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The 10th Snowball 500 Email SCCOTTT or (607) 398-2003. 01/02/10 15 drivers entered the 10th Annual Snowball 500 Presented By Wizzard High Performance, Inc. The race was held on the Slot Car Club of the Twin Tiers' Bowman Grand Champion layout located in Horseheads, NY and featured a 500km final. Mark Webster entered the event as the pre-race favorite after winning the Turkey 250 in November. Several records were broken during the event.
Mark Webster grabbed the initial pole with a solid 72 laps. His time on the top was short-lived, however. Frank Spena Jr. was out of 'retirement' to compete in this 10th Anniversary Snowball. Spena had last run in the Snowball in 2006. Dave Hendrickson had offered Spena a car to use the day before the race and he put it to good use. It was Spena's second T-Jet race in the last three years and there was some obvious rustiness, but the KRD-prepared car was spot on and he became the first driver to break the magical 80-lap mark in a 12-minute race on the Bowman. Spena had won pole at the Snowball four times previously, but this was his first pole at the race since 2003. It also marked his 36th career pole position in a SCCOTTT/PRR Major. Ryan Hendrickson was only planning on running qualifying and he nearly stole pole from Spena. The defending Snowball 500 champ turned 79 Laps. Warren Lux grabbed third spot. Webster's 72 held up for 4th. Larry Weaver made the cut with 71 laps, while Kevin Hendrickson took the final transfer spot...Sort of. With the two Hendrickson brothers dropping out Jeff Collins and Rob Haught moved into the final transfer spots. This guaranteed Haught his best ever finish in a Snowball, and a remarkable improvement over his 14th place finish of 2008. It also guaranteed Collins his best ever result at SCCOTTT. Both Ernie Langford and Scott Udave suffered mechanical troubles while Joe Saccomanno had pickup shoe trouble. Trevor Coots, the race's youngest entry, did very well pull 51 laps in his first slot car race. QUALIFYING RESULTS Pos.| Laps - Driver 1 | 80 - Frank 'Chub' Spena Jr. 2 | 79 - Ryan Hendrickson 3 | 74 - Warren Lux 4 | 72 - Mark Webster 5 | 71 - Larry Weaver 6 | 71 - Kevin Hendrickson 7 | 71 - Jeff Collins 8 | 70 - Rob Haught 9 | 69 - Jeff 'Hoss' Phoenix 10 | 68 - Matt Ulinger 11 | 67 - Sean Swartout 12 | 64 - Joe Saccomanno 13 | 55 - Scott Udave 14 | 51 - Trevor Coots 15 | 49 - Ernie Langford LCQ Other than the top six the rest the field now went into the Last Chance Qualifier for another 12 minutes of racing. The top two would stay alive and retain a shot at the 10th Annual Snowball 500... Udave took out his qualifying frustration on the rest of the LCQ runners. With his car repaired he improved by 17 laps(!) to win the LCQ and advance into the semis. A 17 lap improvement is impressive and it was the largest improvement anyone could remember from Qualifying to the LCQ, but...Langford had also worked on his car in between rounds and he improved by 22 laps to take the final transfer. 'Hoss' Phoenix improved by one lap, but it was not enough. Sean Swartout also picked up one lap but still missed the cut. Matt Ulinger dropped one lap and one position to finish his first race at SCCOTTT. Joe Saccomanno rounded out the LCQ entrants, but still managed an 8-lap improvement over last year’s Snowball. LCQ RESULTS Pos.| Laps - Driver 1 | 72 - Scott Udave 2 | 71 - Ernie Langford 3 | 70 - Jeff 'Hoss' Phoenix 4 | 68 - Sean Swartout 5 | 67 - Matt Ulinger 6 | 63 - Joe Saccomanno SEMI FINAL ROUND SEMI #1 Semi #1 included Spena, Webster, Collins and Udave. Spena took the lead at the start and held it to the finish despite several mistakes. His win secured a spot in the final. Webster felt the heat from Udave and picked up the pace. A 3-lap improvement virtually guaranteed him a spot in the final, his first at the Snowball 500 since 2004. Udave improved by one lap but his 3rd place finish left him on the bubble. Collins stayed consistent with 71 laps but found himself eliminated. Pos.| Laps - Driver 1 | 79 - Frank 'Chub' Spena Jr. 2 | 75 - Mark Webster 3 | 73 - Scott Udave 4 | 71 - Jeff Collins SEMI #2 Semi #2 consisted of Lux, Weaver, Haught and Langford. The early part of the race featured a great battle between Haught and Lux. Haught lead for most of the first quarter, but once Lux was out of the gutter lane, it was all over. He dominated the rest of the race to score his best ever 12-minute run at SCCOTTT and put himself in the Snowball 500 final for the first time. He finished only 9 feet short of hitting 76 laps. It was his first Semi-final victory at SCCOTTT. Behind him and interesting fight for second developed between Haught, Langford and Weaver. Eventually it was Langford’s consistent driving that won the spot. Unfortunately his one-lap improvement was not enough to make the cut. Haught also improved by one lap and one position while Weaver dropped a lap. Pos.