(June 10, 2006)
It was an "up and down" night of
racing at Jennerstown for the Wade Champeno Racing team. The evening was marred with crashes, and Imler Pilot was not
able to avoid all of them.
The night started out on a bad note. After the first practice
session, the left rear hub shattered. The repairs caused the team to miss the second practice session, but fortunately,
Wade made it to the starting grid in time for the heat race. Starting 7th, Champeno narrowly avoided a horrific crash
that sent driver Matt Howsare to the hospital. Wade finished a strong third in the heat race, and had high hopes for
the feature event.
Although Champeno avoided the heat race melee, he would not be
so lucky in the feature. On the first lap, leaders Dan Brink and Todd Corson made contact in turn four, sending Corson
spinning into Champeno's Path. Wade locked up the brakes and hit Corson squarely with the nose, but the car suffered
only minor damage. Champeno inherited the pole position, and swiftly leaped out in the lead. Wade held the top
spot untill lap 17, when the #33 of Mel Wilt Gave him a bump in turn three, sending the #77 Monte Carlo into a spin.
Restarting in the rear with just eight laps to go, Champeno Made a charge toward the front. Another incident was avoided
late in the going when #9 of Dan Brink nearly forced Wade into the Inside frontstrech retaining wall. Champeno got by
Brink for the third but did not have enough laps to run down the leaders.
"I just got spun out" remarked the 24 year old driver.
"Nothing more to say. We're fortunate to have an intact race car though. A few of them were torn up tonight."
Wade now has the sole possession of the fourth in the Late Model point standings, just six points behind the leader.
