By Steve Inch
SELINSGROVE, Pa. – After three weeks off, two due to inclement weather, Selinsgrove Speedway pulled off an exciting three division show despite another serious effort to dampen the action by Mother Nature.
The Lucas Oil Empire Super Sprint series sanctioned the Mach 1 Chassis 360 Sprint Car Spectacular at on Reinhart Food Service Night Saturday with a strong 30-car field.
A multi-car incident on the start of the 25-lap main event in turns one and two resulted in Adam Carberry’s sprint car flipping over. All drivers escaped injury. At the drop of the green flag to restart the A-Main Jason Barney showed the way with Ryan Kissinger in pursuit.
Derek Locke drove into the top spot on the following lap with Kissinger in chase. Kissinger then closed in on Locke quickly in lap traffic. Kissinger’s car developed mechanical problems on lap 11 and slowed to bring out a yellow flag.
A restart on lap 12 gave the field a shot at Locke after he led the race early. The double file restart brought Robbie Stillwaggon and Mark Smith to Locke, but a yellow put the field back to single file. Smith took advantage of the restart to take the top spots with a sweeping move around both Stillwaggon and then Locke. Once out front Smith drove away from the field.
The yellow flew on lap 20 to bunch the field up once more. On the restart, Chad Layton would take over second from Locke but as the two drivers battled Smith would drive away to his first win of the season at Selinsgrove and collect $2,000. Locke would secure the second spot before the drop of the checkered flag and Layton would round out the podium. Barney and Davie Franek were the top five finishers.
Heat races for the 360 Sprint Cars were won by Jeff Cook, Robbie Stillwaggon, and Davie Franek. The B-Main was won by Jason Shultz and the dash went to Michael Walter.
Track records were falling on a fast Selinsgrove Speedway. Michael Walter has the new track record in the 4 lap dash. Davie Franek now owns the track record for the 10-lap distance for sprint cars.
Bryan Bernheisel showed the field to the green flag in round two of the Moon Shine Camo Route 35 Late Model Challenge series. Bernheisel led early holding off the advances of a hard charging Jeff Rine.
Various yellow flags throughout the event allowed Rine to get close, but he was never able to make the pass of Bernheisel. In the final corner Rine made one final bid but was unable to get by.
The Delaware double file restarts definitely made things challenging said Bernheisel in victory Lane. He continued by saying, “I was trying to do something a little different and diamond them on the starts so that Rine wasn’t able to get by me as easy on the inside.”
It all paid off for the 119 with “Kid Lazer” taking his first win of the season worth $2,000. Rine and 10th place starter Coleby Frye rounded out the podium. Chad Hollenbeck came from 19th to finish fourth followed by Jim Yoder.
Steve Campbell, Rick Singleton, and Tony Adams were the heat race winners for the Jeff’s Auto Body Late Models.
AJ Stroup battled Dustin Snook early on in the pro stock feature event. The race was the final time for the drivers to tuneup for the rescheduled Pro Stock 20 next weekend.
Tommy Slanker showed he will be a force to be reckoned with driving from the 10th spot up into the top three before lap three ever went on the board. On lap six Slanker dove to the inside and made the pass of Stroup for the race lead. Soon Shawn Lawton would move into the runner-up spot and by lap 12 the lead was shrinking.
Lawton put all of his eggs in the basket going into turn three coming to the white flag when he went to the inside of the race leader Slanker. Lawton pushed up the track and Slanker was able to get away for his second win of the season.
Lawton crossed the line in second but was penalized at the end for passing before the cone. Stroup moved to second followed by Snook, Lawton, and Brandon Moser.
Heat races for the Pro Stocks were won by Shawn Lawton and AJ Stroup.
Next Saturday night, May 27, Selinsgrove Speedway is back in action on Pepsi Night over the Memorial Day weekend. Racing on May 27 will feature the 360 Sprint Cars plus Late Models, the rescheduled A&A Auto Stores Pro Stock 20, and Roadrunners plus Fireworks! Racing will kick off at 7pm. Track gates will open at 5 p.m.
For information about the speedway you can follow the various social media sites on Facebook and Twitter or you could visit Selinsgrovespeedway.com.
SELINSGROVE SPEEDWAY RACE SUMMARY: 20 May 2017
360 Sprints – 30 Entries
25-Lap A-Main: 1) 1 Mark Smith 2) 77 Derek Locke 3) 35 Chad Layton 4) 87 Jason Barney 5) 28F Davie Franek 6) 89 Robbie Stillwaggon 7) 76 Larry Kelleher 8) 29 Jason Shultz 9) 79 Jordan Thomas 10) 22 Troy Betts 11) 88C Chad Miller 12) 21 Alex Vigneault 13) 90 Matt Tanner 14) 10 Jeff Cook 15) 1W Eric Tomecek 16) 19K Paul Kinney 17) 14B Brett Wright 18) 56 Nate Snyder 19) 66 Ryan Kissinger 20) 63 Josh Weller 21) 33 Michael Walter 22) C4 Jim Shuster 23) 14 Coleman Gulick 24) 47 Adam Carberry 25) 99K Cody Keller 26) 49S Mallie Shuster
Heat Winners: Robbie Stillwaggon, Davie Franek, Jeff Cook
Dash Winner: Michael Walter
B-Main Winner: Jason Shultz