MECHANICSBURG
 Todd Shaffer has been one of the fastest cars all season long at Williams Grove Speedway.

 But because of  the track’s handicapping system and the fact that there are a lot of fast race cars showing up each week, Shaffer has been shut out of victory lane.

 Friday night, the Millerstown driver patiently waited for Steve Clabaugh to make a mistake and then drove away from the field for his first win of the season aboard the Gary and Patty Beam owned No. 88 JEI Chassis.

 Ed Aiken, of Lincoln University, Pa. wired the field to win the big $4,000 paycheck in the URC sanctioned Shot Drop 360 Sprint Nationals. It was his first win of the season.

 Spins by Lance Dewease and Ryan Bohlke brought out two consecutive yellow flags before a lap could be complete of the 410 Sprint 25 lap feature.

 Alan Krimes shot out front and led the first four laps before dropping to the pits with overheating problems.

 Clabaugh inherited the lead but Steve Buckwalter’s blown right rear tire sent his sprinter into a series of flips to slow action with five laps down.

 Shaffer tried to get around Clabaugh on the restart but was unable to make the pass and followed the Gettysburg racer until lap 13 when he drove the Villaqe Square Plaza, J & M Racing and Collectibles, McCoy Brothers General Contractors, Jack Gaughn Realty, Don Ott Racing Engines sprinter deep into the third turn and came out on top to lead the lap.

 “The 30 car was driving a heck of a race tonight and I told my crew that I would have the lead in two after that red flag but he did what he had to do,” said Shaffer, a 34-time winner at Williams Grove. “He stayed down just enough entering ad drove back up to the curb and he hung in there for a lot of laps before making one mistake and allowed me to get a run.”

 While Shaffer, who started sixth in the field drove off from the field, Brian Montieth was making another one of his Friday night blasts through the field after starting 23rd on the grid.

 Montieth raced his way into the top five with five laps to go and ended up finishing third, right behind Don Kreitz, Jr., who was the runner-up finisher.

 But the night belonged to Shaffer, who led the points for much of the season up until a few weeks ago.

 “We’ve been complaining about the handicap system and everybody is just so fast right now,” he said. “You have to catch breaks in the heats and tonight I did. Tonight was my night and I was able to start on the outside row. After struggling here for a couple weeks, it put us sixth and we had to take advantage of that tonight.”

 Fred Rahmer started 20th and finished fourth ahead of track points leader Jeff Shepard with Chad Layton, Rick Lafferty, Dewease, Lucas Wolfe and Jim Siegel the top 10 finishers.

 Aiken was never seriously challenged in his biggest career URC win as he led the entire distance of the Shot Drop Nationals.

 Layton finished second over Kramer Williamson, Pat Cannon and Blane Heimbach with Curt Michael, Cory Haas, Trevor Lewis, Michael Carber and Randy West completing the top 10.

 Heats for the 30 410 Sprints were won by Buckwalter, Siegel and Lafferty. Mark Smith won the consolation.

 URC heats were won by West, Kevin Welsh, Mares Stellfox and Lewis with Kevin Nagy topping the B-Main for the 38-car field.

 Williams Grove returns to action tonight with the Super Sportsman, 358 late models, street stocks and 4-cylinders.

PIT STOPS…Doug Esh and Kevin Nouse both qualified for the feature but Esh’s car would not fire and Nouse went to the pits after lining up for the race…Greg Hodnett crashed hard during his heat race and the team was finished for the night. The J & S rig left the pits early to go home and build another race car…