MECHANICSBURG
 Ryan Bohlke didn’t give up.

 Week after week of bad luck has hindered the Fredon, NJ sprint car driver but he kept returning each Friday night to Williams Grove Speedway.

 At some point, the bad luck will go away but it continued to follow the young driver.

 Last week, Bohlke skipped competition to attend his sister’s graduation from high school and last night, Bohlke finally got the monkey off his back.

 Bohlke was very impressive in driving to his first career 410 Sprint car feature win at Williams Grove Speedway.

 “I’ve been racing here a long time,” said Bohlke, whose Gene Chammings owned sprint car team make the near four-hour one way trek to the Grove each week. “This is my third year in the 410 and I raced 358’s and we’ve been close but never quite got here. It sure feels great to win at Williams Grove Speedway. I couldn’t ask for anything else.”

 Bohlke lined up fourth on the starting grid as Bob Bennett led lap one before giving way to Josh Wells on the second circuit.

 Bohlke moved into the runner-up spot on lap three and was chasing Wells when Carlisle’s Chris Meleason flipped to bring out a red flag on lap five.

 Bohlke made the race winning pass on Wells on lap seven just before Mark Smith’s slowing car brought out a yellow flag.

 Don Kreitz, Jr. moved into second spot on lap 10 but Bohlke was setting a torrid pace out front aboard the Current Elevator, LC Service No. 18 JEI Chassis and opened up a near four-second lead at the halfway mark of the 25-lap event.

 Bohlke’s big lead was wiped out on lap 16 when Doug Esh and Brian Paulus tangled on the front stretch.

 Kreitz challenged on the restart but Bohlke began to distance himself over the former track champion after three laps and was never challenged in his big win.

 “On that last restart I saw Kreitz stick his nose under me and I just tried to keep my concentration,” he said. “I was getting a little nervous there at the end but I held it together. I was just running as hard as I could and hopefully not wreck it.”

 Bohlke credited his fast race car to Newville’s Russ Mitten, Jr., who sets up the car each Friday night. Mitten is a regular on the Super Sportsman tour and builds the JEI chassis that Bohlke races.

 “We’ve just had bad luck week after week and I just couldn’t get the monkey off my back,” Bohlke added. “I felt bad and I just didn’t have anything going my way. But tonight we finally did it.”

 Kreitz, of Sinking Spring held on for the runner-up spot with Harrisburg’s Chad Layton placing third after starting 10th. Fourth went to Denver’s Alan Krimes who raced side by side with fifth place finisher Brian Montieth of Phoenixville for the last six laps.

 Fred Rahmer strengthened his Cindy Rowe Auto Glass points lead with a sixth place finish over Greg Hodnett, Josh Wells, Todd Shaffer and Niki Young.

 Pat Cannon continued his domination in the 358 Sprint car ranks with his fourth Grove win of the year in the division’s 20-lap feature event.

 Cannon came from his 12th starting spot for the win, his eighth overall this season in the Zane and Vicki Highlands owned sprint car.
 

Cannon took the lead on lap four and was never challenged in his win over Eric Tomecek, Dave Calaman, Scott Geesey and Tony Smoleynak.
 

Heat winners for the 36 358 sprints were won by Smoleynak, Stewart Smith, Mark Freeland and Cannon. Chad Trout was the consolation winner.

 Heats for the 28 sprint cars were won by Young, Steve Buckwalter and Bohlke. Paulus won the consolation.

 Williams Grove returns to action tonight with the Saturday Night Series featuring Super Sportsman, 358 late models, street stocks and 4-cylinders. Racing begins at 7pm.