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| For further information contact the Slot Car Club Of The Twin Tiers at: sccottt1@yahoo.com or (607) 796-4129. 12/31/06 20 drivers from NY, NJ and PA took part in the 7th Annual Snowball 500 presented by Wizzard High Performance, Inc., on Saturday, December 30, 2006. The field was filled with top-caliber drivers and included seven of the top ten finishers from the 2006 UFHORA National Championship T-Jet race. The race was held on the Slot Car Club Of The Twin Tiers, (SCCOTTT,) Bowman Grand Champion road course for the first time. The 7th Annual Snowball 500 Entry List Driver, Hometown - Entrant - Car Alex Carmody, Horseheads, NY - Self, Frank Spena Racing - Johnny Lightning '72 Chevy Camaro Z-28 Jim Downes, Buffalo, NY - Self - Aurora Ford GT40 Henry Harnish, Randolph, NJ - Self - BRP Ford GT; Web Site: www.henryharnish.com Dave Hendrickson, Erin, NY - KRD Racing - BRP Ford GT Spena Edition Kevin Hendrickson, Erin, NY - KRD Racing - Joe Jet GT41 Ryan Hendrickson, Erin, NY - KRD Racing; Wizzard High Performance, Inc. - BRP Ford GT Spena Edition Mark Jaczewski, North Collins, NY - Grey Area Racing - Davis Mercedes CLK Paul Kniffen, Cortland, NY - Self - Fandango Nissan 350Z Ernie Langford, Holland, NY - Self – Dunlap Nissan 350Z Bob Lincoln, Bedford, PA - Wizzard High Performance, Inc. - Joe Jet GT41; Web site: http://www.wizzardho.com/index.html Warren Lux, Springville, NY – Lux Racing - Davis Ferrari 550 Maranello Matt Metcalf, Corning, NY - Mathew Metcalf Racing - BRP '64 Corvette Stingray George Mest, Springville, NY – Crash’N’Burn Raceway - JoeJet Lola GT Cliff Potter, Sayre, PA - Self - Johnny Lightning '72 Chevy Camaro Z-28 Joe Saccomanno, Alden, NY - JoeJets - JoeJet Vauxhall Cresta Frank "Chub" Spena Jr., Horseheads, NY - Frank Spena Racing - BRP Ford GT Spena Edition; Web site: www.reocities.com/chub350/chub.html Scott Udave, Buffalo, NY - Self - BRP Porsche 911 GT2 Dave Van Duzer, Horseheads, NY - Van Duzer Hobbies - Fandango Toyota Celica Scott Walker, Horseheads, NY - Self, Frank Spena Racing - Davis Alfa Romeo 156 Mike Wulff, West Valley, NY – Team Wulff - Dunlap Aston Martin Vanquish Qualifying Qualifying consisted of three minutes on each lane for a total of 12 minutes. Warren Lux was in the first qualifying group and grabbed the early pole with 65 laps. Dave Hendrickson went out the in second group swiped the top spot away. Not only did he take the pole, but he also broke his own 12-minute record set at November's Turkey 250 by three laps. Paul Kniffen was in the same group and also managed to top the old mark with 74. Along the way both drivers also lowered the fastest race lap record with identical 9.042 laps. Hendrickson had held the fast lap record on the Grand Champion right up until the week preceding the race. During the week Frank Spena Jr. had lowered the record by .2 of a second and had been consistently the fastest through practice. Ryan Hendrickson, last year's pole sitter, was driving a car prepared by Bob Lincoln and had also gone under his father's old record during practice. These two were expected to battle for the pole, but fate intervened. Both went out in the fifth and final group, by which time the track had become increasingly dirty. Spena lowered the fastest race lap record by nearly .4 of a second to 8.691, but with his car sliding wildly near the end of each segment, he could do no better than 73 laps. Ryan finished with 70, only enough for 5th place, and the pole was safe in Dave Hendrickson's hands. It was his 12th career pole and his second in the Snowball 500. Fourth in qualifying went to Henry Harnish. The final transfer spot went to Kevin Hendrickson. The rest of the field went into the Last Chance Qualifier round... Qualifying Results Pos.