Nouse Needs A Break/Rahmer Leads Speedweek Into The Weekend

Kevin Nouse parted ways with car owner Roger McKeehan following a fifth place finish at Port Royal Speedway Saturday night.

Nouse, in his second stint with the No. 4R 358 sprint car team, had one win at Lincoln Speedway this season and five top five finishes in 14 starts.

“I’ve been going to the races for 35 years now and this is the first time I’ve ever got burnt out with it,” said Nouse, of Lewisberry. “I need to take a break for awhile. I have no other plans at this time except to spend some much needed time with Jen and Logan.”

Nouse has spent some time this season as a color commentator for DIRTVISION and has done a great job.

SPEEDWEEK CONTINUES
The 18th annual Cindy Rowe Auto Glass Pennsylvania Sprint Speedweek continues tonight at the Port Royal Speedway before heading to Williams Grove Speedway for tomorrow night’s crown jewel of the series-the $10,000 to win Mitch Smith Memorial.

Port Royal will host a second night of Speedweek on Saturday with $7,000 going to the winner with Selinsgrove Speedway concluding the week-long series Sunday night.

Doug Esh waited out a long rain delay Saturday night at Lincoln Speedway before winning the Speedweek opener.

Bedford Speedway went 0 for 2 against Mother Nature, losing both their Sunday night and their Monday night raindate.

Tuesday night a packed house saw Fred Rahmer take the lead on lap 16 and drive away to win the 35-lap Thunder on the Hill Speedweek event at Grandview Speedway.

Rahmer also set quick time for the night over the 30-car field.

Lance Dewease was second over Brian Leppo, Cody Darrah and Greg Hodnett.

MICHAEL ON THE INJURED LIST
AJ Michael’s hard crash Saturday night during heat race action has put the young Lititz driver out of action for several weeks.

Michael flipped hard following a lengthy rain delay for the PA Speedweek show at Lincoln Speedway. He was involved with Jeff Busby. The roll cage on Michael’s car was bent in several inches from the impact and his helmet was also cracked from the impact.

Michael, who recently won a career first sprint car main at Williams Grove, will not be able to drive for three weeks or until he passes his physical.

MURPHY ON FIRE
The PA 600 Speedweek is off and running with large car counts during the first three nights of competition.

Following an opening night rainout at Trail-Way Speedway on Saturday, Lincoln Speedway kicked off the series with its first ever event where 94 micros signed in for action.

Spring Grove’s Tim Glatfelter took the win over Heath Hehnly, Brent Marks, Jan Luckenbaugh and Mike Dicely. Newville’s Timmie Barrick finished ninth.

In Monday night’s event at Path Valley Speedway Park, it was Enola’s Jake Murphy picking up the big $3,000 paycheck. Murphy defeated his brother Ben for the win over the 91-car field. Mike Dicely, Tyler Reddick and Shippensburg’s Dwayne Gutshall were the top five finishers. Tim Mertz was the 1000 Sidewinders winner and Sean McAndrew won the 270cc feature.

Trail-Way used a Tuesday night raindate and it was Jake Murphy once again blowing away the competition for his second straight win worth $3,000.

Murphy led all 25 laps for the win over Robert Kendall, Duane Harbaugh, Scott Sawyer and Terry Schaeffer. Gutshall finished 15th. There were 86 cars in action.
The series continues tonight at Susquehanna Speedway Park followed by a Friday date at Linda’s Speedway and the Super 600 Showdown Saturday at Clyde Martin Memorial Speedway which pays $10,000 to win…

HANNAGAN WINS OHIO SPEEDWEEK
Randy Hannagan won one feature and put together consistent finishes in the four Ohio Speedweek races to bring home the week long series championship last week.

Hannagan on the opener at Hilltop Speedway and never finished outside the top five in the next three shows to secure the title. Four of the events were lost due to rain.

Dale Blaney won at Skyline Speedway and then won the $10,000 finale at Eldora while David Harrison won the Fremont Speedway event in front of the hometown crowd.

Blaney’s week of good finishes also cut a big chunk out of Lance Dewease’s All Star points lead heading into tonights event at KC Raceway and Friday night‘s show at Terre Haute Action Track. Blaney now trails Dewease by just 34 points, compared to over 200 when the series started. Dewease’s best finish of the week was fourth at Hilltop Speedway.

PIT STOPS
Dillsburg’s John Westbrook was involved in a hard crash Friday night that sent him to the hospital for checkup. Westbrook was released Saturday morning and should be back racing his own No. 1W and the Clair Wintermyer No. 3W soon…

It was all Donny Schatz again on the World of Outlaw tour last weekend with a Friday night win at River Cities (ND) and Sunday at Cedar Lakes (WI). The only thing stopping Schatz was bad weather on Saturday which canceled the show at Red River Valley (SD). Schatz is beginning to pull away from the competition in the point battle and it will be tough for anyone to catch him at this point as he heads for another championship, but the first with Tony Stewart Racing…

Great to see Diakon Adoption Night has a major sponsor on board for their show, scheduled for Friday night, August 1 at Williams Grove Speedway. J & K Salvage and Darrah Motorsports will serve as the primary sponsor for the fifth annual event which promotes adoption awareness by posting adoptive youths’ photos on sprint car wings as well as hosting an adoption fair, matching events and sharing information to race fans. Elisa Esh and her Diakon staff have done a tremendous job in making this a successful event and with the help of Joe Darrah, this year will be no different…

A big welcome to the law firm of Colgan Marzzacco for coming on board to sponsor the Mitch Smith Memorial and the remaining Diamond Series events this season at Williams Grove Speedway. It’s always nice to see new businesses getting involved in the sport…

Lincoln Speedway has a big Saturday night of action headlined by the Wintermyer Auto Salvage 358 Sprint championship paying $2,500 to win. Joining the 358 sprints will be the Super Sportsman and 358 late models Both the Sportsman and late models will have makeup features to complete rained out from May 17th. MALCO Landscaping is sponsoring the 358 late model main with $1,500 to win…

Carlisle’s Mark Zimmerman made his 410 Sprint car debut at Tuesday night’s Grandview Speedweek show. Zimmerman was a regular on the Sportsman tour at Silver Spring but hasn’t race in over a year. He will compete with his No. 55 410 Sprint car at various events during the season.

Last week's Williams Grove winner-Ryan Bohlke-will miss tomorrow's Mitch Smith Memorial because he left for a 10-day cruise on Tuesday...