Brett Kressley Takes 4th Grandview Modified Victory of 2021 & Pit Notes

Grandview Speedway resumed racing on Saturday under summerlike weather conditions.  40 modified and 33 sportsman were in attendance for point race # 9 after the first rainout of the season last Saturday breaking 8 straight Saturdays of racing so far in 2021 at Grandview.

Brett Kressley won the modified feature for the second week in a row and for the second time this season moving his Grandview modified win total to 4 wins in 9 races.  Dylan Hoch also won the sportsman division for his second week in a row and for his third sportsman win of the season.  Add a crate division win for Dylan and he also has four wins on the season at Grandview.

Mark Kratz and Jesse Leiby were early leaders of the 30 lap modified feature only to have Mike Lisowski take the lead of lap 5.   Lisowski continued to lead but on lap 10 Brett Kressley moved into second and by lap 16 Kressley took over the lead and then flawlessly negotiated lapped traffic for his 4^th trip to victory lane at Grandview this season.  The feature only had three short cautions flags and the feature saw a 24 lap green flag run.

In victory lane Brett Kressley commented “Hats off to Grandview for sure as the track turnaround was unbelievable in the feature and I was able to drive back to front from 16^th since they widen up the track and made it a little easier to maneuver with the high or low line in the feature.  Troy and the crew continue to kick butt on the car setup every week.”

The top ten was rounded out by Duane Howard in second place followed by Jared Umbenhauer, Craig Von Dohren, Mike Lisowski, Ron Haring, Jack Butler, Timmy Buckwalter, Jesse Leiby and Jordan Henn in 10^th place.

 The heat races were won by Mark Kratz, Jesse Leiby, Brett Kressley and Mike Lisowski.  The last chance consolations went to Louden Reimert and Danny Bouc.

Grandview Modified Feature (30-laps) 6-5-21:

 1. Brett Kressley, 2. Duane Howard, 3. Jared Umbenhauer, 4. Craig Von Dohren, 5. Mike Lisowski, 6. Ron Haring Jr., 7. Jack Butler, 8. Timmy Buckwalter, 9. Jesse Leiby, 10. Jordan Henn, 11. Ryan Grim, 12. Kyle Weiss, 13. Ryan Lilick, 14. Craig Whitmoyer, 15. Ron Kline, 16. Brad Arnold, 17. Bobby Gunther-Walsh, 18. Mark Kratz, 19. Doug Manmiller (DNF), 20. Louden Reimert (DNF), 21. Nate Brinker (DNF), 22. Danny Bouc (DNF), 23. Brett Gilmore (DNF), 24. Cory Merkel (DNF), 25. Dillon Steuer (DNF), 26. Ray Swinehart (DNF), 27. Kevin Hirthler (DNF), 28. Jeff Strunk (DNF).

 DNQ:  Brad Grim, Dylan Swinehart, Justin Grim, Glenn Owens, Richie Hitzler, Carroll Hine III, Eric Biehn, John Willman, Joe Funk III, Darrin Schuler and Kevin Graver.

Modified Pit Notes

Brett Kressley has won two in a row for the second time this season bringing his season win total to 4 only 9 races into the season.  Back at the trailer Brett noted “I’m 29 and only raced sportsman and modified but this year is my best start ever by far in either division.  The restarts tonight made it easier to make passes with everyone grouped back together.  We did negotiate a lot of lapped traffic but a very wide track surface allowed us to be able to go where they were not.”

To say that Brett Kressley has been dominant at Grandview so far this season may be an understatement as in 9 races he has 4 wins, one 2^nd; one 3^rd; two 4^th and one 8^th place finish for a career best start to a season.  Nonetheless Kressley only leads Craig Von Dohren by 68 points as he is keeping pace every week with Kressley and has one win, five 2^nd; one 4^th; one 5^th; and one 9^th place finish.

After a tangle last week and a 24^th place DNF Duane Howard got right back on track with a 2^nd place finish to solidify his 4^th position in the points standings.  Howard moved from his 12^th starting position to a 2^nd place finish and was closing on Kressley within .5 of a second of the leader at the checkered flag.

Jared Umbenhauer finished 3^rd from a 13^th starting position and continues to average a 6^th place finish in all 8 features at Grandview so far this season.  Umbenhauer currently sits 3^rd in the Grandview modified point standings.

Craig Von Dohren finished 4^th from a 14^th starting position continues his streak of seven top 5 finishes with only one top 10 finish this season.

It just so happens the top 4 in the point standings finished 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd and 4^th coming from starting position 16^th, 12^th, 13^th and 14^th respectively.  The top four in points moved forward +55 positions in the feature this week.

Mike Lisowski has had a rough start to the season with mechanical issues holding him to one decent finish of 5^th out of five prior starts.  But tonight Mike won his heat and picked up his second 5^th place in the past 4 weeks and appears to be ready to rejoin the front of the field again with his mechanical woes in the past.  Mike noted “We were better than we have been in the past two weeks but still just not good enough to get the win.  Starting up front helped for sure but we still got more work to do and hoping are mechanical troubles are behind us.”

