By KEN BRUCE
Friday night it was a battle of some of the greatest drivers to ever race at Big Diamond Speedway. Duane Howard, Jeff Strunk, Mike Gular and Brett Kressley were all racing first to fourth battling for the top spot. As always at Big Diamond and at most tracks, it is a race within a race as the top stars race each other to get to the top spot first. On this night it was Howard who won that inner race and was leading the race by the completion of lap two as he streaked past Alea Geisler and into the top spot. Right behind Howard was Strunk who followed him through and into second.
Howard had his Getz Motorsports No. 15G motoring around the bottom as Strunk raced his Glen Hyneman No. 126 right on his bumper. With the inside lane being the fastest on this night, Strunk was relegated to running second at this point waiting for a Howard mistake or for a yellow so he could try and get past on a restart.
Strunk had his opportunity to make his move as there were a couple of restarts in the middle portion of the feature. Strunk gave it his all as he tried to make the outside work, but Howard was up to the task each time being able to hold off his long-time rival. Unfortunately for Strunk, lady luck reared her ugly head during the next yellow flag with the No. 126 suffering a left rear flat tire forcing Strunk to pit and rejoin at the rear. Up next was Gular who raced Howard hard on the final restart as they both roared down the backstretch side by side with Gular giving it his all to take the lead. Howard was not to be denied as held his car down low and was able to beat Gular off of turn four to stay out front. With no more cautions to slow the action, Howard stayed out front to win his 91st career Big Diamond feature.
“The team is rolling this year,” said Howard. “You know last year was disgusting and we better pass last year’s mark for wins, but we got a good team, everybody is just clicking right now, we are jelling, and doing well. It has just been a good year so far; we have been keeping the race cars straight. Not hitting tires or getting into wrecks and so far, so good. Butch (team owner Butch Getz) has been doing what he does in the shop with the springs, day in and day out just smashing springs and things like that to get me what I need to be fast, and we just have a good race team.”
Howard took advantage of Nick Rochinski not starting to move from starting the race on the outside of row four in eighth to the inside of row four in seventh enabling Howard to get to the front quicker than his rivals.
“Our starting spot did that,” explained Howard. “With Rochinski not starting, I got to move over and start on the inside so I could cruise right up the inside there and sneak on by. There was no way I was venturing to the top because after the sprint cars, there is just too much dust up there and it makes it dirty and once I got the lead, I wasn’t moving off the inside. If someone was going to get by me it was going to have to be on the outside and if they did, more power to them.
As in most races, restarts are the key and Howard discussed what the restarts were like tonight and knew not everyone was going to be happy with how they happened.
“The restarts were most definitely interesting,” cited Howard. “You know with the sprint cars here, there is hardly a top groove. So, on the restarts you had to play games because if someone beat you into turn one, the race was over. I was determined not to give up that lead on the restart. I am the leader, and I can start where I want to start and how I want to start. I did start a little too early that one time when they called off the start, but it is so hard to win these races and I wasn’t going to lose it on a restart. We had a good car once we got rolling and we just needed some green flag laps. We had a lot of consecutive yellows which caused a lot of cat and mouse games, but I knew I had to get into turn one before anybody else. That’s what the game was tonight, getting to the bottom first. You had about a half a lap when you could rotate the car up top, and Mike (Gular) tried it on the last restart there, but you just couldn’t hold it up there especially in turns three and four. With the track the way it was due to the sprint cars; it was all about restarts tonight and there were a lot of restarts tonight and with that you tend to get bad feelings but that’s the way some races go.”
Gular Gave it all he had, but Settled for Second
Mike Gular aboard the Terry Fastnacht No. 2A has been quietly rounding back into the form he had in 2020 when he won the Big Diamond track championship. Back this season as a Friday night regular, Gular has one win so far in 2023 and has not finished out of the top ten in the six races run so far.
This past Friday night, Gular raced to the front and after getting by Brett Kressley for third, he started pressuring Jeff Strunk for second. After Strunk pulled off with a flat tire, Gular was now in second and gave Howard a run for his money on the last restart but just couldn’t find the bite he needed off of turn four to complete the pass and having to settle for second.
“I think we were pretty even with Duane tonight and if we could’ve got out in front, I think it was my race to lose,” mentioned Gular. “It was just a little dirty there off of the top in turn four when I thought I had him and it caused me to spin the tires a little bit or the car just hung out there some in the marbles and it allowed him to stay in front. It was a good track tonight, nice and slippery and racy. We’ll take it though.”
Coming off the disappointment of dropping out at the STSS race at Delaware on Wednesday night while running in the top five with only four laps to go, Gular was glad to get a good finish for the team.
“This makes up for it a little bit, but we would’ve liked to have had that top five finish on Wednesday,” explained Gular. “I have never had a pulley break like the one that broke on Wednesday, but this team has had a lot of things break that seem to have never broken before. Tonight was a good run. Duane was able to get to the front first and that’s what you have to do. It sucks for what happened to Jeff (Strunk), he was running good tonight and deserved a good finish. We had a good battle with Brett (Kressley) there for a couple of laps and it was fun to race to the front tonight without banging and bouncing around.”
Big Diamond Nuggets:
Heat races were won by Jeff Strunk, Duane Howard and Shawn Light…
Great race run by Shawn Light on Friday. Starting in third, Light ran in the top five all race long ultimately finishing up in fifth…
In order to stay in the handicapping, Ryan Watt jumped aboard the Dave Shirk No. 14S on Friday night. The Shirk car is a former Troyer chassis that Watt ran years ago. Look for Watt to be back driving the Shawn Fitzpatrick No. T102 this Friday night…
Frank Cozze returned after a one-week absence and finished the feature in seventh…
Joel Smith made his first Modified appearance of the year aboard the No. 555. The team had a tough night due to a smoking motor…
Doug Smith Jr had his best finish of the season with a sixth…
Nick Rochinski was scheduled to start the modified feature in the seventh spot but had to pull in before the feature started with problems…
The Danny Buccafusca watch is over! Buccafusca finally got his first Crate 602 Sportsman win of the year on Friday night…
Brett Kressley has taken over the top spot in the Quandel Concrete Modified points race over Mike Gular, Louden Reimert, Duane Howard and Jeff Strunk…
The USS Achey Crate 602 Sportsman race for the title has Jordan Henn now leading over Logan Watt, Brandon Edgar, Kevin Olenick and Mike Schneck Jr…
This Friday night at Big Diamond Speedway is the annual “Topless Night”. The modifieds will race 30-laps for $5,000 and the Crate 602 Sportsman will race 20-laps for $1,500…
For any comments or questions, I can be reached via email at dirtracefan25@hotmail.com or on Twitter @dirtracefan25
