Brian Hirthler Storms to 4th Grandview Win of Season & Pit Notes

After threatening forecasts predicted once again; the skies cleared again at Grandview Speedway for the 51^st annual Forrest Rogers Memorial.   A $10,000 to win purse drew the attention of some 40 Grandview regulars who were on hand to take their shot at the second big check of the season at Grandview Speedway.

The sportsman feature had newcomer Adrianna Delliponti lead the first 21 laps while Cole Stangle and Brian Hirthler move through the field on the top for to set up a 3 car shootout in the final 5 laps.  Contact on lap 21 between Delliponti and Stangle was all that the veteran Hirthler needed to jump from 3rd to the leader position and take his 4^th win of the season in the sportsman division. 

Brian Hirthler commented “I got shuffled back in the beginning; but got on the outside and the top was better for a while.  The bottom was burnt off causing the cars down there to hang.  I was hanging on the top too; so I had to diamond the corner on the top to get going pass some cars on the bottom.  I started catching the crate cars and when they would break down to the bottom I went to the cushion to pass them.  I didn’t know who the leader was when I got in third but then saw Adrianna was leading Cole.  I got by Cole, and he got back by me, and then Adrianna and Cole made contact, a little teamwork I guess and one heck of a race.  The mojo from the meet and greet with Whippy was going tonight.”  

The top ten was rounded out by Cole Stangle rounded out by Adrianna Delliponti, Logan Baumann, Decker Swinehart, Dylan Hoch, Kenny Gilmore, Cody Manmiller, Steve Young and Jimmy Leiby in 10^th place.

The heat races were won by Adrianna Delliponti, Steve Young and Dylan Swinehart.

Sportsman Feature (25-laps):

 1. Brian Hirthler, 2. Cole Stangle, 3. Adrianna Delliponti, 4. Logan Bauman, 5. Decker Swinehart, 6. Dylan Hoch, 7. Kenny Gilmore, 8. Cody Manmiller, 9. Steve Young, 10. Jimmy Leiby, 11. Nathan Mohr, 12. Mark Kemmerer, 13. Dakota Kohler, 14. Parker Guldin, 15. Doug Snyder, 16. Mike Schneck, 17. Kenny Bock, 18. Kyle Lilick, 19. Hunter Iatalese, 20. Chris Esposito, 21. Ryan Beltz, 23. Wayne Rotenberger, 24. Mark Gaugler, 25. Kyle Smith.

Sportsman Pit Notes

Brian Hirthler’s win this week brings the open sportsman back into an 8 to 7 win lead over the 602 crate motors in season wins.  The crate winners have been Dylan Hoch – 4; Logan Bauman – 1; Decker Swinehart – 1 & Kyle Smith – 1.  The open sportsman winners have been Brian Hirthler – 4; Jessie Landis – 1; Kyle Lilick – 1; Kenny Gilmore – 1 & Kyle Smith – 1.   Kyle Smith has one win with a 602 crate and one win with an open 604 crate.

Brian Hirthler won his 4^th feature of the season from his 13^th starting position.  Hirthler was patient, fast, good anywhere, going where they were not, and in the end just a plain dominate car once he got rolling.  Postrace Brian noted “They say races are won in the shop and that is true 90 % of the time.  For us this race started on late Thursday night when I found a few issues with the car on top of another issue I already found the previous Friday when scaling the car.  This findings and corrections helped boost my confidence going into Saturday that the car would be better than the previous two weeks.

We were good in hot laps and tied for fast time.   The car was a rocket in the heat race and we moved from 7^th to 2^nd and a mid-race restart also helped us move forward.

The Sportsman feature running before the modified feature was a definite surprise and shock to most of the race teams.  I had to pivot from my original setup plan pretty quickly as I did not find out till right before warmups since I was part of the Meet & Greet this week.  As soon as the heat was over I started making changes to the car for the feature while watching the track changes.   After watching my brother’s Kevin heat race; I made some final adjustments and at that point you are basically stuck with your choices as we were being called to staging right at the end of modified heat 4.