6^th place Ron Harring noted back at the trailer “The car was working decent tonight and we were able to get the last position in the handicap invert in the heat race which put us in 3^rd starting position in the feature.  We made some small changes to the car for the feature like we do every week and were able to hold our own and stay up there and finish 6^th.  The car was good on the top which is where I like to run and we are getting closer on the setup but still need to improve and be able to run on the bottom in the heat races.”  Ron has qualified for 7 out of 8 point races this season and his 6^th place finish was his best finish this season.

Jack Butler has had mechanical issues and contact tangles keep him in the back of the field and on the DNQ list for the past 3 weeks but this week everything came together for his best finish of the season and solid finishes in both his heat and feature events.  In the heat race Jack was able to qualify for the handicap in the 4^th and final handicapped position which set him up to start in the 7^th position in the feature and he was able to maintain and finished in 7^th position for a season best finish at Grandview.  Jack commented “We had a good nigh all way around with not much tire wear and no damage whatsoever which is a welcome change from the past 3 weeks.  We made some wholesale changes from the heat to the feature and still could have made more changes.  This 7^th place finish is our best Grandview finish of the season but the best of all is it’s going to be an easy week for maintenance for a change.”

Tim Buckwalter had some repairs from Big Diamond on Friday night that took most of Saturday afternoon to complete and Tim didn’t have time to get to his regular Saturday night home at Bridgeport so he made his second Saturday visit of the season to Grandview.  In the heat race Buckwalter couldn’t move forward from the 10^th starting position due to an engine misfire which sent the 23X to the consolation.   In the last chance consolation Timmy was able to move from 7^th starting position to the 3^rd position and qualify for the feature but the car continued to have a miss.  After the consolation the 23X crew changed the carburetor & MSD box to try to resolve the misfire issue but it was determined to be a possible electrical issue.  Despite continuing to have the slight misfire in the engine for the feature Tim was able to finish 8^th from a 25^th starting position.  Postrace back at the trailer Timmy noted “We had some sort of carburetor or ignition issue all night. We had a gremlin pop up making motor lazy, missing and breaking up all night.  We changed the carburetor and MSD box but that didn’t fix it so we’re figuring it may be a bad wire somewhere.  The motor keep coming and going all night but the car was good and we were able to manage and pass some good cars anyway.  We could run the top in 1 but not in 3 and 4.  We’ll get it figured out and see if we come back here next week.”

Jesse Leiby got his second top ten finish of the season with a 9^th place finish.  In the past 4 weeks Jesse has finished in the top 10 twice and the other 2 times he was running in the top 10 when tangles ended his night.  Back at the trailer Jesse noted “I definitely feel good about the car in the heat races.  Finally got that second feature finish this year but we are fading a bit late in the feature as the track gets slick and I struggle with the handling.  We are heading in the right direction and we just need some more experience with this car on this track.”

Jordan Henn was coming off two weeks of DNQ’s but got back on track this week with a season best 10^th place finish. The 77H team broke a rear during the heat race a few weeks ago but is now back on track with their first top ten finish of the season.

Ryan Grim continues to struggle with being able to move forward in the heat race and once again had to qualify from the last chance consolation and start 24^th in the feature.  But just like last week once he got in the feature the car was able to move forward and finished 11^th from the 24^th starting position.

Craig Whitmoyer again moved forward to 7^th in the feature but contact with the jersey barrier resulted in a front left flat and the tire coming completely off the rim.  Whitmoyer got the car into the pits on the rim and returned to run from the back to a 14^th place finish.

Brad Arnold continued a 7 feature qualifying streak with a 16^th place finish from a 27^th starting position.  Brad fell back from 5^th to 7^th in the heat race but was able to grab the last transfer spot in the last chance consolation.  Brad noted “We are still figuring out the coils and we may go back to bars for a week or two to see how that feels.  We are getting the hang of it; but just need to fine tune now.  We have been happy with qualifying for the past 7 weeks and finishing races in one piece.”

Mark Kratz won his first heat race this season by over 2.5 seconds.  In the feature Mark took damage to the right rear quarter panel on lap 1 but managed to finish the feature in 18^th and still running on track.  Postrace Mark reflected “It should had been a good night for us but we made some contact somehow and it bent the shock shaft and that shock was not rebounding like it should.  We got in a wreck two weeks ago and had some extensive breakage last week so my crew guys and girlfriend have been working their tails off to get the car out here so to qualify this week and to finish the feature was great for us.”

Ray Swinehart returned to Grandview in the familiar 33R.  For the past two weeks Ray has been shaking down a 2015 Troyer.  This week the shakedown was over and Ray was able to qualify his 33R into the feature for the first time this season. 

Jeff Strunk finished 28^th in the feature and had to pull off on lap 1 with what appeared to be a collapsed front end.  This was the first time this season that Jeff was unable to finish in the top 10 at Grandview.  The prior week Jeff made two trips to the pits during the feature and still finished 8^th place.  Several times this season Strunk has pitted several times during features with flat tires and still managed to run back through the field for top 10 finishes.  The 88Z team has had exceptional pit stops this season and Jeff remains 5^th in the Grandview point standings.

The 602 Mini-Series returns to action on Saturday June 12^th making a triple header program with the modifieds and sportsman divisions.  Racing is scheduled to start at 7:30 PM on Saturday June 12^th.