Citizens' Voice from Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania • 54

0 Bodine's gamble pays off, ends year-long drought barely beat Bill Elliott to the finish. This time, Bodine didn't pit at all during the last caution period, running the final 126 laps over the half-mile oval on the same tires. Wallace pitted on lap 471 of the 500-lap event, taking on new tires. He came out of the pits fourth and made it to second on lap 484, but couldn't catch Bodine's Ford Thunderbird, which crossed the finish line .19 of a second ahead. "My car ran good on old tires and it was junk on new tires; that's why we stayed out there," Bodine said after wrapping up his 12th career victory and first since a win at Charlotte Motor Speed- By MIKE HARRIS AP Motors ports Writer MARTINSVILLE, Va.

-NASCAR's elite Winston Cup stock car series is turning into a gambler's den. For two races in a row, drivers have gambled on worn tires and held on to get to Victory Lane. The latest is Geoff Bodine, who came up with his first victory in nearly a year on Monday by holding off Rusty Wallace to win the rain-delayed Goody's 500 at Martinsville Speedway. A week ago at Dover, Ricky Rudd chose to take on gas and no tires on a late pit stop and ON I v. JD CLl CO T3 03 i 8 0) 'I ll SflfS way on Oct.

6, 1991. "I turned the lap times up pretty good there at the end," Bodine added. "That forced Rusty to run really hard to catch me and that wore his brakes down. But, in the process, I wore my brakes down, too. I was pumpin' about seven times going into the corner trying to get some more braking out of it.

Wallace confirmed his brakes were worn down, saying, "I was wheel-hopping bad in the turns and I couldn't get the car to corner as deep as I wanted it to. I may have had a broken shock. I thought sticker (new) tires might help, but it just didn't make much difference." Bodine took the lead from younger brother Brett on lap 457 and led the rest of the way to became the 14th different winner in 24 Winston Cup event this season and the third in a row to gain his first victory of the year. Wallace won earlier this month at Bristol, Tenn. It was the elder Bodine's fourth Winton Cup win at Martinsville, added to seven victories in modifieds and two in Grand National stocks.

Brett Bodine barely held off Kyle Petty for third, with Alan Kulwicki finishing fourth in a race slowed by 12 caution flags for 67 laps. There was plenty of bumping and banging, with most of the cars, including the winner's, showing damage. But there were no serious accidents and no injuries reported. Geoff, who averaged 75.424 mph, won $60,550. Petty, who started from the pole, had the fastest car in the field all day.

In the early going, he pulled away to leads of nearly four seconds and lapped all but eight cars by the time he pitted on lap 142. Petty stalled his Pontiac on pit road and lost some ground, but had worked back to third place on lap 169 when he tangled with Geoff Bodine and spun in turn two, losing a lap before getting the car turned back around and going again. Petty regained the lost lap on lap 307 and was solidly in contention until finding himself in the wrong place at the wrong time on lap 373. Wallace had just passed Davey Allison for second place when Allison banged into the rear of Wallace's car and spun him, then spun himself trying to avoid Wallace. Petty, running a close Geoff Bodine celebrates atop racecar in Victory Lane Lady Tigers sweep WA, Delias Tunkhannock defeated Wyoming Area, 26-29, and Dallas, 15-50, in cross country Monday.

In the third meet, Wyoming Area defeated Dallas, 15-50. Lady Warriors Christy Dreabit was first with a time of 22:00. Second was Wyoming Area's Michelle Lucas, 23:46, while Tunkhannock's Beth Ehrenzeller was third at 24:34. The Lady Tigers Regina Purdy and Erica Thatcher completed the top five. RESULTS: Christy Dreabit (WA), Michelle Lucas (WA), Beth Ehrenzeller (T), Regina Purdy (T), Erica Thactcher (T), Amy Pitkus (T), Angela Fortenza (WA), Barbie Drcst (T), Queenswomen post two wins Host Bishop O'Reilly girls swept Nanticoke Area, 26-29, and Northwest, 22-35.

The Trojanettes beat the Lady Rangers, 21-34. Northwest's Melissa Lazarski placed first in 20:18, followed by O'Reilly's Amy Hannigan, Karolyn Teufel, 21:12 and Gaby Donoso, 21 14. Nanticoke's Wendy Biehl was fifth in 21 37. RESULTS: Melissa Lazarski (N), Amy Hannigan (BO), Karolyn Teufel (B0), Gaby Donoso (B0), Wendy Biehl (N), Mandy Tarneski (N), Jennifer Ziegler (NW), Amy Hubbard (NW), Kelly Sokolowski (N), Ann Blasick (NW), Renee Majeski (B0), Marta Verosky Beth Hegedus (BO), Heather Kearney Betsy Purdy Stankiewicz keys Berwick's win Host Berwick defeated Crestwood, 21-34 behind Laura Stankiewicz's first-place time of 16:33. Teammate Amy Sechevich was second in 17:17, followed by Teresa Ruggerio, 17:25.

Lady Comet Amy Grubert was fourth in 17 36 with Crestwood's Erin Eustice fifth in 17 47. RESULTS: Laura Stankiewicz (B), Amy Sechevich (B), Teresa Ruggerio (B), Amy Grubert (C), Erin Eustice (0, Destiny Hause (B), Beth Komski (0, Claire Smolnek (C), JenSandstrom (LL), Shannon McCabe (B), 11:59. Caporaletti gives Bulldogs sweep Host Berwick swept a tri-meet Monday over Crestwood, 26-31, and Lake-Lehman, 19-44. The Comets gained a split, beating the Black Knights, 20-39. Berwick's Sonny Caporaletti had a first-place time of 12:49.

