HESS JR. NEARS 100 CAREER STATELINE WINS BY BAGGING BUSTI BICENTENNIAL SUPER LATE MODEL SPECIAL!

July 2, 2023 | by Marc Hoegerl

Busti, NY (July 1, 2023) by Marc Hoegerl: Stateline’s General Manager, Ronda Turner, once said “It Never Rains at Stateline!” That statement would hold true to the fact. The threatening weather around the region would not put a damper on Stateline’s “Busti Bicentennial” weekend race festivities.

“The Wizard” Dave Hess Jr. would pick up the 45 Lap, $4,500 to win Super Late Model Special. Hess Jr. keeps inching towards his 100th career Stateline feature win, with 57 career UMP Modified wins to go along with his 40 career Super Late Model wins. Matt Sampson would get the monkey off his back by coming home victorious in the Pro Stocks. Steve Rex, after a lengthy dry-spell, would conquer the UMP Modifieds A-Main. Wellsville’s, Jeremy Wonderling would go the distance in the RUSH Crate Late Models. 5-Time RUSH Pro Mod track champion, Dennis Lunger would grab the win in the RUSH Pro Mods and the dominant Chris Horton would once again cash in, in the always exciting Challengers.

The headlining Super Late Models would be up first to do battle in their 45 lap show case. Hess Jr. would take the lead at the drop of the green, only to see second generation racer, Bump Hedman take over on lap 2. Hedman would hold the point for the next 3 laps, until Hess would muscle his way around Headman on lap 6. Hess would finally get away for good after the halfway point to go on to register his 2nd Stateline Super Late Model win of the season. Headman in his best run of 23’ would settle for 2nd. Jake Finnerty, Ryan Montgomery, and Darrell Bossard would complete the top 5.

Matt Sampson would inherit the lead on lap 3, as leader Jason Covey would go pit side. Sampson would then have to fend off the challenges of former track champion John Boardman, to pick up his 1st Stateline Pro Stock feature win of the season. Boardman, Michael Oakes, Gary Fisher Jr., and Justin Pratt rounded out the top 5.

Youngsville’s Steve Rex would go on to pick up his 1st Stateline UMP Modified win since August 3, 2019. Rex, who has had an up and down 2023, showed no mercy in the 20 lap main event, leading from start to finish. Dan Sasso, who had a great battle going on with Raceway 7 standout Garrett Calvert, would bring home 2nd, Calvert would settle for 3rd, David Scott 4th and Dennis Lunger, after being charged for a caution on lap 3, came from the tail to complete the top 5. Tim Peterson, who initially finished in the top 5, was disqualified for a post-race spoiler infraction.

Jeremy Wonderling would take no time to seize the top spot, to go on to win his 2nd Stateline RUSH Crate Late Model main event of the season, to go along with his, May 13th RUSH Touring Series win at Stateline. David Parker tried valiantly to contest Wonderling on some late race restarts but had to settle for 2nd. Jason Genco had another podium finish, finishing 3rd.Matt Sipes rode home 4th and Khole Wanzer, in an impressive run, finished 5th.

“The Albion Assassin” Dennis Lunger, would gun down his competition in the RUSH Pro Mods. Lunger would grab the lead from race leader, Zain Harvey on lap 10, would go the remaining distance to post his 2nd RUSH Pro Mod victory of 23’ as well as his 43rd career Stateline RUSH Pro Mod feature win. Points leader Steve Dixon would come home in the bridesmaid spot, as Zain Harvey, Tyler Oakes, and Chad Ramsey would round out your top 5.

It would only take 2 laps, for the flashy yellow #22 of Randolph, NY’s Chris Horton, to get around leader Holden Heineman, to bring home his 3rd Challenger triumph of 2023. Heineman would settle for 2nd. Phil Powell in one of his best runs of this season, finished 3rd. June 10th winner, Domingo Echevarria, after going to the tail, finished 4th, as Raceway 7’s all time female feature winner Jess Harvey finished 5th.

SUPER LATE MODELS (20 Entries)

Fast Qualifier Group A: Bump Hedman 17.214
Fast Qualifier Group B: Jake Finnerty 17.118 (Overall Fastest)

Heat 1: 1) Bump Hedman 2) Ryan Scott 3) Greg Oakes 4) Khole Wanzer 5) Paul Schreckengost
Heat 2: 1) Darrell Bossard 2) Doug Eck 3) Kyle Bedell 4) Chevy Scott 5) Scott Dellahoy Jr.
Heat 3: 1) Jake Finnerty 2) Bob Dorman 3) David Scott 4) Douglas Eck 5) Anthony Marotto
Heat 4: 1) Ryan Montgomery 2) Dave Hess Jr. 3) Dutch Davies 4) Jason Genco DNS) Justin Carlson

45 Lap Feature: 1) Hess Jr. 2) Headman 3) Finnerty 4) Montgomery 5) Bossard 6) Oakes 7) D, Eck 8. Davies 9) Bedell 10) Genco 11) D. Scott 12) N. Eck 13) Marotto 14) R, Scott 15) Dorman 16) Dellahoy Jr. 17) Wanzer 18. C, Scott 19) Schreckengost 20) Carlson

Lap Leaders: Hess Jr.(1), Hedman (2-5), Hess Jr. (6-45)

PRO STOCKS (18 Entries)

