RGeeProductions
09-23-2007, 11:38 PM
The hottest driver the second half of the racing season in the SST Modified division throughout New York State proved his quickness once again Friday night. As Tony Hanbury of Owego simply out powered the talented field of drivers to claim the $2,500 to win 100 lap feature.
Hanbury who started fourth took the lead with an inside turn two pass of race long leader Dan Kurzejewski on lap 53. Once in front Hanbury driving his family owned Gail Clark Racing Engines powered car was never seriously challenged the rest of way for his first career Oswego Speedway win. Kevin Timmerman making a return to racing this year after a couple of year absence ended up second with John Price in third, defending race winner TJ Potrzebowski in fourth and Jeff Hamman in fifth.
“ This win caps off my best season ever “ said race winner Tony Hanbury. “ But the best thing is all of this is my family as my family and friends got me here with this car. “
The win was Tony's 12th of the season with a majority of his wins coming late in the season. All of this late season success propelled Hanbury to the Chemung track championship and some big season ending point fund money. But the year didn't start out like that as for the first few months as Tony was scrambling to keep fresh tires on his car. Then just about at the halfway point of the season the secret to Tony's late season success came about.
“ Beginning of the year all I wanted to do was just make the race as we couldn't afford tires all the time “ recalled Tony. “ Just before the halfway point of the season it all just turned around. The motor, Gail Clark freshened the motor for me this year and that has been the difference. Throughout the year Gail has been giving me tips and that has been the top priority to my success. “
Tony who started fourth in the feature rocketed into second by lap two and immediately started to apply heavy pressure to leader Dan Kurzejewski. Hanbury consistently would try passing Danny K for the next 15 consecutive laps and each time Hanbury would have trouble holding the quick outside groove as he was getting pushed up the track.
“ The first five laps of the feature the car was unbelievably awesome “ said Tony. “ I tried the outside on Danny and he didn't want to let me go around him and that is expected. I got under him a couple of times and he made his car pretty wide, anybody would do that. “
On lap 53 coming out of turn two Tony got the open space on the inside and made the wining pass of the race. “ I got a good run coming out of two and I think Danny had a Clark motor. So I knew it was going to be tough getting by him and there is nothing better than racing against a Clark motor for the win. “
“ All I wanted to know who was in second “ said Tony. “ Once I looked up at the board and I saw George ( Kent ) was in third. I didn't want to know where anyone was except for who was in second and how I was doing in the lead. I was hoping that if George got by Danny that I would have a big enough of a lead that I could maintain it on him and pray that there were no yellows. “
When two through four got into an incident on lap 79 Tony was asked how he felt about seeing the main competition in the wall. “ All that I was worried about that it wasn't Patti with my other car that caused the yellow. I came around and saw those guys and my guys said that George tried the same move that I did and they rubbed a little bit too hard. “
“ In '04 we won the RoC championship and I had 11 wins that year. Once we got to that this year and coming here all I wanted to do was just finish the race. I never led a lap in a feature here before and let alone the last lap. There is nothing better than this and how I'm feeling right now. Best of all it was a family effort with my friends and a great Gail Clark engine under the hood “ summed up Tony about his first Oswego win.
“ We're very pleased with a second as this is just like a win for us “ said second place Kevin Timmerman who started third. “ This is the first time back here in three years as we had to take some time off from racing. “
Kevin stayed in the top three until the calvary from the back of the field got by him just past the halfway point. It looked as if Kevin was going to get a solid top ten finish until positions two through four were all involved in a lap 79 yellow.
The lap 79 yellow happened in turn three when the third place car of George Kent was under the second place car of Kurzejewski. The contact saw the two cars spin and Rudolph who came from 21st was left no where to go and all three slid softly into the outside turn three wall.
This incident put Timmerman back in third and he stayed there until eight laps to go when he started to work on Price for second. With four laps to go coming out of turn two Timmerman got under Price to claim the show position.
