MECHANICSBURG, Pa. (August 18, 2017) – Taking advantage of Rico Abreu’s misfortune, “Double-D” Danny Dietrich earned his way back to Williams Grove Speedway victory lane against the Arctic Cat All Star Circuit of Champions, this time claiming the 35th Annual Jack Gunn Memorial worth $5,000. After starting third on the feature grid, the Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, native led the final 12 laps of the 30-lap program to claim his second Arctic Cat All Star victory of the 2017 season; his ninth career appearance in victory lane with “America’s Series.”
Sammy Swindell, aboard the Mark Coldren-owned No. 07, finished second on Friday night at “The Grove,” followed by Greg Hodnett, Lance Dewease and Lucas Wolfe.
“I can’t say enough about these guys who are standing behind me,” Danny Dietrich said. “They work hard and it really shows. We’re starting to get this season really turned around. We have two more races this weekend with Lincoln tomorrow and Susquehanna on Sunday. Those are tracks we are really comfortable with. Our goal is to get one or two more wins this weekend. That is the plan, anyhow.”
Lucas Wolfe and Rico Abreu led the 25 starters to green on Friday night at Williams Grove Speedway. Abreu earned the early jump and raced to the front of the running order ahead of Lucas Wolfe and Danny Dietrich. Those three battled in the same order for the first nine circuits, reaching the tail end of the field for the first time with just seven laps in the books.
Despite Abreu’s advantage stretching to nearly two seconds in clean air, heavy traffic eventually negated all of his earned momentum allowing Wolfe and Dietrich to close the gap in a hurry. By lap ten, Dietrich, who mastered the bottom groove of the speedway to navigate through traffic, was able to make a bid for second over Wolfe and succeeded, ultimately moving his focus ahead to the Abreu Vineyards/Priority Aviation/No. 24.
Fortunately for Dietrich, his hunt for the front flourished easier than predicted, as Abreu became victim of a flat left rear tire, turning the St. Helena, California, native completely around near the exit of turn two. Dietrich was able to avoid Abreu’s spin and inherit the lead with 18 circuits in the books.
After a failed attempt to resume action on the lap 19 restart, and open red conditions taking over the speedway as the result of a spectator injury in the infield, Dietrich led the field back to green now with Sammy Swindell and Greg Hodnett in tow. The trio raced in clean air until traffic reappeared on lap 27, allowing Swindell to close in on Dietrich for one final lunge. “Double-D” proved to be too strong in traffic, eventually separating himself from Swindell with two lapped cars just before the final checkers. The final margin of victory was nearly two seconds.
“We love when guys like Rico [Abreu] and Tony [Stewart] come to race with us in Central PA. It is good for the sport and it is good for the tracks in this area,” Dietrich explained, pilot of the Gary Kauffman Racing/Weikert’s Livestock/Sandoe’s Fruit Market/Pace Performance/Gsell’s Whitetails/Hickory Run Orchards/Carlisle Auto Salvage/CATS Used Truck Parts/Drop Of Ink Tattoo/Bowman Block & Head Repair/Sweeney Cars/Self Made/No. 48. “I knew Rico was going to be good, but we were really good around the bottom. Lucky for me, I have a lot of experience at this place and know what I have to do to get around it. This isn’t my kind of track surface tonight, but we were pretty fast all night. We’ll take this and move forward.”
Arctic Cat All Star action will move to the “Fabulous” Lincoln Speedway in Abbottstown on Saturday, August 19. Much like Grandview, Lincoln Speedway will host the Arctic Cat All Star Circuit of Champions on one occasion in 2017. The last time the Tony Stewart-owned organization invaded the Pigeon Hills, it was “Double-D” Danny Dietrich scoring the victory, beating Alan Krimes and Lucas Wolfe to the final checkers.
Lincoln Speedway will allow pit access beginning at 5:00pm on Saturday, August 19. A drivers meeting will be conducted at 6:15pm, with hot laps to follow at 7:00pm. Please visit www.lincolnspeedway.com for more information pertaining to ticket sales and reserved seat information.
