Dewease Leads All Stars Into Central PA

Dewease Leads All Stars Into Central PA

By Brad Vores May 8, 2008

For the first time in his career, Lance Dewease won’t be a Posse this weekend.

Dewease is a full-time regular with the O’Reilly All Star Circuit of Champions and the series will invade Central Pennsylvania this weekend and will lay claim on one of the finest sprint car drivers to come out of the Keystone State.

While Dewease leads the All Star points heading into tomorrow night’s Williams Grove Speedway event and Saturday’s Port Royal Speedway date, the current season hasn’t been very kind to the Fayetteville driver, in his first full season driving for car owners Donny and Lisa Owens.

While Dewease has one win with the All Stars at Ohio’s Attica Raceway Park, his performances in the midstate have been lackluster. He’s had four top five finishes in 12 local starts.

“We haven’t had the results we’d like to have in the local shows but we’re always working towards the big picture,” said the multi-time Williams Grove track champion. “One thing is when we race local, we’re being penalized for not racing every weekend so that puts you behind the eight ball right off the bat. But we’ve been working on things that I think are heading us in the right direction and get us to where we need to be.”

The big picture for the team in 2008 is the lucrative All Star points championship. It pays $50,000 to the championship team.

With a good start in early season races in Florida, Dewease brings a 116 point lead into Pennsylvania, where he hopes his Catoctin Motorsports team can run well against not only the invading All Stars but also the always tough Pennsylvania Posse.

“Our goal when we decided to run the tour is to win the championship,” he stated. “If we were going to do it, there was no use to try and not to win the championship. I’ve kinda done everything locally that I can so this is a new challenge. We got off to a good start in Florida and the early races and I want to keep that going because I know when we get to Ohio Speedweek, those guys are going to be tough to beat. So I’d like to try and build as big of a lead we possibly can until that point.”

Dewease can strengthen his points lead this weekend as the series visits tracks that he has amassed 158 career wins.

What does Dewease think about his chances heading into the weekend on tracks that he’s raced on for over 20 years?

“I think they are pretty good but it all comes back to timing,” he said about the events that are lined up according to time trials. “Anyone that follows our racing now, knows it’s all about starting spot. There’s only one car right now locally that shows the capability night in and night out to pass cars and that’s Fred (Rahmer). Everybody else is in the same boat as we are. If you start up front, you’re fast or just okay and if you start in the back, you run in the back. It’s just kinda how our racing is in general right now. I don’t think we’re good enough to win at the Grove right now but I think we have some good ideas that hopefully puts us in position to win.”

Aside from Dewease, All Star regulars expected in Central PA this weekend include Dale Blaney, Randy Hannagan, Brian Paulus, Greg Wilson, Brian Ellenberger, Brock Mayes, Brandon Martin, Kenny Jacobs, Paul McMahan and more.

Port’s race on Saturday night will serve as the sixth annual running of the Bob Weikert Memorial.

WHATS HAPPENING
Lincoln Speedway will serve up double 410 Sprint car features on Saturday night.

One of the features will be the rained out feature from April 26th plus a regular program of 410 Sprints, 358 Sprints and thundercars. Doug Dodson and Cory Haas will lead the field to the green flag in the makeup feature.

The super late models join the All Star sprints Friday at Williams Grove. It will be the final appearance of the year for the late models.

The 358 late models are in action Friday night at Trail-Way Speedway while the micro sprints headline Saturday night action at the track.

The PA 305 Sprints return to Path Valley Speedway Park Friday night along with the Sidewinder Sprints while the Bedford Speedway hosts a regular late model program Saturday night.

Williams Grove is hoping for fair skies for Saturday night’s Super Sportsman, 358 late model, street stock program as the series has only completed two events so far in 2008.

Selinsgrove Speedway returns Saturday with 358 sprints and stock cars with the pro stocks going in the Ink Spot 20 championship race and Susquehanna Speedway Park is back with another Saturday night program headlined by 358 late models.

PIT STOPS
Several All Star Sprint car drivers will be making appearances this week in the midstate area today including Greg Wilson at Cindy Rowe Auto Glass in York from 11am until 1pm and Lee Stark and Jack Hewitt will be on hand at Geico in Harrisburg from 2pm-5pm. Dewease will make an appearance at Sutliff Hummer in Mechanicsburg from 11am until 1pm while Hannagan will be at Route 15 Beverage Express in Dillsburg toady from 3pm-5pm…

Donny Schatz got back on track with the World of Outlaws last weekend at Knoxville Raceway where he won on Saturday night in record time. Schatz set a new 25 lap record in just seven minutes, 14 seconds. He won over Joey Saldana, Jac Haudenschild, Steve Kinser and Jason Meyers. Lucas Wolfe finished 15th…

Shannon Babb and Brian Birkhofer were winners in last weekend’s World of Outlaws late model series events. Babb won Saturday night aboard a Clint Bowyer owned machine at Lebanon I-44 Raceway in Missouri while Birkhofer took the win Sunday at Monett Speedway in Missouri…

Central PA Speedway in Clearfield will host the All Star Sprints on Wednesday, June 11th. It will be the first ever 410 sprint car show at the track…

Lucas Wolfe got some track time at Huset’s Speedway last week finishing third after starting 14th in the field…

The World of Outlaws invade Central PA next weekend with races at Williams Grove Speedway…