ARDC at Silver Spring 97-04-05

The American Racing Drivers Club kicked off its 58th season of racing at Silver Spring Speedway in Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania on Saturday night. Silver Spring is a 3/8 mile semi banked clay track which hosts some of the finest Saturday night racing on the east coast. The ARDC midgets were on the program with the sportsmen and street stock divisions.

Duane Mausteller won the first heat. John Heydenreich finished second. Tim Dietz, who found all his speed up on the high side, was third. Defending ARDC champion Phil DiMario finished fourth in his Gaerte powered Stealth chassis while Jim Jackson rounded out the top five in heat one.

Seventeen year old Michael Roselli was not distracted by several yellow flags as he went on to win the second heat race of the evening. Roselli was under heavy pressure from Mark Freeland who finished second. Third place went to Gary Halteman with Mike Lapp in fourth and Monnie Wonder in the fifth position.

Ed Stimely Jr., featured in this week's Rising Stars column in National Speed Sport News, won heat three. Heat three had tremendous racing at the front as three drivers battled for the lead. Early leader, Brian Seidel finished second and Tom Frachetta who ran second for the first half of the race, finished third. Frachetta will pilot the 59 car in ARDC competition this season. Frachetta fills the seat vacated by Lou Cicconi Jr. who will be driving in the Supermodified division this season.

The ARDC consi saw more action at the front with Shannon Mausteller and Bob Cicconi swapping the lead on the first few laps. Cicconi jumped the cushion in turn two early in the race but was able to hold onto second place. Gary Mondschein, who finished third, was very close to the battle at the front and was in contention for the lead when the race was checkered. Mausteller won with Cicconi in second place.

In the feature, Tom Martocci took the lead at the drop of the green. John Heydenreich, who had worked his way into second from a fourteenth starting position, was hit from behind by Doug Borger, causing Heydenreich to spin. With four laps in the books, they lined up for the restart, Martocci, Wonder, Stimely, Roselli, Freeland, and Frachetta.

Freeland moved into third on the restart and then moved into second behind the new leader Stimely. Stimely and Freeland traded the lead several times before they were joined by Brian Seidel in a three way battle for the lead. The top three cars broke away from the pack. Just back from the top three was another pack of three, Frachetta, Heydenreich and Dietz. Two packs of three were engaged in fierce battle for the top six positions. Both packs ran side by side, swapping positions on each end of the track for several laps. With twenty laps in the book, Mark Freeland who was in the first pack, got out of shape coming out of turn four. He slid down the front straight along the outside wall. Just as Freeland's car came to a stop along the wall, the second pack of three came screaming down the front straight. Heydenreich, who had no where to go, slammed into Freeland's car as he sat sideways on the track. Heydenreich's car came to rest upside down on the outside guardrail.

Heydenreich was unconscious when safety workers reached his car. Heydenreich regained consciousness before safety workers extricated him from the race car. Heydenreich was taken to Hershey Hospital for observation.

The race was restarted with five laps remaining. Ed Stimely jumped out to a big lead when the green replaced the red and there were no changes in the top positions in the last five laps.

Silver Spring Speedway ARDC Feature Results 1. 6 Ed Stimely Jr. 2. 42 Brian Seidel 3. 75 Tom Frachetta 4. 98 Michael Roselli 5. 59 Bob Cicconi (*) 6. 86 Tim Dietz 7. 77 Shannon Mausteller 8. 5 Gary Mondschein 9. 91 Gary Halteman 10. 51w Monnie Wonder 11. 26 Mike Lapp 12. 48 Dennis Schaeffer 13. 18t Don Trent 14. 3 Tom Martocci 15. 23 Phil DiMario

(*) At press time stewards had not reached a decision regarding a possible penalty on Bob Ciconni for jumping a start. The penalty, if applied, would move Cicconi back two positions.

The twenty five lap sportsmen feature was won by Leroy Martin. This was Martin's third career win at Silver Spring. Martin held off a late charge by Larry Jackson who started fourteenth and finished second. Martin started from the front row.

__ David Reininger's Paper Race http://www.motorsport.com/paper-race