By KEN BRUCE
Once Duane Howard gets to the lead at Big Diamond Speedway, it is pretty much lights out for the rest of the competition. Howard, known as the “Diamond Cutter” has found victory at Big Diamond a total of 90 times second to only Craig Von Dohren and knows his way to victory lane like the back of his hand. Friday night at the Minersville, PA oval, Howard took the lead away from Frank Cozze just past the midway mark of the race and looked to have the race in hand.
However, Howard’s Oley, Pa., neighbor Louden Reimert had other ideas. Reimert worked his way past Cozze into second place and then started to rundown Howard who was having his own issues with lapped traffic. Reimert reeled in Howard and tried high and low to get past, but each time Howard had just enough to hold off his challenges. As the leaders took the white flag, Reimert tried the outside of Howard through turns one and two to pull alongside but Howard had enough bite coming off the bottom of turn two to hold off the challenge.
Going into turn three Reimert knew it was now or never. When Howard drifted off the bottom down the backstretch to block Riemert’s advances, that was the opening Reimert was looking for. As Howard went into turn three, he left a small opening on the bottom and Riemert drove his No. 16 into the gap that was there. Howard did his best to stay in front, but Reimert was backing off and the two leaders made contact through the center of the corner with Howard bouncing to the outside allowing Reimert to take over the lead and streak under the checkered flag for the crowd-pleasing win. Friday’s win was Reimert’s second career win at Big Diamond Speedway and vaulted him into the points lead.
“This feels really good, our team worked hard to get here,” cited a happy Reimert in the Big Diamond tech shed after the race. “I am just glad I could finally piece together the complete 25-lap feature and come home with the win.”
Reimert went on to discuss the final few laps of the feature and the contact with Howard that ensued.
“I got up to third with about seven or eight laps to go,” explained Reimert. “Then I was able to pass (Frank) Cozze with five or six laps to go and then I started reeling in Duane (Howard) and was able to get to his back bumper with about four laps to go. I could have rooted him a couple of times and I really wanted to. I tried to go by him up top and he shut the door on me, so I figured okay, he’s not going to let me around up top. The lapped cars were holding him up and I went to go to the inside of him going into turn three on the last corner because he wanted to go around the lapped car on the outside. I was there and he tried to shut the door and we banged wheels and I came out of the corner with the lead.
“Look, it’s racing and I’m sure he has done the same thing in the 45 years he has been racing. I respect him a lot and I don’t ever have a problem with him but it’s racing, and we work too hard to settle for second.”
Stremme Dominates the Mid-Atlantic Modified Feature
The Mid Atlantic Modifieds made their first ever appearance at Big Diamond Speedway on Friday night. While former NASCAR driver David Stremme dominated the feature, there was a fierce battle for second between MAM stars Michael Altobelli and Ray Kable III that resulted in Altobelli finishing in the runner-up spot. I caught up with Stremme after the race to get his thoughts on racing at Big Diamond.
“This is an awesome place, we have had a lot of rain this week, so it was a little heavy but the track was fun,” said Stremme. “If we had a hot summer day, it would be really fun here. It is a very nice place; everyone here was nice and they did a great job with the track prep. It was a lot of fun. I really hope they have us back, we need to come back here and run some more. This place has got some good clay on it, and it has really good track conditions. It had a lot of character to it and I like that in a racetrack.”
Stremme had a fast Lethal Chassis right from the start, finishing second in his heat and then with the luck of the draw to end up starting on the pole which makes for a good night.
“My wife Ashley was the one that did all the work (drawing the pole) and it was just up to me not to screw up,” joked Stremme. “I was just trying to be careful and not hit those yuke tires because they always win when you do. Starting from the pole, I knew I just had to stay out of trouble. I knew Ray (Kable III) and (Michael) Altobelli would be good, and it was just up to me to not make any mistakes.”
Big Diamond Nuggets
29 Modifieds were in action on Friday night with Doug Smith Jr, Brett Kressley and Frank Cozze winning the three heats…
After struggling the first three weeks of the season, it was nice to see veteran driver Frank Cozze finally putting it together and getting a well deserved top five finish in the feature…
Ryan Watt was back driving the Ron Roberts No. 14W last Friday after competing last week in the Fitzpatrick Racing T102. Watt will be utilizing both rides this season at Big Diamond…
It is just a matter of time before Jeff Strunk gets back to victory lane on a Friday night. Strunk has arguably been one of the fastest cars each week and just needs that little break to get back to Red White and Blue Autos victory lane…
Duane Howard was obviously not pleased with the outcome of the race on Friday night but was more upset with the lapped cars that he thought prevented him from getting the win…
Craig Von Dohren has been uncharacteristically quiet the past couple of Friday nights with finishes in the back half of the top ten. It will be only a matter of time before Von Dohren and crew chief Jason Bashore figure out just what the team is missing…
Timmy Buckwalter made his debut in the Breitenstein. 14 on Friday night. Buckwalter and the team won the consolation race and unfortunately pulled off in the beginning of the feature as the car suffered from new car gremlins…
Kenny Eckert Jr who has been very fast to start the season had a night he would like to forget as he was a scratch for the night after warmups…
I had a chance to chat with Mid Atlantic Modifieds series owner Tim Light after the races and he was very happy with how the night went and is looking forward to a return visit in the future for his series…
Congratulations to Paulie Hartwig III on his first ever win Friday night in the USS Achey Crate 602 Sportsman feature. Hartwig III has shown speed all season long and was finally able to put a complete race together and hold off defending Crate 602 champion Brendan Edgar for the win…
After four races, Louden Reimert leads the Quandel Concrete modified points over Jeff Strunk, Mike Gular, Brett Kressley and Craig Von Dohren. Brandon Edgar is the points leader in the Crate 602 division over Logan Watt, Jordan Henn, Nick Desantis and Paulie Hartwig III…
For any questions or comments, I can be reached via email at dirtracefan25@hotmail.com or on Twitter @dirtracefan25
