Ellerman wins in 305 Sprints at Path Valley

Scott Ellerman. - Amanda Rand Photo
Scott Ellerman. - Amanda Rand Photo
Scott Ellerman. – Amanda Rand Photo

From Path Valley Speedway

Path Valley, PA — (June 7, 2014) — Seven divisions of racing and a candy scramble for the kids at intermission led to a long night of entertainment at Path Valley Speedway.

The Mini Stock feature was first on the lineup. Chris Anderson had the six-car field covered all night, winning the heat race, drawing a zero invert giving him the pole position for the feature, and then leading all twenty laps virtually uncontested for the win. Dillon Wilson stayed close the first five laps but could not keep the pace of Anderson, fading back a full straightaway at the end as he finished second. Third thru fifth went to Barry Welch, Adam Nixon, and Robert Cutshall.

John Ruoss started second in the 270cc Micro Sprint feature and showed the way from the start. Two cautions on laps eight and nine wiped out a fairly sizeable lead and put Josh Stoyer up to second. Stoyer passed Ruoss on the restart on lap nine and drove away from there, leading by nearly half of a lap at the end. Ruoss finished second, followed by Billy Logeman, Brian Marriott, and Cory Myers. Levi Peck and Stoyer won the heat races.

The only caution of the 600cc Micro Sprint feature came on the first lap. On the restart Jim Young, starting second, drove around pole-sitter Ben Houtz in the first corner. Twenty laps later Young had lapped nearly half of the eighteen car field and was leading by two turns. Dwayne Gutshall came from starting seventh to finish second, ahead of Kameron Morral, Houtz, and Hannah Riser. Heat race wins went to Young and Houtz.

Travis McClelland is now two-for-two in Central PA Legend action at Path Valley, and he has used the same script for both wins. McClelland gets the pole position for the feature, grabs the early lead, and then fights off the pressure of his pursuers. This week McClelland kept Bob Stough a car length or two behind most of the way. Stough had to deal with Lucas Montgomery the last five laps, and could only close to McClelland’s back bumper on the final straight, settling for second, just ahead of Montgomery. Fourth went to Chris Transeau and Jacob Feltch was fifth. Chad Earns passed the most cars, starting eighteenth and finishing ninth. McClelland, Ed Trump, and Transeau all posted heat wins.

The PA Sprint Series 305 Sprint feature saw eleven drivers take the green flag and Alex Schanz set the early pace from his second place starting spot. Scott Ellerman started fourth and was into second on the second lap and began to close in on Schanz. Ellerman followed Schanz closely for several laps until he found an opening down low exiting turn two. The two leaders ran side-by-side down the backstretch and Ellerman took control entering turn three. The twenty lap event ran non-stop and Ellerman stretched his lead to nearly half of a lap by the time the checkered flag waved. Schanz remained in second and was followed across the line by Nathan Gramley, Marcus Defreitas, and Mark Watkins. The heat race winners were Schanz and Gramley.

Randy Wible seemed to be the only Street Stock that found the dry, slick track to his liking. While everyone else struggled to get traction for their high powered race cars, Wible found all he needed. Wible first won the heat race, then came from starting sixth in the eight car field to take the lead from Ridge Bookwalter on lap five. The event went caution free after a mishap on the original start and Wible led by eight car lengths at the finish. Ken Singer rebounded nicely after being caught up in the initial start accident, passing two cars in one corner to go from fifth to third and then passing Brad Karns on the final circuit to finish second. Josh Gustaf was fourth and Rusty Garlock fifth.

The final event of the evening was the 4-Cylinder Thunder Car feature. Unfortunately the race resembled a scene from Death Race 2000. Even though there were only six entered there were nine cautions, two of which were for the current leader spinning out all by themselves. When all the beating, banging, and spinning out was over Jeremy Moore emerged victorious, taking the lead on lap seventeen after Tony Hampton lost control in turn four while leading and stopped in the infield. Hampton was able to make it back to second, passing Justin Williamson on the final straight with an advantage of about one foot at the line. Randy Stull finished fourth and Brandon Seibert was credited for fifth. The heat race was won by Williamson.

