|
ROBBIE
SUMMERS PASSES PERLEY
FOR STAFFORD ISMA WIN |
Stafford Springs, CT 7-10-07 -
Robbie Summers fulfilled a dream Tuesday night at Stafford Motor
Speedway. While successful in several divisions of auto racing
in the Northeast, Summers' secret love has been the potent
winged supermodifieds. After only a half season of competition
in 2006, Summers had made a fulltime commitment to drive the
Howie Lane 97 this year. In the Xtreme Tuesday main event,
Summers not only kept up with the pretty much invincible Chris
Perley after Perley took the lead on lap 17, but he dogged the
point leader until a bobble up front by a lap car gave the
Vernon, CT driver his chance and he took it. On lap 37, Summers
took the lead and the eventual win. It was his career-first on
the ISMA-Wirtgen super series circuit.
Summers reviewed his achievement. “This is something I've always
dreamed of. It's probably the biggest race of my career. This is
big. I've been wanting this one for a while. Ever since I was a
kid I was intrigued with supermodifieds. They were always the
coolest cars to me and to win in one of them is great.
“The longer I went tonight, the better my car got. We had it
perfect tonight. Howie and the crew had the car the best it's
been since I've been driving it. I can't thank them enough. With
these supers the right rear is everything. We had the car tight
in the beginning and it was tough to get by some of the cars.
But, once the car came in it was on rails.”
After catching up to Perley - no easy task by any means -
Summers awaited his opportunity. “When Bob Magner got sideways
there, and I didn't see a caution, I was gone. I was close one
other time. I think we were about the same speed. Lap traffic
was something. I got hit once and bounced off the back stretch
wall. I was holding my breath. Last Saturday was pretty
disappointing at Jennerstown. The guys worked their butts off in
pretty much one day to get the car back together and I won. It
was particularly rewarding to win at Stafford. I love this
place. I've had a lot of laps here. We've struggled with the
Tour car here but thank god the super was perfect today. It's a
big booster for us.”
Getting by was one thing. Staying there was another. Summers
knew Perley would not go away. “Once I got by Perley I knew I
had to get by that lap traffic because there is no one better in
lap traffic than Chris. That's why I was trying to get through
it whether I had to knock or crash through it. I knew he was
right on my heels. I had no idea where he was but I figured he
was right there. I got sick of seeing that 11 pass by every
week, driving by me on the outside like I have an anchor hanging
off the car. To beat Chris tonight is big. He's the best of the
best!”
After winning four features to date, second place finisher
Perley reiterated some of Summers comments, “I got the lead and
was kind of on cruise control and then Robbie showed me a wheel
and woke me up. He got me going. I thought we might have him
covered. Then Magner got crossed up and I didn't know which
direction he was going. I got by and then I got back on the
throttle and nothing happened. It just loaded up and I thought
it was going to shut off for a minute. Then Robbie came up
beside me and then he got out front. It was a great race. We
were really evenly matched. It was going to be whoever was out
front at the right time. Hats off to Robbie and the team.
They've been working hard. We'll take a second. I'm very happy
with that. Traffic was interesting at times. Everybody was
trying to drive their own race and hang on to their car. It
makes it tough to pay attention I guess. All in all it was a
good night.”
Mike Lichty, for the third time in three races, had a podium
finish. Still looking for that first win, he's certainly
gaining. “It's been a great four days for the whole team. The
cars came out in one piece. We can't complain about three thirds
in three races. We're just a little off still. We're having a
problem with the tightness in the car; trying to get the front
end gripping on corner entry. It looks like we're going to have
to go back to the drawing board and figure it out. All in all
the Patco Transportation, Stage Door team did a helluva job!”
A very hot and humid night did not deter the great racing that
ensued. Twenty-five cars started the 50-lapper with three more
broken before feature time. Dave Trytek jumped from his pole
position to build up an early lead ahead of his teammate Jeff
Holbrook, Summers, Lichty and Dave McKnight. By lap ten Dave was
slicing through the tail of the field until lap 13 when the
first yellow fell for Brent Roundy who lost a tire.
The field now bunched behind Trytek, but he pulled away. Back in
the pack though, Perley was methodically picking off car after
car. He was third behind Trytek and Holbrook when the next
yellow came for the third Holbrook car of Bob Magner. Magner had
slid off the track and into the grass. He recovered and pitted
momentarily while the yellow flew.
