Ryan Lilick Claims First Career Modified Win at Grandview Speedway & Pit Notes

Grandview speedway held their 18^th of 19 points races under bright skies and unseasonable mild conditions with no threat of rain on race day for the first time in a month.  34 modifieds and 30 sportsmen were in the pits continuing their points chase as the 2021 season winds down toward the grand finale next week.

Ryan Lilick survived 6 cautions and held off the likes of Brett Kressley, Craig Von Dohren, Doug Manmiller and Duane Howard to pick-up his first career modified win and trip to victory lane at Grandview.

The modified feature was led to green by Bobby Gunther-Walsh and Ron Haring who got hooked together and started a chain reaction 11 car wreck on the back stretch that drew a yellow then red flag before lap 1 was in the books.  26 cars continued with Duane Howard and Brett Kressley going in pits while Jack Butler and Carol Hine saw their night end before the race officially started.  Bobby Gunther-Walsh held the lead for the first 6 laps until the 3rd restart when Ron Kline move into the lead on lap 7.  Kline led to lap 13; when on the 4^th restart Ryan Lilick charged to the lead with Brad Grim, Doug Manmiller and Craig Von Dohren giving chase while Kline fell back to 5^th place. On the lap 20 final restart; Manmiller made his bid for the lead but Lilick held on and by lap 25 he checked out on the field and drove into victory lane for his first career modified victory at Grandview Speedway.

In victory lane Ryan Lilick commented “Can’t thank my guys enough.  We put on a hard tire so struggled in the beginning and it seemed that a lot of cars wanted the bottom.  We avoided the big wreck and I picked my way through and was able to get the jump on Ron off the restart. I thought about going to the bottom but decided to stay with the top and just ran my butt off and hit my marks and I didn’t see anyone underneath me.  This modified win is ten times sweeter than any of my sportsman wins.  Our owner Dennis Becker missed his first race ever and Clancy missed too which is rare; but it’s going to be great to be able to tell them what we did here today.”

The top ten was rounded out by Brett Kressley in second followed by Craig Von Dohren, Doug Manmiller, Duane Howard, Brad Grim, Mike Lisowski, Ron Kline, Justin Grim and Brad Arnold to round out the top ten.

Heats were won by Bobby Gunther Walsh, Ron Kline and Joe Funk. Jared Umbenhauer won the last chance consolation.

Modified Feature (30-laps):

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

 DNQ: Eric Biehn, Chris Gambler, Art Bray, Mike Laise, Danny Bouc and Craig Whitmoyer.

Modified Pit Notes

Ryan Lilick won his first career modified feature from his 8^th starting position turning around a season that he only had one top ten in 13 starts with a feature win.

Ryan reflected “Can’t really put what this win means into words.  We have been working at this for a couple of years and been close a couple times.  I was out of town at the Thunder on the Hill show so Kyle ran the car and he made some changes and tried some things.  I left Kyle’s changes in the car and we hit the setup right on the nose tonight.  We started 8^th in the feature and the plan was to just ride and see how all the changes were working out; so I laid back early and got through all the wrecks.  Everyone wanted the bottom so I went to the top and we moved forward quickly and on a restart I got two spots and moved into 2^nd place behind Ron Kline.  On the next restart Ron gave me the bottom; it was better for the restarts; so I got the jump on him on the restart went right back to the top and never looked back.  I saw the big names up on the board and just wanted to hit my marks and hold on.  The stars aligned for us tonight.  Not only did Kyle make some changes that worked but we went with a harder tire which didn’t work on the wet and heavy track.  If the first restart wasn’t called back; we probably would had gone straight to the back because of the harder tire.   The first start call-back was just enough to allow our harder tire to work better on the second start.”

Brett Kressley finished 2^nd from his 14^th starting position but was involved in the 11 car tangle before lap 1 and had to come in to get a left front tire changed.  Brett was able to work his way back through the field and finish 2^nd.  Postrace Brett noted “It was unfortunate we got a left front flat early in the race which put us behind for the whole race but we kept fighting our way to the front.  We got some help from yellows for sure and I feel we had good enough car to win except circumstances just didn’t fall our way today.”

Craig Von Dohren finished 3^rd from his 15^th starting position.  Craig recorded his 14^th top five finish of the season in 18 starts and maintained his 147 point lead over Brett Kressley with only one point race remaining on Saturday September 11.

Doug Manmiller finished 4^th from his 18^th starting position and was in 2^nd challenging Lilick for the lead from lap 20 to 28 but fell back to 4^th in the final two laps.  Manmiller recalled “We had a good car again all night but had an issue develop with the ignition/MSD box and was happy to hang onto 4^th.”  Doug continued a streak of strong finishes with his 5^th top five finish in his last 6 races.

Duane Howard finished 5^th from his 17^th starting position but got involved in the early 11 car wreck and had to come in the pits for repairs before lap 1 which relegated him to starting 24^th but he was able to run back through the field to a 5^th place finish.

Brad Grim finished 6^th from his 11^th starting position and proved last week’s 2^nd place finish was no fluke.  For the 2^nd week in a row Brad ran in 2^nd place during the final 10 laps of the race on his way to a solid 6^th place finish.  After running good in the heats and struggling in the feature for the entire season; Ryan found a setup last week that has gotten strong results in both the heat race and feature in the last two races.   He finished 2^nd in the heat from a 6^th starting position and also had strong forward movement in the feature.  Postrace Brad reflected “Definitely think we found something.  Didn’t need the last caution to come out.  The car got free after the last caution and we lost a handful of positions.”

