Pole-sitter leads 100-lapper from start to finish
The little engine that could did, this time on the biggest stage at Merrittville Speedway.
Pole-sitter Ryan Susice raced to a flag-to-flag victory in a 100lap battle of the big blocks, even though his spec engine-powered Modified conceded upwards of 200 horsepower to some cars in the starting field of 30.
The 28-year-old from Ransomville, N.Y., the driver for hire for car owner Randy Slack, held off determined challenges from Chad Brachmann, Mike Bowman and Danny (The Doctor) Johnson to win the first 100-lapper of his remarkable racing career.
Johnson, Brachmann, Mat Williamson and Erick Rudolph rounded out the top five.
“I saw Bowman coming, then Danny Johnson coming, and The Doctor is tough, but apparently Ryan Susice is tougher,” an elated Slack said in victory lane.
The car owner was asked whether any advertisement could top Monday night’s victory in promoting the Wegner W-16 spec engine.
“We’ve been very fortunate to win some of the biggest races around with this little motor.”
Susice, the reigning 358 Modified points king at Ransomville Speedway, suggested the seeds for Monday’s victory were planted in the 50-lap Jerry Winger Memorial two nights earlier.
While the 3RS trailed Mat Williamson and Gary Lindberg across the finish line, it managed to do that after starting 13th in the field. “Luckily, all the puzzle pieces fit tonight and everything worked out.”
Appreciating that track conditions are the great equalizer — in longer-distance races, especially — Susice didn’t feel intimated by pitting his decidedly smaller block against the big blocks in the Harvey’s/Swiss Chalet-Barron’s Roofing 100.
“The track starts to slow down the more laps that are run on it,” he said. “The available traction is less, so they can’t hook it up as much.
“As everybody starts to lose traction, it’s easier to control it when you have less horsepower.”
Being the pole-sitter didn’t hurt either.
“Luckily, I had a track position early,” Susice said. “I started out front, so I don’t have to worry about driving too hard. I could just run my own race.”
Susice, who lost leads but never relinquished his front-running position despite restarts, “took it easy for the first 70 or 80 laps.”
“With 20 or so to go, I started to turn the wick up and I started to drive harder, but it was hard because there were lapped cars in there,” he said.
“The track was so wide there were guys running everywhere, it was hard to pick and choose where you wanted to be from one lap to the next.
“But, luckily, the car was so good, Bob Slack had the thing dialled right in. I could pretty much put the car anywhere.”
He couldn’t say enough about the engine that carried him into victory lane in the $6,000-to-win feature.
“It’s a great piece, especially for the price,” he said.
“Obviously, it can do the job, and that’s all that matters. There have been some big races that these motors have won,” he added.
The second-generation racer, who at age 24 was the youngestever 358 Modified track champion at Ransomville, also won Street Stocks and Sportsman titles at his hometown track.
Susice came into Monday night’s 100-lap race fourth in the Merrittville driver standings with 562 points. Williamson, Brachmann and Lindberg top the Thorold track’s top racing class with 594, 580 and 570 points, respectively.
He trails Rudolph, his fellow western New Yorker, 556-490 in the Ransomville points race.