Grandview Sportsman Firecracker 40  Pit Notes 7/09/22 – Keith Brightbill Claims Firecracker 40 Feature

Mike Myers led the first 20 lap of the Firecracker 40 despite six early cautions that took their toll on the field as 10 cars fell out of the race before lap 20 from three major tangles.  Keith Brightbill moved into the lead on lap 21 from his 21^st starting position and then proceeded to hold off a persistent Jimmy Leiby for the final 20 laps and make his first trip into victory lane  the season in Brad Brightbill’s  #19 crate entry.

Heat winners for the field of 39 sportsman with Wayne Rotenberger, Zane Rother, Mike Myers, and Nate Mohr.  Kyle Smith and Keith Brightbill won the last chance consolations.

SPORTSMAN FIRECRACKER 40 FEATURE FINISH (40 laps):

1. )KEITH BRIGHTBILL, 2. Jimmy Leiby, 3. Brian Hirthler, 4. Cole Stangle, 5. Nathan Mohr, 6. Parker Guldin, 7. Mike Myers, 8. Cody Manmiller, 9. Kyle Smith, 10. Mike Schneck Jr., 11. Chris Esposito, 12. Hunter Iatalese, 13. Lex Shive, 14. Jesse Landis, 15. Mark Gaugler, 16. Dylan Hoch, 17. Ryan Graver, 18. Dakota Kohler, 19. Kenny Bock, 20. Nathan Horn, 21. Colton Perry, 22. Mark Kemmerer, 23. Zane Roth, 24. Josh Adams, 25. Joey Vaccaro, 26. Logan Bauman, 27. Wayne Rotenberger, 28. Tyler James, DNS – Mike Stofflet

DID NOT QUALIFY: BJ Joly, Jon Josko, Jesse Hirthler, Mark Mohr, Kyle Hartzell, Adrianna Delliponte, Matt Clay, Steve Young, Decker Swinehart, Blake Reber

Sportsman Firecracker 40 Pit Notes 7/09/22

Keith Brightbill made his third time in his brother’s #19 crate the charm as he won his first Firecracker 40 from the 21^st starting position.  Keith was on vacation and traveled from North Carolina to return to his birth state and race for his brother.

In victory lane Keith reflected “Well it took me a few weeks to get back into racing shape.  Before this season I haven’t been in a car for I don’t know how many seasons.  I raced this car twice this season and struggled switching from the sportsman motor to crate at both races.  We then made a change here and there and next thing you know here we are – victory lane.  As far as the race goes the bad part of getting the lead is you don’t know which lane good and which lane is coming on.  The moment I saw Jimmy show me his nose from the top I decided I wasn’t going to give up the lead to the top lane and I moved from the middle to the top.  Turned out to be the right choice to go back up top and that’s where I stayed until I drove into victory lane.”

Back at the trailer Keith commented “We are here on a vacation, and I won the Firecracker 40 too.  I got use to this crate motor and car in two races and it all came together for us tonight.  We got 5 positions from the first accident and then just picked off cars one by one. By lap 10 we already in 9^th place from our 21^st starting position.  As the race progressed the car just kept getting better.  There were several major tangles but when you have confidence in your car you can pretty much avoid everything.  I went where they weren’t early and just kept passing cars.  Later in the race I was searching the middle and saw there was a lip on top and decided to go back up to the top.  I was slow on corner entry speed on the bottom and middle when compared to the entry speed I could get on the top.  When I went to the top, I knew that Jimmy or anyone else was going to have to be really good to be able to beat me from the bottom.”

Jimmy Leiby finished 2^nd from his provisional 27^th starting position.  Jimmy commented “We ran the heat race on a sloppy mess as the first two sportsman heats usually are and then before the consolation, they did some unexpected track prep that I wasn’t ready for, so I overdrove the corner and spun and did not qualify so had to take a provisional to start 27^th.  I just stayed out of the three major wrecks and had a rocket ship of a car that should have won but I showed my nose too early and that bit me in the end.  Still all in all a good feature track prep that was fast and drivable with two lanes for a while.”

Brian Hirthler finished 3^rd from his provisional 28^th starting position.

Brian stated “Good thing about starting last is there is no hurry to go anywhere and there is nobody behind you to hit you or pass you.  So, I just laid back about a straight away to feel the car & track out knowing I could catch back up by the time we got strung out or if an accident happened, and I wouldn’t be involved.  The heat race was tough, thought there was going to be an accident on the start and pulled high however everyone kept going so that was a downer. I started deep in the consolation with a lot of quality cars in front of me and it was almost out of the question to get a top 3.  So, I put my feature setup in the car and began to prepare for feature knowing I had a provisional that I could use.

