MECHANICSBURG
 When the caution flag appeared on lap 16 of Friday night’s 25 lap 410 Sprint car feature at Williams Grove Speedway, there probably  wasn’t a fan in the grandstands that thought Bob Bennett would hold off the likes of Lucas Wolfe and Greg Hodnett.

 But Bennett fended off Wolfe’s challenges and then pulled away over the final few circuits to pull off the upset win of the year at the Grove.
 It was the first career Williams Grove win for Bennett, who has been a long time competitor locally and on the road with traveling series as well.

 “It’s been along time coming,” said the Lewisberry racer, who became the 17th different driver to win at the track this season. “I didn’t know if I would ever get here. You (track announcer )Bruce Ellis and I talked about this in the interview out at Knoxville and you told me it was just a matter of time. I wanted to believe it but with the troubles we’ve had this year and the last couple of years, I didn’t think we would ever do it.”

 Bennett was unsure he would even make a lap of the feature after motor problems during his heat race put things in limbo. He won his heat and the team made repairs and he was able to start on the front row alongside Rich Eichelberger.

 Bennett drove out front right away as Wolfe was on the move in a hurry after starting 10th.

 Wolfe was fourth on lap four while 12th starting Greg Hodnett was also on the move to the front, taking fifth with just seven laps complete.
  Wolfe and Hodnett moved into third and fourth on lap eight as the pair along with runner-up Rick Lafferty began to reel in Bennett’s Acme Trailer Works JEI Chassis.

 The four cars raced under a blanket on lap 15 as Wolfe and Hodnett appeared ready to settle things between themselves when a caution for debris slowed the great action on the track.

 Wolfe made an attempt to get around Bennett but a yellow for a stalled Clark Simonton brought out another yellow on lap 17.

 Hodnett challenged Wolfe on the restart as the two battled hard for several laps allowing Bennett to pull away and score the popular win. It was worth $3,000 to the team.

 “The track was super heavy tonight and great to run on,” commented the winner. “I’m just glad to beat some of the best sprint car racers in the country. Lucas got alongside a couple times and I was able to fight him back off and I didn’t see him after a couple of laps so I thought maybe I was alright.”

 Bennett thought his left rear tire was losing air late in the race but he was able to bring it home in one piece and score the upset win over a stellar field of sprint car drivers.

 Wolfe, of Mechanicsburg was second over Hodnett of Thomasville, Lancaster’s Doug Esh and Pennington, NJ’s Lafferty.

 Jeff Shepard came from 13th to finish sixth and closed  to within 45 points of Todd Shaffer for the Williams Grove points lead. Fred Rahmer was seventh ahead of Chris Meleason, Craig Keel and Ryan Bohlke.

 Wolfe’s gallant run from his 19th starting spot to take the lead on lap 21 of the 25 lap URC Sprint car feature was all for not when the Rick Kaylor owned sprint car came up 13 pounds light at the post race weigh in.

 Wolfe’s disqualification gave the win to West Lawn’s Dave Ely, who had led the first 20 laps of the event.

 Michael Carber, Randy West, Davey Sammons, and URC points leader Curt Michael were the top five finishers with Kyle Purks, Pat Cannon, Mares Stellfox, Josh Weller and Ed Aiken completing the top 10.

 Sprint car heat winners were Bennett, Eichelberger, Simonton and Lafferty with Josh Wells winning the consolation. There were 32 cars on hand.
 Thirty-one URC Sprints signed in with Robby Stillwagon, Ely and Stellfox the heat winners and Wolfe winning the consolation.

PIT STOPS…Chad Layton was aboard the Pete Postupack owned No. 25 sprint car after Lance Dewease was relieved of his driving duties in the car Thursday. Dewease will take over the wheel of the Don Owens No. 30C driven by Steve Clabaugh beginning next week and the team plans a 90 plus race schedule in 2008 with Dewease the driver. No word on whether Layton is just a temporary fill-in or a possible replacement for the Pete’s Motorsports car…The J & S Fabrication No. 22 sprint car team might be heading to Port Royal Saturday night after driver Hodnett along with crew chief Moon Byers were sent certified letters with fines and probation stemming from a pit incident last Saturday. Hodnett showed his displeasure with Rahmer following the feature event. The team was still undecided late last night on which direction they will go and possible future plans with the race car…