Hirthler Takes Opening Day Sportsman Win at Grandview & Pit Notes

Grandview Speedway kicked off their 2021 racing season with the opening race of the weekly NASCAR championship points chase under pleasant skies and warm conditions.  Over 70 modifieds and sportsman entries were on hand looking for an opening day trip to victory lane.

The 25 lap sportsman feature saw Kenny Gilmore take the lead at the green and by lap 3 Gilmore, Ryan Beltz, Brandon Edgar and Kyle Lillick had broken away from the rest of the field only to have caution bring them back to the field.  After 3 spins and a 3 car tangle and with the 4^th caution a single file restart was in order and got things back underway and within a few laps the lead group of Gilmore, Beltz, Edgar and Lillick was joined by Brian Hirthler.  Hirthler moved into 3^rd and started to apply pressure on Gilmore and Edgar who were leading and running side by side and approaching lap traffic.  On lap 21; the 5^th and final caution flew as leader Brandon Edgar made contact with Bryan Rhodes which spun the 922 out on the back stretch.  On the single file restart Edgar continued to run the bottom and Hirthler picked off Gilmore for 2^nd place setting his sights on Edgar who Hirthler quickly picked off and extended his lead over Edgar the final two laps.  The defending 2020 champion Brian Hirthler drove his 4* into the Grandview victory lane for his first win of the 2021 season and start the season back on top of the points standings.

In victory lane Brian Hirthler reflected “Tonight was a five car battle early on and I just had to be patient and pass them one at a time.  I got a slide job on Kenny Gilmore to move into second and then Brandon had the issue with the lapped car and drew a caution.  I took the lead from Brandon shortly after the 5^th restart.  After seeing the mod feature I changed the car so it would work up top.  The car was a gem tonight and worked everywhere – top, bottom and middle.”

2^nd place Brandon Edgar noted “We were really good from the start.  Everyone in the top five committed to the top lane so you got to move out if you want to pass anyone and go catfishing.  Beltz does not usually run the top and I had to commit to the bottom which is not my normal line simply because everyone was running the top.  Seemed like I worked on Kenny forever to pass him.  I was content to run the bottom and thought I would be OK.  I didn’t want to get off the bottom to than just go up to top and move up just to give the lead away.  I was disappointed tonight but Brian had a real good car up top like he always does.  Just came up one spot short but all in all a good day.”

The top ten sportsman finishers were round out by Brandon Edgar in 2^nd place, Kenny Gilmore, Ryan Beltz, Kyle Lillick, Nat Mohr, Mark Kemmerer, Kyle Smith, Decker Swinehart and Jimmy Leiby.

The heats were won by Kenny Gilmore, Ryan Beltz, Brandon Edgar and Kyle Lillick.  The last chance consolations were won by Dylan Hoch and Parker Guldin.

Sportsman Feature (25-laps) – 4/10/21:

Winner – Brian Hirthler, 2) Brandon Edgar, 3) Kenny Gilmore, 4) Ryan Beltz, 5) Kyle Lilick, 6) Nathan Mohr, 7) Mark Kemmerer, 8) Kyle Smith, 9) Decker Swinehart, 10) Jimmy Leiby, 11) Joey Vaccaro, 12) Dakota Kohler, 13) Chris Esposito, 14) Dylan Hoch, 15) Kenny Bock, 16) Mike Schneck, 17) Parker Guldin, 18) Cody Schantz, 19) Lex Shive, 20) Jesse Landis, 21) Bryan Rhoads, 22) Mike Stofflet, 23) Logan Bauman, 24) Tyler James, 25) Chuck Eckert, 26) Colton Perry

DNQ : Andy Clemmer, Nick Faust, Paul Effrig, Ebby Ridge, Wayne Rotenberger, Tom Miller, Randy Mohr Jr., Dominick Devlin.

Sportsman Pit Notes – 4/10/21 Season Opener.

Brian Hirthler came into the 2021 season opener as the 2020 defending champion after winning the championship by 2 points on the last night of the 2020 season.  Brian continues to be the man to beat in the sportsman division.  He started in the 8^th position patiently and methodically worked his way through the field to take the lead on lap 23 and his first win of the 2021 season.

Brian Hirthler noted back at the trailer “I started 8^th and moved forward until I got trapped in 5^th from a bunch of cautions.  When I got to the leaders they were running side by side which blocked any path to get around both of them so I started working the bottom and tried to lure Gilmore off the top.  I could see a lot of guys were too tight to run the top.  I had my car free because I saw the mods rim riding in their feature and made adjustments to my car prior to our feature.”

Kenny Gilmore is going to run the sportsman car for the entire season this year and will not be swapping in and out of the modified every other week like last year.  Brett will stay in the modified all year.  So far this season Kenny has finished with a 2^nd and 3^rd place finish and he is looking forward to running for the sportsman points championship this year.

A couple of decent forward runs were turned in by Mark Kemmerer who finished 7^th from 12^th starting position and Kyle Smith who ran 8^th from a 13^th starting position.

Dylan Hoch made his 2021 season debut at Grandview and struggled with the new car blues in the heat race and finished 8^th sending him to the last chance consolation where the beautiful #35 entry shook off the shakedown blues from the 5^th starting position and won his consolation.  In the feature Dylan had a successful run forward to a 14^th place finish from a 21^st starting position in his first outing of the season.

Mike Stofflet qualified for the field in his first season opener on dirt as he is an asphalt transplant from Mahoning Valley.   

There is a solid group of rookie sportsman for the 2021 season with Colton Perry, Cody Schantz, Tyler James and Logan Bauman all qualifying for their first regular season points race of the 2021 season.  Cody Schantz finished 18^th in the feature which was the highest finish of the 4 rookie sportsman drivers that qualified for the program.

A small change in the racing format for 2021 put 33 cars in 4 heats instead of 3 heats like was the case in 2020.  Instead of one large consolation; the drivers are divided into 2 smaller consolations with three drivers transferring out to the feature. This new format improves all driver’s opportunity to qualify for the feature and makes for more competitive last chance consolation.

Next up at Grandview is a triple header racing program with modifieds, sportsman and crate 602 divisions on the slate for Saturday April 17^th and hot laps at 6:00 with racing starting at 7:00.