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Tim Sears, Jr. bests Hile in Dramatic Brewerton Speedway Photo Finish

BREWERTON, NY (August 17, 2024) – Jim McKay’s immortal introduction to ABC’s Wide World of Sports, ‘The thrill of Victory and the Agony of Defeat’, certainly characterized the final five seconds and 300 feet of Friday night’s Tracey Road DIRTcar Modified Feature at Brewerton Speedway. After a drag race to the checkered flag two Tracey Road DIRTcar Modified Stars left the track on opposite ends of the emotional spectrum. To Tim Sears, Jr. went the Thrill of Victory – his second win of the season. It was the agony of defeat, and a badly wrecked racecar, for runner-up Chris Hile.

In other action Friday, Hunter Hollenbeck took home his first career Dot Foods DIRTcar Sportsman Feature, Kyle Demo captured the AmeriCU Mod Lite main event, Doug Windhausen claimed the 600cc Modified feature and Chris Bonoffski was best in Mirabito 4-Cylinder action.

The 35-lap Tracey Road DIRTcar Modified Feature would be led to green by Matt Caprara and Max Hill with Caprara taking the lead before the lone Milton CAT Caution of the feature would slow the field after one lap was completed. On the ensuing restart Caprara would again assume command of the field trailed by the 3rd starting Hile and Tom Sears, Jr.

Caprara’s lead would last until lap 5, when Hile used the outside groove off turn two to power around Caprara to take the lead. Hile set sail out front opening up a six-car length lead leaving Caprara to battle with Tom Sears, Jr and the 7 of Zach Payne for the runner-up spot. At lap 10 the top-5 running order was Hile, Caprara, Tom Sears, Payne and Todd Root, but each would soon fall prey to the hard charging Tim Sears, Jr.

Tim Sears Jr., who started 14th, began making noise on lap 13 and when he grabbed the sixth spot. Over the next ten laps Sears meticulously picked off cars to put himself in contention for the win. On lap 16 he entered the top-5 moving past Root to take fifth. Just a lap later he grabbed fourth from Payne just as the crossed flags for the halfway point was displayed to the field. His charge continued as he got by Tom Sears on lap 20 then Caprara on lap 23 to take the second spot.

Meanwhile, behind Tim Sears Jr., 10-time Super DIRTcar Series Champion Matt Sheppard, making his first Brewerton Speedway start of 2024, was also making a charge. Following in Sears’ tire tracks, the 15th starting Sheppard worked his way into the top-5 on lap 21 and chased Sears into the top-3 by lap 27. But third would be as far as Sheppard would advance.

The story of the final ten laps, however, was Tim Sears, Jr. and Hile. Running a top-side line, Hile maintained his lead, but little-by-little Sears would gain on the bottom. Working through lapped traffic, Sears was able to really cut into Hile’s lead between laps 30 and 34 and took the white flag just a couple of car lengths back.

With all eyes in the house on the leaders, Sears got a strong run down the backstretch to draw even with Hile. Racing side by side through three and four, Sears was able to get just a bit more bite out of four to inch ahead of Hile at the line to take the win by .017 seconds. Then, disaster struck for Hile. As the two crossed the start finish line their cars came together. The contact caused Hile to get sideways and make heavy contact into the turn-one jersey barriers. While Hile was physically okay, his #5h Bicknell was unfortunately not as it suffered heavy damage.

Hile would still be credited with second, followed by Sheppard in third. Caprara stayed in the top-5 all race long and finished 4th with Tom Sears jr. taking home 5th. Larry Wight was credited with sixth, with Payne, Amy Holland, Root and Jimmy Phelps rounding out the top-10.

Not long ago, Hunter Hollenbeck was an E & V Energy Novice Sportsman driver, now he’s a Brewerton Speedway feature winner, and he had to pass the defending track champion, Zach Sobotka to do it. Hollenbeck started 10th in the 25 lap Dot Foods Sportsman main event and was able to wrestle the lead from Sobotka on lap 15. From there Hollenbeck was unchallenged and raced to the win. Sobotka would settle for second with Nick Root, rookie Nick Ventura and Austin Germinio rounding out the top-5.

Kyle Demo picked up win number 4 on the season in AmeriCU Mod Lite competition. Demo held off a determined Mike Mullen who finished second. Roger Olschewske Jr. had his best career finish crossing the line third ahead of point leader Joe Garafolo. Matt Kitts rounded out the top-5. Just one point race remains on the season for the AmeriCU mod Lites and Garafolo holds a slim 4-point lead over Mullen, 373 to 369. Zack Babcock site just one marker back from Mullen with 368.

Doug Windhausen claimed the final 600cc Modified visit of the season ahead of TJ Smith, James Randall, Samuel Hubbard and Justin LaDue.

Chris Bonoffski had a $100 bounty placed on his head by RL Cleaning but Bonoffski held serve taking the win in the Mirabito 4-cylinder Superstock Feature leaving the bounty unclaimed until August 30. Nate Powers, Justin Pope, Jacob Kimball and Anthony VanEpps chased Bonoffski to the line finishing second through fifth.

Brewerton Speedway returns to action Friday, August 23 as RJ Caruso Accounting/The Wild Animal Park and Safari and Empire Powersports presents a full card. Visiting for the first time will be the CRSA Sprints. They will join the Tracey Road DIRTcar Modifieds, Dot Foods DIRTcar Sportsman and AmeriCU Mod Lites on the card. Mirabito 4-cylinders will final point night has been changed to Friday, August 30. The Wild will be bringing ‘The Bast’ to the race track Friday, providing pit and track rides during breaks in the action.

