Heotzler ESW Plans

The original plans for the defending Eastern States 200 winner, Heff Heotzler, at this year's Eastern States was to pilot his son's #J17 big block. However, Jeff Heotzler Jr informs us on Dirt Track Digest that Heotzler Jr will be behind the wheel of his own #J17, and his father will drive the Smith Bros. #74 this weekend.

Goodbye to Two Long Time Modified Supporters

After the announcement that Canadian star Mark Hitchcock has retired following the 2008 season, two more long-time supporters have announced their retirements.

Randy Kane reports that Bill Gensler has announced his retirement after he failed to qualify for the Freedom 76er. Gensler started his career in the 70s at the Reading Fairgrounds, and after it closed supported the Pennsylvania tracks, mostly Grandview Speedway. Gensler hasn't raced full time in a handful of years, but he remained a fan favorite as he ran part-time schedules. His #57 small block modified will be missed.

Also, Pete Reynolds, owner of Cracker Motorsports and the Orange County Fair Speedway Director of Marketing will retire following Eastern States Weekend. Reynolds currently owns the #73 big block modified driven by Rick Mill at Orange County and Accord. Crackers Motorsports has always had good runs since their beginning in the big block division in the 1990s. Their most recent accomplishment was with Rick Mill in 2006 as they sat on the pole for the Eastern States 200. Frank Cozze, Rick Mill, Butch Tittle, Mark Smith, Mike Ricci (who gave the team their first career win), Larry Brolsma, Tim Hindley, Jeff Heotzler, Allen Shiffler, and Allan Kellogg have all driven the #73 big block modified over the years. Check out RaceProWeekly.com in their feature's section for a good article on Pete.

We wish both Pete and Bill best of luck in the future!

It's Finally Cozze! Plenty of Tidbits

Frank Cozze finally won the Rite-Aid 200 in exciting fashion as he stretched his fuel mileage to win th $50,000 grand prize. Congratulations on a well deserved win on the grandest stage in modified racing.

Billy Decker won the $20,000 Salute to the Troops 150. Other winners over the week included $4,000 big block heat wins which went to Brett Hearn, Matt Sheppard, and Jack Johnson. $2,000 small block heat wins went to Brett Hearn and Billy Decker. The Futures races on the mile were won by Dave Rauscher in the big block division, and Larry Lampman in the 358 class. Tim Fuller picked up $2,500 for winning big block time trials, and Vic Coffey won $1,500 for winning small block time trials.

Sattelite shows were won by Gary Tomkins at Brewerton, Brett Hearn at Rolling Wheels, and at Cayuga County the twin 25's were split by Chuck Bower and Chad Phelps.

Craig Von Dohren won the big and small block races at Bridgeport.

Troy Wink will not be running Grandview in 2009, and instead will be running New Egypt Speedway on Saturday nights it looks like. Ryan Godown may be the driver of the team's second car at both Big Diamond and New Egypt.

CanAm Motorsports Park has been sold. Stay tuned for Dirt Track Digest for an interview coming soon with the new owners.

Brett Deyo broke the story in the Reading Eagle that Jeff Strunk has been released from the Glen Hyneman #126 modified team after winning track championships at both Big Diamond and Grandview in both 2007 and 2008. Both left on good terms. Strunk will be ending his season at Five Mile Point Speedway and will drive for Joey Grammes in both of those races.

Also, Bobby Varin will be teaming with Frank Tuit in the Sparta Trucking #673 for Eastern States.

Super Dirt Week is Here!

Super Dirt Week is here! Club Wago will be heading up on for Dirt Week, so the blog won't be updated. So, I'd like to direct you guys to the best Super Dirt Week coverage out there, www.raceproweekly.com

Race Pro Weekly will have up to the minute tidbits throughout the week such as other years, and their Super Dirt Week coverage has already started, check it out! Everyone, enjoy Super Dirt Week! It doesn't get any better than this!

Ricci and Laubach Sunday Winners

Rich Ricci and Rick Laubach completed big weekends with wins on Sunday.

Rich Ricci picked up the win at Glen Ridge Motorsports Park for a post-points finale modified race. Ricci's first win of the weekend came at his home track, Accord Speedway, where he picked up $5,000 for winning the King of the Catskills.

