Warner Powers To Third Straight King Of Dirt Win At Utica-Rome

Story By: ROB HAZER / KING OF DIRT – VERNON, NY – Heading into the action track of the east, Rocky Warner was the favorite to win. He’s bad fast at Utica Rome Speedway and looking for his second King Of Dirt Racing crown and his first DIRTcar Sportsman title. After the 30-Lap main event Warner showed why he’s won three KOD features in a row in Vernon, NY.

Cody Bleau and Nick Krause led the 30 car field to the green, but defending King Of Dirt Racing champion Connor Cleveland seized the lead on lap one leaving Krause to fend for second and Bleau third.

Caution flew on lap four when Matt Janczuk’s bad luck continued during KOD events at the action track of the east. He’d fall to the pit area with mechanical failure for the second time in three KOD Sportsman races held at Utica Rome Speedway.

On the restart inadvertent contact between the 7s of Michael Sabia sent Kyle DeMetro around and collected up Brent Joy, AJ Miller, and Jeff Watson.

2015 King Of Dirt Racing Sportsman Modified champion Rocky Warner was charging from his 9th place starting spot. Warner took advantage of a super fast Jake Spraker prepared Teo Pro Car to grab the lead just six laps in after passing 2016 King Of Dirt Racing Sportsman Modified Champion Connor Cleveland.

Jeremy Pitts had the Grennon Project Services 27 wound up and looking for a win. The multi-time Albany-Saratoga champion raced his way up to third by races end. He was able to work past Krause for position, but ran out of time to close in on Cleveland for second.

Nick Krause is a steadily successful driver at Utica Rome Speedway and despite having his hands full with KOD/DIRTcar east tour racers, he held his own coming home fourth in the Mid Country Machinery 24k.

‘Mr. Excitement’ Michael Sabia had his best finish to date in the Redline Graphics 7s car. After an early race incident he was able to rally for a fifth place finish, which included a spirited battle with Chris Mackey and AJ Filbeck.

Nobody was catching ‘the flyin squirrel’ as he checked out for his third consecutive KOD/DIRTcar East Sportsman Modified feature win at Utica Rome Speedway. Rounding out the top ten were Cleveland, Pitts, Krause, Sabia, Mackey, Filbeck, Chad Edwards, Dave Marcuccilli, and David Schilling.

Luke Horning took the J-Tees Screen Printing top honors after timed hot laps for the King Of Dirt Racing Pro Stock Series. Horning also won a heat race along with Rob Yetman and Gus Hollner. The feature lineup is set for the rescheduled event.

KOD NOTES: 37 ultra tough competitors signed in to compete for KOD/DIRTcar East Sportsman race number two. Dave Marcuccilli was a late arrival and qualified through the consolation. He’d later charge to a 9th place finish. David Schilling earned the Hoosier Tire Hard Charger after gaining 13 positions. Schilling started 23rd on the grid and finished 10th. Point leader Chad Edwards still clings to the lead with two point advantage over Rocky Warner who catapulted to 2nd after his third consecutive KOD win at Utica Rome. Warner was also the J-Tees Screen Printing fast timer Sunday. Mother nature halted the KOD Pro Stock activities, but the feature has been re-scheduled to August 20th giving the full-fender guys a double header.

WORD FROM THE PROMOTER: “Always enjoy our trips to Utica Rome. It was a fast paced evening. There was a bit of adversity, but we handled it and came out with another solid Sportsman show and the Pro Stock race would have been really interesting I believe. Those guys will run that feature on August 20th making it a double header for Pro Stocks that night. Proud of our team and look forward to getting back to Utica.”

