RAIN HALTS RUDOLPH
CHARGE AT OSWEGO
With
no Modifieds or SST Sportsman on Saturday night's Dunn Tire Raceway Park
schedule, Erick Rudolph of Ransomville and the DeLange Racing team
loaded up the #45 Original Pizza Logs/PrimeTyme Motorsports/Brigham
Concrete Modified and headed east to Oswego Speedway. The famed lakeside
oval was hosting the Summer 100 for the Race of Champions Dart Asphalt
Modified Tour. A strong field of 32 Modifieds was on hand for the event,
including all the usual stars of the RoC Tour. The competition was tough
as expected but an unanticipated entry played a deciding role in the
outcome - Mother Nature.
Rudolph qualified for the main through his heat race and lined up
16th on the feature starting grid. In the early laps he held his ground
and then pitted for a new tire on lap 25. He returned to the track at
the rear of the field and began to steadily work his way forward. Just
before the halfway mark of the race he was up to 14th but with
thunderstorms fast approaching the Oswego area a sense of urgency was
essential. At lap 75 Matt Hirschman continued to lead the race over Earl
Paules but our talented teenager was up to fifth and narrowing the
margin to the leaders. Unfortunately the rain arrived first and on the
85th circuit the skies opened up and the race had to be stopped. A short
time later race officials called the event complete with Hirschman the
winner over fellow Pennsylvanian Paules and New Jersey racer Pete
Brittain. Erick was closing fast but ran out of time and settled for
fourth.
"I could see the rain was coming and I was just hoping it would
hold off long enough to get the full 100 laps in," explained Rudolph.
"We weren't really good to start the race but we pitted for a tire on
lap 25 and that really helped. If the race had gone the full distance we
were at least a second place car. I think we could race with Hirschman
and battle with him for the win, but he was strong and we were running
out of laps even without the rain. It's a shame we didn't get to find
out, but you can't control the weather. We'll have to take what we
learned tonight and make the car better when we come back to Oswego the
next time."
This weekend the DeLange Racing team will be idle. Their next
scheduled event is a Race of Champions Tour 100-lapper at Spencer
Speedway in Williamson on Friday, August 1. The following weekend will
be a busy one as the team will return to Stafford Motor Speedway in
Connecticut for a NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour event on Friday night,
August 8. The following day will be a quick drive back home to Western
New York for a doubleheader at Dunn Tire Raceway Park that evening in
both the #45 Modified and the Original Pizza Logs/PrimeTyme
Motorsports/Brigham Concrete SST Sportsman.
