MECHANICSBURG
Everyone knew when Lee Stauffer joined the Jim and
Sandy Kline owned sprint car team and driver Greg
Hodnett, the team would rise to the top.
Stauffer and Hodnett go way back to the Apple Chevrolet
days when Hodnett moved from his native Memphis,
Tennessee to pilot one of the most potent rides in the
history of Pennsylvania racing.
After going their separate ways, the two reunited this
time under the J & S banner and it’s paying dividends.
Hodnett drove to his second win in three weeks at
Williams Grove Speedway on Friday night winning the 410
Sprint car feature.
He won against the World of Outlaws two weeks ago and
just won the Keystone Cup finale on Monday at Port Royal
Speedway.
Hodnett started 10th in the field Friday night and took
the lead from Dave Ely on lap 21 and drove away from the
field to earn the $3,000 top prize along with another
$500 bonus from the Grove’s 2009 incentive program.
“I really appreciate Kathy (Hughes) and Justin (Loh)
for recognizing the efforts you have to go through to
get from the back to the front,” said Hodnett, of
Thomasville. “The car felt really good tonight. It took
about halfway to get going but once it did, it would go
wherever I put it. I just had to wait for the fuel load
to get off and get going.”
Teenager Aaron Ott set the early pace over Ely as Ott
drove away from the field during the first half of the
race.
Ott’s race car began to suffer motor problems as Ely,
Rick Lafferty and Hodnett quickly closed the gap with 10
laps to go.
Ely drove into the lead on lap 17 as Hodnett got around
Lafferty for third on lap 18 then drove under Ott on lap
21 just as Ott’s motor let go in his family owned
sprinter.
Hodnett wasted no time in driving under Ely for the
lead and never looked back despite a last lap yellow for
Steve Buckwalter, who stopped in turn four.
Hodnett’s win was his 38th career at Williams Grove,
moving him into seventh place on the all-time track win
list. This is only his ninth full season in competition
in Central Pennsylvania, making that statistic even more
impressive. He was tied with Steve Kinser, Kenny Weld
and Todd Shaffer heading into the night.
“I don’t even know what to say,” said Hodnett when told
who he was tied with on the all time win list. “Those
names are Hall of Famers and future Hall of Famers and
to be on that same list, I’m just very grateful to be a
part of it. We really haven’t been here that long. This
is my ninth full season so it says a lot for the teams
that I’ve driven for to be able to get amount of wins in
such a short time.”
Ely, of Sinking Spring finished second over Lafferty,
of Pennington, NJ, Elizabethville’s Mike Erdley and
Harrisburg’s Chad Layton, who was piloting the Dave
Middleswarth owned No. 7 for the first time Friday
night.
Rounding out the top 10 were Doug Esh, 20th starting
Brian Montieth, Lance Dewease, Fred Rahmer and Adam
Wilt. Montieth earned the Coliseum Hard Charger award.
Carlisle’s Frankie Herr won the 20-lap 358 Sprint car
feature over Blane Heimbach, Cory Haas, Scott Geesey and
Pat Cannon.
There were 25 410 Sprints and 33 358 Sprints on hand.
PIT STOPS…Layton was asked to drive the Middleswarth car
this week but Keith Kauffman has been told he is still
the Saturday night driver for the team at Port Royal
Speedway…It was the first night for Daryn Pittman in the
Keen No. 17 (11th place) and Justin Henderson in the
Pete’s No. 25 (15th place)…Cannon returned to the
Highlands owned No. 3. The team will race both 410 and
358 races at the Grove….USAC is at the Grove on
Wednesday night, June 3. Doug Esh removed his wing to
practice following Friday night’s racing and left the
ballpark on his first lap flipping over the first turn
wall…
