PINKEROUS, SCOTT, WHYTE, LUNGER, SCOTT, FISHER AND MEASE ALL BRING HOME DECISIVE WINS ON STATELINE’S OPENING NIGHT!

May 6, 2023 | by Marc Hoegerl

Busti, NY (May 6, 2023)—The New Stateline Speedway opened their 67th year of operations, under vibrant skies, a packed house, as well as filling the pits with 167 competitors. The night would see some familiar faces reach victory lane, as well as a youngster that would put his name in Stateline’s record books.

13 Year Old Brock Pinkerous would put his name in Stateline’s record books by winning the RUSH Crate Late Model feature and being the youngest racer in the history of the track to ever win a feature event. The wily veteran, David Scott would claim victory in the UMP Modifieds, after a 6 year hiatus. Chris Whyte would show the way in the Sharp Mini Late Models. Dennis Lunger would pick up where he left off in 2022, by cashing in on the RUSH Pro Mod feature. Local favorite, Ryan Scott would muscle his way to his first win of 2023, in the highly competitive Super Late Model division. Gary Fisher would make his winning move just before time was called in the Pro Stock main. And John Mease would bring home a hard fought victory in the Challenger ranks.

The first class to christen the 1/3 mile semi-banked oval, would be the RUSH Crate Late Models. Young Gun, Brock “Bam Bam” Pinkerous would take the lead at the drop of the green, with Cochranton, PA’s Josh Ferry in tow. As the laps ticked down in the 20 lap main event, the Ellenville, NY youngster showed his great composure, by holding off a late race charge from Ferry, to make his 6 hour tow worthwhile, by picking up his first ever Stateline victory, in his first ever Stateline appearance. Ferry would settle for second, followed by Jason Genco, David Parker, and Jeff Hoffman.

Next up to take Spanky Hall’s green flag, would be the stacked UMP Modifieds. Garland PA’s, David Scott would take the lead as the pack would head into turn one. Scott would maintain his spot, with a fierce battle going on between regional hot shoes, Joel Watson and Dave Hess Jr. The battle between Watson and Hess would go on, until Hess would spin around coming out of turn two on lap 13, but keeping his momentum, losing several spots. Scott would fend off a late race charge from Watson, to pick up his first UMP Modified win since July 1, 2017. Watson, Steve Rex, Zach Johnson, and Dave Hess Jr. would round out your top five.

It was once again the Whyte show in the Mini Sharp Late Models. Chris Whyte would lead all 15 laps to pick up his first Stateline win of 2023. Treyton Whyte came home 2nd, Jesse Isadore was 3rd, Morgan Curry 4th, with Oakley Terrill rounding out the top five.

Next on tap would be the RUSH Pro Mods. If you were a betting man you would of came home a big winner on this pick. “The Albion Assassin” Dennis Lunger, took no time picking off cars, and finally grabbed the lead from Josh Wilcox, with 5 to go, to bring home RUSH Pro Mod career win number 41 at Stateline, and his first victory of 2023. Lunger showed that the off-season was no factor in the races outcome, despite a subpar finish in his heat. Rounding out your top five was, 9th starter Steve Dixon, Chad Carlson, Al Brewer, and Josh Wilcox.

The talent driven Super Late Models would be up next for their ground pounding 25 lap event. The feature would see four lead changes throughout the event. Greg Oakes was looking to go back to back in opening night wins, as he would lead the first two laps. Outside pole-sitter Ryan Scott would make his move around leader Oakes on lap 3 and hold that top spot until Oakes would once again gain the point on lap 6. Oakes’ lead would be short-lived, as Scott would muscle his way around Oakes on lap 8 and go the remaining distance untouched to pick up an impressive opening night win. Scott’s win would break a 35 race dry spell, dating back to June 8, 2019. Oakes would settle for second, Jason Genco 3rd, Dutch Davies 4th, and defending points champ Dave Hess Jr. 5th.

The much awaited Pro Stock feature would be up next. William Reeves looked like he would pick up where he left off in 2022 but would be hampered by a flat rear tire while leading on lap 7, giving the lead to Tanner Ramsey on the restart. Ramsey would lead the next 3 laps, until slipping in turn two, handing over the lead to Gary Fisher Jr. Fisher would hold that point for the next two laps, as the event would be called for exceeding its time limit, on lap 12. Fisher Jr. would be declared the winner, picking up win #1 of 2023. Shane Applebee ran a nice race to come home 2nd, Douglas Eck 3rd, Reeves came from the tail to finish 4th, and former champion John Boardman was 5th.

