Hagerstown

AUGUST 7, 1999                     
DURBORAW INCREASES POINT LEAD WITH SECOND WIN AT HAGERSTOWN

HAGERSTOWN, MD. Nathan Durboraw of Hagerstown inched a little closer to his seventh track championship as he won the 25-lap late model feature on Grove World Wide Family Night Saturday at the Hagerstown Speedway. While Durboraw was scoring his second win, defending track champion Rodney Franklin was trying to keep pace in the close point battle with a back-up ride after his motor blew early in the night during the preliminary event.

    In other action, Wayne Walls of St. Thomas, PA increased his point lead
with his sixth win in the 20-lap late model sportsman feature, Dave Rice Jr.
Of Chambersburg, PA notched his second win in the 15-lap pure stock feature
and Sean Dawson captured his second win in the 10-lap Ernie's Salvage Yard
4-cyl pure stock feature. Kevin Durst of Hancock took the lead coming off the
fourth turn on the final lap to win the 30-lap enduro dash.

    With Rodney Franklin starting 20th in the borrowed car of Dave Padula,Nathan Durboraw drove the Ballantine Construction/Rocket Chassis hard from the drop of the green knowing he had a chance to open the point lead over his closest rival. Durboraw started 12th as Alan Sagi took the early lead from the pole. Jeff Robinson moved into first on the third lap and opened a large lead on the field as Durboraw broke into the top five on lap nine. A caution on the next lap wiped out Robinson's lead as Durboraw made his move to the high groove on the restart. Durboraw passed Charlie Schaffer on lap 11 and made a daring move going through the third turn on the next lap to pass Richard Irwin and Sagi for second. Two laps later, Durboraw caught Robinson to take the lead on lap 14. Once in front, Durboraw was never challenged as
he picked up a big win with only one more point race left on the schedule.

    In addition to his win, Durboraw won the hard charger awards and pocketed $200 from Timber Wolf Racing and $100 from Ernie's Salvage Yard. Robinson settled for second with Irwin, Roy Deese Jr and Schaffer rounding out the top five. The next five spots went to Rick Workman, Andy Friese, D.J. Myers, Sagi and Jeremy Miller. Durboraw, Workman and Robinson won the qualifying events for the 29 late models and Brent Smith won the consolation.

    After seeing his point lead nearly disappear two weeks ago in the Tony
Armel Memorial, Wayne Walls Jr. headed to the front from his 12th starting
spot as soon as the green was dropped in the late model sportsman feature.
Pete Weaver led the first six laps from the pole before giving way to Mike
Walls on lap seven. Weaver brought out the caution on lap seven after Richard
Walls made contact as Wayne Walls broke into the top five. On the restart,
Wayne went to the cushion in the high groove to move into third as Richard
passed Mike for the lead. Wayne passed his son Mike for second on lap 11 and
a lap later moved in front of his brother Richard for the top spot. A caution
on lap 17 for Daryl Kendall, who was only a few points behind Wayne in the
standings, bunched up the field for the restart. But Wayne had no trouble as
he pulled away for the win. Devin Friese late race charge ran out of laps as
he settled for second with Richard and Mike Walls' next across the line.
Finishing out the top ten were Richard Clipp, Daryll Burkholder, John
Giannone, Bob Friese, Barry Miller and Donnie Farlling. Heat winners for the
21 cars were Kendall, W. Walls and D. Friese.  Miller won the St. Thomas
Towing Hard Charger Award.

    Dave Rice took the lead from the outside pole in the pure stock feature
with Bruce Leibowitz in pursuit. On lap seven, a caution was waved as Keith
Reed spun out with help from Jeff Bennett as the two cars entered the third
turn. Point leader Bennett was disqualified for un-sportsman like conduct and
was finished for the night. Rice had no trouble on the restart and led the
rest of the way for the win. Leibowitz finished second with Steve Long and
Eugene Conlee next in line. Dave Mikolajski finished fifth after starting
19th to win the Turner's Bowling Centers Hard Charger Award. Phil Madagan,
Leibowitz and Rice won the preliminary events and Mikolajski won the consi
for the 26 cars.

    In the 4-cyl pure stock feature, Larry Baker took the lead from the pole
as Sean Dawson looked to the front from his seventh starting position. Point
leader Brian Miller quickly moved up to challenge the leader on the second
lap, but gave second away to Dawson when his motor began to misfire. Dawson
pulled even with Baker on the eighth lap and moved in front a lap later to
take the win over Baker, Andy Holmes, Dean Holmes and Eric Mellott. D. Holmes
and Miller were the heat winners for the 13 cars.