Contingency Awards/Results: Williams Grove Speedway- Friday, August 18, 2017:
35th Annual Jack Gunn Memorial
EMi Driver’s Meeting: 37 entries
State Water Heaters Warm-Ups: Trey Starks – 16.602 seconds
Lincoln Electric Fast Qualifier: Chad Kemenah – 16.662 (3rd quick)
Ford Performance Heat #1: Rico Abreu
All Pro Aluminum Cylinder Heads Heat #2: Sammy Swindell
Hunt Brothers Pizza Heat #3: Anthony Macri
Daido Engine Bearings Heat #4: Mark Smith
JE Pistons Dash #1: Lucas Wolf
Kistler Racing Products Dash #2: Rico Abreu
Classic Ink USA B-Main: Tyler Esh
Daido Engine Bearings Main Event Winner: Danny Dietrich
MSD Performance Hard Charger Award: Caleb Helms (+7)
Outback Steakhouse A-Main 5th Place Finisher: Chad Kemenah (6th)
Outback Steakhouse A-Main 10th Place Finisher: Ryan Smith (11th)
Outback Steakhouse A-Main 15th Place Finisher: Tony Stewart (16th)
(Lincoln Electric, Daido Engine Bearings, MSD Performance, Outback Steakhouse: Need decal to qualify for contingency award)
Qualifying
Group (A)
1. 58-Brock Zearfoss, 16.722; 2. 1z-Dale Blaney, 16.735; 3. 48-Danny Dietrich, 16.756; 4. 24-Rico Abreu, 16.826; 5. 49x-Tim Shaffer, 16.925; 6. 7C-Caleb Armstrong, 17.18; 7. 8M-TJ Michael, 17.223; 8. 22-Brandon Spithaler, 17.441; 9. 51-John Garvin, 17.499; 10. 33-Brent Matus, 18.145
Group (B)
1. 44-Trey Starks, 16.515; 2. 16-Matt Campbell, 16.572; 3. 10H-Chad Kemenah, 16.662; 4. o7-Sammy Swindell, 16.938; 5. 35-Tyler Esh, 16.962; 6. 21-Brian Montieth, 16.994; 7. 39-Cory Haas, 17.041; 8. 1080-Jordan Mackison, 17.092; 9. 95-Hunter Mackison, 41.147
Group ( C )
1. 69K-Lance Dewease, 16.6649; 2. 51R-Freddie Rahmer, 16.704; 3. 27-Greg Hodnett, 16.872; 4. 39M-Anthony Macri, 16.98; 5. 33M-Max Stambaugh, 16.996; 6. 87-Alan Krimes, 17.046; 7. 17-Caleb Helms, 17.214; 8. 13-Brandon Matus, 17.319; 9. 12w-Troy Fraker, 17.814
Group (D)
1. 24W-Lucas Wolfe, 16.6647; 2. 14-Tony Stewart, 16.78; 3. 94-Ryan Smith, 16.864; 4. M1-Mark Smith, 16.903; 5. 75-Nicole Bower, 16.956; 6. 11-TJ Stutts, 17.009; 7. 1X-Chad Trout, 17.1; 8. 5-Justin Barger, 17.462; 9. 44W-Rodney Westhafer, 17.635
Heat #1 – Group (A) (8 Laps) – Top 5 Transfer
1. 24-Rico Abreu [1]; 2. 48-Danny Dietrich [2]; 3. 49X-Tim Shaffer [5]; 4. 1Z-Dale Blaney [3]; 5. 22-Brandon Spithaler [8]; 6. 8M-TJ Michael [7]; 7. 33-Brent Matus [10]; 8. 51-John Garvin [9]; 9. 58-Brock Zearfoss [4]
Heat #2 – Group (B) (8 Laps) – Top 5 Transfer
