Nobody
Asked me But…
About the only word to describe last weekend’s opening night crowds at
Williams Grove, Selinsgrove and Lincoln Speedway is Wow!
With near perfect weather, Williams Grove kicked off the Northeast racing
season on Friday night and had a near World of Outlaws crowd for the opener
and fans were treated to a fantastic race in both divisions.
I can’t remember a crowd like Lincoln had for its Saturday night opener as
people were parked up and down the roads around the track and even in fields
about a quarter to half mile away. Local police had a field day in giving
$15 parking tickets to all the roadside offenders.
But speaking of Lincoln parking, someone needs to get a handle on cars
blocking the main lane for rigs to get out of the track. Start calling tow
trucks and get rid of the offenders before it turns into problems like it
did on Saturday night.
Doug Esh was a rocket on opening weekend. Esh was the only car in the field
to run short on fuel Friday night at the Grove and it cost the team $3,600.
Esh was the class of the field until the final lap.
It appeared Esh might be the man to beat at Lincoln after coming from 16th
to second but Mark Smith looked real good in his first ever Lincoln win in
the opener. Smith’s victory lane interview was a good one too. Congrats to
his team and also for Mach 1 Chassis on its first Lincoln victory.
Smith’s Mach 1 Chassis had a good weekend after a Blane Heimbach win in the
358 Sprints on Friday at the Grove. Heimbach will have a big season this
year.
We hope Joey Saldana can return to the seat when the Outlaws return to
action on April 10th. Saldana underwent surgery on Monday to repair a broken
hand sustained at Bulls Gap last weekend. Saldana has a legitimate shot at a
first WoO championship this season.
Speaking of the Outlaws, congrats to Lance Dewease on the best Pennsylvania
Posse finish of the season in an Outlaw sanctioned race last Saturday at
Bulls Gap. Dewease finished in the runner-up spot to Jason Meyers, the new
WoO points leader.
Tyler Walker’s debut in the Heffner Racing machine this weekend resulted in
a DNF at the Grove and a crashed car at Lincoln. But don’t fret fans,
according to Heffner Racing’s Twitter post this week, they will be in
Victory lane this weekend.
We wonder how the new Sprint car engine rules at Knoxville Raceway will
impact the sport, particularly the Knoxville Nationals. The track will allow
35 cubic inch engines with a displacement of a 440 cubic inch with certain
restrictions. The rule was formed with hopes of making engines capable of
running a complete season with one rebuild and costing a lot less for the
initial investment. Stay tuned.
The late model ranks has a new favorite after 18-year-old Austin Hubbard
captured a career first win with the World of Outlaws at the Screvens Motor
speedway on Saturday. After winning, Hubbard stiped off his racing shoes,
his uniform and his fireproof top and ran down the frontstrech wearing only
his helmet and long underwear. He also rolled several times in the mud and
was high-fiving fans along the fence. Good stuff and such a fresh young
talent being given a great opportunity by car owner Dale Beitler.
Fred Rahmer gave the rest of his competition a tough task at the Grove this
season after declaring “I will be the champion.” Rahmer has never lost the
title after winning the opening day event so he could be right.
LISI RACING SCALING BACK
Driver Mike Erdley said Tuesday night that the Randy Lisi owned No. 11
sprint car team is scaling back its racing schedule for this season.
“Randy has decided to just run all Port Royal and Selinsgrove shows this
season and I’m almost thinking it might be a little, more fun, not trying
to run such a crazy schedule,”
Erdley said. “We’ll see how it goes.”
Erdley, who has worked for the Lisi owned business for many years, recently
put his four-week notice in and will be going into the potato farming
business in a few weeks.
MORE TRACKS OPEN
While Williams Grove, Lincoln, Selinsgrove, Path Valley and Trail-Way
Speedway will be back for a second week of racing this weekend, Port Royal
and Hagerstown Speedway join the mix for the first time this season.
The super late models join the 410 Sprints at Williams Grove on Friday
while Path Valley is back with micro sprint racing along with the legend
cars on Friday.
Saturday night will find Lincoln back with 410 Sprints, thundercars and the
Super Sportsman while Port Royal kicks off its season with 410 Sprints, 305
Sprints and late models.
Selinsgrove Speedway will host the 358 Sprints and pro stocks for the first
time on Saturday night while Trail-Way is back with micro sprint racing
Saturday afternoon. Hagerstown Speedway will have the DIRT Modifieds for its
Saturday night opener.
WEEKEND RESULTS
Joey Saldana and Jason Meyers were winners with the World of Outlaws at
Bulls Gap last weekend. Saldana won over Steve Kinser, Danny Lasoski, Brad
Sweet and Paul McMahan while Meyers scored the win over Dewease, Sweet,
McMahan and Kinser.
Pat Ward won Friday night’s small block modified Race of Champions event at
Selinsgrove Speedway over Doug Manmiller, Ronnie Johnson, Danny Johnson and
Ryan Godown.
Matt Sheppard won Saturday’s $5,000 paycheck in the Race of Champions Big
Block Modifieds feature over Duane Howard, Pat Ward, Brett Hearn and Danny
Johnson.
Tyler Walton raced to the 600 Micro Sprint win at Trail-Way Speedway over
Ryan Greth, Tom Kohler, Heath Hehnly and Mike Rutherford while Todd Hoover
took the win over Nik Gower, Billy Logeman, Sean McAndrew and Dave
Schreiber. Alex Schanz picked up the 1000 Sidewinders win over Mike Zielonis,
Tracy Readinger, Keith Ford and Seth Kearchner.
Aside from Hubbard’s win at Screvens, Darrell Lanigan won the Friday Outlaw
late model event at Ocala Speedway in Florida.
