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AN OPPORTUNISTIC HOSSFELD CLAIMS RoC OPENER
AT CHEMUNG TO START HIS TITLE DEFENSE |
When a driver redraws the worst (12th) starting position in a 75 lap
feature on the very competitive Race of Champions Asphalt Modified
Tour, a driver knows he is going to have a long night of racing.
 On
Sunday afternoon at the Chemung Speedrome, defending RoC Tour
champion Chuck Hossfeld was in that position, but that poor starting
position didn’t hamper the positive feeling that the All Metal Works
/ Jerry Gradl Motors sponsored team has had since last year.
The Ransomville, NY driver took advantage of some racing luck
throughout the entire feature distance to move from his 12th place
starting position to fourth within the first ten laps of the
feature. After settling into third Hossfeld let two young guns in
Jimmy Zacharias and Andy Jankowiak duke it out for the feature win.
With nine laps to go Zacharias retired with motor issues handing the
lead to Jankowiak, but he only held if for the next five laps. Just
after receiving the five to go signal Jankowiak who was battling a
leaking rear end fluid problem almost spun out his car in turns one
and two. This bobble by Jankowiak was all that Hossfeld needed as he
scooted around Jankowiak exiting turn two to take the lead.
Hossfeld then led the final four laps unchallenged to claim the win
over Jankowiak, TJ Potrzebowski, Lee Sharpsteen, and Austin
Kochenash.
“I don’t think we had the fastest car out there today, we had a fast
car and we were running third. The two young guys in front of me
were racing hard for the lead and they’re both great racers. Jimmy (Zacharias) had a mechanical problem and that gave the lead to Andy.
We got past Andy when he had a mechanical problem, we were fresh and
had a good carat the end of the race. The bottom line is our car is
mechanically sound and sometimes you win a race like that and
sometimes you win a race by sheer driving. We’ll take a win no
matter how we get them and the truth is that we have never won at
Chemung. I’m proud of the team to come out right from the get go and
get a win and hopefully we’ll have another great year this year like
we did last year. “
Jimmy Zacharias and Andy Jankowiak brought the impressive field of
28 full blown Modifieds to the green flag of starter Steve Kellogg.
Zacharias jumped into the lead over Jankowiak, Brian DeFebo, Tony
Hanbury, and Lee Sharpsteen.
Zacharias a multi time Chemung Speedrome track champion opened up a
huge lead until the first yellow was displayed on lap nine when
Patrick Emerling tried to duck under DeFebo going into turn one and
spun out.
On the double file restart Jankowiak was able to squeeze Zacharias
to the bottom of the track to take the lead with Sharpsteen now in
third followed by 12th place starter Chuck Hossfeld and Austin
Kochenash.
Hossfeld spoke about his bad redraw numbers and his early race
strategy. “ When it comes to drawing numbers, I am the worse. You
have to be patient at the start and be careful, we were lucky there
when Emerling tried to get past somebody and ran into the wall. We
had a little racing luck on our side today as he only got into our
sidebar and not into our tire when he spun in front of us. If we
damaged a tire in that, our whole day would have been different
because I know we wouldn’t have won with a bent wheel, a tow in
problem, or had to pit to change a tire. It worked out well for us,
this is what I race for a day like today as feature wins keeps me
energized. “
Matt Hirschman now joined in the battle for fifth as he took that
spot away from Kochenash one lap later and immediately glued himself
to the back bumper of Hossfeld. When Sharpsteen slipped out of the
groove in turn two on lap 12 Hossfeld and Hirschman both moved past
him.
Meanwhile up front Zacharias with a powerful turn four inside move
that got him the lead back on lap 15 and just like before when he
had the lead, Jimmy Z. opened up a huge lead. Just like the movie
Groundhog Day the huge lead of Zacharias would be wiped out by a
yellow once again as Tommy Cloce rolled to a stop in turn four on
lap 30 with brake failure.
On the double file restart once again Jankowiak squeezed Zacharias
to the bottom of the track to get the lead. Hirschman got past
Hossfeld for third while Kochenash moved past Sharpsteen for fifth,
Sharpsteen returned the favor by retaking fifth once lap later.
Hirschman and Hossfeld staged their own private battle for third as
they exchanged that position for three consecutive laps before
Hossfeld took control of third on lap 36. Hirschman then developed a
problem and he pitted during a lap 41 caution flag period in which a
right front tire was changed.
With 30 laps to go contact between leader Jankowiak and second place
Zacharias caused third place Hossfeld to back off as he let the two
kids’ race for the win. Zacharias once again made a horsepower move
coming out of turn two to regain the lead on lap 48.
With 15 laps to go the lead pack which consisted of Zacharias,
Jankowiak, and Hossfeld entered heavy lap traffic. At almost the
same time smoke started to come out of the right bank of headers on
the Zacharias machine signifying a problem.
Just as Zacharias received the ten to go signal his engine gave up
the fight entering turn one and he lost all power and pulled into
the pit area. Jankowiak now inherited the lead and immediately
Hossfeld turned up the pressure on the second generation driver for
the lead.
Jankowiak received the five to go signal and when he entered turn
one he almost spun out due to a rear end leaking grease. Hossfeld
took to the outside groove to get around Jankowiak to grab the lead
exiting turn two.
