Last year’s 17th
annual Cindy Rowe Auto Glass Pennsylvania Sprint Speedweek came down to the
final lap of the final event of the eight-race series.
Will the 2008 version of Speedweek play out quite as exciting?
We are about to find out.
The 18th annual CRAG Speedweek series kicks off Saturday night with the ninth
annual Kevin Gobrecht Memorial at Lincoln Speedway.
Bedford Speedway will take center stage with the Speedweek series on Sunday
night as the 410 Sprints take on the new clay at the big half mile for the first
time this year. Monday will serve as a raindate for the Bedford show.
Grandview Speedway’s Thunder on the Hill series will host Speedweek on Tuesday
night followed by an annual visit to Frank Plessinger’s Hagerstown Speedway next
Wednesday night.
The first of two visits to Port Royal Speedway for the Speedweek series will be
next Thursday, July 3 followed by the crown jewel of Speedweek next Friday as
Williams Grove Speedway presents the Mitch Smith Memorial. The series heads back
to Port Royal next Saturday night for their second show of the week with the
series finale on Sunday, July 6 at Selinsgrove Speedway.
Like they have for many seasons, Williams Grove’s Mitch Smith Memorial pays
$10,000 to win which is the highest paying race of the series.
The Gobrecht Memorial at Lincoln and the Saturday night show at Port Royal both
pay $7,000 to win this year while the remainder of the shows each pay $5,000 to
win. This is the first year in several seasons that the Speedweek purses did not
increase.
The overall Speedweek series winner will earn $2,000 while the top 10 drivers
in series points will receive point fund checks. The point fund payoff is
dependant on all tracks completing its scheduled event.
Last year, Mechanicsburg’s Lucas Wolfe earned his first career Speedweek title
by a mere eight points over Greg Hodnett.
Wolfe needed to finish third in the finale at Selinsgrove last season and was
able to finish in that spot, just good enough to edge Hodnett for the exciting
title battle.
For obvious reasons, Wolfe will not be defending his Speedweek title in 2008.
He is a regular on the World of Outlaws tour but currently is on the injured
list with a fractured vertebra.
That opens the door for a new champion to take over this season.
And bets are good that Fred Rahmer could easily take his 11th career Speedweek
title.
Rahmer has been the King of Speedweek with 28 career wins and titles coming in
1992, 93, 94, 95, 98, 2000, 03, 04, 05 and 06. Rahmer already has 10 wins this
season and holds healthy leads in Williams Grove, Lincoln and the overall Speed
Dawg point battles.
Lance Dewease ranks second in Speedweek wins but won’t be a regular this year
as he will be racing in Ohio during a portion of the local Speedweek. Dewease
does plan to compete in several Speedweek shows.
Hodnett has 16 Speedweek wins and one title in 2002 but 2008 has been a season
Hodnett would rather put behind him as he and the Jim and Sandy Kline team have
struggled.
Don Kreitz has eight Speedweek wins and Keith Kauffman holds seven career
Speedweek wins.
Brian Leppo finished 10th in Speedweek points a year ago but has been hitting
on all eight cylinders lately with Barry Jackson turning the wrenches on the
Floyd Swope owned sprinter. Leppo was very impressive during Keystone Cup action
and is looking to back those performances with some good runs during PA
Speedweek.
Stevie Smith plans to compete in all eight races and normally time trials well.
Smith finished third in last year’s Speedweek series without a win and could
pose a threat this season.
In 2007, 78 different drivers competed in at least one Speedweek show with 16
teams competing in all of the Speedweek events. The average car count a year ago
was 34 per meet.
Hopefully Mother Nature cooperates for all eight shows and teams and fans
support the series like they have in past years. Obviously there are many
factors working against racing this year, and if past years are any indication,
Speedweek could help many speedway’s turn their season around.
TRONE STILL PARKED
John Trone went to Lincoln Speedway Saturday night to watch some racing.
When he arrived, he said he was told by numerous people who he had driving his
sprint car.
Trone said it was news to him!
“You wouldn’t believe all the rumors out there and I had people telling me who
was driving my car for Speedweek and so forth,” Trone said on Monday.
“Supposedly I have Tim Shaffer driving for Speedweek and that’s funny because I
haven’t talked to him in three years and others said that Greg Hodnett was
driving for me and I haven’t talked to Greg or Sherry since Florida. I guess
people don’t have anything better to do.”
Trone said that his No. 39 sprint car remains parked and will remain parked for
a while. He has no plans to return anytime soon as he is in the process of
finishing a race car shop at his business, which will house his race car.
He also said his equipment was returned in pieces so there aren’t even any race
cars put together.
“Right now, I have nothing in the works,” Trone added. “I’ve had a lot of calls
from drivers wanting to race my car at Knoxville and I’d like to go back out
there to race but we’ll just have to wait and see what happens. I am not coming
back until I have all of my ducks in a row and can do it right.”
PIT STOPS
The annual 600 Sprint car Speedweek kicks off Saturday night with a $3,000 to
win event at Trail-Way Speedway. Lincoln Speedway will host a 600 sprint event
for the first time with a Sunday night event followed by another $3,000 to win
show Monday at Path Valley Speedway. The series takes Tuesday night off and then
returns Wednesday at Greenwood Valley Action Track followed by a Thursday show
at Susquehanna, Friday at Linda’s and the Super 600 Showdown paying $10,000 to
win next Saturday at Lanco, Clyde Martin Memorial Speedway. J & K Salvage and
Eichelberger’s U-Pull-It are the PA 600 Speedweek sponsors…
The 28th annual All Star Ohio Sprint Speedweek didn’t get off to a good start
with Sunday’s Attica Raceway Park and Monday’s event at Wayne County Speedway
were both rained out. Night three at Hilltop Speedway was able to beat Mother
Nature where Randy Hannagan scored the win over Byron Reed, Dale Blaney, Lance
Dewease and Tim Shaffer…
Joey Saldana finally broke into victory lane for the first time this season on
the World of Outlaws tour with a Friday night win at Dodge City Raceway Park.
Donny Schatz captured his seventh win in the Saturday night event at Dodge City…
Harrisonville’s Mike Wagner didn’t have a very good debut in the Lonnie Parsons
owned No. 6 on the Outlaw tour. Friday night, Wagner battled what he called the
worst handling race car he’s ever driven and eventually had a flat tire and
finished 18th. Saturday night, the team suffered motor woes during time trials
and then during the feature, Wagner was taken out by another competitor. He
finished 20th. Wagner returned to Pennsylvania on Monday and will be back in his
No. 55 this weekend…
York’s Rick Eckert ended a long dry spell with a win Saturday night on the
World of Outlaws tour at Drummondville Autodrome in Quebec. It was Eckert’s
first Outlaw since July 8, 2006. Tim McCreadie and Josh Richards was a two time
winner in other Canadian action…
