Jordan Henn Claims Freedom 38er at Grandview Speedway

76er weekend opened in at Grandview Speedway with clearing skies & cool and crisp fall conditions for the Friday’s Freedom 38er Sportsman race and modified time trials.  The Sportsman kicked off the racing with the $2,300 to win Freedom 38er. With 55 sportsman entries on the grounds the battle for one of the 18 feature redraw positions started with the pill draw.  45 modifieds were also on the grounds dialing in their setup for Saturday’s $30,000 to win Freedom 76er.

With 18 drivers in the redraw; it was Jordan Henn in the 4R and Gary Wagner leading the field to green.  Henn took the a solid 2.7 second lead over Mark Kemmerer in 2^nd place and then hit lapped traffic on lap 7.  The first 12 laps were green until 2 yellows came out on lap 12 with one turning into the first red of the night for a 9 car tangle that sent Kyle Kania to the pits on the hook and ended his night.  A couple more laps and the third yellow came out which also turned red for a hard 3 car tangle on the back stretch that ended the night for Cody Manmiller and Brian Blankenbiller.  On lap 15 Henn went right back to his commanding lead over Kemmerer until lap 26 when the caution came out for the 4^th time and turned red for the third time for a another hard crash with Brandon Edgar and Craig Whitmoyer.  Whitmoyer ended up on this lid for the second week in row but again emerged uninjured.  Brandon Edgar was frustrated with contact by several drivers and was escorted off the track by the safety crew.  When racing resumed Henn again went right back to his commanding lead but this time with Kevin Hirthler moving into second place until the 5^th and final yellow flew on lap 35 setting up a shootout between Henn and Hirthler.   Hirthler threw everything he had at Henn but in the end it was Henn taking his first 38er win of his career.

In victory lane Henn commented “I came close to winning this race a couple of years ago when I won the sportsman championship but got second to Grosso and lost it in lapped traffic.  Well I wasn’t going to let that happen again.  The starting position on the pole was huge.  The bottom was the place to be and with starting on the pole I just had to run my line and stay smooth.  I was kind of happy when that final caution came out since I was struggling with the top and keeping my momentum going on the top.  I saw Kevin coming on the leader board and knew I couldn’t make any mistakes.  It all worked out and we got in victory lane tonight.”

The top ten was rounded out by Kevin Hirthler in second followed by Steve Davis, Brett Gilmore, Mark Kemmerer, Kyle Smith, Brian Hirthler, Dakota Kohler, Ryan Grim and Ryan Beltz in 10^th place.

Heat races were won by Kyle Lilick, Brian Hirthler, Mark Kemmerer, Brad Brightbill, Kyle Smith and Steve Young. 

Last chance consolations were won by Cole Stangle, Brandon Edgar and Lex Shive.

Grandview’s next event is 51^st Freedom 76er on Saturday September 18^th with racing starting at 7:00 PM.