By Shawn Brouse
Mechanicsburg – Danny Dietrich scored the prestigious Mitch Smith Memorial for 410 sprint cars as part of Pennsylvania Speedweek at Williams Grove Speedway on Friday night for the fourth time in his career.
The recently crowned Ohio Speedweek champion, Dietrich pocketed $20,000 for his win in the 30-lap, 37th annual running of the event.
The Gettysburg driver started third in the field and fell to fourth on the opening lap behind leader Brent Marks.
Marks was chased early by Ryan Smith and Troy Wagaman Jr. before Wagaman used a good run off the inside of turn two on the ninth tour to motor into second.
As Smith slipped backwards, Myerstown’s Marks entered traffic on the 12th tour and it was then that Dietrich seemed to begin coming to life in the Kauffman No. 48 machine.
He muscled by Wagaman for second on lap 13 just before the first caution flag of the race unfurled.
The restart saw Marks keep Dietrich at bay as speedweek point leader and defending Smith Memorial champion Anthony Macri entered the top five.
But by lap 18 Dietrich was trying Marks in every corner with Marks flying his No. 19M on the cushion and Dietrich blasting across the bottom.
Dietrich finally took the lead for good on lap 20 with a low side bite off of the second corner.
The new leader then entered the rear of the field with seven laps to go.
A second caution period with five laps to go turned to a red flag for refueling and when action resumed, third runner Macri blasted his car under Marks in the first turn to narrowly come away with the second spot.
Macri then tried to run down the leader but to no avail as Dietrich took the big victory by .789 seconds.
It was Dietrich’s first win of the season at Williams Grove, his seventh overall and the 33rd of his career at the Grove.
His previous Smith Memorial wins came in 2013, 2016 and in 2019.
Macri settled for second and maintained the speedweek point leader heading into the final two shows on Saturday and Sunday.
Marks was third followed by Wagaman and Lance Dewease.
Wagaman overtook Freddie Rahmer for the season point lead at the oval with his fourth place finish.
Sixth through 10th went to Smith, Ashton Torgerson, Logan Schuchart, Lucas Wolfe and Chase Dietz.
Heats for the 36 car field went to Marks, Dietrich, TJ Stutts and Smith with Tyler Ross claiming the B Main.
Macri set fast time worth $300 from Fast Tees with a lap of 16.732 seconds.
At the end of the night, Macri left the speedway as the speedweek point leader with 747 points to Dietrich’s 724.
Wagaman, Dietz and Freddie Rahmer currently hold third through fifth spot.
Feature Finishes
7/4/25
410 sprint cars, 30 laps: 1. Danny Dietrich, 2. Anthony Macri, 3. Brent Marks, 4. Troy Wagaman Jr., 5. Lance Dewease, 6. Ryan Smith, 7. Ashton Torgerson, 8. Logan Schuchart, 9. Lucas Wolfe, 10. Chase Dietz, 11. Brock Zearfoss, 12. Cameron Smith, 13. TJ Stutts, 14. Justin Whittall, 15. Freddie Rahmer, 16. Steve Buckwalter, 17. JJ Loss, 18. Brady Bacon, 19. Dylan Norris, 20. Kody Hartlaub, 21. Chad Trout, 22. Jordan Thomas, 23. Austin Bishop, 24. Tyler Ross
DNQ:
Ryan Taylor, Preston Lattomus, Ryan Newton, Alex Attard, Derek Hauck, Ricky Dieva, Dave Grube, Doug Hammaker, Olivia Thayer, Mark Smith, Tyler Walker, Cole Knopp