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By DINO OBERTO
(Tioga Center, NY 7-27-25) In its return to racing for 2025, Shangri-La II Speedway has tested the waters successfully in the first two events with Sportsman Modifieds as the headliners and proving that despite the 10-year hiatus, the track was in good enough shape to host the open wheel stockers and not to mention the support classes as well.
But know it was time to bring in the so-called “big guns,” that being the Tour Type Modifieds and although a less than full field of cars signed in to race, those who were on hand displayed the type of action expected from the class and put on an excellent show for the enthusiastic crowd that filled up the grandstands.
And, no one was happier to bring in the Modifieds then Jake Lutz of Buffalo, NY, who was making his first ever laps at the “Concrete Castle” and by the end of the main event was standing proudly in Victory Lane after scoring top honors in the USNEPower “Thunder on the Hill 50.”
“This is phenomenal and not only is it a new track for our team, but it is great to see in back and running after all those years. It’s racy, it’s smooth but it also has some quirks that you have to work around that makes you work every lap,” said Lutz.
“I really have to thank Joe Stearns, Billy Putney and everyone involved. We raced last night, and everyone is tired and hot and we’re all running on a couple hours of sleep, and they brought me a rocket ship today.”
From his pole starting spot Tommy Martino Jr., jumped into the opening lap lead over third starting Tony Hanbury and Lutz who rolled off fifth.
One lap later Hanbury took over the top spot and by the third circuit Lutz moved up to second. Lutz then followed Hanbury closely for the next five trips around the high-banked half-mile oval, making what would be his race winning move after a thrilling side-by-side duel before completing the eighth tour.
Not long after taking the reins Matt Hirschman and Patrick Emerling moved up to second and third respectively and from there the trio all stayed within close reach of each other.
Hirschman would continually try to move in on Lutz but each time the racing leading No. 14 proved to have the power to keep him at bay. And as Hirschman was trying his attempts at Lutz, at much of the same time Emerling was keeping him within his clutches.
The fast paced-action was halted on lap 33 when the only caution of the race waved when Ricky Ross Jr., stopped coming off turn four. On that restart Emerling was able to get by Hirschman but his pursuit of the leader would fall short as yet again Lutz was plenty capable of holding him off just as he did with Hirschman.
“Looking at the practice times from earlier you had the 1 (Emerling) and 60 (Hirschman) and us were going to be fighting for that clean air and I felt that I had a little bit of an advantage on the bottom line. I followed the 11 (Hanbury) and once I knew the 60 was coming up I pulled ahead to get some clean air on the nose and it was see ya after that,” said Lutz, who finished second to Emerling the night prior at Holland Speedway in a RoC Modofied Series event which also saw Hirschman place third.
“When you’re running against guys like Matt and Pat obviously you can’t make mistakes. Those guys are professionals, and they know what they’re doing every time they get into a car and you can’t make a mistake when they are behind you.
Emerling and Hirschman, both previous winners at Shangri-La II, returned to the track and competed as leading participants just as they did when the Tour Tyer Modifieds ran regularly here. In this race though, Lutz proved best ahead of both drivers.
Congrats to Jake (Lutz) and all top three cars were pretty evenly matched today. This is a tough and fast track and when you get in someone’s air and you get close and you then lose your grip getting caught in their wake,” said Emerling.
“One of the things that got us was getting stuck on the outside grove and there wasn’t as much grip up there and we kind of had to get down and regroup and that got us to second.”
Hirschman fought hard when he was behind Lutz and then had to do the same after Emerling passed him for second while settling for a solid third.
“We wanted to be here to support the track, and we were glad to be back racing here. It wasn’t what I wanted for a finish of course, we had a third last night and again here today which was not bad but no checkered flag this weekend,” said Hirschman.
Jankowiak, who was driving for Justin Gumley, held off Blake Barney in rounding out top five. Both raced over the final laps side-by-side with Janowiak nipping Barney at the line for the spot.
In the Super Stock feature Mike Pollack of Freeland, Pa., made it back-to-back wins but make no mistake it was hard fought in getting to the lead before going on to the checkers.
Tony Hanbury took charge at the outset but gave way to Jason Duke by lap six. At the same time all within reach of the front pair were Garrett Zacharias and Pollack in what would soon become a tight pack vying for the lead.
Under an intense grouping, Pollack was able to take different lanes and in doing so maneuvered his way into the top spot with nine laps to go. Once there he then put enough of gap over Duke and held on for the verdict. Zacharias, Frank Chapman III and Hanbury rounded out the top five.
When the Four Cylinders hit the track Gene Purvis of Chemung, NY wasted little time in planting himself into the lead, doing so on lap two, thanks to a very strong running car in which he not only beat last month’s winner BJ Wambold, but did so going away.
Taking the checkers marked the second time in three races run in which Purvis finished first. RoC FOUR SCORE Four Cylinder Dash Series point leader and the previous night winner at Holland Speedway Trisha Connolly made her Shangri-La II debut with a respectable third.
The Hobby Stock feature was an awe-inspiring race from start to finish which saw Doug DeKay of Penn Yan, NY pick up a hard-earned victory.
Over the course of the event DeKay was in the thick of a torrid three car battle that at most times was being fought back and forth between Cullen Sharpsteen and Luke Nickels. However, when those two got together with three laps to go, it put DeKay on the point where he would hold on over the remaining three laps and hold off Mike Bailey for the popular win.
USNEPower Modified feature finish (50 laps): 1. Jake Lutz, 2. Patrick Emerling, 3. Matt Hirschman, 4. Andy Jankowiak, 5. Blake Barney, 6. Ricky Ross Jr., 7. Tom Martino Jr., 8. Jacob Kerstetter, 9. Tony Hanbury, 10. Steve Wojick
Super Stock feature finish (25 laps): 1. Mike Pollack, 2, Jason Duke, 3. Garrett Zacharias, 4. Frank Chapman III, 5. Tony Hanbury, 6. Evan Rygielski, 7. Abe Romanik, 8. Derrick Vogler, 9. 10. Tim Gullo, 11. Bryan Granger, 12. Joe Lane, 13. Bill Frisbie Jr.
Hobby Stock feature finish (20 laps): 1. Doug DeKay, 2. Mike Bailey, 3. Cullen Sharpsteen, 4. Dave Decker, 5. Jason Clugstone, 6. Paul Bailey, 7. Ethan Roberts, 8. Ben Perry, 9, Kami Wheeler, 10. Mike Kinter DQ: Luke Nickels
Four Cylinder feature finish (20 laps): 1. Gene Purvis, 2. BJ Wambold, 3. Trisha Connolley, 4. Kyle Mortimer. 5. Eric Black, 6. Maggie Wambold, 7. Jason Peck, 8. Kevin Behler, 9. Augustine Worden, 10. Robert McNulty, 11. Brandon Mesheaw, 12. AJ Frantz, 13. Beau Baker, 14. Michael Klotz
