A Busy Night of Action-Packed Racing at Susquehanna

By: Tim Nordon

The night started out with Terry Schaeffer taking the RTS Chassis Make-up 15-lap feature. Schaeffer battled outside pole sitter Randy West early in the event and held off Rodney Glass to take the win.

Kyle Levengood took the 4 cylinder 15-lap make-up feature win. He battled off a lightning fast Arlin Brougher early before brougher fell by the wayside. He then had to hold off Jerry Bard to come under the checkers first.

Then it was feature time for the modifieds. The first of two 20-lap features was won by Tom Umbenhauer, scoring his first ever Susquehanna Modified Feature win. Umbenhauer is no stranger to victory lane as he has seen success in Sportsman and Street Stock Competition. He is a former champ in both of those divisions.

The feature started out with Temple, PA's Doug Rose taking the lead from the pole on lap 1. Umbenhauer was hot on his heels blasting from fourth to second in one lap. He then put the move on Rose to take the lead on the second circuit of the York County Oval. Umbenhauer would control the race from then on. He certainly didn't go unchallenged with all-time modified win leader Kenny Brightbill and Multi-time winner Rick Laubach hot on his heels. Umbenhauer would hold off Brightbill, an idol of his and the reason he runs the number 19, during restarts to score that important first win.

Brightbill would settle for second and Laubach settled for third. Doug Manmiller came home fourth after doing fierce battle with Doug Rose in the middle portion of the event. Rose would hang on for fifth place. Ray Swinehart, Darrell Rhine, Kyle Strickler, Richie Pratt Jr, and Paul Kline rounded out the top ten.

The second of the twin-20s saw the top 11 inverted after Tom Umbenhauer drew the number 11 pill in Victory Lane of the first event. That set Randy Mohn and Paul Kline on the front row and Richie Pratt and Kyle Strickler making up row two.

As the feature got underway Kline took off to the lead in the opening circuits. Ray Swinehart charged up from sixth to assume second. Point Leader Doug Manmiller brought out the caution on lap 3, but would be able to come back out. Kline would continue to lead until lap 6 when Swinehart was able to make the low side work to get by.

Swinehart would continue to lead with Doug Rose coming up to try and challenge around lap halfway. Swinehart was not to be beat, checking out on the field as the checkers flew. Rick Laubach would come home second with Rose third. Duane Howard came home fourth and Kyle Strickler fifth.

In between the first two Modified Features the 4-Cylinder Stocks take to the track for their scheduled feature. Jerry Bard, who finished second in the first feature, took the win over Ron Buck and first feature winner Leavengood.

The 270cc Micros then took to the track to continue the action packed night. As with the 4 Cylinders, the second place finisher in the first feature won the second. Rodney Glass made a strong run holding off Randy West and Brian Walker to take the $500 win. First feature winner Terry Schaeffer finished fifth.

Then it was time for the Modified to take to the track for the J & L Speed Supplies sponsored 30 lap Modified Feature event. Scott Albert and Doug Rose made up the front row as they came down to Jaime Wert's Green Flag. Kyle Strickler would blast from the third spot to the lead in the early goings.

Strickler would lead until getting a bad push in turn four on lap nine. That opened the door for eighth starting Duane Howard to move into the lead. Howard would pull out to the lead with Ricky Elliott moving into second on lap thirteen. Howard and Elliott would run one-two with Howard being able to pull away after the restarts.

Battles behind the top two were fast and furious as Doug Manmiller, Keith Hoffman, Ray Swinehart, Kyle Strickler all did battle in the top 5. Howard easily took the win at the end with Elliott second. Manmiller was third, for which put him back alone atop the points standings. Hoffman would hold off Swinehart for fourth place. Kevin Hirthler and Rick Laubach would finish sixth and seventh, respectively. Kyle Strickler, John Tshudy, and Sam Wescott rounded out the top ten.

Then the nightcap of the night was the ever exciting Enduros. The race started out with 32 of the 33 scheduled cars taking the green flag. The racing was fast and furious with plenty of passing in the fist half of the forty lap event. Shortly after halfway cars begin to drop out pretty quick but still gave the diehard fans exciting racing action. Three cars finished on the lead lap with Justin Erhart taking the win over Matt Smith and Darren Williams.

Terry Schaeffer Kyle Levengood Tom Umbenhauer Jerry Bard Ray Swinehart

Rodney Glass Craig Coghill Jeff Gamble Duane Howard Justin Erhardt

Results Summary - August 10th, 2003 - In order of how they were run

RTS Chassis 270cc Micro Sprint Make-up Feature: 15 Laps - 1) Terry Schaeffer, 2) Rodney Glass, 3) Randy West, 4) Bill Laughman, 5) Brent Kluge, 6) Davey Sammons, 7) Mike Carber, 8) Mike Keppler, 9) Jay Hartman, 10) Joel Arkenbrant, 11) Rob Felix, 12) Mike Burke, 13) Bradley Weber, 14) Jason Hamilton, 15) AJ Bast, 16) Alkie Cunningham, 17) Scott Gingrich, 18) Mike Freed, 19) John Moore, 20) Brian Walker

4-Cylinder Stock Make-up Feature: 12 Laps - 1) Kyle Levengood, 2) Jerry Bard, 3) John Stoll Jr., 4) Ron Buck, 5) Jerry Schott Jr., 6) Chuck McCarty, 7) Arlin Brougher, 8) Dennis Christ Jr.

