Posted by Kankakee Speedway on 4/18/2005, 12:09 am
Board Administrator

You might call them wire-to-wire victories, but fans at the Kankakee Valley Motor Speedway saw some edge-of-your-seat racing in the Late Model and Open-Wheel Modified features Friday night. In the Late Models, John Provanzano took the lead on the green flag and won his 30-lapper. But there were two and a half laps of doubt. The veteran used the bottom groove to rocket to the lead, but had to recapture the top spot after a lapped car spun right in front of him. Frank Heckenast Jr. ran a strong second and took advantage of Provanzano's minor tangle with Ken Snyder. "I was there to grab the lead, but I need a little more experience to hold off a guy like Provanzano," the 16-year-old student said. "I think we had the wrong kind of tire on the car. I was trying to race up in the second groove and with all the cars on the bottom, there were a lot of marbles up there and I was just holding on." Meanwhile, Provanzano said it felt like "the old days," when he used to dominate the competition, using the bottom groove. With his strong run on opening night, he has to have a head start on the track's season point race. In the Modifieds, Bob Pohlman took the early lead, but the question was: would his car fade at the end as it did on opening night, when Matt Bachman blew past him on the final lap. There were no reruns this time around. Pohlman held off a very strong showing from Kevin Hastings, who wound up second, and Dave Porth, who was third for the second time this season. Dan Hamstra was fourth, with Nick Allen – just ahead of Bachman, who never found a high groove that would allow him to duplicate last week's showing. Hastings won his heat ahead of Pohlman and Porth, but never had an opening to challenge in the finale. Bachman won his heat, ahead of Allen, with his last-lap magic, but couldn't re-create it later. Tim Reynolds topped Hamstra in his heat and looked capable of winning the main event before running into some handling problems. Anthony Ricketts won the semi-feature.. In the Late Model preliminaries, Provanzano edged Heckenast in the first heat and newcomer Jamie Zider topped Dick Potts. In the Street Stocks, Mike Cavanaugh lead all the way and won his first feature here since 2002. Steve Dimmick ran second and Kevin Lenzen was third.. John Geary, Jay Hamilton and Jay Morris were heat race winners. NUTS & BOLTS: Around Indy Car racing, they like to boast that there was only 2-hundreths of a second between first and second place. In the Late Model feature, there was more than 50 years between second and fifth place in the feature. That's the age difference between Heckenast, 16, and Potts, who's still racing strong at 67. RESULTS: Late Model Division Fast Time: Frank Heckenast Jr. – 14.733 First Heat: 1. John Provanzano; 2. Heckenast; 3. Richie Hedrick Second Heat: 1. Jamie Zider; 2. Dick Potts; 3. Kyle Roderick Feature: 1. Provanzano; 2. Heckenast; 3. Hedrick; 4. Zider; 5. Potts Open-Wheel Modified Fast Time: Dave Porth -- 15.566 First Heat: 1. Kevin Hastings; 2. Bob Pohlman; 3. Porth Second Heat: 1. Matt Bachman; 2. Nick Allen; 3. Travis Kohler Third Heat: 1. Tim Reynolds' 2. Dan Hamstra; 3. Tommy Kroll Semi-Feature: 1. Anthony Ricketts; 2. Rick Thomas; 3. Al Estrada Feature: 1. Pohlman; 2. K. Hastings; 3. Porth; 4. Hamstra; 5. Allen Street Stock First Heat: 1. John Geary; 2. Billy Wicker; 3. David Billingsley Second Heat: 1. Jay Hamilton; 2. Steve Dimmick; 3. Kevin Lenzen Third Heat: 1. Jay Morris; 2. Mike Cavanaugh; 3. Bill Stevenson Semi-Feature: 1. Gordon Weaver; 2. Matt Doris; 3. John Hennessey Feature: 1. Cavanaugh; 2. Dimmick; 3. Lenzen; 4. Wicker; 5. Billingsley