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EMERLING DESTROYS 30 CAR SHANGRI–LA II MODIFIED FIELD
FOR FIRST CAREER RoC WIN |
 Patrick
Emerling of Orchard Park, NY unloaded his two race old Troyer Race
Cars TA 1 chassis on Sunday afternoon and promptly set quick time in
hot laps. That was a sign of things to come as for the remainder of
the afternoon Emerling was noticeably the quickest Race of Champion
Modified in the season high field of 30 cars.
Emerling drew outside pole for the start of the 75 lap feature and
survived a little dirt tracking on the first lap to get the lead
away from pole sitter TJ Potrzebowski. Once in front Emerling was
literally on a Sunday afternoon drive as he easily won his first
career Race of Champions Modified feature win.
Matt Hirschman finished second which was his best finish of the year
followed closely by defending Tour champion Chuck Hossfeld in third,
Tony Hanbury was fourth and Jimmy Zacharias was fifth.
“It felt nice to be the class of the field today“ said the smiling
Emerling in victory lane. “We have been working hard since last
year, trying to step up our game, and we have the new TA 1 here and
I think that helped us too. We have been working, digging, testing
and finally after all of this we really dialed the car in. Me and
Jan (car chief) Leaty work well together and the entire Leaty Family
who helps us on the car, they are all a class act, we have great
chemistry, and that is what we show up to and that is win races.“
TJ Potrzebowski and Patrick Emerling brought the 30 car field to the
green of Tour starter Steve Kellogg. The front two raced side by
side for nearly the entire first lap which included a little bump in
turns three and four which got both drivers sideways as they exited
turn four. Emerling outdragged Potrzebowski to the line to lead lap
one over Potrzebowski, Andy Jankowiak, Matt Hirschman, and Bobby
Holmes.
Patrick spoke about the bump and his early race strategy. “Our tires
were cold and I knew we had a really fast car. I was just going to
bury it in there on the first lap and it ended up working out for
me. I got to thank TJ (Potrzebowski) for racing me clean, I also
have to thank Matt (Hirschman) for racing me clean. I feel great
beating Matt and Chuck (Hossfeld), they are the guys to beat here
and I have a ton of respect for both of them. It’s great to beat
them fair and square. It was definitely on my mind to beat TJ into
turn one on that first lap and whoever got out front first had the
highest probability to win this race.“
Passing was plentiful early on in the race with Hirschman, Holmes,
and Nick Pecko all exchanging positions four through six nearly
every lap. Jankowiak got past Potrzebowski for second on lap eight
while Holmes and Hirschman relegated Potrzebowski back to fifth on
lap 12. Hirschman moved into third on lap 16 while Chuck Hossfeld
moved into fifth on lap 18.
Up front Emerling was opening up a bigger lead each passing lap
while Jankowiak attempted to keep pace, he couldn’t and was left to
battle with Hirschman for second. The first yellow of the race came
out on lap 28 and that erased a full straightaway lead by Emerling.
On the double file restart Emerling jumped out to the lead while
Hirschman stuck his nose under Jankowiak to claim second while
Hossfeld moved past Holmes into fourth. With nearly 22 cars running
side by side after the restart the potential for the “ big one “ was
large.
Unfortunately the “big one“ took place on lap 30 exiting turn four
as Tommy Catalano got helped into the outside concrete wall. The
resulting carnage involved five other cars which blocked the home
stretch and caused a nearly 30 minute delay while the cleanup took
place. All drivers were uninjured but the same couldn’t be said for
the cars of Catalano, Austin Kochenash, and Daren Scherer.
On the restart Emerling proving that he had the car to beat opened
up another big lead. This left Hirschman and Hossfeld to do battle
for second while Tony Hanbury and Jimmy Zacharias to set up their
own private battle for fourth.
The final last half of the race were basically anti climatic as all
that was left to see was how many cars that Emerling would put a lap
down. At the checkers Emerling in for the win by 3.21 seconds over
Hirschman, Hossfeld, Hanbury, and Zacharias.
Emerling’s corner speed was the biggest difference on this day as he
was so much quicker than anyone else to which Patrick spoke about.
