WEEDSPORT, NY – Just when everyone thought the race was over it was
Gary Tomkins who made a last lap pass over Erick Rudolph to capture the
Super DIRTcar Series Hall of Fame 100 at Weedsport Speedway and take
home the $10,000 paycheck.
“That last restart the tires didn’t feel right so I went to the
bottom, got my rhythm back and caught back up to Erick,” Tomkins said in
victory lane. “I stuck it into one that one time and it stuck and I
thought ‘oh boy here we go.’ I thought maybe if Erick gave me room on
the front stretch we could do it and he did.”
Rudolph and Stewart Friesen brought the 30-car field to the initial green.
Rudolph held on strong to position No. 1 over Friesen as Friesen worked the outside lane to chase him down.
Rudolph had two car lengths over Friesen as Rudolph crept up on
lapped traffic on lap 11 but was soon to be halted on lap 13 as the
first caution of the night was brought out.
Gary Tomkins took advantage of the lap 19 restart and gained third position from Jimmy Phelps.
15th starter Danny Johnson made his way into the top ten by lap 30.
At the halfway mark Rudolph led the way over Friesen, Tomkins, Jimmy Phelps and Matt Sheppard.
Sheppard snuck passed Phelps on the bottom for fourth as Phelps
pushed up on lap 51 then leaving the door open for Billy Decker to slide
by Phelps to take fifth spot.
Rudolph once again caught up to the back of the field on lap 58.
Johnson worked his way around the outside to capture fifth position from Decker on lap 60.
Phelps surrendered a top ten spot on lap 63 as he was forced to pit due to problems in the front end of his 98H machine.
Tomkins slid to the outside into turns three and four and drove
passed Friesen to take over second position on lap 77 and soon drove
away from Friesen as he chased down Rudolph.
Lap 81 saw 20th starter Pat Ward slowly advancing through the field into eighth position.
Tomkins patiently inched his way up to Rudolph’s rear bumper with fifteen laps to go.
Tomkins was looking to the topside as Rudolph held tight to the bottom.
Rudolph and Tomkins caught the back of the field with just eight laps
remaining allowing Tomkins to close the gap even more but was then
halted as the fifth caution of the night was brought out, forcing the
field to tighten back up.
Friesen and Sheppard battled back and forth for the third spot as
Johnson jumped in to join the battle as Rudolph and Tomkins pulled away
from the field.
Tomkins once again found the rear bumper of Rudolph with just two
laps remaining as he dove to the outside giving everything he could.
Tomkins made a last lap charge by diving to the outside of Rudolph and sailing away to take the Hall of Fame 100 victory. Tuesday nights Hall of Fame 100 was Tomkins first Super DIRTcar Series win since 2008.
The top five respectively were Tomkins, Rudolph, Friesen, Sheppard and Johnson.
“Al Heinke has done an awesome job with this facility. One thing he
didn’t change was the track,” Tomkins said. “It’s been the same over the
years and when the track would get slick that’s when I used to make a
lot of money, in the middle of the track. When it stuck I thought, ‘lets
see if we can run it like we used to’ and it did. It rolled around
there pretty good.
It means a lot to be a Hall of Fame champion. I can’t thank everyone
enough who helped us out. I grew up here so it means a lot to win here.”
Runner up, Erick Rudolph led all laps except the very last one. He
was in complete shock by Tomkins last lap pass on the outside.
“I don’t know where he came from. Eight laps before with that last
restart I saw him but was able to pull away,” Rudolph said. “I started
on the bottom, wasn’t getting passed and didn’t seem like I was getting
much pressure so I stayed down there. I saw him coming on the outside.
He must have found something up there.”
Stewart Friesen who is currently in a very close battle with Sheppard
for the points title limped his 44 machine to a third place finish.
“It’s another great night for the Halmar team. We had a right front
shock blow out about halfway through so we were just hanging on there
best we could,” Friesen said.
“On a challenging track like this tonight it gets the car a little upset. We tried to battle through it and keep our forward momentum best we could.”
Races Notes: 41 modifieds attempted to qualify. 30
modifieds started the 100-lap feature event. Billy Decker set fastest
time overall in time trials with a 16.564. Five cautions were brought
out during the 100-lap feature. Gary Tomkins last Super DIRTcar Series
was back in 2008.
The Super DIRTcar Series will be on a two-week break and will be back in action on Thursday, Sept. 1at Lebanon Valley Speedway in West Lebanon, N.Y. for Mr. DIRT Track USA.
Follow the series on Twitter @SuperDIRTcar, or click www.SuperDIRTcarSeries.com.
Super DIRTcar Series Statistical Report; Aug. 9, 2016; Weedsport Speedway; Weedsport, N.Y.
A-Main (100 Laps) – 1. 84-Gary Tomkins; 2. R25-Erick
Rudolph; 3. 44-Stewart Friesen; 4. 9s-Matt Sheppard; 5. J27-Danny
Johnson; 6. 8r-Rob Bellinger; 7. 91-Billy Decker; 8. p42-Pat Ward; 9.
