OHSWEKEN SPEEDWAY – May 6th, 2005
by Rich Vleck – Two PSG races ever at Ohsweken, two wins by a Wilson. This time though, it was Kyle’s turn.
Twenty-nine cars were on hand on a perfect spring night to open the Ohsweken Speedway for the 2005 season. The track was extremely tacky and much faster than the final Patriot Sprint Group race at Ohsweken in 2004. Rick Wilson, winner of that race last year, picked up the checkereds in heat one. Like last year, Wilson had to hold off Ray Preston, who was second.
Bryan Howland picked up where he left off at Five Mile Point in heat two, pulling away from Glenn Styres for the win. Jack Pilon also had an impressive race in heat three, running away from Kyle Drum to capture the win.
Chris Muhleisen led all 10 laps of the B-Main to win and transfer into the feature. Jim Porter, Jared Zimbardi and Dan Deming Jr. filled out the top four that completed the 22-car A-Main.
Nine of the 12 drivers that finished in the top four of their heat were eligible for the redraw because of running at Five Mile Point in April. “Cobra” Chuck Hebing ended up on the pole and had the option to go to the back for the Patriot Power Challenge. After contemplating the potential big paycheck Hebing and his crew decided their best option would be to remain on the pole.
Hebing grabbed the early lead from outside-front row starter Kyle Drum and pulled to a healthy advantage to the first halted period, when Dan Deming Jr. flipped his No. 999 in turn two, bringing out the red flag. On the restart, strong-running Drum took his Wilkins RV No. 47 pit-side and opened up the door for Rick and Kyle Wilson to battle for second. Before the battle could really get underway though, Dan Deming brought his No. 999 around again, flipping again, ending his night. When this accident occurred, Chuck Hebing’s right rear tire made contact with Deming and was concerned that it caused a problem with his car.
The race’s final caution came on lap 10 when Chris Muhleisen brought his Griswold’s E.T.R. Service No. 10m to a stop on the backstretch with Hebing still ahead of Kyle and Rick Wilson. On the restart, Rick Wilson, along with Jeff Cook, dove in front of Kyle Wilson, the “Joyceville Cadet” quickly disposed of Cook and set his sights on his Dad.
On lap 15, Kyle reeled in his dad and retook the second position on the bottom of turn four, making some contact with the 11-time PSG winner.
On lap 17, Rick Wilson’s front end slapped the front stretch wall, relegating him to the pits. Kyle Wilson was two seconds back of “Cobra”, but made up that ground in a lap and a half when Hebing pushed up the track in turn four. Wilson and Hebing came to the white flag side by side. Wilson made his No. 16k stick on the bottom and held on to pick up his first ever PSG win.
“I saw Hebing bobbling down in four and knew I could make up a lot of ground on him,” said Wilson. “I went to pass him in one and the car was hopping around but I must have just had a better car than he had.”
Wilson, who started in fourth, has won sprint car races in the past with other organizations, but never at Ohsweken, a track he’s been to much more than the bulk of the 29-car field.
Hebing was dejected after the race but knew that the incident with Deming early in the race had hurt the car, “I was struggling the last 10 laps of the race and I think when I got into (Deming) it pushed up the right rear and got the w-link. The car got too tight and it ending up costing us the race.”
Out of nowhere George Suprick, who started 15th and did not break the top 10 until lap six, finished third. With the strong finish, the Clarks Summit, Pa driver holds a one-point lead over Chuck Hebing in the point standings after two races.
Jeff Cook had another strong race in his No. 10, finishing fourth. Glenn Styres found the fast way around his track in the final laps to round out the top five.
Jack Pillon, Blake Breen, Bryan Howland, Jared Zimbardi and Ray Preston filled out the top 10.
To listen to the race call of this exciting action, make sure to log onto Oval1.com and click on the Patriot Sprint Group Logo anytime starting Saturday Night to relive this exciting event. For more information log onto PatriotSprintGroup.com.
Bobcat of Buffalo Patriot Sprint Group presented by Tom Neamon MAC Tools
Heat 1 (8 laps) 1 RICK WILSON, 2 Preston, 3 Cook, 4 Schulz, 5 Ely, 6 Shuttleworth, 7 Muhleisen, 8 Bashford, 9 Shultz, 10 Troutman.
Heat 2 (8 laps) 1 BRYAN HOWLAND, 2 Styres, 3 Tim Zimbardi, 4 Kyle Wilson, 5 Blake Breen, 6 Quackenbush, 7 Deming, 8 Adamczyk, 9 Downing.
Heat 3 (8 laps) 1 JACK PILLON, 2 Drum, 3 Hebing, 4 Bobby Breen, 5 Suprick, 6 Faigle, 7 Porter, 8 Collard. DNS Jared Zimbardi.
B-main (10 laps) 1 CHRIS MUHLEISEN, 2 Jim Porter, 3 Jared Zimbardi, 4 Dan Deming, Nick Bashford, Don Adamczyk, Craig Downing, Mark Shultz, Jamie Collard. DNS Gary Troutman (drive shaft), Paul Ballentyne (flipped in hot laps after throttle stuck)
A-main (20 laps) 1 KYLE WILSON, 2 Chuck Hebing, 3 George Suprick, 4 Jeff Cook, 5 Glenn Styres, 6 Jack Pillon, 7 Blake Breen, 8 Bryan Howland, 9 Jared Zimbardi, 10 Ray Preston, 11 Tim Zimbardi, 12 Bobby Breen, 13 Jim Porter, 14 Dave Schulz, 15 Chris Muhleisen, 16 R.C Faigle, 17 Kyle Drum, 18 Rick Wilson, 19 Curt Shuttleworth, 20 Geoff Quackenbush, 21 Dan Deming, 22 George Ely.
Lap Leaders: Hebing (1-18) K. Wilson (19-20)
Geoff Quackenbush was selected at random as Lucky Dog, worth an extra $100 courtesy of Ken Hill and Sit-n-Bull Construction.
Unofficial Point Standings) Suprick 233, Hebing 232, Howland 220, Kyle Wilson 216, Cook 205.
Unofficial Gater Racing News Hard Charger of Season Standings) Blake Breen