Brad Brightbill Collects First Modified Win at Grandview Speedway – Pit Notes

Another challenging weather night at Grandview in August but for the second week in a row Grandview completed their program in less than three hours despite a drizzle and approaching weather front.  The track prep was removed from the schedule which permitted all heats, consolations and features to be completed before the rain arrived.

Grandview completed their 17^th points event of the season with Craig Von Dohren extending his lead over Brett Kressley by another 20 position points to approximately 161 points while Kenny Gilmore added another 50 points to increase his lead over Dylan Hoch to approximately 122 points.  There are two more points races before the 2021 points champions are crowned.

 On the 3^rd lap after several cautions it was Brad Brightbill taking the lead which he would hold through 7 cautions and a rubbered down track for his first victory with Breitenstein Motorsports # 14 at Grandview Speedway.

The modified feature was lead to green by Ron Haring who took the early lead only to have early restarts send him back through the field as Brad Brightbill drove into the lead on lap 3.  Once a flurry of cautions concluded; the track quickly became a single lane and rubbered down which played to the leader’s advantage as Brightbill, Brad Grim & Justin Grim were able to stay up front from start to finish of the 30 lap 7 caution feature and hold off the likes of Craig Von Dohren, Doug Manmiller and Brett Kressley.  All top three drivers recorded their best finish of the season.

In victory lane Brad Brightbill noted “This is awesome getting my first modified win for Breitenstein Motorsports.  This track tonight was perfect and just to my liking.  Being up front with the track getting one lane like this is almost more than you can ask for and is great as long as you’re the one in front when it locks down like it did tonight.  We have been trying to find the setup and these guys have been working their tails off try to give me the best car they can and I’m just glad I could get it in victory lane for them.”

 The top ten was rounded out by Brad Grim, Justin Grim, Craig Von Dohren, Doug Manmiller, Brett Kressley, Jared Umbenhauer, Danny Bouc Brad Arnold and Jeff Strunk in 10^th place.

Heat races were won by Jared Umbenhauer, Doug Manmiller and Bobby Gunther-Walsh.  The last chance consolation was won by Jack Butler.

Modified Feature (30-laps):

1. Brad Brightbill, 2. Brad Grim, 3. Justin Grim, 4. Craig Von Dohren, 5. Doug Manmiller, 6. Brett Kressley, 7. Jared Umbenhauer, 8. Danny Bouc, 9. Brad Arnold, 10. Jeff Strunk, 11. Dan Lane Jr., 12. Craig Whitmoyer, 13. Cory Merkel, 14. Ron Haring Jr., 15. Joe Funk III, 16. Jesse Leiby, 17. Carroll Hine III, 18. Ray Swinehart, 19. Mike Tyson, 20. John Willman, 21. Jack Butler, 22. Dylan Swinehart, 23. Brett Gilmore, 24. Darrin Schuler, 25. Eric Biehn, 26. Bobby Gunther Walsh, 27. Duane Howard, 28. Kevin Hirthler.

 DNQ: Mark Levy, Mike Lisowski, Ryan Grim & Ron Kline

Modified Pit Notes

Brad Brightbill picked up his first modified win of his career from his 3^rd starting position in only his 8^th Grandview outing of the season.  Brad has been involved in a couple of tangles early this season that resulted in frame and heavy damage sidelining the 14B for a good part of the season but when the car has been on track it has been successful with a 9^th, 6^th and a win this week.   

Back at the trailer Brad noted “Just an awesome night after all the problems we had early this year and it is great to get it going tonight with a win.  We have been searching and changing the setup for the last two weeks and this week went back to an old setup from earlier in the year.  Tonight was just the perfect storm with us starting up front and then the track went down to one lane right after we went into the lead.  You can’t ask for things to be more perfect than that.  The last couple of weeks we qualified from the consolation; but fortunately this week we qualified from the heat so had plenty of time to make our changes for the feature.  I was keeping an eye on the track and as I expected the track crew pushed through without any track prep again this week which played to my advantage.  The drizzle that came in for the feature affected visibility but really had no impact on the actual track conditions.  I was able to get the lead on the second restart just in time before the track went down to one lane.  There was no traction on the top and I knew if I could hold the bottom and not mess up that they couldn’t go around me on the top.”

