KEITH HOFFMAN TAKES 3RD BIG DIAMOND NASCAR MODIFIED WIN OF YEAR;

FISHER, RENNINGER TOP SPORTSMAN; ROADRUNNER WINS TO HABLETT, BEACH

Minersville, PA – August 6, 2004 – Keith Hoffman of Whitehall out raced the competition through traffic to get to the front and then never looked back to take his third NASCAR Dodge Weekly Series 25-lap Modified feature win of the year at Big Diamond Raceway on Friday night.

In the Sportsman-Modifieds, Freddie Fisher of Reading took his second win of the year in the 15-lapper held over from the Georgie Stevenson Memorial on July 4. Cory Renninger of Llewellyn took his first career win in the regularly scheduled 20-lap feature win when apparent first-time winner, Ebby Ridge (Milford, NJ) was disqualified in a post-race inspection with an illegal carburetor.

Tom Hablett of Schuylkill Haven secured his first career roadrunner feature win in the held-over Stevenson Memorial 12-lapfeature while Kevin Beach of Llewellyn jumped in Mark Berzowski’s 550 after losing the engine in his 17 to take his third win of the year in the regular 15-lap main.

Following Keith Hoffman and the Fanelli Window Pros #1 of Johnny Rae at the finish in the Modified feature were Billy Pauch, Jr. (Frenchtown, NJ), Doug Manmiller (Wyomissing), current point leader Doug Hoffman (Allentown) and Craig Von Dohren (Oley). Completing the second five were Meme DeSantis (Temple), John Willman (Birdsboro), Rick Laubach (Richlandtown), Jason Andrews (Palmerton) and Ray Swinehart (Bechtelsville). Qualifying heat winners were Manmiller, Keith Hoffman and Von Dohren with Laubach taking the consolation win.

Freddie Fisher took his second career Sportsman Modified win in the Hoover Chevrolet/Wachovia Securities #95 over point leader Tom Brennan (Pottsville), Larry Lippencott (Riegelsville), Greg Weiland (Port Carbon), Dave Dissinger (Mohrsville), Doug Hendricks (Auburn), Ryan Moyer (Schuylkill Haven), Billy Moyer, Jr. (Pine Grove), Ray Woodall, Jr. (Stewartsville, NJ) and Luke Wagner (Grantville). Cory Renninger ran the smoothest race of his rookie career in his Station House/Ken’s Tire #KT3 to be an a position to take his first career win over fellow rookie Jordan Umbenhauer (Richland), Brennan, Dissinger, Weiland, Hendricks, Brad Brightbill (Sinking Spring), Ryan Moyer, Gary Wagner, Jr. (Womelsdorf) and Jesse Sterling (Lehighton). Heat wins went to Brightbill, Dissinger and Billy Moyer, Jr. while the consolation honors went to Sterling.

Roadrunner rookie Tom Hablett took his first career win over Jake Smulley (Phoenix Park), Kevin Holland (Pine Grove), Elvin Brennan (Forestville) and Dave Miller (Pine Grove) while Kevin Beach was victorious in the Roadrunner nightcap over Brennan, point leader Dean Ulsh (Auburn), Miller and Butch Solt (Lehighton).

A first lap skirmish saw only Sean Merkel (Gilbertsville) to be knocked out of action for the night but put six cars to the rear including Doug Hoffman, Meme DeSantis, and Ray Swinehart, making their challenge to get to the front even greater. Rookie Justin Andrews (Parryville) got away on top at the drop of the green in the 25-lap NASCAR Dodge Weekly Series Modified feature with Bruce Williams (Girardville) in pursuit. A tangle on lap five sent Rick Schaffer (Woxall) and Kyle Weiss (Hamburg) to the pits and Rick Laubach to the rear. On the restart Williams stayed with Andrews and made an outside pass for the lead in turn two. Keith Hoffman, who started 12th, took third from John Willman just before a flurry of three yellows involving eleven different cars including Doug Manmiller, Laubach, Swinehart and DeSantis.

On the third restart, Keith Hoffman made a bold move to move by the leaders on the inside of the backstretch, to take the lead but Bruce Williams spun collecting Justin Andrews and six others including Doug Hoffman and Craig Von Dohren. This put John Willman back in second behind Keith Hoffman. Hoffman was never seriously challenged the rest of the way. Billy Pauch, Jr. took the runner up spot on lap 11 from Willman while the other weekly front runners were charging through the field following their early problems.

