By Rich Vleck
Up until last week, Bryan Howland had gone winless for two years; now two weeks into July, he has a pair of wins on the ASCS Patriot Tour.
Howland, of Auburn, NY scored his second-straight ASCS Patriot Win, dominating the first-ever 25-lap event at the Brewerton Speedway as part of the A-Verdi Storage Container King of Central New York Series.
While it was the first ASCS Patriot race at “The D-Shaped Dirt Demon”, and the first sprint car race there in 12 years, Howland used track experience to get into Victory Lane. The current ASCS Patriot Point Leader practiced at the 1/3-mile facility back in May and used those laps when it came to the feature.
“That helped a lot tonight, the track in the feature was a lot like what it was back in May,” said Howland when asked about its importance. “We knew the setup to use and the line we needed to run and it paid off.”
Howland was perfect from the start of the night, running sub-13 second laps in hot laps, backing it up with the win in National Parts Peddler Heat 2 and even redrawing the pole for the 25-lap feature.
After jumping into the lead in the A-Main, the 2005 series champion traveled up to the top of the track where he would pull away from the pack; the top of the speedway would also be beneficial to “Flyin’ Bryan” when it came to lapped traffic.
After early yellow flags, the final 20 laps would go caution-free, forcing Howland into traffic for the entire second-half of the event. Thankfully for the 21-year-old, most of the cars were running the bottom.
“The top was really good for me in (turns) 3 and 4, so with everyone running the bottom it was pretty easy getting around them.”
The win was Howland’s first ASCS A-Main Victory on American soil since July of 2005, just two days shy of three years for the youngster who is now 24 points ahead of Jared Zimbardi in the championship battle.
Zimbardi was second for the duration of the event, drawing the outside front row starting spot and hanging about a second behind the No. 51 for the feature. Zimbardi ran a similar line as Howland but was off just enough to keep him winless heading into a midseason break.
Chuck Hebing was the fan favorite on the night, entering as both a modified and micro sprint winner at Brewerton, but all he could mustard up on the night was a third-place run.
Rick Wilson made his first Patriot start of the year count, climbing from midpack to finish in fourth during the long green flag run. Gordy Button rounded out the top five in his first Patriot start in more than four years.
Blake Breen won National Parts Peddler Heat 1 and placed in sixth, ahead of NPP Heat 3 Winner Mike Stelter. Riverside Bar and Grill Dash Winner Bobby Breen rebounded from a first lap spin to finish eighth. Tommy Wickham, who was also involved on that first lap jingle when he flipped his No. 75, came back up to ninth. B-Main winner Doug Norrie completed the top-10.
On that first lap incident, Doug Emery also flipped his No. 33. After heading to the work area, the Nedrow, NY driver decided it’d be best to take the wing off. After making 15 laps, Emery decided to pull it in.
A total of 25 sprinters filled the pits on a day when rain hit Central New York for the majority of the afternoon. Clear skies prevailed into nighttime though and provided for fantastic racing.
Tim Devendorf, making his first ASCS Patriot Start, ran double-duty on the night, piloting his mod lite to a second place finish.
Leading Insinger Race Fules Rookie of the Year Contender Bubba Broderick crashed hard in his heat race and failed to make the feature.
Also announced on the night was the confirmation that the postponed feature from Fulton in May will be made up on September 6, which will include a complete program following that first 25-lap feature at the other Oswego County dirt track.
For more information visit, www.ASCSpatriotsprints.com or www.ASCSracing.com.
ASCS Patriots Results: 7/11/08, Brewerton Speedway, Brewerton, NY.
A-Main (25 Laps)- 1. Bryan Howland (51), 2. Jared Zimbardi (35), 3. Chuck Hebing (45), 4. Rick Wilson (42w), 5. Gordy Button (714), 6. Blake Breen (8), 7. Mike Stelter (36), 8. Bobby Breen (9), 9. Tommy Wickham (75), 10. Doug Norrie (92m), 11. Brandon Warner (14), 12. Jessica Zemken (1z), 13. Geoff Quackenbush (25), 14. Chris Muhleisen (10M), 15. Dave Wickham (80), 16. Tim Devendorf (5T), 17. Robbie Shuttleworth (11), 18. Daniel Lampron (52L), 19. Doug Emery (33), 20. Joe August Jr. (47), 21. Scott Kruetter (52), 22. Jared Fink (21F).
Lap Leaders- Howland 1-25.
B-Main (8 Laps, Top-6 Transfer to A)- 1. Doug Norrie (92m), 2. Robbie Shuttleworth (11), 3. Tim Devendorf (5T), 4. Jessica Zemken (1z), 5. Daniel Lampron (52L), 6. Dave Wickham (80), 7. Jonathan Preston (22), 8. Andy Noto (19), DNS: Bubba Broderick (5).
Riverside Bar and Grill Four Laps of Fame Dash (4 Laps)- 1. Bobby Breen (9), 2. Gordy Button (714), 3. Rick Wilson (42w), 4. Chris Muhleisen (10M), 5. Joe August Jr. (47), 6. Jared Fink (21F).
National Parts Peddler Heats (8 Laps Each)-
Race 1: 1. Blake Breen (8), 2. Jared Zimbardi (35), 3. Jared Fink (21F), 4. Joe August Jr. (47), 5. Geoff Quackenbush (25), 6. Brandon Warner (14), 7. Tim Devendorf (5T), 8. Dave Wickham (80), 9. Jonathan Preston (22).
Race 2: 1. Bryan Howland (51), 2. Chuck Hebing (45), 3. Scott Kreutter (52), 4. Tommy Wickham (75), 5. Bobby Breen (9), 6. Doug Norrie (92m), 7. Jessica Zemken (1z), 8. Bubba Broderick (5).
Race 3: 1. Mike Stelter (36), 2. Doug Emery (33), 3. Rick Wilson (42w), 4. Gordy Button (714), 5. Chris Muhleisen (10M), 6. Robbie Shuttleworth (11), 7. Daniel Lampron (52L), 8. Andy Noto (19).
Contingency Awards-
Shuttleworth Asphalt Sealing Sealing the Deal Award- Howland.
Saldana Racing Products Half Way Leader- Howland.
KSE Racing Products Hard Charger of the Night- Zemken (+8)
Engler Machine and Tool Pole Award- Howland
Keizer Aluminum Wheels Passing Points Award- Bl. Breen
Kinser Air Filters Hard Luck Award- Fink
ISC Racer’s Tape Keeping Things Rolling Award- August, Emery, Lampron
DMI Rear End Award- Preston
VMAC Fast Lap Award- Zimbardi 12.79 seconds
Randy’s Racing Filters Filter Through the Pack Award- T. Wickham
The Brake Man Tough Brake Award- Broderick
M&W Aluminum Products Top-5 Award- Button
Ultra-Shield Race Products Top-10 Award- Stelter
Rod End Supply 20th Anniversary Award- August
Pro-Syn Oil Technology/ Mother’s Car Wash Clean Race Award- Wilson
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