Last event of the night would be the always entertaining Challenger division. After the night’s prelims, Tim Dragar looked like the car to beat. Dragar would have no problem leading the first 9 laps, but John Mease would take advantage of a caution with 3 laps to go, to move around Dragar on the restart, to pick up his first Stateline win of 2023. Andy Schumaker, Domingo Echevarria, Tim Dragar, and Rick Feely would complete your top five.

Don’t forget next Saturday, May 13th. The RUSH Touring Late Models will headline with their annual Bill Law Memorial, paying $3,000 to the winner, plus our weekly six pack of racing!

RUSH CRATE LATE MODELS

Heat 1: 1) Brock Pinkerous 2) Matt Sipes 3) Ward Shell 4) Jake Peterson 5) Draven Kuzminski 6) Hunter Proctor 7) Rick Karash 8) Rory Houser 9) Khole Wanzer

Heat 2: 1) Randy Hall 2) David Parker 3) Breyton Santee 4) Scott Gurdak 5) Logan Jaquay 6) DJ Krug 7) Mason Jaquay 8) Steve Houser 9) Shawn Little

Heat 3: 1) Jason Genco 2) Billy Henry 3) Chub Frank 4) Andy Boozel 5) Zack Carley 6) Jimmy Johnson 7) Don Watson 8) Ian Travis 9) Charley Houser

Heat 4: 1) Josh Ferry 2) Jeff Hoffman 3) Shane Crotty 4) Andy Michael 5) Gary Youngs 6) Ashton Briggs 7) Steve Blodgett 8) Ray Houser

Consi: (Top 4 Transfer) 1) Krug 2) Wanzer 3) Proctor 4) M. Jaquay

Feature: 1) Pinkerous 2) Ferry 3) Genco 4) Parker 5) Hoffman 6) Schell 7) Henry 8) Hall 9) Frank 10) Boozel 11) Gurdak 12) L. Jaquay 13) Wanzer 14) Carley 15) Michael 16) Peterson 17) Youngs 18) Krug 19) Kuzminski 20) Sipes 21) M. Jaquay 22) Proctor 23) Crotty 24) Santee

Lap Leaders: Pinkerous (1-20)

UMP MODIFIEDS

Heat 1: 1) Michael McGee 2) David Scott 3) Mason Lobb 4) Butch Southwell 5) Dan Sasso 6) Dalton Bradley 7) Emily Stoyer 8) James Irwin

Heat 2: 1) Dave Hess Jr. 2) Jason Brightman 3) Zach Johnson 4) Dave Lanphere 5) Chris Deponceau 6) Bud Watson 7) Tim Rockwell

Heat 3: 1) Tim Peterson 2) Steve Rex 3) Matt Kosinski 4) Troy Johnson 5) Kyle Schreckengost 6) Tom Kosinski 7) Bryon Johnson

Heat 4: 1) Joel Watson 2) Greg Johnson 3) Dennis Lunger 4) Andrew Beatman 5) Thomas Cupp 6) James Wilburn 7) Kyle Adkins

Consi: (Top 4 Transfer) 1) Rockwell 2) B. Johnson 3) Cupp 4) Irwin

Feature: 1) Scott 2) J. Watson 3) Rex 4) Z. Johnson 5) Hess Jr. 6) G, Johnson 7) T. Johnson 8) Brightman 9) Kosinski 10) Peterson 11) Sasso 12) Southwell 13) B. Watson 14) Lobb 15) Schreckengost 16) Beatman 17) Wilburn 18) Irwin 19) Lanphere 20) B. Johnson 21) Lunger 22) Cupp 23) Rockwell 24) McGee

Lap Leaders: Scott (1-20)

RUSH PRO MODS

Heat 1: 1) Al Brewer 2) Vaughn Nystrom 3) Tyler Sutton 4) Derek Peterson 5) Brian Mohawk 6) Cameron Sherwood 7) Ryan Sanders

Heat 2: 1) Chad Carlson 2) Tyler Oakes 3) Dennis Lunger 4) Jarrod Silvis 5) Nick Arnold 6) Cody Rickard

Heat 3: 1) Josh Wilcox 2) Chad Ramsey 3) Steve Dixon 4) Garrett Miller 5) Ian Degolier 6) Don May Jr.

