Strunk Claims Grandview Win & Pit Notes

The 8th week of points for the modifieds and sportsmen at Grandview had cloudy and overcast conditions with downright chilly and cool fall like conditions at sunset on the Hill.  A slight drizzle in the sportsman feature did not hinder the racing and the full 3 division program with modified, sportsman and vintage was completed.

The modified field was led to green by Darron Schuler and Bobby Gunther Walsh.  A couple of early yellows for tangles on the restarts with Kyle Weiss and Brent Gilmore involved but both were able to continue while Brad Grim and Mike Lisowski saw an early end to their night.  Darron Schuler lead early but Ray Swinehart used to high line to take the lead on lap 4 with his grandson Dylan Swinehart right behind him moving into 2^nd and putting pressure on his grandfather.  But the Swineharts domination was interrupted by a resurgent Jeff Strunk who took the lead on lap 11 as he stormed through the field from his 12^th starting position on the grid.  Strunk quickly gained separation of about 2 seconds from second place Ray Swinehart but heavy lap traffic keep things interesting and close for the time being.   When Mike Gular moved into second at lap 23 Strunk started to emerge from lap traffic and really checked out on 2^nd place Gular and the field.  Strunk took the checkered flag with nearly a straightaway lead and a 7 second margin on second place Mike Gular.  Strunk first win of the season at Grandview comes in his the debut of a brand new Bicknell car.

In victory lane Struck stated “We have a brand new Bicknell chassis tonight with the same motor we have been using all season and the car was great tonight.  Can’t thank my car owner Glen & Bonita Hyneman enough, our shop guys and sponsors that support us.  Our guys burned the midnight oil all week to put this car together in one week.  I would like to dedicate this win to Danny Serrano and Jared Petruska who we lost this year.” 

The top 10 was rounded out by Mike Gular in 2^nd, Duane Howard, Craig Von Dohren, Dylan Swinehart, Jared Umbenhauer, Doug Manmiller, Ryan Grim, Brett Gilmore and Dillion Steuer in 10th.

The heat winners were Justin Grim, Bobby Gunther Walsh, Jeff Strunk and Brad Grim.  Consolations went to Ryan Grim and Ron Kline.

The sportsman feature had a yellow and two red flags before the 3^rd lap of the feature.  Both red flags were spins in front of the field which collected 15 cars and completely reshuffled the field when racing resumed.  Once racing resumed it ran from green to checkered flag for the remaining 22 laps.  On the restart Dakota Kohler used the high line to pass Parker Guldin for the lead.  Dakota Kohler extended his lead to over 6 seconds when Jack Butler moved past Guldin for 2^nd place.  By lap 16 Butler was cutting the lead by over a half a second every lap as a cautious Kohler negotiated lapped traffic using the low groove and at the finish Butler was side by side with Kohler but Kohler holding on for the win by .11 seconds.

In victory lane Dakota Kohler recalled “On those early tangles I saw a hole and was able to get through them both times which set me up for the high side restart position and I was able to use on the restart to make the pass for the lead.  After about midway through the green flag run; I decided to ride the bottom to hold the lead and get through the lapped traffic.  This win comes at a great time after a long and rough night at Big Diamond last night and we had 2 near wins get away earlier in the season here at Grandview.”

The top ten was Jack Butler in 2^nd, followed by Brian Hirthler, Parker Guldin, Jesse Leiby, Kyle Lilick, Brad Arnold, Chris Esposito, Kyle Smith, and Mark Kemmerer.

The heat winners were Kenny Bock, Brian Hirthler and Mike Mammana.  The consolation was won by Kyle Lilick.

