|
 LAKEVILLE,
IN (July 22) -- Three of the five NASCAR divisions that Hoosier exclusively
provides tires for were in action over the weekend. In the NASCAR
International Truck and Engine Midwest Series, Brian Hoppe (right)
took the lead on lap 86 (of 100) en route to collecting his second win
of the season Friday at Gateway International Raceway in Madison, IL.
In the NASCAR Featherlite Modified Series, Chuck Hossfeld made a
last-lap pass of John Blewett, III in winning his second race of the
season. Hossfeld won Friday night's New England 100, at New Hampshire
International Speedway. Hossfeld's first win came in the season opener
at Thompson International Speedway. The exciting race was attended by
Hoosier Open Wheel Asphalt Product Manager Irish Saunders. Lastly, in
the Raybestos Brakes Northwest Series, Chris Hart won his third race
in a row in the series' ninth race of the season. With the win, Hart
now takes a commanding 90 point lead in the series with just five
events remaining on the 2003 schedule.
NASCAR MIDWEST SERIES
MADISON, IL (July 18) -- Thirty-four cars started Friday's Gateway 125,
at Gateway International Raceway just a stones throw outside St.
Louis. With rain earlier in the day washing out qualifying and
delaying the start of the race nearly an hour, the starting grid was
set by owner points which placed Ron Breese, Jr. and Eddie Hoffman on
the front row and Steve Carlson and Brian Hoppe in row number two.
When the race began, Eddie Hoffman took the early race
lead. Hoffman led through lap 25, when Steve Carlson took over the
lead. Carlson led until lap 86, when Brian Hoppe moved into the lead.
Hoppe led the remainder of the way to take the win and pocket $8,550.
Steve Carlson settled for second, while earning $6,375. Eddie Hoffman
rounded out the top three earning $5,125 for the final podium spot.
Jon Lemke finished fourth and 30th starting Jon Menard finished fifth,
with 12 drivers finishing on the lead lap on the 1.25-mile oval. The
win was Hoppe's second of the season.
Eddie Hoffman leads the NASCAR Midwest Series
standings with 1301 points followed closely by Ron Breese, Jr. with
1272 (Breese finished 11th), Steve Carlson with 1268 points and Brian
Hoppe with 1222 points.
The series now travels to Fountain, Colorado this
Saturday, July 26, for its next race. The series has just four events
remaining on its 2003 schedule.
NASCAR FEATHERLITE MODIFIED SERIES
LOUDON, NH (July 18) -- A huge 41-car field took the green flag
for the New England 100, at New Hampshire International Speedway on
Friday afternoon. Tony Hirschman was the Bud Pole Award winner and was
joined in the front row by John Blewett, III.
After 80+ laps of green flag racing, the first caution
flag flew when pole-sitter Tony Hirschman broke a front spindle. Up to
that point, the race had nine race leaders among four different
drivers including John Blewett, III (1, 5-8, 14-15, 29-53), Ted
Christopher (2-4, 9-13, 16-17, 22-28), Todd Szegedy (18-21) and Mike
Stefanik (54-95).
The race however, wasn't decided until the final lap. A
late-race caution came out extending the race to 103 laps and ending in
a green-white-checkered finish. With John Blewett, III leading from
lap 96, the field was restarted with one to go. Seventh starting Chuck
Hossfeld took advantage of the one-lap opportunity passing Blewett on
the final lap for his second win of the season. Hossfeld collected
$14,300 for leading the final race lap.
Finishing in second place was previous race winner
Todd Szegedy who collected $11,500 for the runner-up finish, while
John Blewett, III settled for third and $8,300. Szegedy started sixth,
while 19th starting Jerry Marquis took fourth and 15th starting Mike
Stefanik finished fifth. Eight of the 41 starters finished the race on
the lead lap. The race had just two cautions for a total of 13 laps.
Hoosier Open Wheel Asphalt Product Manager Irish
Saunders attended the event to monitor tire performance and answer any
questions the teams may have had. Irish commented, "It was an
awesome race--lots of passing, just two cautions and the race wasn't
decided until the final lap." Saunders added, "Tony
(Hirschman) won the pole with a 29.83 lap time and the leaders after
an 80-lap green flag run were still running between 29.60 and 29.80 on used tires. The tires
performed extremely well and did not play a role in the outcome of the
race which is what we hope for with our spec tires."
John Blewett, III's lead was cut from ten to six
points over Todd Szegedy (1431) in the driver standings with Chuck
Hossfeld, Ted Christopher and Jerry Marquis rounding out the top
five.
The next race on the NASCAR Featherlite Modified
Series schedule is this Saturday, July 26, at Adirondack Speedway in Beaver
Falls, NY.
NASCAR RAYBESTOS NORTHWEST SERIES
YAKIMA, WA (July 19) -- Chris Hart continued his trek to win the
2003 NASCAR Raybestos Northwest Series by winning his third race
in-a-row in the series and building a 90 point lead in the standings
over Jeff Jefferson and a 92 point lead over Jason Jefferson. Hart,
who hails from Yakima, WA where the race was contested, has now won
three in-a-row at Yakima Speedway. Hart earned $2,300 for the win.
Finishing in second place was Gary Lewis. Jeff
Jefferson, Jason Jefferson and Kevin Hamlin rounded out the top five
as 11 of the 21 race starters finished the race on the lead lap. Rick
Suran (1-10) and John Bender (11-21) led the early stages of the race
before Hart took over the lead on lap 22, en route to winning the
126-lap race.
Chris Hart will look to make it four in-a-row August
9th, at Montana's Raceway Park as the series has just five events
remaining on their 2003 schedule.
Hoosier Racing Tire Corp. is proud to have been
selected by NASCAR to exclusively provide tires for the series'
mentioned in this report.
|
