Howard & Brightbill Claim Grandview Wins – Pit Notes

Another spectacular race day greeted the Grandview regulars with great weather conditions and perfect track conditions for point race # 7 of the season for the modified and sportsman.  Nearly 70 cars were on hand in two classes for another round of qualifying and point battles.   The point championship has 6 races remaining on the schedule so consistent finishes to keep pace in the points standing is a must for each driver in the points race.

In the modified 30 lap feature Duane Howard quickly moved from his 12^th starting position to the lead on lap 8 and held off a charging Doug Manmiller and Craig Von Dohren to take his first win of the season.

The 2019 sportsman champion Brad Brightbill also got his first win of 2020.  Brightbill took the lead from up and coming rookie Decker Swinhart on a lap 13 restart and quickly separated from the field and took a 4 second margin to the checkered flag for his first Grandview win of the season.

The 28 car field was led to green by Darrin Schuler who was able to hold the lead until lap 8 when Duane Howard powered by on the high side to take command of the lead.  A series of 8 cautions kept bringing Howard back to the field for restarts.  But each time Howard eventually separated from 2^nd place Doug Manmiller and 3^rd place Craig Von Dohren and broke away and took his first checkered flag of the 2020 season by nearly a 3 second margin of victory.

In victory lane Howard commented “Our starting track position improved tonight by 4 spots because we dropped from 1^st in the points last week to 4^th and that was a big help tonight.  Track position is a key and 4 spots is huge.  As far as our season coming into tonight everything that could go wrong did go wrong.  It has been a very trying year.  I would like to thank Norm Hansell and everyone for their support through these trying months.  Tonight I just kept rolling the top and that kept the car in the front.  The track had really good bit tonight.”

The modified top ten was rounded out by Doug Manmiller, Craig VonDohren, Briggs Danner, Ryan Grim, Kevin Hirthler, Kenny Gilmore, Jared Umbenhauer, Dillon Steuer and Justin Grim.

The 2019 modified champion Duane Howard got his first Grandview win of the season and the 2019 Sportsman champion Brad Brightbill did the same thing gathering his first win of the 2020 season on the same night as Howard.

T. P. Trailers Modified Feature (30-laps) August 8, 2020:

1. Duane Howard, 2. Doug Manmiller, 3. Craig Von Dohren, 4. Briggs Danner, 5. Ryan Grim, 6. Kevin Hirthler, 7. Kenny Gilmore, 8. Jared Umbenhauer, 9. Dillon Steuer, 10. Justin Grim, 11. Dan Waisempacher, 12. Louden Reimert, 13. Darrin Schuler, 14. Bobby Gunther-Walsh (alternate), 15. Carroll Hine III, 16. Ron Haring Jr., 17. Ron Myers, 18. Mark Kratz, 19. Brett Kressley, 20. Mike Gular, 21. Jeff Strunk, 22. Mike Lisowski, 23. Brad Grim, 24. Ryan Lilick, 25. Brett Gilmore, 26. Kyle Weiss, 27. Richie Hitzler, 28. Eric Biehn. DNS: Ray Swinehart.

DNQ: Mark Levy, John Willman, Colt Harris, Craig Whitmore, Joe Funk, and Dylan Swinehart. DQ – Ron Kline

T.P. Trailers Truck Equipment Sportsman Feature (25-laps) August 8, 2020:

1. Brad Brightbill, 2. Mike Mammana, 3. Mark Kemmerer, 4. Decker Swinehart, 5. Brian Hirthler, 6. Jesse Landis, 7. Kyle Smith, 8. Cole Stangle, 9. B.J. Joly, 10. Nate Brinker, 11. Kyle Lilick, 12. Ryan Beltz, 13. Jimmy Leiby, 14. Brad Arnold, 15. Dakota Kohler, 16. Nathan Mohr, 17. John McGovern, 18. Lex Shive, 19. Jesse Leiby, 20. Chris Esposito, 21. Jack Butler, 22. Kenny Bock, 23. Mark Gaugler, 24. Scott Kohler, 25. Tom Miller.

DNQ: Beau Drobot, Chuck Eckert, Nick Faust, Parker Guldin, Ryan Laise, Bryan Rhoads, Steve Young and Jesse Leiby.

Modified Pit Notes

The heat races were again very entertaining with results very different than the previous 6 races of the season.  Heat winners were Ray Swinehart, Darrin Schuler, Ron Harring Jr and Eric Biehn.  All four collected their first heat race of the year from position 1 to 3 and had convincing wins holding significant leads over all the point frontrunners.   In addition; all of these drivers have been consistently qualifying over the past several weeks in the consolations and this week were able to get into the handicap for the front positions.

Ray Swinehart’s night ended early as he could not make the call for the feature due to mechanical issues.

