Marcuccilli Steals DIRTcar Sportsman Series Win From Caprara At Can-Am

Story By: CLAYTON JOHNS / DIRTCAR – LAFARGEVILLE, NY – Taylor Caprara had all but sewn up his first DIRTcar Sportsman Series win of the season on Wednesday night at Can-Am Motorsports Park, but a caution after the white flag waved gave Dave Marcuccilli the opportunity he needed to pounce. Caprara’s lead of nearly a full straightaway at the massive half-mile track was erased for a green-white-checkered finish and Marcuccilli used the restart to steal the lead from Caprara and march off with his second straight Series win.

“He had us covered. We just got lucky,” Marcuccilli said in Victory Lane. “I was way too tight the whole race and I couldn’t quite run the top as well as he was. I would get in there and get tight so I kept sliding it in there just to get it to turn. Man, that’s kind of an unbelievable one.”

Caprara started on the outside of the front row with polesitter Tyler Trump pacing the field to the green flag. Trump led the opening two laps while Marcucilli worked past Caprara for the second spot. Before the third lap could be completed, Josh Reome, Todd Root and Brian Hudson came together in turn four that resulted in a red flag as Reome flipped upside down.

After a lengthy clean up, the field sorted itself out for a lengthy green flag run that saw Maruccilli take over the lead in the outside lane on the restart while Caprara raced to second. The top two broke away from the rest of the field four second by the time the race hit lap 12.

On lap 13, Caprara caught Marcucilli and began to nose inside for the top spot. As they raced to the cross flags for the halfway mark, Caprara switched lanes and went to the outside which allowed him to take the lead from Marcucilli in turns one and two.

Two laps after taking the point, Caprara found himself in traffic, but navigated the slower cars without flaw and grew his lead over Marcuccilli. With five laps to go, Caprara’s lead was a half straightaway over Marcuccilli who also had a half straightaway lead over Rocky Warner, who had made his way to third from the 20th starting spot.

Caprara looked to have the victory in the bag, but a caution on the final lap for Dave Rogers who hit the turn three wall setup a green-white-checkered finish. Caprara chose the outside lane for the restart, a decision that proved fatal and Marcuccilli used the inside lane to muscle past Caprara. The final lap and a half saw Caprara use every line of the racetrack to try and regain the lead, but it was too little too late.

“He probably should have picked the bottom (on the restart) and would have won it easy,” Marcuccilli said. “With him giving me the bottom, we had the better run when we restarted and that was just the difference in the race because he was gone. I wasn’t catching him.”

Despite how the finish unfolded, Caprara was confident he made the right decision in choosing the outside lane, but would have liked another chance to better execute his restart.

“I definitely didn’t want to see that yellow,” Caprara said following the race. “My car seemed to roll the top pretty well. If anything, we could have paced that restart a little bit better and got an advantage there, but you’re dealing with the best in the business here. To sit behind these guys is pretty awesome.”

The thrilling finish had fans on the edge of their seats which overshadowed a spectacular drive by Warner to a podium finish. Warner was a late arrival and missed time trials and had to race from 10th to fifth in his heat race to be the final transfer car into the Feature.

“It was a night and day difference,” Warner said of the change in track from heats to the Feature after the track crew re-worked the surface at intermission. “We setup for the slick and I thought maybe we’d have something for them. My car was actually better early than it was late. It was a little tight there at the end there. We had an awesome car, just starting 20th kind of killed it.”

The DIRTcar Sportsman Series Central Region resumes action at Weedsport Speedway on July 3 for the Sportsman Classic. The Eastern Region, which completed its first race on May 28 at Devil’s Bowl (VT) Speedway where Chad Edwards went to Victory Lane, will continue with it’s action on July 15 at Lebanon-Valley Speedway.

The Western Region kicks off on July 25 at Ohsweken Speedway alongside the World of Outlaws Craftsman® Sprint Car Series in the Six Nations Showdown. The Northern Region will host its first race on August 11 at Quebec’s Autodrome Granby.

The six-race combined region schedule begins on September 30 at Fulton Speedway. For the full schedule of DIRTcar Sportsman Series events, visit www.dirtcarump.com/schedules.

