Doug Manmiller Claims First Grandview Victory of the Season & Pit Notes

The forecasted tropical rainstorm hugged the coast just enough to keep the heavy downpours off of the hill for just enough time to complete the three division program in  2 and a half hours before the rains picked up. A rainbow showed up during the heat races and it wasn’t surprising when the three division program was completed in its entirety – all 104 entries strong.  The 11 heat; 4 consolation and 3 feature program was run without an intermission or track prep and victory lane was held until night’s end.  

The one caution 10 minute modified 30 lap feature was won by Doug Manmiller who held off Jeff Strunk and Mike Gular to take his first win of the season.

The modified feature was led to green by a pair of 74’s with John Willman in the 74W taking the lead over Darrin Schuler in his 74.  It was Willman holding the lead to the first and only yellow on lap 14 for Brett Kressley billowing smoke with a terminal engine failure which ended his night.  Willman reclaimed the lead on the restart until a strong forward moving Doug Manmiller overtook the lead on lap 23 followed by a hard charging Jeff Strunk moving into second place where he would stay and watch Manmiller take his first trip to victory lane this season.

In victory lane Doug Manmiller noted “It’s been a pretty good 2^nd half of the year for us so far and this win just keeps the ball rolling for us.  The track was perfect tonight and I would like it like this every week.  I like to thank Gary and Danny Bouc at “Bouc Motors” who put this motor together for me; Jason & Theresa Miller for allowing me to run their fast equipment and all the guys that stand behind me and put in the long hours in the shop behind the scenes.”

The modified top ten was rounded out by Jeff Strunk in 2^nd place followed by Mike Gular, John Willman, Duane Howard, Jack Butler, Mike Lisowski, Eric Biehn, Darrin Schueler and Ryan Grim.

The heat races were won by Eric Biehn, John Willman, Darrin Schueler and Nate Brinker.  Last chance consolations were won by Craig Von Dohren and Rick Laubach.

Modified Feature (30-laps):

 1. Doug Manmiller, 2. Jeff Strunk, 3. Mike Gular, 4. John Willman, 5. Duane Howard, 6. Jack Butler, 7. Mike Lisowski, 8. Eric Biehn, 9. Darrin Schuler, 10. Ryan Grim, 11. Jared Umbenhauer, 12. Craig Von Dohren, 13. Cory Merkel, 14. Nate Brinker, 15. Craig Whitmoyer, 16. Brett Gilmore, 17. Danny Bouc, 18. Brad Grim, 19. Rick Laubach, 20. Justin Grim, 21. Ryan Watt, 22. Brad Arnold, 23. Kevin Hirthler, 24. Carroll Hine III, 25. Dylan Swinehart, 26. Brett Kressley, 27. Kyle Merkel, 28. Ray Swinehart.

DNQ: Bobby Gunther Walsh, Chris Gambler, Joe Funk III, Jordan Henn, Jesse Leiby, Ron Kline, Mark Levy, Dan Lane, Mark Kratz

Modified Pit Notes

The modified schedule was altered to accommodate the sportsman and crate features which had 19 entries scheduled to run in both the sportsman and crate programs.  If that was not enough for one night; the impending weather also caused more schedule modifications which were essential the elimination of track prep, intermission and victory lane held that was until after the racing was completed.  The results were 11 heats, 4 consolations and 3 features completed in two and a half hours.  A drizzle developed about an hour into the qualifying heats and served as a bit of a natural track watering without having to take a break from racing.  

Doug Manmiller was able to get his first win since 2019 from his 13^th starting position.  Doug has been running consistently in the top 5 & 10 with recent back to back 2^nd and 3^rd place finishes.  Back at the trailer Doug commented “The track was great tonight with two lanes and you didn’t have to beat and bang.  I could get through traffic and wheel and deal on the top or bottom.  We were in 2^nd on the only restart of the night and got a good run off the restart and had to go were the leader wasn’t.  I went to the bottom but it wasn’t good enough to make the pass so went back up top with the leader and crossed him over to take the lead.  From there I just had to hold on and it all worked out.”

