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The Dirt on Danny Holtgraver
(Weekend of May 8-9)
By John Jablonski – hotlgraverd4@gmail.com
May 12, 2009 – Pittsburgh, PA
While 410 Sprint Car Driver Danny Holtgraver did not repeat his winning feat at Sharon Speedway or break the ice on that elusive first win at Lernerville Speedway, he did have a strong, consistent week of racing and ended the weekend by rolling the D4 into the trailer with nary a blemish!
Despite what looked like a surefire rainout Friday Night, Lernerville bucked the forecast and dropped the green flag on an exciting night of racing. Danny started the night by leading most of the second heat, but as he has a way of doing, Ed Lynch Jr. rocketed off the bottom of turn four and stole away the checkered flag, leading only about 10 feet of the race! Danny found himself alongside Lynch in the sixth row of the feature lineup. The race went green to checkers with no caution and when the checkers were shown, Danny had secured another top ten with a solid eighth place finish.
Saturday Night it was off to Sharon to try to pull off the first repeat feature win of his blossoming career. He scored another second place heat race finish, this time behind reigning Sharon Sprint Champion Danny Shetler. Rain fell between the heat and the feature, making for a heavy & fast, but rough, track, just to Danny’s liking, “I screwed up early, bouncing around, hitting a lot of holes, but once I got my lines down I started passing cars and ended up finishing third behind Kevin and Jack.” By Kevin, of course, he’s referring to three-time Lernerville and former Sharon Track Champion Kevin Schaeffer and Jack referring to Sodeman Jr. After starting ninth, and by his own volition “screwing up” early in the race, Danny recovered to record another top five finish.
Danny capped the racing weekend off with a guest appearance on Don Gamble’s Rappin’ on Racin’ radio show Monday Night. Being a guest on Rappin’ on Racin’ is an unofficial watermark of significant achievement in the local racing scene! Danny has arrived as a weekly contender in the premier division in Western Pennsylvania.
Come see the Holtgraver D4 in action at Lernerville Speedway this Friday Night. Plans are still up in the air for Saturday Night, with Mercer Raceway Park being the most likely destination.
But the track Danny is really looking forward to running soon is Pittsburgh’s Pennsylvania Motor Speedway on June 6. “We practiced there last year and I think that’s the fastest I’ve ever run that car. It’s gonna be a lot of fun to race there, and it’s so close to home!” PPMS is hosting a $2500-to-win Sprint Show on Saturday June 6; the first sprint show at the track in almost 10 years!
As of now, Danny remains in fourth in the points at Lernerville Speedway, 21 points behind Ed Lynch Jr. He also currently leads the points at Sharon Speedway by one point over Kevin Schaeffer, but is not necessarily going to run for points there. He has one feature win (Sharon), a heat race win (at Mercer), five top fives and seven top tens.
As always, Danny would like to thank his family, crew and sponsors for everything they do to keep him on the track and running with the big dogs in the Western Pennsylvania 410 sprint car scene. 2009 sponsors and marketing partners include West View Motors, Ti22 Performance, Alternative Power Sources, Kistler Racing Products, Manno’s Automotive, J&J Auto Racing, Frankland Racing Supply, Butler Built Professional Seat Systems, Terry Key Detailing, Bumper to Bumper Auto Parts, D&T Auto Body, Simpson, VRP Shocks, Agip, Spinneweber Auto Sales and Mel Bagley’s Auto Service Center.
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