Brad Grim finished 2^nd from his 5^th starting position to record his best finish of the season and his first top 5 of the season.  Back at the trailer Brad commented “It feels good to finally put a complete night together from heat to feature.  This year has been an awful lot of wrong place wrong time for us in the feature but tonight that changed with this 2^nd place finish.  I think we may have hit on something that will carry forward to next week.  This place is very humbling and I’ve raced here long enough to know just because we ran well tonight doesn’t mean we will run good next week.  We got shuffled back in the heat but worked our way back up to a handicap transfer position.  We made some big changes and was hoping we would hit on something tonight.  The 14 was getting tight on the longer runs and had my one shot in turn 2 to get him but couldn’t get enough drive off the turn to get past him.  The weather definitely played a factor tonight and it was definitely in our favor.  I hope we are onto something that will work next week too.  This place tends to be very humbling and is one of the toughest places to get consistent results from week to week.  I won’t be convinced we hit the setup and are on to something until it works again next week.”

Justin Grim got his night started off with a strong heat race with a 4^th place finish from a 6^th starting spot which handicapped him to the feature starting in 9th.  In the feature Justin moved forward to a strong 3^rd place finish and was his best finish of the season.  Postrace Justin stated “We tried a few things on Thursday at TOTH and finally found something that worked and we were able to get the car freed up and just need to dial in a little better. The car was good in the heat race; it was just hard to pass and like usual the heat was the usual a take what you can get deal.   We made some adjustments for the feature and I felt like we had a good car.  Track told us after the heats there would be limited track prep.  Unfortunately we were stuck running the hard Right Rear tire since no soft tires were available for purchase.  Honestly the hard tire didn’t seem to turn out to be much of a hindrance other than getting heat into the tire on the restarts.   Actually; I think if we don’t get that caution on lap 18 we would be in a good spot to win the race.  The track was slick and somewhat narrow; but I prefer that instead of a hold it to the floor around the outside that we’ve seen often this year.  We had a good car that’s my best finish this season so I’m hoping we can keep it rolling next week with another top 3.”

 Craig Von Dohren finished 4^th from his 14^th starting position and continued to extend his points lead over Brett Kressley to 159 points with only two races left in the 2021 season.  Craig was the only car who was able to continue to move forward after the track rubbered up and locked down to single file on lap 5 but his progress stopped at 4^th place on lap 20.

Doug Manmiller continues to impressive with consistent strong runs and a 5^th place finish from a 15^th starting position.  Doug started the night with his first heat race win of the season from the 9^th starting position in the heat.  In the last 12 races Doug has recorded 7 top five’s and 2 top ten’s including a win last week.   Doug noted “Definitely happy with the 5^th and the consistent top 5 /10 finishes we have had in the last couple of months.  We were fortunate to get forward to 5^th before the track locked down.”

After three weeks of bad luck Brett Kressley was able to get back up front with a 6^th place finish from a 13^th starting position.  Brett stated “We were able to dodge several bullets with the three early cautions but got caught up in the lap 2 incident and bent up some front end parts.    Without any track prep tonight and a mist; the track went one lane really early tonight so we just hung on and we’re happy with a 6^th.”

Jared Umbenhauer finished 7^th from his 12^th starting position which was his best finish since he caught up in the big 14 car wreck on the front stretch and flipped his car which resulted in the car being front halved.  An indication that the car was back to form was his heat race win from the 9^th starting position.  Jared stated “We definitely got the car a lot better and back to normal in the heat race.  The track conditions in the feature were tough since there was no track prep which made it really hard to pass and everyone was fighting for the bottom.”

Danny Bouc finished 8^th from his 17^th starting position in the feature.  Despite the one lane lock down track Danny was able to move forward into the top 10.

Brad Arnold recorded his second best finish of the season with a 9^th place finish from a 10^th starting position.  The 27 team found something in the heat race and their 4^th place finish from 7^th was one of their strongest heat race of the season.  From there they were able to springboard to a handicapped 10^th starting position in the feature.  Postrace Brad commented “We went with a different heat race setup and it worked well.  In the heat we got in an early little jingle with Ryan Grim when he broke but we were able to continue.  In the feature the track was a bottom dominate track all night; but I was able to hold off Jeff Strunk on the last lap which made my night.”