Being able to read the track really paid off this week.  At the drop of the green I felt the car was going to be good as long as the track would hold up for 25 laps.  I got shuffled back to 16th early on after starting 13th.  By the lap 4 restart we were back up to 12th position and ready to begin the march forward.  After a few laps I cracked the top 10.  I then got trapped mid race by 2 cars racing side by side for 5 laps.  But once the top car cleared; I was able to clear the car on the bottom and pass the car on the top with a slide job through turn 3 & 4.  The race stayed green so we were strung out pretty good at that point and I knew the car was fast as I was passing about a car a lap and making up ground quickly on the leaders even though I wasn’t sure who or where the leaders were.  By the time I got to 3^rd; I had a chance to look at the score board to see who was leading and realized that I was 3rd and the leaders were about a straightaway ahead.  Two laps later; I was on their bumper and passed Cole Stangle for 2nd only to have him repass me a lap later in the turn 1&2.  Going down the back stretch I noticed that the 2nd place car got into the back of the leader and got her a little out of shape, than at the apex the leader picked up a push as the weight shifted back then the first & 2nd place cars made contact.  I was then able to sneak by both cars off turn 4 and then down the front stretch taking the lead with 3 laps to go. I entered into heavy lap traffic which I cleared and was able to take the checkered by a 1.2 second margin of victory.”

Cole Stangle finished 2^nd from his 10^th starting position.  Cole had a strong car on the top but couldn’t complete the pass for the lead and eventually made contact with the leader which allowed the opening for 3^rd place Brian Hirthler to duck underneath the leaders and make a two for one pass for the lead.  Bank at the trailer Cole reflected “In the heat it started out rough for us as we couldn’t get around other cars and make a pass.  Dad and I determined it was a setup error we had on the car.  We made some adjustments for the feature and the car was on rails but it was still rough getting through the pack and we continued to struggle to get around cars.  As things thinned out a bit; I was able to break down the traffic and get in clean air and started sailing around the top past cars on the bottom and middle.  I quickly ran the leader down but couldn’t get by her as she changed her line and started to run high up to the wall.  I made contact once by mistake and was very cautious as she drifted up to not make any more contact as it is not worth dumping a car to try to win a race.  I also want to give a special thanks to all my sponsors for all their support of our program.”

Adrianna Delliponti is creeping closer to a complete race with every additional outing.  This was her 7^th time out in the crate sportsman car and she already has four heat race wins.  This week she led the feature for 22 laps and only fall short of winning by 3 laps while still recording a 3^rd place finish which was her career best finish in 7 starts.  Back at the trailer Adrianna noted “In the heat race we continued to handicap to the front row and was able to win our 4^th heat race in a row.  We seem to do well really well on the heavy track in the heat races.  We have led laps in three of the features we have qualified for but tonight we led 22 laps in the feature and the 3^rd place finish is my career best in a crate sportsman.  In my prior features I could run out in front until a restart and then would fall back through the field after the restarts.  We only had two restarts tonight; but I was real happy that we didn’t lose any positions on restarts tonight and were able to stay in the lead right off the restarts.   In the feature I was able to pass the pole sitter on the first lap and then maintain a decent lead for the first 18 laps or so.  The bottom went away and the car wouldn’t run up top; so I was just holding my line and hoping to hold on for the win.  I didn’t see Cole up on top and the car was drifting up when we made contact.  I am very happy with 3^rd and we were just 3 laps short of pulling off our first win in only our 7^th start.”

After four subpar weeks and finishing in the teens; Logan Bauman turned in a 4^th place finish from a 10^th starting position and had a strong car all day.  Back at the trailer Logan commented “We were in the first heat race; so we had to pack the track a little and that might have been to our advantage being first out with the 3rd starting spot.    We were able to stay up front in the heat and finish 2^nd which put us in the handicap and right were we wanted to be.  We ran before the modified feature and right after a track prep session so had an unusually pristine track at the beginning of the feature.  We started 5^th in the feature.  On lap 5 and the second restart I was able to charge past Decker Swinehart and move into 2^nd where I stayed until lap 16.  One of the sportsman cars went by the on the top; so I went up there and tried it but came right back down to the bottom.  I quickly found out that our 602 crate can’t get off the corner up top and lugs coming out of the corner so we had to stay on the bottom for the final ten laps.  It was a good night and we came back to the trailer in one piece.”

For the second week in a row Decker Swinehart had a solid finish with a 5^th place from a 4^th starting position.  Decker commented “We had a rocket ship again this week with only a few changes from last week.  We have won our heat in the past two weeks which has put use in top 5 starting positions in features for the past two weeks.  These two weeks have been our best of the season back to back with a 3^rd and 5^th place finish.  I am hopefully we have found what we need and can keep this streak going next week.”