JUNE 18, 2017 1-800-GOT-JUNK? KING OF DIRT RACING DIRTcar EAST SPORTSMAN MODIFIED SERIES PRESENTED BY ANDY’S SPEED SHOP, DODSON CONSTRUCTION, & DEAN’S ELECTRICAL FEATURE RESULTS AT UTICA ROME SPEEDWAY (30 Laps) – 1) Rocky Warner, 2) Connor Cleveland, 3) Jeremy Pitts, 4) Nick Krause, 5) Michael Sabia, 6) Chris Mackey, 7) AJ Filbeck, 8) Chad Edwards, 9) Dave Marcuccilli, 10) David Schilling, 11) Kevin Chaffee, 12) Brian Calabrese, 13) Andrew Buff, 14) Scott Duell, 15) Mark Effner, 16) Brian Pessolano, 17) Kyle Inman, 18) Stephen Denton, 19) Jason Rood, 20) Kyle Kiehn, 21) Charlie Tibbitts, 22) Jack Lehner, 23) Cody Bleau, 24) Chris Lynch (sub28), 25) Justin Smith, 26) Jeff Watson, 27) Kyle DeMetro, 28) Brent Joy, 29) AJ Miller, 30) Matt Janczuk.

J-Tees Screen Printing King Of Dirt Racing Sportsman Timed Hot Lap Results – 1) Rocky Warner (20.463), 2) Kyle DeMetro (20.499), 3) Nick Krause (20.511), 4) Connor Cleveland (20.608), 5) Matt Janczuk, (20.621), 6) Brian Calabrese (20.634), 7) Chris Mackey (20.642), 8) Brent Joy (20.744), 9) Scott Duell (20.755), 10) Cody Bleau (20.766), 11) Kyle Kiehn (20.774), 12) Jeremy Pitts (20.781), 13) Michael Sabia (20.791), 14) AJ Filbeck (20.847), 15) Kyle Inman (20.834), 16) AJ Miller (20.847), 17) Brian Pessolano (20.883), 18) Stephen Denton (20.922), 19) Chad Edwards (20.937), 20) Andrew Buff (20.943), 21) David Schilling (20.951) 22) Rob Maxon (20.973), 23) Jason Rood (20.978), 24) Mark Effner (21.102), 25) Charlie Tibbitts (21.118), 26) Jeff Watson (21.146), 27) Kevin Chaffee (21.156), 28) Robert Bublak (21.275), 29) Jeff Taylor (21.295), 30) Dave Moyer (21.315), 31) Nathan Peckham (21.516), 32) George Dyer (21.522), 33) Chris Lynch (sub28) (21.578), 34) Justin Smith (21.855), 35) Jack Lehner (DNT), 36) Dave Marcuccilli (DNT), 37) Tyler Thompson (DNT).

KOD/DIRTcar East Sportsman Heat #1 Results (8 Laps) – 1) Matt Janczuk, 2) Rocky Warner, 3) Michcael Sabia, 4) Scott Duell, 5) Brian Pessolano, 6) Jeff Watson, 7) David Schilling, 8) Dave Moyer, 9) Justin Smith.

KOD/DIRTcar East Sportsman Heat #2 Results (8 Laps) – 1) Cody Bleau, 2) AJ Filbeck, 3) Kyle DeMetro, 4) Jason Rood, 5) Brian Calabrese, 6) Kevin Chaffee, 7) Stephen Denton, 8) Nathan Peckham, 9) Jack Lehner.

KOD/DIRTcar East Sportsman Heat #3 Results (8 Laps) – 1) Chris Mackey, 2) Nick Krause, 3) Kyle Inman, 4) Chad Edwards, 5) Kyle Kiehn, 6) Rob Maxon, 7) Mark Effner, 8) Robert Bublak, 9) George Dyer.

KOD/DIRTcar East Sportsman Heat #4 Results (8 Laps) – 1) Connor Cleveland, 2) Brent Joy, 3) Jeremy Pitts, 4) AJ Miller, 5) Andrew Buff, 6) Chris Lynch (sub28), 7) Charlie Tibbitts, 8) Jeff Taylor.

KOD/DIRTcar East Sportsman Consi #1 Results (8 Laps) – 1) Brain Calabrese, 2) Kevin Chaffee, 3) Stephen Denton, 4) David Schilling, 5) Jeff Watson, 6) Dave Moyer, 7) Nathan Peckham, 8) Justin Smith, 9) Brian Pessolano, 10) Jack Lehner.

