From Rich Vleck
ROCHESTER, NY (April 9, 2012)- A mild spring, fresh equipment, a speedway that is among the driver’s favorites and the first leg of a championship quest that will pay $10,000 are just some of the ingredients that are mixing together for what figures to be a sensational season opener.
This Saturday, April 14, the Fulton Speedway will play host to the first race in the 10th season of Patriot Sprint Tour action. This will also be the 2012 lid lifter known as the “A-Verdi Storage Containers Methanol Meltdown” at the 3/8-mile high-banked oval. Fulton has held four prior PST events, including the 2007 season opener, but the energy heading into that event has possibly never been this high. With $10,000 going to the 2012 PST America Champion, a slew of drivers have their eyes on the prize and realize they will need a solid start Saturday to claim the cash.
Jared Zimbardi, the defending PST Champion from Little Valley, NY, proved his worth last season and is perhaps even more focused on repeating this year. Zimbardi was second in points the four seasons prior, including the last three to Bryan Howland, of Auburn, NY, who is re-energized to claim his fifth PST Title this season.
Howland was among more than a dozen drivers that tested at Fulton this past Saturday. Chuck Hebing, the winningest driver in PST History and a Fulton winner in 2007, was testing as well and should also be a factor throughout 2012.
PST regulars in 2011 such as Tim Kelly, Scott Kreutter, Rookie of the Year Steve Collins, Don Adamczyk and Dave Wickham will be in the mix, as will drivers that will be mainstays in 2012 like Dylan Swiernik, Justin Barger, Todd Hoddick, George Suprick, Clint Ide, Bruce DeWick and rookies Mark Tychoniewicz and Erica Bell.
This event has been circled on the calendar by race teams far and wide so it is difficult to name each expected driver but some of the nearby racers include modified regular Larry Wight, rookies Paul Kinney, Sammy Reakes IV and Joe Trenca, plus frontrunners like Tommy Wickham, Brandan Warner, Jason Barney, Shawn Donath, Doug Emery, Kevin Ward Jr., Jeff Cook, Paul Habeck, Charlie Donk, Todd Hoddick and Lance Yonge. It is likely at least a few of these names will end up in the first Original Pizza Logs Four Laps of Fame Dash for Cash of 2012.
A-Verdi Storage Containers has been involved with the Patriot Sprint Tour since the beginning of the 2007 season when the series opened up at Fulton Speedway that year as well. They have been a leader in New York State for more than 30 years in providing storage and office solutions. For more information, visit www.Averdi.com.
Please remember that gates will open at 2:00 P.M. on Saturday while racing gets underway at the special time of 4:00 P.M. For more information, visit www.PatriotSprintTour.com.
Patriot History at Fulton:
Races: 5
7/26/2003- Rick Wilson
7/24/2004- Rick Wilson
5/5/2007- Chuck Hebing
9/8/2007- Justin Barger
8/8/2009- Dan Kaszubinski