Kondrat Kleans House
The Winged Warriors of SCoNE (Sprint Cars of New England) flew into Canaan Dirt Speedway www.canaandirtspeedway on Friday evening for their second race of the young 2009 season. There were 14 of these alcohol gulping, fire breathing, 360 cubic inch cars on hand but once again the gremlins struck early and the #1 car of Chris Sweeny was unable to take the track due to steering problems. There was a 15th sprint present (the #69 of Aaron Thayer) but it was only there to be shown as a “for sale” car. It also did not take the track.
We had two visitors from New York, Matt Tanner and Mark Zemcik. Welcome and thanks for making the long trip to race with the sprints of SCoNE. Lacey Hanson celebrated her 21st birthday today, happy birthday, Lacey. Chris Sweeny and Jeff Ries made their first SCoNE start of the season. Welcome back!
The track was dry, slick for the heats making for some really dusty conditions. Unfortunately the wind was blowing from the track to the stands but the crowd didn’t seem to mind too much as the racing was really exciting to watch.
Finishing order for the 1st heat is as follows:
1st was the #5 of Mike Kondrat, 2nd the #6X of Mark Cole, 3rd the #11 of Tunk berry, 4th the #82 of Randy Howe, 5th the #33 of Lacey Hanson, 6th the # 38 of Bob Giuliani and 7th the #22 of Mark Zemcik.
Finishing order for the 2nd heat is:
1st was the #17 of Si Allen, 2nd the #58 of Clay Dow (last weeks feature winner), 3rd the #90 car of Matt Tanner, 4th the #72 of Jeff Ries, 5th the #9 of Robby Bodwell and 6th the #10 of Bruce Kimball who left the track with mechanical problems.
Driver introductions were performed with the cars parked on the home stretch, the drivers out of their cars and the announcer chatting with and introducing the drivers. He and the crowd also wished Lacey a happy birthday.
By the time the feature was to be run the wind had changed direction and was mostly blowing down the track and not into the stands. Also track promoter Wally Brown had the track watered and graded during intermission providing a somewhat tacky racing surface. This surface lasted for approximately 10 laps but then slicked off again making the last of the 25 laps quite dusty.
There were 13 cars starting the feature and that’s a lot of sprints on a _ mile track. The racing was fast and furious. Bruce Kimball started on the outside pole and took off from there with Si Allen close behind and Mark Cole working his way through the pack from his deep starting position. On lap 23, Bruce spun coming out of the 4th turn taking Mark with him and Si with no place to go ended up colliding with Mark. That took out the three leaders. Bruce and Mark restarted at the back of the pack and Si was out with a broken car.
Watching the race from the stands provided a spectacular view. There were no lapped cars during the race and there were battles for position right down through the field. Mark Zemcik spun on turn one, attempted of do a 360 spin to keep going, and did a wheel stand and beautiful pirouette and continued on. What did stand out was just how fast Mark Cole was. On two occasions Mark did long, high wheel stands coming out of turn 4. The fastest car did not win the race tonight, but that’s racing. It’s not who’s fastest, it’s who gets to the finish line first. And on this night it was the 5 car of Mike Kondrat.
The finishing order is:
1st Mike Kondrat, 2nd Tunk Berry, 3rd Randy Howe, 4th Matt Tanner, 5th Bob Giuliani, 6th Robby Bodwell, 7th Matt Zemcik, 8th Lacey Hanson, 9th Clay Dow 10th Bruce Kimball, 11th Mark Cole. 12th and 13th went to Si Allen and Jeff Ries with mechanical problems.
The SCoNE Winged Warriors will make their next appearance on
Saturday, June 13th at Bear Ridge Speedway www.bearridgespeedway.com
on Kidder Road in Bradford, VT. Racing starts at 6:30 pm.
Come watch the fastest dirt race cars in New England!
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