Rick Laubach completed the Rocktoberfest sweep at New Egypt, as he backed up Yesterday's small block $4,000 triumph with a big block $5,000 triumph on Sunday. The race was part of the Garden State Dual Track Series tour, the points finale for the tour will be at Bridgeport Speedway for the Turkey Chase weekend.

Danny Johnson Wins $25,000 Victoria

Danny Johnson made his first ever start in the Joe Beyea #121 a good one. After starting 24th on the grid, "the Doctor" used the extreme outside to take the lead from Brett Hearn late in the race and go on to pick up his 3rd Schneider Brothers 200, which was worth $25,000. This was Johnson's second win of the year, the first coming in the (fake) Victoria 200 at the Utica Rome Speedway in May, which was worth $10,000.

Billy Van Pelt continued his dominating season at Woodhull Raceway by winning the Bully Hills Shootout. Rick Laubach won the 358 modified portion of New Egypt's Rocktoberfest weekend to claim the $4,000 to prize.

Ricci King of the Catskills

Rich Ricci, who just missed out on winning his 11th Accord Speedway championship, added yet another notch to his amazing list of accomplishments with another win in the King of the Catskills 100 at Accord. The win, which was part of the RoC Dirt Tour, was worth $5,000 to Ricci. Brett Hearn, Danny Tyler, Chuck McKee, and Billy Van Pelt rounded out the top 5. Pat Ward stretched his RoC points lead with a 6th place finish.

More SDW News and Tidbits

Here's a picture of Paul Gilardi's big block that he'll enter in the Rite-Aid 200 at Super Dirt Week.

Looks like this will more than likely be Steve Paine's last season running the entire Super Dirt Series, tentative plans right now are to do limited traveling while running Canandaigua and Black Rock weekly.

The Super Dirt Series has posted a press release highlights the Super Dirt Week Rite-Aid 200 entry list, here's the link. http://www.superdirtcarseries.com/News/2008/October/100208_SD_RiteAid200field.aspx

Including the news from the press release, here's my updated Rite-Aid 200 Pre-Entry list, obviously this is just from me talking to drivers, so plans could have changed, and drivers not on the list could end up going.

*= Eligible for Thursday's Futures Race

#02 Roy Bresnahan*

#1 Bobby Varin
#1H David Hebert

#FX1 Frankie Caprara

#1J Alan Johnson

#2 Ronnie Johnson

#3 Justin Haers

#4 Duane Howard

#7x Steve Paine

#9s Matt Sheppard

#12A Jack Johnson

#14 Rick Laubach

#19 Tim Fuller

#20 Brett Hearn
#21 Donnie Corellis

#21m Bob McGannon

#24 Patrick Dupree*
#24 Chris Shultz

#26 Ryan Godown

#29 Jeff Brownell

#32c Vic Coffey

#34 Andy Bachetti
#35 Jason Barney

#35 Mike Perrotte

#37 Jason Herrington*

#37x Tommy Scheetz*

#m40 Mark Forte Jr*

#41 Shawn Reimert

#42p Pat Ward

#43 Keith Flach

#44 Frank Cozze

#44 Stewart Friesen

#44s Matt Sheppard

#45 Wayne Jelley

#48too Dave Rauscher*

#49 Billy Dunn

#53 Ric Hill*

#55 Mitch Gibbs

#56 Vince Vitale

#62R Ron Smoker

#66 Vince Gagliaro*

#J66 Danny Johnson

#77x Dale Planck

#83 Brian Swartzlander*

#84 Gary Tomkins

#87 Hector Stratton*

#87x Paul Gilardi*

#88 Steve Hulsizer

#88 J.R. Heffner

#91 Billy Decker

#98 Eddie Marshall

#98H Jimmy Phelps

#99 Ryan Phelps

#99 Larry Wight*

#115 Kenny Tremont

Duane Howard's SDW Paint Job...

This is a picture of Duane Howard's big block that he'll be running in the Rite-Aid 200. Thanks to Chris Noble for sending it out.

Wago Crown Jewel Fantasy League Standings Updates, Coleates in lead

Here are the updated standings! http://jw4.proboards85.com/index.cgi?action=display&board=general&thread=245&page=1