place finish, ahead of Greg Fenno, Jim Hilyer and last week’s winner Kevin Heslop.

John Pencille and Andy Sweetland won the two heats for the class while Carlson led flag to flag in the special fifteen-lap event for feature race winners in 1999 sponsored by Hoover Sand and Gravel. At the halfway point the event was halted and a drawing was held to determine the starting order for the second half The race was restarted in the running order at the halfway point and Carlson continued on for the win over Bryan Emory and Jeff Gunnell.

Spectator feature winners were John Bliley over Ed Bennett and Mike Munson in the first feature. Bliley had led the race early, but spun on lap four. Bliley then came from the rear to capture the lead from Bennett on the final lap.

The second Spectator feature was won by Gerry Kielar with a last lap pass on Mike Mitchell. Brad Pease also got by Mitchell on the final turn for second.

Jim Kennerknecht grabbed the lead from Scott Ottaway on lap four of Spectator feature number three and held it till the finish ahead of Larry Bowman and Ottaway.

Pat Gorton led the way for the first eight laps of the last Spectator feature before Dave Hess, Jr assumed the top spot for the final two circuits. Gorton wound up second with points leader Chris Sutton third.