stock car championship racing  

Updated 11/17/2011

2011 WBC Report    

  2012 Status: pending December Membership Trial Vote

Luke Koleszar, VA

2011 Champion

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Event History
1999    Rebekah Garton     37
2000    Tim Dolan     68
2001    Devin Flawd     60
2005    Seth Gunar     47
2006    Seth Gunar     42
2007    Jean Younkin     49
2008    Steve Caler     51
2009    Phil White     53
2010    Bill Beckman     43
2011    Luke Koleszar     37
 Laurels

Rank  Name              From  Last  Total
  1.  Seth Gunar         NJ    10     84
  2.  Phillip White      MD    10     60
  3.  Luke Koleszar      VA    11     42
  4.  Steve Caler        OH    08     36
  5.  Bill Beckman       SC    10     30
  6.  Kevin Brown        GA    08     30
  7.  Jean Younkin       VA    07     30
  8.  Devin Flawd        PA    01     30
  9.  Tim Dolan          NJ    00     30
 10.  Jim Bell           MD    09     27
 11.  Fabio Pellegrino   it    11     18
 12.  Haim Hochboim      is    09     18
 13.  Derek Miller       VA    07     18
 14.  Mike Buccheri      MD    07     18
 15.  Keith MacFarland   NJ    05     18
 16.  Dan Hoffman        NC    01     18
 17.  Andy Lewis         DE    00     18
 18.  John Weber         MD    11     15
 19.  Curt Collins       PA    11     12
 20.  Henry Pfeiffer     SC    10     12
 21.  Carol Caler        OH    10     12
 22.  Steve May          MD    01     12
 23.  Bill Place         PA    00     12
 24.  Rebekkah Garton    VA    99     10
 25.  Mark Mitchell      VA    11      9
 26.  Tom McCorry        VA    08      9
 27.  Nate Timko         PA    07      9
 28.  Chad Gormly        MA    06      9
 29.  Stuart Tucker      MD    05      9
 30.  Adam Gugliemini    PA    01      9
 31.  Darren Velez       NY    00      9
 32.  Steve Cameron      PA    11      8
 33.  Rob Buccheri       MD    07      6
 34.  Dan Dolan Jr       NJ    01      6
 35.  Bob Olivere        AZ    00      6
 36.  Ken Sheffield      VA    99      4
 37.  Matt Deuber        OH    10      3
 38.  Angelo Ricchiuto   PA    09      3
 39.  Cameron Spaner     MD    08      3
 40.  Marshall Daw       NM    07      3
 41.  Mike Garton        VA    06      3
 42.  Rex Lehman         FL    05      3
 43.  Dave Bohnenberger  PA    01      3
 44.  Brian Carr         VA    00      3
 45.  Joe Sposito        NJ    99      1

2011 Laurelists                                                Repeating Laurelists: 0

Fabio Pellegrino, it
2nd

Curt Collins, PA
3rd

Mark Mitchell, VA
4th

Steve Cameron, PA
5th

John Weber, MD
6th

Past Winners

Rebekkah Garton, VA
1999

Tim Dolan, NJ
2000

Devin Flawd, PA
2001

Seth Gunar, NJ
2005-2006

Jean Younkin, VA
2007

Steve Caler, OH
2008

Phil White, MD
2009

Bill Beckman, SC
2010

Luke Koleszar, VA
2011
 

Danny Lewis, Steve Caler, Francis Beaudet,
Matt Deuber and Luke Kolezar

Mark Mitchell, Fabio Pellegrino, Steve Cameron
and Kevin Hacker await the start.

 GM Mark McLaughlin oversees Eric Ritter,
Kelly Krieble and Garry Rice in a Preliminary heat.

 James Bell, Carol Caler and Joshua Garton
have prime seats in the far curve for the 250 Final.

The WBC 250 ...

Drivers vied for a spot in the WBC 250 Final by finishing in the top three of one of the three heat races held earlier in the week. The WBC Final race usually has 16 to 18 players due to no shows, but this year, 21 were present when the green flag dropped for the largest Final in WBC Stock Car Racing history. Matt Deuber (#8) and Stuart Tucker (#30) started in the pole positions.

