Evil E
07-11-2009, 10:45 AM
By Mark Kielblock
Accord, NY - Drew Heistand won in ARDC's return to Accord Speedway in 2008. A year did nothing to diminish Heistand's love affair with the "Ulster County Bullring" as he shot forward from his 16th starting position to take the lead on lap 6 and drove off to a dominating win Friday night. Heistand has run strong at every stop on the ARDC trail in recent weeks. When asked what his secret is, he replied, "I'd like to say it's all because of the motor I put together, but it's really due to a great handling car and my crew. I also have to thank Gary Palmer (Accord promoter) for giving us an awesome, racy racetrack tonight."
Jimmy Commock and Donnie Hoffnman brought the 25 car starting field down for the green flag. After an early yellow, Jimmy Commock pulled out an early lead while Heistand made a blindingly fast start going from 16th to 6th in the opening laps. Heistand was second by lap 5, and Commock made a valiant try to hold the lead only to see Heistand sweep by a lap later. Commock pushed a little too hard trying to keep pace with Heistand and lost the handle off of the fourth turn bringing out the yellow.
As the early laps spun off the top 5 was Heistand, Dave Shirk, Carey Becker, Steve Lenig and Tracy Readinger. As Heistand stretched his lead, Steve Lenig was having his best run of the year as he vaulted into second on lap 11. As they moved past halfway into the closing laps, it was clear that the race belonged to Heistand and Lenig had a strong hold on second, but the battle for the top five spots raged three and four wide with Tracy Readinger, Carey Becker, Nick Wean, Shane Penny and Stephanie Stevens all involved. The best battle in the closing laps was for third as Nick Wean came on strong late and worked the high groove to get third from Tracy Readinger and Brett Arndt rounded out the top 5 at the checker.
Lenig was pleased with his second place finish, but could offer no explanation of the sudden improvement in performance. "Just better luck and being in the right place at the right time," Lenig summed. "We started to run better at Lincoln, but we hurt our good motor there. We had a loose oil line and ended up burning up bearings in that motor. We changed the car over to a torsion front, other than that I don't know what to say."
Tracy Readinger, Carey Becker and Shane Penny won heat races for the 25 ARDC Midgets on hand.
25 Lap ARDC Feature: 1) 12-Drew Heistand 2) 9-Steve Lenig 3) 78-Nick Wean 4) 2-Tracy Readinger 5) 46-Brett Arndt 6) 34-Shane Penny 7) 26-Stephanie Stevens 8) 51-PJ Gargiulo 9)16-Dave Shirk 10) 49-Carey Becker 11) 83-Bruce Buckwalter 12) 44-Frank Polimeda 13) 11-Eric Heydenreich 14) 05-Trevor Kobylarz 15) 99-Scott Zipp 16) 39-Justin Grosz 17) 29-Zach Martini 18) 84-Jimmy Commock 19) 5-Scott Viets 20) 1-Bethany Viets 21) 17-Donnie Hoffman 22) 4-TJ Tufano 23) 7-Chris Rupp 24) 6-Dusty Heistand 25) 25-Chris Zrinski
Accord, NY - Drew Heistand won in ARDC's return to Accord Speedway in 2008. A year did nothing to diminish Heistand's love affair with the "Ulster County Bullring" as he shot forward from his 16th starting position to take the lead on lap 6 and drove off to a dominating win Friday night. Heistand has run strong at every stop on the ARDC trail in recent weeks. When asked what his secret is, he replied, "I'd like to say it's all because of the motor I put together, but it's really due to a great handling car and my crew. I also have to thank Gary Palmer (Accord promoter) for giving us an awesome, racy racetrack tonight."
Jimmy Commock and Donnie Hoffnman brought the 25 car starting field down for the green flag. After an early yellow, Jimmy Commock pulled out an early lead while Heistand made a blindingly fast start going from 16th to 6th in the opening laps. Heistand was second by lap 5, and Commock made a valiant try to hold the lead only to see Heistand sweep by a lap later. Commock pushed a little too hard trying to keep pace with Heistand and lost the handle off of the fourth turn bringing out the yellow.
As the early laps spun off the top 5 was Heistand, Dave Shirk, Carey Becker, Steve Lenig and Tracy Readinger. As Heistand stretched his lead, Steve Lenig was having his best run of the year as he vaulted into second on lap 11. As they moved past halfway into the closing laps, it was clear that the race belonged to Heistand and Lenig had a strong hold on second, but the battle for the top five spots raged three and four wide with Tracy Readinger, Carey Becker, Nick Wean, Shane Penny and Stephanie Stevens all involved. The best battle in the closing laps was for third as Nick Wean came on strong late and worked the high groove to get third from Tracy Readinger and Brett Arndt rounded out the top 5 at the checker.
Lenig was pleased with his second place finish, but could offer no explanation of the sudden improvement in performance. "Just better luck and being in the right place at the right time," Lenig summed. "We started to run better at Lincoln, but we hurt our good motor there. We had a loose oil line and ended up burning up bearings in that motor. We changed the car over to a torsion front, other than that I don't know what to say."
Tracy Readinger, Carey Becker and Shane Penny won heat races for the 25 ARDC Midgets on hand.
25 Lap ARDC Feature: 1) 12-Drew Heistand 2) 9-Steve Lenig 3) 78-Nick Wean 4) 2-Tracy Readinger 5) 46-Brett Arndt 6) 34-Shane Penny 7) 26-Stephanie Stevens 8) 51-PJ Gargiulo 9)16-Dave Shirk 10) 49-Carey Becker 11) 83-Bruce Buckwalter 12) 44-Frank Polimeda 13) 11-Eric Heydenreich 14) 05-Trevor Kobylarz 15) 99-Scott Zipp 16) 39-Justin Grosz 17) 29-Zach Martini 18) 84-Jimmy Commock 19) 5-Scott Viets 20) 1-Bethany Viets 21) 17-Donnie Hoffman 22) 4-TJ Tufano 23) 7-Chris Rupp 24) 6-Dusty Heistand 25) 25-Chris Zrinski