By Steve Inch
SELINSGROVE, Pa. — Pat Cannon of Etters finally broke his streak of bad
luck and scored a convincing victory in Saturday night’s 25-lap 358 sprint
car feature at Selinsgrove Speedway. For the defending champion, the
victory marked the 28th of Cannon’s career at the track at the wheel of the
Highlands Tire Service No. 3.
Jeff Rine of Danville returned to Victory Lane for the second time this
season with a win in the 25-lap late model feature. The win was Rine’s 66th
career at the track and moves him within three victories of tying Bobby
Croop’s all-time record of 69 for the division.
AJ Hoffman of Richfield, who announced to the crowd he will marry his
fiancé Sunday, won the 10th annual Pro Stock 20 for the second time in his
career and also set a new one-lap track record with a time of 23.499
seconds. Hoffman collected the $1,000 top prize for winning the division’s
biggest event of the year, while Ricky Bender of Jolliett repeated a win in
the 12-lap roadrunner race.
Selinsgrove Speedway will present the Jeff’s Auto Body & Recycling Center
spring championship for late models plus 358 sprint cars, pro stocks, and
roadrunners at 7 p.m. Saturday, May 7. The 30-lap late model race will pay
$2,000 to win with time trials as part of the qualifying format.
In the sprint car feature, polesitter Pat Cannon drove into the lead as
eighth-place starter Phil Walter stormed into second on the first lap. In
the early laps of the race, Walter and sixth-place starter Cody Keller
dueled for the runner up position as fourth-place starter Matt Horst and
10th-place starter TJ Stutts raced in the top five.
The caution flag unfurled on lap two when seventh-place starter Nate
Snyder, 14th-place starter Billy McNeal, and 15th-place starter Brian
Garland tangled in turn four. When the race resumed, Cannon opened up a
lead over Walter.
On the 11th lap, the race was stopped after Walter flipped violently
through turns one and two. The McClure driver escaped injury. For the lap
12 restart, Stutts was now racing second, only to collide with a lapped car
driven by Scott Wilson, sending both cars into a hard series of flips. Both
Stutts and Wilson walked away from the crash uninjured.
During the second half of the race, Cannon continued to streak away from
the field as Keller, Horst, 12th-place starter Blane Heimbach, and
ninth-place starter Larry Kelleher raced in the top five. At checkered
flag, Cannon was victorious by 7.2 seconds over Heimbach, who passed Keller
for second on the final lap. Keller finished third, followed by Horst and
Kelleher.
Front row starters Dave Zona and Jeff Smith raced side by side for the lead
on the first lap of the late model feature. On the second circuit, Smith
pulled into the lead over Zona, fourth-place starter Kenny Trevitz,
fifth-place starter Steve Campbell, and third-place starter Chad
Hollenbeck.
By the fifth lap, ninth-place starter Jeff Rine advanced to the fourth
position and a lap later was racing second. Rine made the winning pass by
Smith using the inside lane on the frontstretch on the eighth circuit and
began to stretch his lead during the second half of the event.
Last week’s winner Tony Adams started in the 12th position and horsepowered
his way into the runner up position on a last-lap restart. Adams moved
within striking distance of Rine but came up 1.2 seconds short at the
finish line. Rine took the checkered flag over Adams, 10th-place starter
Jim Yoder, Smith, and Zona.
On a double file restart, fourth-place starter AJ Hoffman joined polesitter
AJ Stroup and second-place starter Jason Smith to form a three-wide race
for the lead through turns one and two with Hoffman pulling into the lead
using the highline.
Early in the race, Hoffman was setting the pace, while Smith and
third-place starter Nate Kerstetter vied for the runner up position. The
battle for second came to an abrupt end on lap nine when Kerstetter slammed
the fourth turn wall.
For the lap 10 restart, Hoffman was the pacesetter, with Smith, fifth-place
starter Kyle Bachman, Stroup, and 10th-place starter Shaun Miller racing in
the top five. Despite several caution flags in the second half of the race,
Hoffman was able to hold a comfortable lead over Smith until the final
restart on lap 17 when Smith put in a bid for the lead on the low side in
turn one.
At the checkered flag, Hoffman was victorious by a mere .54 of a second
over Smith, Bachman, Jason Schmidt, and Steve Knepp.
In the roadrunner race, polesitter Brian Johnson powered into the lead over
third-place starter Dennis Conrad for the first eight laps until
sixth-place starter Ricky Bender advanced to second. Bender raced in
Johnson’s shadow through the final lap, when Bender made the winning pass
using the inside lane racing off turn four. Rounding out the top five were
Keith Bissinger, Conrad, and Bob Bussey.
