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Janisch,
Lyons, Wolf & Weaver Big Kahuna Stars
New Egypt, NJ (July 24, 2011)
– The third stop in the Big Kahuna Series at New
Egypt Speedway had some international flavor as
the Canadian SpeedSTR teams were part of the
racing action and the action on the speedway was
as hot as the 90+ degree temperature that greeted
the racers during hotlaps.
A timed dash was
used to line up the top 10 SpeedSTR's with Brandon
Rahmer and Scott Munroe showing the way for the
front row honors. A B-Main lined up the remaining
10 cars.
The support classes had their
qualifiers run off in a timely fashion and the New
Jersey 125 was scaled back to 101 laps as the 60
minute time limit was set into action. As soon as
the green was given all eyes were on the blue #1
driven by Richie Cass Jr. Cass at one time, had 2
laps on all but 2 other competitors. Right front
suspension parts gave way forcing Cass to the
infield, giving the lead over to another Small
Car, the #49 of John Crosby. Crosby pitted under a
red, thus altering the restart order after the red
flag. A final 6 lap battle came right down to a
last lap scramble as the red, white and blue #99
of Tom Wolf had a 3 car length advantage over Mark
Naftzinger in his John Deere green and yellow #3
and used a slower car to safely increase his
margin of victory. Mark's teammate Jamie
Naftzinger got back on the lead lap around lap 80
and was quickly catching the leaders. This would
be the Big Car top 3 and also the final running
order at lap 101. Notching his 1st ever Great
American Enduro win in only his 2nd race was New
Egypt Speedway's general manager Danny Serrano who
took the Small Car honors in his John Crosby
prepared 60 Over Saturn.
Wayne Weaver was
the recipient of the Big Kahuna winner's surfboard
as his Tobias blue #17 grabbed the 8 lap win.
With a John Romano Memorial guaranteed spot on
the line the 30 lap sportsman feature was cutback
to 20 as showers were beginning to hit the well
prepared track surface. This did nothing to
prevent a photo finish at the 20 lap mark as Mike
Lyons' white flag run will be something the race
fans will be talking about for awhile. Bob Lineman
Jr. had his USA-1 out in front for 19 laps, but a
late race restart saw Lyons venture out from the
lowside and stay even with Lineman as the white
flag was being waved. They remained side by side
in turn 2 and down the backstretch, but the 21L of
Lyons found some traction heading off of turn 4th
as the margin of victory was noted as 18 inches,
with Lineman giving everything his mount had,but
settled for a 2nd place payout.
The start
of the SpeedSTR feature saw Brandon Rahmer quickly
dominate the first few laps with some new faces
putting the pressure on the teenage driver. Ryan
Smith was taking the Fragile X Foundation #8 to
challenge Rahmer and Stan Ploski was doing some
serious wheeling and dealing in the Bulldog Arts
#5. A lap 8 restart saw Smith get a jump but
mechanical problems slowed the 8 down and Smith
pulled off the speedway while in a top 5 spot.
Rahmer looped the 88 in turn 2 and now a new group
of frontrunners were emerging as Matt Janisch in
the Valvoline #3 and Gary Huber were the
headliners with Ploski, Brittany Wixon and Kyle
Hieber as the new top 5. Hard luck struck on lap
15 as Matt Dealaman who was keeping pace within
the top 10, took 4 quick snap rolls in turn 1
bringing out the red. The restart now had an
earlier spinning Brandon Rahmer back in the mix
and the last 2 laps for 3rd through 5th would be
determined at the finish line. Janisch grabbed the
$2000 winning prize with the Huber #11 having just
enough power to make it across the finish line for
a second place run. Kyle Hieber came from the 17th
starting spot to haul in 3rd place money aboard
the Bucks County International #6. Ringoes, NJ's
Stan "The Man" Ploski was just that, THE MAN, as
he came home 4th in his return run in a SpeedSTR.
Rounding out the top 5 was Brandon Rahmer in the
Tru-Line #88 who patiently worked his way
through traffic after an early race spin. A strong
run for Reading, PA's Brittany Wixon who took the
Lee Wixon prepared Vince's Towing #15 over the
scales with a 6th place run.
Hotlaps began
at 12:25pm and the final checkered was thrown at
4:05pm, considering a 60 minute time limit was
used for the Great American Enduro, the show was
completed in admirable fashion with a very racy
track surface prepared by the New Egypt track
crew.
BIG KAHUNA
RESULTS 7/24/11:
TOBIAS SPEEDSTRS
1. Matt Janisch 2. Gary
Huber 3. Kyle Heiber 4. Stan Ploski 5. Brandon
Rahmer
SPORTSMAN
1.
Mike Lyons 2. Bob Lineman Jr. 3. Kyle Borror
GREAT AMERICAN ENDURO SERIES
Overall (8-Cylnder)
1. Tom Wolf 2. Mark Naftzinger 3. Jamie Naftzinger
(4-Cylnder)
Winner: Danny Serrano
VINTAGE STOCKS
Winner: Wayne Weaver
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