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Hellertown,
PA.’s Rick Laubach Wins Bridgeport’s Season Opener and
Inaugural Bridgeport-New Egypt Modified 30 Laps $3000 Challenge
Bridgeport, NJ
(April 5, 2008) –
Laubach chases down Keith
Hoffman to win the first ever Bridgeport-New Egypt Challenge and his
19th Bridgeport Speedway Feature win. Whitehall PA’s Keith Hoffman
jumped out to an early lead from the pole and looked to be the
dominating force on the track as he began a blistering pace in front on
the field. Pratt and Laubach soon begin to slug it out in an
attempt to take on the 2nd spot held by Sarkisian. Ray Swinehart soon
has mechanical problems as Pratt and Laubach make the pass on Sarkisian
for the 2nd and 3rd spots with Mike Iles, “The Flying Farmer” Wade
Hendrickson and Jimmy Horton close behind. Laubach finally gets a run on
Pratt to move into the 2nd spot.
Hendrickson and Iles now start
to battle it out for the 4th and 5th spots. Iles make a great “thread
the needle” pass between Horton and Sarkisian in turns 1 and 2 to take
the 3rd spot as Laubach begins to start reeling in the leader Hoffman.
Pratt is now in 3rd and losing ground on Laubach with “The Medford Mad
Dog” and Horton battling it out in the corners for 5th.
Laubach is now on Hoffman’s
bumper has they head down the front stretch and makes the pass as the
new leader heading into turns 1 and 2 as the half point nears. Now
Hoffman has his hands full with Pratt as the new leader Laubach hits
lapped traffic. Pratt soon gets a run on Hoffman send him back to 3rd.
Laubach is at the point with Pratt 2nd, Hoffman 3rd followed by
Hendrickson, Iles and Horton as a late yellow bunches the field for a
restart. Laubach chooses the inside line for the start with Hoffman back
in 2nd. Pratt gets an inside run on Hoffman as the green flag flies and
the leaders head down the front stretch. Mike Iles gets a run on
Henderickson as they head into turn 2 to take the 4th spot away with
Horton close behind. Iles now sets his sights on the 3rd spot of Hoffman
and makes the pass in turns 3 and 4 for 3rd. Laubach has now started
opening up a nice lead on the rest of the field. Iles is now all over
the 2nd place of Pratt as the final laps begin to wind down. With
Laubach eyeing the checkered flag heading down the front stretch, the
“Medford Mad Dog” Mike Iles throws an outside pass on Pratt coming
out of turn 4 to steal the 2nd spot away. Pratt settles for 3rd with
Hoffman, 4th and Wade Hendrickson rounding out the top 5. This is
Laubach’s 19th Bridgeport feature win leaving him just one win away
from entering the top 10 all time.
Barnsboro’s “The
Thrill” Jesse Hill holds of rich Scagliotta to win the Bridgeport/New
Egypt Challenge 358 Sportsman’s 20 Lap feature on the Famed 5/8th mile
clay.
Hill started on the pole but
things quickly got out of hand as 2 mid pack cars appeared to have lock
horns down the front stretch. As the rear of the field slowed and
tried to avoid, a 13 car altercation occurred heading into turn one with
the #26 of Dan Cogdill and the #31 of Frank Dorry Jr wildly flipping
into turn one. With no place to go several cars were strewn everywhere
with a few piled hi with the#18 of Bob Rambone on top of the heap.
Rambone had to exit his Sportsman and climb down from thetop of the
wreckage. All drivers were OK with no reported injuries. Included in the
green flag melee were the 388 of Ray Woodall Jr, #1 Fank Dorry Jr, #10
George Quinlan, #0 of Brett Ballard, #67 Scott Davis, #71 of Chuck
Hopkins, #126 Kevin Collins, #15 John Pursell, #R40 of Ryan Forte, Sean
Gunther. Several of the drivers were to severly damaged and unable to
return. Bridgeport regular Ron Roberts and defending Bridgeport series
champion Kevin Collins were able to pit and return to the rear of the
field.
