Decker Swinehart Claims First Grandview Win & Pit Notes

Grandview Speedway held their 4^th points race of 23 scheduled events under cool and breezy conditions.  The two division program had 36 modifieds and 32 sportsman competitors on the grounds. 

Decker Swinehart came from the outside pole to take the lead on lap 3 and held the off a closing Joey Vaccaro by a comfortable margin and to take his first career Grandview win.   Swinehart lead the final 23 laps of the 2 caution 25 lap feature event.

In victory lane Decker noted “I got the lead from Rhoads on lap 3 using the outside line and saw Rhoads get a nose under me so I went back to the bottom.  I didn’t catch lapped traffic until lap 20 and decided to go high around them and they started to wreck right below me and I was super glad I decided to go to the top.  The last 5 laps just ran the bottom and hit the marks to hold off Joey.  I got my first win tonight and I am so happy about it.”

Second place Joey Vaccaro commented “We have had a lot of problems in the features this year so we went in just wanting to finish.  Starting 5^th I knew we were going to have to pass some cars and our car was handling amazingly and we were in 2^nd by lap 13.   I had a real scare with some lapped cars around lap 20.  I saw Decker go to the top of the traffic and I was like okay I’m going to make some ground up here but then there were a car or two sitting sideways in front of me and I was right on it so I slammed brakes, turned, prayed and it worked out.  Definitely a scary moment but glad I got out of that one.  The track was in really good condition for the crate cars.  I was so glad to see my best friend Decker win this race and I was right there in my car in 2nd.”

Third place Bryan Rhoads noted “The track conditions really slicked off faster than we thought they would and thankfully we had enough adjustment to survive in the top 3.  We did fall back to 5^th but as the tires heated up the track came to us improving our handling and we were able to get 2 spots back in the final laps.”

The top ten was rounded out by Joey Vaccaro in second, Bryan Rhoads, Kenny Gilmore, Cody Schantz, Kyle Smith, Kyle Lillick, Ebby Ridge, Brandon Edgar and Lex Shive in tenth.

The heat races were won by Chris Esposito, Bryan Rhoads and Kenny Gilmore.  Kenny won his heat race from the 10^th starting position with his sportsman motored 7 entry.

The last chance consolation was won by Kyle Lillick over Brian Hirthler with both cars making a rare appearance in the last chance consolation on the same night.

Sportsman Feature (25-laps) – 5/01/21:

 Decker Swinehart, 2. Joey Vaccaro, 3. Bryan Rhoads, 4. Kenny Gilmore, 5. Cody Schantz, 6. Kyle Smith, 7. Kyle Lilick, 8. Ebby Ridge, 9. Brandon Edgar, 10. Lex Shive, 11. Dylan Hoch, 12. Dakota Kohler, 13. Jimmy Leiby, 14. Ryan Beltz, 15. Mark Kemmerer, 16. Chris Esposito, 17. Kenny Bock, 18. Brian Hirthler, 19. Tyler James, 20. Parker Guldin, 21. B.J. Joly, 22. Jesse Landis, 23. Nathan Mohr, 24. Mike Laise.

DNQ: Nick Faust, Randy Mohr Sr., Mike Stofflet, Steve Young, Mat Clay, Paul Effrig, Colton Perry and Tom Miller.

Sportsman Pit Notes

There were 14 crates and 17 sportsman in the 31 car field.  Decker Swinehart joins Dylan Hoch as crate winners this season and Brain Hirthler is the lone sportsman motor winner with two wins.  In 4 races this season the crates have 2 wins and the sportsman motors have 2 wins.

The top three of Swinehart, Vaccaro and Rhoads all recorded their season best finish of their season as well as Cody Schantz in 5^th place.

Decker Swinehart has been up and down so far this year with two top 10 finishes and two back of the pack finishes.   Last season Decker proved to be very resilient and able to come back from DNQ’s and a destroyed car the following weeks with strong top 10 finishes. Now with his first win of the season already under his belt; Decker is looking for consistent finishes from week to week and his 2^nd win of the season.

