WATSON BAGS FIRST EVER STATELINE TRIUMPH AS BOOZEL, GENCO, HARVEY, SAMPSON AND VOLPE ALSO REGISTER VICTORIES!

June 2, 2024 | by Marc Hoegerl

Busti, NY (June 1, 2024) by Marc Hoegerl: The New Stateline Speedway would be blessed with spacious, late spring northeastern New York weather, and 133 mounts in 6 divisions to entertain the packed house.

In the RUSH Pro Mods, Bradford, PA’s Zain Harvey would come from the tail after bringing out an early race caution, passing race long leader Josh Wilcox on the final turn of the final lap to pick up his first Stateline Speedway RUSH Pro Mod feature triumph of the season. Wilcox would have to settle for 2nd, veteran Al Brewer was 3rd, Dennis Lunger after starting 17th was 4th and Kane’s Vaughn Nystrom would round out the top 5th.

In the stacked field of RUSH Crate Late Models, Crate Late Model standout Kyle Zimmerman would lead the first 9 circuits until the familiar 29J of Jason Genco, using his signature outside line, would grab the lead from Zimmerman, leading the final 11 laps to pick up his first Stateline RUSH Crate Late Model win of the young season. This would be Genco’s 18th career win in the class, leaving him only 6 wins behind Stateline’s all time RUSH Crate Late Model feature winner Max Blair. Zimmerman would ride home 2nd, David Parker was 3rd, Jake Wilber was 4th as last week’s winner Randy Hall rounded out the top 5.

Conneaut, OH’s Bud Watson has tried desperately over the years to bag his first Stateline win. On this night, the Ashtabula County Ohio native would finally get the monkey off his back, leading all 20 laps and holding off cousin, and regional hot shoe Joel Watson, to pick up his first ever Stateline UMP Modified feature win. Joel Watson would settle for 2nd, Michael McGee would have another podium run finishing 3rd, local favorite David Scott was 4th as Albion PA’s Dennis Lunger was 5th.

The headlining, ground pounding Super Late Models would hit the 1/3 mile surface next. Clymer’s Andy Boozel, who has had a bit of a dry spell as of late, would dominate the 25 lap Super Late Model main event, picking up his first Stateline Super Late Model win of the season and his first Stateline Super Late Model win since September 2, 2011. 2023 feature winner Darrell Bossard was 2nd, 13th place starter Jason Genco was 3rd, veteran Bob Dorman was 4th as Douglas Eck in his career best finish was 5th.

Matt Sampson using his outside pole starting position would go uncontested in the Pro Stock a-main. Five-time Stateline points champion John Boardman was 2nd, 2023 champ Shane Applebee was 3rd, Andrew Hammond with his best run of the season was 4th and three-time winner in 2023 Jason Black would complete the top 5.

Closing the evening’s festivities would be the Challenger’s. Lakewood’s Pete Volpe has proven that he’s the man to beat in 2024, driving away from the rest of the field to pick up back-to-back feature wins in the Challenger class. Following the wily veteran Volpe across the stripe would be, Domingo Echevarria finishing 2nd, Tim Dragar making the podium finishing 3rd, Corry’s Billi Jo Huffman was 4th and Anna Diabo with another fine run would complete the top 5.

RUSH PRO MODS (17 Entrants)

Feature: 1) Zain Harvey 2) Josh Wilcox 3) Al Brewer 4) Dennis Lunger 5) Vaughn Nystrom 6) Rich Hemphill 7) Steve Watson 8) Nick Arnold 9) Tyler Oakes 10) Josh Canfield 11) Dennis Dellinger 12) Bill Silvis 13) Arianna Samuelson 14) Cody Rickard 15) Greg Marsh 16) Robert Cettell 17) Alex Siekkinen

Heat Race Winners: Zain Harvey, Al Brewer
Lap Leaders: Wilcox (1-19), Harvey (20)

RUSH CRATE LATE MODELS (24 Entrants)

