Ed Vecchiarelli Jr. sweeps the Rocky's Autos Late Model Ride 911 Memorial Race

Sunday, 23 August 2009 11:46

On one of the most beautiful nights of the summer the fans at Colorado National Speedway were treated to not one, not two, not  three, but eight feature main events! Ed Vecchiarelli Jr. won both late model mains and Chris Eggleston won the Snap-On Tools Pro Truck main event.

The Rocky's Autos Late Models kicked things off with qualifying. #22 Chris Eggleston hot off his win at Dixie Motor Speedway in the ASA Late Model Series Northern Division didn't miss a beat and set quicktime with a blazing fast 16.003.

In the first of two main events for the Sunoco Fuel Grand American Modifieds car #44 Justin Case and car #69 Forest Smith started on the front row. Forest Smith had mechanical issues at the drop of the green which caused major jockeying of positions on lap one. Shawn Trackwell in the number 16 spun causing a chain reaction and several cars were damaged and unable to continue. Justin Case pressured Ed Vecchiarelli lap after lap in the early stages of the race but crafty Ed Vecchiarelli held him at bay. Car #95 Dave Finley and the #08 of series points leader Jace Hanson battled for 3rd place. But at the checkered flag it was veteran driver Ed Vecchiarelli taking the first feature win of the night.

Not to be outdone by his father Ed Vecchiarelli Jr. in car #48 won his ever late model feature event at Colorado National Speedway. Twenty two rocket fast Rocky's Autos Late Models took the track for the first of two 40 lap main events. After an early yellow, surprise leader Ed Vecchiarell Jr. paced the field with Darren Robertson right behind. On lap nine Ed Jr. got loose and Darren went low to take the lead. At lap 24, series points leader Chris Muhler spins down the back stretch after contact with #31 Rick Smith bringing out the caution. On the double file restart Ed Vecchiarelli Jr. used the outside line to gain the lead over Darren Robertson and at the stripe it was Ed Vecchiarell Jr. winning his first ever late model main event.

Mod Coupe #21 Cory Gordon led the first 5 laps of the CARC Mod Coupe main event but after a yellow flag #90 Frank Denning was able to get by Gordon and the two time defending track champion Denning went on to win the CARC main event.

An amazing 40 Doc Popcorn Super Stocks showed up to race but by the time the main event rolled onto the track 29 cars had qualified for the feature event. #17 Jeremy Barclay started on the pole with #02 Darrell Smith on the outside, #92 AJ Grasso and #09 John Patee were in row two.  Halfway through the race and Grasso, Barclay, and Lothert, raced three-wide for the lead with Lothert making a daring pass to take the top spot while #19 Scott Miller worked his way into 2nd place. At the finish #46 "lightening" Rick Lothert  appeared to have taken the win but a post race inspection penalized Lothert 10 positions. This made way for red hot Jeremy Barclay to claim yet another main event win followed by #8 Ryan Moser and #92 AJ Grasso.

The Snap-On Tools ProTrucks featured some new faces this week most notably the #22 truck driven by young "hot shoe" Chris Eggleston who started in the second row of the feature next to #74 Chris Muhler and behind #7 Adam Dienes and pole sitter #27 Roger "the ice man" Avants. It didn't take long for young Chris Eggleston to figure out the Pro Trucks and he quickly jumped into second place behind series points leader #7 Adam Dienes. Chris Eggleston battled side by side with Dienes for several laps thrilling the huge crowd at CNS before taking the lead for good. #22 Eggleston continues to impress in whatever type of car he races and took the checkered flag followed by #7 Adam Dienes, #74 Chris Muhler, #07 Chris Leaf and #36 Richard Burton.

The second Sunoco Fuel Grand American Modified main event started out with a bang as #95 Dave Finley spun in turn three collecting #21 Jeff Purvis who had nowhere to go. #18 Ed Vecchiarelli who won the first GAM main event took the early lead followed closely by #44 Justin Case and #08 Jace Hanson and the three drivers thrilled the crowd racing door handle to door handle for several laps. #44 Justin Case powered his way to the lead at the halfway mark while #69 Forest Smith worked his way into second place. When the checkered flag dropped #44 Justin Case had won his first ever GAM main event.

