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2012 CMP News & Announcements |
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Canandaigua, NY – July 13, 2013 – Dave Roberts, Canandaigua Motorsports Park PR Correspondent
Matt Sheppard has been quite accustomed to coming from the back of the pack to win a feature event. Saturday night at Canandaigua Motorsports Park, Sheppard, 30 of Waterloo, NY, did it again as he came from the 18th starting spot to post his fifth 35-lap Team Tiremasters Big-Block Modified feature.win of the 2013 season.
Nick Guererri scored his first win of the season in the 25-lap Safety Awareness Solutions Sportsman feature while Mike Welch was a winner for the ninth time in the Parts Plus Street Stock finale. Darryl Ruggles posted his fifth win of the current campaign in the 20-lap Castners Performance 305 Sprint thriller, edging out his daughter Alysha at the finish line.
 'Super Matt' Sheppard took the lead on lap 32 from Vince Vitale and held off the remainder of the field for the final three laps. The only yellow flag of the event appeared just after Sheppard took the lead.
“This track is very racey,” said a happy Sheppard following the victory. “I have to thank Jeremie (Corcoran, CMP promoter) for the job he did on the race track. It was fast tonight.“
Brian Sage started on the outside-pole and led for the first two laps before pole-sitter Dave Allen took over the top spot with Gil Tegg Jr. right behind in second. Allen held on for four laps before Vitale took over the top spot on lap seven.
Vitale had started 14th and was flying from the drop of the green flag. Vitale was running third on lap seven before getting by both Tegg and Sage as the three came onto the front stretch to compete the lap.
Vitale opened up a big lead, however, Sheppard soon make his presence felt. On lap 16, he was running fourth and two laps later slipped by Sage for third. By lap 20, he passed Tegg for second and was still 3.5 seconds behing Vitale yet would move closer as the laps were clicked off. By lap 30, he was pressuring Vitale as the pair was running though lapped traffic.
On lap 32, Sheppard used his winning pass to not only win the feature, but increase his points lead.
“This car is so versatile,” Sheppard added. “It knows that the track might be a little different but seems to adjust well.”
Vitale held on for second while Justin Haers had another solid night to post a third place finish. Last week's winner Danny Johnson was fourth while Steve Paine took home fifth after pulling into the position on the final two laps.
Heat race winners were Justin Haers, Jimmy Phelps and Derrick Podsiadlo. The consi was won by Dave Marcuccilli.
In the 25- lap Safety Awareness Solutions Sportsman feature, it was Nick Guererri taking the lead on lap four and moving on to his first win since May 21,2011 as the veteran racer held off Steve Gray at the end.
“This feels good,” said Guererri, as he celebrated the win with friends and family in victory lane. “To be honest, I couldn’t remember the last time I had won.”
“This one is for the guys,” Guererri added as he paid tribute to his race team. “They worked hard for this one.”
Guererri started eighth while Rob Bussey was on the pole. Following a lap two restart, Guererri and Bussey went side-by-side before Guererri took the lead on the front straight. Guererri wouldn’t waste any time as he blasted out to a sizeable advantage.
Gray, who started 13th, was into second on lap 14 but a long way away from Guererri. He made up a lot of distance but Guererri was able to cross the finish line first.
“We made some changes to the car. We went back to our basic setup and it seemed to work tonight,” Guererri noted.
With Gray finishing second, third-place went to Daryl Nutting. Rounding out the top five were Rob Bussey and Andrew Jacobson.
Heat race winners were Rob Bussey, AJ Lloyd and Tyler Meeks.
In the 15-lap Parts Plus Street Stock feature, Mike Welch won his ninth of the season. Yet it didn’t seem like he would when leader Adam DePuy was looking like a sure winner for the first time during the 2013 season at CMP.
In turn four of the final lap with Welch running second, DePuy slowed down with transmission difficulties allowing Welch to get by for the win.
“I got lucky in this one,” said Welch in the post-race interview trackside. “There was no doubt that Adam had this one until he had transmission problems.”
DePuy ended up finishing second as he was able to make it over the start/finish line.
Third was Derek Excell followed by Bill Weller and Steve Pesarek. The heat race winner was Bill Weller.
Arguably the best race of the night was the 20-lap Castner Performance 305 Sprint feature with Darryl Ruggles winning his fifth of the season. He passed his daughter Alysha as the two came down to the finish line with Darryl winning by a half car-length.
It was Darryl down low and Alysha up high as the fans were on their feet looking for Alysha to hold on but having to settle for the runner-up position.
On a lap 16 restart, Alysha was running second but got by Darryl to take over the lead.
“I really didn’t think that she had anything on that restart, but she did,” Darryl remarked afterwards.
Alysha was able to keep her father at bay until the final yards as the two came down to the checkered flag.
“I’m certainly not going to give her anything. She’s going to have to earn it,” Ruggles added.
Neverless, it was an exciting race with the Ruggles race team leaving the fairgrounds with the top-two finishing positions. Third was Charlie Donk, who also has five wins at CMP in the 2013 season. Fourth was Steve Doell jr. while Justin Henderson finished fifth with a broken nose clip.
In a special Pit Crew Challenge competition held at intermission, the Peter Britten race team was the quickest with a 42.5 second stop. The Paul Guererri race team was next best with a 46.4 second stop.
Up next at Canandaigua Motorsports Park is the highly anticipated '360 Smoke Shootout' on Tue., July 16 featuring three-time NASCAR champion Tony Stewart. The 'Rushville Rocket” will be contending for his first win at the storied Canandaigua half-mile clay oval with $3,000 on the line for the A-Main victor. A full program of open tire Sportsman and Crate Late Model racing fills out the 7:30pm card presented by Regional International Truck & Trailer and Monroe Wheelchair.
Weekend activity returns to CMP on Sat. July 20 when Victor Excavating presents a full show of Team Tiremasters Big-Block Modified, Safety Awareness Solutions Sportsman, Castner Performance 305 Sprint Car and Parts Plus Street Stock racing, with double features on tap for Pure Stock and Community Car Care of Waterloo New Legends Sportsman divisions on Family Autograph Night. The first race goes green at 7pm with pit gates opening at 4pm and grandstand seating starting at 5pm.
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