DUNDEE, NY – You couldn’t help notice the enthusiastic celebration in victory lane by Middletown, Delaware’s JJ Grasso after he won the Spring Sprint Nationals held this past Saturday evening at the Black Rock Speedway. Not only was the $2,500 payday a nice reward but winning at a track that he never set foot on until this day made it extra special.
The event pitted drivers from the Rislone Sprint Series, United Racing Company (URC), the Patriot Sprint Tour (PST) and the Lucas Oil Empire Super Sprints (ESS). With each club at least paying show-up points teams vying for their respective titles were in the pits. That simply meant Grasso beat the best.
“I never even seen the track until today so to come out with a win really makes this special.” said the happy driver of Kathy and Pat Palladino’s #99. “I just have to owe this one to the crew, they have been here several times. They won here and they knew what set up to put in this car. I mean, I’d like to take a little credit for driving it but this win is theirs.”
The BK Leasing, J&J was fast out of the box winning heat four and with the pole starting spot on the redraw for the A-Main it didn’t matter what the experience was, Grasso was going to be tough to beat.
While 2009 URC champ did pull out at the drop of the green flag and led the first 10 laps, there soon became a serious challenge from 2009 ESS champ Justin Barger. The Cortlandt Auto Body #32 got by Grasso to lead laps 11-14.
“I was running the top and thought I was good, then Justin kind of showed me that running down low through the rougher spots was faster. He’s one of ESS’ best and I knew he would be tough.” Grasso noted. “I kind of changed my line after that and just told myself to calm down, there’s still time to get him back.”
Indeed Grasso closed the gap and was on Barger’s rear when a rut hooked the leader’s mount going into turn three that enabled Grasso to get back by. Then after he retook the lead a red flag was displayed just one lap later and then it was study time.
“When that red came out, I was really looking at turns one and two to see where the good line would be. I went where I thought it would be the best we went back to green and it really worked.” noted the young driver on the track conditions. “After that I got in a real good groove and I guess we pulled out some. This is just neat, what a great win for everyone on the team.”
For Barger it was another stout outing at the 4/10ths mile oval but it was still one position short of the goal. “Yea, we wanted the win and for a while there I thought we had the car and the line. But, when I passed him I think I showed him where to run.” said the driver of the family owned Maxim. “I hit a hole in three, got out of shape and he got me back. Then when that red came out I think I lost some air pressure in the tires as my car got real tight. I just couldn’t catch him after that.”
At the checkers it was Grasso by half a strait away over Barger with Josh Weller in for a solid third with his #63. For Weller, he actually almost made it a three-wide battle for the lead coming out of turn two on lap 14 in lapped traffic.
“I had a shot there, they (Grasso and Barger) kind of got slowed up and I tried to get both of them.” Weller said in victory lane shortly after. “But, once the red came out they had a clear track and just got away from me a bit.”
Finishing out the top five was Randy West and PST driver Jared Zimbardi, who was the hard charger of the night coming from 13th place starting position, in fifth.
Rounding out the top ten were URC’s Becca Anderson and Robbie Stillwaggon followed by ESS’ Chuck Hebing and Steve Poirier with defending URC champ Curt Michael coming back from a lap two spin to place 10th.
The 25 lap A-Main was slowed by two red flag periods and three cautions: The red lights were displayed by Steve Whary and Art Liedl who both flipped but walked away. The cautions were for current ESS point leader Alain Bergeron and Michael on lap two, then third place running Dylan Swiernik and Troy Betts stopped on lap seven with Clinton County Promoter Vern Wasson stopping on lap 20.
Heats were won by Jeff Cook, Weller, Anderson and Grasso with the dash taken by Don Adamczyk and the B-Main copped by Whary.
SPRING NATIONALS NOTES: A total of 34 sprints were in the pits…Both ESS and URC had 12 cars on hand with PST totaling 8. “Free Agent” Davie Franek and former 305 competitor Jeff Frasier were also in the field…Hebing had a scare during warm-ups when his sprint shot off turn one and on top of the tire barrier. The red lights were displayed but he did restart…Taking provisionals were Troy Betts, Bryan Howland and Tyler Rand…Some of the top names that didn’t make the A-Main cut were Shawn Donath, Jonathan Swanson, Tim Kelly and Cory Sparks…Black Rock will host two more sprint events for this season on July 8th when ESS is the host and on Aug. 12th when PST is on hand.
Black Rock Sprint Nationals A-Main – JJ Grasso, Justin Barger, Josh Weller, Randy West, Jared Zimbardi, Becca Anderson, Robbie Stillwaggon, Chuck Hebing, Steve Poirier, Curt Michael, Kramer Williamson, Bryan Howland, Scott Kreutter, Davie Franek, Tim Hogue, Kevin Ward Jr., Dylan Swiernik, Tyler Rand, Troy Betts, Vern Wasson, Art Liedl, Don Adamczyk, Lance Yonge, Steve Whary, Michael Parent, Jeff Cook, Alain Bergeron.
Lap Leaders – Grasso 1-10, Barger 11-14, Grasso 15-25.
DNQ – Jonathan Swanson, Cory Sparks, Steve Collins, Dave Wickham, Jeff Frasier, Shawn Donath, Tim Kelly.
Heat Winners: Cook, Weller, Anderson, Grasso
Dash – Adamczyk
B-Main – Whary