Brett Kressley Wins Two in a Row at Grandview Speedway and Pit Notes

Grandview Speedway held their second points race along with a three division show under overcast, cool and breezy and downright cold nighttime conditions.  The three division show had a unique twist with the 602 Crates running as a separate division while they could also still compete in the Grandview weekly sportsman division which provided a very busy night for many crate teams who opted to take advantage of the opportunity to race in two features in one night.  38 modifieds were on the grounds for modified point race # 2.

The modified field was led to green by Nat Brinker and Eric Biehn.   The race opened with 3 cautions for spins and one red flag for Brad Arnold and Jack Butler going into the front stretch wall.  When racing resumed on lap 5 it was Justin Grim taking the early lead from his 10^th starting position with Dillion Steuer in second and Kyle Weiss in 3^rd.  But on lap 18 Brett Kressley took the lead from his 16^th starting position.  Jared Umbenhauer made a strong move into 2^nd place on lap 21 and got within 2 car lengths of Kressley on lap 28 but in the end it was Kressley taking the win with a margin of victory of nearly 1 second and heading to the Grandview victory lane for the second week in a row.

In victory lane “Brett Kressley noted “There some major battles of adversity in the beginning of the race.  We got wheel slammed and got up in the air.  The car was still on point and it was a killer track.  The guys up front were locked together pretty hard and you got to just let it unfold and put yourself in the right position.  You just got to make it work if you want to win here.”

Back at the trailer 2^nd place Jared Umbenhauer noted “I was able to pass high or low and we didn’t make many changes from the heat race.  I had some pretty close calls and barely made it through the single car spins.  My car really came in at the end.  I was moving around on the track and making up ground on Kressley.  I wish there would had been a yellow at the end because I was going to go wherever he wasn’t and see what happened.  The track was pretty equal top to bottom.”

Postrace 3^rd place Dillon Steuer stated “We had a good night and experimented with a few changes and it worked out really well.  We got to the front pretty quick.  Looking back to the feature there’s a few things I would have done differently to put ourselves in a position to get a win but this track is still fairly new to me and I am learning more every week.  We learned a ton last night and looking forward to next week.”

The top ten was round was rounded out by Duane Howard in 4^th place followed by Justin Grim, Ryan Grim, Kyle Weiss, Jeff Strunk, Craig Von Dohren and Kevin Hirthler in 10^th.

The heat races were won by Dillon Steuer, Eric Biehn, Brad Arnold and Jesse Leiby.  Last Chance Consolations went to Louden Reimert and Craig Von Dohren.

Grandview Modified 30 lap Feature 4-17-21:

  1. Brett Kressley, 2. Jared Umbenhauer, 3. Dillon Steuer, 4. Duane Howard, 5. Justin Grim, 6. Ryan Grim, 7. Kyle Weiss, 8. Jeff Strunk, 9. Craig Von Dohren, 10. Kevin Hirthler, 11. Doug Manmiller, 12. Danny Bouc, 13. John Willman, 14. Brad Grim, 15. Louden Reimert, 16. Nate Brinker, 17. Jorden Henn, 18. Brad Arnold, 19. Ron Haring Jr., 20. Bobby Gunther-Walsh, 21. Darrin Schuler, 22. Mark Levy, 23. Jesse Leiby, 24. Richie Hitzler, 25. Jack Butler, 26. Eric Biehn, 27. Corey Merkel, 28. Brett Gilmore.

DNQ: Dylan Swinehart, Brad Brightbill, Scott Frack, Joe Funk, Ron Kline, Mark Kratz, Carroll Hine III, Craig Whitmoyer, Ryan Lilick, Kris Graver.

Modified Points Race # 2 – Pit Notes

Brett Kressley is off to his best start to the season ever with two wins at the first two point races of the season at Grandview Speedway.  He also won two in a row in late August so this consecutive week winning thing seems to becoming a habit for the 19K team despite the strong weekly competition at Grandview.  Brett commented “We were lucky to miss the first three melees without any damage.  The last one on the front stretch is when the car went airborne for a split second and we were fortunate that we only stressed a few chassis components without any of them breaking.  I knew the car probably had some stressed pieces so I tried to just run smooth consistent laps at the end.  We had some luck on our side for sure with all the near misses today.  The team is just ecstatic with our 2 wins in a row start to the year and we hope to keep the consistent finishes coming all season long.” 

