johnqpublic
09-08-2005, 07:17 PM
Watier, Hartzell and Morris Share Honors in Chico’s Victory Lane
On Sunday, the WDRA Super Dirt Series made stop 8 on the year at Chico’s R/C Speedway. This is the second consecutive year that the tour has visited the North Country oval. The track had been resurfaced in the week prior to the event, which resulted in a fast surface that was a bit wavy, but filled with traction.
In Modified action, Terry Schmitt jumped out to an early lead from his TQ position, with second qualifier Dylan Watier hot on his heels in second. As Schmitt worked heavy lapped traffic, he could not shake Watier. On lap 15, Watier was able to use the traffic to his advantage, snatching the lead from Schmitt as he tried the high groove around the slower cars. On lap 19, Schmitt would encounter more trouble as he was momentarily slowed on the backstretch to avoid a pile-up. This would allow current point leader Billy Kimpton to move into second. Schmitt was not finished yet, as by lap 30 he would use his speed to snag second back and set sail after Watier, who had opened up a big lead.
Watier was setting a blistering pace up front, but Schmitt was just a bit faster, as he slowly reeled in the leader. On lap 44, Kimpton would fall victim to a skirmish, and find himself a lap down to the leaders, as Schmitt would continue reel in the lead car. The gap would close to about 6 car lengths as the laps wound down, but that’s as close as it would get, with Watier driving a great race to garner his first ever win in the Modified division. The hard-charging Schmitt would have to settle for second with Kimpton, Jim Carr and Barry Wallace rounding out the top 5.
The Big Block Stock division has become known as the division to produce the most excitement and this week, it would be no different. Dale Hartzell and Zach Wojciechowski would make up the front row, but when the first lap was scored, Dylan Watier had surged into the lead from the inside of row 2. With Watier in the lead, and looking for the “two-peat” on the day, the battle was heating up for second, as Zach would overtake Hartzell as they worked lap 6. Hartzell’s slide was not over yet, as on lap 8 hometown hero Eric Beadle would move into 3rd after starting 8th, having bumped up all the way from the C-Main!
Beadle’s storybook drive would be foiled however, as Hartzell retook 3rd on lap 13, and just 2 laps later a crash would relegate him back to 6th. Meanwhile, Hartzell was starting a march back to the front, overtaking Wojciechowski for second on lap 17. Hartzell would now begin to slowly cut into the lead margin.
By lap 50 Watier would start to feel some serious heat from the point leader. Hartzell was throwing everything, including the kitchen sink, at Watier to find a way past. As the leaders ran nose-to-tail on lap 57, they would encounter the third running Jeff Winzens, who was perhaps running the race of his life after winning the B-Main to stamp his ticket for the “Big Show”. As Watier, who was feeling heavy pressure, looked for a way past Winzens, they touched, sending Winzens spinning, Watier out of the groove, and Hartzell into the lead! Hartzell now had an advantage of a couple of tenths that he would hold on to for his second checkered flag of the season. Watier just missed his second win of the day finishing in the runner-up spot, with Wojciechowski, Beadle and Keith Devendorf taking advantage of Winzens’ misfortune to round out the top 5.
In the Small Block action, point leader Lee Morris was able find victory, after being so close, so many times before. It was his first ever win in WDRA competition! From the pole, Morris jumped out to an early lead, with 4th starting Bob Egan moving into second on lap 2. On lap 6, Morris would find one of the numerous accidents on the track, moving Egan to the lead and Brady Snell into 2nd. Egan and Snell would find themselves in trouble on 2 consecutive laps, moving Morris back to the point. Snell would fall from contention on lap 11 with a missing transponder.
From there, things settled down a bit with Morris and Egan running one-two for the remainder of the distance, constantly negotiating heavy traffic. Joe Rodriguez steadily moved his way from the 7th slot on the starting grid to 3rd by lap 26, but he could not gain on the lead duo. Dave Loughead started the main from the outside of the front row, but a lot of bad luck would see him fall all the way to 9th by lap 6. As the race settled down, Loughead authored a nice drive to get up to 4th place when the checkers fell. After some bad breaks in the heats, the second place point man EJ French found himself starting last on the grid, but managed a top 5 run at the finish.
