1ST BATTLE OF HOFFMAN BROS BIG DIAMOND ’04 WAR WON BY DOUG;

BRENNAN REPEATS IN SPORTSMAN, HOLLAND TOPS ROADRUNNERS

Minersville, PA – April 16 – In a race that reflected the pre-race releases on the 2004 Big Diamond Raceway Modified season, Doug Hoffman of Allentown got the upper hand with just over one lap remaining to take the season opening 25-lap NASCAR Dodge Weekly Series Modified 25-lap feature at Big Diamond on Friday night over his younger brother, Keith Hoffman of Whitehall.

Tom Brennan of Pottsville established himself as the man to beat in the NASCAR ShorTrack Series Sportsman Modifieds with his second win in two tries at in his 20-lap feature while Kevin Holland of Pine Grove took his first NASCAR Roadrunner 15-lap main event.

Defending Big Diamond, Doug Hoffman took his 23rd career Big Diamond 358 Modified win to move out of a tie for fifth with Fred Rahmer on the track’s all-time Modified win list. Following Doug and Keith Hoffman as the finish were Ray Swinehart of Bechtelsville, a late closing Rick Laubach of Richlandtown and Meme DeSantis of Temple. Kyle Weiss of Hamburg led the second five in the finishing order over Rick Schaffer of Woxall, Doug Manmiller of Wyomissing, defending Sportsman champion Craig Whitmoyer of Hamburg and Bruce Williams of Mahanoy Plane. Heat winners were both Hoffmans, Bobby Gunther Walsh of Allentown and Billy Pauch of Frenchtown, NJ. Consolation winners were Craig Von Dohren of Barto and Whitmoyer.

Tom Brennan’s second win of the year came over Gary Wagner, Jr. of Womelsdorf, Freddie Fisher of Reading, Luke Wagner of Hershey, Donn Edgar of Lehighton, Brad Brightbill of Sinking Spring, Brent Boyer of Bloomsburg, New Jersey’s Art Liedl, Jr., Brad Force of Milford, NJ, and John Deatrich, Jr. of Palo Alto. Heat winners were Dave Dissinger of Mohrsville, and the unrelated Wagners, Gary and Luke. Force was the consi winner.

Kevin Holland notched his first career roadrunner feature win over Dean Ulsh of Auburn, Mike Allar of Orwigsburg, Jason Purcell of Pottsville and Mart Shappell of Pottsville. Last week’s winner, Kevin Beach of Llewellyn took the roadrunner preliminary event.

After winning their qualifying heats, Keith and Doug Hoffman drew starting spots in the fourth row of the 25-lap Modified main event with Keith on the inside in the Cocino Food Service/Fanelli Window #1 of Johnny Rae Troyer car on the inside and Doug on the outside in the Kerry Hertzog Used Auto Sales/East Penn Podiatry #77 of Dennis Eisenhard. Teo Modified. They each moved up a spot when young pole-sitter Josh Biever of Schuylkill Haven elected to start at the rear of the starting field and the stage was set.

Ron Mawson, Jr. of Pittston brought the modified field down to the opening green flag but it was Meme DeSantis who took the lead in his new ride, the H and H owned, Mohawk Northeast #99. While DeSantis set the pace, Keith Hoffman moved into second spot on lap four. Keith made his move by DeSantis on lap six with an inside move off turn four while Doug Hoffman took third from Mawson just prior to the race’s first yellow. On the lap seven restart, Doug got by DeSantis for second but the event was red flagged one lap later as Craig Von Dohren appeared to loose the steering on his Devine Transport 70d and crashed heavily into the third turn wall without injury.

The Hoffman Brothers battle ensued as Doug tried high and low to overtake Keith while Ray Swinehart, DeSantis and Kyle Weiss battled for third. A lap 12 restart saw Swinehart jump early and get inside of Doug Hoffman who started inside of Keith who elected the outside position as the leader. Doug went hard into one to hold off Swinehart and made contact with Keith, giving Doug the lead only to see the start called back for Swinehart’s early jump. Prior to realigning for the resulting restart, Keith let Doug know he was not very happy with the turn one contact, but cool heads prevailed and they returned to racing.

