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By Gary Lileck
Forestville, PA – September 30, 2007 –The 2007 Big Diamond Raceway season officially concluded Sunday night in day two of the Diamond Nationals. A crowded pit area of 39-Big Block Modifieds, 40-Sportsman, and 26-Limited Late Models took part in Sunday’s Nationals.
Former track champion Keith Hoffman of Whitehall waited until the final ’07 race to capture his first win of the year. Hoffman throttled the Pat Michael owned #51M to a wire-to-wire victory in the 40-lap Big Block Modified feature. Hoffman’s triumph was worth $4000.
Kyle Weiss of Hamburg and Jerry Bard of Shippensburg each withstood a last lap restart to earn a feature win. Weiss won the 25-lap Sportsman main event worth $1000, while Bard earned the $1000 25-lap Limited Late Model A-Main victory.
Hoffman started outside pole in the Big Block Modified feature. He secured the lead while racing out of turn two on the opening lap. Kevin Hirthler moved into the runner-up spot on lap three with former speedway regular Steve Bottcher holding third. At the lap ten margin, Hoffman continued to show the way over Hirthler, Bottcher, Jeff Strunk (started ninth), and Billy Pauch (from twelfth).
With seventeen laps in the books, a lapped car made contact with Hirthler and a tangle ensued for a caution flag. Hoffman would remain the leader and Strunk passed Bottcher for the runner-up spot. Pauch raced in fourth and Duane Howard (the 358 Modified feature winner on Saturday) was making an impressive charge through the field. After being involved in two earlier feature accidents (both on lap 8), Howard advanced into fifth by the event’s 21st circuit.
While Hoffman and Strunk raced safely in positions one and two respectively, third place on back was a different story. Howard jumped into fourth on lap 27 past Pauch. Both Howard and Pauch maneuvered ahead of Bottcher to grab third and fourth. After a nice string of green laps, the caution lights flashed for the final time with 33 laps on the scoreboard.
Hoffman led the remaining 7 laps and throttled to his second straight victory in the Diamond Nationals. Hoffman won last year’s Modified feature on Oct. 1. Strunk drove the Hyneman #126 to a runner-up finish followed by Howard in the #114 Big Block Modified, and Billy Pauch, driving the #1W. Bottcher and Craig Von Dohren exchanged the fifth spot with Bottcher grabbing the position in the end.
Von Dohren, the speedway’s all-time leading 358 feature winner, ended up sixth. Wade Hendrickson, making his second start on the weekend, nailed down a seventh. Hirthler rebounded from the earlier accident to take eighth and Doug Manmiller drove his #00 to a ninth. New Jersey’s Richie Pratt Jr. rounded out the top ten.
Qualifying heat race winners were Hoffman, Strunk, Pauch, and Von Dohren. Split B-Main wins went to Manmiller and Howard.
Invading drivers showed their strength in the Sportsman main event. Garden State racer Willie Osmun, a second generation racing talent, grabbed the early lead. Kyle Weiss of Hamburg followed in the second position. Weiss, driving a car prepared by Danny Creeden (a New York based racer), looked for passing room on the leader, Osmun.
The half-way signal flashed upon the field and Weiss passed Osmun for the race lead. A couple of yellow flags took place in the end, and Weiss withstood each restart. As a matter of fact, the caution waved with just one lap remaining. Track regular Brad Brightbill (originally started sixth) had just worked into the runner-up spot past Osmun.
Weiss kept Brightbill at bay and held on to capture his first BDR win of the year. Weiss holds an impressive BDR win tally, and this victory marks the 25th of his career in four combined divisions. Brightbill capped off a successful ’07 season with a second place result. Osmun finished third ahead of Coalcracker 50 winner Jordan Umbenhauer and a first starting Sean Gunther.
’07 feature winner Billy Moyer Jr. finished sixth. RoC tour regular Mike Loney ended up seventh and he was followed by Rick Raisner, Roy Wiest, and Ricky Beavers.
Qualifying heat winners were Osmun, Moyer, Craig Whitmoyer, and Rich Scagliotta. B-Main wins went to Tim Apgar and Chris James Jr.
Dave Conover led the opening lap of the Limited Late Model feature. Jerry Bard started second and took command on lap two. Bard had only seen BDR on one previous occasion, the rained-out event from earlier in the season. Sunday’s event was Bard’s first ever competition start at the speedway.
Bard executed a patient and flawless race up front. Thirteen caution flags were displayed during the context of the event, and Bard withstood each and every restart. Bard’s true test fell on the race’s final lap. Veteran racer Brian Shuey had remained close to Bard throughout most of the contest. Racing through the final two corners, Shuey moved to the outside of Bard and looked for passing room.