After a disappointing 29^th place finish last week due to brake problems Jeff Strunk rebounded this week with a strong 2^nd place finish from his 12^th starting position.   Jeff added his second place finish on the hill to a Friday night $10,000 win at Big Diamond to round out a solid weekend of racing for the 88Z Zubi Racing team.

Mike Gular showed up for his second Saturday race of the season and regardless of his handicapping to last in his always makes his presence known by the end of the night.  Mike picked up his second 3^rd place finish in two starts at Grandview this season.

John Willman had a long overdue 4^th place finish from his 3^rd starting position which will hopefully put an end to what turned out to be a miserable first 15 weeks of the season with only one 10^th place finish while destroying one chassis and front halving another just three weeks ago.  Back at the trailer John commented “We got to start up front in the heat race because we have been running pretty badly recently.  We won the heat race and that was a good start for a change.  We started 3^rd in the feature and by lap five had the lead and went to the top we were rolling pretty well when the only caution of the day came out on lap 14.   We maintained the lead on the restart but by lap 23 my setup started to go away and the big guys were driving by me on the bottom.  The track was slick and racey.  We bent our chassis four week ago so this is our best outing on the rebuilt frame.  Still won’t know if the rebuilt chassis is any good until we get some racing in traffic and in the pack.”

Duane Howard finished 5^th from a 14^th starting position to put together with last week’s 6^th place finish for a two solid back to back weeks.  Howard continues to maintain his 4^th place position in the Grandview points while he leads Big Diamond by 9 points with three race to go to determine the season champion. 

Jack Butler finished 6^th from an 11^th starting position to post his best finish of the season after a DNQ last week when he suffered heavy front end damage in a heat race incident.  The 6^th place finish brings his total top ten finishes to 5 in his rookie season.  Jack reflected “We got an inside starting position in the heat race which I used to get 4^th place finish.  We made the handicap which was a key to our success.  We started 11^th in the feature and were on the bottom and that was not where I wanted to be in the starting grid.  I was able to get to top and move forward to 8^th place by midrace.  On the only restart of the race; everyone got jumbled up as they went 3 wide down the backstretch and I finally was able to get some good drive off of the corner and move from 8^th to 4^th.  We got passed by a few of the big guys; but held on for a season best 6^th place finish.  The light rain during the feature made the track just right and we even had a cushion early in the night.”

Mike Lisowksi continued his roller coaster of a season with an up week and a 7^th place finish from his 4^th starting position.  Mike seems to have 2 or 3 off weeks with DNQ or a 20^th finish and then one week top 5 or 10.  Mike reflected “Car was alright this week.  This week was pretty much just par for this season which has just been mediocre at best all season long.  A good starting position and race circumstances led to our decent night.”  

Eric Biehn started the night with a heat race win which was a big move in the right direction for the 87 team who has been struggling to stay out of the consolations in recent weeks.  Eric started the feature in the 6^th starting position and was able to use the track conditions and one caution to his advantage and earn a solid 8^th place finish and his 2^nd best finish of the season.  Postrace Eric recalled “We tweaked the setup a little bit but I think the combo of our new setup and the different track conditions was the key to our success tonight.  The track was heavy from the humidity and it still slicked up in the feature.  We were a little off in the feature as the car was loose.  It was a weird night due to the lack of track prep from the threatening weather and then the track took rubber half way through the feature.  We were happy with the 8^th place finish with our new setup.  Hopefully we can keep the speed in the heat race and tweak the setup for the feature next week.”

That top ten finish has been there for nearly two months; only to get away with less than ten laps to go week after week.  But this week that elusively top ten finish didn’t get away and was finally captured by Darrin Schueler with a 9^th place finish and his best finish of the season.  Just one week ago Darrin was chasing gremlins which caused his first DNQ in 7 weeks.  After changing a lot of electronic components this week Darrin found the problem which was evidenced with his first heat race week of the season and first top ten of the season.  Darrin reflected “I thought all the track would slow down from all the racing without any track prep so my setup was off a bit and I was tight in the beginning of the feature.  Motor started losing power with 5 laps to go.  I’m pulling motor out and getting it checked out in the engine shop this week.”