Dan Lane finished 11^th from his 26^th starting position and qualified for the feature in only his second modified race of his career.  Postrace Dan noted “In our second race we have already been able to accomplish my goal to qualify for one feature this year.  I guess we need to set another goal for this year but it was great to get some success at Grandview early on.  I tore the car up in the heat race and lost all my confidence I gained in the hot lap session.  I knew we were fast in the B main; but I’m still having trouble passing and I am trying to be extra patient.  In the feature we didn’t make any adjustments and planned to just ride the rear of the field.  I was able to avoid the accidents and passed a few cars.  With only a couple of laps left; I got in a jingle when a few cars got together in front of me and I ran right into another car and we bent up some stuff in the front end and the body.  I’d like to thank Donna and Dennis Weller for this opportunity to go racing at Grandview USA.”   

Craig Whitmoyer finished 12^th from his 23^rd starting position.  Craig noted “The track was fast but locked down in the heat so we couldn’t get forward at all and had to go to the last chance consolation were we got into the feature with the 23^rd starting position.  After the consolation we changed gears in the rear and went right back out for the feature.  In the feature we were moving up decent when I got pinched in the front stretch wall which gave us a right rear flat a bit later that we had to pit and change the tire.  We finished the feature with two soft front tires but was able to hang onto 12^th place.”

Cory Merkel finished 13^th from his 24^th starting position after a rough start to his night.  In the heat race Cory was a DNF in 10^th place sending him to the last chance consolation.  In the consolation he finished 3^rd from a 7^th starting position and made the feature with room to spare.  For the 3^rd week in a row Cory has finished 13^th place and has been his best consistency of the season and not very far off his season best finish of 11^th place.  Postrace Cory recalled “The heat was a disappointment with the right front shock breaking and sending us to the pits early.  I want to thank Bock Racing for giving us a shock for the rest of the night.  We were good in the feature but we were just in the wrong lane for a couple of accidents and had to stop because the track was blocked in front of us.  But despite losing several positions; we were still able to get back to another 13^th place finish for the 3^rd week in a row.”

Jesse Leiby finished 16^th from a 25^th starting position and went to his backup car in the consolation race.  Jesse brought his 9 entry to just test the brand new modified motor in hot laps.  The 456 had some extensive damage in the heat race and like what seems like clockwork every time the backup is on the grounds; the Leiby’s backup car was once again called into action.  Jesse reflected “In the heat the 456 felt really good but got sent to back for some contact and then while coming back through the field we got dumped into the wall and it bent the wheel and the hub on the right front.  So we decided to swap the shocks and tires from the 456 to the 9 and try to qualify in the consolation with the 9 to keep pace in the points chase.  The 9 was much better than I anticipated and we were able to qualify for the feature from a last place starting position in the consolation.  The 9 car was really good in the feature too.  By the end I ran out of tear offs and had to improvise with my glove but finished 16^th.  I will be running the 9 car this week as the primary car.”

The Rest of the Story

Mike Tyson finished 19^th from his 28^th starting position and qualified at Grandview for the first time.  The 127 entry secured the final position in the last chance consolation after a spirited battle with the 711J of Mark Levy.  Just before the feature; the starter failed on the car and the entire team pushed the car several times to get it to fire and in the end they made the call for their first Grandview feature and finished 19^th.

Eric Biehn was running in 4^th when it all came to a crashing end on lap 6 from contact in turn 3 sent him down into the Yuke tire which destroyed the front end and sent him back up across traffic to the wall.  Eric was coming off a strong 8^th place finish last week and a 2^nd place in his heat tonight.

Ryan Grim had a very forgettable night come to an end with his first DNQ of the season.  In his heat race Ryan had a flat and got collected by two cars and was a DNF on the hook.  He was able return for the consolation but received more damage and was again towed off.  With the quick turnaround between the consolation and feature; Ryan did not have time to repair the car and exercise his provisional starter position which ended his night with his first DNQ of the season.

Ron Kline’s night ended in hot laps when the rear broke the main shaft.  Ron was coming off of a 10^th and 11^th place finish and has been showing improvement and promise with his new Troyer car.

Next Saturday September 3^rd is a tripleheader with the ADRC Midgets, Modified and the Sportsman division with racing starting at 7:30 PM.