Grandview Sportsman Pit Notes 6/11/22 –  Dylan Hoch Claims First Win of Season

Mark Gaugler set sail from his front row starting position in the Sportsman feature to take the lead for 13 laps.  A forward charging Dylan Hoch took the lead from Gaugler on lap 14 and was able to navigate 3 cautions of which two turned into red flags.  In the end Hoch held off Cole Stangle and Kyle Smith to take his first Grandview win of the season and extend his early season points lead to nearly 100 points over Kyle Smith.

The 34 car field saw heats won by Mark Gaugler, Mike Meyers, and Zane Roth.  The last chance consolation was won by Brian Hirthler.   

SPORTSMAN FEATURE FINISH (25 laps):

1. DYLAN HOCH, 2. Cole Stangle, 3. Kyle Smith, 4. Brian Hirthler, 5. Mark Gaugler, 6. Matt Clay, 7. Jesse Landis, 8. Zane Roth, 9. Joey Vaccaro, 10. Dakota Kohler, 11. Jimmy Leiby, 13. Adrianna Delliponti, 14. Parker Guldin, 15. Mark Kemmerer, 16. Mike Myers, 17. Logan Bauman, 18. Mike Stofflet 19. Hunter Iatalese, 20, Mike Schneck Jr., 21. Colton Perry, 22, Jesse Hirthler, 23. Anthony Raisner, 24. Wayne Rotenberger, 25. Ryan Graver, 26. Chris Esposito

DID NOT QUALIFY: Jon Josko, Cody Manmiller, Decker Swinehart, Kenny Bock, Nathan Horn, Nathan Mohr, Mark Mohr, Tyler James, Kyle Hartzel

Sportsman Pit Notes  – 6/11/22

Dylan Hoch took his first win of the season from his 15^th starting position.  As the 2022 season opened Dylan only planned to run Grandview sportsman division on a part time basis due to venturing into 360 sprint car racing. But his plans changed, and it now looks like he will be back running Grandview weekly in the sportsman division.  Dylan may be struggling a bit figuring out how to get into the handicap in the heat race from the back of the field.  But when it comes to feature time, he pretty much has that completely figured out with strong back to front charges every week.  He has a 7^th and four 4^th place finishes in a row along with a win this week which has propelled him to the early season points lead.  His first four finishes of the season came from 21^st to 27^th starting position.  Dylan finished 2^nd in the 2021 season points behind Kenny Gilmore.  He is the current sportsman points leader by nearly 100 points over Kyle Smith and is looking to win his first Grandview sportsman points championship in 2022.   

Postrace back at the trailer Dylan reflected “For the second week in row we handicapped to a decent starting spot.  This week the track was really good, and we were able to move around from top to bottom, so I was able to work my way to the front fairly quick.  The track conditions are a huge factor in determining how many cars you can pass in a race.  You can have the fastest car on the racetrack but if it’s single file around the bottom and nobody messes up, you are not going to be passing many cars.  We had extensive motor tech this week with the cam doctor and passed without any issues.  This week was frustrating as I was again dragged into on-track conflicts that I had nothing to do with.  Way too often I get blamed for making contact with someone when I have nothing to do with the contact situation.  I had two incidents this week with two different drivers.  Everyone seems to jump to conclusions on something that they couldn’t see that happened behind. They go ahead and retaliate right away instead of waiting until after the race to figure out what actually happened and make sure they are mad at the right guy.”

Cole Stangle finished 2^nd from 14^th starting position to record his second podium finish in a row after overcoming several weeks of DNF’s due to electrical problems.

Postrace Cole noted “We were good in the heat and made the handicap which is all you can ask for from a heat race.  In the feature the car was good until about half-way and then it stopped cooperating and we didn’t have speed.  We got up to 3^rd by half-way, but just didn’t have enough speed in the last 15 laps of the feature.  Our car just wasn’t good enough this week and that’s just frustrating.  Our goal is to win one of these races.  We have been getting better and better each week and will be back at it next week.”

Kyle Smith posted a 3^rd place finish from his 20^th starting position.  The prior week Kyle posted a 13^th place finish on a track that was difficult to pass on and hard to move forward on. This week with improved track conditions, he returned to form with another top five finish.  Kyle has a total of 4 top five finishes in 6 starts so far this season.

Brian Hirthler finished 4^th from his 19^th starting position.  Brian recalled “Had a tough heat race and with only one caution on lap 1 couldn’t move forward.  Won the last chance race from 3^rd and learned a bit about what the car needed for the feature.  We came from 19th to 4^th and just ran out of time.  Had the fastest car on the track at the end of the race, which is both a good and bad thing since you feel like you let one get away.  On to next week.”

Mark Gaugler had a career best 5^th place finish from 2^nd place.  Mark has recently picked up a 10^th place last week which he moved up to a 5^th place this week.  Mark also led 13 of 25 laps in his feature.

Back at the trailer Mark noted “We had a good heat race, but I lost track of Joey Vaccaro and lifted early allowing him to make a run at the line on me, but I had enough to hold onto the heat win by .0005.  In the feature I was able to run down Zane Roth and led for the first 12 laps. I heard somebody and looked up and it was Dylan who just went by me on the topside just before the red flag came out for the front stretch wreck of 99 and 625.  On restart I ran Hoch hard and tried to get him back, but he was gone.  A bit later Stangle moved me, and it was just a racing deal and then Kyle Smith followed him also.  I tried the top, but car wasn’t setup to work up there so had to ride the race out on the bottom.  Brian Hirthler got me late for 4^th and almost got him back on the last lap.  Had a lot of accomplishments today with heat race win, leading 12 laps of feature and a career best 5^th place finish.  The car was outstanding and perfect today.  I get ideals from everyone, and they have been a big help.  I’m only in my second year of racing and this is the only car that I have ever raced.  Ron Seltmann has been a big help  with the car this year and wouldn’t be here today without his help.”