Keith now selected the inside position for the restart and held off Doug until the closing laps. Doug closed in tight with three laps to go as Keith lapped veteran 1972 and 1976 track champion, Roy Wiest. On lap 23 Doug took to the high side exiting turn four as Keith came up on the slower car of rookie Bobby Forsythe, who yielded and held a tight inside line as required. It was not apparent if Keith hesitated slightly or if Doug just made an awesome run off the high side, but Doug beat Keith to the line to accept the white flag and took command entering turn one. Keith could not rally back and Doug Hoffman took the opening win of the 2004 NASCAR Modified season at Big Diamond.

“This is just unbelievable,” shared Doug in the winner’s circle. “Keith was fast and I was surprised that I caught him. He just gave me enough room as he lapped that car. Moose (car owner, Dennis Eisenhard) and the crew are just great. They give me all I need. I asked him (Eisenhard) for H and G motor and he gave it to me. I told him I needed a Teo Car and he got it.”

On the restart contact with his brother on lap 12 Doug shared, “I really felt back about the contact earlier. I was glad to see the yellow flag. I just got in there to hard and got into him (Keith).”

One note on interest came from Fran Purcell’s modified “super team on a budget.” Fran’s fleet of racers recorded a seventh (Schaffer), a ninth (Whitmoyer) and eleventh (Kevin Hartnett) in the feature for an outstanding outing in the team’s first effort with three cars!

Steve Zimmerman of Pine Grove started on the pole in the 20-lap Sportsman Modified feature but it was Gary Wagner, Jr. who put his Proline Construction 47 out in front from his second starting spot. Freddie Fisher moved his Hoover Chevrolet 95 from fifth to second on lap two while seventh place starter, Tom Brennan was third by lap three. Wagner looked like he had the field wired as he pulled to a 10 to 12 car length lead as the first eight laps went caution free. On each restart that followed, he would again pull out to a similar lead as Brennan tried all he had to get by Fisher. The red flew on lap 12 as Danny Guinther of New Tripoli was unable to avoid Larry Lippencott, who spun after contact with another car. Dan made heavy contact and was carefully treated for possible neck injuries after complaining of some pain before transport for a check-up.

It was much the same on the restart but finally Brennan moved his Kramer’s Power Equipment/GMI Mechanical Solutions Dirt Wheels 26 by Fisher on lap 15. Two laps later Brennan caught and passed Wagner as well to go on to his second win of the year and reaffirm that his green race car is anything but unlucky..

Dean Ulsh put his roadrunner #3 up front at the drop of the green as last week’s winner and pole sitter, Kevin Beach, found his Uncle Cone’s 17 a bit off. Kevin Holland moved his 66 from fifth to second by the end of lap two and quickly went by Ulsh for the lead on lap later. Elvin Brennan of Forestville had his 555 flying and moved ahead on Holland on lap 8 but things got a bit physical one lap later and both he and Holland got out of shape in turn four after contact. Both regained control bit Brennan got off track briefly and Holland regained command. Ulsh made a hard late change back at Holland and took the lead as they completed the white flag lap but as they went side-by-side on the backstretch on that last lap, Ulsh got muscled out over the outer lip by Holland, who took his first career win.

After further review and discussion by officials, Holland was allowed to keep the win but he was visited by officials after the event to discuss his driving tactics for the driver’s future reference.

Racing resumes this Friday night, April 23 at Big Diamond Raceway for the NASCAR Weekly Racing Series Modifieds, the ShorTrack Sportsman Modifieds and the NASCAR Roadrunners. The listed 7:30 starting time for the remaining events in the month of April will use a slightly modified schedule to enable fans and competitors to get to the track while still starting a bit earlier than the summer 8 PM starts. Run-in laps will start at 7:20 PM followed by hot laps at 7:30 and the first heat first qualifying heat going at 7:45 PM.