Kevin had one problem with his setup on the evening. “ We were way too loose getting in the corners and that is where we lost a lot of time. We were good coming up off the corner but what we lost going into the corner was the difference tonight. “
Qualifying for the 46 cars in attendance saw heat wins go to Jeff Polaski, Tommy Farrell, III, Rick Zacharias, Hanbury, Kurzejewski, and Timmerman.
NOTES; George Kent in the second Ed McGuire owned entry and this car won the race last year with TJ Potrzebowski behind the wheel. Kent ironically has driven for Kurzejewski off and on over the past several seasons and the duo parted company this past week. Nick Cappelli broke a transmission before hot laps, got it replaced and did a nice job finishing in seventh. The car of Wilbur Hebing was lettered like a F14 fighter with bullet holes portrayed on the car. Wayne Lent won the Gater Racing News Best Appearing Car. SST Provisionals in the feature were awarded to Rutherford, Osgood, Gradl, Shepker, Lees, and Kluth.
SST MODIFIED FINISH; Tony Hanbury, Kevin Timmerman, John Price, TJ Potrzebowski, Jeff Hamman, Rick Zacharias, Nick Cappelli, Kirk Rutherford, Chris Finocchario, Erick Rudolph, Ryan Beeman, Tommy Farrell, III, Billy Burd, Dan Kurzejewski, John Barber, Frank Booker, Jr., Patti Pruitt, John Wilbur, Josh Philpott, Daryl Lewis, Jr., Dean Rypkema, Mike Fiebelkorn, Jr., Phil Slater, Wilbur Hebing, Justin Shepker, Matt Lees, Jeff Polaski, George Kent, Dick Kluth, Terry Cheetham, Bobby Osgood, Craig Dolphin, Tom Macleod, Mike Florio, Jerry Gradl, Jr., Mike Leaty.
DNQ'S; Andy Lewis, Jeff Pringle, Tom Shiner, Kevin Lewis, Steve West, Phil Johnson, Jason Hearne, Eric Stritzel, Wayne Lent, Joe Evans.
JR Kennerup/RoC PR
Hanbury who started fourth took the lead with an inside turn two pass of race long leader Dan Kurzejewski on lap 53. Once in front Hanbury driving his family owned Gail Clark Racing Engines powered car was never seriously challenged the rest of way for his first career Oswego Speedway win. Kevin Timmerman making a return to racing this year after a couple of year absence ended up second with John Price in third, defending race winner TJ Potrzebowski in fourth and Jeff Hamman in fifth.
“ This win caps off my best season ever “ said race winner Tony Hanbury. “ But the best thing is all of this is my family as my family and friends got me here with this car. “
The win was Tony's 12th of the season with a majority of his wins coming late in the season. All of this late season success propelled Hanbury to the Chemung track championship and some big season ending point fund money. But the year didn't start out like that as for the first few months as Tony was scrambling to keep fresh tires on his car. Then just about at the halfway point of the season the secret to Tony's late season success came about.
“ Beginning of the year all I wanted to do was just make the race as we couldn't afford tires all the time “ recalled Tony. “ Just before the halfway point of the season it all just turned around. The motor, Gail Clark freshened the motor for me this year and that has been the difference. Throughout the year Gail has been giving me tips and that has been the top priority to my success. “
Tony who started fourth in the feature rocketed into second by lap two and immediately started to apply heavy pressure to leader Dan Kurzejewski. Hanbury consistently would try passing Danny K for the next 15 consecutive laps and each time Hanbury would have trouble holding the quick outside groove as he was getting pushed up the track.