| Laps - Driver 1| 75 - Dave Hendrickson 2| 74 - Paul Kniffen 3| 73 - Frank Spena Jr. 4| 71 - Henry Harnish 5| 70 - Ryan Hendrickson 6| 70 - Kevin Hendrickson 7| 66 - Cliff Potter 8| 65 - Warren Lux 9| 64 - Dave Van Duzer 10| 64 - George Mest 11| 64 - Ernie Langford 12| 63 - Scott Walker 13| 63 - Mark Jaczewski 14| 62 - Bob Lincoln 15| 60 - Matt Metcalf 16| 59 - Scott Udave 17| 57 - Joe Saccomanno 18| 57 - Jim Downes 19| 56 - Mike Wulff 20| 51 - Alex Carmody Last Chance Qualifier The LCQ meant another 12 minutes for two drivers to make the transfer into the semis. Cliff Potter had qualified 7th, just missing the cut, but he held his ground in the LCQ to make the transfer with 66 laps. Warren Lux did likewise, just beating out a charging Bob Lincoln for the final transfer. It was Lux' second consecutive LCQ transfer. Lincoln, driving a car built by Ryan Hendrickson, gained three laps to move up from 14th to a final position of 9th. Dave Van Duzer did the covered the exact same distance as in qualifying, but dropped one spot to 10th. George Mest had made a habit of making it from the LCQ to the Semis, but he could not pull it off this time and wound up 11th. Ernie Langford dropped one spot to 12th, while Matt Metcalf drove an underpowered car to 13th, up two positions. 14th belonged to Mark Jaczewski, followed by Scott Udave. 16th belonged to Alex Carmody. The youngest racer in the field at 8, this was the first time Alex had ever raced a T-Jet. He improved by 5 laps and four positions over his qualifying run. Jime Downes, driving the only Aurora body in the field, grabbed 17th. Joe Saccomanno suffered car trouble on his way to 18th, as did Mike Wulff in 19th. Scott Walker, who had a fine run going through the first part of his qualifying, was forced to withdraw due to illness and was classified in 20th. LCQ Results 1| 66 - Cliff Potter 2| 65 - Warren Lux 3| 65 - Bob Lincoln 4| 64 - Dave Van Duzer 5| 64 - George Mest 6| 63 - Ernie Langford 7| 61 - Matt Metcalf 8| 61 - Mark Jaczewski 9| 60 - Scott Udave 10| 56 - Alex Carmody 11| 56 - Jim Downes 12| 52 - Joe Saccomanno 13| 49 - Mike Wulff Semi Finals Semi #1 Semi #1 featured Dave and Ryan Hendrickson, Spena and Potter. Spena and Ryan were relishing the chance to take on Dave on an equal surface. The three took off together, but mistakes and, later, an oiling issue saw Ryan drop off the pace. That left a classic battle between the two old friends and rivals. Dave and Spena swapped the lead several times before Spena took control part way through the second segment. From there he showed the promise his practice times had held. He lowered the fastest race lap record once more, to 8.661, and then broke the 12-minute record by two laps with 77. Dave picked up second with another 75, followed by Ryan and Potter. Potter improved one lap over his previous rounds, which meant a six lap improvement over the previous month, but it was not enough to stave off elimination. Semi #1 Results 1| 77 - Frank Spena Jr. 2| 75 - Dave Hendrickson 3| 72 - Ryan Hendrickson 4| 67 - Cliff Potter Semi #2 Semi #2 featured Kniffen, Harnish, Kevin Hendrickson and Lux. This one belonged to Kniffen all the way. He improved by one lap to 75 on his way to the final. Hendrickson kept him honest for a while but faded somewhat in the end and missed the cut. Harnish, the 1962 Ford Aurora National Champion, struggled early on with car trouble but recovered enough to take third followed by Lux, who also improved 6 laps over his totals in November... Semi #2 Results 1| 75 - Paul Kniffen 2| 70 - Kevin Hendrickson 3| 68 - Henry Harnish 4| 65 - Warren Lux The 7th Annual Snowball 500 Final The final was now set. Each segment would be 15 minutes in length until the first car reached 363 laps, the equivalent of 500 HO scale miles around the mighty Bowman. After his performance in the semis, Spena was now the clear favorite. He had been chasing Dave Hendrickson's pace all month. Things finally seemed to be going right for him again just in time to chase down his seventh straight Snowball 500 title. Ryan Hendrickson looked like the only one with the speed to challenge Spena if he could keep it on the track. Dave Hendrickson and Kniffen looked close, but did not