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…By Gary Lileck
Forestville, PA – June 6, 2008 – Duane Howard of Oley became the first driver to earn a repeat victory in 358 Modified competition this past Friday night at Big Diamond Raceway. Howard methodically worked through the field from his fifteenth place starting spot and followed up his April 25 triumph with a season’s second 25-lap feature win.
The Seltzer Insurance Group presented a four division card on a hot and steamy June evening. Earl Paules of Palmerton cruised to his fourth straight 20-lap Sportsman feature win. Tom Hablett of Schuylkill Haven earned his second 15-lap Roadrunner main event victory of the season and Nick Mady of Milford won a fast paced 20-lap Xcel 600 Modified A-main.
Colt Harris led the 26-car 358 Modified feature field to the green flag. Harris led the opening caution-free ten laps by a comfortable advantage. After a pair of tangles with ten laps showing on the board, Harris remained in command of the field. Ryan Godown (started seventh) and Howard followed Harris into the top three by the event’s twelfth circuit.
Howard worked past Godown and set his sights on the race leader, Harris. On the sixteenth lap, Howard nailed the accelerator and dove underneath Harris while racing into the fourth corner. As they exited the turn, Howard simply drove away from the field. Howard, driving Chad Sinon’s #4 Troyer, pulled to a full straightway advantage (nearly six seconds over the second place car, and cruised to his 58th career BDR victory.
Ringoes NJ’s Godown advanced into the runner-up spot on lap 20. He powered Johnny Rea’s #R1 to a season’s best finish of second. Sixteenth place starter Billy Pauch Jr., of Frenchtown NJ, quickly followed Godown into the number three position and finished there. Eleventh starter Doug Manmiller of Shoemakersville passed Harris for fourth in the closing stages. Mahanoy City’s Harris enjoyed his finest ’08 performance of fifth.
Mike Gular (Harleysville) finished sixth over ’07 Sportsman track champion Craig Whitmoyer (Hamburg). Troy Wink (Mohrsville) started outside row one and finished eighth ahead of twentieth place starter Meme DeSantis (Temple) and Sean Merkel (Gilbertsville), who rebounded from an earlier lap ten crash.
Qualifying heat winners were Harris, Wink, Mike Nicholas (Lebanon), and Shawn Reimert (Oley). The 10-lap B-main was won by DeSantis.
Daryl Dissinger jumped into the early race Sportsman feature lead. Dissinger raced Sportsman at BDR a couple of years back, and later competed in Winged Super Sportsman. He has returned to Sportsman this season and led the opening six laps. Chris James Jr. took command on lap 7 and brought Billy Moyer Jr. along with him.
While James and Moyer raced closely for the lead, Earl Paules (started sixteenth) and fifteenth place starter Kyle Weiss impressively moved into the third and fourth place spots by lap ten. Paules was strong on the outside and motored past Moyer for second on lap fourteen. On a lap fifteen restart, Paules looked to the bottom and immediately worked ahead of James to grab the lead. James eventually dropped pitside from the race on lap 16.
Despite a restart with four laps remaining, Paules dominated the closing moments and drove to his fourth straight win and fifth of his BDR career. Current points leader Weiss of Hamburg finished second ahead of eleventh starter Kevin Beach of Llewellyn, second generation racer Jordan Umbenhauer (Richland) and fourteenth place starter Mike Loney (Taylor).
Heat wins were recorded by James, Mike Mammana, Rick Raisner, and Patrick Cozze. Brad Force won the B-Main.
After a pair of opening lap yellow flags, Ricky Bender led the Roadrunner feature. Tom Hablett, who started seventh, worked into the runner-up spot on lap two. Hablett traced the leader and passed him on the seventh lap via the inside lane. Hablett had built a nice lead until the caution waved with just two laps to go.
While cars battled for the second position, Hablett quickly pulled to a safe advantage and held on to grab a season’s second victory and 16th of his BDR career. Jeremy Becker (Pottsville) held off Kody Sites (Hamburg) to finish second with Sites third. Early race leader Bender (Joliett) finished fourth ahead of former track champion Kevin Holland (Pine Grove). Kevin Olenick arrived just in time for feature action after attending his high school graduation. Olenick finished sixth.
Kody Sites and Ryan Olenick won the 6-lap Roadrunner heat events.
Former Legend Car racer Mark Schaeffer led the opening moments of the Xcel Chassis 600 Modified main event. Butch Getz moved to the inside of Schaeffer on lap eight to become the new race leader. Tenth place starter Nick Mady drove into second a lap later.
After 17 laps had been completed, Mady dropped to the low side and passed Getz for the apparent lead. The caution lights flashed before the next lap could be scored, however. Mady made a crafty move on the ensuing restart as he charged to the outside lane and powered ahead of Getz. Mady went on to take his third overall victory of ’08 over Getz, Mike Keppler, Dillon Stein, and Bryan Mady.