SELINSGROVE SPEEDWAY RACE SUMMARY – 30 April 2011
358 Sprint Cars – 25 Entries
25-Lap A-Main: 1) 3 Pat Cannon 2) 12 Blane Heimbach 3) 99K Cody Keller 4)
16H Matt Horst 5) 76 Larry Kelleher 6) 1M Jason Shultz 7) 19C Colby Womer
8) 77 Derek Locke 9) 1W Eric Tomecek 10) 71 Jessica Anderson 11) 94 Ted
Thomas 12) 769 Steve Nederostek 13) 21 Duane Mausteller 14) 22M Brian
Garland 15) 5B Josh Beard 16) 23M TJ Stutts 17) 5 Phil Walter 18) 38 Scott
Wilson 19) 21T Kevin Nouse 20) 1N Brian Nornhold 21) 56 Nate Snyder 22) 2M
Billy McNeal 23) 66 Ryan Kissinger 24) 74 Matt Heimbach 25) 81 Bob
Beidleman
Heat Winners: Pat Cannon, Derek Locke, Nate Snyder
Late Models – 37 Entries
25-Lap A-Main: 1) 2J Jeff Rine 2) 88 Tony Adams 3) 27 Jim Yoder 4) 99 Jeff
Smith 5) 99Z Dave Zona 6) 61T Kenny Trevitz 7) 32 Dylan Yoder 8) 2 Steve
Campbell 9) 63 Donnie Schick 10) 91 Chad Davis 11) 4D Chad Hollenbeck 12)
21H Scott Haus 13) 13B Alan Sagi 14) 16 Matt Cochran 15) 33C Chris Casner
16) 06 Mike Lupfer 17) 99T Curt Tunillo 18) 115 Troy Miller 19) 7M Meade
Hahn 20) 41 Derrick Casner 21) 44 Jason Miller 22) 76 Andy Haus 23) 90 Kyle
Rhoads 24) 45 Eric Hons
Heat Winners: Jeff Smith, Jeff Rine, Dave Zona, Tony Adams
B-Main Winner: Alan Sagi
Pro Stocks – 22 Entries
10th Annual Pro Stock 20: 1) 19 AJ Hoffman $1,000 2) 28 Jason Smith 3) 70G
Kyle Bachman 4) 27 Jason Schmidt 5) 9 Steve Knepp 6) 29 John Troxell 7) 62
Devin Frey 8) 85L Pete Lauver 9) 44 Matt Johnson 10) 28J Jeff Ceballa 11)
21K Mike Kiehl 12) 26 AJ Stroup 13) 115 Shaun Miller 14) 14 Dave Brouse Jr.
15) 12 Doug Minium 16) 85 Terry Lauver 17) 69 Scott Dunham 18) 8K Nate
Kerstetter 19) 88 Scott Sipe 20) 28B John Bouse 21) 06 Frank Reisser 22) 07
Tim Krape
Time Trials: AJ Hoffman 23.499 (NTR); Nate Kerstetter 23.866; Jason Smith
23.923; AJ Stroup 24.099; Kyle Bachman 24.246; Jason Schmidt 24.422; Mike
Kiehl 24.615; John Bouse 24.620; Dave Brouse Jr. 24.730; Shaun Miller
24.816; Doug Minium 24.939; Steve Knepp 24.941; Scott Dunham 25.035; Pete
Lauver 25.357; Devin Frey 25.397; John Troxell 25.558; Matt Johnson 25.626;
Terry Lauver 25.917; Jeff Ceballo 26.647
Roadrunners – 20 Entries
12-Lap A-Main: 1) 29 Ricky Bender 2) 201 Brian Johnson 3) 11B Keith
Bissinger 4) 41D Dennis Conrad 5) 76 Bob Bussey 6) 721 Eric Pinkerton 7) 02
John Fowler 8) 31B Brandon Shultz 9) 69 Marlin Dunham 10) 25J Nate Romig
11) 7 Butch Shaffer 12) 15 Dustin Snook 13) 70J John Schreffler 14) 44
Corey Collier 15) 88 Karen Chase 16) 89 John Schoch 17) 71D Kevin
Dunkleberger 18) 28X Jordan Taylor 19) 77J Jeff Swanger 20) 99 Chris
Hoffman
Heat Winners: John Fowler, Brian Johnson