On the restart, the #8 of Rich
Scagliotta jumps out to the lead on Hill with Randy Yaple and Jimmy
Horton IV battling behind. Hill makes his move on the on
Scarliotta for the lead and never looks back. The big battle on
the track to the checkered was between the top of six Yapple, Horton IV,
John Stangle and Tom Miller for the third through fifth positions. Brett
Ballard brought out a mid race yellow for a spin in turn 2. On the
restart, Hill and Scagliotta are your leaders followed by Yaple, Horton
IV, John Bouc in the 5th spot. Hill out powers Scagliotta down the front
stretch to the turns to re-assume the lead. Yapple and Horton are now
all over Scagliotta but can’t pull of the pass for the 2nd spot. As
the feature winds down, Hill crosses the stripe for the win with
Scagliotta in 2nd followed by Yapple, Horton IV and John Stangle in 5th
spot from the 13th starting position.
Mohnton, PA’s Jason Rivers
gets his first ever Bridgeport Feature win in the GM Sunoco Sportsman 15
lap feature.
John Haegele started on the pole
for the GM Sunoco Sportsman Feature. The #66 of Rivers jumps out to the
lead at the drop of the green with Bob Bartleson moving into 2nd Haegele
gets loose and sideways but makes a great save as the yellow drops for
the #0 of Neil Williams. On the restart Rivers and #720 of Bob Bartleson
are on the point followed by #21 Tim Trimble, David Bell and Travis Hill
rounding out the top 5. On the restart they go 3 wide into turns as the
yellow flies again for a multi car tangle in turns 1 and 2 one for the
front runners in Bartleson. Rivers quickly jumps back out to he
lead followed by with Trimble and Bell close behind Travis Hill in 4th.
Haegele quickly begins to know work his way back to the front. Trimble
does all he to snatch the lead away from Rivers on the HiSide but can
pull it off. Rivers starts to increase his lead another yellow
flies for a spinning Mike Barone in turn 2. At the drop of the
green, Rivers is still the leader followed by Trimble, Haegele, Bell and
Hill. Haegele puts a move on Bell and now sets his sights on Trimble
bringing with him and out of nowhere John Micek. Mike Barone gets spun
and yet another yellow comes out. One the restart, Rivers takes the
green as the leader and never looks back. John Haegele sit up un the
wheel after a miscue to race his way back into 2nd. Micek races hard
passing hi and wide into the 3rd spot sending Trimble to finish 4th and
David Bell finishing out the top 5.
Ken Watson out duels
“Rapid” Rich Reider in side by side action win the Outlaw Stock
Feature event.
The Outlaw Stocks maybe put on
the best show of the night with Watson and Rapid Rich putting on a 6 lap
side by side, door to door battle for the last 6 laps of their feature
event.
Rich Haegele started on the pole for the Outlaw Stock feature but it
soon became the Watson/Reider show. Watson quickly raced to the lead
from his 4th starting spot passing Jeff Dirkes, Jim Honeker and Rich
Haegele along the way. Rich Reider quickly started his charge to the
front from his 11th starting spot. Within just a few laps Reider
was contending for the lead with new leader and last years Champion Ken
Watson. The two battled back and forth swapping the lead in a side by
slid slug fest for the last 6 laps but Rapid Rich wasn’t able to out
duel the Champ for the win. Watson takes the checkered, with a on his
bumper Reider 2nd, Jeff Dirkes 3rd, Joe Eckert racing up from 10th for
4th and Mike Hires rounding out the top 5.
Tom Moore makes a last lap
turn 4 pass to win the GM Sportsman Rookie event during the Bridgeport
opening night event.
The rookies put on a classy show
some looking like crafty veterans in their rookie debut. Tom Moore made
a spectacular last lap HiSide turn 4 pass to win the event from his 4th
starting spot from the #0 Neal Williams.
RESULTS:
Big Modifieds:
Heat 1 Qualifiers: Wade Henderickson, Mike Iles, Jimmy Chester, Mark
Forte, Chad James.
Heat 2 Qualifiers: Jimmy Horton IV, Bob Sarkisian, Mark Forte,
Ryan Watt, Steve Bottcher.
Heat 3 Qualifiers: Billy Pauch, Keith Hoffman,
Richie Pratt, Mike Frantz, Scott Irwin.