Doug Manmiller moved to third on lap 12 while Rick Laubach took fourth on lap 16 only to yield the spot to Doug Hoffman on lap 20 when his 14 stopped to bring out another yellow interrupting a strong run by Hoffman on Manmiller. On the restart Manmiller made a run at Pauch for second but settled back into third while Von Dohren moved back into the top five in the closing laps finishing behind Doug Hoffman.

Rookie Sportsman Modified driver, Doug Hendricks charged from fourth to the lead on the opening lap of the 15-lap feature held over from the July 4 Georgie Stevenson Memorial card. Pole sitter Louie Mitchalk (Summit Hill) held second but third starting, Freddie Fisher moved to second on lap two. Fisher charged to the inside of the leader on the backstretch of lap four and completed the pass in turn three to secure the lead. The 15-lap distance as part of the Stevenson Memorial Twin-15s put pressure on the point leaders and only two caution periods, on laps 4 and 5, did not help their efforts. Larry Lippencott, who started 8th, took second from Hendricks on lap six but was unable to close in on Fisher. Tom Brennan, who came from ninth, was able to catch Lippencott on lap 11 but he was unable to make a charge on Fisher and settled for second.

Ebby Ridge started on the pole for the 20-lap Sportsman Modified feature, sharing the front row with fellow rookie, Cory Renninger. Ridge got away on top when the green flew and Renninger grabbed second. These rookie ran incredibly smooth races and refuse to yield their top spots Louie Mitchalk ran third until lap when Doug Hendricks out raced Mitchalk and another rookie, Jordan Umbenhauer, for third. Ridge and Renninger continued to run upfront while Umbenhauer continued to pressure Hendricks for third as he felt the heat from Tom Brennan and Greg Weiland, who started 14th and 13th respectively. With only two single car spin yellows for first Don Norris, Jr. on lap 2 and Ryan Grim (Laurys Station) on lap six and a blown engine yellow on lap 14 for Freddie Fisher, the cars trying to move through the field received little help in catching the clean running rookies up front.

A late yellow on lap 17 for a tangle between Dan Guinther (Salisbury Township) and John Deatrich, Jr. (Palo Alto) saw the field bunched by Ridge and Renninger held on to finish one-two. Umbenhauer took third on lap 19 ad Doug Hendricks bobbled to make it a rookie sweep of the win, place and show positions.

In a post race inspection, the #35 of Ebby Ridge was found with an illegal carburetor handing his first career win to Cory Renninger.

Tom Hablett started on the pole in the held over Roadrunner 12-lapper from July 4 and jumped away on top with Jake Smulley second. This event went all 12-laps without a yellow and Hablett ran a flawless race to take his first career win in a time of 4:41.807. Kevin Beach (in his own 17), Elvin Brennan and Kevin Holland each took a shot at Smulley for second but they became so preoccupied in their battle for third that they could not make a serious run. Beach dropped out of that battle late with a blown engine and Dean Ulsh and Dave Miller moved up to battle for fifth with Miller getting the spot on lap 11.

Hablett again got away on top at the start of the Roadrunner 15 with Smulley second but this time Kevin Beach was no about to let them get away. Beach was driving the 550 usually piloted by Mark Berzowski and he moved from fifth to second by the close of lap two. Beach’s teammate Elvin Brennan, Robbie Pyle (Downingtown), Mike Allar (Orwigsburg) and Dave Miller were pressuring Beach so he turned up the wick and took the lead from Hablett in turn 3 on lap 6. Hablett battled tough and only lost second on lap 10 to Brennan. With the team cars 550 and 555 up front the team cars of Hablett and Allar were third and fourth. On lap 13 Allar nearly spun out and lost several spots. One lap later Hablett did the same thing allowing Dean Ulsh to move up and finish third behind Beach and Brennan.

This week’s Big Diamond Junior Fan of the Week Laney Feger of Schuylkill Haven was not in attendance. There are not 64 Junior Fan Club members.

