SWINEHART, DOUG HOFFMAN TAKE BIG DIAMOND MODIFIED WINS;
CLAUSS MAKES LATE PASS FOR URC WIN; HOLLAND TOPS ROADRUNNERS
Minersville, PA – July 22, 2005 – Despite two rain-delays and lightning in the southern skies, Big Diamond Raceway was able to complete their Friday night racing card with Ray Swinehart of Bechtlesville and Doug Hoffman of Allentown taking NASCAR Dodge Weekly Series Modified wins, Jason Clauss of Boyertown topping the United Racing Club Sprints and Kevin Holland of Pine Grove repeating as a winner in the Roadrunners.
Bob Dillner of SPEED TV was on hand and competed in the roadrunners. Although Bob has asphalt racing experience, it was his first real competition on dirt in a full stock car. In spite of knocking the Jake Smulley #377 car out of gear during the event, Bob adapted quickly to the dirt to finish 14th after starting 17th in the 18-car field.
The first event was the 20-lap Modified feature that was held-over from the Georgie Stevenson Memorial on July 1 and a feature on early evening track yielded one of the most entertaining races of the year. Ray Swinehart first held off Duane Howard (Oley), then point leader Doug Hoffman and then Howard again in the closing laps. Both Hoffman and Howard drew even with Swinehart, with inside and outside runs, but Ray was up to every challenge to take his 1st win of the year in the Guistwite Pools and Contracting / J&K Remodeling #29 over Howard, Keith Hoffman (Whitehall), Doug Hoffman, Rick Laubach (Richlandtown), Doug Manmiller (Wyomissing), Greg Hummelhanz (Chalfont), Shawn Fitzpatrick (Pottsville), Jeff Sechrist (Wernersville), and John Willman (Birdsboro).
Jason Clauss scored his second URC win of the season and his career win in the United Racing Club 25-lap sprint feature. Just five laps from the finish, Clauss moved into second then quickly chased down race leader Josh Weller to take the lead on lap 24. In heavy lapped traffic, Weller charged back but dove too low off track and spun in front of the rest of the pack. Trevor Lewis (Upper Black Eddy) avoided Weller and the infield track tire he carried onto the track to take second in the checkered/yellow finish over Gary Gollub (Mohnton), Kramer Williamson (Palmyra), Ed Aikin (Lincoln University), Curt Michael (Ocean View, DE), Chris Coyle (Wilmington, DE), Scott Pursell (Frenchtown, NJ), Mark Bitner (Trenton, NJ) and Brian Seidel (Allentown).
In the regularly scheduled 25-lap Modified feature Doug Hoffman battled for several laps with leader Meme DeSantis (Temple) until he finally moved Dennis Eisenhard’s B&I Auto Supply / Jim Sprout Excavating / Craft Oil #77 into the lead. Hoffman became the first three-time modified winner of the year at Big Diamond, winning over DeSantis, Doug Manmiller, Keith Hoffman, Duane Howard, Jeff Strunk (Bethel), Ray Swinehart, Rick Laubach, Tracy Readinger (Oley) and Shawn Fitzpatrick.
Kevin Holland overtook Corey Sechrist (Womelsdorf) on lap 7 to take his second NASCAR Roadrunner win of the season over Tom Hablett (Schuylkill Haven), Dave Miller (Pine Grove), Eric Pinkerton (Tower City) and Ryan Olenick (Forestville).
Greg Hummelhanz started on the pole for the opening 20-lap Modified man. He led the first two laps, going three wide with Ray Swinehart and Shawn Fitzpatrick, before Swinehart charged off turn two on the inside to take command. With the starting order determined by a top 12 invert from the first 20-lapper of the Twin-20’s on July 1, Duane Howard started fourth and was right on Swinehart’s tail by lap seven. Howard made several runs to the inside of Swinehart to no avail and on a lap eight restart, Doug Hoffman, who started tenth, got by Howard for second. Doug went right after Swinehart. When Swinehart thwarted Hoffman’s outside run on lap 14, Doug pushed out and both Howard and Keith Hoffman took second and third. Rick Laubach dropped the strong running Hummelhanz out of the top five at that point but his charge progressed no further.
It was again Howard’s shot, and with two to go he drew even in turn four and down the front stretch with the leader. Howard stuck with that inside run to the finish but Swinehart was able to protect the position and edge Howard for the win.
In the 25-lap United Racing Club feature event, Gary Gollub set the early pace with Josh Weller racing in second and Jason Clauss third. Gollub remained the leader until lap seven when Weller took the top spot. The first caution of the event was displayed on lap nine for Joe Zuczek (Robbinsville, NJ) who spun in turn four.
