Hamburg’s Whitmoyer wins first Coalcracker 40 at Big Diamond

Craig Whitmoyer used a late-race restart to score the $1,600 pay day in winning his first-ever Coalcracker 40 for sportsman as Big Diamond Speedway kicked off its Coalcracker Weekend on Leindecker Race Engines Night on Friday night.

Also on Friday night two more track championships were handed out as Andy Fayash III won the 20-lap Savage 61 roadrunner feature and the track title while Eric Tripp took home the honors with his No Sweat Service Group street stock title.

They join Ryan Godown (358 modifieds) and Brandon Grosso (sportsman) as the four track champions for 2016.

The track wrapped up the season on Sunday with the 36th edition of the Jack Rich Inc., Coalcracker 72 for the 358 modifieds.

Mike Lisowski was in control of the Coalcracker 40 for the sportsman from the drop of the green flag from his pole starting spot and by lap 6, he had opened a stratighaway lead on the field. Two laps later he began working through lapped traffic going both high and low on the track to maintain the top spot.

The first 21 laps of the feature went non-stop before the first yellow was displayed for a spin on lap 21.

While Lisowski was pulling away from the field, Matt Strangle was having a solid run in second but it was veteran Whitmoyer who was on the move as he took over third place on lap 13 of the feature after starting ninth.

Lisowski, who fourth in the final point standings in 2016, once again pulled away to a sizeable lead on the lap 21 restart while Whitmoyer and Stangle, would battle for second.

It would take another six laps before Whitmoyer passed Stangle for the runner-up spot and then he set sail after Lisowski who continued to work his way through lapped traffic.

The second caution of the race came on lap 33 for two separate spins on the track.

This enabled Whitmoyer to start along side of Lisowski on the restart and using the outside lane, Whitmoyer took the lead on the backstretch for the first time.

Lisowski was not done as he battled back and was underneath Whitmoyer on the inside of Turn 3 as the pair battled for the top spot.

Whitmoyer pulled ahead by three car lengths when the third and final caution of the race flew on lap 38 for a spin.

This set up a green-white-checker finish as Lisowski and Whitmoyer raced sideby-side into Turn 1 on the restart and they stayed that way until the hit the middle of the backstretch when Whitmoyer pulled ahead going into Turn 3.

From there, the veteran held off Lisowski for his first-ever Coalcracker 40 win with Lisowski coming home second and newly crowned sportsman track champion Grosso, third.

Stangle held on for fourth while Ray Woodall, Jr., was fifth.

Sixth through 10th were Shawn Light, Skylar Sheriff, Tim Fitzpatrick Sr., Glenn Rowan and Billy Moyer Jr. Heats for the 32 sportsman were won by Joe Funk, Ray Woodall Sr. and Lisowski while Brian Papiez won the consolation feature.

“I was glad to see the caution come out, I knew I had a good race car and I got caught in the back trying to pass guys clean and when we got a shot, we had a real good race car,” Whitmoyer said.