This Friday night, August 13, the Big Diamond racing program will include a full racing card for the NASCAR Dodge Weekly Series Modifieds, the ShorTrack Sportsman Modifieds and the Roadrunners plus the complete, rain-delayed NASCAR Modified 25-lap feature from June 25. The held-over feature will open the card and then a complete card of heats and consolations will be run followed by the modified, sportsman and roadrunner features. The evening of speed is also a special evening for the kids as “Be A Reader” Night will see Craig Von Dohren, Sawn Fitzpatrick, Ryan Moyer and Mike Allar will be reading with and greeting the young readers and readers-to-be prior to the racing program in the grandstand area.

Craig Von Dohren, the all-time leading feature winner at Big Diamond, will also be part of a give-away to all Junior Fan Club members in attendance on August 13. Courtesy of car owner, Bill Devine, and Racerboy Marketing, special Craig Von Dohren 25th Year Racing Anniversary/Devine Racing photo cards will be given away to Big Diamond Junior Fan Club members. Should scheduling permit, plans are to have Craig autograph these 8-1/2” by 6” cards featuring the Devine Transport / Stauffer Construction 70D.

For information on racing at Big Diamond Raceway take a look at the track’s website at www.bigdiamondraceway.com or call (570) 544-6434.

NASCAR DODGE WEEKLY SERIES RACE RESULT SUMMARY
AUGUST 6, 2004 – BIG DIAMOND RACEWAY, MINERSVILLE (FORESTVILLE), PA

NASCAR DODGE WEEKLY SERIES MODIFIEDS
25-LAP FEATURE – 1. 1 Keith Hoffman, 2. 15X Billy Pauch, Jr., 3. OO Doug Manmiller, 4. 77 Doug Hoffman, 5. 70d Craig Von Dohren, 6. 11D Meme DeSantis, 7. 64W John Willman, 8. 14 Rick Laubach, 9. 21T Jason Andrews, 10. 33 Ray Swinehart, 11. 42 Jeff Sechrist, 12. 83B Josh Biever, 13. 901 Bruce Williams, 14. 102 Shawn Fitzpatrick, 15. 71S Sam Schaeffer, 16. 100 Tom Pompei, 17. 7X Tommy Sheetz, Jr., 18. 74W Ryan Watt, 19. 221 Ryan Beltz, 20. 24H Justin Andrews, 21. 178 John Durling, 22. 3X Ron Mawson, Jr., 23. 99W Craig Whitmoyer, 24. 15 Dale Hartz, 25. 66 Bob Trapper, 26. 73 Rick Schaffer, 27. Kyle Weiss, 28. 118 Sean Merkel.
Non Qualifiers: 505 Randy Mohn, W9 Paul Lotier, Jr., Sq1 Bobby Gunther Walsh, 88X Roy Wiest, 18 Ron Myers, 6 Dale Roth.
10-lap Heat 1: OO, 77, 24H, 73, 3x, 99W, 221, 15, 71s, w9, 11D.
10-lap Heat 2: 1, 42, 33, 901, 64w, 15x, 66, 102, 18, 505, 6, 88X.
10-lap Heat 3: 70d, 21K, 21T, 118, 74W, 7X, 178, 100, 83B, Sq1, 14,
10-lap Consolation: 14, 102, 15, 83B, 100, 11D, 71S, 505, W9, sq1, 88X, 18, 6.

NASCAR DODGE SHORTRACK SERIES SPORTSMAN MODIFIEDS
15-LAP FEATURE (2nd of Twin-15’s held over from July 4 Georgie Stevenson Memorial) - 1. 95 Fred Fisher, 2. 26 Tom Brennan, 3. 515 Larry Lippencott, 4. 5 Greg Weiland, 5. 69 Dave Dissinger, 6. 8JR Doug Hendricks, 7. 93 Ryan Moyer, 8. 17 Billy Moyer, Jr., 9. 72 Ray Woodall, Jr., 10. 3 Luke Wagner, 11. 47 Gary Wagner, Jr., 12. 4 Jesse Sterling, 13. 64 Andy Miller, Jr., 14. 8 Brad Force, 15. 19U Jordan Umbenhauer, 16. 157 Andy Fayash, Jr., 17. 17R Kevin Nolf, 18. 10 Lowell Snyder, 19. 19 Brad Brightbill, 20. 17T Ryan Grim, 21. 23B Steve Zimmerman, 22. 97 Dan Guinther, 23. 35 Ebby Ridge, 24. 12V John Deatrich, Jr., 25. 147 Louie Mitchalk, 26. 19X Brent Boyer, 27. 24 Randy Thomas.
Scratches: 30 Donn Edgar, 31 Harry Landis, 8T Rich Scagliotta, 39 Tom Cremer, 15 Jason Hamilton, 59 Jason Kohler, 28S Tom Solderich.
Non-Qualifiers: KT3 Cory Renninger, 11 Mike Stankiewicz, 110 Bill Finneran, 74 Pete Marburger, 221 Keith Owens, 39J Jeff Geake, 926 Darren Dreher, B26 John Bush, Jr., X Robert Glasic, 73 Darrell Herman, OO Mario Dinatale.