Qualifying heat winners were Schaeffer, Getz, and Stein. Mike Pychinka won the consi.
Weekly Friday night racing continues this week in an event sponsored by National Earth Services. The 358 Modifieds, Sportsman, and Roadrunners compete in a three division show. Gates open at 5:00PM, warm-ups start at 7:15PM, and the first qualifying event goes green at 7:45PM. For news, directions, and complete track info please visit the speedway’s official website at www.bigdiamondraceway.com
BIG DIAMOND RACEWAY COMPLETE RESULTS – JUNE 6, 2008
358 MODIFIED FEATURE (25-LAPS): 1) #4-Duane Howard, 2) #R1-Ryan Godown, 3) #8-Billy Pauch Jr., 4) #00-Doug Manmiller, 5) #CR7-Colt Harris, 6) #53-Mike Gular, 7) #99-Craig Whitmoyer, 8) #27-Troy Wink, 9) #88D-Meme DeSantis, 10) #118-Sean Merkel, 11) #41-Shawn Reimert, 12) #14-Rick Laubach, 13) #178-Dale Hartz, 14) #11D-Mark Forte Jr., 15) #11-John Willman, 16) #6-Ryan Watt, 17) #44H-Gary Hager, 18) #42-Corey Sechrist, 19) #3-Mike Nicholas, 20) #SQ1-Bobby Gunther-Walsh, 21) #126-Jeff Strunk, 22) #81-Terry Meitzler, 23) #1c-Craig Von Dohren, 24) #T102-Shawn Fitzpatrick, 25) #33-Ray Swinehart, 26) #43-Joe Masiado. Did Not Qualify: Randy Thomas, Ryan Grim, Danny Nicholas.
SPORTSMAN FEATURE (20-LAPS): 1) #4-Earl Paules, 2) #21K-Kyle Weiss, 3) #6JR-Kevin Beach, 4) #19-Jordan Umbenhauer, 5) #723-Mike Loney, 6) #19B-Brad Brightbill, 7) #17-Billy Moyer Jr., 8) #71-Mike Mammana, 9) #T102-Tim Fitzpatrick, 10) #46-Josh Biever, 11) #33JR-Gary Wagner, 12) #26-Tom Brennan, 13) #2-Rich Stankiewicz, 14) #164-Andy Miller, 15) #33JY-Steve Yankowski Jr., 16) #31-Harry Landis, 17) #5-Ryan Moyer, 18) #28-Lenny Hoffert Jr., 19) #61-Patrick Cozze, 20) #R14-Rick Raisner, 21) #75-James Morris, 22) #ONE-Chris James Jr., 23) #x5-Daryl Dissinger, 24) #7s-Kevin Smith, 25) #USA1-Bob Lineman Jr., 26) #8-Brad Force. Did Not Qualify: Jonathan Kumeritsky, Jarad Umbenhauer, Earl Mace, Kermit Horning, Corey Renninger, Pete Phillips Jr., Jordan Dreher, Conrad Fitch.
ROADRUNNER FEATURE (15-LAPS): 1) #22-Tom Hablett, 2) #97-Jeremy Becker, 3) #95K-Kody Sites, 4) #29B-Ricky Bender, 5) #66-Kevin Holland, 6) #450-Kevin Olenick, 7) #45-Ryan Olenick, 8) #555-Elvin Brennan, 9) #93-Rob Pyle, 10) #11x-Joe Hendricks, 11) #8c-Chris Holland, 12) #2-Gary Willard Jr., 13) #777-Brian Close, 14) #88-Toby Chase, 15) #X-Danny Mazy, 16) #909-Neil Bressler, 17) #17-Bud Vidal, 18) #101-Gary Renninger, 19) #TWO-Hunter James, 20) #48-Byrd Klinger, 21) #CR7-Butch Lesher, 22) #66K-Ed Kuperavage, 23) #8-Davey Nester, 24) #72-Mark Paine, 25) #32-Cory Swartz. DNS: #105-Joe Brennan.
XCEL 600 MODIFIED FEATURE (20-LAPS): 1) #77x-Nick Mady, 2) #4JR-Butch Getz, 3) #35K-Mike Keppler, 4) #2s-Dillon Stein, 5) #2-Bryan Mady, 6) #85AM-Tyler Bartik, 7) #X-Greg Weiland, 8) #3c-Chuck Miller, 9) #44-Chris Stockham, 10) #82-Cody Coons, 11) #61-Mark Schaeffer, 12) #33-Kevin Gruber, 13) #13-Amanda Spotts, 14) #22-Joe Fanelli, 15) #55-Mike Pychinka, 16) #37-Ryan Suchy, 17) #4-Dave Baldwin Sr., 18) #18-Ian Detweiler, 19) #04-Jeromy Guistwite, 20) #15-Dave Baldwin Jr., 21) #21K-Keith Jesberger, 22) #G1-Kyle Gardner, 23) #56-Bobby Schell, 24) #26-Bob Lesko.
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