Season’s Wrap Take One

By Mark Williams
 
The first FIVE
Brett Gilmore won his second straight Modified Point Championship this
season,


the young Fleetwood Ace won 10 features including 5 in a row between October 6th and December 15th.  Gilmore won 84 segments moving him into third place on the all time list.  Jim Levan racing out of Reading Pa started off strong, winning the first two features of the year and also picked up 3 runner-ups to grab second place in the season standings.  Levan won 30 segments bringing his career total 101, he picked up the 100th segment milestone win on March 9th.  Shane Hiester from Shillington wound up a single point behind Levan in third place in the season’s championship chase.  Although he did not pick up a feature win he did score 3 seconds and 33 segment wins which tied Troy Bowers for 2nd most this year.  The younger of the Hiester brothers now has 48 career segment wins at the Berks speedplant.  Fourth spot went to veteran Mark Williams who began racing slot cars in 1970.   Williams grabbed one feature filling in for Brett Gilmore and 25 segments.  His career feature win count is now 17 maintaining third on that list.  Rounding out the top five in points was Sheldon Hiester who won 18 segments and notched a pair of second place finishes.  Sheldon now has 32 career segment wins in a Modified.
 
The second FIVE
Scott Bender the racing photographer wound up sixth this season winning 1 feature and 13 segments.  The Reading racer now has 4 career feature wins and 58 segments wins with at least 1 win in every season making him one of only three who can bost that stat.  Bob Amore out of Trexlertown finished 7th winning 10 segments and picking up 2 runner-up finishes this year.  Amore now has 126 career segment victories.  8th was ageless veteran Bill Brenner.   The Manheim racer missed the first three shows but really had a nice season behind the wheel of the Eric Beard modifieds.  Brenner won 11 segments and now has 31 on his career.  Ninth place on the year was our first rookie Steven Kircher who won his first career segment on November 3rd.  Steven showed steady improvement this year and his best finish in a feature was 3rd.  Rounding out our second group of five in this story in tenth place finisher, Taylor’s Dad Alex Amore.  Alex won one segment, which was his 11th career win. 
 
Odds and Ends
We had 37 racers this season, 5 of those drivers won features and 15 of them won segments.  Three guys had 8 segment wins in a single night, Brett Gilmore, Troy Bowers and Mark Williams.  Of the regulars Mark Williams out-dueled Bill Brenner and Scott Bender for the lowest fall off average.  23 drivers had zero bubble outs this season, which is an excellent number. 
 
The third FIVE
Eleventh and Twelfth places went to two more rookies Toby Reinhard and Dennis Kercher.  Eric Beard who hails from Gettysburgh finished 13th and won 2 segments with some really fast modifieds.  Eric is one of the top car builders now.  Billy Decker from Easton PA wound up 14th after a brief retirement.  Decker missed 4 weeks around the middle of the season but came back and looked like he never left.  Decker won 8 segments and joins Scott Bender and Mark Williams as the only three drivers to have modified segment wins in ever season that Randy’s Raceway has been in operation.  He now has 119 career wins.  Troy Bowers wound up 15th in points winner of three features including a win at the fairgrounds mall show and 33 segment wins.  The Bernville racer would have been a title contender if he had been able to make more shows.
 
Some of the rest….
Alison and Cory Reinhard ran some good races as did Nick Wummer and Brian Vanbuskirk.  Guy Intelisano won a segment early in the season.  Dale Stengele and John Kosmoski ran well when they could make some shows.  Nice to see Adam Zappacosta and Randy Stitzel make the final two shows of the year.  We also had veteran HO legends like Tom Hiester, Big T, Sam Heller and Phil Levering and Bob Zelano in attendance.  And one racer I would be willing to bet will be a big winner some day raced with us at the mall show was Peyton Kochel.