20-LAP FEATURE – 1. KT3 Ken Renninger, 2. 19U Jordan Umberhauer, 3. 26 Tom Brennan, 4. 69 Dave Dissinger, 5. 5 Greg Weiland, 6. 8JR Doug Hendricks, 7. 19 Brad Brightbill, 8. 93 Ryan Moyer, 9. 47 Gary Wagner, Jr., 10. 4 Jesse Sterling, 11. 515 Larry Lippencott, 12. 147 Louie Mitchalk, 13. 17 Billy Moyer, Jr., 14. 10 Lowell Snyder, 15. 64 Andy Miller, 16. 72 Ray Woodall, Jr., 17. 97 Dan Guinther, 18. 23B Steve Zimmerman, 19. 12V John Deatrich, Jr., 20. 17T Ryan Grim, 21. 95 Fred Fisher, 22. 157 Andy Fayash, 23. 8 Brad Force, 24. 976 Don Norris, Jr., 25. (Disqualified winner) 35 Ebby Ridge.
Non Qualifiers: 19X Brent Boyer, W9x Colt Harris, 25 Ray Deemer, 58 Chris Eckert, 110 Bill Finneran, 74 Pete Marburger, 17R Kevin Nolf, 14K Matt Krause, 73 Darrell Herman, 11 Mike Stankiewicz, 221 Rob Gibson, 39J Jeff Geake, 3 Luke Wagner, 24 Randy Thomas.
10-lap Heat 1: 19, 23B, 19U, 8JR, 8, 515, 4, 10, 19X, 25, 17R, 73, 110.
10-lap Heat 2: 69, 157, 5, 35, 147, 72, 95, 14K, 11, 74, 39J, 3, 24.
10-lap Heat 3: 17, 26, KT3, 93, 976, 17T, 47, 221, W9x, 64, 97, 12V, 58.
10-lap Consolation: 4, 95, 64, 47, 10, 12v, 97, 19x, W9x, 25, 58, 110, 74, 17R, 14K, 73, 11, 221, 39J, 3, 24.

NASCAR ROADRUNNERS
12-LAP FEATURE (2nd of Twin-12’s held over from July 4 Georgie Stevenson Memorial) - 1. 22 Tom Hablett, 2. 4 Jake Smuley, 3. 66 Kevin Holland, 4. 555 Elvin Brennan, 5. 1 Dave Miller, 6. 35 Jason Purcell, 7. 550 Mark Berzowski, 8. 3 Dean Ulsh, 9. 17 Kevin Beach, 10. Big1 Mike Allar, 11. 39 Robbie Pyle, 12. 39S Butch Solt, 13. 19W Derek Bender, 14, 18W Ricky Bender, 15. 31 Robbie Laudeman, 16. 721 Jason Shuman, 17. 117 Marty Shappell.

15-LAP FEATURE – 1. 550 Kevin Beach, 2. 555 Elvin Brennan, 3. 3 Dean Ulsh, 4. 1 Dave Miller, 5. 39S Butch Solt, 6. 4 Jake Smulley, 7. 39 Robbie Pyle, 8. 18W Ricky Bender, 9. Big1 Mike Allar, 10. 22 Tom Hablett, 11. 66 Kevin Holland, 12. 23 Dave Kamp, 13. 35 Jason Purcell, 14. 19W Derek Bender, 15. 17 Mark Berzowski.

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