The top three cars all had amazing runs with Kressley from 16^th to 1^st; Umbenhauer from 15^th to 2^nd and Steuer from 14^th to 3^rd.   Matter of fact the top 10 in total moved forward 112 positions which is an average of +11 positions for each of the top 10 finishers.

Team Zubi has gotten off to a rough start this season at Grandview with flat tires and contact incidents frequently taking them to the pits in the first two weeks with neither car having a top ten finish at Grandview prior to this week.  But that all changed this week with both cars finishing in the top 10.  Dillon Steuer finished 3^rd while Jeff Strunk finished 8^th from a 25 starting position.

 The last chance consolation was filled with 2020 top 10 points finishers who had to qualify through the last chance consolation this week and included 2020 champion Craig Von Dohren, Duane Howard, Jeff Strunk, Doug Manmiller and Louden Reimert.

Duane Howard had some contact front end damage and a DNF in his heat race sending him to the last chance consolation were he finished 2^nd to move into the 22^nd starting position for the feature.  Howard finished 4^th in the feature and had a +18 run through the field from his 22^nd starting position moving him into 2^nd in the point standings for week # 2.

Justin Grim was certainly glad to see his first top 5 finish of the 2021 season and not the back side of a tow truck like he did in the two previous weeks of 2021.  Justin reflected “We had significant damage from two wrecks in our first two races but tonight luck was on our side and we were able to avoid all the accidents and escape without anything other than normal Grandview bumps and bruises.  I think due to the cooler weather the track’s a little different right now.  When we finally got to that long green flag run in the feature tonight; I think I may have overheated my tires making our stagger too high in the final 10 laps.  I drove the last 10 laps conservative so we could bring home a decent finish after the poor start to the season we have had in the past two weeks.”

Ryan Grim had another strong run with a 6^th place finish from a 17^th place starting position to add to his 3^rd place finish last week.  Ryan is looking to improve on his strong 7^th place finish in the 2020 points and is currently sitting 3^rd in the points behind Duane Howard.  Ryan also did double duty and jumped in the 119 crate and finished 2^nd in the first Grandview 602 Crate race.

It was a banner night for rookies qualifying for their first modified feature of 2021 with Nat Brinker, Brand Arnold (returning to modified) and Jack Butler all qualifying for the feature.  Others who qualified for their first 2021 feature were Mark Levy, Darrin Schuler, Richie Hitzler, Jesse Leiby, Bobby Gunther-Walsh and Cory Merkel.

Darrin Schuler raced the entire 2020 season with a racer’s best friend duct tape number “74” but still found enough time to make it to nearly every point race in his rookie season which earned the 50ish driver the Southeastern PA NASCAR rookie of the year honors for the 2020 season.  Darrin qualified for his first 2021 feature in the last transfer position in the last chance consolation.  Darrin noted “Last week we ended up getting the left rear axle knocked off by contact in the last chance consolation.  When we returned this week with essentially a new rear and some chassis adjustments we were half a second quicker in warmups only to have contact in the heat race and this time broke the front axle brackets, radius rods, shock and tie rods.  With help from my guys and Mike Laise we fixed car in time for consolation and got the last transfer spot.  In the feature we made it through the early melees and then got a right rear tire flat but we were able to get back out and finish 21^st in our first 2021 feature.”

Mark Levy qualified for his first feature event of the 2021 season about 5 month’s earlier than last season.  Mark noted “We are already way ahead of where we were last year with the car setup, qualifying and our 20^th place feature finish tonight.  We are making what we have work better and are looking forward to having a new bullet soon.  These tangles tonight in the feature were nerve racking but we stayed clear of all of them.  We learned a lot tonight about feature setup and hope to use what we learned tonight in many more features this year.”

Next up at Grandview is the USAC National Midget tour along with the 358 modifieds on Thursday night April 22 with racing starting at 7:30.