5H-Chris Hile; 10. 19-Tim Fuller; 11. 6m-Mat Williamson; 12. L99-Larry
Wight; 13. 99-Ryan Phelps; 14. X-Chad Phelps; 15. 56-Vince Vitale; 16.
H18-Peter Britten; 17. 35-Frank Cozze; 18. m88-Mike Mahaney; 19.
H98-Jimmy Phelps; 20. 76-Bobby Varin; 21. 6H-Max McLaughlin; 22.
43-Keith Flach; 23. J57-Willy Decker; 24. J14-Alan Johnson; 25. 20-Brett
Hearn; 26. 8-Rich Scagliotta; 27. 88-Dave Allen; 28. 93-Ryan Bartlett;
29. H43-Jimmy Horton; 30. 16-Mike Bowman
Last Chance Showdown 2 (8 laps) – 1. 93-Ryan
Bartlett; 2. 99-Ryan Phelps; 3. 43h-Jimmy Horton; 4. 56-Vince Vitale; 5.
X-Chad Phelps; 6. B18-Dave Blaney; 7. X66-Carey Terrence; 8. 109-Billy
Whittaker; 9. W27-Nick Webb; 10. 49-Billy Dunn;
Last Chance Showdown 1 (8 Laps) – 1. 42p-Pat Ward;
2. h18-Peter Britten; 3. J15-Alan Johnson; 4. 16-Mike Bowman; 5. 88-Dave
Allen; 6. 7m-Michael Maresca; 7. 23-Kyle Coffey; 8. T48-Dave Rauscher;
9. 22-Brandon Walters
Heat 4 (8 Laps) – 1. 9s-Matt Sheppard; 2. J57-Willy
Decker; 3. 98h-Jimmy Phelps; 4. 6h-Max McLaughlin; 5. 43-Keith Flach; 6.
93-Ryan Bartlett; 7. 56-Vince Vitale; 8. 109-Billy Whittaker; 9.
W27-Nick Webb; 10. 49-Billy Dunn
Heat 3 (8 Laps) – 1. R25-Erick Rudolph; 2. 5h-Chris
Hile; 3. 8r-Rob Bellinger; 4. J27-Danny Johnson; 5. 8-Rich Scagliotta;
6. H43-Jimmy Horton; 7. 99-Ryan Phelps; 8. B18-Dave Blaney; 9. X66-Carey
Terrence; 10. X-Chad Phelps
Heat 2 (8 Laps) – 1. 20-Brett Hearn; 2. 88-Mike
Mahaney; 3. 84-Gary Tomkins; 4. 99L-Larry Wight; 5. 76-Bobby Varin; 6.
P42-Pat Ward; 7. 16-Mike Bowman; 8. 7m-Michael Maresca; 9. 22-Brandon
Walters
Heat 1 (8 Laps) – 1. 44-Stewart Friesen; 2. 91-Billy
Decker; 3. 19-Tim Fuller; 4. 6m-Mat Williamson; 5. 35-Frank Cozze; 6.
H18-Peter Britten; 7. J14-Alan Johnson; 8. 88-Dave Allen; 9. T48-Dave
Rauscher; 10. 23-Kyle Coffey
Group 4 Qualifier – 1. 9s-Matt Sheppard, 16.895; 2.
J57-Willy Decker, 17.122; 3. 43-Keith Flach, 17.179; 4. H98-Jimmy
Phelps, 17.253; 5. 49-Billy Dunn, 17.263; 6. 93-Ryan Bartlett, 17.370;
7. 6h-Max McLaughlin, 17.445; 8. W27-Nick Webb, 17.471; 9. 109-Billy
Whittaker, 17.494; 10. 56-Vince Vitale, 17.508
Group 3 Qualifier – 1. 5H-Chris Hile, 16.874; 2.
R25-Erick Rudolph, 16.950; 3. 8-Rich Scagliotta, 16.958; 4. 8r-Rob
Bellinger, 17.014; 5. 99-Ryan Phelps, 17.072; 6. H43-Jimmy Horton,
17.183; 7. X66-Carey Terrence, 17.287; 8. J27-Danny Johnson, 17.428; 9.
B18-Dave Blaney, 17.509; 10. X-Chad Phelps, 17.637
Group 2 Qualifier – 1. 20-Brett Hearn, 16.620; 2.
M88-Mike Mahaney, 16.832; 3. 76-Bobby Varin, 16.900; 4. 99L-Larry Wight,
17.015; 5. 42p-Pat Ward, 17.069; 6. 84-Gary Tomkins, 17.080; 7. 16-Mike
Bowman, 17.219; 8. 7m-Michael Maresca, 17.410; 9. 22-Brandon Walter,
17.433; 10. 1-Tyler Dippel, NT
Group 1 Qualifier – 1. 91-Billy Decker, 16.564; 2.
44-Stewart Friesen, 16.659; 3. 19-Tim Fuller, 16.839; 4. H18-Peter
Britten, 16.893; 5. 6m-Mat Williamson, 16.944; 6. J14-Alan Johnson,
17.156; 7. 35-Frank Cozze, 17.314; 8. 88-Dave Allen, 17.555; 9. T48-Dave
Rauscher, 17.674; 10. 4-Tim Murphy, 18.536; 11. 23-Kyle Coffey, NT