Joey Vaccaro’s 2^nd place finish couldn’t come at better time as the past several weeks have been disappointing with mechanical issues and breakage.  Joey reflected “We came into tonight just wanting to finish the feature and to get 2^nd to my best friend Decker was just ten times better than I could have ever expected. We blew a motor on opening practice day to start things off.  Then we had some motor issues and were down on power a few weeks ago and found the problem only to tear up the front end while running 4^th last week and have to drop out again for an DNF so this 2^nd place run tonight couldn’t come at a better time for us.”

Bryan Rhodes posted his best finish of the season with a 3^rd place finish.  Just a few weeks ago he posted his best ever feature finish with a 8^th place finish.  Bryan had 6 heat wins last season; but didn’t get his top 10 feature finish until a few weeks ago and then in few short weeks improved to a 3rd place finish this week.  Bryan reflected “We won heat races last year frequently but then just couldn’t stay up front in the features.  The feature is always like night and day at Grandview and this year we are getting onto the changes we need to make for good feature finishes.  We tried a lot of stuff last year that didn’t work and now we are fine tuning from week to week and improving our setup every week. I hope this kind luck & setup continue to give us good results.”

Kenny Gilmore just keeps on keeping on from week to week.  Kenny has been the most consistent car in the sportsman class and this week was another 4^th place finish from a 15^th starting position.  It’s not every day you see a sportsman car win their heat from the 10^th starting position but that’s what the Gilmore #7 did this week.  Kenny currently sits atop the sportsman points with his nephew Kyle Smith only 55 points off the pace.

Cody Schantz picked up a 5^th place finish which was a career best in his first full year of racing competition.  Cody noted “We were fast last week before we got caught up in a wreck that broke my steering box.  In the heat we didn’t have enough stagger and I could barely get the car to turn but we were able to stay in the handicap which was a huge part of our success tonight.  In the feature we went out with a mindset to run the top and get comfortable there.  We are learning a lot each week and all in all I’m very happy with the way it turned out with a 5^th place finish tonight.”

Dylan Hoch finished 11^th in the feature from a 22^nd starting spot but now the rest of the story.  Dylan has been on one of the strangest 3 week stints of mechanical troubles while still having some on track success at the same time.  Dylan reflected “We won the feature our second time out with this car 2 weeks ago.  The car broke the serpentine belt on the final lap and that was the night of the extra race for crates.  We missed the heat race repairing the belt but got out for the consolation and qualified in the 21^st position. In the crate feature we were able to finish 8^th from a 21^st starting position and we ended up with a win and an 8^th in the same night.”

“The next week the engine started misfiring in hot laps and the heat so we had to qualify in the last chance consolation again.  We changed the plug wires and qualified into the feature from the consolation.  While making some adjustments some damaged suspension parts surfaced and we didn’t have enough time to get it put back together and make the call for the feature which made for a very frustrating night.”

“So now this week we go to track expecting everything is good and the car shuts off during the track pack in and had fouled out another new set of spark plugs.  So we were a DNS for the heat race again this week.  We get our fuel issues resolved for the last chance consolation and qualified for the feature in the 22^nd starting position and post a solid 11^th place finish. I’m pretty sure we have this problem figured out.”

Dylan and the 35 team are definitely looking for a normal night of making the heat and feature calls at the next race. They will get a good test since the next race is a crate / sportsman twin bill with two sets of heats and features for the crates and sportsman. 

Kyle Lillick returned after taking a week off and didn’t miss a beat when he returned to the track this week.  Kyle finished 7^th from a 19^th starting position in the 2 caution feature.

Ebby Ridge in the 7A rebounded to his second 8^th place finish of the season after a tangle last week setting him back to 15^th place finish. Ebby is planning on competing for a full season at Grandview and has already posted two top 10 finishes in 4 starts this season.

Brian Hirthler is on a bit of an early season roller coaster.  Win one, trouble then next week, win one more and more trouble.  Brian has two wins bookended by a tangle incident 15^th place finish and this week an 18^th place finish due to a miss firing engine during the feature.   So if the pattern continues look for Brian back on top this week with another win.

On Saturday May 8^th it’s the second round of the 602 mini-series at Grandview for a three division program with the modified and sportsman division with racing kicking off at 7:30 PM.