By Larry Boos
ROSSBURG, OH (May 30) – In some of the fiercest action witnessed in years, Randy Hannagan (National Racing Allicance Sprint Invaders), Rusty Schlenk (Sunoco American Late Model Series) and Doug Tiemann (Stock Cars) captured Sunday’s Johnny Appleseed Classic by Miller Lite main event action at Eldora Speedway.
In what has become commonplace whenever they invade the Big E, the NRA Sprints ran their 20-lap main event non-stop. For the fans, and surely the drivers as well, it was five and one-half minutes of practically holding their breath as the action on the track was non-stop.
Returning from a five year break, Kyle Sauder picked up where he left off. Ranked third on the all-time win list, Sauder jumped into the early lead and appeared to have a ‘welcome back’ win in the bag.
Hannagan, meanwhile had other thoughts.
Starting a little deeper in the pack, Hannagan began to reel in Sauder near the mid-point of the chase and on lap 13 made a breath-taking dive off of turn two to steal away the top spot. Sauder appeared to be taken away by the move and slipped back six positions to give the appearance of a Hannagan runaway.
Determination then sunk in and Sauder charged back up to the tail of Hannagan, unaware that Cale Conley joined the chase on became glued to his bumper to make for a wild three-way chase to the checkered.
Coming down for the white flag, indicating one lap to go, Sauder actually nosed under Hannagan on the front stretch, but that gave Hannagan the incentive to punch the throttle even deeper and rode to a narrow one-car length victory over Sauder. Conley nestled in for third, followed closely by Kent Wolters and Hud Horton.
Schlenk’s decision to participate Sunday came at the last minute, and it turned out to be a wise one.
In a chase for the UMP (United Midwestern Promoters) National Championship, Schlenk has been hand picking his locations to race, rather than chase a track or series title. The opportunity came to race closer to home, but the two-time ALMS champion opted for Eldora.
A re-draw at the completion of his heat-race found him with the number one draw; but that was hardly indicative of the race he ran. A cake-walk, it wasn’t.
While Schlenk cruised out front in the early stages of the 25-lap chase, Curtis Roberts was dueling for runner-up honors with Frank Heckenast, Jr. and Josh Williams. Only six laps into the contest, Williams coasted to a stop after having battled his way into second.
That put Roberts back into second, with Brian Ruhlman his new nemesis, while Kent Robinson was making his move.
Robinson, a Modified standout, was making his Eldora Late Model debut and what a mark he was making.
He shot by Ruhlman and then Roberts to take second spot on lap 16. Four laps later, he shocked Schlenk by powering past in turn one to take the top spot.
The momentum that Robinson had was unbelievable; yet it all came to a halt with only one lap of glory, as something broke in the front-end and Robinson crashed into the turn three wall to end his hopes of a debut win.
That gave Schlenk the lead back and he was able to hold off a quick-charging Roberts for the win, with Ruhlman, Heckenast and Matt Miller completing the top five.
Tiemann’s Stock Car win wasn’t easy either. He had to hold off three-time champion Mike Dirksen in a run to the checkered flag. In doing so, he became the first two-time winner of the young season.
Knocking on the door for this first-ever win, John Phlipot, Jr. came home third, followed in order by Eric Sandlin and Keith Ralston.
–30—
JOHNNY APPLESEED CLASSIC PRESENTED BY MILLER LITE
MAY 30, 2010
Sunoco American Late Models – 36 cars
Quick Qualifier Overall – JR Hotovy: 16.210
Heat 1:
1. Lee DeVasier[5]; 2. Curtis Roberts[2]; 3. JR Hotovy[4]; 4. Jerry Bowersock[6]; 5. Scott Orr[1]; 6. Richard Neiser[7]; 7. Casey Noonan[9]; 8. Curtis Deisenroth[8]; 9. Andrew Reaume[3];
Heat 2:
1. Josh Williams[1]; 2. Frank Heckenast[3]; 3. Dusty Moore[4]; 4. Tom Sprague[2]; 5. Jeff Babcock[8]; 6. Chad Stapleton[5]; 7. Dave Hartman[6]; 8. Brad Eitniear[9]; 9. Ryan VanderVeen[7];
Heat 3:
1. Cruz Pedregon[1]; 2. Brian Ruhlman[3]; 3. Duane Chamberlain[4]; 4. Jon Henry[5]; 5. Rick DeLong[2]; 6. Keith Berner[6]; 7. John Lawhorn[9]; 8. Jacob Hawkins[7]; 9. Wayne Chinn[8];
Heat 4:
1. Kent Robinson[1]; 2. Rusty Schlenk[2]; 3. Matt Miller[4]; 4. Jeep Van Wormer[3]; 5. Phil Ausra[7]; 6. Rob Starkey[8]; 7. Cody Houston[9]; 8. Ron Perrine Jr.[6]; 9. Jason Jameson[5];
B Main :
1. Rick DeLong[1]; 2. Keith Berner[3]; 3. Phil Ausra[2]; 4. Rob Starkey[4]; 5. Cody Houston[6]; 6. Jason Jameson[5]; 7. John Lawhorn[5]; 8. Jacob Hawkins[7]; 9. Ron Perrine Jr.[8]; 10. Wayne Chinn[9];
B Main 2:
1. Scott Orr[1]; 2. Jeff Babcock[2]; 3. Richard Neiser[3]; 4. Casey Noonan[5]; 5. Chad Stapleton[4]; 6. Curtis Deisenroth[7]; 7. Dave Hartman[6]; 8. Brad Eitniear[8]; 9. Andrew Reaume[9]; 10. Ryan VanderVeen[10];
A Main :
1. Rusty Schlenk[1]; 2. Curtis Roberts[2]; 3. Brian Ruhlman[4]; 4. Frank Heckenast[6]; 5. Matt Miller[12]; 6. Jeep Van Wormer[16]; 7. Duane Chamberlain[11]; 8. Cruz Pedregon[7]; 9. Jerry Bowersock[13]; 10. Lee DeVasier[5]; 11. Keith Berner[20]; 12. Dusty Moore[10]; 13. Rick DeLong[19]; 14. Phil Ausra[22]; 15. Scott Orr[17]; 16. Richard Neiser[18]; 17. Jon Henry[15]; 18. Kent Robinson[8]; 19. Tom Sprague[14]; 20. JR Hotovy[9]; 21. Josh Williams[3]; 22. Ryan VanderVeen[21];
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NRA Invaders – 36 cars
Quick Qualifier – Cale Conley: 15.377
Heat 1:
1. Jeff Williams[3]; 2. Ryan Grubaugh[1]; 3. Dustin Daggett[5]; 4. Cale Conley[6]; 5. Tim Hunter[4]; 6. Aaron Shaffer[7]; 7. Robert Huisken[8]; 8. Mike Burkin[9]; 9. Ron Blair[2];
Heat 2:
1. Hud Horton[3]; 2. Luke Hall[6]; 3. Jared Horstman[4]; 4. Dallas Hewitt[2]; 5. Sean Robinson[7]; 6. Ben Rutan[5]; 7. Bob Gehr Jr.[1]; 8. Tommy Kerce[9]; 9. Ryan Kirkendall[8];
Heat 3:
1. Kyle Sauder[5]; 2. Tim Allison[3]; 3. JR Stewart[4]; 4. Todd Heuerman[2]; 5. Butch Schroeder[6]; 6. Jeremy Keegan[1]; 7. Pete Ischi[8]; 8. Gavin Hunyady[7]; 9. Bob Carman[9];
Heat 4:
1. Randy Hannagan[6]; 2. Ryan Ruhl[2]; 3. Greg Dalman[1]; 4. Kent Wolters[3]; 5. Mike Dussel[4]; 6. Dane Naida[5]; 7. Andy Tunessen[9]; 8. Brent Gehr[7]; 9. Jarred Delong[8];
B Main :
1. Butch Schroeder[1]; 2. Dane Naida[2]; 3. Aaron Shaffer[5]; 4. Pete Ischi[8]; 5. Bob Gehr Jr.[4]; 6. Bob Carman[10]; 7. Mike Dussel[3]; 8. Gavin Hunyady[6]; 9. Robert Huisken[7]; 10. Mike Burkin[9];
B Main 2:
1. Tim Hunter[2]; 2. Ron Blair[3]; 3. Sean Robinson[5]; 4. Andy Tunessen[10]; 5. Brent Gehr[6]; 6. Tommy Kerce[9]; 7. Jarred Delong[8]; 8. Jeremy Keegan[4]; 9. Ben Rutan[1]; 10. Ryan Kirkendall[7];
A Main :
1. Randy Hannagan[-]; 2. Kyle Sauder[-]; 3. Cale Conley[-]; 4. Kent Wolters[-]; 5. Hud Horton[-]; 6. Butch Schroeder[-]; 7. Luke Hall[-]; 8. Dustin Daggett[-]; 9. Tim Hunter[-]; 10. JR Stewart[-]; 11. Greg Dalman[-]; 12. Tim Allison[-]; 13. Todd Heuerman[-]; 14. Jared Horstman[-]; 15. Ryan Grubaugh[-]; 16. Dane Naida[-]; 17. Dallas Hewitt[-]; 18. Ryan Ruhl[-]; 19. Aaron Shaffer[-]; 20. Jeff Williams[-];
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Eldora Stocks – 26 cars
Heat 1:
1. Doug Tiemann[5]; 2. Dean Pitts[0]; 3. Mike Dirksen[4]; 4. Cody Weisner[6]; 5. Adam Schaeff[3]; 6. Anthony Goode[7]; 7. Andy King[9]; 8. Matt Phlipot[2]; 9. Jeff Smith[8];
Heat 2:
1. John Phlipot Jr.[1]; 2. Jason Kinney[5]; 3. Shawn Phillippi[7]; 4. Ed Johnson[6]; 5. Jamie Heiser[3]; 6. Bob Sutter[4]; 7. Rodney Lacey[2]; 8. Barney Craig[8]; 9. Nick Katterhenry[9];
Heat 3:
1. Earnie Woodard[2]; 2. Eric Sandlin[4]; 3. Jeff Koz[5]; 4. Keith Ralston[7]; 5. Dan Wooten[8]; 6. Casey Barr[1]; 7. Cale Ramey[3]; 8. Rob Trent[6];
A Main :
1. Doug Tiemann[2]; 2. Mike Dirksen[7]; 3. John Phlipot Jr.[1]; 4. Eric Sandlin[6]; 5. Keith Ralston[12]; 6. Jason Kinney[5]; 7. Cody Weisner[10]; 8. Shawn Phillippi[8]; 9. Jeff Koz[9]; 10. Anthony Goode[16]; 11. Barney Craig[23]; 12. Rob Trent[24]; 13. Andy King[19]; 14. Jamie Heiser[14]; 15. Casey Barr[18]; 16. Earnie Woodard[3]; 17. Adam Schaeff[13]; 18. Matt Philipot[22]; 19. Dean Pitts[4]; 20. Ed Johnson[11]; 21. Nick Katterhenry[26]; 22. Bob Sutter[17]; 23. Dan Wooten[15]; 24. Rodney Lacey[DNS]; 25. Cale Ramey[DNS]; 26. Jeff Smith[DNS];