have the pace of the other two. So it was looking like the traditional Snowball...But things were about to change... In an unusual twist, the story of the final began in the warmup for it. Spena's car, consistently in the 8 second range all day, could now do no better than 9.3. Kniffen meanwhile was going in the opposite direction and dipped into the 8s for the first time all day with an 8.7. Some last-minute tuning by Spena did not solve the problem and Kniffen was now the clear favorite. At the start Kniffen and the two Hendricksons leapt into the lead. Spena wasn't about to give up, however, and fought back through the twisty infield section to lead at the end of lap one. The other three were past him once more by the end of main straight and soon Kniffen was pulling away. One by one Spena, Ryan and then Dave made mistakes. Kniffen coughed up the lead to Spena briefly when he went off. It was the last time Spena would lead as first Dave and then Kniffen sailed past his ailing car. Kniffen soon caught Dave and retook the lead. Dave kept himself in the hunt with some hard driving. Spena was fading and making pit stops to try to find his lost speed. Ryan was struggling with his car's handling and then suffered a recurrence of the oiling problem which would haunt him two more times in the final. Kniffen was now in control and by the end of the first segment he was up by three over Dave, six over Spena and ten over Ryan. In the second segment Dave pulled himself back onto the lead lap with Kniffen. In the third segment, however, Kniffen pulled away again and the race was his. The final margin was seven laps. It marked Kniffen's first win at SCCOTTT/PRR, (his previous best was a 4th,) and the first time anyone other than Spena had won the Snowball 500. Snowball 500 Final Round Results 1| 363 - Paul Kniffen 2| 356 - Dave Hendrickson 3| 332 - Frank Spena Jr. 4| 317 - Ryan Hendrickson Thanks to Wizzard High Performance, Inc., and KRD Racing, each driver walked away several race prizes. Cliff Potter was the winner of a brand new Thunderstorm, which followed his win in the Concourse judging with his yellow Mako Shark. 7th Annual Snowball 500 Overall Results Pos.| Total Laps Completed - Driver 1| 511 - Paul Kniffen 2| 506 - Dave Hendrickson 3| 482 - Frank Spena Jr. 4| 459 - Ryan Hendrickson 5| 140 - Kevin Hendrickson 6| 139 - Henry Harnish 7| 199 - Cliff Potter 8| 195 - Warren Lux 9| 127 - Bob Lincoln 10| 128 - Dave Van Duzer 11| 128 - George Mest 12| 127 - Ernie Langford 13| 121 - Matt Metcalf 14| 124 - Mark Jaczewski 15| 119 - Scott Udave 16| 107 - Alex Carmody 17| 113 - Jim Downes 18| 109 - Joe Saccomanno 19| 105 - Mike Wulff 20| 063 - Scott Walker The 7th Annual Snowball 500 Official Sponsors: Wizzard High Performance, Inc. Bedford, PA Phone: (814) 623-7482 Web Site: http://www.wizzardho.com/index.html E-mail: wizzardho@yahoo.com KRD Racing Erin, NY E-mail: KRDRacing@stny.rr.com Next Major: The 6th Annual Freezin' 250 - January 27, 2007. Contact sccottt1@yahoo.com for more info, including starting times and lodging. SCCOTTT's Wednesday Night HO Racing Series runs every Wednesday evening with races beginning at 7 PM. Current classes are Super Stock T-Jet and JL GT. Call or e-mail for rules. SCCOTTT's Friday Night 1/32 Racing Series runs every Friday evening with races beginning at 7:00 PM. Current classes are World Sportscar Championship, (WSC,) GT, Non-Magnet Open and 1/24 Le Mans. Call or e-mail for rules. The Slot Car Club Of The Twin Tiers is a non-profit group of enthusiasts dedicated to promoting slot car racing in the Southern Tier of NY and the Northern Tier of PA. Please stop in or check out the club web site. Slot Car Club Of The Twin Tiers 2117C Grand Central Ave. Horseheads, NY 14845 Web Site: http://www.reocities.com/sccottt1/clubmain.html E-mail: sccottt1@yahoo.com Race Photos and Race Summary spreadsheet available on request. E-mail: fspenajr@juno.com |
| The 7th Annual Snowball 500 Presented By Wizzard High Performance, Inc. Race Report |