Craig Von Dohren Captures 3rd Grandview Win of the Season & Pit Notes

After another week off due to a rainout last week; Grandview Speedway returned to action for week 12 of the modified and sportsman points racing along with outlaw vintage racing series.  Comfortable and mild conditions prevailed for the majority of the day but right before the night was complete a small rain drizzle made a brief visit to the speedway that ended the sportsman feature with an early & unexpected lap 13 checkered flag.

The modified feature continued a familiar pattern with the point leaders dominating with podium finishes from mid-pack starting positions.  Craig Von Dohren quickly moved from his 14^th starting position to take his 3^rd win of the season with Brett Kressley and Jared Umbenhauer filling out the podium finish in 2^nd and 3^rd. 

Glen Owens took the early lead of the 30 lap modified feature from the pole position with Jordan Henn and Mark Kratz charging hard in 2^nd and 3^rd.  Caution # 1 came out on lap 7 for a broken Eric Biehn and also saw Jordan Henn go back to the pits for a flat tire while running in 2^nd place.  On the restart Kratz took a strong lead until lap 17 when disaster struck and he got hooked together with Doug Manmiller for the second caution of the day.  On lap 17 the 2^nd restart of the night; Craig Von Dohren moved into the lead while Brett Kressley moved from 4^th right into 2^nd place.  A couple more cautions and a red flag for a 6 car tangle didn’t change anything at the front of the field as Craig Von Dohren held off Brett Kressley and Jared Umbenhauer to take his 3^rd Grandview win of the season.

The top ten was rounded out by Brett Kressley in second place followed by Jared Umbenhauer, Craig Whitmoyer, Duane Howard, Kevin Hirthler, Doug Manmiller, Justin Grim, Ryan Lilick and Brett Gilmore in 10^th place.  

The heat races were won by Glenn Owens, Brett Kressley from 11^th & Doug Manmiller from the 9^th starting position.  Jack Butler won the last chance consolation.

Modified Feature (30-laps):

   1. Craig Von Dohren, 2. Brett Kressley, 3. Jared Umbenhauer, 4. Craig Whitmoyer, 5. Duane Howard, 6. Kevin Hirthler, 7. Doug Manmiller, 8. Justin Grim, 9. Ryan Lilick, 10. Brett Gilmore, 11. Jesse Leiby, 12. Brad Arnold, 13. Darrin Schuler, 14. Ray Swinehart, 15. Jack Butler, 16. Bobby Gunther Walsh, 17. Mark Kratz, 18. Jeff Strunk, 19. Danny Bouc, 20. Ryan Grim, 21. Mike Lisowski, 22. Brad Brightbill, 23. Jordan Henn, 24. Dylan Swinehart, 25. Cory Merkel, 26. Glenn Owens, 27. Brad Grim, 28. Eric Biehn.

 DNQ:   Ron Haring Jr., Ron Kline, John Willman, Carroll Hine III, Nate Brinker and Mike Tyson.

Modified Pit Notes

Craig Von Dohren started one position (14^th) in front of Brett Kressley (15^th) and finished one position (1^st) in front of Brett Kressley (2^nd).   Craig took his second win in the last 3 races from the 14^th starting position on the grid and appears to be gaining “CVD midseason” form as he quickly charged to the front of the field.  In victory lane Craig noted “We had a good car all year it’s just a matter of getting the breaks to go our way as well as finding and getting through the holes.  Some nights you catch the breaks and other nights you don’t.  It’s tough every night and not getting any easier.  Everyone is racing for different positions and you have to use the bottom and top to go where they aren’t when passing lapped cars.  Brett had a very good car but tonight was just our night.”   

Brett Kressley started in 15^th one position behind Craig Von Dohren and finished 2^nd one place behind Craig Von Dohren.  Brett won his heat race from the 11^th starting position and was aided by two restarts.  Postrace Brett noted “In the feature we got stuck in 14^th all the way to the lap 7 restart which was the turning point of the feature.  After the restart we quickly diced through the pack and before I knew it I was right behind Craig.  We had a few late yellows that I didn’t want to see.  The track had no bottom groove and in a clear track made a pass for the lead nearly impossible.  This season at Grandview continues to be unreal with the finishes we are having every week.  Crew, driver and car are all on the same page and everything is clicking.  I am truly blessed.”

The points battle continues to rage between Kressley and Von Dohren only 90 points apart atop the modified points standing.  In 8 out of 12 races this year Kressley and Von Dohren have been separated by 2 or less positions at the finish.  This has been so close at times that the race on June 26 was deemed to be a tie between Kressley and Von Dohren and both drivers were award winning prize money and points.

