|
By Gary Lileck
Forestville, PA – May 11, 2007 – Craig Von Dohren of Oley won his fifty-eighth career Big Diamond Raceway 358 Modified feature, while another Oley resident, Duane Howard, captured a fifty-fourth career triumph in the second main event. Von Dohren and Howard hold the top two positions in Diamond’s all-time Modified win list.
Von Dohren emerged victorious in the evening’s opening contest, the remaining seventeen circuits from a May 4 feature. Howard made some late race maneuvers to capture the victory in the regularly scheduled event. It was a season’s first victory for both drivers.
Other divisional winners on Alpha Mills Night included: Codie Berk (held-over Sportsman feature), Shawn Hiestand (regularly scheduled Sportsman feature), Andy Zvorsky (Roadrunners), and Mike Keppler (Xcel 600 Modifieds).
Von Dohren started from outside pole in the opening 17-lap 358 Modified sprint. This was a fast paced contest, which contained no caution flags. Von Dohren, driving the Mike Harvey owned #1c, wasted no time in grabbing the immediate lead. Ryan Watt (Boyertown) powered into the runner-up spot with thirteen laps remaining.
Lapped traffic was a slight factor for Von Dohren, however, he raced through and continued to set a torrid pace. Von Dohren turned his early season tough luck around with a convincing win in the Murphy Jewlers/Relay For Life Night Sponsored feature.
Watt drove the locally fielded Purcell Motorsports #6 Bicknell to his finest effort of the season, a runner-up. Jeff Strunk (Mohnton) started eighth and steered the Glenn Hyneman #126 to a third place finish. Rick Laubach (Quakertown), a feature winner earlier this season, finished fourth in Dick Biever’s #14 Teo. Mike Nicholas (Lebanon) began this event from the pole and held on to finish fifth.
The second 25-lap feature was an exact carbon copy of the opening contest. Seventeen laps were completed caution-free. Sophomore racer Carroll Hine III (Boyertown) convincingly led the opening 17 tours of this event. Cautions would take place with 17 and 18 tours on the counter, however, the remainder of the event was clean and green.
Doug Hendricks (Orwigsburg) grabbed second on lap eleven. Howard, who started twelfth, and fifteenth place starter Strunk were slicing through the field. Howard powered past Hendricks via the inside lane of lap 19. Strunk followed suit on the inside of Hendricks a lap later to take possession of third.
Hine was enjoying the finest race of his career as he remained in charge. Strunk briefly took second from Howard down the backstretch of lap 22. Howard tossed his machine to the inside and re-passed Strunk in the fourth corner. On lap 23, Howard switched to the high side and pressured the race leader Hine. Howard blasted past Hine as the duo raced out of the fourth corner to score lap 23.
Strunk continued to race on the low side and passed Hine for the runner-up spot on lap 24. Meanwhile Howard, driving the Chad Sinon #4 Troyer, seized his first victory of the season. Strunk crossed the line in the runner-up position.
Hine would post a career best finish of third behind the wheel of his #114 entry. Doug Manmiller (Shoemakersville) made some late race moves to earn a fourth place finish behind the wheel of his self-owned #00 Bicknell. Laubach, who started fourteenth, finished fifth.
Heats for the 33 cars present were won by: Rick Laubach, Ray Swinehart, and Troy Wink. Split consolations were awarded to: Gary Wagner Jr. and Billy Pauch Jr.
Young second generation racer, Codie Berk (Shoemakersville), turned in an impressive performance during the opening 20-lap Sportsman main event. Berk, in only his fourth start behind the wheel of a Sportsman car, led all 20-laps from the inside pole position.
Berk made no mistakes during the race and he drove the Troy and Donna Wink owned #71J to a first career Sportsman triumph. Jarrad Miller (Barto) started seventh and advanced into second on a lap 16 restart. Miller finished second. Earl Paules (Palmerton) grabbed a season high of third and he was followed by Kevin Beach (Llewellyn) and Mike Mammana (Nazareth).
