Hello and welcome once again to Central PA Racing Scene with your fearless reporter Bill McIntyre. This week we saw the The O’Reilly All Star Circuit of Champions back in town for two nights of action against our local PA Posse. Could our locals drivers keep the All Stars from winning once again or would they traveling series finally pick up that long sought after win at Williams Grove, or their 2nd win at Lincoln Speedway? We also had rain plagued Trail Way Speedway finally get a race in in the month of June on Friday night. Saturday night we had the 410's at Port Royal if you did not like the ASCoC at Lincoln as well as the 358's at their home for the next 11 years Selinsgrove Speedway. Then the local area saw Susquehanna Speedway Park host their very successful 358 show on Sunday Night.

First things first I want to update the Central PA Racing Scene 358 Sprint Car Series presented by Delco Signs. This week we had 3 races for the 358's with the added special show at Susquehanna Speedway Park. The top 10 in points looks like this after this week.

1. Blane Heimbach        348 pts  
2. Nate Snyder           249 pts
3. Kyle Moody            229 pts
4. Tim Wagaman           229 pts
5. Jeff Rohrbaugh        220 pts
6. Dale Hammaker         208 pts
7. TJ Stutts             203 pts
8. Billy Dietrich        201 pts
9. Phil Walter           191 pts
10.Scott Geesey          175 pts

Blane continues to expand on his lead in the points as now he has a 99 point lead over 2nd place Nate Snyder. Youngster Kyle Moody is coming on strong as he is tied for 3rd with Trail Way Speedway point leader Tim Wagaman, Can anyone catch Blane or is this point chase going to turn out like the 410's have been and have a run away winner?

I wanted to say congratulations to Gerard McIntyre Jr. 358 driver at Lincoln Speedway on his winning the Kevin Gobrecht Memorial scholarship. The $2,000 will help him as he makes his way to York Collage in the fall.

Also congrats to all the students that graduated from high school this week.  I know there are quite a few young 358 drivers who are still in high school so congratulations on the honor.




Now on to the weekend recap.

Friday Night was saw the The O’Reilly All Star Circuit of Champions at Williams Grove Speedway. Cody Darrah would win his first All Star win of his career. Cody would start the feature on the outside of the front row with Brian Leppo on the pole. Brian would get the jump at the start and lead the first 9 laps before Cody made his move coming out of turn 2 with an inside pass on Leppo. Cody would have to wait through two caution periods and a thrilling late race duel with Todd Shaffer but he would go on to post his second career win at Williams Grove Speedway. Greg Hodnett would finish 3rd, Tim Shaffer 4th and Alan Krimes rounded out the top 5. 6th through 10th where Aaron Ott, Fred Rahmer, 20th starting Dale Blaney,  hard charger Chad Layton who started 21st and Mark Smith. Heat winners for the 37 cars on hand was set by Fred Rahmer with a lap of 16.661. Heat winners where Justin Henderson, Rick Lafferty, Dale Blaney , and David Gravel. The B-Main was won by Aaron Ott and the Dash was won by Doug Esh.

At Trail Way Speedway Brad McClelland picked up his 2nd win of the season by holding off youngster Logan Schuchart in a spirited battle. Brad would start the race in the fifth position would take the lead from Nick Palmerino on lap 5 but a caution for Jeff Rohrbaugh and Mike Bittinger, who got together right in front of them in turn three. Brad would have to restart in second but would make the winning pass in turn 1 once the green flag dropped. As Brad was taking the lead Logan Schuchart (who is the grand son of legend Bobbie Allen) was coming from his 6th starting position, passing Palmerino for 2nd on lap 9 and would close on Brad in lap traffic. Brad and Logan would fight for the top spot the rest of the way but Brad would go on to pick up his  18th career Trail-Way 358 sprint car win. Dale Hammaker would finish 3rd Joe Trone, Jr 4th and Palmerino would hang on for 5th. Rounding out the top 10 where Tim Wagaman , Danny Dietrich, 16 starting Kyle Moody (who won the DS Diversified Services hard charger award) Randy Davis, and Shane Smith. Heat winners where Palmerino, Davis, and McClelland.

