Dylan Hoch Claims Second 602 Crate Win at Grandview Speedway

Dylan Hoch won his 2^nd of the three 602 crate races held at Grandview this season.  Add to that the three Open sportsman wins he also has with his 602 for a total of five wins this season for the #35 driver.  Dylan leads drivers in all classes with five wins this season.

In only his second outing at Grandview and second time in the car pole sitter Brian Blankenbiller held off outside pole sitter Dylan Hoch for the first 5 laps but Hoch the hottest driver at Grandview motored by Blakenbiller on lap 6 using the top side and proceeded to check out on the field with a 4 second margin of victory in the 8 minute green to checked flag caution free feature for his 5^th trip to victory lane at Grandview this season.

In victory lane Dylan Hoch noted “Lap traffic here can be sketchy at times but we were able to glide through tonight with any issues.  We have our setup down pretty good this year and although these two features in one night events are extremely challenging we had a good setup for both features with the crate win here and a solid forward run from 16^th to 7^th in the open sportsman feature.”

The top ten was rounded out by Jimmy Leiby in 2^nd followed by Brian Blankenbiller, Tyler James, Joey Vaccaro, Ryan Grim, Glenn Strunk, Logan Bauman, Cody Manmiller and Tyler Peet in 10^th place.

The 602 crate heat races went to Brian Blankenbiller, Dylan Hoch and Tyler James.

602 Sportsman Crate Feature (25-laps) 6-12-21:

   1. Dylan Hoch, 2. Jimmy Leiby, 3. Brian Blankenbiller, 4. Tyler James, 5. Joey Vaccaro, 6. Ryan Grim, 7. Glenn Strunk, 8. Logan Bauman, 9. Cody Manmiller, 10. Tyler Peet, 11. Kenny Bock, 12. Cody Kline, 13. Steve Hicks, 14. Chuck Eckert, 15. Decker Swinehart, 16. Eric Kocher, 17. Kyle Kania, 18. Zach Steffey, 19. Kris Ney, 20. Tom Miller, 21. Hunter Iatalese, 22. Joe Ciambrone, 23. Dakota Kohler, 24. Steve Lyle.

 DNQ:  B.J. Joly, Roger Gaskill, C.J. Solt.

Sportsman Pit Notes

Several crate drivers had great nights in both the open sportsman and 602 crate divisions:

 Dylan Hoch   – 7^th in sportsman and 1^st in the crates

Joey Vaccaro – 3^rd in sportsman and 5^th in crates

Jimmy Leiby – 6^th in sportsman and 2^nd in crates

Logan Bauman- 2^nd in sportsman and 8^th in crates

The 602 heats were random pill draw for starting positions which determined the feature lineup on a heads up basis.  As the winner of heat one Brian Blankenbiller won the pole positon for the 25 lap feature.

Dylan Hoch has won the last two of three 602 Crate races this season.  In addition he has also won three open sportsman features for a total of 5 Grandview wins so far this season and currently has more 2021 wins than any driver at Grandview.  Brett Kressley has 4 modified wins but has started 3 less races than Dylan.  Postrace Dylan noted “The night went pretty smooth for us but we are still learning with making different trial and error adjustments.  My brother is the behind the scenes decision maker on our adjustments as well as working on the car to actually put the adjustments into the car.  I would have never thought we would have this many wins already at Grandview this season; but the key is clearly making the right adjustments as the track changes through the night.  We certainly hope we are showing everyone what we are capable of doing and we can pick up a ride with a solid team some time down the road.”

In the earlier open sportsman feature Jimmy Leiby finished 6th from a 19^th starting position in his 9L crate sportsman.  For the 602 crate feature of the doubleheader; Jimmy jumped out of the 9L and into his brother’s black and green 9 for his second race of the night while Glenn Strunk jumped right back into Jimmy’s 9L for the 602 Crate feature.  Jimmy noted “Jesse’s car was fast from the start of hot laps and after getting dumped in turn 1 in the heat race I was able to save it and got my spot back and finished 2^nd in the heat which was a key to the night since the feature lineup was heads up from the heat races.  We had front end damage from the heat to fix before the feature and had to thrash to get it done in time to start 4^th in the feature.  In the feature the car was best ever and we just got hung up going for second and finished 2^nd.  This was the first time all 3 of our car/driver combos came home with all top 5 & top 10 finishes in the crate & open double header series.  It was a good night for us.” 

