By DJ JOHNSON For The Bulletin<\/p>\n
Latrobe Speedway\u2019s 2023 season opener was under beautiful skies and excellent track conditions.<\/p>\n
Taking opening night FAST-FIVES feature wins were E.J. Rozak (Pure Stocks), Michael Duritsky (Crate Late Models), Jacob Gomola (RaceSaver Sprint Cars), Colton McNaney (Modified 4 Cylinders), and Brian Noel (Stock 4 Cylinders).<\/p>\n
The Pure Stocks were the first feature to hit the track for what was going to be the start of awesome FAST-FIVE features. With three wide at the start of the 12-lap feature, Rozak would lead them into turn one. As Rozak would maintain the point position, the battle for second was between the 22 of Corey Faris of Uniontown, and the 66 of Anthony Monteparte, from Jeannette. This battle raged on until lap 11, when Monteparte was able to pass the 22 coming to the stripe. With Rozak still in the lead, Monteparte ran out of laps to catch Rozak from New Salem.
\nRozak explained in victory lane his struggle to build a new car which got him to victory lane at Latrobe Speedway.
\n\u201cWe struggled in \u201821 and \u201822 with everything, including building a new car,\u201d Rozak said. \u201cI\u2019ll be honest with you; I did not see that (win) coming.\u201d
\nFollowing Monteparte and Faris was Joey Koteles in fourth and John Cain to round out the top five.
\nDuring the feature, Monteparte carried the ashes of the recently departed Pure Stock driver of the No. 06, Bill Finlay, in the No. 66. Bill Finlay\u2019s nephew, Luke Finlay, was the honorary starter for the feature.<\/p>\n
In the Crate Late Model feature, Latrobe\u2019s Joe Zulisky started on the pole alongside Troy Shields for what was going to be an exciting 20-lap feature event.
\nShields jumped out to an early lead with Michael Duritsky in pursuit. On lap seven, Duritsky would pass Shields, and Shields would then battle with Clinton Hersh for second. Hersh would finally wrestle second away for Shields with two laps to go. Jeff Ferguson was fourth, and fifth was John Over.
\nThe Jesse Sterbutzel Memorial $10,000 to-win feature for the Crate Late Models will feature some of the best drivers from multiple states. Also on the card will be a $2,500 to-win feature for the Super Late Models. There will be several drivers pulling double duty on June 3.<\/p>\n
The RaceSaver 305 Sprint Cars were next, with Jarrett Rosencrance from Butler, alongside Reed Thompson of Petersburg.
\nRosencrance took the lead, followed by Thompson and Jake Gamola. Fowler, Ohio\u2019s Jim Morris was followed by another Buckeye, Tommy Jasen from Hubbard.
\nAfter having problems in the Heat race, Robbie Bartchy would jump up five spots before retiring for the evening.
\nOn lap nine, with Rosencrance in the lead, Gamola would move under Rosencrance in turn three to have the lead exiting turn four.
\nRosencrance was slowed by traffic between him and Gamola, and the 4 would keep the lead in the 15-lap feature until the Checkered flag flew.
\nThird was Thompson, followed by Morris, and in fifth was the Hard Charger of the race, Jasen.<\/p>\n
The Mod 4\u2019s was next to hit the big half-mile as nineteen cars were on hand.
\nStarting outside the front row, Colton McNaney of West Newton would pick up his first-ever win at the Latrobe Speedway.
\nThe \u201cCobalt Cowboy\u201d has three career wins.
\nFollowing McNaney were Jeremy Grubbs, Paul Koffler III, and Joe Jacobs, with Ed Leonard rounding out a competitive field.
\nIn the Stock 4 Cylinders feature, the pole-sitter Brian Noel of Scottdale took home the win over CJ Parrill, Justin Connors, Mark Shaffer, and Dan Shortman.
\nLatrobe Speedway will be back in action Saturday, May 13, for Mother\u2019s Day Spectacular with Big Block Modifieds, Crate Late Models, Pure Stocks, Mod 4 Cylinders, and the Penn\/Ohio Pro Stocks.<\/p>\n
SBN Promotion is in discussions with many Hobby Stock teams; due to the late start for many teams and the lack of available parts, the Hobby Stocks debut will be on Saturday, July 1.
\n\u201cAlong with the Hobby Stock teams, there was a buzz among the fan base to see this new division and how many cars have a throwback NASCAR paint scheme,\u201d Dennis Bates said. \u201cThe Pro Stocks will replace the Hobby Stocks on Saturday.\u201d<\/p>\n
Reach DJ Johnson at dj1360rpm@aol.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
By DJ JOHNSON For The Bulletin Latrobe Speedway\u2019s 2023 season opener was under beautiful skies and excellent track conditions. Taking opening night FAST-FIVES feature wins were E.J. Rozak (Pure Stocks), Michael Duritsky (Crate Late Models), Jacob Gomola (RaceSaver Sprint Cars), Colton McNaney (Modified 4 Cylinders), and Brian Noel (Stock 4 Cylinders). The Pure Stocks were […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":16701,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16748","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"featured_image_src":{"landsacpe":["https:\/\/www.latrobemotorsports.com\/dirttrack\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/PXL_20230506_232946009-1140x445.jpg",1140,445,true],"list":["https:\/\/www.latrobemotorsports.com\/dirttrack\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/PXL_20230506_232946009-463x348.jpg",463,348,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.latrobemotorsports.com\/dirttrack\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/PXL_20230506_232946009-300x226.jpg",300,226,true],"full":["https:\/\/www.latrobemotorsports.com\/dirttrack\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/PXL_20230506_232946009-scaled.jpg",2560,1928,false]},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.latrobemotorsports.com\/dirttrack\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/05\/PXL_20230506_232946009-scaled.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.latrobemotorsports.com\/dirttrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16748","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.latrobemotorsports.com\/dirttrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.latrobemotorsports.com\/dirttrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.latrobemotorsports.com\/dirttrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.latrobemotorsports.com\/dirttrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16748"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.latrobemotorsports.com\/dirttrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16748\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16749,"href":"https:\/\/www.latrobemotorsports.com\/dirttrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16748\/revisions\/16749"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.latrobemotorsports.com\/dirttrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16701"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.latrobemotorsports.com\/dirttrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16748"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.latrobemotorsports.com\/dirttrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16748"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.latrobemotorsports.com\/dirttrack\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16748"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}