On the restart, Weller, Gollub and Clauss were in a three car battle with Scott Pursell and Trevor Lewis just several car lengths behind the leaders. Lewis passed Pursell to take the fourth spot as Dave Ely (West Lawn) also squeezed by to round out the top five. As the field passed for the halfway sign, Bill Brian Jr. (Ephrata) had a tire go flat bringing out the second caution of the race. With half the race in the books, Weller, Gollub, Clauss, Lewis and Ely made up the top five.
This race really became interesting as Clauss moved into second on lap twenty. With just five laps remaining, you could just sense there would be a dramatic ending. With three laps reaming, Weller and Clauss were battling for the lead, meanwhile Gollub, Ely and Kramer Williamson were doing some juggling just to stay in the top five.
With the white flag waiving, Clauss became the new leader, but a determine Weller was fighting back. The final run down the backstretch, Weller moved to in the inside lane as he challenged Clauss for the lead. Weller bobbled then quickly adjusted only to take another run at the leader. Going into turn four, the adjustment took him off track and into an inside tire track infield marker, sending him spinning across traffic as the rest of the field charged out of turn four in chase of the checkered flag. There were no injuries but Weller collected Ely, knocking him out of a sure top five finish.
The 25-lap NASCAR Modified main saw Bobby Gunther Walsh (Allentown) get away on top from the pole to take the early lead. Second place started Josh Biever (Landingville) made a big charge to the inside of Walsh in turns three and four to edge in from as they completed lap three. They rubbed a bit preparing for turn one but Walsh continued to hang beside Biever on the outside only to have the Square 1 get out from under him in turn two collecting Andy Burkhart (Temple) and Dave Dissinger (Mohrsville), who were running third and sixth respectively.
On the restart Biever was in front but sixth place starter Meme DeSantis charged off turn two to take the lead with an inside move. Biever bobbled and Doug Manmiller dove low and John Willman went high to drop him two more spots going down the backstretch. A lap later Manmiller took second from Willman and Doug Hoffman went by Biever for fourth.
A lap six restart saw Hoffman make a charge to move by Willman and Manmiller for second while Jeff Strunk powered by Willman as well for fourth. Hoffman went right after DeSantis and on lap eight he edged by the leader on the back straight to take the lead and the eventual win.
Darl Ellis towed from Binghampton, NY to race with the roadrunners and, upon learning his car was no where close to legal, instead of accepting the offer of getting his money back, he said he towed this far to race and chose to race anyway, knowing he would be place last no matter where he finished. His car, which appeared to be closer to a semi-late or thundercar than a roadrunner, was superior and he came through the field to take the “lead” on lap 8 to “win”.
The race summary, ignoring Ellis’s presence, saw Jeremy Becker (Forestville) take the lead from Eric Pinkerton (Tower City) on the opening lap of the 15-lap Roadrunner main. Pinkerton regained the spot on lap two only to see rookie Corey Sechrist (Wernersville) take charge on lap 5. Kevin Holland worked his way up from eighth starting spot to contend with Corey on lap 5 as well. Holland finally got by the strong rookie on lap 8 to go on to win over a late charge from Tom Hablett and Dave Miller.
Heat winners in the 25-car modified field were Duane Howard, John Willman and Jeff Strunk while Rick Laubach captured the consolation. Roadrunner heat winners were Kevin Holland and Corey Sechrist.
A field of 29 URC sprint cars turned out for the twelfth event of the 2005 Advance Auto Parts Sprint Series tour. The three heat race events were won by Gollub, Pursell and Weller as Midge Miller took the win in the consolation.
This coming Friday, August 29, the NASCAR Sportsman Modifieds return to the three division card with the Modifieds and Roadrunners. To compensate for their off week, the Sportsman will compete in two, 15-lap features.
The Sportsman feature, twice delayed on July 1 and July 6, will be added to the August 5 along with the rescheduled Station House Four Crazy Eight program. The NASCAR Dodge Weekly Series schedule that night will start with the held over Sportsman 20 followed by a complete package of qualifying events for the Modifieds and Sportsman. The Modifieds and the Sportsman will follow with their respective 25 and 20 laps features intertwined with The Four Crazy Eights for the Roadrunners sponsored by The Station House of Llewellyn, PA.
For more information on Big Diamond Raceway call (570) 544-6434 or drop in on the track website at www.bigdiamondraceway.com.
