Kenny Gilmore Claims Second Sportsman Win of the Season at Grandview Speedway & 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.  

Kenny Gilmore came from the 14^th starting position and won his second sportsman feature of the season and continues his lead of the season points over Dylan Hoch by 72 points.

The sportsman feature was led by pole sitter Hunter Iatalese to until he reached lap traffic when Kenny Gilmore went to the top and made a two for one pass of Iatalese and Jimmy Leiby to take the lead from 3^rd place on lap 18.  Despite one final restart; Kenny Gilmore would extend his lead over Jimmy Leiby to 1.5 seconds to take his second sportsman win of the season.

The sportsman top ten was rounded out by Jimmy Leiby, Dylan Hoch, Kyle Smith, Brian Hirthler, Hunter Iatalese, Mike Schneck, Nathan Mohr, Mark Kemmerer, and Kyle Lilick.

The sportsman heats were won by BJ Joly, Hunter Iatalese, Bryan Rhoads & Kyle Lilick.  The last chance consolations were won by Mike Stofflet and newcomer Matt Yoder.

Sportsman Feature (25-laps):

1. Kenny Gilmore, 2. Jimmy Leiby, 3. Dylan Hoch, 4. Kyle Smith, 5. Brian Hirthler, 6. Hunter Iatalese, 7. Mike Schneck, 8. Nathan Mohr, 9. Mark Kemmerer, 10. Kyle Lilick, 11. Ryan Beltz, 12. Dakota Kohler, 13. Colton Perry, 14. Kenny Bock, 15. Doug Snyder, 16. Matt Yoder, 17. Bryan Rhoads, 18. Mike Stofflet, 19. Adrianna Delliponti, 20. Parker Guldin, 21. Tyler James, 22. Wayne Rotenberger, 23. Mark Gaugler, 24. Steve Young, 25. B.J. Joly, 26. Decker Swinehart.

DNQ: Cody Manmiller, Brian Blankenbiller, Ryan Conrad, Tyler Peet, Logan Bauman, Chris Esposito, Nick Faust, Matt Clay, Joey Vaccaro, Zach Steffy, Richie Hitzler, Lex Shive, Cole Stangle

Sportsman Pit Notes

Kenny Gilmore’s win this week brings the open sportsman to a 9 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; Kenny Gilmore – 2; Jessie Landis – 1; Kyle Lilick – 1 & Kyle Smith – 1.   Kyle Smith has one win with a 602 crate and one win with an open 604 crate.

The 39 car Open Sportsman field consisted of 21 crate entries and 18 open sportsman motors.  The 26 car qualified field had 11 crates and 15 open sportsman motors in the starting grid.

Kenny Gilmore picked up his second win of the season and extended his points lead to 72 points over a persistent Dylan Hoch in second place.

 Back at the trailer Kenny noted “We started 8^th in the heat and with everyone fast early in the night didn’t even think we could make the invert; but we did it and finish 4^th and started 14^th in the feature.  In the feature I got to the front a lot quicker than I thought due to a couple of wrecks and next thing I knew I was in 5^th.  Worked up to 3^rd and started catching lapped cars with the leaders.  Typical I’m better than most in lapped traffic but the two for one pass from 3^rd to the lead was a factor of timing and being in the right place at the right time.  The leader protected the bottom in the lapped traffic and that left the top was wide open.  The top just opened up and the car hooked up and got a run off the top.  Once I got in the lead I found the top to be fast with the high cushion so I stayed up there right to the checkered flag.  Got to give Grandview credit; the track was racey and good despite a light drizzle during the sportsman feature.  I would like to dedicate this win to Freddy Hamm who was an important part of my racing career and will be dearly missed by all.”

