Column By: BOBBY CHALMERS / RPW – MINERSVILLE, PA – Just shy of eight minutes from green flag to checkered flag Thursday night at Big Diamond Speedway.
That’s how long veteran Tim Fitzpatrick had to wait from the initial start of the 25-lap main event to pick up his first 358-Modified feature win at the track since Bill Clinton was President of the United States.
Fitzpatrick has victories in other divisions at the speedway but it’s been since 1998 that the Branch Dale, PA driver graced victory lane in a Modified at Big Diamond.
“I was smiling from ear-to-ear coming across the checkered flag,” Fitzpatrick said. “I wasn’t counting my chickens until I came out of the fourth turn and saw nobody beside me.”
That’s when he could finally breathe that he’d been able to get the job done.
“I know how fast these guys are here,” he said. “They can pop out of nowhere so I smiled once I hit the flag stand.”
Fitzpatrick knows that having a great starting position probably aided in his win on Thursday. He’s okay with it, though.
“Starting up front helped,” he said. “It really helped, especially when it’s a non-stop race like we had tonight. I was thrilled to death that it stayed non-stop. The track was awesome.”
Although Fitzpatrick started on the outside pole, it wasn’t easy. He still had to deal with that dreaded term…lapped traffic.
“I was just trying to keep a smooth line,” he said. “I didn’t want to go to the top and give the bottom groove up, getting around the lap cars. I just stayed patient and tried not to push the issue too much.”
Did Fitzpatrick believe being the under card to the USAC National Sprint Car tour help the track on this night?
“I thought the USAC Sprints would really dust this thing off,” he said. “To my surprise, it had a lot of grip out there and this car felt great.”
No matter how you look at it, on this night, the Fitzpatrick EZ102 was a true rocket ship.
“The car felt great tonight,” he said. “We’ve been struggling with it the last couple of races. We did some changes during the last two rainouts and obviously we did something right.”
Nick Rochinski brought his #20R Teo Pro Car home in the runner-up spot with Mike Lisowski coming home third.
Aleia Geisler started on the inside of the front row and came home with a solid fourth place finish while veteran Jeff Strunk in the Glenn Hyneman-owned #126 completed the top five.
Alex Schoffstall was victorious in the Roadrunner feature with CJ Ferguson and Kris Ney completing the podium. Jim Kost and Tod Toth Jr. were fourth and fifth, respectively.
358-Modified Feature Finish: 1 Tim Fitzpatrick, 2 Nick Rochinski, 3 Mike Lisowski, 4 Aleia Geisler, 5 Jeff Strunk, 6 Duane Howard, 7 Rick Laubach, 8 Brett Kressley, 9 Craig Von Dohren, 10 Mike Gular, 11 Logan Watt, 12 Louden Reimert, 13 Kevin Beach Jr. , 14 Scott Albert, 15 Alex Yankowski, 16 Ryan Watt, 17 Shawn Fitzpatrick, 18 Ken Eckert Jr., 19 Bryan Rhoads, 20 Heath Metzger, 21 Shawn Light, 22 Bobby Trapper Jr., 23 Joel Smith, 24 Doug Smith Jr.