NASCAR DODGE WEEKLY SERIES MODIFIEDS
20-LAP FEATURE (delayed from July 1): 1. 29 Ray Swinehart, 2. 357 Duane Howard, 3. 1 Keith Hoffman, 4. 77 Doug Hoffman, 5. 14 Rick Laubach, 6. 11D Doug Manmiller, 7. 02 Greg Hummelhanz, 8. 102 Shawn Fitzpatrick, 9. 42 Jeff Sechrist, 10. 64W John Willman, 11. 87 Andy Burkhart, 12. 83B Josh Biever, 13. 5 Paul Kline, 14. W9 Colt Harris, 15. 118 Sean Merkel, 16. 24H Justin Andrews, 17. 17 Jason Smythe, 18. 79 Amanda Spotts, 19. 123 Dave Dissinger, 20. 178 Neil Huber, 21. 85 Bobby Forsythe, 22. 88 Jeff Strunk, 23. 71S Sam Schaeffer, 24. 6SR Rick Schaffer, 25. 11 Meme DeSantis, 26. SQ1 Bobby Gunther Walsh, 27. 21T Jason Andrews.
25-LAP FEATURE: 1. 77 D. Hoffman, 2. 11 DeSantis, 3. 11D Manmiller, 4. 1 K. Hoffman, 5. 357 Howard, 6. 88 Strunk, 7. 29 Swinehart, 8. 14 Leinbach, 9. 2T Tracy Readinger, 10. 102 Fitzparick, 11. 42 Sechrist, 12. 6JR R. Schaffer, 13. 64W Willman, 14. 83B Biever, 15. 5 Kline, 16. W9 Harris, 17. 72 Jeff Ebersole, 18. 123 Dissinger, 19. 54 Smokey Warren, 20. 24H Ju. Andrews, 21. Sq1 Walsh, 22. 71S S. Schaeffer, 23. 145 Greg Weiland, 24. 178 Huber, 25. 118 Merkel, 26. 17 Smythe, 27. 87 Burkhart, 28. 6 Dale Roth. DNQ: 79 Spotts, 57 Bill Gensler, 41C Brian Conrad, 02 Hummelhanz, 13 Bob Hall, 85 Forsythe, 21T Ja. Andrews.
10-Lap Heats
Heat 1: 357, 42, 6JR, 29, 83B, 5, 72, 6, 54, 79, 13, 21T.
Heat 2: 64W, 11D, 77, 1, 87, 2T, 118, 24H, 17, 178, 85.
Heat 3: 88, Sq1, 123, 71s, 11, 102, 145, 14, W9, 57, 41C, 02.
10-lap Consi: 14, 6, 17, 24H, W9, 54, 178, 79, 57, 41C, 02, 13, 85, 21T.
UNITED RACING CLUB 25-LAP FEATURE: 1. 08 Jason Clauss, 2. 56 Trevor Lewis, 3. 36 Gary Gollub, 4. 73 Kramer Williamson, 5. 19a Ed Aikin, 6. 99 Curt Michael, 7. 54 Chris Coyle, 8. 1 Scott Pursell, 9. 15 Mark Bitner, 10. 6 Brian Seidel, 11. 5G Dave McGough, 12. 2W Kevin Welsh, 13. 25 Jon Eldreth, 14. 39 Tim Hogue, 15. 14 Will Urkuski, 16. 17 Junior Martin, 17. 8 Midge Miller, 18. 50 Joe Zuczek, 19. 63 Josh Weller, 20. 3 Dave Ely, 21. 21 Scott McClaren, 22. 19 Johnny Zimmerman, 23. 00 Bill Brian Jr. 24. 11X Pete Green. DNQ- 2B Brook Bowman, 22 Dave Betts, 76X Jamie Bodo, 3S Daryl Smith, 64K Kyle Purks.
10-LAP HEATS
Heat 1: 36, 08, 39, 6, 54, 50, 8, 21, 64K, 35.
Heat 2: 1, 15, 3, 73, 5G, 2W, 14, 19, 76X, 2B.
Heat 3: 63, 99, 56, 00, 19A, 17, 11X, 25, 22.
12-lap B-Main: 8, 11x, 25, 14, 21, 19, 2B, 22, 76X, 3S, 64K.
NASCAR ROADRUNNERS 15-LAP FEATURE: 1. 66 Kevin Holland, 2. Tom Hablett, 3. 1 Dave Miller, 4. 37 Eric Pinkerton, 5. 550 Ryan Olenick, 6. 555 Elvin Brennan, 7. 721 Jason Sherman, 8. 8S Butch Solt, 9. 4 Jake Smulley, 10. 20 Corey Sechrist, 11. 11X Joe Hendricks, 12. 17 Kevin Beach, 13. 712 Jeremy Becker, 14. 377 Bob Dillner, 15. 11 Kirby Schlappich, 16. 7T7 Andy Fayash III, 17. 5 Dave Schultz, 18, (DQ) Darl Ellis.
Heat 1:66, 1, 712, 8S, 550, 4, 11, 7T7, 5X.
Heat 2: 20, 5, 37, 17, 721, 22, 377, 11x, 555.