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| Howie Balis Photo |
With the scenic hills in the background and beautiful skies dominating the landscape, the annual "Big Kahuna Weekend" kicked off Friday night at Roaring Knob Motorsports Complex with the opening night "King of the Knob" $2,000 to win for the Super Late Models. Coming off a wild flip at Tyler County Speedway several weeks ago, Lake and team successfully put the car back together again and have been enjoying some feature wins since. And on this night, he would keep a stout field of competitors behind him en route to his third career super late model feature victory at Roaring Knob.
King of the Knob:
Lake started on the poll alongside area standout Keith Barbara as the field came to the opening green flag, but coming out of the final corner on lap one, a four car pileup altered the plans of Rob Marhefka and Skip Hare ending their nights prematurely. Also affected in the melee were contenders Andrew Wylie and Pancho Lawler.
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| Lake in action at Lernerville Speedway earlier in 2016-Pat Miller Photo |
When action got back underway again, Lake and Barbara looked to be the class of the field as they gained a slight amount of separation from the chase pack made up of Gary Dalton, Bob Gordon and Jeremy Miller. The yellow flag waved again with four laps in the books for debris, and on the retstart, little had changed in the running order save for Miller who made his way around Gordon to take the fourth spot. Out front, lapped traffic was emerging for Lake who made his way around without giving ground to Barbara who was in hot pursuit.
With 12 laps down, the caution flag waved again for a spin in turn two, and gave Barbara another opportunity to take the lead away from Lake. But the 15 year old pilot was able to hug the bottom of the surface and gave little for Barbara to look at as Miller moved underneath Dalton to take the third spot away. The green flag would stay out the rest of the way as Lake and Barbara made it a two car fight to the finish during the extended run as they separated from Miller. Barbara, who was within a half second of Lake would make one last gasp effort to take the win from Lake when he went in on the top side of the surface with momentum but was unable to pull even or pass for the win coming to the stripe, and at the end of 30 laps, Lake held on to take the win by .434 seconds.
"We've raced this since it actually began, it's nice to get a win at our home track and to be where we're sitting now. We went for a ride down at Tyler a few weeks back and rolled this one about four times. We took it back to the shop and went over it and nothing got bent too bad, we went back to Tyler with it and won the $5,000 to win race so it showed us that it didn't really hurt the car at all."
Finish- (30 Laps, $2,000 to win; starting position in parenthesis)
1. Michael Lake (1)
2. Keith Barbara (2)
3. Jeremy Miller (6)
4. Gary Dalton (3)
5. Billy Holbert (7)
6. Mike Lupfer (9)
7. Bob Gordon (4)
8. Tim Senic (8)
9. Andy Spooner (15)
10. Pancho Lawler (11)
11. LC Powers (10)
12. John Over (12)
13. Andrew Wylie (5)
14. Rob Marhefka (13)
15. Skip Hare (15)
16. Russel Baird (16)
Quick Time: Michael Lake- 15.570
Heat 1 (Top 5)
1. Michael Lake
2. Bob Gordon
3. Keith Barbara
4. Billy Holbert
5. Mike Lupfer
Heat 2: (Top 5)
1. Gary Dalton
2. Jeremy Miller
3. Andrew Wylie
4. Tim Senic
5. LC Powers
Chargers:
Thirteen year old Ryan Frazee never once looked a gift horse in the mouth. However, to get that gift sometimes, you've got to be in the right place at the right time. Frazee was, and kept close enough to capitalize on a wild last lap sequence of events that saw a possible victory for Anthony Montparte and posibly Josh Kreasko get turned upside down on itself with a turn four melee.
Monteparte and Frazee brought the field to the green flag where Monteparte would rocket out to the early advantage. Following an early caution for contact between Josh Snyder and Wayland King, Montparte once again kept the field behind him once action resumed followed by Frazee, Jason Ammons and Kreasko. The top four kept a close watch on each other and began to gain separation from the rest of the field in the early action with Kreasko moving underneath Ammons on lap five to take the third spot.
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| Howie Balis Photo |
Monteparte's lead was anything but safe as Frazee began applying serious pressure in a bid to wrest the top spot away as he looked underneath Monteparte in turn two approaching lap 10. However, Monteparte would slam the door as Kreasko looked to the outside of the low running Frazee and completed the pass for second with the laps winding down. Kreasko then began his pursuit of Monteparte and was all over his back bumper as he moved to the outside of the leader on the final lap in a last ditch effort for the win. Coming out of turn three and into turn four, Kreasko made contact with Monteparte causing him to hit the wall as he looked to be the winner crossing the line first, but race officials assesed him a rough driving penalty for the last lap contact with Monteparte, giving Frazee, who drove a patient and consistent race, his third career victory at Roaring Knob.
"I really didn't think we'd get the win going into the last lap," "That's not how I wanted to get the win, but I got it and here I am in victory lane."
Finish:
1. Ryan Frazee
2. Jason Ammons
3. Adam Pletcher
4. David Green
5. Jessie McClain
6 Dakota Hixon
7. Anthony Monteparte
8. Terry Laugherty
9. Wayland King
10. Josh Snyder
11. Josh Kreasko
12. Tom Lauffler
Road Runners:
Invader and Dog Hollow four cylinder champion Jack Theys came by with his #666 black dodge neon and took the victory Friday night, but it would not be an easy one.
Theys bolted out to the early lead with Pat Brehm all over him from the drop of the green flag as the top four ran within two seconds of each other in the early going. Following a caution with three laps in the books, Theys kept the lead on the restart as Robert Pluta made his way to the third spot and behind him Andrew Pluta was making life difficult for him.
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| Howie Balis Photo |
As the laps wound down, Theys moved up high to shake Brehm and Andrew Pluta gave Robert all he could handle in a furious attempt to make the podium when the caution came out on the final circuit. The green-white-checkered finish saw Theys hold on tightly to the top spot to take the victory.
Finish:
1. Jack Theys
2. Pat Brehm
3. Robert Pluta
4. Andrew Pluta
5. Todd Dietrick
6. Dustin Dietrick
7. Kevin Lake
8. Jeremy Lamer
9. Matt Presock
9. Cheyenne Rankin
10. Sam Thorpe
11. John Sosta
12. Shawn Gester
Statistics:
Car Count: 46
Super Late Models: 16
Chargers: 12
Road Runners: 12
Semi Late Models: 8
Semi Late Heat Winners: (Feature will run Saturday)
Heat 1. Garrett Paugh
Heat 2: Robert Cossell
Charger Heat Winners:
Heat 1: John Kreasko
Heat 2: Adam Fletcher
Road Runner Heat Winners:
Heat 1: Adam Pluto
Heat 2: Pat Brehm
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