In other action, Jeff Winzens took the win over Jeff Kloos in Modified Truck, while Nate Reome bested Larry Morris in the Sportsman division.
The SDS will travel to Redneck R/C in Fulton, NY for the series finale on October 23rd. Point leaders Kimpton, Hartzell, and Morris look to have the points sewn up in their respective divisions by just signing up at Redneck, but only time will tell the final outcome.
Wally’s Random Thoughts:
· It was a great turnout, despite the outrageous price to travel these days.
· Thanks go out to Mike & the Monroe Co. Club for use of the scoring system.
· This was my first visit to Chico’s and I must say I was impressed. The track was very fast…it will be scary fast when they get a handle on the new surface.
· The 4th heat race in Big Block Stock was a sight to see as “Team Highlife” dominated the starting grid. Of the 5 starters, only Steve Thompson’s ride was not adorned with the black, green, blue and white color scheme. The only visible difference between the cars of Chico Taylor, Eric Beadle, Dan Gill and Ben Tucker was the number.
· Speaking of Eric Beadle, some trouble in the heats relegated him to a C-Main starting position, but he rallied to nab a top 5 finish in the A-Main, fairing the best of the team cars.
· I was impressed with the performance of Jeff Winzens this weekend. Sunday was probably the best I’ve seen him drive…he had a good run going in the A-Main to go along with his win in the B. Way to go!
· Dan Danoski in the CDK house car had another impressive run. In just his second Big Block start he made his second A-Main appearance, after moving up from Small Block at Pine Bowl.
· Keith Devendorf was piloting a car out of the Billy Kimpton stables and placed it solidly in the show, qualifying 6th and finishing 5th.
· Great to see Mr. Todd at the track.
· For the third race in a row, I was behind the wheel of the Terry Schmitt back-up car (thanks Terry!), as I await the upcoming “delivery” of a new ride….which is good because after my showings I’d likely be fired anyway!
Until next time…
On Sunday, the WDRA Super Dirt Series made stop 8 on the year at Chico’s R/C Speedway. This is the second consecutive year that the tour has visited the North Country oval. The track had been resurfaced in the week prior to the event, which resulted in a fast surface that was a bit wavy, but filled with traction.
In Modified action, Terry Schmitt jumped out to an early lead from his TQ position, with second qualifier Dylan Watier hot on his heels in second. As Schmitt worked heavy lapped traffic, he could not shake Watier. On lap 15, Watier was able to use the traffic to his advantage, snatching the lead from Schmitt as he tried the high groove around the slower cars. On lap 19, Schmitt would encounter more trouble as he was momentarily slowed on the backstretch to avoid a pile-up. This would allow current point leader Billy Kimpton to move into second. Schmitt was not finished yet, as by lap 30 he would use his speed to snag second back and set sail after Watier, who had opened up a big lead.
Watier was setting a blistering pace up front, but Schmitt was just a bit faster, as he slowly reeled in the leader. On lap 44, Kimpton would fall victim to a skirmish, and find himself a lap down to the leaders, as Schmitt would continue reel in the lead car. The gap would close to about 6 car lengths as the laps wound down, but that’s as close as it would get, with Watier driving a great race to garner his first ever win in the Modified division. The hard-charging Schmitt would have to settle for second with Kimpton, Jim Carr and Barry Wallace rounding out the top 5.
The Big Block Stock division has become known as the division to produce the most excitement and this week, it would be no different. Dale Hartzell and Zach Wojciechowski would make up the front row, but when the first lap was scored, Dylan Watier had surged into the lead from the inside of row 2. With Watier in the lead, and looking for the “two-peat” on the day, the battle was heating up for second, as Zach would overtake Hartzell as they worked lap 6. Hartzell’s slide was not over yet, as on lap 8 hometown hero Eric Beadle would move into 3rd after starting 8th, having bumped up all the way from the C-Main!