Feature: 1) Lunger 2) Dixon 3) Carlson 4) Brewer 5) Wilcox 6) Ramsey 7) Oakes 8) Sutton 9) Degolier 10) Miller 11) Rickard 12) Arnold 13) Nystrom 14) Mohawk 15) Peterson 16) Silvis 17) May Jr. 18) Sherwood 19) Sanders

Lap Leaders: Wilcox (1), Ramsey (2), Wilcox (3-14), Lunger (15-20)

SUPER LATE MODELS

Heat 1: 1) Dutch Davies 2) Jason Genco 3) Bob Dorman 4) Chub Frank 5) John Volpe 6) Chevy Scott 7) Anthony Marotto

Heat 2: 1) Darrell Bossard 2) Ryan Scott 3) Jake Finnerty 4) Kyle Bedell 5) Khole Wanzer 6) Kevin Smith 7) Nicholas Eck

Heat 3: 1) Greg Oakes 2) Dave Hess Jr. 3) Bump Headman 4) Wyatt Scott 5) Breyton Santee 6) Pasul Schreckengost

Feature: 1) R. Scott 2) Oakes 3) Genco 4) Davies 5) Hess Jr. 6) Dorman 7) Bossard 8) Frank 9) Santee 10) W. Scott 11) Volpe 12) Bedell 13) Finnerty 14) Hedman 15) Marotto 16) C. Scott 17) Eck 18) Schreckengost 19) Smith 20) Wanzer

Lap Leaders: Oakes (1,2) R. Scott (3-5), Oakes (6,7), R. Scott (8-25)

PRO STOCKS

Heat 1: 1) Tanner Ramsey 2) Bill Applebee 3) Tyler Dyns 4) Steve Keith 5) Brent Marotto 6) Donald Blood 7) Jason Covey 8) Dale Sheets

Heat 2: 1) William Reeves 2) Joe Stajnrajh 3) Mike Oakes 4) Jason Black 5) Douglas Eck 6) Dave Baker Jr. 7) Garret Waters 8) Cole Strickland

Heat 3: 1) Gary Fisher Jr. 2) Shane Applebee 3) John Boardman 4) Matt Sampson 5) John Cline 6) David Schauers 7) Grant Richard

Feature: 1) Fisher Jr. 2) S. Applebee 3) Eck 4) Reeves 5) Boardman 6) Ramsey 7) Dynys 8) Oakes 9) Richard 10) Schauers 11) Stajnrajh 12) Black 13) Marotto 14) Strickland 15) Sampson 16) B. Applebee 17) Waters 18) Keith 19) Baker Jr. 20) Cline 21) Blood 22) Sheets 23) Covey

Lap Leaders: Reeves(1-7) , Ramsey(8-10) , Fisher Jr.(11,12)

CHALLENGERS

Heat 1: 1) Tim Dragar 2) Curtis Rung 3) Jon Seekings 4) Rachel Butler 5) Tommy Labarbera 6) Vince Norton 7) Cassandra Goodwill 8) Colin Larson

Heat 2: 1) Andy Schumaker 2) Domingo Echevarria 3) Nicholas Reed 4) Pete Volpe 5) Nick Harvey 6) David Moller 7) Tyler Pearson 8) Kasey Markham

Heat 3: 1) Brandon Huffman 2) John Mease 3) Chris Horton 4) Cam Vanhooser 5) Brandon Marotto 6) Chelsea Haskins 7) Sean Murphy 8) Amber Silvis

Heat 4: 1) Holden Heineman 2) Rick Feely 3) Dan Bittinger 4) Andrew Smith 5) Jess Harvey 6) Jordan Richard 7) Kayla York 8) Justin Dragar 9) Todd Hanlon

Consi: 1) Moller 2) Norton 3) Pearson 4) Goodwill

Feature: 1) Mease 2) Schumaker 3) Echevarria 4) Dragar 5) Feely 6) Rung 7) Seekings 8) Horton 9) Heineman 10) Butler 11) Smith 12) Labarbera 13) Moller 14) Marotto 15) Volpe 16) Norton 17) Goodwill 18) Huffman 19) N. Harvey 20) J. Harvey 21) Reed 22) Pearson 23) Bittinger 24) Vanhooser

Lap Leaders: Dragar (1-9), Mease (10-12)

SHARP MINI LATE MODELS

Heat: 1) Chris Whyte 2) Oakley Terrill 3) Treyton Whyte 4) Terry Mealy 5) Morgan Curry 6) Ryan Card 7) Jesse Isadore 8) Kyle Coons

Feature: 1) C. Whyte 2) T. Whyte 3) Isadore 4) Carly 5) Terrill 6) Card 7) Mealy 8) Coons

Lap Leaders: C. Whyte (1-15)