Hossfeld only worry was a yellow which came out with a lap to which
caused a green, white, checker finish. In the end it was no worry
for Hossfeld as he claimed his first career Chemung Speedrome
feature win over Jankowiak, Potrzebowski, Sharpsteen, and Kochenash.
“I’m excited “ said Chuck. “ We get to go home with a smile on our
face and get ready to go to Oswego on Saturday. “
With many normal top runners of the RoC Tour experiencing trouble on
this day. Hossfeld was asked if the change in weather caused a
problem as the heats were contested under cloud cover while the
feature was conducted under sunny skies. “The track was very green
yesterday when we came to practice “ answered Chuck. “ The track
took more rubber as the day went on yesterday and it took more
rubber today, it did get greasy at times today. But you’re lucky
with a Modified that the kind of weather change we went through
today doesn’t throw that much of a wrench into it because of the
wide tires. If we were running skinnier tires then there would have
been a problem. “
Chuck added, “This RoC Series, 28 cars, it is pretty healthy. A lot
of great teams, a lot of great young drivers, I’ll tell you one
thing it is not going to be a cakewalk for whoever wins the
championship this year. I’m pretty excited about this deal as
everyone has pretty good equipment and I think a lot of people are
too, just look at the crowd that was here today, that was impressive
in itself. “
For Andy Jankowiak finishing second was a hard pill to swallow.
“It’s just me doing things the wrong way “ said Andy. “ We got doing
things in a hurry, we were putting the rear end together late one
night and I didn’t have the right tool, I should have waited until
the next day. It wasn’t a bad leak, it was just once in a while it
would leak. When Chuck got me I thought I was going around, we
straightened the thing out, it’s tough to lose one like that, I’m
beating myself up right now as my guys deserve better than that.
We’ll go into Oswego with a good attitude and take things from
there.
Third place finisher TJ Potrzebowski was looking for longer green
flag periods as his car was getting better the longer the race
stayed green. “ On that long run (laps 42 to 74) I could see I was
reeling them in, a couple of times I caught lap cars in bad places
which cost me. Really can’t complain coming from tenth, but we had a
really good car during long runs today. It took me two laps after a
restart and the car would take off and I thought we would be in
trouble there at the end. I was hoping for some “ Chemung Luck “
where the top two would take each other out and I could get a win.
This is a good way to get our deal (with Ed McGuire) started, as
we’re in it for the long haul this year, going to chase the points
and this was a good start. “
Qualifying races for the 28 car field saw American Racer Tires heat
wins captured by Patrick Emerling, Brian DeFebo, Matt Hirschman, and
Tony Hanbury with Tommy Cloce winning the Sunoco Race Fuels /
Insinger Performance Products B Main.
SPEEDROME NOTES; Over 20 RoC Modifieds were on hand for the
Saturday test and tune session with Ben Reynolds the only car not
returning to race on Sunday. All racing teams placed decals on their
cars with a picture of former RoC driver / crew member Matt Clemens
who passed away one week earlier. Matt the past few years helped
Zacharias Racing and in honor of Matt they lettered up a Modified in
Matt’s number 9x and it paced the feature field with Matt’s brother
Chris handling the driving duties. Brandon Oltra changed his car
number from 9 to 19 on this day in honor of Matt. Chris Ridsdale
battled a skipping motor all day long while Rusty Smith suffered
clutch problems a majority of the day. Patrick Emerling changed
transmissions after hot laps as the original transmission had the
backup (rear) gear go bad and it didn’t allow the car to be backed
up. Many teams suffered punctured tires throughout the feature which
derailed several good performances. Mike Leaty pitted on lap nine
with a flat and came all the way back to sixth at the end while his
teammate Patrick Emerling pitted twice and raced his way back to
seventh in the end. Having a teammate on the RoC Tour is a big theme
this year as there were six different two car teams in competition
on this day. If all indicated reports stay correct a RoC Modified
field of over 30 cars will be on hand at Oswego this Saturday night
for the Richie Evans Memorial.
RACE REPORT RACE OF CHAMPIONS ASPHALT
MODIFIED TOUR RACE #1
FINISH; Chuck Hossfeld, Andy Jankowiak, TJ Potrzebowski, Lee
Sharpsteen, Austin Kochenash, Mike Leaty, Patrick Emerling,
Tyler
Rypkema, TJ Zacharias, Matt Hirschman, Brandon Oltra, Tony Hanbury,
George Skora, III, Rusty Smith, Brian DeFebo,
Roger Coss, Doug
Reaume, Bryan Sherwood, Amy Catalano, Zack Curren, Kirk Totten, Nick
Pecko, Jimmy Zacharias,
Daren Scherer, Tommy Cloce, Tommy Catalano,
Daryl Lewis, Jr., Chris Ridsdale. PROVISIONALS; Totten,
Ridsdale
LAP LEADERS; J. Zacharias (1 - 9), Jankowiak (10 - 14),
J. Zacharias (15 - 30), Jankowiak (31 - 47),
J. Zacharias (48 -
65), Jankowiak (66 - 70), Hossfeld (71 - 75).
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Source:
JR Kennerup / Race Of Champions Modified Tour
Posted: May
3, 2015 |
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