Matt Clay finished 6^th from his 4^th starting position.  Matt posted his second 6^th of the season after missing the field as a DNQ for two weeks.

Matt commented “For the most part the car felt great today.  I could drive it down on the bottom or ride the high groove.   After the last two weeks of not qualifying, we mixed it up with different rear shocks and a different gear in the rear. Towards the end of the race, we had some hard contact with another car in turn 3 and our car then picked up a bad front end vibration, but we managed to hold onto 6th place and finish the race.  After looking over the car, the hard contact sheared the bolts off the one side of the motor brackets and broke the alternator bracket which was hanging off the car.”

Jesse Landis returned to the top ten with a crate car and posted a 7^th place finish from a 10^th place starting position.  Jesse started the season leading the season opener for 20 laps only to have his sportsman motor expire as he finished 3^rd with a broken sportsman motor.  Jesse missed a week, but then returned with a crate motor instead of his signature sportsman motor.  In his first three weeks of racing with the crate Jesse qualified in all three features but couldn’t finish higher than 21^st.  In his 4^th outing with his crate motor Jesse finished a solid 7^th place finish which posted notice he’s back in the hunt for a win except now with a crate motor for power.

Back at the trailer Jesse noted “In the heat race we made the handicap for the first time with the crate motor.  The heats have been scary as you must drive into the sunset, and you can’t see so you are literally driving blind into the turn.  In the feature we had a good start and got up to 5^th but there too many cautions for a crate car.  My gearing kept me on the bottom, and I was still able to race forward and later in the race I moved to the top.  I still am not geared right for a crate motor and I’m hitting the rev limiter way too soon.  We have been struggling with carburetor and setup since switching to the crate but made some huge strides and improvements tonight and we still have places which we can improve.”

Zane Roth finished 8^th from his pole position and posted his career best finish in his sportsman rookie season.  Zane has qualified at most of his early season races with a best finish of 16^th along with a lot of contact incidents.  His one DNQ involved a hard hit that destroyed his front end.  Zane didn’t make the call for the sportsman consolation, but the 11K team rebuilt the front end and made the call for the crate feature which they were also running in the same night.  But despite a rough and tough start to his rookie season, Zane and the 11k team’s  dedication and determination has pushed them onward to tonight where everything came together with a heat race win, a pole position, and 8^th place finish in the feature.

Postrace Zane reflected “The feature played out well for us that we were not perfect since we had a loose car and too much stagger.  We made a lot of setup changes last week which we left in place for this week and only changed the gears right before the feature tonight.  The track had two lanes and the car worked well in both the bottom and top lane.  .   I was able to stay with Gaugler for the first 11 laps until we had the 2^nd and 3^rd cautions.  We could have easily been in the top 5 but I jumped the cushion on a late restart and lost 3 spots to 8^th.   Nonetheless it was our best finish of my rookie season…………………to date.”  

Zane continued “My first season at Grandview started with a lot of “wrong place, wrong time”  tangles and setbacks.  We struggled with our setup in our ill handling car that was hard to keep under control during the heats and features.  After a lot of tweaking and research with some veteran drivers, we found a new set up that brought major success to our team this week.  I just want to thank everyone that has helped me out this year, I’ve learned a lot about how racing families come together when someone needs help.”  

“I can’t thank my sponsors enough for making all this possible:

S & D Bodyline

R & D Installations

Mint Construction

Hoppes Tree Service”

“I would also like to thank my dad and crew who endless work on the car makes it possible for me to live the dream and I wouldn’t be here without them.  I cannot wait to see what the rest of this season brings for our #11z team.”

Joey Vaccaro Finished 9^th from his 8^th starting position to post his 3^rd top ten finish in 6 outings this season.  Joey started the season trying coils at Grandview and this week they changed back to their ‘bars’ car.  The return to the ‘bars’ car debuted with a solid run in the heat and feature.  Joey ran 2nd in his heat race to Mark Gaugler by a margin of .0005 in his all time closest finish at the checkered flag. He capped the ‘bars’ car debut with a solid 9^th in the feature on a fast track with multiple cautions.

Joey reflected “We actually switched cars this week and went back to bars.  The coil car just is missing something at Grandview so we figured might as well go back to the ‘bars’ car since we know it’s pretty good at Grandview.  We had a top 5 car but couldn’t stay out of trouble and got knocked several times back to 9th.”

Dakota Kohler finished 10^th from a 18^th starting position for his first top ten of the season to add to his earlier top five finish.  Dakota commented “Car was pretty good in the heat race, we just had the holes close too quickly on the restarts which kept us from getting in the handicap, but we still qualified from the heat which is better than dealing with the consolation.  We changed a few things for the feature, and they really seemed to work and got us up to 6^th place when we just caught a car at the wrong time and got crossed up and lost a few spots.  Then with the red flag, our tires cooled off too much, so we weren’t as good for the final 11 laps. The setup was good and I’m very happy with where we are at now with our setup and there is more, we can change, and we haven’t even touched shocks yet.    We had a learning curve this season because we switched over to coils and essentially had to start our notebook over, but I really like how the coils are working out so far for us.”

The T.P. Trailer NASCAR Modifieds and T.P. Truck Equipment NASCAR Sportsman will be running another double-header program next Saturday, June 18 starting at 7:30 pm. The program will include qualifying events leading to the 30-lap T.P. Trailer Modified feature and the 25-lap T.P. Truck Equipment Sportsman main event. Pit gates will open at 4 pm. with grandstand gates opening at 5:30 pm. and warm-ups starting at 6:30 pm. Adult grandstand admission is $18, while children under age 12 are admitted free of charge.