Toledo, OH – Russ Wood became
the first ISMA driver to win three features in the 10-year
history of competition at Toledo Speedway. Wood, in the Holbrook
29, was running fourth with two laps to go when the yellow flew
a Bob Bond crash into the wall. In the ensuing cleanup, Chris
Perley, running third, fled to the pits for a new tire. Wood was
now third. Dave Shullick Jr. sent the field into mayhem on the
restart when the motor blew on his high flying 61. Cars
scattered and spun every which way. Mike Lichty, who would have
been the leader now, was sent to the rear for being involved in
the caution. Russ Wood now sat in the lead spot and stayed there
for two laps to win his first ISMA race since July 2005.
Wood was a little surprised to be in victory lane, but as the
old phrase goes, you have to be there to be there. He said after
the chaotic finish, “I think we had a third or fourth place car.
But that’s racing. We were hanging in there to be in a place to
be here. A couple guys broke or had problems and we were able to
take advantage of it. We were pretty good, but not up to snuff
to run with Chris or the 61 but we did all right. It was good in
traffic. We were a little loose. We had struggled with it today.
We’re lucky to even be here after the ride out. We’ll take the
win. It’s been a long time since our last one here.”
Finishing second was Mike Ordway Jr. who had been running near
the front for most of the race. He commented, “We were fortunate
not to be in the wrecks. We were there at the end. That’s what
happens. We started off good. We had a yellow pretty quick there
and then we had a long green flag run. The car wasn’t that good
at the beginning and then it got better on the long run. We
lacked side bite all night. I had to wait on it Russell got by
us and then we caught him. We got into so much traffic, I
couldn’t do anything with him. With two to go we had that big
deal when the 61 broke. Cars were going everywhere. I just
steered through it. Russell went low and I went high. We both
came out in the front. We’ll take it. “
Finishing in third was Chris Perley, who earlier in the day had
set a new track record (breaking his old one) with a torrid
12.89 lap only to lose the title to an AVSS driver Jason Blonde
who clocked a 12.744 on the half mile banked oval. Perley, too,
might have had a chance at the win when Shullick exited, but the
flat had cost him that.
Said the Rowley Rocket,” I had a good car. It took a while to
come in and when it came in I thought it was going to be a
little too late. But we had fun. We came up through. We got
mired in a lot of lap traffic. Then we started getting a flat
tire with probably ten or twelve to go. We were lucky that
caution came out with two to go because that’s when it was
really flat on the rim. It was going soft, going soft and then
it got really bad. We almost spun out a few times. Somehow we
changed the tire and then those last two laps we got into third.
We probably shouldn’t have done that either. So we’ll take it. I
feel bad for Lichty. I mean to be second and have the leader
break and then you get put back it’s like “holy crap.”
Mike Lichty had been the early leader and was establishing
himself in position to get that elusive first win as the laps
ticked quickly away.
Lap 12 saw the first slowdown when Jeff Holbrook brushed the
wall. On the ensuing restart red fell when Vern Romanoski and
Jeff Abold came together as the pack entered turn one. Several
cars including Gene Gibson and Jack Smith were hooked along with
Vern and Jeff. Pitting here were Johnny Benson, Bobby Haynes Jr.
and Brandon Bellinger, and able to return. The cleanup was
advantageous for the Holbrook 35, which was able to get back
into the fray.
Lichty took off on the green and looked, as in some many times
in the past, to be a possible first-time ISMA winner. The battle
for second, between Dave Shullick Jr. and Trent Stephens,
however would change that. By lap 25, Shullick was perched to
pounce on the leader, but still had some distance to make up.
The pounce came by Shullick as heavy traffic had cut into
Lichty’s lead. Shoe II was by for the lead in turn two as now
Lichty had Perley right there to challenge.
Yellow slowed the race on lap 33 when Larry Lehnert slowed and
pulled pit side. The field was now bunched with a lot of lap
cars intermingling with the lead cars.
Shullick had the cushion and the car and off he went. Facing
several lap cars ahead was Lichty and then Perley. Also facing
some traffic, Stephens, Wood and Ordway Jr.
