The
All Stars are coming and are the Pennsylvania Posse ready?
While no driver has been dominant this season in the area, this
weekend’s invasion by the O’Reilly All Stars is a tune-up for
something a little bigger in three weeks when the World of Outlaws
hit Central PA.
But for this moment in time, all eyes will be on whether the Posse
can keep the Williams Grove Speedway undefeated streak alive and if
any All Star can tame the Posse at Lincoln Speedway and on
semi-neutral soil at Big Diamond Raceway.
Last season at Williams Grove, Todd Shaffer and Cody Darrah set
back the All Stars to make it 20 straight Posse wins at the Grove
against the traveling series.
But could that change this season?
Defending All Star champion Tim Shaffer got some track time at the
Grove and Lincoln last weekend and nearly walked away a winner at
Williams Grove, finishing a close third and also took a top 10
finish at Lincoln. Shaffer is more than capable to winning races and
could be a major threat to the Posse this weekend.
Shaffer will have Dale Blaney, Greg Wilson and a few more travelers
coming to the area this weekend to battle the Posse, where there
have been 14 different winners so far this season. Only Rick
Lafferty and Fred Rahmer have two wins on Pennsylvania clay.
Rahmer and track champion Brian Montieth won All Star events at
Lincoln a year ago while the 410 Sprints return to Big Diamond on
Sunday will be the first since the 2007 season for the big sprints.
Time trials will set the stage for all three events with the Grove
start time at 7:30pm, Lincoln at 7pm and Diamond going at 6pm.
The ARDC Midgets are on the card at both the Grove and Big Diamond
while the Legends are in action at Lincoln.
RIDE SWAPPING
Daryn Pittman parted ways with the Keen Motorsports sprint car team
following weekend racing and was quickly replaced by Tyler Walker.
Walker told car owner Mike Heffner on Saturday that he was moving
to the Keen No. 17 sprinter beginning this weekend and then went out
and got the Heffner team its second career Port Royal Speedway win
later that night. Keith Kauffman got Heffner his first win last
year.
Pittman will jump behind the wheel of the Heffner car for this
weekend’s three All Star shows then will be looking for a ride for
the remainder of the season.
Pittman won several shows last season with the Keen team, including
the Mitch Smith Memorial and Jack Gunn Memorial at Williams Grove.
NEW TWIST FOR KEYSTONE CUP
This year’s edition of the Keystone Cup 410 Sprint series will have
an added twist with hopes of making time trials more fair.
Time trials will still be used to set the heat race lineups but
drivers will be timing against the drivers who will be in their heat
race.
The time trial order will be set by a blind draw, but for the first
time, that draw will also be used to determine which cars compete in
which heat races. For example, if four eight car heat races are
required the first eight pills drawn will be the first eight time
trial drivers, but they will also all be in the first heat. This
should offset the often changing track conditions during time
trials.
Each heat race will have a four car inversion based on time trials.
If four heats are run, five cars qualify in each race, however the
top two finishes and the fastest time trialer who qualifies, will be
locked into a draw for the top starting spots for the feature.
To add some addition spice to the night, if the fastest time
trialer makes the top two positions in the heat race, there will be
less drivers in the draw. Everything will depend on car count.
For those who like to keep track, you better start practicing!
PIT STOPS
The World of Outlaws Sprints were rained out in Indiana last
weekend and will have a Saturday night event this weekend at
Jackson Speedway in Minnesota. Jason Meyers continues to lead the
points…
It will be Hometown Heroes Night at Susquehanna for those living in
Lewisberry, Etters and New Cumberland on Saturday night…