Bard denied the challenge and the former Four Cylinder racing star grabbed a first career BDR win. Shuey, who has competed at Big Diamond in past Late Model shows, ended up second. Rick Todorow started sixteenth and ended up third. Travis Mease finished fourth and second generation driver Danny Snyder rounded out the front finishing five.
Limited Late Model heat wins went to Shuey and Chuck Schutz, who incidentally crossed the feature line in third, however, was light crossing the scales.
The 2007 racing season has been completed at Big Diamond Raceway. Special thanks goes out to all of the drivers, teams, sponsors, and fans who made ’07 another fantastic racing year in the Coal Region.
DIAMOND NATIONALS – DAY TWO – SEPTEMBER 30, 2007 – FULL RESULTS
BIG BLOCK MODIFIED FEATURE (40-LAPS): 1) #51M-Keith Hoffman, 2) #126-Jeff Strunk, 3) #114-Duane Howard, 4) #1W-Billy Pauch, 5) #27-Steve Bottcher, 6) #1c-Craig Von Dohren, 7) #2W-Wade Hendrickson, 8) #117-Kevin Hirthler, 9) #00-Doug Manmiller, 10) #901-Richie Pratt Jr., 11) #6-Ryan Watt, 12) #30-Jamie Mills, 13) #17-Scott Van Gorder, 14) #55-Mark Byram, 15) #118-Sean Merkel, 16) #77-David Stonebraker, 17) #1-Darwin Greene, 18) #43-Jimmy Horton IV, 19) #T102-Shawn Fitzpatrick, 20) #91D-John Willman, 21) #59-Tad Cox, 22) #3-Ricky Yetter, 23) #14-Rick Laubach, 24) #99-Craig Whitmoyer, 25) #33-Ray Swinehart, 26) #W9-Colt Harris. Did Not Qualify: Butch Cerullo, Randy Thomas, Dan Hineline, Rich Rutski, Chris Weaver, Tom Hager, Steve Babicek, Joe Masiado, Norman Short Jr., Mike Schane, Art Bray, Brian Kressley, Chic Cossaboone.
SPORTSMAN FEATURE (25-LAPS): 1) #16K-Kyle Weiss, 2) #19B-Brad Brightbill, 3) #14W-Willie Osmun, 4) #19-Jordan Umbenhauer, 5) #307-Sean Gunther, 6) #17-Billy Moyer Jr., 7) #33JY-Mike Loney, 8) #R14-Rick Raisner, 9) #123-Roy Wiest, 10) #94-Ricky Beavers, 11) #1-Chris James Jr., 12) #84-Leroy Long, 13) #14X-Ray Woodle, 14) #044-Lou Farina, 15) #00-Gary Butler, 16) #26-Tom Brennan, 17) #8T-Rich Scagliotta, 18) #15J-John Pursell, 19) #5x-Bobby Butler, 20) #6JR-Kevin Beach, 21) #99-Richard Post, 22) #3H-Marc Herman, 23) #98-Tim Apgar, 24) #10s-John Salvatore Jr., 25) #10T-Craig Whitmoyer. DQ: #6-John Stangle. Did Not Qualify: Mike Mammana, Tom Cremer, Kevin Brady, Jim Rossell, Jason Neidlinger, Ebby Ridge, Corey Renninger, Shane Moser, Bill Shire, Conrad Fitch, Richard Stankiewicz, Jordan Dreher, Ricky Rutt.
LIMITED LATE MODEL FEATURE (25-LAPS): 1) #26-Jerry Bard, 2) #5s-Brian Shuey, 3) #93-Rick Todorow, 4) #116-Travis Mease, 5) #4s-Danny Snyder, 6) #55-Mark Malcolm, 7) #327-Dave Conover, 8) #39J-Jeff Geake, 9) #33-Bryon Sipe, 10) #7B-Buddy Wharton, 11) #5-Jeff Paulson, 12) #69-Greg Hoffmaster, 13) #80-Bill Henning, 14) #25-Ray Deemer, 15) #1-Gene Knaub, 16) #08-Zachary Kauffman, 17) #102-Kelly Snyder, 18) #9W-Steve Weikel, 19) #118-Randy Stoudt, 20) #704-Kory Fleming, 21) #116D-Derrick Mease, 22) #9E-Erick Metzger, 23) #73-JR Grebe, 24) #18-Johnny Favinger, 25) #3-Ron Kline. DQ: #1-Chuck Schutz.
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