He was followed by Lehman's Al Scott, 13:36 and Crestwood's Brian Kauffman, 13:40. Bob Hines of Crestwood was fourth in 13:52, followed by Berwick's Jessie Johnson, 13 55. RESULTS: Sonny Caporaletti (B), Al Scott (LL), Brian Kauffman (C), Bob Hines (0, Jessie Johnson (B), Todd Lewis (B), Brian Diaz (0, Eric Bleiler (B), Tim Cal-ciano (0, Jeremy Harner (B), Ed Fenton (B), Scott Dietterick (B), Matt Blakeslee (C), Aaron McGaw (B), Randy Kukorlo (B), 14:41. Northwest's Borchik edges Biehl Northwest Area boys swept Nanticoke Area, 25-30, and Bishop O'Reilly, 20-37. The Trojans split, beating the Queensmen, 22-33.

The Rangers' Bob Barchik took first place at Kirby Park in 16:23. Nanticoke's Wes Biehl was second, 16:36, followed by Mark Fontinell of Northwest, 17:30. Seth Rosencrance of the Rangers placed fourth at 17:42, followed by O'Reilly's Eric Straub, 17:46. RESULTS: Bob Barchik (NW), Wes Biehl (N), Mark Fontinell (NW), Seth Rosencrance (NW), Eric Straub (BO), Dave Yoko (N), Mike Krakosky (BO), Dave Kinney (N), Len Smith (NW), Jody Yozviak (N), Ryan Kearney (N), Tim Straub (BO), Greg Hubbard (NW), Greg Bogdan (BO), Jeremy John Dallas sweeps Tunkhannock WA Dallas swept its tri-meet from Tunkhannock, 26-33, and Wyoming Area, 15-50, Monday afternoon. Tunkhannock raced past Wyoming Area, 15-50, in the other meet.

Matt Samuel took first for the Mounts with a time of 16:53. Jack Daniels of Tunkhannock was second followed by Tunkhannock's Travis Swartwood, Brian CrispeH of Dallas and Tunkhannock's Jeremy Kacuba. RESULTS: Matt Samuel (D), Jack Daniels (T), Travis Swartwood (T), Brian Crisped (D), Jeremy Kacuba (T), Mike Lycon (D), John Crisped (D), Dave Seidel (D), Kevin Loeffler (D), Don Hartshorn (D), Shawn Miller (D), David Savignano (T), Travor Min-nlch (T), Greg Hodne (D), Glen Elsworth (D), 20:37. fifth, spun to avoid the other cars and wound up stuck in the wet grass on the inside of the turn, losing two laps this time. Again he charged through the pack, regaining one lap with the help of a caution flag and getting back on the lead lap by passing then-leader Brett Bodine on lap 442.

But he just ran out of time to get back to the front. Elliott, the series points leader, had a bad day he went out of the race on lap 161 with an engine problem and finished 30th in the 31-car field. Meanwhile, runnerup Allison was on his way to a 16th-place finish, cutting Elliott's lead from 154 points to 112 with five races remaining. Jimmy Hensley, from nearby Ridgeway, took the lead from Petty on lap 14, but gave it back to the pole-winner on lap 20 and quickly faded out of contention, being lapped by Petty on lap 98. Dale Earnhardt's disappointing season continued as the two-time defending Winston Cup champion had to make a lengthy pit stop beginning on lap 101 when a piece fell off his engine while Earnhardt was running seventh.

He came to forget 1 and a bad ending." The end of Kruk's season came last week with an injury to his right shoulder. He will undergo exploratory arthroscopic surgery Thursday. Actually, Kruk's middle was a topic of conversation in training camp, when he showed up jverweight. Both Kruk and man back out briefly but wound up finishing last. Ernie Irvan, another early contender, ran into a transmission problem on lap 124 while running third, having to go behind the wall for extensive repairs.

The race was rained out Sunday without a lap being run, and more rain Monday morning postponed the rescheduled 10 a.m. EDT start. Finally, however, the rain stopped just past midday and after track safety and utility vehicles had gotten the oval fairly dry, NASCAR sent the field onto the track at 1:54 p.m. to finish the job. The race cars ran behind the pace car for about 20 minutes before pitting to top off the gas tanks and clean the windshields.

The field took the green and yellow flags together, officially beginning the race, at 2:22 p.m. in gloomy-but-dry conditions. Racing began at 2:30 p.m. when the green flag was waved for the 10th lap. About half of Sunday's expected crowd of approximately 51,000 showed up despite the continuing threatening weather.

992 season ager Jim Fregosi said that wouldn't be an issue next spring. Kruk last week conceded he needed to do more offseason work this time. "I've got to work hard this winter," he said. "I've got to get in shape, build up my shoulder, strengthen my legs." i Kruk hoping PHILADELPHIA (AP) Even though John Kruk led the National League in hitting for much of the 1992 season, he'd prefer forgetting the whole thing. "What's there to remember?" Kruk said of a frustrating year for the Philadelphia Phillies.

"This just about tops it off. It was a season with a bad start, a bad middle.