LANCASTER, N.Y. – Chuck Hossfeld made a thrilling last lap pass on Shawn Nye and Patrick Emerling to win the Race of Champions Sportsman Modified Series feature on Saturday at Lancaster Speedway @ New York Int’l Raceway Park.
Lancaster Speedway hosted its final stock car event before the season-ending U.S. Open weekend on Saturday evening with a solid turnout of 86 cars in the pits across the four divisions.
The RoC Sportsman Modifieds had a full field of 27 cars with former track champions Shawn Nye and Bobby Weber leading the pack to the opening green flag of their 35-lap feature. Nye grabbed the lead on the opening lap with Hossfeld moving up from the third starting spot to run second behind him.
Hossfeld made a move to the inside of Nye on lap 8 to take the lead through turns one and two. Patrick Emerling came from sixth place on the starting grid to follow Hossfeld past Nye to move into second. Emerling ran second to Hossfeld for just seven laps as he passed Hossfeld for the lead on lap 15.
The trio of Emerling, Hossfeld and Nye were the class of the field on this night as they pulled away from the pack. Hossfeld challenged Emerling for the lead on multiple occasions throughout the second half of the race, but did not have any success.
The final caution of the race came on lap 30 when Eddie Hawkins spun out while running inside the top ten. This set up one last restart for the leaders to survive. When the race restarted it was Nye that made the big move as he got by Hossfeld take over the runner-up spot.
Nye then tracked down Emerling and challenged him for the lead on the final lap. He drove his car hard to the inside of Emerling as the pair entered the final two corners of the race. As Nye pulled even with Emerling both cars pushed up the race track. This left the bottom of the track open in turn four for Hossfeld who darted to the inside to make a three-wide pass, and steal the win on the final corner of the race.
It was the second win of the weekend for Hossfeld who won the night before in the RoC Sportsman event at Spencer Speedway. Nye had to settle for second with Emerling falling to third. Mike Fiebelkorn, Jr. and Daryl Lewis, Jr. both ran solid races to round out the top five.
Amy Catalano finished sixth after starting dead last in the feature. She suffered a broken rear end in her heat race, but her crew finished the repairs just in time for her to start the feature.
Rich Sharpe won the 3rd annual Ken Heckler Tribute 51 Street Stock race in dominating fashion. Dave Brunka won the 4-Cylinder feature. In the NYPA TQ Midgets, Bobby Holmes won for the second week in a row.