Dylan Hoch continues his impressive weekly run forward through the field with his 602 crate.  This week Dylan finished 6^th from a 15^th starting position to extend his top 5/10 finishes to 13 of his 15 starts this season.  Back at the trailer Dylan noted “We had some good luck in the heat races for the past two weeks and that continued this week as we were able to get 5^th and the last handicap spot from our 8^th starting position which gave us our best available starting position for the feature again this week.  In the feature we started 15^th; we were moving forward when a wreck evolved in front of us and although I kept moving and I did not stop we got sent back 8 positions.  Despite the setback of an additional 8 spots; we still managed to continue to move forward and finished in 6^th place.”

Kenny Gilmore finished 7^th from his 14^th starting position as the points battle continues to get closer every week.  Kenny’s point lead is now down to 51 points over 2^nd place Dylan Hoch.  With 4 races remaining in the season; it will be a 4 week shootout for the 2021 sportsman championship between Kenny Gilmore and Dylan Hoch.

For over two months Cody Manmiller has struggled with DNQ’s and finishes in the high teens; but this week he broke back into the top ten with an 8^th place finish from his 6^th starting position.  Postrace Cody reflected “Last week was just a mix of being too tight, bad luck and a few driver error thrown in there too.  Tonight the car could had been a little better; we were way too loose but our luck was better and we got back into the top ten.  We’ll take it and look for more improvements next week.”

Jimmy Leiby finished 10^th from a 19^th starting position.  Back at the trailer Jimmy commented “We were in the first heat where we had to make moves in the first two laps and after that it was just single file and hard to pass on the bottom.  It was an all qualify field; so we didn’t have to run in a consolation.  In the feature we had to go with very little prep but our setup is getting better.  There were some three wide and we made some good moves to get up to a 10^th place finish in a two caution race with 21 green flag laps.  We just need a little more luck on our side now and we’ll be all set.”

Nate Mohr kept his three week top ten finish streak going and moved into 9^th in the points.  Four weeks ago Nate was 18^th in points and in the past three races a 6^th, 10^th and 11^th finish has vaulted him into 9^th place in a very tight point standings with 4 races remaining.  This week Nate finished 11^th from an 8^th starting position.  Postrace Nate stated “In the feature tonight we lost some positions early on; and with only two cautions which were back to back on lap3 & 4; the race still moved along quickly with 21 green flag laps.  On the last lap I was able to get two spots back and moved from 13^th to 11^th.  It was those two spots that moved me from 10^th to 9^th in the point standings.  We have some close racing every week and also in the season point standings.”     

Nate continued “The track conditions have been different every week.  This week they were really good because we went out right after track prep and before the modified feature.  Our racing luck has been good over the past three weeks and certainly hope it stays that way.”  

About three weeks ago Parker Guldin put together his best three weeks of the season at just the right time and moved from 19^th to 9^th in the point standings with a 10^th, 9^th and 7^th place finish in three consecutive weeks.  Since then; Parker has been battling to get into the field and has started two of his last three features from the 24^th starting position.  Once in the feature; Parker has moved forward ten positions twice and finished 14^th helping his points chase by 100 points each time.  Parker currently sits in 10^th in the season points and is only 17 points behind Nate Mohr in 9^th with four races remaining.   Parker noted “In the heat there was some moisture on the inside edge of the track and I managed to find it lap after lap and finished last in my heat.  In the feature we didn’t make any changes and we were able to move forward ten positions.  On lap 4; I took some heavy damage on my door when I got together with Esposito on the back stretch when he was trying to avoid a wreck.  I was very lucky that I didn’t have to come into the pits and was able to maintain my position and finish in 14^th.   Next week we need to do better in the heat race to set us up in a better starting position for feature so we are not putting out fires from 24^th place in the feature.” 

The Rest of the Story

There were only two cautions and both were on lap 3 & 4 and involved only 2 and 3 cars.  The final 21 laps of the feature ran green and resulted in a great three way battle between Brian Hirthler, Cole Stangle and Adrianna Delliponti.

Kenny Bock and Kyle Lilick had top ten finishes go away on the final lap when the two got together and both ended resting against the turn 3 wall.  The checkered was out at the time of the incident; so no yellow came out and both drivers fell from the top 10 to 17^th and 18^th respectively.

Doug Snyder made a surprise visit to shake down his John Redner owned 27 entry.  The car was just front halved after being damaged at Bridgeport back in July.  Doug plans on returning to Grandview this week to continue dialing the car and running in both the sportsman and 602 crate programs which will give him plenty of laps and is just what the 27 team is looking for at the moment.

Next up at Grandview is a modified, sportsman and 602 crate mini-series tripleheader on August 21 with racing starting at 7:30 P.M