T. P. Trailers Modified Feature (30-laps) August 15, 2020:

1. Jeff Strunk, 2. Mike Gular, 3. Duane Howard, 4. Craig Von Dohren, 5. Dylan Swinehart, 6. Jared Umbenhauer, 7. Doug Manmiller, 8. Ryan Grim, 9. Brett Gilmore, 10. Dillon Steuer, 11. Ray Swinehart, 12. Louden Reimert, 13. Craig Whitmoyer, 14. Ron Kline, 15. Kyle Weiss, 16. Briggs Danner, 17. Carroll Hine III, 18. Kenny Gilmore, 19. Darrin Schuler, 20. Rick Laubach, 21. Bobby Gunther Walsh, 22. Dan Waisempacher, 23 Bobby Trapper Jr., 24. Ron Haring Jr., 25. Justin Grim, 26. Colt Harris, 27. Brad Grim, 28. Mike Lisowski.

DNQ: Mike Tyson, Ron Myers, Mark Levy, Mark Kratz, Joe Funk III, Richie Hitzler and Eric Biehn.

 DQ: Brent Kressley & Kevin Hirthler

T.P. Trailers Truck Equipment Sportsman Feature (25-laps) August 15, 2020:

1. Dakota Kohler, 2. Jack Butler, 3. Brian Hirthler, 4. Parker Guldin. 5. Jesse Leiby, 6. Kyle Lilick, 7. Brad Arnold, 8. Chris Esposito, 9. Kyle Smith, 10. Mark Kemmerer, 11. Brad Brightbill, 12. Jimmy Leiby (provisional), 13. Nate Brinker, 14. Ryan Beltz, 15. Cole Stangle, 16. Kurt Bettler, 17. Kenny Bock, 18. Steve Young, 19. Jesse Landis, 20. Mark Gaugler, 21. B.J. Joly, 22. Tom Miller, 23. John McGovern, 24. Mike Mammana, 25. Brandon Edgar.

DNQ: Nicho Flammer, Lex Shive, Scott Kohler, Ryan Conrad, Matt Brooke, Nick Faust, Chuck Eckert, Decker Swinehart, Ryan Laise.

Modified Pit Notes

Both the modifieds and sportsman alike got off to shaky starts in their features with a couple of yellows and red flags shuffling a scrambling field before lap 3 but then both features ran green to checkered for the remaining 20 or so laps.

Jeff Strunk got his first win of the season in a brand new first time on the track Bicknell chassis with the same motor he has been using all season.  The new Bicknell was completed in one short week and hit the track with amazing success right out of the box.  Strunk won his heat from his 8^th starting position.  In the feature it took only 11 laps for Strunk to move from 12^th to 1^st and just simply check out on the field for the final 20 laps and take the checkered for his first Grandview win of the season by nearly a 7 second margin over Mike Gular in second place.

Mike Gular is on fire and hitting his stride as he has returned home to his Pennsylvania tracks with the limitations on racing in New York State.  Gular secured the 2^nd place finish by staying out of the early tangles and running through the field from his 19^th starting position.  Gular added his second place finish at Grandview to a win on Friday night at Big Diamond for a good weekend of racing without a lot of drive time.  The 2^nd place finish moves him into the top 10 of Grandview points while he is the leader at Big Diamond.  

Duane Howard’s consistency appears to be returning just in time to make a run to defend his 2019 points championship.  Howard’s 3^rd place finish from a 16^th starting position comes off of a win last week.  Howard is still is nearly 200 points behind leader Craig Von Dohren but with 5 weeks to go anything can happen as proven last year by a late season DNQ by Von Dohren resulting in Howard winning the 2019 points championship after Von Dohren had a big lead.

Ray Swinehart has been racing Friday and Saturday in recent weeks and winning heat races and getting stronger with longer runs in the front during the feature.  But he is still contending with bad racing luck and mechanical issues cropping up and resulting in frequent DNS & DNF finishes.  Swinehart showed he is becoming a force to be reckoned with as he stayed in the top 4 until the final lap of the feature when the yoke broke dropping Swinehart to an 11^th place finish which was still his best finish so far this season.

Dylan Swinehart has one win this season but mechanical issues in the past 2 weeks has made the 81 Bailey racing team a DNQ for the past 2 weeks.   Dylan was back on track this week with a 3^rd place heat race finish and a 5^th place finish in the feature from a 7^th starting position on the grid.  Dylan and his grandfather Ray were one lap away of having both Grandfather and Grandson in the top 5 in the feature.  At one point during the feature they were running 1^st and 2^nd with Grandpop in the lead.