DIRTcar Sportsman Series Central Region Statistical Report; Can-Am Motorsports Park, Lafargeville, NY; June 28, 2017

Feature (30 Laps) – 1. M1x-Dave Marcuccilli [3]; 2. 21t-Taylor Caprara [2]; 3. 1j-Rocky Warner [20]; 4. 9x-Tyler Trump [1]; 5. 1-Jack Meeks [12]; 6. 20k-Kyle Inman [9]; 7. 32r-Ron Davis III [15]; 8. 34-Kevin Root [7]; 9. 23-Mike Stacey [10]; 10. 0-Shane Pecore [4]; 11. 2-Chris Thurston [6]; 12.
60-Jackson Gill [26]; 13. 713-Tom Collins Jr. [18]; 14. 1d-Robert Delormier [16]; 15. M1-Ricky McCready [23]; 16. 73-Kevin Poitras [21]; 17. 82-Will Shields [25]; 18. 52-Jessica Power [19]; 19. 38-Zach Sabotka [13]; 20. 415-Andrew Wert [28]; 21. 24-Jordan Kelly [27]; 22. 98t-Tyler Thompson [31]; 23. 22c-Cedric Gauvreau [30]; 24. 29J-Joe Hall [29]; 25. 38J-Jarrett Herbison [24]; 26. 44-Dave Rogers [8]; 27. 24k-Nick Krause [11]; 28. 15-Todd Root [5]; 29. 621-Brian Hudson [14]; 30. 7s-Shawn Shaw [17]; 31. 91-Josh Reome [22].

Fast Qualifiers – Group 1: 44 Dave Rogers, 22.357; Group 2: 73 Kevin Poitras, 22.432; Group 3: 0 Shane Pecore, 22.466; Group 4: 1 Jack Meeks, 22.670.

Heat 1 (8 Laps – 5 Qualify – Top-3 Redraw) – 1. 34-Kevin Root [2]; 2. 44-Dave Rogers [1]; 3. 24k-Nick Krause [4]; 4. 38-Zach Sobotka [5]; 5. 7s-Shawn Shaw [3]; 6. M1-Ricky McCready [8]; 7. 82-Will Shields [10]; 8. 25-George Sanford [6]; 9. 11-Dan Ferguson [9]; 10. 24-Jordan Kelly [7]; 11. 26-Mike Mandigo [11].

Heat 2 (8 Laps – 5 Qualify – Top-3 Redraw) – 1. 23-Mike Stacey [2]; 2. 15-Todd Root [3]; 3. M1x-Dave Marcuccilli [5]; 4. 621-Brian Hudson [4]; 5. 713-Tom Collins Jr. [7]; 6. 73-Kevin Poitras [1]; 7. T98-Tyler Thompson [8]; 8. 29J-Joe Hall [10]; 9. 57-Anthony Stockman [6]; 10. 1r-Ricky Thompson [11]; 11. 45r-Preston Forbes [9].

Heat 3 (8 Laps – 5 Qualify – Top-3 Redraw) – 1. 0-Shane Pecore [1]; 2. 9x-Tyler Trump [4]; 3. 2-Chris Thurston [3]; 4. 32r-Ron Davis III [6]; 5. 52-Jessica Power [5]; 6. 91-Josh Reome [2]; 7. 60-Jackson Gill [7]; 8. T1-Charlie Tibbits [10]; 9. 22-Josh Verne [11]; 10. m70-Billy Cook [8]; 11. 4s-Styles Arquiett [9].

Heat 4 (8 Laps – 5 Qualify – Top-3 Redraw) – 1.1-Jack Meeks [1]; 2. 21t-Taylor Caprara [2]; 3. 20k-Kyle Inman [3]; 4. 1d-Robert Delormier [4]; 5. 1j-Rocky Warner [12]; 6. 38j-Jarret Herbison [5]; 7. 415-Andrew Wren [6]; 8. 99r-Anthony Rasmussen [7]; 9. 22c-Cedric Gauvreau [9]; 10. 15-Greg Henry [11]; 11. 76g-Skylar Greenfield [8]; 12. 15b-James Brown [10].

Last Chance Qualifier 1 (10 Laps – Top-4 Qualify to A-Feature) – 1. 73-Kevin Poitras [2]; 2. M1-Ricky McCready [1]; 3. 82-Will Shields [3]; 4. 24-Jordan Kelly [9]; 5. 29j-Joe Hall [6]; 6. 11-Dan Ferguson [7]; 7. 26-Mike Mandigo [11]; 8. 98t-Tyler Thompson [4]; 9. 1r-Ricky Thompson [10]; 10. 25-George Sanford [5]; 11. 57-Anthony Stockman [DNS]; 12. 45r-Preston Forbes [DNS].

Last Chance Qualifier 2 (10 Laps – Top-4 Qualify to A-Feature) – 1. 91-Josh Reome [1]; 2. 38j-Jarrett Herbison [2]; 3. 60-Jackson Gill [3]; 4. 415-Andrew Wren [4]; 5. 22c-Cedric Gauvreau [8]; 6. m70-Billy Cook [9]; 7. 15-Greg Henry [10]; 8. T1-Charlie Tibbits [5]; 9. 76g-Skylar Greenfield [12]; 10. 15b-James Brown [13]; 11. 22-Josh Verne [7]; 12. 99r-Anthony Rasmussen [6]; 13. 4s-Styles Arquiett [11].