Path Valley results 6/7

Mini Stock: 1.Chris Anderson (Rockhill, PA), 2.Dillon Wilson, 3.Barry Welch, 4.Adam Nixon, 5.Robert Cutshall DNS: David Bookwalter
Lap Leaders: Chris Anderson (1-20)
Heat: Chris Anderson

270cc Micro Sprint: 1.Josh Stoyer (Reading, PA), 2.John Ruoss, 3.Billy Logeman, 4.Brian Marriott, 5.Cory Myers, 6.Colby Dice, 7.Levi Peck, 8.Brian Heist, 9.Coty Ramirez, 10.Charles Hellinger, 11.Zach Glass, 12.Chad Ward, 13.Ricky Sechrist
Lap Leaders: John Ruoss (1-8), Josh Stoyer (9-20)
Heats: Levi Peck, Josh Stoyer

600cc Micro Sprint: 1.Jim Young (Johnstown, PA), 2.Dwayne Gutshall, 3.Kameron Morral, 4.Ben Houtz, 5.Hannah Riser, 6.Garrett Bard, 7.Anthony Macri, 8.Steve Whary, 9.Timmie Barrick, 10.Megan Allen, 11.David Holbrook, 12.Chad Thomas, 13.Colton Laughman, 14.Tanner Hunsicker, 15.Darren Kauffman, 16.Buddy Hines, 17.Nick Macri, 18.Brandon Noel
Lap Leaders: Jim Young (1-20)
Heats: Jim Young, Ben Houtz

Central PA Legend: 1.Travis McClelland (Littlestown, PA), 2.Bob Stough, 3.Lucas Montgomery, 4.Chris Transeau, 5.Jacob Feltch, 6.Bard Mellott, 7.Bill Diehl, 8.C.J. Quirk, 9.Chad Earnst, 10.Ed Trump, 11.Bill Foster, 12.John Hall, 13.Justin Mitchell, 14.George Hanson, 15.Joe Ehrisman, 16.Chris Spidle, 17.Keith Haring, 18.Travis Perry, 19.Chris McKinney, 20.Mason Chaney, 21.Scott Gobrecht, 22.Adam Meier, 23.Andy Whaling, 24.Chris Ward
Lap Leaders: Travis McClelland (1-20)
Heats: Travis McClelland, Ed Trump, Chris Transeau

PASS 305 Sprint: 1.Scott Ellerman (Landisburg, PA), 2.Alex Schanz, 3.Nathan Gramley, 4.Marcus Defreitas, 5.Mark Watkins, 6.Kyle Lloyd, 7.Russell Hammaker, 8.Ken Duke, 9.Eric Parker, 10.Joe Davis, 11.John Baker
Lap Leaders: Alex Schanz (1-9), Scott Ellerman (10-20)
Heats: Alex Schanz, Nathan Gramley

Street Stock: 1.Randy Wible (Three Springs, PA), 2.Ken Singer, 3.Brad Karns, 4.Josh Gustaf, 5.Rusty Garlock, 6.Tom Wakefield, 7.Ridge Bookwalter, 8.Anthony Varner
Lap Leaders: Ridge Bookwalter (1-4), Randy Wible (5-20)
Heat: Randy Wible

4-Cyl. Thunder Car: 1.Jeremy Moore (Rockhill, PA), 2.Tony Hampton, 3.Justin Williamson, 4.Randy Stull, 5.Brandon Seibert, 6.Charlie Stallman
Lap Leaders: Brandon Seibert (1-10), Justin Williamson (11-13), Tony Hampton (14-16), Jeremy Moore (17-20)
Heat: Justin Williamson

Coming up next weekend:
Fri 6/13 Thunder-Mini-V8 Super Stock-Late Models- 4 Cyl Strictly Stock
Sat 6/14 270 Sp-600 Sp-V8 Street Stock-Sidewinder Sprints-600 Stock