KOD/DIRTcar East Sportssman Consi #2 Results (8 Laps) – 1) Dave Marcuccilli, 2) Kyle Kiehn, 3) Mark Effner, 4) Andrew Buff, 5) Charlie Tibbitts, 6) Tyler Thompson, 7) Chris Lynch (sub28), 8) Robert Bublak, 9) George Dyer, 10) Rob Maxon, 11) Jeff Taylor.

DTD Lap Leaders – Connor Cleveland (1-5) & Rocky Warner (6-30).
Hoosier Tire Hard Charger – David Schilling (+13)
Andy’s Speed Shop $250 Bonus – Rocky Warner (1st)
Fast Axle Superior Sixth – Chris Mackey ($50 Certificate)
J-Tees Fast Timer – Rocky Warner (20.463)
Killer Crate Newcomer Of The Race – Jack Lehner (22nd)

JUNE 18, 2017 LAZZARO’S AUTO BODY KING OF DIRT RACING PRO STOCK SERIES PRESENTED SUNDAY BY STONE MOTORSPORTS FEATURE RESULTS AT UTICA ROME SPEEDWAY (30 Laps) – Postponed To August 20th.

J-Tees Screen Printing King Of Dirt Racing Pro Stock Timed Hot Lap Results – 1) Luke Horning (23.238), 2) Rob Yetman (23.266), 3) Jason Casey (23.277), 4) Robbie Speed (23.286), 5) Byron Wescott (23.295), 6) Gus Hollner (23.333), 7) Rich Crane (23.627), 8) Brandon Emigh (23.630), 9) Kenny Martin (23.644), 10) Jay Casey (23.673), 11) Jon Routhier (23.711), 12) Mike Welch ( 23.731), 13) Shane Henderson (23.808), 14) Todd Hoffman (23.851), 15) Kim Duell (23.865), 16) Chuck Dumblewski (23.871), 17) Jon Routhier (24.049), 18) Nick Stone (24.097), 19) Dan Older (24.214), 20) Devon Camenga (24.290), 21) Jim Normoyle (24.371), 22) Ernie Staelens (24.473), 23) Aaron Page (DNT), 24) Jerry Streeter (DNT), 25) Frank Hyatt (DNT).

King Of Dirt Racing Pro Stock Heat #1 Results (8 Laps) – 1) Luke Horning, 2) Jay Casey, 3) Jon Routhier, 4) Rich Crane, 5) Shane Henderson, 6) Chuck Dumblewski, 7) Devon Camenga, 8) Robbie Speed, 9) Jerry Streeter (DNS).

King Of Dirt Racing Pro Stock Heat #2 Results (8 Laps) – 1) Rob Yetman, 2) Byron Wescott, 3) Nick Stone, 4) Jason Meltz, 5) Brandon Emigh, 6) Todd Hoffman, 7) Jim Normoyle, 8) Frank Hyatt (DNS).

King Of Dirt Racing Pro Stock Heat #3 Results (8 Laps) – 1) Gus Hollner, 2) Jason Casey, 3) Dan Older, 4) Kenny Martin, 5) Mike Welch, 6) Kim Duell, 7) Aaron Page, 8) Ernie Staelens (DNS).

June 18th King Of Dirt Racing Pro Stock Feature Lineup Scheduled For August 20th – 1) Byron Wescott, 2) Dan Older, 3) Jay Casey, 4) Jason Meltz, 5) Rich Crane, 6) Nick Stone, 7) Rob Yetman, 8) Gus Hollner, 9) Luke Horning, 10) Jon Routhier, 11) Jason Casey, 12) Kenny Martin, 13) Shane Henderson, 14) Brandon Emigh, 15) Mike Welch, 16) Chuck Dumblewski, 17) Todd Hoffman, 18) Kim Duell, 19) Devon Camenga, 20) Jim Normoyle, 21) Aaron Page, 22) Robbie Speed.