Ryan Grim finished 10^th from his 18^th starting position and continues to see small improvements in the car’s heat race qualifying results.  Ryan’s heat races have improved from being sent to the consolation; to actually qualifying for the feature in the heat but just not in the handicap quite yet.  Ryan noted “We are not back to where we were last year with our heat qualifying setup but we’re getting better every week now.  We found a little of the power we were missing and our heat setup is working way better than earlier in the year.  Tonight the top went away but the bottom stayed good and the light rain helped the track and we had a decent run from 18^th to 10^th.”

Ryan also had a busy night with double duty between the 17 modified and the 119X crate entry.  Ryan commented “With the weather adjustments to the schedule it turned out to be a logistical challenge to run both the modified and the 602 crate tonight.  I went from the crate heat right to the modified feature and then directly to the 602 crate feature.  Just got out of one car and right into the other.  Can’t thank my crew enough for them making it possible for me to jump from car to car tonight.  The crate car was tight tonight for the first time.  I was just cruising tonight in 3^rd and not taking any chances.  We were able to win the 602 crate points deal for this 5 race series.” 

Cory Merkel finished 13^th for the second week in a row and showing signs of improved consistency.  Cory recalled “We were good in the feature for about 6 laps  until the right rear spring was binding up and rubbing on the shock making the car too tight but stilled managed a 13^th place finish.  We had a good track from the track crew and happy to see the show not get rained out.  Car was tight but it was nice to have some extended green flag laps in the one caution feature.”

Nate Brinker’s 14^th place finish was welcomed with open arms by the 14 team as it was the first time Nate has finished a race with the car able to roll straight into the trailer in about five weeks.  In addition; it was his first race in the new red 14 backup car and he was able to win his first heat race in the car.  The red 14 backup car has the same setup as his blue 14 and the two team cars are sister images of one another.  Nate reflected “Car was amazing, a world of difference today.  I can’t even describe how good the car was and we just missed a little in feature.  It was nice to have some track time without getting into a wreck and to drive a car that wasn’t a handful every single lap.  I didn’t mind the weather push by the track one bit and it got the show in faster.  We had top ten setup but it just went away.  Car is definitely good and we needed a good night like this after 5 weeks of fixing the car to get it in the trailer. 14th isn’t first but it is a win for us to finish without damage.” 

The Rest of the Story

Craig Von Dohren came into the night with an 8 point lead over Brett Kressley for the season point championship.  Von Dohren stopped on the track on lap 5 of the heat race sending him to the back of the field.  In the final 7 laps he was able to move from 9^th to 6^th and earned the pole on the last chance consolation.  Craig started the feature from 21th position and finished 12^th which gave Kressley an opportunity to retake the points lead.

Brett Kressley had moved from his 15^th starting position to 3^rd place when his engine erupted in smoke and ended his night with an early trip to the pits.  Brett lost a motor that had three races on it and with his 26^th place finish now falls 141 points behind Craig Von Dohren for the point championship with three races remaining.

Ron Kline debuted his new 2017 Troyer two weeks ago with a 10^th and 11^th place finish.  This week Ron was a DNQ for the first week since he debuted the new Troyer.  Ron noted “This week the torsion bar was bad and the car was a handful and wouldn’t turn.  They just wore out and we will replace them and return next week.”

Thursday, August 26, 7:30 p.m. Tony Stewart’s All Star Sprints and Modifieds are featured in doubleheader action.

Saturday, August 28, 7:30 p.m. Modifieds, Sportsman and Outlaw Vintage Racers (Modifieds and Sportsman)- $15 adults with youngster 11 and under free – Ron Kline will be part of the Meet & Greet along with Cole Stangle and Vintage racers Scott Schaffer and Mike Stofflet. Outlaw Vintage Racers will have giveaways during the evening for kids including bikes, gift cards and more).