Author: Chris Murphy

RANSOMVILLE, NY – On a another beautiful night for racing with Ransomville Speedway getting week three of the 2016 season in the books and a pit area loaded with ninety-three race cars. The night was sponsored by Sunset Bar & Grill and Hy-Tech Concrete. Ransomville Speedway put on some exciting racing for another jam packed grandstand. The eighteen Ki-Po Chevrolet Street Stocks in the pit area was the highest number the facility has seen in two years, with their division having a re-birth in 2016.

Erick Rudolph of Ransomville won for the second time this season in the 30 lap Krown Undercoating 358 Modified feature. Once in the lead Rudolph was incredibly fast. Erick would take the lead after a lap 20 yellow restart. Once again, Rudolph was driving the Rob Clark owned Bicknell chassis. Rudolph came into the night as the division points leader.

Mike Bowman of St. Catharines, Ontario was the early race leader and was fast. Bowman has been extremely unlucky at Ransomville Speedway in 2016, who also had the lead the previous week until having problems. Bowman would hang on for second after a late race battle with Tommy Flannigan, also of St. Catharines, who ended up third. Jeff McGinnis of Ransomville was fourth at the end. Defending track champion Ryan Susice of Ransomville was fifth. Pete Bicknell of St. Cathaines was sixth after putting his self-built chassis on it’s roof the previous week. Sanborn, NY’s Chad Brachmann was seventh. Kenny Wills of Ransomville was eighth. Rounding out the top ten was Scott George of Wilson, NY and Phil Vigneri III of Elba, NY.

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MIKE MALLETT

Erick Rudolph debuted the Rob Clark owned No. 62 on Friday night at the Ransomville Speedway and promptly put the car in Victory Lane. Rudolph led all but one lap of the 30-lap feature while on his way to scoring the opening day victory in front of a full house.

“This is a car that I keep in house at my garage so to get a win after working on it all winter is good,” said Rudolph after the feature. “It’s always nice to have a good run the first night out.”

Rudolph had the car at practice on Wednesday night at the track and suffered from steering issues. Those gremlins continued on Friday even after the team made some changes to the car.

“We had some problems with the steering on Wednesday,” commented Rudolph. “I don’t know what it was. We swapped out the boxes. It was really tough to steer. Even today, it was better, but it was still tough to steer. We got some work to do figuring that out.”

Rudolph started on the inside of the second row and watched as Tommy Flanigan and Randy Chrysler battled on the opening circuit for the lead. From there he was able dive underneath both drivers on the next lap to take the position. He was fast throughout the feature but he felt like his car gave up late.

“We came here the way we always do,” Rudolph stated. “It seemed to work out. Toward the end I slowed up a bit. We got a few ideas how to make it last a little longer.”

Rudolph struggled a bit in traffic which allowed Pete Bicknell to get close in the final laps. Rudolph was able to do enough to hold him off. He did all he could to stay low on the track but did go to the outside when necessary to make a pass of a lapped car.

“The bottom was the place to be so they were on the bottom too,” he said of the slower cars. “I got one on the outside. The lapped cars were tough but I think the car slowed up bit and maybe I was getting tired behind the wheel because of the steering.”

Rudolph indicated he plans on returning next week although he’ll have a hit and miss schedule for 2016.

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