The Chrome Horn News

8/17/2008

BEERS OPENS RoC CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES WITH A CHEMUNG WIN

   Eric Beers of Northampton, Pa. has had a terrible start to his racing season and now that we’re in August Eric knew that he needed to get his act in gear. Beers certainly got his act in gear this past weekend as he won his second long distance event in less than 24 hours on Sunday afternoon at the Chemung Speedrome.
   Beers who started sixth pitted for a fresh right rear tire on lap 79 and was the first car to exit the pits and that became the key. Beers then raced his way back through the field to take the lead from Jan Leaty on lap 128 when Leaty and third place Matt Hirschman got together and ended up in the homestretch wall.
   After getting the lead Beers had to hold off TJ Potrzebowski over the final 28 laps to secure the $3,500 win. Early race leader Brian DeFebo came on strong to end up third with John Markovic in fourth and Lee Sherwood finishing fifth.
   “This was definitely a big win for us today as we’ve had some pretty terrible luck this year “ said the happy race winner. “ We’ve had no luck with this car after coming back from New Smyrna in February and it’s nice to get back on track with this car with two long distance feature wins this weekend.“
   The win was Eric’s first career feature win at Chemung and he spoke about that accomplishment. “ This was our first ever win here as we have been second here before and had some thirds too. But it feels real good to win at Chemung. “
   The key point of the race for Eric was the pit stop on lap 79 where he came into the pit behind Matt Hirschman and ended up beating Hirschman off pit road to technically be the first car in line with a fresh right rear on the car. “Joe (Skotnicki) made a good call for us to come in at that time and the crew did a great job in getting me back out of the pits first. That was big as they had to tighten the car up too besides changing the right rear tire. We didn’t have to pass Matt on the track as then we could come up and race through the field at our pace.“
   Eric spoke about what his strategy was coming back up through the field. “We passed when we had to and then rode a while because you had to have something for the end. After a yellow we would pick off a couple and then ride again until the next yellow came out. Everything went according to plan today.“
   Eric was back up to fifth on lap 101 after pitting on lap 79. Then he moved into fourth on lap 105 and into third on lap 112 and finally into second on lap 123. All this time Matt Hirschman was glued to the back bumper of Beers as he was making his way to the front also. Then came the lap 127 turn four tangle that changed the entire complexion of the race.
   With Jan Leaty leading and on old rubber as he didn’t pit Beers and Hirschman were all over Leaty looking for a way around him. Coming out of turn four Beers got under Leaty while Hirschman attempted to go around him. Contact was made which saw heavy front end damage on the Leaty and Hirschman cars ending their day.
   Eric spoke on how he saw the accident happen. “Jan’s tires were at least 70 laps older than what me and Matt had on. It was inevitable that we were going to get by him but he was doing his best to block both of us. I got a run on the bottom and Jan blocked me at the same time Matt got beside me and Jan tried to keep both of us behind him. Unfortunately for all of us it didn’t work out as Jan and Matt got tangled up and crashed.“
   With only caution flag laps counting from laps 50 to 100 a long period of yellow flag fever took place in the closing stages of the race. This caused some cars to run out of fuel and it caused a little problem for Eric too. “It started to sputter with five to go at the end of the straightaways and I was getting real worried. So I started to back off earlier getting into the corners ands getting back into the gas easier to save fuel. We only had about a gallon left at the end when we measured it.“
   Eric won this weekend with a small motor and carburetor on the car. “ It’s actually easier to drive the car when the tires wear off as you don’t have that big motor you have to deal with. I have to thank Scott Ritter at RPM as this is our small motor but it runs really well, just like a Timex. “
   “It’s the middle of August as it’s time to get my ass in gear“ said Eric about his successful weekend of racing.
   “It was an interesting race today“ said second place finisher TJ Potrzebowski. “We planned on pitting somewhere around lap 75 and ended up pitting with Matt and Eric. We followed them up through the field, had no incidents, and we’re satisfied with a second today. We didn’t have the car to catch Eric today, but we were close.“
   TJ’s day didn’t start out too well as he drew 90 out of 100. “It was good to win the heat race after drawing 90. We’ve been struggling all year as the car been tight with everything we’ve been trying. Today finally we got the car too loose, but we made big gains today and happy where we’re going with our program.“
   TJ debuted a retro wheel paint scheme on this day. “It was something different, it was the color I used when we started running Sport Mods back in 1995. We did today for the hometown crowd for memory sake, if it brings us good luck maybe we’ll keep the color.“
   “Thinking of it now I should have pitted on the caution before (lap 79) instead of when we pitted (lap 98)“ said third place finisher Brian DeFebo. “I could have been the first one in on lap 79 but it’s a damn if you do, damn if you don’t. I’m just happy to finish third.“
   Qualifying for the 28 car field saw heat wins go to DeFebo, Tony Hanbury, Hirschman, and Potrzebowski. No B Main was run due to two cars that scratched for the day after the heat race.