Jared Umbenhauer finished 3^rd from his 13^th starting position.  The top three in points were on the podium and Jared stayed right behind the runaway Kressley and Von Dohren battle with a 3^rd place finish.  Back at the trailer Jared noted “We made the handicap and got stuck on the bottom in the beginning of the feature.  You had to go to the top to make passes.  I finally got the car up on the top and started running down the top 4 and we got a caution that helped too.  I got 4/5 positions by going through a hole on the bottom of the track when the top got jammed up for some reason.  The bottom was slow so you had to be on the top of the track.  I had to stay on the top just to try to stay in same zip code as Craig and Brett.  You are just waiting for them to make a mistake but they just don’t make one.”

Craig Whitmoyer had his best finish of the season with a 4^th place from a 10^th starting position.  Craig started 8^th in his heat race and was able to move forward to 3^rd and transfer to the feature in an invert position.  Back at the trailer Craig noted “We have been working on making the car better in the heat races to try to make the invert.  The car has been handling good in the feature for a while now but when starting in the back it’s easy to get bent up till be get up through the field.  The feature today was good and we were able to run clean with not too many close calls.  Tonight was our best total night of the season with a good car in both the heat and feature.”

Kevin Hirthler finished 6^th from a 17^th starting position.  An early flat tire in the heat race held Kevin from qualifying in the invert but nonetheless a strong back to front run in the heat to qualify for the feature.  Back at the trailer Kevin Hirthler noted “We went back to the 2019 car tonight.  I wish I didn’t get the flat in the heat otherwise I could have made the invert and probably would have been in the top 5.  I just ran out of laps to run down 5^th and 4^th.  We will take 6^th and be happy about it after all the beating and banging.”  Kevin adds his 6^th place finish to a recent 3^rd and 5^th as he moves up in the season points standing to 8^th.

Doug Manmiller’s day started with an outstanding heat race win from the 9^th starting position.   In the feature Doug finished 7^th from the 11^th starting position.  By lap 10 Doug was in 2^nd and contending for the lead.  Manmiller got hooked with Mark Kratz and came to a stop on the front stretch on lap 17 drawing caution # 2 of the day which turned red to unhook the 44 from the 88K.  The incident sent Manmiller to the rear of the field and 20^th place with only 13 laps to go.  In 13 laps Manmiller was able to recover for a 7^th place finish.

Justin Grim finished 8^th from a 9^th starting position for his second top 5/10 finish of the season.  Justin started the season with an early 5^th place finish and then endured nine weeks of 20ish finishes so the 8^th place finish this week was a welcome move back to the front of the field.  Back at the trailer Justin commented “For the last 9 weeks it’s been some wrecks and a couple of parts failures but overall we have been struggling.  I feel we are getting a better handle on things now that we have gone away from a lot of our setups from last year that just are no longer working for us.  It took a while to abandon ship on stuff that worked for us last year and move into another direction.   Tonight we picked up a terrible push after the last red flag on lap 21 because the right rear had a slow leak and when it cooled off during the red flag it got even worse but it was great to be able to overcome the push and still finish in the top 10.  We are hoping we can continue to improve off of tonight and stay back up front for the remainder of the season.”

Ryan Lilick has endured ten races having a good car but getting bad finishes due to attrition and parts failures.  Ryan was able to get his first top ten of the season with a 9^th place finish from a 20^th starting position.  Back at the trailer Ryan commented “We got 7^th in the heat but were running 2^nd for most of the heat and got hung up on the outside on a late restart and passed by the good guys.  We got in and we’ll take it.  In the feature I was a bit conservative in the beginning and we lost some spots but once we got rolling the car seemed to come in and we started to move forward and we were good in both lanes.  I would have liked less yellows since we seemed better on the longer runs but we did get lucky on the restarts and were in the right lane on the restarts.  I saw two of the wrecks up ahead and just barely missed them.  We were running 7^th last week when we hit the yuke tire and spun so it feels good to be back in the top 10 and bring the car home in one piece this week.”