“Me and Jan worked hard on the setup coming into this race and from
the first lap in hot laps my car was on point, it never fell off. I
was just very comfortable with the car all day and it never fell off
during the day. It feels great to have a car like this under you.“
Patrick who has been so close to winning his first RoC feature spoke
about now being a feature winner of the RoC Modified Tour. “I felt
like I had a little bit of a monkey on my back. I felt that I had
some cars that were capable of winning a race and something would
happen and we didn’t win. So now it feels great to finally get that
win and it will help raise my confidence for the future.“
Emerling with the win is now the new point leader after three races
finished up by saying, “Hopefully we can do this (winning) a lot
more.“
Many racers say that second place means that you are the first
loser, but following his subpar performances to start the year. Matt
Hirschman who finished second with a racecar that went forward was
happy with a second on this day.
“Finally a good run, even a top five would have been a good day“
said Matt. "I can’t remember starting a season out this poor like we
have this year. Nothing is a win unless you’re sitting in victory
lane, but for us it is a good morale boost, it was a good run for
us. Obviously the Leaty team with back to back wins have really
stepped up their program this year, congrats to them on the last two
weeks.“
Matt was asked what was wrong with Matt Hirschman this year? “We
haven’t even come close to hitting out stride where we have been in
years past. I think our program we just need to get on track.“
Qualifying for season high 30 car field saw American Racer Tire heat
races captured by Pecko, Zacharias, Hirschman, and Jankowiak while
the Insinger Performance Products / Sunoco Race Fuels B Main was
captured by Brian DeFebo.
CONCRETE CASTLE NOTES; the Race of Champions would like to
send their condolences to the family of Mike Harris of Cortland, NY.
Mike was a former writer for the racing newspapers and a huge
supporter of auto racing and the Race of Champions. Mike passed away
on Friday evening after battling cancer for the past year. Andy
Jankowiak was driving the Kluth Motorsports entry while TJ Zacharias
wheeled the Matt Clemens Memorial Modified on this day. Roger Coss
had an oil cooler line break after his heat race, with help from the
McGuire Motorsports gang Coss was able to take a provisional to gain
entrance into the feature. In the feature Coss pulled off once again
with the same issue. Tommy Cloce and his team had a long day as they
fought with a misfiring motor right from the start of hot laps
through the heat race. Tommy and his crew literally changed
everything in the electrical department and got the problem fixed in
time to take a provisional for the feature and ended up 12th after
starting 30th. Due to the high heat and high tire temperatures
siphing of the tires was allowed for the day. A unique double took
place on this day as the IHRA Drag Racing Series was running a
Regional Event at the same time as the races. The Drag Track is
located behind turns one and two on the hill at the facility and
anyone could attend either facility by paying just one admission
price. It appeared that the car of Mike Leaty was damaged severely
during the big one on lap 30, he ended up on top of the cars of
Daren Scherer and Austin Kochenash. But Leaty was able to drive the
car back to the pits after being removed from the other two cars,
where Jeff DeMinck and crew went to work and got the car back to
racing condition and at the end of the race Leaty was the fastest
car on the track as he came back to finish eighth.
RACE REPORT RACE OF CHAMPIONS ASPHALT
MODIFIED TOUR RACE # 3 CONCRETE CASTLE 75
FINISH; Patrick Emerling, Matt Hirschman, Chuck Hossfeld,
Tony Hanbury, Jimmy Zacharias, Bobby Holmes, Andy Jankowiak, Mike
Leaty, George Skora, III, Jim Storace, Rusty Smith, Tommy Cloce,
Brian DeFebo, Brandon Oltra, TJ Potrzebowski, Bryan Sherwood, Nick
Pecko, Kirk Totten, Amy Catalano, Chris Ridsdale, Zack Curren, Tyler
Rypkema, Lee Sharpsteen, Tommy Catalano, Daren Scherer, Austin
Kochenash, Karl Hehr, Roger Coss, Ken Canestrari, TJ Zacharias.
LAP LEADERS; Emerling ( 1 – 75 ).
PROVISIONALS; Ridsdale, Canestrari, Coss, Cloce.
NEXT EVENT; Friday June 5th Apple Blossom 75 at Spencer
Speedway.
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Source:
JR Kennerup / Race Of Champions Modified Tour
Posted: May
25, 2015 |
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