Nick Wean Continues ARDC Streak of First Time Winners
By Mark Kielblock

Elm City, NC - Going into Saturday night's program at County Line Raceway, ARDC's Southern Swing to North Carolina had produced three straight first time winners going back to the 2007 season. Thanks to Nick Weans victory in the County Line feature you can make it four for four.

The short story of the race was simple; bad start - good finish. Scott Zipp and Nick Wean led the field to the green flag for the start of the 25 lapper. These two would be major players later in the race, but the ARDC racers would have to pass some rough waters before they could get down to serious business. First, Brett Arndt  brought out the red flag with hard wall contact in turn three with one lap in the books. An ambulance was brought to the scene to check on Arndt who was shaken, but otherwise ok.

One lap after the restart, the drivers all went up high in turn one searching for traction when Stephanie Stevens went a little too high. She caught the wall with her right rear and launched into a vicious series of flips that left her stunned and shaken. She was taken to the hospital for observation.

A long line of cars  locked up and slid and spun to avoid Stevens. Coming out on the short end of that chain reaction was PJ Gargiulo who damaged the entire front end of this no. 51 along with the tail tank and rear bumper. 

This red flag led to a long break in the action for the ARDC field as they were sent pit side, while County Line's regular stock car divisions ran off their features. This allowed Gargiulo to effect repairs on his car, and the other teams to consider setup changes that might help them contend with early leader Zipp.

When they got back to green flag racing, Zipp pulled out to a lead over Wean and the rest of the field. Then the story of the race changed when Wean began to find superior bite down low off turn four that allowed him to pull even with Zipp and drag race down the front stretch. Zipp had a quicker line up high in one and two. This pattern would repeat itself lap after lap as Zipp and Wean treated the fans to an exhibition of clean, hard racing.

Just as Wean was finally able to clear Zipp on the front stretch and take the lead, the yellow winked on for an incident involving PJ Gargiulo between turns three and four. The lap wasn't complete, so Zipp was scored in the lead with Wean having to go back to second. As frustrating as this was for Wean, it was a treat for the fans as they got to watch the Zipp-Wean duel for a few more laps

Finally on lap 19, Wean was able to start his run a little earlier on Zipp. By the time they got to turn two, Wean had just enough momentum to clear Zipp and pull away for his first career win. How hard was it for Wean to hold his car on the bottom in 1 and 2 when no one else could? "Real hard," Wean said after the race. "I didn't want to get into him. I don't think we ever touched." Wean had been close to his first career win earlier this year at Susquehanna, coming in second to Steve Buckwalter. "I'm happy for the crew to get this one," Wean shared in victory lane, "We've been through some hard times lately."

Bruce Buckwalter was able to nail down third, coming off his first career win the night before at Dixieland. Frank Polimeda was fourth, followed by Randy Monroe Jr to round out the top five.

Heat races were won by Nick Wean and Bruce Buckwalter.

Pit Notes: A correction to pit notes posted from Dixieland are in order. Brett Conkling's team suffered a broken rear and it was Brett Conkling's dad who struggled to replace the rear to get the car back out for the feature. Conkling's team was mis-identified as Brett Arndt. Apologies go out to the effected teams. PJ Gargiulo had to replace the entire front end of his car along with repairing the tail tank and rear bumper. Once again ARDC spirit and sportsmanship was in evidence as seemingly every team in the Club was involved in the thrash on the no. 51 car.

 

1) 77-Nick Wean 2) 99-Scott Zipp 3) 83-Bruce Buckwalter 4) 44-Frank Polimeda 5) 27-Randy Monroe Jr 6) 9-Steve Lenig 7) 12-Drew Heistand 8) 54-Ryan Smith 9) 86-Tracy Readinger 10) 51 PJ Gargiulo 11) 29-Zack Martini 12) 11-Eric Heydenreich 13) 64-Brett Conkling 14) 75-Bobby Goerner 15) 25-Chris Zrinski 16) 26-Stephanie Stevens 17) 46-Brett Arndt