Montieth with 2nd win of year Williams Grove
Brian Montieth of Phoenixville outraced Fawn Grove’s Matt Campbell to pick up his second Williams Grove Speedway sprint car victory of the season on Friday night. Campbell led until the final lap and a half when Montieth got by for the win. With two to go Montieth followed Campbell down the backchute with a run before blasting to the inside in the third and fourth turns to take command for the win, his first since April 22 at the track. Randy Westhafer was third followed by Brock Zearfoss and Austin Hogue. Sixth through 10th went to Cory Haas, Alan Krimes, Doug Esh, Tim Glatfelter and Rick Lafferty. Montieth walked away with $4,300 for his win including a $500 bonus for winning fromthe fifth row. His winning margin was .085 seconds. . In the URC Sprint main, URC point leader Davie Franek proved victorious, scoring in 360 action for the first time at the track although he already owned a pair of 358 sprint car wins at the oval. Fifth starter Chuck Hebing mixed it up throughout the event, eventually ending up second, 1.754 seconds behind at the finish. Finishing third was Eric Tomecek followed by Jason Schultz and Josh Weller, who completed a whale of a run from the 18th starting spot. Sixth through 10th went to Derek Locke, Whittall who faded late, Jimmy Stitzel, Curt Michael and Glenndon Forsythe.
KNOXVILLE, IOWA >> Jason Johnson’s epic win over Donny Schatz at the 56th running of the Knoxville Nationals will go down as one of the best ever.
Over the race’s final 25 lap segment the two drivers traded slide jobs and the lead on several occasions, even making contact at one point. In the end, Johnson was too strong and held on for his first ever Knoxville Nationals win and
$150,000. Schatz was second followed by Shane Stewart in third. Greg Hodnett, driving the Mike Heffner car out of Fleetwood, was 8th. Logan Schuchart from Hanover was 16th. Mechanicsburg’s Lucas Wolfe was 19th.
BEDFORD>> Matt Cosner, enjoying a stellar mid season run, rallied late to take the LateM odel event at Bedford Friday night. It was Cosner’s third win of 2016 at the track where he has been the only multiple winner this season. Cosner rushed off to a safe margin for the win in the cautionless event. Andy Haus, Hamburg, slid by Dave Troutman on lap 21 and Jeff Rine completed his arge to the front by taking third on the white flag lap. Troutman and Dave Schmidt completed the top five
LINCOLN >> J.J. Grasso started on the front rowand held off 12th-starting Brian Montieth at the end to score his third career Lincoln win in Saturday night’s 33-lap National Fallen Firefighters feature event inmemory of Brandon Little. Grasso dominated most of the race from the pole, leading by as much as a straightaway with five laps to go. But Montieth fought his way through lapped traffic to close onto Grasso’s bumper on the final lap, crossing just 11-hundreths of a second behind the Middletown, Del., winner. The two cars nearly touched at the finish line as they crossed with a lapped car.
“I thought Brian was going to get me sooner,” said Grasso after claiming the $5,000 top prize in his family-owned BK Trucking/Betts Garage No. 37, “I was running as hard as I could and was trying not to get over a lapped car or do anything stupid. That rain delay helped. I had a little problem and was able to fix the front end during that delay. I’m just glad Brian Montieth didn’t get by.”
The event actually began with a first-lap flip by Cory Haas just before the rains came, resulting in an hour and-a-half delay. Haas was able tomake repairs during the delay and restart at the rear, coming back through to finish 13th.
“I’m having a little trouble catching my breath and I’m a little emotional,” said Grasso, “This one is for Bryan Clauson and Kramer Williamson. Those guys taught everyone so much, and they were such good racers. It feels so good to be here. I guess I’m a little out of shape after going 33 laps non-stop.”
Montieth made Grasso work hard over the final five laps as he closed the gap dramatically, setting up the final front stretch thriller to the checkered. Third through fifth were points leader Alan Krimes, Tyler Ross, and Kyle Moody. Rounding out the top ten were Billy Dietrich, Jim Siegel, Austin Hogue, Adam Wilt, and Robbie Kendall.. Hanover’s Troy Wagaman, Jr. took the lead at the outset and led them all in the 20-lap “358” sprint car feature. But the last seven laps were tough, as tenth-starting Jeff Halligan moved into the runner-up spot, closed on Wagaman, and took the lead from Wagaman with a slider in turn two late in the race, only to have Wagaman race back by Halligan down the backstretch. Halligan settled for second, with 12th-starting Matt Campbell, point leader Chandler Leiby, and Jeff Rohrbaugh completing the top five.
SUSQUEHANNA >> Josh Weller out-dueled point leader Davie Franek during Saturday night’s 25-lap URC/358 Sprint Challenge at Susquehanna Speedway and went onto score his second URC win of the season. Franek, the winner in URC action Friday night, started on the pole and led lap one before Mark Smith went out front and led the next two circuits. Franek regained the lead from Smith on the fourth tour and was leading Smith on the ninth lap when Smith slowed on the speedway to bring out a caution. Following a caution on an attempted double file restart, a single file restart saw Weller, of Mertztown, jump to the outside of Franek and won the race off the second corner to take the lead with 11 laps down and he would never look back in scoring the win aboard his No. 63 Sprint. Franek rode home in the runner-up spot ahead of Robbie Stillwaggon with Doug Hammaker coming from his 13th starting spot to finish fourth, the highest finishing 358 sprint car in the field. Derek Locke finished fifth as Eric Tomecek, Curt Michael, Justin Whittall, Steven Drevicki and Dave Betts completing the top ten finishers.
Port Royal did not run Saturday and Selinsgrove was rained out.
BRYAN CLAUSON >> Bryan Clauson, considered the top dirt-track racer in the country, has died from injuries suffered in an accident at the Belleville (Kansas) Midget Nationals USAC midget race. He was 27. His death was announced Monday morning at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. A statement from his family was read that said Clauson died Sunday evening. Clauson was leading the race Saturday night when he crashed passing lapped traffic. His car rolled and was hit by another competitor. He was airlifted to a hospital in Nebraska, and died surrounded by his family. Clauson was on pace to compete in 200 races this year. He had 27 victories in 116 starts, and led three laps in the Indianapolis 500 in May. Clauson had won races back East here at Lincoln, Grandview, New Egypt and Port Royal