On the restart, Perley just drove by Holbrook in turn two and
Trytek in turn four to take the lead. Summers, however, did not
lose track of the 11 as he followed him.
The last caution came on lap 23 when Dave Sanborn stopped on the
track.
The field bunched behind Perley with Summers, Trytek, Holbrook,
Lichty, Fornoro and McKnight the closest contesters. Perley
could not lose Summers as the laps ticked away. Lichty moved by
Holbrook to take fourth behind Trytek on lap 27.
On lap 32, Summers was obviously getting stronger and he tucked
up behind the Perley car, even getting alongside on lap 33 as
traffic played a major role here. On lap 37 the Magner slide
gave Summers his chance and the lead. Now he also knew he would
not lose Perley easily and for ten laps he dove down and up
around lap cars with Perley in hot pursuit. In the waning laps
Mike Lichty and Dave McKnight got by early leader Trytek and the
checkered fell non-to soon for Summers for his career-first with
Perley settling for second. Lichty, McKnight and Trytek stayed
in that order.
McKnight, who has had an up and down season to date, was pleased
with fourth. “Outside of the heat, everything is good. The Patco,
Stage Door team did a good job. We've been struggling since the
crash. We've had this power steering problem and we're still
having it. Hopefully we'll get that straightened out. It was a
great effort by everybody involved. I'm happy with the finish.
We're slowly getting back on track. It was a great day,
everything is in one piece and now we'll go to Sandusky and see
what we've got.”
And, Trytek, likewise, was satisfied with his early lead and
eventual finish. “Starting on the pole helps a ton. The car was
pretty good; it just got tighter and tighter as we went on and
we lost a couple spots at the end there. But, I'll take the
fifth. I haven't had that in a long time.”
Nokie Fornoro, Mark Sammut, Lou Cicconi, Vern Romanoski and Jeff
Holbrook completed the top ten.
Notes: Time trials had to be scratched due to a computer failure
but Bentley Warren had unofficially set a track record of 16.797
before the demise. Half the cars had not taken time…Erica
Santos, older sister to Bobby Santos, became the first woman
ever to win a NEMA event as she held off Joey Payne for the win…
Fornoro and Cicconi did double duty…ISMA is off until the
Sandusky Hy-Miler on July 27-28.Mike Badessa and Bobby Haynes
Jr. were scratches prior to the heats…Jeff Holbrook brushed with
Lou Cicconi after the checkered and ended up in the wall…Bentley
Warren, having recuperated from knee surgery was in his first
race of the season. He said the car was sliding around due to a
tire going down.
SUMMARY
ISMA-WIRTGEN Event #5
Stafford Motor Speedway, July 10, 2006
Heat 1: Jeff Holbrook, Chris Perley,
Mike Lichty, Justin Belfiore, Mark Sammut, Brandon Bellinger,
Brent Roundy (Larry Lehnert dns -motor)
Heat 2: Ray Graham Jr., Robbie
Summers, Nokie Fornoro, Bob Magner,
Bentley Warren, Scott Martel, Dave Sanborn, Kelly Miller, Eric
Emhoff
Heat 3: Dave Trytek, Dave McKnight,
Vern Romanoski, Lou Cicconi, Mike Ordway Jr., Jamie Timmons,
Eric Lewis, John Torrese, Mike Keeler
Xtreme Tuesday ISMA-Wirtgen 50: 1.
Robbie Summers (97), 2. Chris Perley (11),
3. Mike Lichty (84), 4. Dave McKnight (94), 5. Dave Trytek (70),
6. Nokie Fornoro (32), 7. Mark Sammut (78), 8. Lou Cicconi (75),
9. Vern Romanoski (5), 10. Jeff Holbrook (35), 11. Bentley
Warren (71),
12. John Torrese (91), 13. Mike Ordway Jr. (10), 14. Scott
Martel (88),
15. Jamie Timmons (27), 16. Bob Magner (40), 17. Brandon
Bellinger (02),
18. Ray Graham Jr. (99), 19. Justin Belfiore (8), 20. Dave
Sanborn (24),
21. Brent Roundy (76), 22. Eric Lewis (28), 23. Kelly Miller
(16),
24. Eric Emhoff (22), 25. Mike Keller (56). |