Regional Truck and Trailer/Schneider Packaging Race Event Results

Tracey Road DIRTcar Modified Feature (35 Laps): 1. 83X-Tim Sears Jr[14]; 2. 5H-Chris Hile[3]; 3. 9S-Matt Sheppard[15]; 4. 11-Matt Caprara[1]; 5. 62S-Tom Sears Jr[5]; 6. 99L-Larry Wight[11]; 7. 7Z-Zachary Payne[4]; 8. 5-Amy Holland[9]; 9. 15-Todd Root[6]; 10. 98H-Jimmy Phelps[13]; 11. 3-Chris Mackey[12]; 12. 28M-Matt Meade[20]; 13. X-Chad Phelps[23]; 14. 60-Jackson Gill[16]; 15. 12-Darren Smith[17]; 16. 2024-Tyler Trump[18]; 17. 32R-Ronnie Davis III[10]; 18. 27Z-Dylan Zacharias[22]; 19. 24-James Witko Jr[7]; 20. 18$-Sean Beardsley[8]; 21. 11T-Jeff Taylor[19]; 22. 38-Tim Harris[24]; 23. 44H-Chris Hulsizer[25]; 24. 42H-Max Hill[2]; 25. (DNS) 05-Jesse Morgan

Heats Winners: Matt Sheppard, Todd Root, Zach Payne

Dot Foods DIRTcar Sportsman (25 Laps): 1. 72-Hunter Hollenbeck[10]; 2. 38-Zach Sobotka[6]; 3. 30R-Nicholas Root[13]; 4. 711-Nick Ventura[2]; 5. 10G-Austin Germinio[4]; 6. 12-Owen Bird[3]; 7. 32-Joe Trichilo[19]; 8. 21R-Ryan Barrett[20]; 9. 220-Tucker Halliday[9]; 10. 262-Matthew Richardson[17]; 11. 0-Tony Finch II[14]; 12. 6-Cody Manitta[11]; 13. R1-Riley Rogala[12]; 14. 83-Brett Sears[5]; 15. 30-Michael Root[25]; 16. 23D-David Dickey[18]; 17. 78-Stephen Winsor[24]; 18. 199-Ryan Halliday[22]; 19. 28X-Stephen Marshall[7]; 20. 79-Eric Winsor[15]; 21. 5G-Cale Gareau[21]; 22. 16-Earl Rudy[1]; 23. 16X-Savannah Laflair[8]; 24. 17A-Mike Button[23]; 25. 14-Samuel Groom[16]; 26. AONE-Bucky Hayes[26]

Heat Winners: Brett Sears, Cody Manitta, Zach Sobotka
Consolation: Joe Trichilo

AmeriCU Mod Lite Feature (20 Laps): 1. 22-Kyle Demo[10]; 2. 06-Mike Mullen[6]; 3. 9-Roger Olschewske Jr[4]; 4. 55-Joseph Garafolo[8]; 5. 5K-Matt Kitts[5]; 6. 2D-Jacob Dupra[11]; 7. 24G-Thomas Mackey[3]; 8. 19P-Roger Paradis[7]; 9. 88Z-Zack Babcock[9]; 10. 11X-Jack Lyon[2]; 11. 155-Nicholas Garafolo[1]; 12. 4J-Levi Currier[12]; 13. 80X-Anthony Scott[13]

Heat Winners: Roger Olschewske Jr., Matt Kitts

Hustling the Highway 600cc Modified Feature (11 Laps): 1. 8-Doug Windhausen[3]; 2. 101-TJ Smith[8]; 3. 17J-James Randall[2]; 4. 28-Samuel Hubbard[6]; 5. 99L-Justin LaDue[10]; 6. 24-Talan Oliver[15]; 7. 17C-Chelsie Beebe[17]; 8. 23-Logan Ladue[22]; 9. 44-James Deisz[14]; 10. 99A-Mary Early[7]; 11. 2P-Tom Cornell[19]; 12. 94-Casey Doll[18]; 13. 22-Owen Mossow[11]; 14. 43R-Andrew Rice[20]; 15. 04D-Anthony Desimone[4]; 16. 714-Chris Darling[1]; 17. 55-Pj Goodwin[9]; 18. 99C-Chase Searles[23]; 19. 5-Charles Lohmeyer[13]; 20. 108-Ali Scutt[12]; 21. 314-Kyle Percy[5]; 22. 25-Christian Hafl[16]; 23. 99S-Cameron Searls[21]

Heat Winners: PJ Goodwin, TJ Smith, Justin LaDue

Mirabito 4-Cylinder Superstock Feature (15 Laps): 1. 16B-Chris Bonoffski[11]; 2. 113-Nathan Powers[10]; 3. 27P-Justin Pope[3]; 4. 78-Jacob Kimball[8]; 5. 55-Anthony VanEpps[5]; 6. 5K-Jack Taskey[12]; 7. 67K-Clayton Koch[7]; 8. 99-Walt VanEpps[6]; 9. 9D-Steven Burdick[16]; 10. 116-Zak Petrie[20]; 11. 27A-Alexandra Parker[14]; 12. 06-Maggie Guyle[21]; 13. 23B-Brian Mettler[18]; 14. 007JR-Paul Becker Jr[17]; 15. 88-Justin Guyle[2]; 16. 21V-Corey Valade[9]; 17. 9-Dylan Burdick[4]; 18. 09-Darik VanEpps[13]; 19. 2E-Emma Burdick[15]; 20. 22E-Eric Inman[1]; 21. (DNS) 7V-Kiki VanEpps

Heat Winners ($25 courtesy of Brian Mettler): Justin Guyle, Justin Pope

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