Ryan Grim continues to produce weekly top 10 results with an 8^th place finish this week.   Some contact with the wall in the heat race and a bent front end sent Ryan to the consolation which he won from the 5^th starting position.  In the feature Grim had another strong back to front run getting an 8^th place finish from a 21^st place starting position.

 Dillion Steuer returned for his second week behind the wheel of the Zubi 17Z.  Steuer ran to a strong 10^th place finish from a 26^th starting position in the feature and the 17Z team appears well on their way on working on their 76er setup.

Bobby Trapper Jr returned in the 2T for the first time this season and had an outstanding first day back to Grandview.  Starting scratch on the field of 10 in his heat race Trapper qualified for the feature with a 5^th place finish.  In the feature Trapper couldn’t get forward movement but finished 23^rd and only one lap down completing a successful first race of 2020.

A lot of new cars and driver arrangements are emerging as the 50^th annual 76er approaches. Dillion Steuer, Bobby Trapper and Kyle Weiss to mention a few with more to come in future weeks.  Kyle Weiss jumped behind the wheel of Tom Umbenhauer’s # 5 entry for their 2020 debut this week and secured a 15^th place finish.

Rick Laubach returned this week from a one week suspension for exiting his car while on the track and under caution conditions.

Brett Kressley and Kevin Hirthler were DQ from participating in the feature event after qualifying due to a post-race rule violation.

Sportsman Pit Notes

Dakota Kohler has been strong all season at Grandview with his 604 crate entry and in July nearly had 2 wins in a row.  The first he was leading when the fuel problems dropped him out of the lead and the following week while leading with one lap to go he jumped the cushion and contacted the wall falling to 3^rd place.  Dakota’s first win of the season is also the first crate win in the sportsman division this year.

The two big wrecks on lap 2 had a big impact on the entire feature.  You were either in it and heading to the pits or happened to get through it clean and sitting in the front.  Butler, Lilick and Arnold were all starting 18-20 and miraculously got through both pileups without incident.  The trio of all finished in the top 10 (2, 6 & 7).

Parker Guldin cleared the early carnage without incident and proceeded to get his best finish of the season with a 4^th place finish.  Parker has been plagued with DNQ and DNF in the features and is hoping this is the turning point for more top 10 feature finishes for the 11 team.   

The points chase is in full swing as another top 10 sportsman driver exercised their provisional this week.  Jack Butler, Jesse and Jimmy Leiby have all used their provisional to keep pace in the weekly point battle.  The top 10 using their provisional just shows how challenging it is from week to week just to make the program even for the top 10 drivers.

We are in the 8^th week of the regular season and new cars are still coming to Grandview on a weekly basis.  Kurt Bettler and Nicho Flammer both debut this week with beautiful blue entries in the sportsman division.  Kurt Bettler qualified in the 24^th position while Flammer just missed with a 2^nd alternate position.

Decker Swinehart continues to have a dramatic up and down rookie season in his brother’s former 38 car. Decker was coming off a 4^th place finish last week and in his heat race this week the car rolled in turn one resulting in extensive damage and ending his night in the heat races.  The 38 team is already working on the new car for next week.

The Leiby Brothers weekly saga continues.  Jesse qualified in the consolation while Jimmy just missed the 24 car field by one sport.   This week it’s Jimmy exercising his provisional to avoid a DNQ in the points chase.  Jesse navigated the 2 parking lot style wrecks early on in the feature and turned a 22^nd starting position into a 4^th starting position on the lap 3 restart as only a former OCFG champion could do.  Jimmy was also able to get through the “Big 2” this week and move from 25^th to 7^th after avoiding the double wrecks.  Jesse finished 5^th and Jimmy 12^th from a 22^nd and 25^th starting position respectively.

Racing action continues at Grandview Speedway on Saturday August 22 with the 9^th point race and a two division program featuring the modifieds and sportsman with racing starting at 7:30.