James P. McCoy/Buffalo News
Chuck Hossfeld won the Queen City Clash, the first event of the weekly open competition at Lancaster. By Larry Ott
(Reprinted from Buffalo News article of 6/10/2004)

Chuck Hossfeld is hoping to deliver a nice birthday present to his father Saturday at Lake Erie Speedway and also give himself and his race team a much needed momentum lift.

Hossfeld enjoyed a most successful season on the NASCAR Featherlite Modified Series (FMS) trail last season, posting three wins and finishing a strong second in the final points rundown. Hossfeld pilots the "Mystic Missile" car on the FMS for car owner Bob Garbarino of Mystic, Conn.

This season has been a far different story for the 26-year-old driver who cut his racing teeth in the Modified division at Lancaster Raceway Park. Currently, as the FMS heads to Lake Erie Speedway for a 150-lap contest Saturday night, Hossfeld rests ninth in points with a season-best finish of third at Thompson, Conn.

Since posting that third place in the series opener, the Buffalo native recorded consecutive 12th-place outings at Stafford, Conn., Waterford, Maine, and Nazareth, Pa., then placed 16th last weekend at Riverhead.

"This team has been together for three seasons now and we've never hit a string of bad luck like we have this season," Hossfeld said. "We just have to hang in there and deal with it and turn it around. This Saturday is my dad's birthday so maybe we can win at Lake Erie and give us both a great present."

When not racing on the FMS trail, Hossfeld races the locally owned DeLange Motorsports entry at Lancaster Raceway Park.

Hossfeld's only real success in 2004 came on his home turf at Lancaster. He won the season-opening Queen City Clash, the first event of the weekly open competition.

"I always have a good time when I can come home and run Lancaster," said Hossfeld, Lancaster's 1999 Modified champion. "When I race at Lancaster my family and friends are there and the competition is good.

"Because it is not a Featherlite series event and as I am only racing a limited schedule at Lancaster, I don't have to worry about points racing when I come to Lancaster. I can just enjoy trying to win with no points pressure."

Hossfeld says that Lancaster and the New York State-based Sunoco Race of Champions Modified Tour were good proving grounds at which to develop his skills for the move up to the FMS competition.

"There is a lot of good competition as Lancaster and you must run well there to try to win against all their good drivers," said Hossfeld. "The Race of Champions Tour was also great because it taught you how to handle setting up cars and driving at different tracks. Jim and Charlie Rudolph helped me a great deal."

Despite his less than stellar FMS results this season, Hossfeld has qualified well, earning a pole at Waterford and the second position at Stafford. He knows he must try to start up front Saturday as Lake Erie has proven to be a one-groove racetrack that offers very few passing opportunities.

"I know last year in the race at Lake Erie we settled into fourth and that's where we finished," said Hossfeld. "There wasn't a whole lot of passing and I don't know if there will be this Saturday."

After Saturday, Hossfeld will next race in the Bud 50 at Lancaster on June 19. Danny Knoll Jr., of Amherst, is also expected to compete with the FMS at Lake Erie.

Pit stops

• The Skora family is enjoying a fine early season. Rich Skora has won the last two Super Stock features at Lancaster. He also finished second to his brother Scott in the Dodge Truck class last Friday evening at Lake Erie.

• Tom MacLeod has won both Late Model races this season at Lancaster.

• Jason Kline was declared the winner of the NASCAR Pro Modified feature last Saturday at Holland Speedway after the top two finishers, Steve Kreitzbender and Chuck Anderson, were disqualified in postrace tech inspection. Kline is the head boys basketball coach for Holland Central, which advanced to the Class B-2 championship game last winter.

Holland's largest attended event last season was the Crash-A-Rama featuring school bus Figure-Eight races, demolition derbies and a motorcycle thrill show. Crash-A-Rama returns to Holland's high banks Saturday. The weekly NASCAR stock car classes have the night off.

• Wyoming County International Speedway kicked off its Sunday Modified Mania program last weekend with a very respectable field of 17 entries. Drivers from New York and Pennsylvania made the trek. Tony Hanbury earned the victory.

e-mail: lawrence_o_14075@yahoo.com