Brian continued “ with the feature being 40 laps and starting last there was no hurry to go anywhere.  The last time we raced I came from the back to get 3^rd; and with the extra 15 laps it was easier to be patient.  I raced around and missed a few accidents and cracked the top 12 at around lap 10.   Maybe got into 7th around lap 15 and then got up to 5th by the next caution on lap 20.

 However, the lap 20 tangle was directly in front of me and caused some contact that gave me a left front flat that I had to pit and change.  I returned to the back of the field in 18^th and had to regroup.  I raced back to 7^th by the next caution on lap 35.  With 5 laps to go I was able to go from 7^th to 3^rd before the checkered and just ran out of time.  The flat tire for both Kyle Smith and me on lap 20 was quite unfortunate and wasn’t sure what happened there but it definitely changed the outcome of the race.”

Cole Stangle finished 4^th from a 24^th starting position.  Cole recalled “Track was very racy and made it a fun race.  The extra laps helped a lot and just needed one more caution with a double file restart and I think I could have been up there.”

Nate Mohr finished 5^th from a 3^rd starting position for his best finish of the season.  Two weeks ago, Nate broke a motor and last week Nate was running 3^rd when a racing contact spun him and took him out of the race. 

Things took an early turn for the better this week for Nate as he got married to Shelby on Friday and then he went out on Saturday and ran his best race of the season at the biggest race so far this season.

Back at the trailer Nate commented “I fell back to 10^th early but stayed patient since I knew it was going to be a long race.  In the past 3 weeks we seem to have turned a corner with the setup & our good motor back in the car so we are hopeful we will stay up in the top 5 the rest of the season and our early season DNQ’s are behind us.”

Parker Guldin finished 6^th from his 26^th starting position and continues to be one of seven drivers that have qualified for all 9 races in the first half of the season.  For the second week in a row Parker has qualified in the final qualifying position from his consolation race and moved forward through the field for a good finish – 11^th last week and 6^th this week.

Postrace Parker noted “We continue to struggle in the heat as we handicapped to the back in the first heat on what is normally a one lane track which it was once again.  On the positive side I could tell right away in the heat that we had a very strong car, I would argue that it was the strongest our car has ever been which is awesome because every week it seems to get better and better.  I was able to lock down the final qualifying spot in my consolation race.  I always like longer races and knew that patience was going to be very important with 40 laps.  After three major tangles, I feel like I was extremely lucky to only get involved in one little mishap.  That little mishap bent some things in the rear of the car which threw things off a couple inches as we found out after the race.  That explains why towards the end of the race the car wasn’t nearly as strong as it was in the beginning of the race.  We had the perfect storm on Saturday and for once the driver had his head on his shoulders and able to compete with a very good car for the entire 40 laps.  Something that was also a big change for me not just in not just in driving style but also in mindset was having a continuous two-lane track that didn’t chew up tires and was beautiful from start to finish.  Normally we start the feature with a super technical track that’s very slick if you get off the bottom, but this past Saturday we had an amazing track from start to finish of our feature and lucky for me it was also just as good in the consolation.  We were extremely happy with our finish, setup, and driver consistency through a long 40 lap race.  We are hoping to carry this momentum into the second half of the season and move into the top five in the points standings before the end of the season.”  

Mike Myers finished 7^th from a 3^rd starting position while leading the first 21 laps and posting his best finish of the season.

Mike noted “We got crashed 2 weeks ago and it bent things up pretty bad, so we took a week off to get it back together.  Our Firecracker 40 night started off good winning the heat race.  Things continued to my liking as the feature track conditions were perfect for my driving style.  We have been fighting a loose car halfway through the feature every week, but with a lot of help from friends and Ron Seltmann at Fast Four racing shocks we improved a lot on Saturday night and the car stayed pretty good till just past halfway of the 40 lap race.  Keith jumped me on that restart, and I really thought it was going to be called back but with as many cautions and reds that were in that race, I understand the reason they did not call it back.  Being the leader, you can’t see behind you and in retrospect I should’ve moved to the top and got off the bottom sooner.  All in All, my guys did a great job getting the car back together, and back together right because the results showed on the racetrack in our biggest race of the season so far.”

Cody Manmiller posted an 8^th place finish from his 25^th starting position and rebounded from three weeks of disappointing finishes after posting his career first Grandview win about a month ago.

Cody stated “Yeah we have definitely been on a rollercoaster ever since the win.  After talking with my dad, I think I’m just pressing a little bit and it’s causing things to go poorly.  We got a little better this week.  Unfortunately, I got caught in a mess to start the heat but was happy to rebound back to a 6th.  I wasn’t great in the consolation and made a bunch of mistakes but was able to qualify.  We didn’t do anything to the car for the feature and just wanted to get it straight.  I avoided the wrecks and stayed clean, but I made a few lane choice errors which cost me a few spots and a top 5, but it is what it is.”

