By Paul Harkenrider (Mill Hall, PA) | Chuck Hebing continued his fast start to 2018 Friday evening at the Clinton County Motor Speedway scoring his third PST A-Main of the 2018 season over Paulie Colagiovanni and Davie Franek.
The winningest driver in tour history started fourth and wasted no time taking the lead on the second lap from Colagiovanni. The Ontario, NY driver then checked out from the rest of the field to score career win No. 48.
“We just try to run as hard as we can, try to make the right calls on the lap cars” commented Hebing in victory lane. “I felt like I had a real good car, I felt like I was rolling it good. I figured someone is going to have something really good to beat it.”
After a couple yellows to start the 25 lap A-Main, it was teenage driver Paulie Colagiovanni taking command early over Davie Franek as the two battled for position. Hebing was able to find a lane on the outside to first get by Franek then ran the bottom lane to get by Colagiovanni.
Hebing was able to weave himself through the field with no issue which allowed him to pull away from the rest of the competition.
“Racetracks are not about size, they are about multiple lanes” noted Hebing. “You could race this track from top to bottom, yeah it was slippery, but one lane race tracks are not fun.”
Once surrendering the lead from Hebing, Paulie Colagiovanni was able to hold off a strong field of competitors in Davie Franek, Coleman Gulick, and Jared Zimbardi but was able to take home another podium finish in PST competition.
“Kevin Loveys got the car perfect tonight for this All-Star Performance Team” said Colagiovanni. “I think it was just a little bit of a veteran versus a rookie, and Chuck just got the best of me.”
Like Hebing, Colagiovanni was able to weave himself through lap traffic which allowed the teenage driver keep pace with the race leader.
“The car was set up perfect, I just wish we could have had a little bit more at the end if there was just a little bit more lap traffic” he also noted.
Davie Franek brought the field to the green flag and would contest for the race lead with Colagiovanni but would surrender it on lap two falling back as far as fourth. After quite the battle for third with Coleman Gulick for a majority of the 25 lap A-Main, Franek was finally able to clear Gulick completing the podium.
“It kind of sucks to start on the pole and finish third, we missed it here in the feature” said Franek. “First time here, we will write our notes down and try to be better next time.”
Although third place is not the finish the Wantage, New Jersey driver wanted, Franek is very much looking forward to racing at his Saturday night home track, Selinsgrove Speedway.
“These cars are just fine tuning, it’s a little tweak here and there. We weren’t off a lot, but we were off enough, we will get it figured out.”
Defending series champion, Jared Zimbardi made his first start with the Patriots Friday night and took home a fourth-place finish. Coleman Gulick had to settle for fifth.
Scoring the heat race wins were Chuck Hebing, Jared Zimbardi, and Joe Trenca. Steven Hutchinson scored the Bonnell’s Rod Shop Dash for Cash.
Kyle Drum went home to score the B-Main. After starting 22nd, Drum was able to move forward throughout the entire event. He would also go on to earn the Casey’s Truck Salvage ‘Salvage of the night’ award after salvaging a slow start to their night.
Derek Jonathan would be the final car to take the A-Main Checkers and he would bring home the Prestige Pool & Spa ‘Final Finisher’ award.
The tour returns to action tonight at Selinsgrove Speedway for the Joe Whitcomb Memorial which pays $2,271 to win. Please be sure to log onto www.patriotsprinttour.com for more info, as well as following the Patriot Sprint Tour on facebook, Instagram, and twitter.
The Patriot Sprint Tour recognizes the following marketing partners for the 2018 season: A-Verdi Storage Containers, Hoosier Racing Tires, Prestige Pool & Spa, Einstein Construction Group, Bonnell’s Auto Group, Bonnell’s Rod Shop, Fine Touch Collision, Mike Emhof Motorsports Inc., Super Gen Products with Champion Power Equipment, Patriot Tank Lines, Danny Willmes Enterprises, Casey’s Truck Salvage, Just Signs & Designs, Brodix Cylinder Heads, Sunoco Race Fuels, Insinger Performance, Shuttleworth Asphalt Sealing, ASI Racewear, Curtis Berleue Photography.
Patriot Sprint Tour Quick Results
Clinton County Speedway
A Main: 1) 45- CHUCK HEBING (3) 2) 10-Paulie Colagiovanni 3) 28f-Davie Franek 4) 82-Jared Zimbardi 5) 14-Coleman Gulick 6) 2-Steven Hutchinson Jr 7) 78-Dale Schweikart 8) 5-Justin Barger 9) 121-Steve Glover 10) 79-Jordan Thomas 11) 30-Scott Goodrich 12) 47-Kyle Drum 13) 67-Pete Richardson 14) 22r-Mike Koehler 15) 66-Ryan Kissinger 16) 17- Josh Azzi 17) 35-Chad Layton 18) 33- Mike Walter 19) 14B-Brett Wright 20) 81-Derek Jonathan 21) 20B-Cody Bova 22) 98-Joe Trenca (DNS)
Heat 1: 1) 45-Chuck Hebing 2) 14B-Brett Wright 3) 2-Steven Hutchinson JR 4) 67-Pete Richardson 5) 121- Steve Glover 6) 20B-Cody Bova 7) 47-Kyle Drum 8) 78-Dakota Schweikart 9) 3G-Josh Guiher
Heat 2: 1) 82- Jared Zimbardi 2) 14-Coleman Gulick 3) 22r-Mike Koehler 4) 30-Scott Goodrich 5) Chad Layton 6) 81-Derek Jonathan 7) 17z-Josh Azzi 8) 33w-Mike Walter 9) 99-Andrew Jacobus
Heat 3: 1) 98- Joe Trenca 2) 28F-Davie Franek 3) 10 Paulie Colagiovanni 4) 5-Justin Barger 5) 78-Dale Schweikart 6) 79- Jordan Thomas 7) 66-Ryan Kissinger 8) 19- Tyler Cochran
Bonnell’s Rod Shop Dash: 1) 2-Steve Hutchinson Jr 2) 79-Jordan Thomas 3) 30-Scott Goodrich 4) 81-Derek Jonathan 5) 5-Justin Barger 6) 67-Pete Richardson
B Main: 1) 47-Kyle Drum 2) 17-Josh Azzi 3) 66-Ryan Kissinger 4) 33-Mike Walter 5) 78s-Dakota Schweikart 6) 99-Andrew Jacobus 7) 19-Tyler Cochran 8) 3G-Josh Guiher
Prestige Pool & Spa ‘Final Finisher’: Derek Jonathan
Casey’s Truck Salvage ‘Salvage of the Night’: Kyle Drum
Patriot Sprint Tour Point Standings [Through 6/15/2018]: 1) 45-Chuck Hebing (723) 2) 10-Paulie Colagiovanni (639) 3) 79-Jordan Thomas (624) 4) 47-Kyle Drum (567) 5) 81-Derek Jonathan (541) 6) 67-Pete Richardson (535) 7) 30-Scott Goodrich (511) 8) 121-Steve Glover (497) 9) 2-Steven Hutchinson Jr (440) 10) 17z-Josh Azzi (431)