Heat 4 Qualifiers: Rick Laubach, Jimmy Horton, Ray Swinehart,
Chic Cossabone, Sam Martz
Consi 1: Lou Cicconi, Gary Huber, Bucky Kell, Stan
Frankenfield
Consi 2: Matt Harrell, Jeff Brown, Darwin Greene, Anthony Moran
FEATURE; 1-Rick Laubach, 2-Mike Iles, 3- Richie Pratt Jr, 4-Keith
Hoffman, 5-Wade Henderickson, 6-Jimmy Horton, 7-
Jimmy Horton IV, 8-Bob Sarkisisan, 9-Jimmy Chester, 10-Mike Frantz,
11-Chic Cassabone, 12-Matt Harrell, 13-Ryan Watt, 14-Lou Cicconi,
15-Darwin Greene, 16-Gary Huber, 17-Mark Forte, 18-Steve Bottcher,
19-Scott Irwin, 20-Billy Pauch, 21-Sam Martz,
22-Mark Forte, 23-Jeff Brown, 24-Ray Swinehart.
358 Sportsman;
Heat 1 Qualifier’s: Bob Lineman Jr., Ron Roberts, Eric Kormann, Scott
Davis, Jr, Jarrad Miller, John McClelland
Heat 2 Qualifier’s : Jesse Hill, Danny Bouc, Sean Gunther, Jimmy Horton IV, John
Stangle, Chuck Hopkins.
Heat 3 Qualifier’s : Tom Miller, Randy Yapple, Dan Cogdill, Rich
Scagliotta, Ryan Forte, Clay Butler.
Consi Qualifier’s ; Craig Whitmoyer, Brett Ballard, Frank Dorry, Ray
Woodall, Jr. John Pursell, George Quinlan.
FEATURE; 1-Jesse Hill, 2-Rich Scagliotta, 3-Randy Yapple,
4- Jimmy Horton IV, 5-John Stangle, 6-Tom Miller, 7- Jarrad Miller,
8-Brett Ballard, 9-George Quinlan, 10-John
McClelland, 11-Clay Butler, 12-Kevin Collins,
13-Craig Whitmoyer, 14-Ray Woodall, Jr. 15-Danny Bouc,
16-Ron Roberts, 17-Sean Gunther, 18-Dan Cogdill, 19-Eric Kormann,
20-Scott Davis, Jr. 21-Ryan Forte, 22-Chuck Hopkins, 23-Frank Dorry, Jr.
24-John Pursell, 25-Guy Germano, 26-Bob Rambone.
GM Sportsman:
Heat 1 Qualifiers: Jon Haegele, Tim Trimble, John Micek, Travis Hill,
Darryl Delano, Chuck Buchman, Corey Anderson, Tom Moore
Heat 2 Qualifiers: Bob Bartleson, Keith Rivers, David Bell, Neil
Williams, Jerry Carter, Mike Barone, Josh Marrow, Rich Jackson
FEATURE; 1-Jason Rivers, 2-Jon Haegele, 3-John Micek, 4-Tim
Trimble, 5-David Bell, 6-Travis Hill, 7-Tom Moore Jr, 8-Brandon Guyer,
9-Bob Burgess, 10-Corey Anderson, 11-Josh Morrow, 12-Mike Barone,
13-Rich Jackson, 14-Doug Urbbano, 15-Brooke Bartleson 16-Bob Bartleson,
17-Chuck Buchman, 19-Darryl Delnero, 20-Neil Williams, 21-Gino Postarivo
GM Rookie Race: 1-Tom Moore, 2-Neil Williams, 3- Corey Anderson 4-Josh
Morrow, 5-Bob Burgess, 6-Doug Urbano, 7-Brandon Guyer, 8-Brooke
Bartleson, 9-Joey Milza
Outlaw Stocks:
FEATURE; 1-Ken Watson, 2-Rich Reider, 3-Jeff Dirks, 4-Mike Hires, 5-Mike
Hires, 6- Jim Honeker, 7-Rick Haegele, 8-Karl Wagner, 9-Joe Trumbetti,
10-Draper Ellis, 11-Jim McLaughlin, Tom Wills
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