The second Rocky's Autos Late Model Main Event had a very fast #17 Paul Dienes on the pole with #11 Darren Robertson on the outside. Prior to the green #22 Chris Eggleston who had just won the Pro Truck main event had a flat tire and had to pull off the track forcing him to start at the rear of the field, Chris made a great run to the front and managed a top 5 finish. After a lap 11 caution flag #12 Bruce Yackey had worked his way past Robertson as did #27 Roger Avants, yet #17 Paul Dienes continued to lead the race. Dienes and Yacky raced side by side and it seemed that Dienes had found a way to make the inside groove work for him and hung on to the lead through 17 laps.  Yackey made his way to the lead through the middle of the race and Ed Vecchiarelli Jr. had moved past Paul Dienes into 2nd place. Late in the race the two fastest cars on the car were Yackey and Vecchiarelli and on lap 33 #48 Ed Vecchiarelli  Jr. managed to pass Bruce Yacky on the outside winning his 2nd Rocky's Autos Late Model main event of the night!

When all the dust had settled the Rocky's Autos Late Model season points race could not be more tight. In fact Cris Muhler and Bruce Yackey are dead even with 585 points each. Roger Avants, Richard Smith and Ronnie Hults round out the top five.

The Whittar Racing Trains finished off the night in a blaze of fire, smoke, and a trail of parts and pieces as the #11 Turbo Train took the win.

Rocky's Autos LAte Models Main Event #1
1 #48 VECCHIARELLI ED JR, 2 #11 ROBERTSON, DARREN, 3 #17 DEINES, PAUL, 4 #22, EGGLESTON, CHRIS, 5# 31 SMITH, RICHARD, 6 #78 CROCKER DARREN, 7 #27 AVANTS, ROGER, 8 #54 JAMES, JOE JR, 9 #12 YACKEY, BRUCE, 10 #91 ATKINSON, CHRIS, 11 #10 CHRISINGER, TYLER, 12 #95 MUHLER, CRISTOFER, 13 #4 FINLEY, DAVE, 14 #77 YACKEY, STEVEN, 15 #88 FOWLER, GREG, 16 #66 BUCKLEN, DARREN, 17 #9 BURTON, NICK, 18 #42 HULTS, RONNIE, 19 #63 TILTON, BUTCH, 20 #74 SAVAGE, DAN, 21 #39 NUGENT, JACK, 22 #56 COX, AARON

Rocky's Autos LAte Models Main Event #2
1 #48 ECCHIARELLI ED JR, 2 #12 YACKEY, BRUCE, 3 #17 DEINES, PAUL, 4 #27 AVANTS, ROGER, 5 #22 EGGLESTON, CHRIS, 6 #74 SAVAGE, DAN, 7 #31 SMITH, RICHARD, 8 #77 YACKEY, STEVEN, 9 #91 ATKINSON, CHRIS, 10 #95 MUHLER, CRISTOFER, 11 #42 HULTS, RONNIE, 12 #66 BUCKLEN, DARREN, 13 #11 ROBERTSON, DARREN, 14 #9 BURTON, NICK, 15 #63 TILTON, BUTCH, 16 #4 FINLEY, DAVE, 17 #78 CROCKER DARREN, 18 #56 COX, AARON, 19 #54 JAMES, JOE JR, 20 #10 CHRISINGER, TYLER, 21 #88 FOWLER, GREG, 22 #39 NUGENT, JACK