“ The first five laps of the feature the car was unbelievably awesome “ said Tony. “ I tried the outside on Danny and he didn't want to let me go around him and that is expected. I got under him a couple of times and he made his car pretty wide, anybody would do that. “
On lap 53 coming out of turn two Tony got the open space on the inside and made the wining pass of the race. “ I got a good run coming out of two and I think Danny had a Clark motor. So I knew it was going to be tough getting by him and there is nothing better than racing against a Clark motor for the win. “
“ All I wanted to know who was in second “ said Tony. “ Once I looked up at the board and I saw George ( Kent ) was in third. I didn't want to know where anyone was except for who was in second and how I was doing in the lead. I was hoping that if George got by Danny that I would have a big enough of a lead that I could maintain it on him and pray that there were no yellows. “
When two through four got into an incident on lap 79 Tony was asked how he felt about seeing the main competition in the wall. “ All that I was worried about that it wasn't Patti with my other car that caused the yellow. I came around and saw those guys and my guys said that George tried the same move that I did and they rubbed a little bit too hard. “
“ In '04 we won the RoC championship and I had 11 wins that year. Once we got to that this year and coming here all I wanted to do was just finish the race. I never led a lap in a feature here before and let alone the last lap. There is nothing better than this and how I'm feeling right now. Best of all it was a family effort with my friends and a great Gail Clark engine under the hood “ summed up Tony about his first Oswego win.
“ We're very pleased with a second as this is just like a win for us “ said second place Kevin Timmerman who started third. “ This is the first time back here in three years as we had to take some time off from racing. “
Kevin stayed in the top three until the calvary from the back of the field got by him just past the halfway point. It looked as if Kevin was going to get a solid top ten finish until positions two through four were all involved in a lap 79 yellow.
The lap 79 yellow happened in turn three when the third place car of George Kent was under the second place car of Kurzejewski. The contact saw the two cars spin and Rudolph who came from 21st was left no where to go and all three slid softly into the outside turn three wall.
This incident put Timmerman back in third and he stayed there until eight laps to go when he started to work on Price for second. With four laps to go coming out of turn two Timmerman got under Price to claim the show position.
Kevin had one problem with his setup on the evening. “ We were way too loose getting in the corners and that is where we lost a lot of time. We were good coming up off the corner but what we lost going into the corner was the difference tonight. “
Qualifying for the 46 cars in attendance saw heat wins go to Jeff Polaski, Tommy Farrell, III, Rick Zacharias, Hanbury, Kurzejewski, and Timmerman.
NOTES; George Kent in the second Ed McGuire owned entry and this car won the race last year with TJ Potrzebowski behind the wheel. Kent ironically has driven for Kurzejewski off and on over the past several seasons and the duo parted company this past week. Nick Cappelli broke a transmission before hot laps, got it replaced and did a nice job finishing in seventh. The car of Wilbur Hebing was lettered like a F14 fighter with bullet holes portrayed on the car. Wayne Lent won the Gater Racing News Best Appearing Car. SST Provisionals in the feature were awarded to Rutherford, Osgood, Gradl, Shepker, Lees, and Kluth.
SST MODIFIED FINISH; Tony Hanbury, Kevin Timmerman, John Price, TJ Potrzebowski, Jeff Hamman, Rick Zacharias, Nick Cappelli, Kirk Rutherford, Chris Finocchario, Erick Rudolph, Ryan Beeman, Tommy Farrell, III, Billy Burd, Dan Kurzejewski, John Barber, Frank Booker, Jr., Patti Pruitt, John Wilbur, Josh Philpott, Daryl Lewis, Jr., Dean Rypkema, Mike Fiebelkorn, Jr., Phil Slater, Wilbur Hebing, Justin Shepker, Matt Lees, Jeff Polaski, George Kent, Dick Kluth, Terry Cheetham, Bobby Osgood, Craig Dolphin, Tom Macleod, Mike Florio, Jerry Gradl, Jr., Mike Leaty.
DNQ'S; Andy Lewis, Jeff Pringle, Tom Shiner, Kevin Lewis, Steve West, Phil Johnson, Jason Hearne, Eric Stritzel, Wayne Lent, Joe Evans.
JR Kennerup/RoC PR