Jesse Landis Claims First Sportsman Win at Grandview & Pit Notes

A wash-out of a weekend took just enough break from raining on Saturday for Grandview Speedway squeeze in a triple header of modified, sportsman and crate 602 for the second time this season.  The crates have the opportunity to run two complete programs with separate qualifying and features all in one night and makes for quite an interesting night for the crate teams who choose to do double duty in both classes with the same car.

A brisk and downright cold night was endured by fans and racers alike to produce an outstanding night of competitive racing with 39 mods; 43 sportsman and 34 crates for a total of 116 race cars on hand for the three division card of racing.

The sportsman feature was lead to green by Nick Faust and until lap 7 when the first caution flew for a contact incident between Kenny Bock and Kyle Smith.  On the restart Chris Esposito took a commanding lead over Jesse Landis while Faust faded to mid-pack.  Esposito’s lead evaporated when the race went red on lap 14 for a hard contact incident on the back stretch between Bryan Rhoads and Cody Schantz.  On the second and final restart of the 25 lap feature; Esposito returned to the lead with Jesse Landis continuing pursuit in second place.  On lap 20 Landis closed the gap until he executed a pass for the lead on lap 23 while Esposito faded to 5^th. Landis held off Mark Kemmerer and Kyle Lillick for the win and his career first trip to Grandview’s victory lane.  Landis has been close to two other wins this season but the third time was the charm and Jessie got his first career Sportsman win at Grandview speedway.

In victory lane Jesse Landis commented “I got to thank Ryan Beltz for straightening us out in the heat race.  We wouldn’t be here now if he doesn’t do that.  Car has had speed all year we have just been missing something.  Hopefully we have found it for the rest of the season.”

The sportsmen top ten was rounded out by Mark Kemmerer in 2^nd place followed by Kyle Lillick, Brian Hirthler, Chris Esposito, Dakota Kohler, Dylan Hock, Kenny Gilmore, Doug Snyder and Kyle Smith.

The heats were won by Dylan Hoch, Tommy Miller, Logan Bauman and Doug Snyder.

Last Chance Consolations were won by Parker Guldin and Kyle Smith.

Sportsman Feature (25-laps) – 5/08/21:

 1. Jesse Landis, 2. Mark Kemmerer, 3. Kyle Lilick, 4. Brian Hirthler, 5. Chris Esposito, 6. Dakota Kohler, 7. Dylan Hoch, 8. Kenny Gilmore, 9. Doug Snyder, 10. Kyle Smith, 11. Nathan Mohr, 12. Mike Stofflet, 13. Parker Guldin, 14. Logan Bauman, 15. Anthony Raisner, 16. Nick Faust, 17. Tom Miller, 18. Jimmy Leiby, 19. Bryan Rhoads, 20. Mike Schneck, 21. Cody Schantz, 22. Kurt Bettler, 23. Cody Manmiller, 24. Joey Vaccaro, 25. Decker Swinehart, 26. Kenny Bock.

 DNQ: Colton Perry, Josh Mooney, Brian Blankenbiller, Ryan Conrad, Kody Sites, Talan Carter, Tyler James, Joe Ciambrone, B.J. Joly, Mark Gaugler, Lex Shive, Eric Kocher, Brad Force, Wayne Rotenberger, Matt Clay, Ryan Beltz and Tajae Adams.

Sportsman Pit Notes

43 sportsman entries attempted to qualify for the 26 car field.  There were 22 sportsman motor entries and 21 602 crate motor entries in the sportsman division.   The 602 crate division had 34 entries of which 10 qualified for both the sportsman and 602 crate feature.

Jesse Landis picked up his first career sportsman win.  Early on Chris Esposito in the 31A had gotten away from the field but Landis was closing the gap from about 10 car lengths to 2 when the red flag flew for a heavy contact incident on the back stretch.  On the restart Esposito resumed the lead but with Landis in close pursuit until lap 23 when Landis was able to complete the pass for the lead and drive into the Grandview victory lane for his first sportsman win at Grandview Speedway.

Postrace Jesse reflected “Pre-race I knew from the way the line-up fell out that Chris Esposito in the 31A was going to be an important person to pass.  Pretty early in the feature I was able to get under people and pass on the bottom and when I arrived in second place I saw the 31A had about 10 car lengths on the field.  I was hooked up on the bottom of 1 & 2 and had closed his lead down to about 2 car lengths before the red flag came out on lap 14.  I was fearful Esposito would take the bottom on the restart but he took the top which is what I was hoping for.  If the car would had rotated I would have cleared Esposito on lap 14 but I was tight and I couldn’t clear him.  Chris tried the bottom and couldn’t hold it so he went back up to the top and left the bottom open for me and I was able to put 2 good laps together and make the pass on lap 23 and run 2 more clean laps for my first win.”

Jesse continued “It’s just crazy how this car wasn’t my best handling car or fastest car but it was good enough to get the win.  Luck was on my side today and with the rainouts at other tracks Ryan Watt was here today watching with Logan.  Ryan Watt has been helping me for years and tonight he watched me and helped me with setup at the track.  If not for Ryan I would not have made the changes I needed to make from the heat to the feature.  Ryan Watt has been helping me since I started and this was really cool have him there in victory lane for my first win.”      

Long time Grandview Sportsman veteran Mark Kemmerer finished a season best 2^nd from a 10^th starting position.  Mark started the season with two top ten finishes with a 7^th and 9^th only to have bad luck and mechanical issues give him a 25^th and 15^th in his most recent weeks of racing.  The runner-up finish hit the spot and moved Kemmerer up to 7^th in the season point standings and with some continued top 5 and top 10 finishes Mark will be within striking distance of 4^th place in the points standing.