270cc Micro Sprint Heats

Heat 1 – Randy West

Heat 2 – Rodney Glass

Heat 3 – Mike Keppler

Modified B-Main - Howard, Wescott, Elliott, Kline, Miller, Beltz, Hamilton, Vasquez

Penn-Mar Vintage Heats

Modified Div. – Pete Cobb

Sportsman Div. – Craig Coghill

Make-up Auger Manufacturing Modified Feature #1 - 20 laps – 1) Tom Umbenhauer, 2) Kenny Brightbill, 3) Doug Manmiller, 4) Rick Laubach, 5) Doug Rose, 6) Ray Swinehart, 7) Darrel Rhine, 8) Kyle Strickler, 9) Richie Pratt Jr., 10) Paul Kline, 11) Randy Mohn, 12) Tom Hager, 13) Kevin Hirthler, 14) Scott Albert, 15) Felipe Vasquez, 16) Ryan Beltz, 17) Tom Miller, 18) Duane Howard, 19) Chris Gardner, 20) Sam Wescott, 21) Keith Hoffman, 22) Ricky Elliott, 23) Jason Hamilton, 24) John Tschudy

270cc Micro Sprint Consi – Matt Esham

4-cylinder Regular Feature – 12 Laps – 1) Jerry Bard, 2) Ron Buck, 3) Kyle Levengood, 4) John Stoll Jr., 5) Barry Hausbacker, 6) Scott Rickrode, 7) Sam Smith, 8) Matt Sowers, 9) Chuck McCarty, 10) Arlin Brougher, 11) Dennis Christ

Make-up Auger Manufacturing Modified Feature #2 – 20 Laps – 1) Ray Swinehart, 2) Rick Laubach, 3) Duane Howard, 4) Doug Rose, 5) Kyle Strickler, 6) Doug Manmiller, 7) Paul Kline, 8) Tom Umbenhauer, 9) Sam Wescott, 10) John Tschudy, 11) Richie Pratt Jr. 12) Tom Hager, 13) Randy Mohn, 14) Jim Britt, 15) Ryan Beltz, 16) Felipe Vasquez, 17) Jeff Paulson, 18) Scott Albert, 19) Chris Gardner, 20) Kevin Hirthler, 21) Darrell Rhine, 22) Bob Lillick Jr., 23) Kenny Brightbill, 24) Jason Hamilton DNS – Keith Hoffman, Ricky Elliott, Tom Miller

RTS Chassis 270cc Micro Sprint Regular Feature – 15 Laps – 1) Rodney Glass, 2) Randy West, 3) Brian Walker, 4) Alkie Cunningham, 5) Terry Schaeffer, 6) Jay Hartman, 7) Mike Keppler, 8) Pat Bealer, 9) Jeff Hartman, 10) Andy Martin, 11) Ed Kenderdine Jr. 12) Dave Socks, 13) Greg Miller, 14) John Moore, 15) Mike Carber, 16) Matt Esham, 17) Todd Hoover, 18) Brent Kluge, 19) Mike Burke, 20) Davey Sammons, 21) Brian Winters, 22) Mike Free, 23) Rob Felix, 24) Bill Laughman

Mod Heats

Heat 1 – Manmiller, Swinehart, Rose, Britt, Rhine, Dissinger, Myers, Mohn

Heat 2 – Elliott, Hirthler, Hager, Hamilton, Beltz, Kline, Tshudy, Paulson, Pratt

Heat 3 – Strickler, Howard, Albert, Hoffman, Laubach, Wescott, Umbenhauer, Young

Penn-Mar Vintage Feature – 15 Laps

Sportsman Winner – Craig Coghill

Modified Winner – Jeff Gamble

J & L Speed Supplies Modified Feature – 30 Laps – 1) Duane Howard, 2) Ricky Elliott, 3) Doug Manmiller, 4) Keith Hoffman, 5) Ray Swinehart, 6) Kevin Hirthler, 7) Rick Laubach, 8) Kyle Strickler, 9) John Tshudy, 10) Sam Wecott, 11) Ryan Beltz, 12) Richie Pratt Jr., 13) Jim Britt, 14) Randy Mohn, 15) Dave Dissinger, 16) Steve Young, 17) Myers, 18) Doug Rose, 19) Paul Kline, 20) Scott Albert, 21) Darrell Rhine, 22) Jeff Paulson, 23) Tom Umbenhauer, 24) Tom Hager DNS – Jason Hamilton

Enduro – 40 Laps – Top 12 – 1) Justin Erhardt, 2) Matt Smith, 3) Darren Williams, 4) Rick Hippensteel, 5) Chris Wertz, 6) Jim Gross, 7) Brian Lomman, 8) Randy Swartz, 9) Greg Miller, 10) Pat Hires, 11) Randy Shifflett, 12) Matt Frye