By Michael Bonesky
RANSOMVILLE — It’s not uncommon to have family members competing on an athletic stage. In the professional tennis world, Venus and Serena Williams are superstars, while brothers Eric and Jordan Staal have become hot commodities in the National Hockey League.
What is rare to see, though, is a genuine father/son rivalry. But every Friday night at Ransomville Speedway fans see just this sort of competition from the Israel family.
Father Roger and son Jaren Israel of Wilson have become the hallmark drivers of the Street Stock class at the Big R. With Roger in his familiar No. 37 Camaro and Jaren in his No. 10 Monte Carlo, the family name has appeared in the victory lane column more than any other family combination that has competed at the track at the same time.
“My dad started here in the Street Stocks in 2000 and I started here in the same class 2001,” Jaren said.
And how many wins does the duo have?
“Off the top of my head, I have about 27 wins and Jaren has around 29,” Roger said.
When it comes to racing against each other, respect is the key.
“When I’m racing against dad I pretty much know what he’s going to do and I can trust him. That doesn’t mean we don’t race each other hard, but I’m not going to chance tearing one of the cars up,” Jaren said. “My dad and me pretty much do all the work on the cars so we’re not going to do anything stupid out there.”
How hard is it for two people maintain two top-running Street Stocks?
Jaren rolled his eyes while answering.
“As long as neither of us crashes it’s not too bad, but on the average we put in about 21 hours worth of upkeep,” he said.
The rest of 2009 will see the father-son duo running for the championship at Ransomville, while Jaren also makes a weekly stop at the Humberstone Speedway in Port Colborne, Ont., on Sunday nights.
The success of the Israel family continued in the second of two 15-lap Street Stock features Friday night at Ransomville as Jaren collected his second win of the season in the highly competitive Street Stock class. In doing so he also became only the second Street Stock winner with more than a single checkered flag this year. Israel took the lead from Charles Harvey on the race’s eighth lap and never looked back.
Other track action on Friday night saw the Empire Super Sprint cars in town for their annual visit. With race teams hauling to Ransomville from as far away as Quebec and Vermont, the on-track action was intense.
The 25-lap Sprint Car feature saw Jason Barney grab the early lead over a hard-charging Chuck Hebing from Ontario. The two combatants waged a torrid battle for the top spot, but that came to an end during the race’s midpoint when Hebing’s Sprinter became airborne after hitting the third turn guard rail. The car then flipped wildly as it cleared the rail and landed in some nearby trees. Hebing climbed from his car unscathed, but out of the competition for the rest of the night. Barney carried on the rest the way for the win.
The final finishing order for the Lucas Oil ESS was — Jason Barney, Michael Parent, Jared Zimbardi, Bobby Breen, Tommy Wickham, Jeff Cook, Steve Poirier, Justin Barger, Tim Kelly, Scott Kreutter, Mike Stelter, Anthony Cain, Dave Dykstra, Blake Breen, Lance Yonge, Chuck Hebing, Kevin Loveys, Tim Zack Jr., and Jim Porter.
While the Modifieds had the night off, the Sportsman division was still in action and to nobody’s surprise it was Ransomville’s Ryan Susice winning his fourth feature event of the season. Susice began the 25-lap feature from the 12th starting spot and by the race’s seventh lap had secured the lead. Behind the leader, Don Spatarico was methodically working his way to the front of the field. As the race entered its waning laps Spatarico had reeled in Susice and was putting as much pressure on the youngster as he could. But in the end, Susice was able to hold off all challenges and collect the win.
The final results for the Sportsman looked like this — Ryan Susice, Don Spatarico, Jesse Cotriss, Sandy Pembleton, Derek Smith, Nathan Reynolds, Scott Just, Mike Williams, Steven Schumacher, Rick Newton, Stephen Miller, Allan Wills, John Smith, Tony Purgarich, Justin Wright, Brett Martin, Chris Purgarich, Mark Chiddy, John Panattoni, Gordon Hermanson, Chris Weigand, and Jipp Ortiz.
The Street Stocks were in action Friday night and their first 15-lap feature ended as follows — Gerald Poole, Pat Dell, Scott Krull, Mike Greenawalt, Ricky Washburn, Donald Rappleyea, Brian Lonneville, Stuart Kumm, John Carlson, Patrick Burek, Brandon Sherwood, Dustin Gorhan, Tim Kott, Kenny Washburn.
The Second Street Stock finish crossed the line in this order — Jaren Israel, Billy Coleman, Chris Burek, Mike Childrose, Derrick Borkenhagen, Charles Harvey, Webb Nashwinter, Roger Israel, Jon Richael, Randy Zimmerman, Brandon Poole, Scott McCeldowney, Jeremy Stahl, Bob Urtel, and Sean Kott.
Contact racing columnist Michael Bonesky at scoreboard@gnnewspaper.com