Saturday night we had the rematch of the ASCoC and the PA Posse taking place at Lincoln Speedway. The night would start with Brian Leppo setting fast time with a lap of 13.058 (103.385 MPH). The heats where won by Fred Rahmer;, Niki Young, Cris Eash, and Danny
Dietrich. The B main was won by Greg Wilson. The big stroy was rain that hit the track after the heats where finished. After a 1 hr.and 50 min. rain delay they took back to the track and fans where treated to a great feature event. Dale Blaney and Cody Darrah would share the front row. Could Cody make it 2 for 2 in All Star action this weekend? It sure looked that way as Cody would take the lead at the start and would have a great race with Blaney the first 16 laps of the 30 lap race. The man on the move was 9th starting Brian Montieth. Brian would pass Blaney for second on lap 17 and Brian would set his sights on the leader Cody Darrah. The leaders would race each other hard the rest of the way with sliders coming in every corner bringing the fans to their feet in the stands. Lincoln who was celebrating their 57th Anniversary with this show made sure the fans left seeing a great finish as Darrah and Montieth would swap the lead back and forth the final 5 laps with Brian taking the lead down the back stretch on the last lap, only to see Cody make a last corner slide job going into turn 3 and 4 but Brian made the hard left and pulled back under Cody coming out of 4 to go on and pick up the win over Darrah. 3rd was Jimmy Siegel (who has had two great 3rd place finishes the past two weeks) Alan Krimes, and Tim Shaffer. Rounding out the top 10 where Fred Rahmer, Aaron Ott, Daryn Pittman, Brian Leppo, and Josh Wells.

At Port Royal Speedway Mark Smith came from fifth starting position to take the lead getting underneath race long leader Daryl Stimeling coming at of turn #4 to take the lead on Lap #15 and goes on to win the non-stop 25 lap feature event. Mark who has had some bad luck this year at Port to say the least picked up his first win of the season in 410 competition. Yes you read that right his 1st win of the season for him and the team. Rounding out the top 5 where Greg Hodnett, Chad Layton, and Mike Wagner. 6th through 10th where Mike Erdley, Dave Ely, Todd Shaffer, Dave Hahn, and Joey Hershey. Heat winners where Daryl Stimeling and  Joey Hershey for the 21 cars on hand.

Selinsgrove Speedway this week along with Charlie Paige made the announcement that they have signed a new     lease for the track which will keep the track open until 2020. That is great news to hear as we do not need any more tracks shutting their doors anywhere in the country. The fans must feel like it is 2008 all over again as Pat Cannon won his second 358 race of the year at the track. Pat has won the last 2 358 races at the track and has shown that he and the Highlands team have not lost a step since last year. It was Pat’s 12th of his career at the Snyder County oval driving the Highlands’ Tire Service No. 3. The start of the feature saw Ryan Kissinger and Matt Horst start on the front row. The start of the race saw two red flags as Davie Franek made contact with the front stretch wall and rolled to a stop in turn one on the initial start while  third-place starter Jessica Anderson get sideways in turn four, with 11th-place starter TJ Stutts and point leader Nate Snyder being involved in the crash. Snyder, whose car rolled over several times, was not injured. on the 2nd attempt. Once the race got going  Horst would take the lead but by lap 4 2th-place starter Pat Cannon motored into third while 13th-place starter Blane Heimbach followed him into fourth. . Cannon caught Horst in traffic and on lap 16 made the winning pass using the inside lane in turn two.  The field regrouped on lap 16 when Nouse spun in turn two. On the ensuing restart, Scott Flammer made contact with the first turn wall.  Heimbach passed Horst for second on a lap 21 restart, as Cannon checked out from the field, posting a 2.4 second margin of victory. Horst settled for third, with Matt Heimbach and Phil Walter rounding out the top five. 6th through 10th where Mike Walter, Colby Womer, Ryan Kissinger,  Brian Nornhold, and Mark Manieri Jr. Heat winners where Matt Horst, Scott Flammer, and Pat Cannon.

Sunday night saw Chad Layton pick up his first career All Star victory at Central PA Speedway in the Middelsworth potato chip number 7. It was also “Bad Chad” first time at the race track. How is that for a winning percentage? The top 5 at the finish where Daryn Pittman, Mark Smith, Tim Shaffer, and  Fred Rahmer. 6th through 10th where Greg Wilson, Brandon Wimmer, Andy Priest, Daron Clayton, and Jack Sodeman Jr. Heat winners where Brandon Wimmer, Daron Clayton, Bob Felmlee, and Ryan Bunton. The dash was won by Greg Hodnett. The B- main was won by Stevie Smith who also set fast time with a lap of 13.810.

