Jessica Zemken’s Heart Break is Good Fortune for Jeff VanDusen; Collects First ESS win of 2006 at Ohsweken.
By Dean Reynolds
Contact: DeanR@empiresupersprints.com
OHSWEKEN, ONT. – Everything but the popping of the champagne was ready for Jessica Zemken and her upcoming victory lane celebration Friday night at the Ohsweken Speedway when the nativepoker.com Tour for the Empire Super Sprints (ESS) made their visit. There was just one problem however, the winner of the Spectro Oils Canadian Invasion event was Otego, N.Y.’s Jeff VanDusen and he wasn’t about ready to give it back.
The young, 20 year old lady was bringing the stout field of sprinters to the checkered flag in hopes of her second victory of 2006. With the big crowd up cheering her on, her nativepoker.com backed sprinter came up lame in turn one on the final lap, a victim of a blown right rear tire. VanDusen’s #56 was right there and he avoided Zemken’s disabled mount, survived a one lap shoot out with Nick Fratto to break a long streak of bad luck for himself as well.
“I was just ready to make a run on her on the last lap when all of a sudden her right rear tire just blew apart. She did a great job holding on to the car and I just missed her.” noted VanDusen on the sudden turn of events. “I guess we finally had some good luck, it’s been a horrible 2006 for, maybe we can get on a roll and see if we can move up in the points.”
Nick Fratto brought the field down for the 25 lap A-Main and he also was looking to bring some good results to his stable for 2006. The teenager led comfortably through the mid-stages of the event despite a slow oil leak aboard his #F1. VanDusen came from his seventh place start to take second on lap nine, Zemken then went by him on lap 12 to have the runner-up slot to herself.
Zemken’s sprinter got faster as the race went on and with lapped cars she was able to close in on Fratto for the top spot. On lap 18, she blasted around Fratto and into the lead which looked to be hers until the checkered flag. VanDusen slipped by Fratto as the white flag was waving trying to set up a last ditch effort for the win. His bid came just a little easier with Zemken’s misfortune.
“I think I went through some debris when Justin (Barger) stopped. My car just got better during the race and I could run the bottom better than anyone. I think that was because the tire was losing some air which gave me bite, I couldn’t believe how good it was on the low side.” said Zemken afterwards. “Then in the last few laps it felt weird, I guess it was ready to blow. I didn’t even know what went wrong, that’s why I didn’t got into the pits but it was a big blow out. It took off my nerf bar, bent the header and radius rod. I was done.”
For VanDusen, his Rich’s Auto Body sponsored Maxim hasn’t seen many top five finishes in 2006, a season where title aspirations were the goal. “It just hasn’t been easy this year. We had a good car tonight, we were really good up high.” VanDusen mentioned. “With the slower cars coming up I was gaining back on her, it would have been fun to see what would have happened on that last lap. I was there but her bad luck was my good luck.”
At the finish it was VanDusen, who became the seventh different winner in eight shows, Fratto was second followed by Matt Norrie who had his best finish of 2006 with a fine third place run. Same for Randy Years in his Randy’s Racing Filters #2 for a solid fourth with Lance Yonge completing the top five. Rounding out the top ten were John Karklin Jr., Alain Bergeron, Doug Emery, Steve Poirier and Jeff Cook.
Winning the Car Mate Trailers heat events were VanDusen, Yonge and Kyle Moffit, the Walt’s Hobby Dash was won by Yonge with the KSE Racing Products B-Main taken by Billy White.
Just three cautions slowed the pace on a tacky Ohsweken oval. Michael Parent lost power on the initial start, Barger’s broken rear end was the culprit on lap two and the final yellow was on lap 24 with Zemken’s blown tire.
ESS/OHSWEKEN NOTES: A good field of 28 sprints were on hand for the annual visit with a good crowd filling the stands as well…A solid and welcomed support from many Southern Ontario Sprint drivers. Craig Downie and Tom Huppunen made the A-Main starting field with Fred Cade, James Whittaker, Jim Price, Terry Baker and Fred Pigeon, who hails from British Columbia, also on hand…Kyle Drum was the only flip victim as he went over in the B-Main ending his night…With the early afternoon rain shower, the track turned up tacky and fast with Yonge topping 100 m.p.h. in the dash…The nativepoker.com Tour will again come to Glenn Styres’ fine facility as a part of the second annual Canadian Sprint Car Nationals which will be held on Sept. 15 and 16. For VanDusen, Fratto and Matt Norrie, they will be ESS representatives in the Village Pizza Shootout in Friday of the Nationals.
RESULTS:
Heat 1 – Jeff VanDusen, Nick Fratto, John Karklin Jr., Justin Barger, Doug Emery, Michael Parent.
Heat 2 – Lance Yonge, Randy Years, Alain Bergeron, Dan Kaszubinski, Matt Norrie, Tom Huppunen.
Heat 3 – Kyle Moffit, Russ Bennett, Jessica Zemken, Jeff Cook, Steve Poirier, Doug Norrie.
Walt’s Hobby Dash – Lance Yonge.
B-Main – Billy White, Craig Downie, Glenn Styres, Bubby Kerrick.
Did Not Qualify – Jim Price, Fred Pigeon, Fred Cade, Kyle Drum, James Whittaker, Terry Baker.
A-MAIN – JEFF VANDUSEN, Nick Fratto, Matt Norrie, Randy Years, Lance Yonge, John Karklin Jr., Alain Bergeron, Doug Emery, Steve Poirier, Jeff Cook, Dan Kaszubinski, Jessica Zemken, Doug Norrie, Glenn Styres, Tom Huppunen, Bubby Kerrick, Billy White, Russ Bennett, Craig Downie, Kyle Moffit, Justin Barger, Michael Parent.
