WEEDSPORT, N.Y. – In a wild night of Sprint Car action at the Cayuga County Fair Speedway, Randy Hannagan scored his first ever New York state Sprint car victory in the New York 360 Challenge. Hannagan made a last lap pass of Daryn Pittman en route to the $3,000 win.
“It feels really good to get a win for these guys,” said Hannagan. “They work really hard and gave me a good car. I’m happy to be the guy steering it.”
Pittman was the pole-sitter for the 25-lap main-event and he quickly took the lead as the race went green with Hannagan moving into the runner-up spot on the first circuit.
With lap six complete, Pittman caught the tail end of the field. This tightened up the field and allowed Hannagan and Chuck Hebing to close to his back bumper. They remained in those positions as they weaved there way in and out of traffic.
On lap 11 Hebing finally worked his way by Hannagan for second on the top side in turns three and four but then disaster struck as he tried to go the outside of a slower car entering turn one. The car went high and Hebing tried going higher catching the wall on the outside of the speedway. He ended up exiting the speedway as he went over the wall. He was uninjured in the accident but this brought out the red flag.
Only two more laps were complete when the red flag came out again. This time Bobby Breen and Tim Kelly got upside down after Kramer Williamson’s cars slowed in front of the entire field in front of the starter’s stand. Breen made contact with him and then the outside wall. After a wild series of flips, Breen collected several cars including JJ Grasso who was trying to win the United Racing Company championship. No drivers were injured in the incident.
After an extensive delay in the action Pittman and Hannagan resumed their positions at the front of the field. Pittman clicked off perfect laps on the bottom of the speedway while Hannagan worked the very same line on the bottom of the speedway.
“With only 11 to go I said to myself we aren’t going to get lapped traffic and that is my only shot,” stated Hannagan. “I had a feeling he slowed up a little bit as we got closer to the end so that he didn’t get to traffic.”
As the pair took the white flag it looked like Pittman was going to easily hang on for the win. As he came off of the second turn Grasso, who was running without a front wing, got out of shape on the back straightaway forcing Pittman to check up. This opened the door for Hannagan. Hannagan went to the high side of turns three and four and drove by Pittman to score his first win for car owner Myles Hill.
“I saw that we were catching him in the last five laps,” said Hannagan. “I didn’t really know what to anticipate. I was hoping we would get to some lapped cars to give me a fair shot at it. I saw that car get sideways and turn in front of him. When he got on the brakes that was my only shot. If they turned and came across I was going to hit them wide open but that was my only shot so I had to take it.”
Pittman was not happy after the race that he came up about a half lap short of claiming the top prize in the event.
“You lead 24 and a half laps and a guy manages to run around for 12 laps with a wounded car I don’t know why he couldn’t have made it the other half,” commented Pittman about his displeasure with Grasso. “He spun out on the backstretch and I had to try and miss him and obviously that gave Hannagan an opening. Congratulations to them guys.”
Pittman, of Owasso, Okla., came home in second and had heavy damage done to his Michael Heffner owned ride as he was collected by Grasso as he spun coming down the front straightaway at the checkered flag.
“I had accepted that I messed up that I was going to run second and then he (Grasso) spun out on the front stretch,” said Pittman. “It tore up my racecar. It is what it is. I’m sure I made some mistakes like that before and it is going to happen.”
Steve Poirier, the 2010 Empire Super Sprint champion, moved from the 14th starting position to finish in third. He was gaining on the top two at the checkered flag. He was happy with the finish considering he started so deep in the field.
“I was going to be happy with a top five,” said Poirier. “At the end of the season it seems like everyone wasn’t paying attention as much because everyone was really getting into each other. We were lucky to get out of that one. I touched the wall a couple times, got into Barger once and was almost in the accident. I’m lucky to get out of here with third.”
Curt Michael, of Seaford, Del., finished fourth which was good enough to earn him the URC championship after Grasso was involved in the incident and was forced to race with a mangled race car. Jessica Zemken, of Sprakers, N.Y., started alongside Poirier in the seventh row and she was able to driver her Tony Stewart Racing ride up to fifth.
In accompanying action, Mike Welch was victorious in the 30-lap Street Stock Tri-Track Series finally while Paul Klagen passed Doug Williams late in the race to win the 20-lap Mod-Lite feature.
Pit Notes: 47 cars tried making the field with heat race wins being posted by Hebing, Kelly, Michael and Hannagan. The pair of B-Mains were won by Josh Weller and Robbie Stillwaggon…Kyle Dutcher and Dylan Swienik flipped during hot laps…Tommy Wickham lost an oil line in his heat race and was forced to use and ESS provisional to get into the show…Bobby Varin’s night ended during his heat after contact with Rick Wilson sent him hard into the front stretch wall.
A-Main – Randy Hannagan ($3,000), Daryn Pittman, Steve Poirier, Curt Michael, Jessica Zemken, Rick Wilson, Blake Breen, Jeff Cook, Becca Anderson, Lance Yonge, Robbie Stillwaggon, Davie Franek, Randy West, Kevin Nouse, J.J. Grasso, Tommy Wickham, Keith Dempster, Kevin Ward Jr., Kramer Williamson, Bobby Breen, Shawn Donath, Justin Barger, Jason Barney, Tim Kelly, Chuck Hebing, Shayne Ely, Josh Weller.
Lap Leaders – Pittman 1-24, Hannagan 25.
Did Not Qualify – April Wilson, Cory Sparks, Josh Pieniazek, Bobby Varin, Kyle Dutcher, Doug Bowman, Bruce DeWick, Tracy Potter, Todd Hoddick, Dylan Swiernik, Kory Gurney, Dan Kaszubinski, Kevin Darling, Jonathan Swanson, Derek Jonathan, Justin Collett, Austin Ely, Floyd Billington, Travis Cunningha, Art Liedl.
Heat 1 – Chuck Hebing, J.J. Grasso, Kramer Williamson, Jessica Zemken, Kevin Ward Jr.
Heat 2 – Tim Kelly, Bobby Breen, Jason Barney, Steve Poirier, Becca Anderson.
Heat 3 – Curt Michael, Daryn Pittman, Shawn Donath, Rick Wilson, Keith Dempster.
Heat 4 – Randy Hannagan, Justin Barger, Kevin Nousem Davie Franek, Jeff Cook.
B-Main 1 – Josh Weller, Lance Yonge
B-Main 2 – Robbie Stillwaggon, Shayne Ely
Provisionals – Tommy Wickham, Randy West, Blake Breem