Phillips, Porter Race at Ransomville Speedway
By Dave Cook, Media Officer
Grand Island drivers in bold
   September 5,2003 Ransomville, New York. . . Ransomville, New York, September 5; Ohsweken, Ontario’s Glenn Styers took one step forward in his quest for the Southern Ontario Sprints (SOS) championship here at Ransomville Speedway tonight, but in doing so he came very close to taking two steps backward.
   He emerged victorious over Warren Mahoney of Lefroy, Ontario in a 20 lap run that saw him come close to disaster twice. The first time, at the half distance mark, he touched wheels with Mahoney on the front straight and both cars had to take swift corrective action. The second time came on lap 18 when he brushed the steel guardrail on the outside of turn two.
   “I lifted off the throttle a little too much going into that turn. The car just slide right up into the fencing and at that point I became worried. I could hear Warren’s engine and all I could do was to just hang onto the car,” he said just before he climbed up onto the top of the car’s 25-square-foot wing. This is the second time in as many weeks that he has mounted the wing to wave to the crowd, as he says, “like I have seen Steve Kinser do it on Speed TV”.
   For the balance of the 18-car starting field, the race was more like an endurance contest. A total of six cautions kept the field closed up but the attrition resulted in only 10 cars running at the final flag.
   Bob Crawford of Sutton, Ontario set the pace at the green flag and led until the first caution came out on lap three when Dave Wollaber, of nearby Ransomville, N.Y., unfortunately blew his engine. At the restart, Mahoney took charge with Crawford second followed by Dick Mahoney of Newmarket, Ontario, Kyle Patrick of Tilbury, Ontario and Styers.
   Caution number two came on lap seven when Dick Mahoney spun. At this point, Stewart Friesen of Niagara-On-The-Lake, Ontario, started to catch the attention of the crowd having moved up through the field from 11th starting position to challenge for fourth place. However, the track owner’s son, driving Glenn Styers’ backup car, ended his sprint car debut with a blown engine.
   Meanwhile, Warren Mahoney and Styers were running side-by-side and on lap 11 the first brush with disaster came for the duo when they touched wheels. At this point, Keith Dempster of Alton, Ontario had moved past Patrick for third place. Crawford was fifth with visiting driver to the series Kyle Moffit of Dayton, N.Y. sixth.
   Dempster started to show enough speed to chase down the leaders but on lap 13 his drive shaft came apart in pieces forcing him into the turn one wall bringing out another caution. One lap after the restart, Dick Mahoney came to a stop on the track for the final caution.
   Going into Friday night’s (September 12th) final full points race at Ohsweken, Glenn can wrap up the SOS Championship as he enjoys a comfortable lead. Mahoney, however, has an outside shot at the title but would have to finish exceedingly well with Styers doing exceedingly poorly. The title is really Glenn’s to lose.
Results:
Heat One: 1. Glenn Styers, Ohsweken, Ontario; 2. Jim Porter, Grand Island, N.Y.; 3. Stewart Friesen, Niagara-On-The-Lake, Ontario; 4. Bob Crawford, Sutton, Ontario; 5. Adam West; Ridgetown, Ontario; dnf; Curt Sherwood, Sanborn, N.Y.

Heat Two: 1. Warren Mahoney, Lefroy, Ontario; 2. Mark Schulz, Newfane, N.Y.; 3. Tim Phillips, Grand Island, N.Y.; 4. Vinnie Christiano Jr., Tonawanda, N.Y.; 5. Dave Wallaber, Ransomville, N.Y.; 6. Peter J. Ucci, Lancaster, N.Y.

Heat Three: 1. Kyle Patrick, Tilbury, Ontario; 2. Dick Mahoney, Newmarket, Ontario; 3. Keith Dempster, Alton, Ontario; 4. Phil Armishaw, Mt. Hope, Ontario; 5. Kyle Moffit, Dayton, N.Y.; 6. Dave Macleod, Tonawanda, N.Y.
Dash: 1. Patrick; 2. Jim Porter; 3. Styers; 4. W. Mahoney; 5. D. Mahoney; dnf: Schulz.
Feature: 1. Styers; 2. W.Mahoney; 3. Patrick; 4. Crawford; 5. Moffit; 6; Tim Phillips; 7; Jim Porter; 8. Christiano Jr.; 9. Armishaw; 10; D. Mahoney; dnf; Dempster; Ucci; West; Friesen; Macleod; Wollaber; Daryl Turford, Stratford, Ontario. Did Not Start; Mark Schulz, Newfane, N.Y.; Dave Goetz, Kenmore, N.Y.; Curt Sherwood, Sanborn, N.Y.; Cody Geldhart, Mossley, Ontario.