Buckwalter, Hershey win at Williams Grove
The Royersford Rocket Steve Buckwalter won a thrilling and hotly-contested sprint car event at Williams Grove Speedway on Friday night, holding off the furious challenges of Brian Montieth, Danny Dietrich and Greg Hodnett to pick up the victory.
Elsewhere, the kickoff of the 2016 Nouse Signs and Graphics 358 Sprint Summer Series saw the $1,000 victory go to female racer Brie Hershey of Enola.
With five laps to go, the front four cars were under a blanket with no more than one car length between each of them as they sliced and diced high and low for the win. Brian Montieth threw down a major slide job in the second turn of the 21st lap only to see Buckwalter vault back out in front as the pair shot onto the backstretch and all the while both Danny Dietrich and Greg Hodnett were waiting to pounce. Two laps later, Montieth layed down another huge slider in the second corner to gain command and again Buckwalter retook the top spot however this time as Montieth slid sideways Dietrich bit fast on the bottom and drove up off of the low groove into second as both he and Buckwalter overtook Montieth. Dietrich then made his attempts for the win with Buckwalter on the high cushion however the Gettysburg driver came up just short at the finish with Buckwalter scoring the payday by a scant .164-second margin.
It was Buckwalter’s seventh career victory at the oval. Montieth was third followed by Hodnett and Freddie Rahmer. Sixth through 10th went to Aaron Ott, Cory Haas, Alan Krimes, Doug Esh and Brock Zearfoss.
Hershey would end up leading all 25 laps of the 358 sprint main. However, to say she cruised to the win would be incorrect. For most of the race she had the lead well in hand but a late challenge developed from 12th starter Doug Hammaker. Hammaker rode home second followed by Nyle Berkes, Kevin Nouse and Kyle Denmyer. Sixth through 10th went to Tim Wagaman, Matt Findley, Todd Rittenouse Jr., Glenndon Forsythe and David Holbrook.
Dover’s Austin Hogue caught race-long leader Tyler Ross as the two leaders were crossing under the white flag to score his first win of the year in the 25-lap 410 sprint car feature at Lincoln Speedway Saturday night. A disappointed Ross finished second, with Gerard McIntyre, ninth-starting Brian Montieth, and points leader Alan Krimes rounding out the top five. Sixth through tenth were Cory Haas, Jim Siegel, 14th-starting Chad Trout, Mike Bittinger, and Brandon Rahmer. Adrian Shaffer came from eighth starting spot to score his first Lincoln win of the year in the 20-lap 358 sprint car feature. Shaffer was already in the top five by the end of the first lap and was running third by the end of lap three. He passed Tyler Esh for second on lap 11 and drove around Brie Hershey for the race lead on lap 15. Tenth-starting Matt Campbell came on late to pressure Shaffer for the lead in lapped traffic over the final four laps of the nonstop event, timed at 5 minutes, 44.6 seconds. He settled for second, with Hershey, Doug Hammaker, and 12th-starting Jeff Halligan rounding out the top five. Mike Enders caught racelong leader Chad Criswell on lap 17 and drove away to his third career Lincoln win in the 25-lap super sportsman feature event. Criswell crossed second .62 seconds behind the winner, with polesitter Scott Dellinger, Paul Miller, and Timmie Barrick completing the top five.
Greg Hodnett started eighth and drove through the field to win the 25-lap 410-sprint car feature at Port Royal Speedway on Saturday night to record his sixth oval checkers of the season, worth $3,200. Lucus Wolfe tried to close in on the distance between himself and the leader but couldn’t muster a challenge, instead crossing the finish line 1.763 seconds behind at the finish. Aaron Ott rode home third followed by Brent Marks and Mike Wagner. Sixth through 10th went to Ryan Taylor, Blane Heimbach, Brock Zearfoss, Curt Stroup and Dylan Cisney.
In the 22-lap super late model feature, a wild and thrilling finish accentuated the suspenseful event with Chad Hollenbeck stealing the victory at the finish line over Dylan Yoder
The spectacle that was the super late model main went non-stop with polesit- ter Dylan Yoder leading all but the final few yards. Hollenbeck’s nose got across the finish line first and he then pulled his smoke-laden machine into the winner’s circle to claim his second oval win of the year by a shocking .137 margin that left the fans and officials speechless. Yoder was a disappointed second followed by Tim Smith Jr., Jeff Miller and Hamburg’s Andy Haus. Sixth through 10th went to Tim Wilson, Mike Lupfer, Matt Parks, Billy Wampler and Kyle Hardy. Heats went to Trent Brenneman, Scott Flickinger and Haus.