BIG DIAMOND RACEWAY, MINERSVILLE (FORESTVILLE), PA
RACE RESULT SUMMARY SHEET - FRIDAY NIGHT, APRIL. 16, 2004

NASCAR DODGE WEEKLY SERIES MODIFIEDS

25-LAP FEATURE – 1. 77 Doug Hoffman ($2000), 2. 1 Keith Hoffman, 3. 33 Ray Swinehart, 4. 14 Rick Laubach, 5. 99 Meme DeSantis, 6. 21K Kyle Weiss, 7. 73 Rick Schaffer, 8. 00 Doug Manmiller, 9. 707 Craig Whitmoyer, 10. 901 Bruce Williams, 11. 6jr. Kevin Hartnett, 12. 42 Jeff Sechrist, 13. 102 Shawn Fitzpatrick, 14. 3X Ron Mawson, Jr., 15. 71s Sam Schaeffer, 16. 222 Ryan Beltz, 17. Sq1 Bobby Gunther Walsh, 18. 85 Bobby Forsythe, 19. 88x Roy Wiest, 20. 517 Larry Solomon, 21. VR1 Tim Fitzpatrick, 22. 15 Dale Hartz, 23. 114 Billy Pauch, 24. 21T Jason Andrews, 25. 11 Keith Brightbill, 26. 70D Craig Von Dohren, 27. 15X Billy Pauch, Jr., 28. 83B Josh Biever. Lap Leaders: DeSantis (1-5), K.Hoffman (6-23), D. Hoffman (24-25).

Non-Qualifiers: 7JR Jimmy Reppert, 6 Dale Roth, 24H Justin Andrews, 178 Shawn Reimert, 100 Tom Pompei, 7X Tommy Sheetz (disqualified for not reporting to scales), 64W John Willman, 505 Randy Mohn.

Heat 1: Sq1, 33, 99, 6Jr, 21K, 70D, 7Jr, 88x, vr1. 10-lap Time: 3:04.830.
Heat 2: 1, 15x, 83B, 102, 11, 64W, 100, 221, 24H. No Time.
Heat 3: 77, 73, 71s, 14, 517, 42, 707, 7X, 901. N/T.
Heat 4: 114, 00, 3X, 15, 21T, 6, 178, 85, 505. N/T.
Consi 1: 70D, VR1, 88x, 221, 7JR, 24H, 100, 64W. N/T.
Consi 2 : 707, 42, 901, 85, 6, 178, 7X (DQ), 505.

NASCAR SHORTRACK SERIES SPORTSMAN MODIFIEDS
20-LAP FEATURE – 1. 26 Tom Brennan ($600), 2. 47 Gary Wagner, Jr., 3. 95 Freddie Fisher, 4. 3 Luke Wagner, 5. 30 Donn Edgar, 6. 19x Brad Brightbill, 7. 19 Brent Boyer, 8. 2 Art Liedl, Jr., 9. 8 Brad Force, 10. 12v John Deatrich, Jr., 11. 93 Ryan Moyer, 12. 23B Steve Zimmerman, 13. 5 Greg Weiland, 14. 926 Darren Dreher, 15. 8JR Doug Hendricks, 16. 4 Jesse Sterling, 17. 72 Ray Woodall, Jr., 18. 17 Billy Moyer, Jr., 19. 515 Larry Lippencott, 20. 97 Dan Guinther, 21. 59 Jason Kohler, 22. 10 Lowell Snyder, 23. 57 Ricky Rutt, 24. 69 Dave Dissinger. Lap Leaders: G. Wagner (1-16) Brennan (17-20).

Non-Qualifiers: 24 Randy Thomas, 35 Ebby Ridge, 147 Louie Mitchalk, 12 Carl Lieber, 17T Ryan Grim, 19U Jordan Umbenhauer, 976 Don Norris, Jr., 64 Andy Miller, 09 Jim Payne, 157 Andy Fayash.

Heat 1: 69, 17, 97, 10, 19x, 5, 8, 64, 926, 12, 35, 17T. 10-lap Time: 3:08.522.
Heat 2: 47, 30, 26,93, 515, 2, 59, 19U, 976, 09, 157. 10-lap Time: 3:12.759.
Heat 3: 3, 23B, 19, 95, 4, 12v, 8JR, 57, 24, 72, 147. No Time.
Consi: 8, 8JR, 57, 926, 72, 59, 24, 35, 147, 12, 17T, 19U, 976, 64, 09, 157. No Time.

NASCAR ROADRUNNERS
15-LAP FEATURE - 1. 66 Kevin Holland, 2. 3 Dean Ulsh, 3. Big1 Mike Allar, 4. 35 Jason Purcell, 5. 117 Marty Shappell, 6. 17 Kevin Beach, 7. 39 Phil Levering, 8. 39S Butch Solt, 9. 22 Tom Habblet, 10. 93 Rob Pyle, 11. 555 Elvin Brennan, 12. 4 Jake Smulley, 13. 31 Rob Laudeman.

Preliminary Event: 17, 3, 35, 39s, 66, 555, 117, 4, Big1, 39, 22, 93, 31. No Time.

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