Chuck Hebing is good at most tracks he travels to with a sprint car, but at Rolling Wheels he has a magical touch that for the last two years has left the rest of the field in a different zip code.
The 2006 ASCS Patriot Champion ended up the winner at Rolling Wheels for the fourth consecutive sprint race at the 5/8-mile. For the second time this year, “Cobra” had to charge hard in the A-Main to capture the double checkers.
Hebing had to chase down the Breen Brothers, Blake and Bobby, to take over the lead, passing Bobby for the lead on lap nine.
“I can’t believe how good this car night was tonight, ” said Hebing. “We tried something in the dash and it didn’t work and we figured out something for the feature and I could just go anywhere. ”
On the Patriotic Holiday, the all-time winningest driver in ASCS Patriot history thrilled the fans from the start of the night to the end. En route to his win in National Parts Peddler Heat One, Hebing laid down a lap of 17.98 on the 5/8-mile, at an average speed of 125.139 mph on a track that was still quite slick. That lap would have been good enough for 2nd-fastest with the World of Outlaws a month earlier on the same track.
The first eight laps of the 20-lap feature was filled with excitement as pole sitter Blake Breen saw his younger brother, Bobby, fly around the top side of both he, and Jessica Zemken, to grab the lead to complete the first lap. Blake then took the lead lap from Bobby on a restart following the only caution of the race. Bobby would recapture the lead one more time on lap seven but the next time around it was Hebing in front of the pack.
Nineteen laps of green flag racing allowed the 22-time ASCS Patriot winner to stretch his advantage over the rest of the pack to nearly eight seconds. It also allowed him to stretch out his point lead once again.
“I had to do something to get Jared off my back, ” commented the Ontario, NY driver in Victory Lane in reference to the tight point battle he and Jared Zimbardi are engaged in.
“JZ” did cross the finish in second, but it was not Zimbardi, instead it was Jessica Zemken. The Sparkers, NY sensation was not able to start the race back in May when her No. 1z suffered motor problems, but on Tuesday night it was flawless, winning heat two, and moving around the Breen’s in the feature to comfortably brought it home in the runner-up spot.
“I guess it wasn’t a bad night, especially after who I finished behind, ” said the first female to win an ASCS A-Main. “Not having any cautions helped because I wouldn’t have had the right tire to hold them off. ”
Among the drivers that were moving up in the feature was Justin Barger, who improved by one on his finish from May. Barger earned the most passing points but finished fifth in the dash, hurting his position for the feature.
Bobby and Blake Breen fell off over the second half of the race, as they faded back to fourth and fifth, respectively. The local favorites from just up the road in Savannah were both able to score their best career finishes at “The Fast Track”. Bobby also collected the win in heat three with Blake Breen scoring the Speedway Performance Center Dash.
Jason Barney struggled on the slick track and crossed the line in sixth, his worst finish of the year with the ASCS Patriots. Despite a disappointing run, the Constantia, NY driver was able to retain his lead atop the A-Verdi Storage Containers King of Central New York Point standings.
Amazingly, Scott Kreutter finished seventh for the fourth straight race, yet again picking up the Big Toob Bleeders “Lucky 7 Award”.
Ray Preston finished eighth for the third race in the last four and continues to strengthen his position in the top three of the standings.
Jared Zimbardi had his worst finish of the year, a ninth place showing for the Little Valley, NY driver that has come on over the last month. Tim Kelly rounded out the top-10 in his No. 12.
Twenty-one cars checked into the pits for the only mid-week show of the 2007 season for the ASCS Patriots. Jeff Cook rolled his brand new No. 10 Maxim in hot laps and was forced the retire for the remainder of the program. As mentioned earlier, only one caution flew in the feature, coming on lap one, when Central New York Mini Sprints Point Leader Jimmy “Bubba” Broderick slid over the banking in turn three.
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