Beadle’s storybook drive would be foiled however, as Hartzell retook 3rd on lap 13, and just 2 laps later a crash would relegate him back to 6th. Meanwhile, Hartzell was starting a march back to the front, overtaking Wojciechowski for second on lap 17. Hartzell would now begin to slowly cut into the lead margin.
By lap 50 Watier would start to feel some serious heat from the point leader. Hartzell was throwing everything, including the kitchen sink, at Watier to find a way past. As the leaders ran nose-to-tail on lap 57, they would encounter the third running Jeff Winzens, who was perhaps running the race of his life after winning the B-Main to stamp his ticket for the “Big Show”. As Watier, who was feeling heavy pressure, looked for a way past Winzens, they touched, sending Winzens spinning, Watier out of the groove, and Hartzell into the lead! Hartzell now had an advantage of a couple of tenths that he would hold on to for his second checkered flag of the season. Watier just missed his second win of the day finishing in the runner-up spot, with Wojciechowski, Beadle and Keith Devendorf taking advantage of Winzens’ misfortune to round out the top 5.
In the Small Block action, point leader Lee Morris was able find victory, after being so close, so many times before. It was his first ever win in WDRA competition! From the pole, Morris jumped out to an early lead, with 4th starting Bob Egan moving into second on lap 2. On lap 6, Morris would find one of the numerous accidents on the track, moving Egan to the lead and Brady Snell into 2nd. Egan and Snell would find themselves in trouble on 2 consecutive laps, moving Morris back to the point. Snell would fall from contention on lap 11 with a missing transponder.
From there, things settled down a bit with Morris and Egan running one-two for the remainder of the distance, constantly negotiating heavy traffic. Joe Rodriguez steadily moved his way from the 7th slot on the starting grid to 3rd by lap 26, but he could not gain on the lead duo. Dave Loughead started the main from the outside of the front row, but a lot of bad luck would see him fall all the way to 9th by lap 6. As the race settled down, Loughead authored a nice drive to get up to 4th place when the checkers fell. After some bad breaks in the heats, the second place point man EJ French found himself starting last on the grid, but managed a top 5 run at the finish.
In other action, Jeff Winzens took the win over Jeff Kloos in Modified Truck, while Nate Reome bested Larry Morris in the Sportsman division.
The SDS will travel to Redneck R/C in Fulton, NY for the series finale on October 23rd. Point leaders Kimpton, Hartzell, and Morris look to have the points sewn up in their respective divisions by just signing up at Redneck, but only time will tell the final outcome.
Wally’s Random Thoughts:
· It was a great turnout, despite the outrageous price to travel these days.
· Thanks go out to Mike & the Monroe Co. Club for use of the scoring system.
· This was my first visit to Chico’s and I must say I was impressed. The track was very fast…it will be scary fast when they get a handle on the new surface.
· The 4th heat race in Big Block Stock was a sight to see as “Team Highlife” dominated the starting grid. Of the 5 starters, only Steve Thompson’s ride was not adorned with the black, green, blue and white color scheme. The only visible difference between the cars of Chico Taylor, Eric Beadle, Dan Gill and Ben Tucker was the number.
· Speaking of Eric Beadle, some trouble in the heats relegated him to a C-Main starting position, but he rallied to nab a top 5 finish in the A-Main, fairing the best of the team cars.
· I was impressed with the performance of Jeff Winzens this weekend. Sunday was probably the best I’ve seen him drive…he had a good run going in the A-Main to go along with his win in the B. Way to go!
· Dan Danoski in the CDK house car had another impressive run. In just his second Big Block start he made his second A-Main appearance, after moving up from Small Block at Pine Bowl.
· Keith Devendorf was piloting a car out of the Billy Kimpton stables and placed it solidly in the show, qualifying 6th and finishing 5th.
· Great to see Mr. Todd at the track.
· For the third race in a row, I was behind the wheel of the Terry Schmitt back-up car (thanks Terry!), as I await the upcoming “delivery” of a new ride….which is good because after my showings I’d likely be fired anyway!
Until next time…