1. O7-Sammy Swindell [1]; 2. 10H-Chad Kemenah [2]; 3. 44-Trey Starks [4]; 4. 16-Matt Campbell [3]; 5. 39-Cory Haas [7]; 6. 21-Brian Montieth [6]; 7. 35-Tyler Esh [5]; 8. 1080-Jordan Mackison [8]
Heat #3 – Group ( C ) (8 Laps) – Top 5 Transfer
1. 39M-Anthony Macri [1]; 2. 27-Greg Hodnett [2]; 3. 69K-Lance Dewease [4]; 4. 51R-Freddie Rahmer [3]; 5. 87-Alan Krimes [6]; 6. 33M-Max Stambaugh [5]; 7. 17-Caleb Helms [7]; 8. 13-Brandon Matus [8]; 9. 12W-Troy Fraker [9]
Heat #4 – Group (D) (8 Laps) – Top 5 Transfer
1. M1-Mark Smith [1]; 2. 24W-Lucas Wolfe [4]; 3. 94-Ryan Smith [2]; 4. 11-TJ Stutts [6]; 5. 14-Tony Stewart [3]; 6. 5-Justin Barger [8]; 7. 1X-Chad Trout [7]; 8. 75-Nicole Bower [5]
Dash #1 (4 Laps)
1. 24W-Lucas Wolfe [1]; 2. 48-Danny Dietrich [2]; 3. 27-Greg Hodnett [5]; 4. M1-Mark Smith [3]; 5. 16-Matt Campbell [4]
Dash #2 (4 Laps)
1. 24-Rico Abreu [2]; 2. 39M-Anthony Macri [1]; 3. O7-Sammy Swindell [3]; 4. 10H-Chad Kemenah [4]; 5. 44-Trey Starks [5]
B-Main (12 Laps) – Top 4 Transfer
1. 35-Tyler Esh [2]; 2. 21-Brian Montieth [3]; 3. 33M-Max Stambaugh [4]; 4. 1X-Chad Trout [6]; 5. 17-Caleb Helms [8]; 6. 75-Nicole Bower [1]; 7. 7C-Caleb Armstrong [7]; 8. 5-Justin Barger [11]; 9. 13-Brandon Matus [10]; 10. 12W-Troy Fraker [13]; 11. 1080-Jordan Mackison [5]; 12. 33-Brent Matus [14]; 13. 51-John Garvin [12]; 14. 8M-TJ Michael [9]; 15. 58-Brock Zearfoss [15]; 16. 44W-Rodney Westhafer [16]; 17. 95-Hunter Mackison [17]
A-Main (30 Laps)
1. 48-Danny Dietrich [3]; 2. O7-Sammy Swindell [6]; 3. 27-Greg Hodnett [5]; 4. 69K-Lance Dewease [11]; 5. 24W-Lucas Wolfe [1]; 6. 10H-Chad Kemenah [8]; 7. 21-Brian Montieth [22]; 8. 49X-Tim Shaffer [13]; 9. M1-Mark Smith [7]; 10. 44-Trey Starks [10]; 11. 94-Ryan Smith [12]; 12. 1Z-Dale Blaney [15]; 13. 51R-Freddie Rahmer [14]; 14. 11-TJ Stutts [16]; 15. 39-Cory Haas [18]; 16. 14-Tony Stewart [17]; 17. 35-Tyler Esh [21]; 18. 17-Caleb Helms [25]; 19. 16-Matt Campbell [9]; 20. 39M-Anthony Macri [4]; 21. 24-Rico Abreu [2]; 22. 1X-Chad Trout [24]; 23. 22-Brandon Spithaler [20]; 24. 87-Alan Krimes [19]; 25. 33M-Max Stambaugh [23] Lap Leaders: Rico Abreu [1-18], Danny Dietrich [19-30]
Current Arctic Cat All Star Circuit of Champions Standings (August 18, 2017):
1. Chad Kemenah – 4518
2. Ryan Smith – 4228
3. Caleb Armstrong – 4116
4. Max Stambaugh – 3790
5. Caleb Helms – 3658
6. T.J. Michael – 3561
7. Brandon Spithaler – 3557
8. Tyler Esh – 3453
9. Brandon Matus – 3342
10. John Garvin – 3262