Feature: 1) Jason Genco 2) Kyle Zimmerman 3) David Parker 4) Jake Wilber 5) Randy Hall 6) Scott Gurdak 7) Ward Schell 8) Josh Ferry 9) Robert Rohrer 10) Shane Crotty 11) Jacob Tubbs 12) Khole Wanzer 13) William Taylor 14) Chad Clement 15) Steve Houser 16) Stephen Blodgett 17) Ray Houser 18) Jacob Peterson 19) Mason Jaquay 20) Kassy Norman 21) DJ Krug 22) Shawn Little 23) Gary Youngs 24) Rick Karash

Heat Race Winners: Robert Rohrer, David Parker, Josh Ferry & Jason Genco
Lap Leaders: Zimmerman (1-9) , Genco (10-20)

UMP MODIFIEDS (25 Entrants)

Feature: 1) Bud Watson 2) Joel Watson 3) Michael McGee 4) David Scott 5) Dennis Lunger 6) Troy Johnson 7) Steve Rex 8) Zach Johnson 9) Kyle Schreckengost 10) Butch Southwell 11) Greg Johnson 12) Dave Lanphere 13) Jason Brightman 14) Matt Kosinski 15) CJ Ramsey 16) Tom Kosinski 17) Chris Deponceau 18) Matt Haskins 19) Bryon Johnson 20) Cale Crocker 21) Joel Lanphere 22) Mike Eschrich 23) Tim Rockwell 24) Greg Belyea 25) Tim Peterson

Heat Race Winners: Bud Watson, Dennis Lunger, Michael McGee & David Scott
Lap Leaders: B. Watson (1-20)

SUPER LATE MODELS (17 Entrants)

Feature: 1) Andy Boozel 2) Darrell Bossard 3) Jason Genco 4) Bob Dorman 5) Douglas Eck 6) Bump Headman 7) Brandon DeBrakeleer 8) Kyle Bedell 9) Paul Schreckengost 10) Garrett Mott 11) Ryan Scott 12) Anthony Marotto 13) Greg Oakes 14) Wes McCray 15) Nicholas Eck 16) Jason Dobson 17) Chevy Scott

Heat Race Winners: Andy Boozel & Darrell Bossard
Lap Leaders: Boozel (1-25)

PRO STOCKS (23 Entrants)

Feature: 1) Matt Sampson 2) John Boardman 3) Shane Applebee 4) Andrew Hammond 5) John Cline 6) Jason Black 7) Tanner Ramsey 8) Brent Marotto 9) Dave Baker Jr. 10) Michael Oakes 11) Donald Blood 12) Bill Applebee 13) Grant Richard 14) Ed Merwick 15) John H. Cline 16) Justin Pratt 17) Gary Fisher 18) David Tower 19) Joe Stajnrajh 20) Walter Johnson 21) Dustin Gibson 22) Dale Sheets 23) Russell Coyne

Heat Race Winners: Matt Sampson, Andrew Hammond, Dave Baker Jr & Jason Black
Lap Leaders: Sampson (1-15)

CHALLENGERS (26 Entrants)

Feature: 1) Pete Volpe 2) Domingo Echevarria 3) Tim Dragar 4) Billi Jo Huffman 5) Anna Diabo 6) David Moller 7) John Mease 8) Jordan Melice 9) Hailey Moore 10) Shane Olmstead 11) Chelsea Haskins 12) Jess Eck 13) Jonathan Cooper 14) George Hoag 15) Natalya Powell 16) Adam Brisky 17) James Wilburn 18) Noah Zimmerman 19) Brandon Hall 20) George Rockwell 21) Justin Dragar 22) Craig Karns 23) Tommy Labarbera 24) Austin Haskins 25) Nicholas Reed 26) Todd Hanlon

Heat Race Winners: Greg Rockwell, Billi Jo Huffman, Pete Volpe & John Mease
Lap Leaders: Volpe (1-12)