   DROME DROPPINGS; JR Kent debuted a new car for him which was a former Vic Hooker owned car that was bought at the auction earlier this year. Kent looked strong at times but had problems like the throttle linkage breaking in the heat race and getting into a couple of skirmishes in the feature. Dave Bellis made his first RoC appearance in the former George Swansbrough car. Dave had a front row heat race starting spot taken away due to an illegal carburetor. Pete Brittain was sporting a heavily taped right wrist due to and minor injury he suffered from racing the night before. Chris Whitenight was running in his last race of the season as he was heading back to school at UNC – Asheville on Monday. An oil leak sent Jim Storace to the pits ending another strong run. Daren Scherer lost a top three finish as his car was starving for fuel with less than 5 laps to go.

RACE REPORT
RACE OF CHAMPIONS DART ASPHALT MODIFIED TOUR
CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES RACE #1


FINISH; Eric Beers, TJ Potrzebowski, Brian DeFebo, John Markovic, Lee Sherwood, Rick Kluth, Daren Scherer, Pete Brittain, Tony Hanbury, Earl Paules, Kyle Ebersole, Billy Putney, Todd Smith, Doug Reaume, Jimmy Zacharias, JR Kent, Matt Hirschman, Jan Leaty, Jim Storace, Dave Bellis, Rusty Smith, Steven Reed, Tommy Farrell, III, Chris Whitenight, Kevin Lewis, Mike Leaty.
DNS; Matt Clemens, TJ Zacharias.
LAP LEADERS; Potrzebowski ( 1 ), DeFebo ( 2 ), Potrzebowski ( 3 – 15 ), DeFebo ( 16 – 49 ) Hanbury ( 50 – 116 ), J. Leaty ( 117 – 127 ), Beers ( 128 – 150 ).
DART MACHINERY AWARD $1,200 SET OF HEADS; Farrell.
GATER RACING NEWS DRIVER BONUS DRAW $500; Whitenight.
HOOSIER RACING TIRE HARD CHARGER AWARD; T. Smith ( 24th to 13th ).
HOOSIER RACING TIRE HARD LUCK AWARD; R. Smith ( 6th to 21st ).

NEXT RoC EVENT
SUNDAY, AUGUST 24TH
DUUN TIRE RACEWAY PARK
100 LAPS - $3,500 TO WIN
FINAL REGULAR SEASON POINT SHOW.

   The Race of Champions Dart Asphalt Modified Tour is sponsored by; Dart Machinery, Gater Racing News, Hoosier Racing Tire, Sunoco Race Fuels, PBM Performance Products, Total Seal Piston Rings, Dura – Bond, Competition Engineering by Moroso, Dynatech, Xceldyne, Afco, CV Products, LA Sleeve.

THE END

Source: JR's Motorsports Media / RoC Dart Asphalt Modified Series
Posted:  August 17, 2008

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