Rudolph Deals With Difficult Weekend At Lancaster

Erick Rudolph of Ransomville was the lone representative for the DeLange Racing team last weekend in the 19th Annual US Open at Lancaster Raceway Park . Teammate Bobby Holmes of Lockport was sidelined due to damage the #22 Original Pizza Logs Modified suffered the previous week at Oswego Speedway. It proved to be a challenging two days for the talented teenage sensation.

Rudolph began the weekend on Saturday in the #12 Original Pizza Logs/PrimeTyme Motorsports/Brigham Concrete SST Sportsman. After qualifying for the feature through a consolation race, Rudolph lined up 22nd on the starting grid for the 75-lap SST feature. He steadily worked his way forward and moved into the top-five before the 20th circuit. He continued his climb and advanced into second behind race leader Kirk Rutherford on lap 21. He stalked the leader patiently and looked for an opening. After a caution, his day came to an abrupt end on a lap 45 restart when he slammed hard into the frontstretch wall.

“We didn’t have a first place car tonight,” Rudolph recalled after the race. “I came through the pack nicely and got from 24th to second in about 20 laps. Coming off turn four on a restart I must have gotten into some speedy-dry or something. The car started to come around and I overcorrected and put it in the wall. It was definitely a hard hit. I’ll be fine tomorrow for the Modified race and hopefully we can make something a little bit better than tonight out of it.”

In Saturday qualifying for the Modifieds, Rudolph made the feature line-up through time trials. On Sunday he drew the 7th starting position for the Race of Champions Modified Tour 100. He patiently bided his time for the first 40 laps of the feature and when the first caution flag of the race was displayed he joined several of the top competitors on pit road. After an excellent pit stop by the crew of the #45 Original Pizza Logs Modified, he fell in toward the back of the field. When the green flag waved there was a massive pileup on the backstretch that eliminated several of the leading contenders, including Rudolph.

“We got the yellow we needed at about lap 40 and we came in and got a new tire,” noted Rudolph after the race. “That was out plan, to just ride around for the first half and then go racing. We came back out after our pit stop and I don’t know what happened on the restart. I saw smoke and there was no place to go. It was a disappointing way to end the year up here. But we still have one more race to go, the North-South Shootout, and we’ll see if we can end the season there on a good note.”

Everyone at DeLange Racing wishes to congratulate teammate Bobby Holmes for his fine seventh place finish at Lancaster on Saturday night in his own #8 SST Sportsman.

Only one more race remains on the DeLange Racing 2007 schedule, the 5th Annual John Blewett III Memorial North-South Shootout at Concord Motorsport Park in Concord , North Carolina , on November 2-3. Erick Rudolph will represent the team in the #45 Original Pizza Logs Modified.

Bruce Boucher/DeLange Racing