Bobby Pease, Bob Haeger & John Cozza
Grab NEETS Wins In First Race of 2007
By: Dino Oberto

NEETS, the Northeast Enduro Touring Series, opened up their 2007 season Sunday afternoon at Doug and Gena Hoffman’s Mahoning Valley Speedway with a three division enduro program.

The NEETS schedule is referred to as the Holiday Stock Car Series (HSCS) and conducts all of their races on a variety of holiday weekends throughout the year.

Sunday’s race was the 1st Annual Constant Performance “Remember Our #1” which is in memory of former NEETS racer Rich Johnson who passed away on this same day two years ago while driving in a sanctioned enduro is the featured event.

The day consisted of 6/8-cylinders and 4-cylinders of which both competed over a distance of 99-laps. The TRUX division raced for 49-circuits.

In the 6/8 division Bobby Pease was in a race-long battle for the lead with the likes of Shawn Gallucci and Richard Petey.

Over the first half of the event Pease and Gallucci continually swapped the top spit until Gallucci suffered mechanical woes on lap 38.

Petey then assumed the chase with Pease and they too began to flip-flop the lead with each other.

Despite heavy traffic that encircled the entire paved quarter mile oval, Pease and Petey did a great job of weaving their way through while at the same time exchanging the prime spot.

At lap 69 Pease took control for good and was able to cruise home to his career frost NEETS victory.

Petey settled for second with Phil Lomonaco, Tim Pauch and James Presley rounding out the top five.

In the 4-Cylinder class the race was dominated by Mahoning Valley regular Jon Smith. Piloting a car owned and regularly driven on Saturday nights by Brian Kunkle, Smith took the lead from the drop of the green and went on to lap the entire field.

However, his excellent showing was nullified when the car failed to pass post race inspection. He was ruled illegal due to a suspension part.

Bob Haeger, who had moved into second spot on lap 63, was rewarded the verdict and also became a first time NEETS winner.

The TRUX, now in its second year of existence, saw John Cozza pick up the season opening victory over Ben Gregor.

RESULTS:
6/8 Cylinder (99 Laps) : 1. Bobby Pease 2. Richard Petey 3. Phil Lomonaco 4. Tim Pauch 5. James Presley 6. Randy Parsons, Jr. 7. Steve Tito 8. Ray Grennan 9. Howie Bott 10. Mike Counterman 11. Charlie Prisondorf 12. TJ Stevens 13. Jim White 14. Bob Kulik 15. Kory Syevens 16. Jack Levix 17. Drew Atchison 18. Ron Pierson 19. Kevon Troch 20. Paul Mercante 21. Shawn Gallucci 22. Joe Jentile

4 Cylinder (99 Laps) : 1. Bob Haeger 2. Neil Kunkle 3. Brian Kunkle 4. Dave Bentley 5. Ken Harper 6. Ryan Nelson 7. John Saccomandi 8. Don Rogers 9. Susan Ryan 10. Dennis Sizemore 11. Art Kulik 12. Cory Student 13. Adam Kratzer DQ: Jon Smith DNS: Jerry Ellingsworth

TRUX (49 Laps) : 1. John Cozza 2. Ben Gregor 3. Richard Petey 4. Jim Badalatto 5. Rob McCormick 6. Rich Onoato 7. Jerry Ellingsworth 8. Jeff Gregor