Mechanicsburg, PA — (August 31, 2012) — Cory Haas of York won the feel good race of the year Friday night in the third of the Jack Gunn Memorial triple 20s for sprint cars at Williams Grove Speedway, coming from behind to pass Daryn Pittman in traffic and score a $5,000 payday and Gunn bragging rights.
In the first two features, Greg Hodnett and Brent Marks came away the winners while twin features for the sidewinder sprints went to Donnie Hendershot and Reed Salony.
Gerard McIntyre Jr. led the first two laps of the first triples feature before Don Kreitz Jr. took over in a quest for his first win of the season at the track.
But third starting point leader Greg Hodnett had other ideas and shot by McIntyre for second with 12 laps to go before driving up on Kreitz.
Hodnett was breathing down Kreitz’s neck when the pair crossed the stripe to complete lap 12 with a visible leader at the line hard to determine although Hodnet was scored the leader of the lap.
And from there, Hodnett dusted off Kreitz in the first corner to drive away to the win despite a pair of cautions on laps 13 and 17.
It was Hodnett’s fourth Grove win of the season and the 50th of his career at the oval.
Danny Dietrich, who started eighth, took second from Kreitz at the finish with Daryn Pittman crossing fourth and Adam Wilt finishing fifth.
Marks led all 20 circuits of the second main event from the outside of the front row with Doug Esh chasing him the entire distance.
The red flag appeared with two laps to go when Adam Wilt’s car went up in flames on the frontchute.
Esh finished second followed by Cory Haas, Dietrich and Brian Montieth.
An inversion of the top six money earners on the night for the start of the third and final triple, the Gunn Memorial itself, placed Pittman on the pole for the start and what appeared to be his race to win.
Haas lined up second for the start and kept Pittman in sight as the race hit the halfway point and the leaders worked through traffic.
With the pace going nonstop and traffic in play, Pittman worked a pack of backmarkers on the 15th tour with Haas in tow when he moved off of his favored high line to shoot onto the backstretch.
And that was all it took for Haas to get the lead as he bolted past the entire pack including Pittman like he was shot out of a cannon using momentum around the cushion.
A restart a few moments later found Haas the winner too of a test of wills as Pittman tried to reclaim the lead only to watch as Haas kept the low door closed to preserve his $5,000 victory.
“I just seen him (Pittman) get held up there and I went around the top and got a real good run there,” Haas said.
“And I figured he was getting’ it if he dropped down.”
Pittman crossed the line second followed by Hodnett, Esh and Dietrich.
Pittman set fast time over the 26-car field with a lap of 16.922 seconds. Twin qualifiers went to Esh and Dewease.
August 31, 2012 Feature Finishes:
410 sprint cars, Feature 1, 20 laps: 1. Greg Hodnett, 2. Danny Dietrich, 3. Don Kreitz Jr., 4. Daryn Pittman, 5. Adam Wilt, 6. Fred Rahmer, 7. Cory Haas, 8. Brian Montieth, 9. Gerard McIntyre Jr., 10. Alan Krimes, 11. Brent Marks, 12. Doug Esh, 13. Lance Dewease, 14. Logan Schuchart, 15. Rick Lafferty, 16. Davey Sammons, 17. Curt Michael, 18. Michael Ruttkamp, 19. Troy Fraker, 20. Chad Layton, 21. Glenndon Forsythe, 22. Aaron Ott, 23. Steve Buckwalter, 24. Adrian Shaffer
Feature 2, 20 laps: 1. Marks, 2. Esh, 3. Haas, 4. Dietrich, 5. Montieth, 6. Hodnett, 7. Pittman, 8. Rahmer, 9. Krimes, 10. Layton, 11. Dewease, 12. Sammons, 13. Ott, 14. Kreitz, 15. Lafferty, 16. Michael, 17. Wilt, 18. Ruttkamp, 19. Fraker, 20. McIntyre, 21. Forsythe, 22. Buckwalter, 23. Schuchart, 24. Shaffer
Feature 3, 20 laps: 1. Haas, 2. Pittman, 3. Hodnett, 4. Esh, 5. Dietrich, 6. Montieth, 7. Krimes, 8. Dewease, 9. Kreitz, 10. Layton, 11. Rahmer, 12. Sammons, 13. Schuchart, 14. Lafferty, 15. Shaffer, 16. Michael, 17. Ruttkamp, 18. Forsythe, 19. Fraker, 20. Jim Schuster, 21. Ott, 22. Buckwalter, 23. McIntyre, 24. Marks
Sidewiner sprints, Feature 1, 10 laps: 1. Donnie Hendershot, 2. Seth Kearchner, 3. Ryan Greth, 4. Keith Ford, 5. Danny Wykes, 6. Mike Zielonis, 7. Zach Overmiller, 8. Jason Stahl, 9. Jim Young, 10. Tanner Hunsicker, 11. Brandon Yarlett, 12. Mike Kiser, 13. Ben Murphy, 14. Mike Deimler, 15. Rohan Beasley, 16. Chris Crull
Sidewiner sprints, Feature 2, 10 laps: 1. Reed Salony, 2. Greth, 3. Kearchner, 4. Wykes, 5. Hendershot, 6. Zielonis, 7. Overmiller, 8. Hunsicker, 9. Ford, 10. Young, 11. Yarlett, 12. Deimler, 13. Beasley