Heat 1: 1) Tanner Ramsey 2) Shane Applebee 3) Brent Marotto 4) Grant Richard 5) Kyle Corah
6) Cole Strickland
Heat 2: 1) Matt Sampson 2) John Boardman 3) Jim Challingsworth 4) Dale Sheets
5) Gary Fisher Jr. 6) Kole Stelmack
Heat 3: 1) Jason Covey 2) Wes McCray 3) Michael Oakes 4) Justin Pratt 5) Dustin Gibson

Feature: 1) Sampson 2) Boardman 3) Oakes 4) Fisher Jr. 5) Pratt 6) Marotto 7) S. Applebee 8. Richard 9) McCray 10) Challingsworth 11) Stelmack 12) Lippa 13) Strickland 14) Covey 15) Ramsey 16) Sheets 17) Gibson 18. Corah

Lap Leaders: Covey (1-3), Sampson (4-15)

UMP MODIFIEDS (22 Entries)

Heat 1: 1) Mike Eschrich 2) Butch Southwell 3) Troy Johnson 4) Cale Crocker 5) Andrew Beatman 6) Matt Haskins
Heat 2: 1) Garrett Calvert 2) Greg Johnson 3) Chris McDonald 4) David Scott 5) Mason Lobb 6) Deven Dudenhoeffer
Heat 3: 1) Steve Rex 2) Tim Peterson 3) Brandon Grossman 4) Bryon Johnson 5) Joel Lanphere
Heat 4: 1) Dennis Lunger 2) Zach Johnson 3) Dan Sasso 4) James Wilburn 5) Dave Lanphere

Feature: 1) Rex 2) Sasso 3) Calvert 4) Scott 5) Lunger 6) Southwell 7) Grossman 8. Beatman 9) Lobb 10) Crocker 11) Haskins 12) D. Lanphere 13) G. Johnson 14) B. Johnson 15) Eschrich 16) T. Johnson 17) McDonald 18. Z. Johnson 19) Wilburn 20) J. Lanphere 21) Dudenhoeffer 22/DQ) Peterson

Lap Leaders: Rex (1-20)

RUSH CRATE LATE MODELS (22 Entries)

Heat 1: 1) Ward Schell 2) Jason Genco 3) Darrin Waldron 4) Randy Hall 5) DJ Krug 6) Draven Kuzminski
Heat 2: 1) David Parker 2) Jeremy Wonderling 3) Steve Blodgett 4) Bill Taylor 5) Chad Clement 6) Kassy Norman
Heat 3: 1) Khole Wanzer 2) Scott Gurdak 3) Andy Michael 4) Will Pinckney 5) Shawn Little
Heat 4: 1) Matt Sipes 2) Ray Houser 3) Steve Houser 4) Drake McCray 5) Chuck Houser

Feature: 1) Wonderling 2) Parker 3) Genco 4) Sipes 5) Wanzer 6) Schell 7) Michael 8. Gurdak 9) Hall 10) Blodgett 11) Taylor 12) Pinckney 13) R. Houser 14) S. Houser 15) Kuzminski 16) Krug 17) C. Houser 18. Little 19) McCray 20) Norman 21) Clement 22) Waldron

Lap Leaders: Wonderling (1-20)

RUSH PRO MODS (22 Entries)

Heat 1: 1) Steve Dixon 2) Zain Harvey 3) Thomas Root 4) Nick Arnold 5) Vaughn Nystrom 6) Derek Austin 7) Brenden Root
Heat 2: 1) Tyler Oakes 2) Derek Peterson 3) Donald May Jr. 4) Brian Mohawk 5) Bryson Hill 6) John Woodward Jr.7) Ryan Sanders
Heat 3: 1) Dennis Lunger 2) Al Brewer 3) Chad Ramsey 4) Damian Bidwell 5) Tyler Sutton 6) John Cline 7) William Silvis 8. Cody Rickard

Feature: 1) Lunger 2) Dixon 3) Harvey 4) Oakes 5) Ramsey 6) Mohawk 7) Brewer 8. Bidwell 9) Warner 10) Sutton 11) Root 12) Nystrom 13) Arnold 14) Cline 15) Rickard 16) Silvis 17) May Jr. 18. Austin 19) Peterson 20) Hill 21) Woodward Jr. 22) Sanders

Lap Leaders: Harvey (1-9), Lunger (10-20)

CHALLENGERS (25 Entries)

Heat 1: 1) Nicholas Reed 2) Jess Harvey 3) Dan Martell 4) Dylan Greene 5) Cassandra Goodwill 6) Kasey Markham 7) Adam Colon
Heat 2: 1) John Mease 2) Pete Volpe 3) Craig Karns 4) Todd Hanlon 5) Chelsea Haskins 6) Hailey Moore
Heat 3: 1) Chris Horton 2) Holden Heineman 3) Phil Powell 4) Andrew Smith 5) Jordan Richard 6) Kayla York
Heat 4: 1) Rick Feeley 2) Domingo Echevarria 3) Dan Bittinger 4) Tommy LaBarbera 5) Vince Norton 6) Bill Jo Seamens

Feature: 1) Horton 2) Heineman 3) Powell 4) Echevarria 5) J. Harvey 6) Karns 7) Smith 8. LaBarbera 9) Martell 10) Mease 11) Norton 12) Haskins 13) Colon 14) York 15) Richard 16) Moore 17) Greene 18. Goodwill 19) Markham 20) Feeley 21) Hanlon 22) Bittinger 23) Reed 24) Volpe 25) Seamans

Lap Leaders: Heineman (1,2), Horton (3-12)