Blane Smith Makes It Two Straight Full-Fender Wins At ‘Fast Track’

Elbridge, NY – September 4, 2006 – By Gary Spaid, Rolling Wheels PR

The longer tracks must appeal to 2006 Canandaigua Speedway Expert Street Stock champion, Blane Smith. On Monday, September 4 Smith won the Street Stock 15-lap portion of the Robert N. Petrocci Memorial, his second straight feature race victory at Rolling Wheels Raceway.

Thirty-one Street Stocks were on hand as part of the special held each Labor Day at the track founded by Robert N. Petrocci back in 1969. Along with an Advance Auto Parts Super DIRT Series for Modifieds (Alan Johnson winner) and the opening round of the Mr. DIRT Sportsman Series Championship (Russ Hefti winner), a total of 157 race cars made for an overflow pit area.

The 15-lap feature opened with pole-sitter Mike Minutolo taking the lead at the outset followed by Dave Mannise, the recently crowned Cayuga County Fair Speedway champion. Mannise made the move for the lead and was followed by Nick Rizzo and Smith, while Minutolo fell back to fourth on the second lap of the race. The first yellow flag flew as David Pope sat at the bottom of the first turn banking. On the ensuing restart Minutolo darted by Rizzo to grab second.

Mannise was able to pull away from the field by two car lengths before another yellow waved on lap four when Andy Fisk slowed in the first turn with a flat tire. Fisk returned to the race, one lap down following a fast pit stop. One lap five, caution lights flashed for a third time when Mike Schultz stopped on the front stretch. Back under green Mannise led Minutolo, Smith, Rizzo and Leroy Lewis. Smith was able to take second from Minutolo and run down Mannise, making his pass for the lead on lap nine down the back stretch. Once in front Smith set sail.

On lap 11 the biggest pile-up of the race happened in the first turn. Involved were Nathan Peckham, Chuck Cushman, Lewis and Mike Welch. On the restart Minutolo’s race ended as he turned pitside out of the race. Smith poured on the coal and moved away from runner-up Mannise when the green unfurled. At the checkers it was Smith with his second Rolling Wheels in ‘06 followed by Mannise, Rizzo, Steve Crouse and Ron Hawker. “The track was great tonight,” stated an elated Smith in Victory Lane. Thanks to new clay the surface held up much better and produced much less dust. The surface remained fast enough to set records all night long.

The next Street Stock race at the ‘Fast Track’ is scheduled for Friday, September 22, as part of Rolling Wheels Raceway’s traditional Wheels Weekend. This event will be a 20-lapper, paying $500 to win. The Wheels Weekend offers a new format, this year running on Friday and Saturday evenings instead of the traditional Saturday-Sunday format.

But before that, a brand new event was recently penciled in at Rolling Wheels Raceway on September 9. The upcoming Saturday “Late Night” Street Drags special will offer single elimination dashes for Domestics, Imports, Cycles and 4-Wheelers with Shine-n-Show competition, db Drags and a Burnout Showdown headlining the evening agenda. Rolling Wheels’ gates open Sat., Sept. 9 at 7:30 p.m. and drags pull off the line at 8 o'clock sharp. The entry fee for every event participant is $15.00 with the general admission ticket price set at $5.00 for all.

ROBERT N. PETROCCI MEMORIAL RACE SUMMARY
DIRT STREET STOCK
HEAT 1: M. Minutolo, D. Mannise, N. Peckham, S. Crouse, C. Cushman, C. Chappius.
HEAT 2: N. Rizzo, D. Marcuccilli, L. Lewis, J. Wallace, S. Stanton, R. Ingraham.
HEAT 3: A. Fisk, B. Smith, F. Burnell, S. Woodworth, J. Verne, D. Smith.
CONSI: S. Smith, R. Hawker, D. Pope, M. Welch, M. Schultz, B. Thomas.
FEATURE (15-laps): BLANE SMITH, Dave Mannise, Nick Rizzo, Steve Crouse, Ron Hawker, Dave Marcuccilli, Frank Burnell, Doug Smith, Scott Smith, Mike Schultz, Steve Woodworth, Jim Wallace, Nate Peckham, Leroy Lewis, Bill Thomas, Robert Ingraham, Mike Welch, Colton Chappius, Andy Fisk, Mike Minutolo, Chuck Cushman, Josh Verne, Scott Stanton, David Pope.