From Selinsgrove Speedway
Selinsgrove, Pa. – Fresh off his trip out west to Las Vegas to run against the World Of Outlaws, Lance Dewease came home to race against what many will say are the best drivers in the country, The Pennsylvania Posse. He started on the pole in Sunday’s Selinsgrove Speedway season opener by luck of the draw, and wired the field for his first victory of 2011. “It’s one thing to race and win against the Outlaws, but it’s another to race against and defeat the tough competition here at home”, said Dewease.
Greg Hodnett pressured Dewease in the early going of the 25 lap main event as the two raced bumper to bumper for several laps before Hodnett was forced to retire from the event with mechanical issues. That opened the door for Mark Smith to show his presence although he was several seconds behind the leader in second place. The good thing for him was the caution that came out with six laps to go for Danny Deitrich who spun on the front stretch.
Following the restart with six laps remaining, third place runner Tyler Walker made a run at Smith in turns one and two and made the pass on Smith for the second position. The Tower City driver of the Mach 1/NRG Controls/Brickers French Fries Sprint car then made a miraculous save on the back stretch as the pass by Walker forced him up high where he ran out of race track real estate. Smith eventually gathered up control of the car to maintain his third place spot. Walker then set his sights on the leader for the final five laps. Walker closed to within a few car lengths of Dewease but ran out of time as Dewease held on for the win in Selinsgrove Speedway’s opener at the Snyder county oval.
The track surface was in top notch condition and the high speeds were not hard to find. No less than 8 drivers broke into the 15 second bracket during hot laps and heats. Chad Layton set a new 8 lap track record of 2:06.289 with an 8 lap average speed of 120.774 mph. Chad had a fast lap of 15.563 seconds and 122.506 mph on lap 3 of the first heat race. During the second heat Blaine Heimbach blistered the big half mile in 15.536 seconds and 122.719 mph. As a comparison the one lap track record at Selinsgrove Speedway for 410 sprint cars is 16.207 seconds. Mark Smith was the first driver to break the 16 second barrier in hot laps. Since time trials were not used for this event, the one lap times were not deemed official. The top five finishers behind Dewease, were Tyler Walker, Mark Smith, Daryn Pittman & Pat Cannon. Brian Montieth scored an impressive sixth place finish after starting 19th.
Last years Pro Stock track champion AJ Hoffman wired the sixteen car field in the fifteen lap Pro Stock opener on the way to his first victory of the season. He was victorious by 2.468 seconds over AJ Stroup, Jason Schmidt, Mike Keihl & Shaun Miller.
A special thank you to Lincoln Speedway’s Wayne Harper for filling in on the microphone Sunday afternoon.
This Friday night March 19th, the 358 Modifieds are on the card at Selinsgrove Speedway followed by Saturday night’s running of the Big Block ROC Modified Ice Breaker event. Practice sessions for the 358 Sprint cars are also scheduled.
410 Sprint Car Results: 1.) Lance Dewease-$4,000 2.) Tyler Walker 3.) Mark Smith 4.) Daryn Pittman 5.) Pat Cannon 6.) Brian Monteith 7.) Chad Layton 8.) Rick Lafferty 9.) Blane Heimbach 10.) Brian Leppo 11.) Brent Marks 12.) Cody Keller 13.) Derek Sell 14.) Frank Cozze Sr. 15.) Jessie Anderson (DNF’s:) 16.) Danny Deitrich 17.) Steve Buckwalter 18.) Duncan 19.)Lynton Jeffrey 20.) Greg Hodnett 21.) Brian Ehrenzeller 22.) Mike Erdley (DNS): Fred Rahmer, Justin Henderson & Aaron Ott
Pro Stock Results: 1.) A.J. Hoffman 2.) A.J. Stroup 3.) Jason Schmidt 4.) Mike Kiehl 5.) Shaun Miller 6.) Devin Frey 7.) Pete Lauver 8.) Scott Dunham (DNF’s):9.) Dave Brouse Jr. 10.) Terry Lauver 11.) Dan Berry 12.) Jeff Ceballo 13.) Chad Sindoni 14.) Kurt Wray 15.) Kyle Miller (DNS’s): Jason Smith, Doug Minium & Kyle Bachman