Jimmy Leiby finished 2^nd from his 12^th starting position for his best finish in the sportsman division this year.  Jimmy has a total of three 2^nd place finishes with two others in the 602 crate division mini-series.   Postrace Jimmy commented “We had a great car in the heat and was able to move from 7^th to 3^rd in the first heat of the night which is extremely rare to be able to pass like that in the 1^st heat.  In the feature we started 12^th and the car was still great as we moved to 2^nd by lap 15.  I was trying to make the pass for the lead in lapped traffic when the leader and I got boxed in and the top opened up for Gilmore who took the lead from 3^rd.  I was able to move into second but Gilmore stayed up top and I couldn’t hold the car up there with him. The bottom just wasn’t as fast as the top.  This was our best finish of the season in the sportsman division and it was definitely the best our car has been all season too.”

Dylan Hoch finished 3^rd from his 16^th starting position to continue his 12 race streak of top 5 / 10 finishes.  Dylan stated “We struggled all night with the car being tight but was able to make the best of it with a solid 3^rd place finish.  The track had a cushion and with the tight car that made it tough for us all night.  We didn’t have much time to don anything as the track rushed through the program because of the impending rain.” 

Kyle Smith finished 4^th from his 17^th starting position in a car that just got front halved this week due to wall contact frame damage last week.  A long hard week in the shop paid off for the 77 team with a return to the top 5.  Postrace Kyle noted “The car felt the same as last week before we front halved it this week and is just as fast as it was before. The heat race was the norm; where you have to get to the bottom as fast as possible and then work your way up.  I was able to get up to 5^th in the heat and qualify.  The track was really nice in the feature and provided two lanes for the first half of the race which allowed me to pick my way through the field.  By the end of the race the bottom went away and it was one lane around the top making it tough to pass.  We were back in the top 5 this week and that is way better than last week which found us in last place with a heavily broken race car.”

Brian Hirthler finished 5^th from his 15^th starting position and continued his streak of 8 weeks of top 5 / 10 finishes with the 4* entry.  Postrace Brian noted “Coming off a win last week I didn’t want to bend up anything this week so I was extra patient with the track conditions which appeared to be a recipe for lots of big accidents that fortunately never happened.  So I made a late race charge that got me to 8th before the single file restart with 4 to go.  I was able to move forward in the final 4 laps to a 5^th place finish.  A lot of people didn’t seem to be able to run the bottom or make passes.  I was good on either the top or bottom and I was just too patient too early in the race.  The car is straight and we got another top 5 so that’s a good way to follow up a win.”

Hunter Iatalese finished 6^th for his best finish in only seven outings at Grandview this season.  Hunter had 3 early DNQ’s; but once his handicap was established he has begun to qualify for each of his last 4 races and this week also won his 2^nd heat race.  Hunter led the field for the first 17 laps but got bottled up on the bottom by lapped traffic and fell back to his eventual 6^th place finish.

Mike Schneck finished 7^th for his four top ten finish of the season.  Postrace Mike stated “Well feels really good to get back to two top ten finishes in one weekend both here at Grandview and Big Diamond.  The heat was okay; I started 3^rd and it was one of those starts where I couldn’t make a pass; but when I went to the outside a car would pass me underneath.  I knew with the weather coming in and that I needed to qualify in the heat since the show was going to be rushed all night long. Fortunately we did qualify from the heat.  I’ve been in the consolation before when you only have time to fuel the car before the feature.  Even with qualifying in the heat; with only my dad and me here tonight; it was a close call but we got the car ready just in time for the feature call. In the feature I started 8^th and made some quick passes which got me up to 3^rd.  I was using the bottom too much which allowed a couple of cars around me.  I saw a car spin and I switched to the top and then next thing I saw was a car flipping and cars going in every direction.  It was just one of those deals on a restart when the car in front doesn’t get a good jump and the bottom row takes off.  I ran in 6^th until a lap 21 caution flag.  On the last restart Hirthler got around me and I finished 7^th which was a great night for me considering I’ve had a few recent DNF’s.