The race started slow, with only three laps of green flag racing on the first turn. Not much went on other than a few Two Wide actions being played to hold position. The second turn brought out a yellow flag and Brian Mongold (#29) was the first driver to retire with an Overheating problem. The 'Green Shirt Racing Team (GSRT)' of Eric Ritter (#10) and Kelly Krieble (#35) decided to pit and went to the back of the pack. The next turn saw 24 laps speed by as Tucker (#30) maintained the lead. He led from the start for a total of 30 laps but was never able to contend after that. On Turn 4, Carol Caler (#99) started to experience Engine Trouble, but continued - waiting for the first round of pit stops. Joshua Garton (#37) cruised into the lead while GSRT-Krieble (#35) struggled to make a 12-lap count using three cards even after pitting to cycle through the deck. Luke Koleszar (#36) running in the back of the pack bump drafted a couple of positions to close gaps on the inside lane while GSRT-Ritter (#10) passed on the outside to fill a gap leaving Jim Bell (#2) dead last and a gap behind the lead draft. Turn 5, another 24-lap turn, had a few cars sling passing in the middle of the pack, but the leaders were pretty much unchanged with Garton (#37) still in the lead. On Turn 6 the yellow flag flew again, but this time for a crash that claimed 2009 Champion, Phil White (#33). The timing however was fortuitous for everyone else as scheduled pit stops were required by all. Chris Youre (#24), Steve Caler (#9), GSRT-Ritter (#10), and Bell (#2) all played Fast Pits helping move them up a few positions. Carol (#99) breathed a sigh of relief as her pit crew took care of her engine troubles. Steve Cameron (#25) took a whopping 18.1 seconds to pit and fell back to the middle of the pack.

The green flag dropped and 12 laps went by on Turn 7. Garry Rice (#19) used his Block .990 car to go first, played a Two Wide to hold position and set off a total play of six Two Wide actions. This allowed Garton (#37) to easily hold on the lead as drivers were too busy trying to hold position to try to pass each other. On Turn 8, Garton experienced transmission problems and had to retire. This turned the lead over to Mark Mitchell (#20) and he led from lap 83 to 230 for a total of 147 laps.

On Turn 10, Carol (#99) became the first car to have all car modifiers (the trinity) in play. On Turn 11, Tucker (#30) who had been slowly losing position the entire race showed his luck still hadn't turned around. He challenged a passing car and still lost the challenge even when playing the highest speed rating (xxx.990) in the deck. Turn 12 brought the last round of pits while green flag racing. This spread the field out creating numerous gaps, but also put the first four leaders on the inside lane and created a wide open outside lane. Ten of 18 cars fast pitted. On Turn 13, Mitchell (#20) and Cameron (#25) put on a show pulling a few spaces away from the rest of the pack, but Cameron blew his whole hand to keep up. On Turn 15, the pack again caught the leaders, while 2008 champion Caler (#9) rubbed the wall to ruin his paint job but kept racing. Turn 16 saw Kevin Hacker (#26) who started fifth, move to second and then fade steadily back. He declared, "there is a god, and his name is 'Two Wide'" when he finally went a turn without losing any positions. On Turn 18, one of the most impressive moves of the race occurred when John Weber (#3) running dead last made up a gap and passed eight cars in a single turn to improve to tenth. Otherwise, little action occurred as players were holding cards since the next turn was most likely going to be the last, and it was.

Curt Collins (#23), who struggled in the middle of the pack up to now, made the move of the day on Turn 19. From sixth place, he made a sling pass to the outside lane behind Koleszar (#36). With no cars in front of Koleszar, Collins bump drafted Koleszar to be tied with the inside lane leader and himself in position for a shoot out at the finish line for third. None of the leaders on the inside lane expected a move to the outside to challenge their dominance of the whole race. Cameron (#25) was running first and played a Two Wide to try to protect his tenuous lead. Fabio Pellegrino (#93) immediately attempted to pass Cameron (#25) for the inside lead, but was challenged and his pass failed. His outside attempt opened up the inside for a try and Pellegrino (#93) followed up the outside attempt with an Inside Advantage passing Cameron (#25) for the inside lead and a chance at the checkered Flag.

The photo finish had Koleszar (#36) beating Pellegrino (#93) to the line for the win, but Fabio who traveled from Italy to attend was deservedly proud of his second place finish. Collins (#23) beat Mitchell (#20) for third with Cameron (#25) finishing fifth and Weber (#3) making a good run to sixth. Rounding out the top ten were Stuart Tucker, Matt Deuber, Carol Caler and Joe Betz.

For two years in a row the Bump Draft has propelled the winner to the checkered flag, showing a little teamwork goes a long way in racing.

Luke Koleszar, Garry Rice and Stuart Tucker

Welcome to the WBC cyclotron - circular seating for the big race.
 GM     Michael Garton [6th year]  2617 Robin Hood Trail, Suffolk, VA 23435
   mgarton@tmail.com  757-927-1136 

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