Brett Gilmore had a season best 10^th place finish from his 24^th starting position.  Back at the trailer Brett commented “We were tight in the heat and fell to the back.  We made adjustments and were able to run the top and stay out of trouble and qualify from the last chance consolation.  In the feature I knew right away I wanted to stay out and make a run at it tonight; sometimes when you start in the back you don’t want to stay out and race from the back so you don’t beat up your equipment with no chance of a good finish.  My car was tight on first lap; but I knew it was only going to get better.  They were wrecking in front of me but I was able to avoid the wrecks and keep driving.  The track continued to dry out and come to me and car was good anywhere.   There are 15 good cars out there now and everyone is really fast these days.  It’s been a rough two year so it’s a good feeling to start 24^th and get a top ten finish since usually only the big names make a run like that.”

Jesse Leiby finished 11^th despite a right front tire flat on lap 17.  Jesse recalled “Car was good in heat race but a little loose.  Made a couple of adjustments for the feature and had a good run going but sadly got a right front flat that sent us to the tail of the field on lap 17.  We managed to work back through to an 11^th place finish.”

Brad Arnold rebounded from a DNQ last week to a season best 12^th place finish from his 18^th place starting position.  Postrace Brad recalled “Our last race we got bent up in a tangle and broke the frame and bent the left rear tube so we couldn’t make the call for the consolation.  Tonight we were not very good in the heat but got 6^th and a transfer spot.  In the feature we were good but got pushed down into the guard rail.  We got a flat early but stayed out until a caution.  We went into pits under the caution and came back out and worked back up to 12^th which was our best finish of the season.”

Glenn Owens qualified for his first feature of the season with a heat race win.  He also handicapped to the pole position.  Glenn qualified for his first race in his 6^th outing of the season.  Postrace Glenn reflected “We have been struggling figuring out our left side pan hard setup for several week now.  We made some shock changes and got the pan hard setup right this week and the car was good in warmups.  We handicapped to the pole of the heat and won despite the right rear tire going down for the last two laps.  Just past the finished line the tire went flat.   That put us in the feature and on the pole were we were able to lead the first 7 laps.  On the lap 7 restart I choose the bottom and in hindsight should had gone with the top.  I spun the tire and got freight trained on the inside.  I got some heavy contact and decided to pull the car on lap 15.   Tonight was a great confidence booster for us.”

Nate Brinker’s night came to an early end in his heat race with an end over end tumble at the end of the front straight away.  Nate walked away from the car uninjured from the incident.  Back at the trailer the team was immediately stripping the car down to start getting the car ready to be repaired.  Nate reflected on the incident “I was trying to get to the front before the heavy hitters came up when the car hiked up and the nose dug in which launched us.  The car broke the front axle and needs a front clip.  We did finally find speed in the heat race before we went airborne.  We started stripping the car in the pits Saturday night and on Sunday we straighten the frame and had it ready to go out to the chassis shop on Monday.  Frame will be back on Tuesday with new front clip.  We will be back racing next Saturday with the same car.

We just got our second car finished and going to try to have it ready and at the track Saturday night as a back-up just in case some underlying issues come up with this car.  At the end of the day I’m Okay and we will be back this week.  It could have been way worse.”

In recent weeks cautions have played a big role in the outcome of the features.  Many positions are won and lost on the ensuing restarts.  This week there were four cautions on lap 7; 17; 21 and 21.  Two of the cautions turned into red flags and significant delays.  The 4^th caution on lap 21 was for a 6 car tangle in turn 4 with several cars hooked together.

The list was long this week for cars with strong runs ending in bad finishes.  Last week’s winner Jeff Strunk was up to 5^th place from a 22^nd starting position when he spun on lap 21 and got sent to the tail of the field and ended up with a 18^th place finish.

Darrin Schuler continues to be on the edge of breaking through to the top 10 for the 5^th week in a row.  Darrin was running 4^th on the lap 21 restart when he got knocked out into the loose stuff and started to freefall back through the field to a 13^th place finish.  For the 5^th week in a row Darrin has stayed up front for 20 laps or more only to have a tangle/contact take him out of contention for the top ten. The top 10 finish is coming for the 74 it’s just a matter of when – next week?

Mark Kratz led the first 17 laps and had another strong run going while leading the feature when he got hooked together with Doug Manmiller and stopped on the front stretch. Mark went to the pits but returned to the track to finish 18th.

Closing out the month on Saturday, July 31, will be the return of the 602 Sportsman racers as they join the Modifieds and Sportsman for a triple-header night of action. Headlining the Meet & Greet at 5 p.m. will be Modified ace Jared Umbenhauer along with Sportsman talents Kenny Bock and Lex Shive. An added attraction will be the appearance of NASCAR Xfinity driver David Starr who carries the same ATS sponsorship as Bock.  Racing starts at 7:30 PM.