Kyle Smith finished 9^th from a 21^st starting position but was in 3^rd and contention for the win when on lap 20 when a contact flat tire sent him to the pits and rear of the field.  Kyle was able to come back through the field and salvage a 9^th place finish.

Back at the trailer Kyle noted “We started 21^st and I wasn’t worried about getting to the front since we had 40 laps tonight.  Four of us were battling for the lead on lap 20 and I had to turn right to avoid a car that was dead sideways which gave Brian Hirthler no where to go so we collided, and both got flat and went to the back of the field with 20 laps to go.  The whole situation screwed us out of the opportunity to get the win.  I think my car was good enough to the hold the lead.  There was lots of grip up top, so you just had to run the top.  At one point we were running full throttle as the way around the track.  Having two lanes for most of the race was also a plus.”

Mike Schneck Jr finished 10^th from his 23^rd starting position and posted his best finish of the season while continuing his string of qualifying for 9 straight races at Grandview.

Mike commented “Yeah I’m definitely happy with a top 10 after the way the night was going. That was the first consolation I had to run all year, but we got it in the show so that’s a positive.  I made it around a couple cars at the beginning of the feature and after all the pile ups, I was 10th.  I passed up to 8th and got in a tangle going into turn 3 and my car wasn’t the same after that.  Coming home in one piece and a top 10 was a good night for us after starting 24th. Being this was the first feature didn’t burn the tires off so that was another positive for us.”

Chris Esposito finished 11^th from his 17^th starting position.  Chris noted “The car was little off in the heat, and I felt we should have been a lot better, but we held on for the fifth and final heat race qualifying spot.  We made some changes for the feature, and then we had a right rear going down right on lap one.  I felt it in turn one, but didn’t know if it was a tire or a bad bar so I did the best we could finished 11th.  When we pulled in from the race, I only had 5 pounds of air in the tire.  I felt the top was the best even though the bottom had traction.  If we could of ran up there, we would have, but with the right rear tire going the car was supper tight lifting the front end off the ground. Finishing the race was a plus but disappointing since we could have done better!”

Points Leader Dylan Hoch was in 4^th on lap 35 but a late contact flat took him out of contention for the win on lap 38 and he finished 16^th.  Dylan stated “We had an up and down night. The feature quickly turned into a wreck fest again this week with only 16 of the 28 car field finishing the 40 laps. We got caught up in a wreck on the first few laps, and with nowhere to go the LF shock tower got broken off.  I owe a huge thank you to everyone involved in the pit stop to put another shock tower on the car and get us back on the track again. It was incredible to see how hard all the guys worked to get the car fixed.  I was able to come through the field again to 4th, but unfortunately just to ended up with a flat RF with two laps to go. Very disappointing end to a tough night but all we can do is rebound stronger next week.”

The first 20 starters had a rough go of it with 17 out of 20 of the cars in starting positions 1 to 20 getting involved in a tangle and finishing with an DNF or the back of the field.  The only cars starting up front that did not getting into a wreck were Nat Mohr (5^th), Michael Myers (7^th), and Chris Esposito (11^th).

The 40 lap race had seven cautions of which three were major tangles with 8, 8, and 5 cars involved.  Zane Roth was running 2^nd until a spin on lap 9 resulted in contact and ended his night.  Kenny Bock was running in 2^nd when he broke on lap 20 which ended his night.  Mark Kemmerer was on the move and in 4^th when he got collected in a tangle that ended his night also.

The top ten included 8 drivers that started from 21^st to 28^th :

Keith Brightbill 1^st from 22^nd starting position

Jimmy Leiby 2^nd from 27^th provisional starting position

Brian Hirthler 3^rd from 28^th provisional starting  position (to pits for flat and returned)

Cole Stangle 4^th from 24^th

Parker Guldin 6^th from 26^th

Cody Manmiller 8^th from 25^th

Kyle Smith  9^th from 21^st

Mike Schneck 10^th from 23^rd

The crates have 6 wins over the sportsman motors who have 3 wins.  The crate winners were Parker Guldin, Cody Manmiller, Dylan Hock, Kenny Bock, Decker Swinehart and Keith Brightbill.  The sportsman winners were Brian Hirthler with two wins and Lex Shive with one win.  This week 22 crates went up against 17 sportsman motors in the 39 car field.

The T.P. Trailer NASCAR Modifieds and T.P. Truck Equipment NASCAR Sportsman will be joined by the United Racing Club Sprint Cars in a three division program next Saturday, July 16 starting at 7:30 pm. The program will include qualifying events for all three classes leading to the 30-lap T.P. Trailer Modified feature, the 25-lap T.P. Truck Equipment Sportsman main, and the 25-lap URC Sprint car feature race.

Pit gates will open at 4 pm. with grandstand gates opening at 5:30 pm. warm-ups will be starting at 6:15 pm. Adult grandstand admission is $25, while children ages 6-11 are $10, and children ages 5 and under are admitted free of charge.