Sunoco Grand American Modifieds Main Event #1
1 #18 VECCHIARELLI, ED, 2 #44 CASE, JUSTIN, 3 #95 FINLEY, DAVE, 4 #08 HANSEN, JACE, 5 #4 SOPR, MARK, 6 #22 CASTAGNO, MICHAEL, 7 #11 EVANS, TOM, 8 #21 PURVIS, JEFFREY, 9 #01 TJARKS, TERRY, 10 #69 SMITH, FOREST, 11 #77 HANSEN, JEFFREY, 12 #16 TRACKWELL, SHAWN, 13 #3 CLEMENTS, DELAND, 14 #27 HATHAWAY, MICHAEL

Sunoco Grand American Modifieds Main Event #2
1 #44 CASE, JUSTIN, 2 #69 SMITH, FOREST, 3 #08 HANSEN, JACE, 4 #18 VECCHIARELLI, ED, 5 #22 CASTAGNO, MICHAEL, 6 #01 TJARKS, TERRY, 7 #16    TRACKWELL, SHAWN, 8 #3 CLEMENTS, DELAND, 9 #95 FINLEY, DAVE, 10 #4 SOPR, MARK, 11 #77 HANSEN, JEFFREY, 12 #11 EVANS, TOM, 13 #21 PURVIS, JEFFREY

Snap-On Tools Pro Trucks
1 #22 EGGLESTON, CHRIS, 2 #7 DEINES, ADAM, 3 #74 MUHLER, CRISTOFER, 4 #07 LEAF, CHRIS, 5 #36 BURTON, RICHARD, 6 #0 HARKINS, BILLY, 7 #27 AVANTS, ROGER, 8 #32 NEFF, MARK, 9 #6 WILLIAMS, NICHOLAS, 10 #34 VANDERWAL, RUDY, 11 #5 WITTHAR, TROY, 12 #11 JOHNSON, STEPHEN, 13 #15 BERNARD, MICHAEL, 14 #51 CARLSON, CHRIS, 15 #76 GARDNER, GERALD, 16 #99 WARD MARK

Doc Popcorn Super Stocks
1 #17 BARCLAY, JEREMY, 2 #8 MOSER, RYAN, 3 #92 GRASSO, ALEXANDER, 4 #02 SMITH, CECIL, 5 #39 NUGENT, JOHN, 6 #28 RIDDELL, SHANE, 7 #03 MILES, DAVID, 8 #84 EUBANK, BRYAN, 9 #21 PURVIS, JUSTIN, 10 #07 SIDELL, JOEL, 11 #46 LOTHERT, RICHARD, 12 #58 WEAVER, TIMOTHY, 13 #01 MORRIS, JASON, 14 #90 Patee Kyle, 15 #33 BUCK, MICHAEL, 16 #19 MILLER, SCOTT, 17 #99L LIVERMORE, HARRY JR., 18 #0 MUES, ANDREW, 19 #04 Hunt, Jimmy, 20 #80 HILTON, ADAM, 21 #3 COX, MICHAEL, 22 #78 QUINN, KEVIN, 23 #25 CALKINS, KATHEY, 24 #09 PATEE, JOHN, 25 #71 MACFARLAND, DOUG, 26 #43 SEARS, ROBERT

CARC Mod Coupes
1 #90 DENNING, FRANK, 2 #21 GORDON, CORY, 3 #24 GUILFORD, CHAD, 4 #36 BURTON, MATT, 5 #45 VAIR, CARL, 6 #17 RHOADES, SCOTT, 7 #56 FETTERS, MICHAEL, 8 #77 ANDERSON MICHAEL, 9 #0 GRIMM, ERIC, 10 #33 GRAHAM, CHET, 11 #88 BREMKAMP, SCOTT, 12 #6 CORRENDI, MICHAEL, 13 #91 GREIVE, JAMIE, 14 #80 DEINKL, MATT, 15 # 11 CORRENTI, STEVEN, 16 # 55 LAND, GARY

Whittar Racing Trains
1 #11 ACHZIGER, WAYNE, 2 #0 JOHNSON, TOM, 3 #8 ELLISON, LEON, 4 #80 SEAY, JASON, 5 #22 TWO TWO TWAIN, 6 #25 Train of Fools