Mike Lisowski rebounded from a DNQ last week to a solid 7^th place finish from 7^th starting position.  Mike has been on a bit of a rollercoaster this season at Grandview with 5 top 5 /10 finishes in 16 starts but this week he also got a 3^rd at Big Diamond for solid finishes in back to back nights of racing leading into special events season.

Ron Kline has turned his season around when he debuted a 2017 Troyer he bought from Pondish Racing.  Ever since changing cars Ron’s performance has been on the upswing every week.   Last week he a broke a rear and was done for the night after hot laps but he rebounded this week with his first heat race of the season.  In the feature he led 5 laps for the first time this season and posted his best finish of the season with an 8^th place finish.  Postrace Ron noted “We had a real good car all night and it was great to lead the feature for the first time this season. On the restart when I was leading; I would choose the inside if I had it to do again since it seemed like LR tire took a while to get going again and may had sealed over.  We learned a bunch with this new car and maybe next week.”

Justin Grim seems to be finding consistency in recent weeks which is just in time for the special events season.  Justin finished 9^th from a 23^rd starting position and for the first time this season worked his way through the field.  Justin has struggled all season with only two top 5/10 finishes in 16 starts and in the past two weeks he has doubled his season top 5/10 finishes with a 3^rd and 9^th place finish.

 Postrace Justin stated “We had a rough heat race but very encouraging to be able to get through it and still manage a top ten finish in the feature.  We got turned around in the heat and then hit in the LF which flatten the tire and bent radius rods.  With some help from our pit neighbors; we were able to get the tire changed and get back out in the heat to salvage a decent starting spot in the consolation.  Didn’t have time to fix the front end before the consolation but were still able to qualify for the feature with a bent car.  We fixed the front end for the feature; only to get in a tangle at the very beginning of the feature and flatten the LR tire and bend the front end again.  Some tight wheel rubbing racing gave us a RR & RF flat by the end of the feature but we still held on to a 9^th place finish. 

Brad Arnold finished 9^th from a 12^th starting position and turned in his second top ten in a row and is showing some improved consistency as the season comes to a close.  Brad noted “We have started to get better in the heats; by moving forward from 7^th to 5^th this week in our heat and getting into the handicap was a huge success for us.  In the feature we went a little too tight and dropped back at the start but worked our way back to 10^th.”

The rest of the story

Ray Swinehart jumped into the 12H for first time and had some pretty good results with an 11^th place finish from a 20^th starting position despite going to the pits early and being in one tangle later in the feature.

Cory Merkel finished 14^th from a 27^th starting position.  Cory continued to show consistency again this week adding a 14^th place finish to three consecutive 13^th place finishes.  Cory stated “In the heat it just took too much time to get around some of the cars and that sent me to the consolation.  Troy got the car turned around quickly with help from the Kohler family, Leiby family and Mike Schneck.  We had a great car in the consolation and qualified 27^th for the feature.  In the feature I found my way into both major wrecks and but we came out with limited damage and continued to a 14^th place finish.”    

Dan Lane qualified for the 2^nd time in only his 3^rd time in a modified and finished 15^th from a 28^th starting position.  Back at the trailer Dan noted “I wasn’t comfortable in the car during hot laps this week.  In the heat I got past Howard and Kressley and went about another 100 yards and crashed into the rear of another car.  In the consolation I was able to get the last transfer spot and make it into the feature.  In the feature we avoided the big wreck and I was in the right place at the right time.   We were able to finish 15^th this week but we do have a bent up front end to fix this week.  I’m happy with what we have done in three weeks here at Grandview.  These modified guys at are really good and it’s not easy to keep up with them.”

Mike Laise debuted in the 715J and came within one position of qualifying and ended up as first alternate.  Postrace Mike stated “The 715J came from an idea that Mark Levy had about a month ago to take one of his motors (711J) and put it in our family car (15).  Mark has Mahoney Valley roots and had Mahoney Valley engine builder Rick Wallace put the motor together and it feels incredible.  We got the motor on Sunday and my dad and I worked all week to get ready for this week.”

Mike continued “We had a base setup and the car was really tight and to be honest my truck turns better than the car did tonight.  We have a starting point now and once we get the setup dialed in this will be one fast race car.  Saturday doesn’t reflect our potential.  It feels great to be back in a modified again and I’ve had help from so many people to make this happen.  Mark and Jordan Levy have been the catalyst for making this happen and I can’t thank them enough.  Rick Wallace put together one great motor and Darrin Schuler helped us out with a lot of parts.  We will be back next week.”

Craig Whitmoyer had damage on his 99 entry in hot laps that couldn’t be repaired in time for the heat race so in the consolation he got into Jesse Leiby’s 456 backup car.  Craig didn’t have enough time to get familiar with the different configurations in the 456 and rather than push it settled for a DNQ and a straight car.

The final point standings will be decided on Saturday, September 11, with the running of the Hope Mortgage Team Championship Night for Modifieds and Sportsman. And there will be a fireworks display with racing starting at 7:30 p.m.