Brian Blankenbiller finished 3^rd from the pole position and qualified for his first Grandview feature in only his second 602 crate race.  His first time ever in a crate car he was a DNQ for both the open and 602 crate feature with 43 and 32 cars on the grounds respectively back in May.  Brian had another DNQ this week in the open division; but his luck started changing at the heat race pill draw earlier in the day.  Brian managed to draw “1” pill and had the pole in the first heat which little did he know he would win heat 1 and then earn the heads up pole position for the feature and finish 3^rd on the podium in his first 602 crate sportsman feature event.  Back at the trailer Brian reflected “Yeah today was my second race ever in a full sized modified.  I started racing Xcel600 Modified in 2014 at the age of 47.  My car owner Craig Ramich is driving his 5t car at the 6 race series at BAPS while I’m picking up races at Grandview and Big Diamond.  My first crate race was the May crate / open doubleheader at Grandview and I ended up as the 1^st alternate for both the open division and 602 crate division.  These Grandview double races are very appealing since I can get double track time in on a given race day.”

Brian continued “Today we experimented with a setup that didn’t work at all for the open sportsman class and we ended up last in our open sportsman heat race.  We couldn’t make adjustments fast enough and missed the call for the open sportsman consolation so I was nervous to be on the pole for the 602 race.  Luckily when we finally got to use our changes; they work and we won the heat race going away.  I have been a Grandview fan since the 80’s and taking that checkered flag was better than I ever dreamed.  We started on the pole for the feature and held the lead for 7 laps and then lost 2^nd place with two laps to go.  The car worked well and we had minimal tire wear.  This was a huge thrill for a guy fulfilling his midlife crisis and his dream come true.  We’ll be back for the open / crate doubleheaders in July and August.  At the end of the year Craig and I will sit down and decide if this is a one year thing and done or if we will do another year of 602 crate racing.”

Tyler James ran both the open & crate divisions and started the day out with a disappointing finish in the open feature with an 11^th place finish from a 3^rd starting position.  But in the nightcap Tyler got his best finish of the season with a 4^th place finish from a 6^th starting position in the 602 crate feature.  Postrace Tyler noted “We just plain missed the setup in the open feature and I was spinning the tires and couldn’t hook up.  We made some changes from the 1^st to the 2^nd feature and it made the car a lot better and  we were actually able to move forward two positions to a 4^th place finish from a 6^th starting position in a feature that ran nonstop from green to checkered in 8 minutes.  John Willman helped me today, yesterday, back at the shop and anytime I need help.  I would like to thank John for all the assistance and help he has provided me.”

Joey Vaccaro was able to pull off a double-double and brought home a top five finish in the sportsman feature with a 3^rd and the 602 crate feature with a 5^th place finish.  Postrace Joey reflected “We were just worrying about saving the car for the second race and then bam we managed to handicap to a 4^th place starting position in the first race and just have to go for it.  We got through the first race with no damage but were real lucky we had nothing to repair on the car because when we got out of the infield tech inspection for the sportsman feature they were already staging for the crate heat races.  We ran our crate heat with the same tires from the sportsman feature and had no time for any changes or adjustments before our crate heat.  The car was spectacular and we went from 7^th to 1^st in our heat and secured the 3^rd starting position in the heads up 602 crate feature.  In the feature there were no cautions and it ran in 8 minutes and we finished 5^th.  It was the best and most amazing night we have ever had and I still can’t believe we ran in two heat races and two features in the same night and never got below 5^th place all night.”

Logan Bauman’s Grandview rollercoaster started a few weeks ago with his first win and then a blown motor and a DNQ the very next week.  One week later he is shaking down a new car with a different suspension for the first time and then this week he debuts a new car with a 2^nd place finish in the sportsman feature followed by an 8^th place finish in the 602 crate feature.  Logan reflected “We went right from sportsman tech to the staging for the crate heats so I never got out of the car and drove the same setup right from the sportsman feature to the crate heats.  We didn’t have any time for adjustments.  The crate race ran green to checkered flag in 8 minutes and it would have been nice to have a yellow and a restart but it didn’t happen.  We were able to run from 10^th to an 8^th place finish despite no restarts.  This new car is a completely different setup right down to steering box and coils so this doubleheader show was perfect for us to get extra seat time and sort this 22 car out.  The new 22 car will be our new special show car and we will continue to run the 14 as our regular weekly Grandview car.  We didn’t expect to do this well tonight and are thrilled with our progress tonight.”

BJ Joly was in a qualifying heat for his second feature of the night when he was involved in a jingle and he sustained injuries and heavy damage to his“924” 602 crate sportsman entry.  BJ is at home resting comfortably and has vowed to fix up “old faithful” and return when he is cleared by his doctors.  

Saturday June 19th the Wingless Super Sportsman make a rare appearance as part of a Father’s Day Weekend tripleheader that will also feature the Modifieds and Sportsman. Racing will start at 7:30 P.M on Saturday.