Third year racer, Shawn Hiestand (Leesport) likewise dominated the regularly scheduled 20-lap affair. Hiestand passed Richard Stankiewicz on a lap two restart. From there, Hiestand survived a couple of green restarts and never looked back.
Hiestand held a near full straightaway advantage over his competition. Hiestand became the fifth different Sportsman winner in five events held. Newcomer to the Sportsman ranks this season, Andrew Stout (Gouldsboro) finished comfortably in the runner-up spot. Rounding out the top five were Beach, invading driver Rich Scagliotta (Bound Brook NJ) and opening day winner Craig Whitmoyer (Hamburg).
36 Sportsman were on hand with heat wins going to: Frank Cozze Jr., Shawn Hiestand, Rich Scagliotta, and Mike Mammana. The B-main winner was Rob Gibson.
Elvin Brennan led the opening three tours of the 15-lap Roadrunner feature. Andy Zvorsky (Orwigsburg) passed Brennan on the inside line of lap four. Zvorsky, driving his self-owned #z71 Monte Carlo, remained in control during the event’s closing moments.
Zvorsky captured his first win of the season and second of his career. Second year racer Kevin Olenick (Pottsville) finished in the runner-up spot. Three-time feature winner Tom Hablett (Schuylkill Haven) throttled from fifteenth to third. Joe Hendricks (Auburn) and Gary Renninger (Pottsville) rounded out the top five.
Lead changes were abundant in the 20-lap Xcel 600 Modified tour main event. Scotty Washburn led the opening lap. Mike Pychinka took command on lap two. Mike Keppler grabbed the lead during a tremendous battle on lap five. Nick Mady powered into the front spot on lap ten, with Pychinka and Keppler now giving chase.
Pychinka regained the top spot on the 14th lap and brought Keppler along with him. Keppler made a strong move into first on a lap 16 restart and never looked back. Keppler emerged victorious in the highly contested feature and was followed by Pychinka, N. Mady, Travis Halabura, and Kevin Gruber. A track record of 30 cars were pitside for the night.
After further consideration and a number of race teams showing interest the previously cancelled test and tune scheduled for Tuesday evening May 15 will be held. The test and tune is open to all types of race cars. Gates will open at 5:30 PM and practice will be starting at 7 PM. Pit passes in order to participate are $20.
The ARDC Midgets join Friday May 18’s racing card. It is the second ARDC appearance of the season at BDR. Gates open at 5:30PM with warm-ups at 7:00PM and racing gets started at 7:30PM. Adult general admission for this event is $12.
Big Diamond Raceway – Friday May 11, 2007 – Race Results
358 Modified Feature from May 4 (final 17 of 25-laps): 1) #1c-Craig Von Dohren, 2) #6-Ryan Watt, 3) #126-Jeff Strunk, 4) #14-Rick Laubach, 5) #3-Mike Nicholas, 6) #11-Meme DeSantis, 7) #00-Doug Manmiller, 8) #91-John Willman, 9) #81-Terry Meitzler, 10) #44-Danny Erb, 11) #47-Gary Wagner Jr., 12) #27-Troy Wink, 13) #118-Sean Merkel, 14) #8-Doug Hendricks, 15) #11D-Billy Pauch Jr., 16) #17-Ryan Grim, 17) #318-Jeff Sechrist, 18) #117-Kevin Hirthler, 19) #S1-Bobby Gunther-Walsh, 20) #114-Carroll Hine III, 21) #1450-Greg Weiland, 22) #29-Ken Eckert Jr., 23) #22-Steve Swinehart, 24) #1-Keith Hoffman.