The wild and wonderful racing in a covid-19 world continues to presents surprises as the Zubi’s racing 17Z entry made their first appearance of the season with a Dillon Steuer.    Dillion made one appearance last year at Grandview in his family 6D car but this was his first time in the Zubi 17Z.   They qualified through the consolation in the 24^th starting position and came up with a top ten finish in 9^th place for an outstanding first outing of the season for this car and driver combination.

Briggs Danner has been consistently qualifying all year and making improvements on their setup from week to week and got their best finish of the season – 4^th place.  The 78 entry got off to a slow start but has made progress in each of the last 3 weeks with a 12^th, 9^th and now a 4^th place finish at Grandview.  Briggs is looking forward to continued progress forward in the remaining 6 weeks of the season.

Ryan Grim had a disappointing 28^th place finish last week after getting caught in the aftermath of a front stretch incident.  Grim rebounded with a strong heat race run from 8^th to 5^th.  In the feature Grim continued to run back to front with a 5^th place finish from a 17^th starting position. The 5^th place finish is his best finish of the season after a string of three 6^th place finishes earlier in the season.  Grim continues to look for consistent top 5 finishes from week to week to finish the season strong.

Last week’s 10,000 winner Brett Kressley continues to ride the Grandview racing roller coaster from week to week.  Last week’s win was the high point of Kressley’s season.  This week Kressley overcame a lap 5 trip to the pits and the back of the 28 car field. Kressley was able to negotiate through field back to 4^th place on lap 28 only to have a flat tire relegate Kressley to a disappointing 19^th place DNF finish.

It’s a rare occurrence when an alternate can make the call.  But when Ray Swinehart couldn’t make the call for the feature Bobby Gunther-Walsh happened to be sitting in the 1^st alternate position and got in the show.   Gunther Walsh made the best of his opportunity and finished 14^th from a 28^th starting position.

Louden Reimert also made a strong back to front run with a 12^th place finish coming from a 26^th place starting position.

Richie Hitzler has returned after a week off for repairs but there have been some changes to the 22 team.  Hitzler qualified in the heat race but steering box issues retired him from the feature early tonight.  The car may still be the same sharp orange and purple scheme but it has a new number “9” and a new car owner.  Longtime Grandview owner/driver Geezer Fanelli has sold the entire racing operation to Richie Hitzler who is now both owner and driver of the new # 9.   Hitzler has raced since the age of 6 and the number 9 comes from his favorite driver and inspiration Bill Elliott.   Richie recently won a 600 mod race at Penn Cam and also qualified for his dream race the “76er” in 2019.  Richie is looking to continue to improve his weekly performance at one of the most competitive modified tracks in the east. 

Sportsman Pit Notes

Brad Brightbill is the defending 2019 champion and came into today’s racing 11^th in points coming off an 18^th place finish the week before.   Bad luck has been a plenty with heat races and features alike.  But today the heat race went well and Brightbill handicapped to a 10^th place starting position.  He quickly worked his way into second and used his signature high side pass to take the lead and win his first Grandview feature of 2020.   Brightbill has 3 wins out of 5 starts at Big Diamond and is hoping to finish the season out at Grandview with a similar results.

Jack Butler worked his way to 2^nd place on lap 16 only to have mechanically issues take his 5 entry to the infield on lap 24 and dropping Butler out on the last lap from 2^nd to 21^st place. 

Last week Mark Kemmerer had an engine failure in his red backup F10 entry in the qualifying heats and could not make the call for the consolation event which resulted in a drop from 3^rd to 7^th in the points.  Kemmerer returned with his blue primary F10 entry and rebounded this week with a strong 3^rd place finish from an 11^th starting position. 

Nate Brinker is on a roll with his 4^th top 10 finish in the past 4 weeks.  Brinker is running both a modified and sportsman entries this year but has committed to running the sportsman entry for weekly points for the remainder of the 2020 season. 

Cole Stangle has quickly gotten in the groove with his new found Saturday home track.  Stangle found himself in the consolation this week which had him starting 21^st position in the feature.  Stangle was able to finish 8^th place after starting 21^st and pick-up 13 positions in the 25 lap event.

Rookie Decker Swinehart just continues to bounce back and move forward week after week.  Last week Decker saw a 2^nd place finish get disqualified to a 24^th place finish due to a carburetor violation.  The 17 year old youngster came back this week and secured a 4^th place finish.  This week’s winner Brad Brightbill said it best while standing in victory lane “Decker’s gonna be here soon”.

The sportsmanship between competing race teams is always impressive and seldom are you able to see how the teams help their competitors. Jessie Leiby ended up on the boilerplate during the heat race and sustained damage to his 9 entry that could not be repaired for the consolation event. Jesse is in the top 10 in points and had a provisional available to exercise but his car was too damaged to put on the track in the feature. In steps Nick Faust and the 332 team who provided their car to Jesse Leiby for the feature. Leiby was able to exercise his provisional and pickup some points with a 19th place finish.