JIM “ROCKY” ROTHWELL TAKE WIN NUMBER FOUR AT SKYLINE -Fleming clinches IMCA Modified title with photo finish victory Former Skyline Raceway track champion Jim “Rocky” Rothwell drove to his fourth victory of 2014 in Saturday night’s 25 lap Doug’s Trash Removal Open Sportsman feature while Dale Welty won his second consecutive 602 Sportsman feature event. Chris Fleming locked up the 2014 IMCA Modified track championship in style as he earned his 17th win of the season, nosing out Jared Spaulding in a photo finish. Tom Savercool won his first career feature in the Street Stock division with Grayson Albanese winning his fourth IMCA Hobby Stock feature. Isaiah Forward won his third Four Cylinder Stock feature of the season. The 25 lap Doug’s Trash Removal Open Sportsman feature came to Jim Howard’s green flag with Lisa Williams and Jim Rothwell pacing the field. Rothwell was able to quickly move past Williams to take over the race lead on the first lap. Though he would go on to lead all 25 laps to earn the victory, it was far from an easy run for Rothwell. Behind Rothwell, the man on the move was Kevin Jordan, who was on the charge from the drop of the green flag, driving from deep in the field to run second behind Rothwell as the laps wound down. The final circuits of the event saw the leaders jockeying for position in heavy lapped traffic. The two veterans put on a show for the fans as they worked traffic with Rothwell managing to get through the lapped cars first and driving on to score the win by a narrow margin over Jordan. Current point leader Nick Nye finished third with AJ Filbeck and Jim LaRock rounding out the top five finishing order. As per IMCA rules that require track points to end the week before Labor Day, the 20 lap IMCA Modified feature would decide the 2014 track championship. The feature would turn out to be one of the best races of the year as Chris Fleming clinched the track championship in dramatic style. It took some last lap heroics and a photo finish as Fleming executed a perfect slide job on race long leader Jared Spaulding in the final turn of the final lap. Spaulding attempted to turn back under Fleming for the drag race to the flag stand with Fleming managing to get there first by about the length of the front bumper. Spaulding settled for a strong runner-up finish with Bumps Scutt third. Dan Searls finished fourth with Brandon Smith finishing fifth. The 20 lap 602 Sportsman feature saw Dale Welty drive to his second consecutive feature win at Skyline Raceway. Welty worked past early race leader Hillary Ward on the eighth lap and led the final twelve laps to score the victory. Brandon Ford drove to an impressive runner-up finish in his first Skyline appearance with Ricky Donovan recording a season best third place finish. Championship contender Brandon Kuhn finished fourth with Randy Gates crossing the line in fifth. The 20 lap Street Stock feature saw a new winner as Tom Savercool returned to Skyline after a lengthy absence and was rewarded with his first career feature win. Savercool battled Ryan Stone for th majority of the event, but suddenly found himself with a big lead as Stone slowed and headed pitside two laps from the finish. Savercool ran off the final two laps to score the victory over Jason Rhodes. Dominic Fuller finished third with invader Chris Whitney finishing fourth. Ralph Robinson rounded out the top five finishers. It was also the final night of points for the IMCA Hobby Stock division. Grayson Albanese came out on top of an entertaining battle at the head of the field between himself and newly crowned division champion Bill Flask. The two battled side by side for several laps before Albanese was able to take control of the event for good just past the halfway point. Albanese drove on to score the win while Flask secured the championship with a runner-up finish. Randy Kelley finished third with Richie Hurlbert and Tristan Kline completing the top five finishing order. Isaiah Forward outdueled Nick Stark to pick up the win in the 15 lap Four Cylinder feature. Forward passed Stark for the lead then had to hold off Stark’s repeated attempts to retake the top spot. Forward managed to keep Stark behind him and went on to take the victory with Stark second. Point leader Eric Rowley took a step toward the championship with a third place finish. Phil Burns and Art Palmer were fourth and fifth. Racing continues this Saturday night at the Skyline Raceway with another big six division racing show featuring the Doug’s Trash Removal Sportsman, 602 Sportsman, IMCA Modifieds, Street Stocks, IMCA Hobby Stocks, and Four Cylinder Stocks. It will be the final night of the point season for the Sportsman, 602 Sportsman, Street Stocks, and Four Cylinder Stocks and the 2014 champions will be determined. The rules in the Hobby Stock class will be open for the remainder of the season, meaning that Factory Stock cars form the other Southern Tier tracks are welcome to compete as long as they run on DOT street tires. Racing gets underway at 6:30 PM with gates opening at 4:30. For all the latest information, log onto skylineracewayny.
Posted on: Sun, 31 Aug 2014 04:33:21 +0000