358 Modified Feature (25-laps): 1) #4-Duane Howard, 2) #126-Jeff Strunk 3) #114-Carroll Hine III, 4) #00-Doug Manmiller, 5) #14-Rick Laubach, 6) #8-Doug Hendricks, 7) #33-Ray Swinehart, 8) #11-Meme DeSantis, 9) #6-Ryan Watt, 10) #97-Jimmy Reppert, 11) #11D-Billy Pauch Jr., 12) #81-Terry Meitzler, 13) #1-Keith Hoffman, 14) #22-Steve Swinehart, 15) #47-Gary Wagner Jr., 16) #17-Ryan Grim, 17) #16-Jason Hamilton, 18) #T102-Shawn Fitzpatrick, 19) #3-Mike Nicholas, 20) #27-Troy Wink, 21) #1c-Craig Von Dohren, 22) #117-Kevin Hirthler, 23) #44-Danny Erb, 24) #91-John Willman.
Sportsman Feature from May 4 (20-laps): 1) #71J-Codie Berk, 2) #917-Jarrad Miller, 3) #33E-Earl Paules, 4) #6JR-Kevin Beach, 5) #71-Mike Mammana, 6) #84-Leroy Long, 7) #88-Ray Woodall Jr., 8) #46-Josh Biever, 9) #19-Jordan Umbenhauer, 10) #27-Andrew Stout, 11) #3-Luke Wagner, 12) #19B-Brad Brightbill, 13) #04-Steven Hughes, 14) #26-Tom Brennan, 15) #44-Frank Cozze Jr., 16) #23-Kyle Somers, 17) #61-Patrick Cozze, 18) #17-Billy Moyer Jr., 19) #43-Joe Masiado, 20) #35-Ebby Ridge, 21) #8-Rob Gibson, 22) #164-Andy Miller, 23) #99-Craig Whitmoyer, 24) #14-Louie Mitchalk, 25) #75-James Morris, 26) #0-Kevin Brady.
Sportsman Feature (20-laps): 1) #56-Shawn Hiestand, 2) #27-Andrew Stout, 3) #6JR-Kevin Beach, 4) #8-Rich Scagliotta, 5) #99-Craig Whitmoyer, 6) #44-Frank Cozze Jr., 7) #19B-Brad Brightbill, 8) #26-Tom Brennan, 9) #8-Rob Gibson, 10) #46-Josh Biever, 11) #84-Leroy Long, 12) #71J-Codie Berk, 13) #3H-Marc Herman, 14) #72-Ray Woodall Jr., 15) #23-Kyle Somers, 16) #19-Jordan Umbenhauer, 17) #2-Richard Stankiewicz, 18) #33E-Earl Paules, 19) #123-Roy Wiest, 20) #917-Jarrad Miller, 21) #164-Andy Miller, 22) #35-Ebby Ridge, 23) #61-Patrick Cozze, 24) #71-Mike Mammana, 25) #88-Mike Bent, 26) #14-Louie Mitchalk.
Roadrunner Feature (15-laps): 1) #z71-Andy Zvorsky, 2) #450-Kevin Olenick, 3) #22-Tom Hablett, 4) #11x-Joe Hendricks, 5) #101-Gary Renninger, 6) #555-Elvin Brennan, 7) #66-Chris Holland, 8) #93-Rob Pyle, 9) #37-Eric Pinkerton, 10) #201-Donnie Murphy, 11) #1-Dave Miller, 12) #72-Mark Paine, 13) #17-Bud Vidal, 14) #29B-Ricky Bender, 15) #97-Jeremy Becker, 16) #8-Davey Nester, 17) #11-Dan Strenkoski.
Xcel 600 Modified Feature (20-laps): 1) #14K-Mike Keppler, 2) #55-Mike Pychinka, 3) #77x-Nick Mady, 4) #118-Travis Halabura, 5) #33-Kevin Gruber, 6) #4-Dave Baldwin Jr., 7) #44-Chris Stockholm, 8) #3-Bryan Mady, 9) #38-Curt Amey, 10) #G1-Kyle Gardner.
|
|
