Strunk Claims Prelude to the Coalcracker & Pit Notes

Perfect weather and track conditions greeted the Big Diamond regulars and a few visiting teams for the Prelude to the Coalcracker 40 lapper with $4,000 to the winner.  32 drivers competed for one of the 24 starting positions.

Ray Swinehart led the field to green and the first 4 laps until a strong Duane Howard leaped into the lead were he stayed until a lap 24 restart where both Billy Pauch Jr and Jeff Strunk passed him for the lead.  When the restart settled in it was Strunk taking command of the lead over Pauch and Howard.  Billy Pauch Jr battled Strunk using the high side while Strunk stayed low but Pauch could never completed the pass on Strunk.  Some late cautions re-racked the field but Strunk had no problems holding his lead right into victory lane for his second win of the season in the 15S entry of Butch Getz.

In victory lane when asked by announcer Dino Oberto if he felt ready for the Coalcracker after winning the Prelude to Coalcracker Strunk responded “I’ve got 17,000 reasons to be ready for the Coalcracker.”

Heat winners were Corey Merkle, Jared Umbenhauer and Ray Swinehart.  Consolation was won by Andy Burkhart.

The top 10 was rounded out by Billy Pauch Jr., Mike Gular, Craig Von Dohren, Duane Howard, Brett Kressley, Rich Laubach, Jared Umbenhauer, Kevin Graver Jr., and Craig Whitmoyer in 10^th.

The sportsman feature was a repeat battle from last week between Brandon Edgar and Brad Brightbill.  For the second week in the row Brandon Edgar won with Brad Brightbill in second place.  Edgar tied Brightbill with 3 wins on the season at Big Diamond.  Brightbill still leads the point by about 100 with one point race left in the season.

Insinger Performance 358 Modifieds – The feature was won by Mike Gular and followed by Jared Umbenhauer, Craig Von Dohren, Billy Pauch Jr, Brett Kressley, Alex Yankowski, Louden Reimert, Rick Laubach, Kris Graver, Kevin Beach Jr, Dillon Steuer, Cory Merkel, Kevin Graver Jr, Jeff Strunk, Frank Yankowski, Duane Howard, Dan Hineline, Alan Barker, Doug Hendricks, Shawn Fitzpatrick, Matt Stangle, Ray Swinehart, Jordan Henn and Craig Whitmoyer.
Did Not Qualify – Shawn Light, Scott Albert, Andy Burkhart and Jim Bobbitt.

Modifed Pit Notes

Jeff Strunk got his second Big Diamond win of the season joining Alex Yankowski and Mike Gular who also have 2 wins.  The last 3 Big Diamond races in a row were all the 2^nd win for each driver – Yankowski, Gular last week and Strunk this week.

Billy Pauch Jr picked up his second top five finish in row since switching back to his family owned # 15 entry.

Ryan Howard led the first 24 laps only to lose the lead Jeff Strunk and Bill Pauch Jr. on a restart and then Howard faded from the leaders but held on for a 5^th place finish.

Matt Stangle came into tonight looking for a change in some bad luck he’s had for the last week.  Last week Stangle fell out of 3 features in a row from 2^nd, 3^rd and 9^th due to 2 flats and electrical problems.  Despite a new week; the bad luck continued for Stangle as racing contact put him straight into a yuke tire on the back straight away and a DNF trip on the hook back to the pits ended his heat race.  Stangle got back out for consolation but found himself in 13^th on the grid with 6 spots available for the feature.  Stangle was in 7^th and within a qualifying spot but he was spun by contact from the rear and fell back to last.  By lap 7 Stangle was back in 5^th and ended up with the 23^rd qualifying position for the feature.  Stangle was able to maintain a perfect record of qualifying for all the Big Diamond point events to date and make the feature lineup.  Overheating issues caused Stangle to pull off on lap 21 for a DNF and 18^th place finish in the feature. 

The 2018 Big Diamond Champion Ryan Godown returned for the first time this year for the Prelude to the Coalcracker.  Godown missed qualifying in his heat by 1 position and was leading in the consolation event only to have ignition problems retire him to the pits while leading.  Godown had a rare DNQ due to ignition problems which also plagued him at Bridgeport last Saturday during the feature dropping him from 3^rd to 15^th. 

Ray Swinehart has been improving with strong runs in the heat races and won his heat race today.  Swinehart lead the feature for 4 laps and then faded and eventually feel out of the race.  Swinehart has improved in recent weeks from DNQ to heat race winner and the next step is to be able to finish a feature race.  Swinehart has found the speed now just needs to keep the car on the track during the feature as his car went up in engine smoke on lap 28 and was towed off again during the feature.

Kris Graver looped in front of the field coming out of turn 2 which resulted in a major entanglement which retired Kris Graver, Cory Merkel and Dillion Steuer from the race and damaged many other cars that would have to eventually withdraw from the race – Alex Yankowski & Ryan Krachun.

Mike Gular and Alex Yankowski got stuck together on lap 8 and required tow trucks to get the cars separated.  Gular pitted and went to the rear of the field on lap 9 and worked his way through the entire field to an outstanding 3^rd place finish.  Gular was able to maintain his points lead over Von Dohren and Strunk with his 3^rd place finish.

69C of Cliff Quinn had racing contact in turn 3 that put his car into a barrel roll and he went over the guardrail.  Quinn was fine but the car was done for the night with serious front end damage.

Rick Laubach made positive forward movement from a 17^th starting position to a 7^th place finish.

Kevin Graver has made progress with qualifying in recent weeks in the 7A entry.  This week Graver not only qualified in the 15^th starting position from the heats but he also got his first top ten feature finish of the year with a 9^th place run.