 Nate Mohr continued his string of top ten finishes with an 8^th place finish from a 10^th starting position.  In the last four weeks Nate has moved from 18^th in the points standings to 9^th with a four week long string of top ten finishes.  Postrace Nate commented “In the heat race we started 5^th and was actually able to move forward for a change in the heat race for a 3^rd place finish and transfer into the handicap.  In the feature we started 9^th but got stuck on the bottom and fell back to 15th.   We managed to race our way up to an 8^th place finish.  We have been taking notes and getting better every week and our luck has turned around from early in the season.  We were able to make some adjustments after the heat race but had to be quick about it; since the show was being pushed by the track due to rain in the area.  I liked the track last night; you could run anywhere and it didn’t matter where I put my car it worked.  The top was like in the middle this week.  They didn’t get to push the outside up like they usually do and that made the racing fun hard side by side racing.”

Mark Kemmerer finished 9^th from his 19^th starting position.  Mark commented “We have been struggling in the heat lately and it feels down on power or something off with our shock package.  We are also struggling in the feature and just seems to be missing something and the car feels different than a few weeks ago when we had a bunch of top 5 runs.  Even though we went from 19^th to 9^th; I feel we should had done better.  We’ll be checking everything on the car this week and see if we can find the problem.  We also have some extensive body damage from contact in the feature.  I’m running out of weeks to get things turned around here and click off a win this season.”

Ryan Beltz got off to a great start in the first three weeks of the season; but then a wrecked car in week 5 and a blown motor became the luckless trend for the weeks to come. After being sidelined by engine damage in his 221 entry; Ryan climbed into Andy Clemmer’s 127 crate entry in recent weeks. Postrace Ryan commented “Andy’s car is the first time I’ve ever ran a crate car and the power difference from an open sportsman motor makes a difference in the way you can drive the car. In the heat I tried to get a good start by splitting the 2nd and 3rd place cars and ended up losing 3 sports. I tangled with Stangle and ended up at the tail of the field; but still managed to get the car qualified in the heat. In the feature we started 18th and I just wanted to finish without wrecking the car so we could race in the 602 crate feature later in the night. We still managed to finish 11th in the open sportsman feature while also keeping the car straight for the 602 feature. I’ll be back in Andy’s car next week and should have my car back on track first week in September.”

Matt Yoder made his sportsman debut on a day with 39 cars attempting to qualify for the field.  Nonetheless in his very first time in a “big car” he won his consolation race, qualified for the field and finished 16^th in his first sportsman race.  Matt stated “I have a very limited racing background with about 15 excel modified races and then we bought this car from Louden Reimert which is the car that he won his sportsman championship.  I have never been in this car before today.  In the heat we started 10th and finished 7th.  The car felt pretty good and I seemed to get the hang of it after a few laps. In the last chance consolation I started on the pole and the car was fantastic.  I won by over a straight away and didn’t even realize it.  In the feature I started 22^nd and almost got caught up in a spin but was able to stop before getting collected in it.  I bent the steering arm in some contact and never realized it. I went to the back of the field for stopping and was still able to come back up to a 16^th place finish.  The night already exceeded my expectations and I still had the crate race to deal with right after the sportsman feature.”

Parker Guldin had a great night go away in one moment on lap 20 when contact damaged his car and he had to be towed off.  Parker has struggled with heat race finishes all year long; but tonight he had his best heat of the year finishing 3^rd from a 4^th starting position with the car moving forward.  In the feature Parker held 9^th for 20 laps until contact in turn 4 ended his night.  Parker is hoping to be able to get the car repaired for next week so he can continue his quest to finish the season points in the top ten were he currently sits in 10^th place.   Parker reflected “This weekend was very good for us at first, we decided to go back to an old setup and it worked.  We saw a significant drop in our lap times in not only the warmups but more importantly in the heat lap times were the speed really counts.  We barely made any changes for the feature and they paid off until the unfortunate contact which bent our frame.  Things are up in the air for next week at the moment but we hope to be back and chasing points.”

On Thursday August 26 at 7:30 p.m. Tony Stewart’s All Star Sprints and Modifieds are featured in a doubleheader at Grandview Speedway

Then on Saturday August 28 the Modifieds, Sportsman and Outlaw Vintage Racers have a tripleheader with racing starting at 7:30 P.M.