With ten to go, Shullick was in command and on his way to a
possible second ISMA win in a row. Jeff Locke slowed the
progress on lap 41.
On this restart, Perley moved the 11 into second but a couple
lap cars were still ahead of him before Shullick could be seen
in his sites. Lichty, Wood, Ordway Jr. Stephens, Reid and Bob
Bond were next in line behind when the yellow flew on lap 48.
Bond and Reid came together coming off of turn 4 and Bond ended
up in the wall in a devastating crash. While the 25 was
flatbedded, Perley came in for the tire.
It was on this restart that Shullick’s 61 failed, creating a
ripple effect behind him as everyone had their foot down.
Shullick was able to slide into the inner track area while cars
scattered all over.
When the green waved again, Russ Wood was the lead car with
Ordway Jr., Stephens, Perley, and Mark Sammut next up, with at
least three laps cars in between. Wood crossed under the checked
for the win followed by Ordway Jr. Perley got the jump on
Stephens to take third while Trent and Sammut crossed in fourth
and fifth.
Stephens, in his Stout ride, was pleased with his first ISMA top
five. “The first ten laps I was kind of taking it easy. I didn’t
want to burn up the tires about half way through it started
getting loose. It kept getting looser and I was just holding on
there for a while. The last two laps I figured I could do
something but those guys must have saved their tires. I didn’t
have anything for them. But hey, we’re in one piece and avoided
all the wrecks. This isn’t too bad for my first ISMA race.”
Sammut came in fifth after a little confusion. I figured we
should have been fifth. We had a terrible car all day. We
couldn’t get going. We had oil pressure problem so we were
working on that instead of the car. By the heat we had it going
a little better. In the feature we weren’t too bad but we pretty
much wore the tires off coming up through. At the end I was
hanging on. At one point in the middle of the race, when I
cleared traffic, the car was actually the best it had been all
day. A few laps later the tires went away and I was just riding
around at the end. I was lucky to avoid the accidents.”
Lichty, Burch, Reid, Shullick Jr. and Seitz completed the top
ten.
SUMMARY
- ISMA Event #2 - JUNE 12, 2009 - TOLEDO
Time Trials: Perley fast time:
12.893. Followed by Lichty, Benson, Wood, Shullick, Locke,
Burch, Stephens, Holbrook, Ordway Jr., Bond, Summers (top 12)
Heat 1: Jeff Holbrook, Johnny
Benson, Jeff Locke, Robbie Summers, Vern Romanoski, Craig
Rayvals, Gene Gibson, Dave Duggan, Bobby Haynes Jr.
Heat 2: Trent Stephens, Mike Lichty,
Dave Shullick Jr., Bob Bond, Rich Reid, Danny Lane, Brandon
Bellinger, Michael Barnes, Larry Lehnert
Heat 3: Mike Ordway Jr., Chris
Perley, Randy Burch, Russ Wood, Jeff Abold, Jack Smith, Mark
Sammut, Jim Paller, Ben Seitz
Toledo 50:
1. Russ Wood (29), 2. Mike Ordway Jr (41), 3. Chris Perley (11),
4. Trent Stephens (19), 5. Mark Sammut (78), 6. Mike Lichty
(84),
7. Randy Burch (49), 8. Rich Reid (55), 9. Dave Shullick Jr.
(61),
10. Ben Seitz (88), 11. Craig Rayvals (950, 12. Bobby Bond (25),
13. Danny Lane (9), 14. Dave Duggan (51), 15. Johnny Benson
(21),
16. Jeff Locke (37), 17. Robbie Summers (97), 18. Larry Lehnert
(92),
19. Jeff Holbrook (35), 20. Bobby Haynes Jr. (44), 21. Brandon
Bellinger (02),
22. Jim Paller (64), 23. Vern Romanoski (5), 24. Jeff Abold
(05),
25. Jack Smith (09), 26. Gene Lee Gibson (0), 27. Michael Barnes
(70). |
