Mechanicsburg, PA — (August 16, 2013) — Pat Cannon of Edtters and Logan Schuchart of Hanover split twin 20-lap features for the 410 sprints at Williams Grove Speedway on Friday night.
Cannon’s win was his second in full-blown sprint car competition at the track while Schuchart’s was his third.
Lance Dewease and Fred Rahmer started on the front row of the first main event and Rahmer took the lead when action got underway with Don Kreitz Jr. running up from sixth to be chasing the leader on the first lap.
But third starter Cannon quickly got by Kreitz for second on the second tour and was watching Rahmer’s car in the distance with the lead when he slowed with seven laps on the board and fell out of the event.
Cannon then assumed command of the field and began pulling away over the final half of the race aboard the Highlands No. 3.
At the finish he was a full straightaway ahead of Kreitz for the checkers.
Dewease rode home third followed by Schuchart and Brian Leppo.
“Nothin’ beats standin’ up here,” Cannon said of reaching the Williams Grove frontstretch victory lane.
Greg Hodnett and Leppo started on the front row of the second main with Leppo taking command at the drop of the green.
The pace was already halted on the first lap when Danny Dietrich spun in the first corner.
Leppo entered lapped traffic on the seventh tour and immediately saw a healthy advantage slip away placing Hodnett on his tail.
However then another caution cleared the track for him with 12 laps left.
The restart saw Hodnett, Schuchart and Dewease chasing Leppo for control.
Traffic again entered the equation with five laps left as Leppo, who looked invinceable on open track, again saw a healthy advantage just vanish amid a torrid backmarker pace.
And with four laps to go Hodnett was again all over Leppo’s mount for the win, crossing the line just feet back of the leader.
It was on the 17th tour that Schuchart strongly blasted underneath Hodnett in the third corner to come away with second and set his sights on leader Leppo with time running out.
He caught Leppo as the pair raced toward the white flag and the pair made contact just shy of the stripe but kept going straight into the first turn.
Schuchart had Leppo set up for a low corner dive on the final loop but when Leppo went in low as well, Schuchart had to smash the breaks to avoid crashing both of them and instead he allowed his No. 1S to move up the track as the pair raced into the second turn.
But to Schuchart’s outside when he began to roll around the top groove was Hodnett and the pair of cars bucked around on the cushion trying to avoid smashing into each other and making pieces.
Somehow, after avoiding a catastrophe in the second turn, Schuchart chased Leppo down the backstretch and into the third corner where he pulled a nearly identical move to the one he had put on Hodnett for second a few laps earlier to steal Leppo’s win off of the fourth corner.
It was the second time in as many races that Leppo saw a race slip away on the final lap at Williams Grove.
Hodnett was third followed by Dewease and Kreitz.
“I probably should apologize to Greg,” Schuchart said in victory lane.
“I kinda’ pinched him a little.”
“I’m just tired of loosin’” Schuchart said before his grandfather Bobby Allen said his piece.
“He did a helluva’ job,” Allen said of Schuchart.
“He made some good moves there at the end. I could tell early in that race he was sticking in the middle and we would have a shot.”
“We earned it and we got it!”
Each victory was worth $2,500 to the feature winners while Schuchart garnered another $250 from Eshenaur Fuels for a last lap pass for the win.
Fast time over the 28-car field was set by Kreitz with a lap of 16.927 seconds.
Twin heats went to Chad Layton and Adam Wilt.
August 16, 2013 Feature Finishes:
410 sprint cars, first feature, 20 laps: 1. Pat Cannon, 2. Don Kreitz Jr., 3. Lance Dewease, 4. Logan Schuchart, 5. Brian Leppo, 6. Greg Hodnett, 7. Alan Krimes, 8. Steve Buckwalter, 9. Cory Haas, 10. Chad Layton, 11. Danny Dietrich, 12. Brian Montieth, 13. Adam Wilt, 14. Jim Siegel, 15. Brent Marks, 16. Gerard McIntyre Jr., 17. Ryan Smith, 18. Ryan Taylor, 19. Rick Lafferty, 20. TJ Stutts, 21. Nicole Bower, 22. Ryan Wilson, 23. Glenndon Forsythe, 24. Fred Rahmer
410 sprint cars, second feature, 20 laps: 1. Schuchart, 2. Leppo, 3. Hodnett, 4. Dewease, 5. Kreitz, 6. Cannon, 7. Krimes, 8. Wilt, 9. Layton, 10. Marks, 11. Montieth, 12. Lafferty, 13. Rahmer, 14. Dietrich, 15. Siegel, 16. Stutts, 17. McIntyre, 18. Smith, 19. Wilson, 20. Taylor, 21. Bower, 22. Forsythe, 23. Buckwalter, 24. Haas