Robinson Captures Win of 5th Annual Gary Marshall Memorial 50 Lapper at Chemung

Robinson Captures Win of 5th Annual Gary Marshall Memorial 50 Lapper at Chemung

Story By: Shylo Fuchs/NYSS

Photos By: Mark Ranalletta/RacersGuide.com

The Sunoco New York Super Stocks had 30 cars sign in to race the Gary Marshall memorial race on Friday evening at the Chemung Speedrome. The weather was perfect and the Super Stocks would be slated to run last on the card for the evening.
Unfortunately the cars of #99 of Tim Faro, #36 of Brian Hallett, #73 of Jason Duke and #39 of Jim Lamoreaux would sustain problems during practice or the heats and would be unable to continue throughout the night bringing the car count to 26, the perfect field to start the feature without the need of a B-Main qualifier.
After the redraw the heat winners would find themselves peppered throughout the top 12 starting positions of the main event. Nick Robinson, last years NYSS series champion and Chemung Speedrome regular would pull away from the outside of the #98 of Scott Wylie on the front row for the 50 lap feature. The #98 of Scott Wylie who has had a strong start to the season finishing 3rd at Oswego two weeks ago would be ready to give every effort to beat out Robinson for this win.
Robinson would take the early lead from the outside over Scott Wylie right out of turn one showing everyone in attendance that Chemung is his home turf. The #15 would open up a pretty good lead over the #98 with the #05 of Tim Gullo, the #89 of Frank Chapman and the #75 of Zach Willis settling into the top 5 positions trying to track Robinson down.
Green flag laps would tick off one by one and Robinson would begin to run into lap traffic around lap 10. He would encounter no trouble as the cars would dive to the bottom side leaving ample space for him to pass along the outside. Scott Wylie would gain several car lengths on Robinson throughout the next several laps at one point getting an assist from lapped cars that
would help him reach Robinsons rear bumper. Caution would not fly till lap 33 for a car stopped high in turn 4. The top five would still be Robinson, S. Wylie, Gullo, Chapman and Willis for the restart but the #34 of Lee Sharpsteen and the #3 of Jimmy Steffenhagen would be knocking on the door trying to break into those top five coveted spots.

A second caution would fly on lap 38 for debris in turn two that would turn out to be a nerf bar off one of the cars. A quick removal by track safety crew and we would be back to green again for two laps till caution would fly for a car stopped in between turns one and two that would ultimately cause a chain reaction on the front stretch with the #05 of Gullo who had been running in the top five the entire race coming together with the #3 of Jimmy Steffenhagen collecting the #04 of JP Harbst and the #90 of Nate Peckham.
Gullo’s night would end here and would leave an open position within the top five that would need to be filled by one of the drivers that had been vying for it the entire race.

The final caution would come on lap 48 when the #29 of Bill Frisbee would be trying to brea into that top five, going three wide and ending up spun in between turns one and two. The #34 of Lee Sharpsteen would strategically work his way in past Willis and Chapman and end up claiming the third finishing position after the #15 of Nick Robinson and the #98 of Scott Wylie. Willis and Chapman would hold on to fill out the top five with the #23 of Robert Fink and the Big Time Service Hard Charger of the evening #25 Joel Gleason following close behind. Joel would gain a total of 13 positions from his 20th starting spot to his 7th place finish. Congrats to all!!

HUGE trophies would be given out by the Marshall family to the top 5 competitors on the front stretch and celebrations would commence. Thank you to Ray Marshall and family for putting this race together, for your continued support and for also organizing the kids bike raffle and raffling off 21 total bikes to the children in attendance. Also necessary to thank series sponsors Aratari Auto Color and Detail, Insinger Performance, Midstate Basement Authorities, Big Time Service, F/A Products, Rapid Express and Hoosier Racing Tires.