Gater News Lap Leaders – Fratto 1-17, Zemken 18-24, VanDusen 25.
Ohsweken Speedway Winner’s Bonus – VanDusen $100.
National Parts Peddler Halfway Bonus – Fratto $100.
Walt’s Hobby Dash – Yonge $100
Lane’s Yamaha Hard Charger – Styres (7 pos.) $50.
Geneva Curbing Bridesmaid Bonus – M. Norrie $50.
Car Mate Trailers – VanDusen, Yonge and Moffit $25.
Winner’s Bonuses: ATL $100, Hank’s Performance $50, Total Seal $50, HRP $50, B&B Oval Track Products $50, Racing Optics $30, Area Auto Racing News $30, Behrent’s Performance Warehouse/Mechanix Wear $20, MRE Productions $15, Ultra-Shield $10, Pepsi $10
Other Bonuses:
Weld Racing Hard Luck – Zemken $100
Design 500 – Yonge, Kaszubinski $200
Butler Built – Fratto $100
Penske Shocks – Yonge $100
M&W Aluminum – M. Norrie $75
Leaf Racewear – M. Norrie $75
KSE Racing Products – White $50
Saldana Racing Products – Fratto $50
Kreitz Oval Track Products – Fratto $50
Zemco Headers – Yonge $50
Joe Hunt Magnetos – Barger $50
Rod End Supply – Fratto, M. Norrie $30
FourWide Motorsports – Years $25
LA Sharp Services – Bergeron $25
DMI – Parent $25
BR Motorsports – Drum $25
Earl’s Indy – Fratto $20
Ultra-Shield – Fratto, M. Norrie $10
Pepsi – Yonge $10, Moffit, White $5.
| Pos | Car # | Name |
1 56D Jeff VanDusen
2 F1 Nick Fratto
3 14M Matt Norrie
4 2 Randy Years
5 17J Lance Yonge
6 69K John Karklin Jr
7 8B Alain Bergeron
8 33 Doug Emery
9 28FM Steve Poirier
10 10 Jeff Cook
11 20 Dan Kaszubinski
12 1z Jessica Zemken
13 92M Doug Norrie
14 0 Glenn Styres
15 27H Tom Huppunen
16 4U Bubby Kerrick
17 66 Billy White
18 65 Russ Bennett
19 71 Craig Downie
20 77 Kyle Moffit
21 32 Justin Barger
22 25 Michael Parent
pos. car # SPORTSMAN FEATURE
1st #8C WAYNE CONN
2nd #71 MIKE BOWMAN
3rd #20 JAY MALLORY
4th #111X KEVIN WILLS
5th #76 TRAVIS BRAUN
6th #12 CHAD CHEVALIER
7th #2K ROB KNAPP
8th #111 ROBBIE ROUNCE
9th #21JJ JIM JOHNSTONE
10th #6 MATT WILLIAMSON
11th #7X TOMMY FLANNIGAN
12th #54 MARK CHIDDY
13TH #11M MARK DIXON
14TH #56 STEVE SCHUMACHER
15TH #64E DOUG ERSKINE
16TH #P38 ROB PRATT
17TH #18J JOHN BAKER
18TH #08 MARK D’ILARIO
19TH #29 TIM LIPSITT (DNF)
20TH #27 BRETT WOOD (DNF)
21ST #777 TYLER MCPHERSON (DNF)
22ND #11Z DARREN ZUMPE
23RD #5 DAVE DYKSTRA
24TH #18R BRAD ROUSE
pos. car # THUNDER STOCK FEATURE
1st #24A A.J. LEWIS
2nd #3 BRAD BACHER
3rd #12 BRAD HERRON
4th #98 MIKEY KRUCHKA
5th #37 JEREMY BEAN
6th #40 TERRY OSMOND
7th #18 AMANDA STONER
8th #50 JEFF BURKE
9th #38 TERRY MARTIN (DNF)
10TH #191 GORD BATES (DNF)
11TH #01 ADAM SMUCK (DQ)
12TH #4K KEVIN KNAPP (DNS)
13TH #90 DAVID BREWSTER (DNS)
pos. Car # MINI STOCK FEATURE
1st #2 LEE WINGER
2nd #69E DAN ERSKINE
3rd #79 STEVE MILLER
4th #28 ABEL CASTELEIN
5th #31X DAVE BAILEY
6th #13 MARK SAUL
7th #19 CHARLIE LYNCH
8th #72 KEVIN HILBORN
9th #86 RICK EMBERSON
10th #113 MARK THORNE
11th #71 GARNET WILSON
12th #40 JIM SWING
13th #18 RYAN DINNING
14th #27 DAN STEWART
15th #24K KYLE MAGRIN
16th #05 DAVID GOODACRE
17th #9 GLEN LEINEN
18th #MT50 SHARI TURNER
19TH #772 JOHNNA MARTIN
20TH #02 ERINN BAILEY
21ST #15 MIKE THORNE
22ND #50X JOHN BURDICK
23RD #11 MIKE GIBERSON (DNF)
24TH #39 JIM COCHRANE (DNF)
pos. Car # MINI STOCK CONSI
1ST #18 DAN DEPAGTER
2ND #MT50 SHARI TURNER
3RD #772 JOHNNA MARTIN
4TH #50X JOHN BURDICK
5TH #39 JIM COCHRANE
6TH #7X PAUL GOODALE
7TH #05 DAVID GOODACRE
8TH #80 DARYL RANDALL
9TH #23 MATT CASTELEIN (DNS)
10TH #88J JESSE MCDONALD (DNS)