    Leroy Hockenberry took the lead from the pole in the 30-car/30-lap enduro
dash as Kevin Durst started back in 28th spot. Durst gradually picked his way
to the front as Hockenberry set the pace. Just when it looked like
Hockenberry would take the win, Durst drove to the inside coming off the
fourth turn to take the lead and the win by half-car length.  Following Durst
and Hockenberry were Eric Goshorn, Tony Ford, Kenny Thomas, Steve Lowery,
Steve Dillon, John Poole, Pete Gems and Mike Ashwell.

    Hagerstown will celebrate its 52nd Anniversary next weekend with a
two-day show. On Friday, August 13th, the Mid-Atlantic Championship late
model series will be in action with a 50-lap $7,000-to-win show. The
sportsman and pure stocks will share the program. On Saturday, August 14th,
the STARS late model circuit will have a 100-lap $10,000-to-win feature for
the late models. The 4-cyl pure stocks will be part of the double header
program.
 
RESULTS:
LATE MODELS: (Heat 1) 1. Durboraw; 2. Palmer; 3. Irwin; 4. Schaffer; 5.
Foster; 6. Fries. (Heat 2) 1. Workman; 2. Miller; 3. Deese; 4. Sagi; 5.
Elksnis; 6. Burkholder. (Heat 3) 1. Robinson; 2. Plessinger; 3. Myers; 4.
Crowl; 5. Lasalle; 6. Rowe. (Consi) 1. Smith; 2. Padula; 3. Dorsey; 4.
Shearer; 5. Nichols; 6. Woolford. DNQ: Adams; Wicklein; Earnest; Brode;
Franklin.

25-LAP LATE MODEL FEATURE: 1. Nathan Durboraw; 2. Jeff Robinson; 3. Richard Irwin; 4. Roy Deese Jr,; 5. Charlie Schaffer; 6. Rick Workman; 7. Andy Fries;8. D.J. Myers; 9. Alan Sagi; 10. Jeremy Miller; 11. Frankie Plessinger; 12.Doug Burkholder; 13. Paul Crowl; 14. Bill Palmer; 15. Brent Smith; 16. Jerry Foster; 17. Rodney Franklin; 18. Dion LaSalle; 19. Jeff Shearer; 20. Mark Elksnis; 21. Harold Dorsey; 22. Will Rowe; 23. Duane Woolford; 24. Rob Nichols.

LATE MODEL SPORTSMAN: (Heat 1) 1. Kendall; 2. Beaver; 3. Giannone; 4. Clipp;
5. D. Farlling; 6. Daniels. (Heat 2) 1. W. Walls; 2. R. Walls; 3. Weaver; 4.
Palmer; 5. Hart; 6. D. Zechman. (Heat 3) 1. D. Friese; 2. Burkholder; 3. M.
Walls; 4. B. Friese; 5. G. Farlling; 6. R. Zechman.
20-LAP LATE MODEL SPORTSMAN FEATURE: 1. Wayne Walls, Jr.; 2. Devin Friese; 3.
Richard Walls; 4. Mike Walls; 5. Richard Clipp; 6. Daryll Burkholder; 7. John
Giannone; 8. Bob Friese; 9. Barry Miller; 10. Donnie Farlling; 11. Scott
Palmer; 12. Scott Sipe; 13. Tony Daniels; 14. Jim Hart; 15. Pete Weaver; 16.
Darrell Kendall; 17. George Farlling Jr.; 18. Randy Zechman; 19. Don Zechman;
20. Travis Beaver; 21. Kenny Day.

15-LAP PURE STOCK FEATURE: 1. Dave Rice Jr.; 2. Bruce Leibowitz; 3. Steve
Long; 4. Eugene Conley; 5. Dave Mikolajski; 6. Gary Calimer Jr.; 7. Ronnie
Dennis; 8. Jim Snyder; 9. Rick Stouffer Jr.; 10. Kirk Evans; 11. Mark Vegh;
12. Bill Eckton Sr.; 13. Russ Moseley; 14. Randy Malott Sr.; 15. Andrew
Frustaci; 16. Michael Sanders; 17. Phil Madagan; 18. Bill Funk; 19. Keith
Reed; 20. Smokey Pharo; 21. Ray Ridenour; 22. Dave Stoufer Jr.; 23. Jeff
Bennett. DNS: Mark Bennett.

10-LAP 4-CYL PURE STOCK FEATURE: 1. Sean Dawson; 2. Larry Baker; 3. Andy
Holmes; 4. Dean Holmes; 5. Eric Mellott; 6. Robert Holmes; 7. Ashley Gordon;
8. Tiffany Shoemaker; 9. Jerry Field; 10. Billy Ecton Jr.; 11. Brian Miller;
12. Keith Bass; 13. Terry Hamm.

30-LAP ENDURO DASH: 1. Kevin Durst; 2. Leroy Hockenberry; 3. Eric Goshorn; 4.
Tony Ford; 5. Kenny Thomas; 6. Steve Lowery; 7. Steve Dillon; 8. John Poole;
9. Pete Gems; 10. Mike Ashwell.


                            -30-