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Memorial Day Madness
Joe Jentile, Neil Kunkel & John Cozza
Bring Home Gold In The Second
2007 NEETS Event
Story By:
Dino Oberto
Race number two of the Holiday Stock Car Series for the NEETS group was held Monday afternoon at Mahoning Valley Speedway and in typical NEETS fashion the three division program was run off in swift time while providing plenty of non-stop action.
Up first were the 6/8-cylinder cars who competed in a 100-lapper and in one of the most dominating performances ever witnessed at Mahoning, Joe Jentile blew away the competition by lapping the entire field and easily cruised to his first win of the season.
Jentile is the all-time winner with NEETS as this victory marked his 13th first place tally.
Before taking the lead prior to lap 25, Jentile was in some very heavy company that included the likes of Richard Petey and Tim Pauch. However after storming into the top spot there was no looking back as he was simply in a class of his own.
Phil Lomonaco, teammate to Jentile, held off season opener winner Bob Pease for the runner-up spot while Pauch and Howie Bott rounded out the top five.
In the Small Car race it was Mahoning Valley regular Neil Kunkel who scored his career first win.
The very exciting 100-lap event was filled with great action from start to finish as cars were spread all around the tricky ¼-mile oval.
Kunkel, though, did a superb job of maneuvering in and out of traffic although he did have a few close calls. One of those was with his son, Brian, who had spun while running in the top three and just missed being hit by his race leading father.
Although Neil Kunkel led the majority of laps, the battle within the top five was very hot. Mahoning steadies Kevin Behler, Jon Smith and Brian Kunkel along with Don Rogers all raced under close proximity.
Late in the race Bill Price came on strong and garnered second place honors while Brian Kunkel held on for third with Rogers and Dave Bentley rounding out the top five.
The 50-lap TRUX feature saw John Cozza repeat his Opening Day win. After a solid tussle with Richard Petey and Jeff Gregor in the early going, Cozza, once in the lead, was unstoppable.
In the eight races held for the fledgling class that began in 2006, Cozza has won half of those.
Memorial Day Madness |
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| Small Car - 100 Laps | Big Car - 100 Laps | ||
| 1 | #91 - Neil Kunkel | 1 | #41 - Joe Jentile |
| 2 | #19 - Brian Kunkel | 2 | #14 - Phil Lomonaco |
| 3 | #09X - Don Rogers | 3 | #20 - Bobby Pease |
| 4 | #73 - Dave Bentley | 4 | #5 - Tim Pauch |
| 5 | #6 - John Saccomandi | 5 | #75 - Howie Bott |
| 6 | #131 - Ryan Nelson | 6 | #43 - Richard Petey |
| 7 | #69 - Dennis Sizemore | 7 | #58 - Randy Parsons Jr. |
| 8 | #101 - Gary Pein | 8 | #5R11 - TJ Stevens |
| 9 | #7 - Sam Ryan | 9 | #48 - Mike Counterman |
| 10 | #5W - Steve Wilson | 10 | # - Kevin Troch |
| 11 | #27V - Mike Ventura | 11 | #20K - Kory Stevens |
| 12 | # - Jared Ahner | 12 | #86X - Mark Spencer |
| 13 | #11 - Jon Smith | 13 | #266 - Bob Kulik |
| 14 | # - Lou Honeywell | ||
| 15 | # - Kevin Behler | TRUX - 50 Laps | |
| 16 | #02 - Pappy Herman | 1 | #59 - John Cozza |
| 17 | # - Adam Kratzer | 2 | #43 - Richard Petey |
| 18 | #308 - Ken Harper | 3 | #43X - Jeff Gregor |
| DQ | #48 - Bill Price | 4 | #28 - Jim Badalatto |
| 5 | # - Kevin Nowak | ||
| 6 | #17DD - John Oswald | ||
| 7 | #57DD - Erin Bartley | ||