Kyle Lillick had a strong car all day and finished 3^rd from a 16^th starting position.  Back at the trailer Kyle noted “I’m getting better every week at navigating traffic and we have just been keeping the car drivable and it seems to work out.”  Lillick has missed one race and he has just graduated from Temple’s School of Engineering with a BS in Mechanical Engineering.  Despite missing one of racing; Lillick currently sits 4^th in the sportsman points and already has one win this season at Grandview.

Brian Hirthler finished 4^th from a 15^th place starting position and it was a good rebound from last week when car developed a miss fire during the feature and he finished 18^th last week.  Brian recounted “Car was much better this week and we changed fuel lines and pickup.  Just wanted to get some solid laps and keep car straight.  We were boxed in much of the race by double wide traffic but once we got clean air I was able to mount a late surge and came up a bit short but the car was much improved from last week.”   

Chris Esposito turned in his best run of the season with a 5^th place finish after leading the race for the majority of the 25 laps.  Chris noted “We had our best car of the season this week.  The tires went away in the end but Jessie ran a great race and he deserved that win for sure and his car was better especially when it counted. Our luck so far this season has been really bad and we blew a motor the first week and have been learning a new motor, chassis and suspension combination this season.  We are hopeful we have turned the corner with our success today and can continue to stay up front the remainder of this season.”

After three weeks of pit thrashes and missing heat race calls and feature calls Dylan Hoch and the 35 team got back to normal and were able to make all their calls and had their best outing of the last 4 weeks with a 7^th in the sportsman division and a win in the 602 crate division.  In the sportsman feature Dylan finished 7^th from an 11^th starting position.   Dylan commented “We missed the setup a little in the sportsman race but it did help us to nail the setup for the crate race which was the 2^nd & final race.  We final got our motor issues figured out that have been impacting us for three weeks now and were able to make the calls for all of the  heats and features which we haven’t done for the past 3 weeks.”

Kenny Gilmore came into the night as the sportsman point leader and the season has been fairly routine from week to week.  Kenny starts in the back of the heat but manages to handicap and qualify from the heat race each week.  Well not this week.  Kenny started 8^th in his heat of 11 and qualified 6^th putting him into the consolation for the first time this year.   He won the consolation from the pole position but found himself starting the feature from 21st position instead of his usual 15^th or 16th.  The point leader moved smoothly through the field and finished 8^th from a 21^rd starting position to continue his string of 5 races with a top 5 or 10 finish this season.

Kyle Smith came into the night second in points in the sportsman division and happens to be point leader Kenny Gilmore’s nephew.  Both suffered the same fate with Kyle also had to go to the last chance consolation and qualified for the feature in the 22^nd starting position.  Kyle reflected “We just couldn’t pass in the heat race.  In the feature I had to go to the pits first to fix a flat and then a second trip to the pits was to repair some sheet metal sticking out.  On the second trip to the pits I had to be pushed back into pits because the battery was dead.  After the repairs; the crew had to push start the car up the hill in the pits.  I was able to pass a bunch of cars because the car was bad fast and the top side was real fast and that’s where this car seem to like to be.”  After two trips to the pits in the feature and a bump start to get back out Kyle Smith finished 10^th from a 22^nd starting spot and after going to the tail of the field twice.

Kenny Gilmore and Kyle Smith showed why they are currently atop of the points as they continue to move to the front no matter where they start on the field and I’m sure the plan is to return to a mid-pack handicapped starting position next week.  Both Kenny and Kyle have shown they have what it takes to win a championship but it will be a long 18 weeks until a points champion is crowned.

Mike Stofflet in his # 36 got his season best finish of 12^th in the feature and also season best heat finish of 2^nd.  In his heat race Mike was able to keep a strong group of about 6 front runners behind him for the 8 lap heat race.  Mike reflected “In the feature we started 3^rd and stayed top 5 until midrace but then the stagger and tires started to go and we faded to 12^th.  We have turned into the right direction with our setup this week and are looking forward to getting another shot at it again next week.”   Mike is a former Mahoning Valley asphalt racer in his first year on dirt at Grandview.  The family funded team also includes Mike’s cousin Colton Perry # 38.  A few weeks ago both Colton and Mike blew up motors and Mike put their only backup motor into Colton’s car to get him more track time. The decision paid off and Colton was able to get his best finish of the season on the first time out with the backup motor.

Jimmy Leiby finished 18^th from a 26^th starting position but now the rest of the story.  Back at the trailer Jimmy reflected “In the heat I contacted Tyler James who had stopped on the track and tore the shock tower off and the radiator out.  We repaired the car (9L) for the consolation and got a 3^rd place finish from an 11^th (dead last) starting position but the car was still running hot due to problems with the new radiator.  We qualified for the feature in the 26^th starting position and I took Jesse’s black 9 out for the feature. I got up to 14^th and made contact with someone and got a right rear flat.  We also noticed the radiator had a rock go through it so that ended our night in the sportsman feature with an 18^th place DNF.”   

Ryan Beltz had a rough night right out of the box in the heat race.  On the start of the heat race eventual winner Jesse Landis got tagged and spun.  Beltz collected the spinning Landis and Beltz destroyed the right side his 221 entry.  Unfortunately for Beltz the car was too damaged to return and his night was finished.  He came into the night 3^rd in points and fell to 6^th by night’s end.

602 Crate Pit Notes to follow tomorrow.

Next up at Grandview on Saturday May 15 is the USAC East Coast Sprints along with the modifieds and sportsman divisions for a triple header program with racing starting at 7:30 PM.