Sunday night also marked the return trip for the 358 sprint cars to Susquehanna Speedway Park. I made the tip up 83 to the track for the 1st time since 1989. I did not like the way Mr. Fisher has run the track since he bought it a few years ago, and then did everything that he could to not make friends with the local sprint car fans in the area. Mr. Fisher has found the show that works best for him though as he host stock cars every Saturday night after trying everything from 410's, to the 10 year plan of ASCS 360 sprints, to even trying to take on Williams Grove on Saturday nights by staging the same show of Sportsman and 358 late models. They have now settled in as the home of the 358 late models and have gotten much support from that stock car crowed. This race was the 2nd time that the 358's where invited to the track since Mr. Fisher has taken over the track. Last year they ran a very successful show with the ARDC midgets along with the 358's. Pat Cannon won the race last year, and was in attendance again last night to see if he could make it 2 for 2. My first impression of the track as I entered the track for the first time in 20 years was it does not look that different. The bleachers could use new boards, but the facility was in good shape. I liked the way the pits where on the outside of the track so that the fans could see everything. I wish all the local tracks would do this (Williams Grove I am talking to  you). There was a good turn out of 30 358 teams in the pits but I would have licked to see more top teams make the trip, but hey it is always easy to spend other peoples money right?

I am not going to cover the whole race in detail but I will say that the heats had some great action which saw Danny Dietrich, Nate Hammaker, and Jay Galloway pick up the wins. A few highlights from the heats where heat 2 when Rich Eichelberger and Logan Schuhart had a great battle for the 5th spot. Slide jobs in both corners before the 1s of Schuhart got the spot at the line. Also awesome to watch was the run by the 3 of Pat Cannon. Pat passed 4 cars on the first lap and would be up to battle the 39 of Cory Haas for 2nd when Haas would make contact with the truck tires that line the inside of the turns. Cory would be Ok and would rejoin the race.

The B Main was a little bit of a head scratch'er for me. I liked the idea of putting water on the top side of the track to make sure the teams had 2 grooves, but they really over watered the track right before the consi. They had the teams that where to run the B Main help run in the track, then they left them take a few laps at speed before they lined up, only to see a car get into the fence because of it. It was a great idea but bad execution on the tracks part. Then to top it off they head flag man dropped the green flag to start the race as a push truck was pushing a car out onto the track. The cars where coming out of turn 2 and the push truck was on the inside of the back stretch pushing the car off. That could have been very bad .

 The feature saw the 27 of Jay Galloway and Nate Hammaker share the front row. Jay would get a great jump at the start but the 1s of Schuhart would try a slider on the 34 of Reed going into turn 3 and would jump the left rear tire of Reed’s. they both would re join the field. On the re-start Galloway would again get the jump and pull away from the field as the 3 of Cannon was on the move from his 9th starting spot as he was up to 6th by lap 3. While Pat was making his move to 6th the 5 of Phil Walter and the 80 car made contact in turns 1 and 2 with them both spinning. Phil would be done for the night while the 80 would tag the rear of the field. On the re start the 5t of Glendon Forsythe would jump the left rear of Pat Cannon and would spin in turns 1 and 2. He would collect Rich Eichelberger and Nathan Berwenger. The 3 of Cannon would end up with a flat tire. On the re start the 27 would get another big jump as the 91 of Adrian Shaffer made his move into 2nd and was moving in on the leader as he was entering lapped traffic by lap 13. The 8d of Billy Dietrich’s night would come to an end on lap 13 as his motor would let go and the 99m would get a flat RR tire. As they went back to green, the 91 was all over the 27 for the lead and after making some contact with each other in turn’s 3 and 4 on lap 15 Shaffer would take the lead and go on to post his first win of the season, in only his second race with the 91 team. The 66n of Nate Hammaker would pass the 27 late in the race as Jay Galloway would end up 3rd. 4th was Danny Dietrich and 5th 16th starting Blaine Heimbach. 6th through 10th where Dale Hammaker, Cory Haas, Pat Cannon, Mike Bittinger (who started 22nd) and Matt Boland.

All in all a great night of 358 sprint car action. I would like to thank Mr. Todd Fisher for having the 358's back to the track and I for one am hopping that this will be an annual event.

Next week we have the Sprints & 358 Sprints YCRC night at Williams Grove Speedway. Trail Way Speedway has the 358's on tap again and it is also ARCH night at the track. Saturday night sees the  358's Joe Whitcomb Memorial at Selinsgrove Speedway, while at Port Royal they are having the Insinger Performance Products Night- for the 410 sprint cars. Down at Lincoln Speedway they have the Daryl Gohn/Glenn Gohn Sr. Memorial for the 410 sprints as well as the 358 sprints and an added plus Kids Big Wheel Races.

Well that is it for this week. I hope you enjoyed the weekend, and had a great time taking in a race or two. Please feel free to drop me a line at boogermac420@inbox.com if you have anything you wish to share with me. I hope you all have a safe and happy week and enjoy a race next weekend in the area, as I will be in New York state camping, but might make the trip to Woodhull raceway for some modified and late model action.

Bill McIntyre III

 

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