| Laps - Driver 1 | 75 - Warren Lux 2 | 72 - Ernie Langford 3 | 71 - Rob Haught 4 | 70 - Larry Weaver - Upstate New York in the winter...The name Snowball 500 did not come by accident. With lake affect snow warnings for Buffalo, Scott Udave chose to withdraw from the final in order to have a better chance of arriving home before the weather hit. This elevated Langford into the final. THE 10th ANNUAL SNOWBALL 500 FINAL Spena was clearly favored to pick up his record 7th Snowball 500 title, but his driving had been inconsistent in the Semi and Lux was on fire. The gap between the two had been a little over three laps in the Semi round and as any racer knows, anything can happen in racing. Webster still had a shot as well. He finished less than a lap back of Lux in the Semi round, but he had not been able to challenge Spena. Langford knew he would need mechanical troubles for the other three for him to have a shot, but he was still glad to have made the final. Spena took the lead at the start and immediately began to pull away. If his driving had been somewhat erratic in the Semi, it was not now. All four drivers ran the first few minutes without any incidents, but despite their hard running, Spena managed to have the field a lap down by lap 13 and six laps down by the end of the first quarter. In that first quarter he also set the race’s fastest lap at 8.329. Behind him Lux and Webster fought over second. Lux managed to control the spot and had a one-lap gap on Webster at the end of the first quarter. Langford found himself a further five laps back at that time. As the race continued, Spena continued to roll along, building an insurmountable lead. Lux added two more laps to his margin over Webster in the second quarter. In the third quarter, however, with Webster in a center lane and Lux in the gutter lane, things turned around quickly. Webster fought back hard, took over second place, and even put a lap between himself and Lux. Lux was not done and fought back once more in the final segment. The two battled for the first part of the segment, but Lux was simply too much on this day. He almost completely reversed Webster's gain from the 3rd quarter and emerged with a fine second place and a two-lap cushion. Up front Spena was on his way to his 7th Snowball 500 victory, and the most dominant win in the race's history. 20 laps was the final margin, breaking the old mark of 13 laps which Spena set in 2003. Even more impressively the old mark was set on the Bonsai Buck Track which was 48’ feet long, while the Bowman Grand Champion is 83.5'. Thus the old distance gap record of approximately 624' was shattered and reset to approximately 1670.0'. The previous gap record on the Bowman was 7 laps, (approximately 584.5,') shared by Paul Kniffen, (2006,) and Dave Hendrickson, (2007.) Spena also broke the race record, covering the 500 scale kilometers in 54 minutes, 40 seconds. The old record was 56m, 06s set by Dave Hendrickson in 2007. Notes: - Wizzard High Performance Inc. provided generous sponsorship for the race. - Spena picked up his 43rd SCCOTTT/PRR Major win, 36th Major pole and 44th Major semi-final win. - all SCCOTTT/PRR Majors records. - This was Lux’s first trip to the Snowball 500 final. - 3rd place equaled Webster's previous best Snowball 500 finish, (2004.) - 4th place equaled Langford's previous best Snowball 500 finish, (2007.) The 10th Annual Snowball 500 FINAL ROUND RESULTS Pos.| Laps - Driver 1| 363 - Frank 'Chub' Spena Jr. 2| 343 - Warren Lux 3| 341 - Mark Webster 4| 324 - Ernie Langford The 10th Annual Snowball 500 OVERALL FINAL RESULTS Total Pos.| Laps - Driver/Body 1 | 522 - Frank 'Chub' Spena Jr. - BRP Ford GT Spena Edition 2 | 492 - Warren Lux - Davis Ferrari F430 3 | 488 - Mark Webster - Zoomin' Motorsports Pontiac GTO.R 4 | 516 - Ernie Langford - Davis Porsche 911 Turbo 5 | 200 - Scott Udave - BRP Porsche 356 6 | 142 - Jeff Collins - BRP Ford GT Spena Edition 7 | 141 - Rob Haught - Zoomin' Motorsports Ford Mustang 8 | 141 - Larry Weaver - Zoomin' Motorsports Chevy Corvette C6 9 | 139 - Jeff 'Hoss' Phoenix - BRP Ferrari Dino 10 | 135 - Sean Swartout - BRP Porsche 911GT-2 11 | 135 - Matt Ulinger - Zoomin' Motorsports Ford Mustang 12 | 127 - Joe Saccomanno - Joe Jet Porsche 911GT-3 13 | 079 - Ryan Hendrickson - BRP Ford GT Spena Edition 14 | 071 - Kevin Hendrickson - BRP Ford GT Spena Edition 15 | 051 - Trevor Coots - Moonstone Porsche 911GT-3 Wizzard High Performance, Inc. 148 Deer Oak Lane Bedford, PA 15522 (814) 623-7482 Wizzardho The Slot Car Club Of The Twin Tiers is a non-profit group of enthusiasts dedicated to promoting slot car racing in the Southern Tier of NY and the Northern Tier of PA. Please stop in or check out the club web site. 2117C Grand Central Ave. Horseheads, NY 14845 Web Site: SCCOTTT Website E-mail: Email SCCOTTT Archived Site: Archived Site |