Grandview Modified Pit Notes 7/30/22 –  Jeff Strunk Strikes for First Grandview Win of the Season

Jeff Strunk took the lead on lap 17 held off a late charge from Jared Umbenhauer and Brett Kressley to collect his first Grandview win of the season. 

Ron Harring Jr. led the first 11 laps by nearly 3 seconds until he spun and was collected by Brad Grim bringing out the first caution of the night.  On the restart Dylan Swinehart took the lead for 2 laps then Kevin Hirthler moved into the lead for 3 laps until Jeff Strunk moved into the lead position on lap 17.  The final 10 laps turned into a 3 way breakaway battle with Strunk holding off Brett Kressley in 2^nd and Jared Umbenhauer falling to 2^nd after a hard charge on the outside for the lead only to fall back to 3^rd after jumping the cushion.

Heat winners for the 35 car modified field were Ron Haring Jr, Jared Umbenhauer, and Duane Howard.  Ryan Lilick won the last chance consolation.

The 3 lap cash dash was won by Duane Howard over Jared Umbenhauer and Ron Haring.

MODIFIED 30 LAP FEATURE FINISH:

1. JEFF STRUNK, 2. Brett Kressley, 3. Jared Umbenhauer, 4. Kevin Hirthler, 5. Craig Von Dohren, 6. Duane Howard, 7. Doug Manmiller, 8. Dylan Swinehart, 9. Justin Grim, 10. Joe Funk, 11. Brad Arnold, 12. Tim Buckwalter, 13. Mike Lisowski, 14. Ryan Grim, 15. Eric Biehn, 16. Bobby Trapper Jr., 17. Cory Merkel, 18. Carroll Hine III, 19. Darrin Schuler, 20. Dan Waisempacher, 21. Brett Gilmore, 22. Ray Swinehart, 23. Michael Storms, 24. Craig Whitmoyer, 25. Ron Haring Jr., 26. Brad Grim, 27. Nate Brinker, 28. Mark Kratz, 29. Ryan Lilick

Did Not Qualify:

John Willman, Bobby Gunther-Walsh, Steve Swinehart, Ron Kline, Kyle Lilick, Kevin Graver Jr.

MODIFIED PIT NOTES

Jeff Strunk has been close to his first win four times this season but tonight Strunk struck and posted his first trip to victory lane this season at Grandview.  Jeff won from his 12^th starting position and held off a spirited battle in the last ten laps with Jared Umbenhauer and Bett Kressley.  Jared pulled even for several laps with Strunk coming out of turn 4 but just couldn’t take over the lead down the front stretch and then Umbenhauer jumped the cushion on lap 27 and fell back to third behind Brett Kressley.

In victory lane Jeff noted “I don’t know who it was but knew it was a 19 and I moved up in ¾ to play the block and how you say it “ It’s Grandview”.  The track kind of played a trick on me and didn’t burn off as quick as I thought it would.  On the last restart I was just hoping I was in the right lane, and it felt good on the bottom.  It was some good racing with Umbenhauer and glad we came out on top this time.”

Back at the Trailed Jeff stated “The heat races are always a challenge there.  Sometimes you benefit with 3 heats sometimes you don’t . The outcome with 3 or 4 heats all depends on the cautions . If the track’s fast and if you don’t get cautions and everyone gets spread out it’s tough to get to 4th or 5th with either 3 or 4 heats.

The track was different than the usual this Saturday with the sprints there.  We have a great win ratio when sprint cars are here.  It‘s usually dry and slick when sprints are here, and I love when the track gets dry and slick.  On the restart when we were 4^th, I wanted to make sure I kept Brett behind me, and that was the race.  He’s got the fastest car out here and if he gets to the front, you are not going to pass him back.  Umbenhauer has been really good on the top and I felt comfortable on the  bottom but did change my line in 3 and 4 after he got a good run on us. Cant thank Dave Zubi and my crew enough for all their efforts as well as all our sponsors who support our program.  We seem to struggle to get our first point race  win at Grandview early in the season for the last  5 years or so and usually get a few “Thunder on the Hill” wins. Not really sure why we have been so slow getting wins this year other than just plain racing luck.”

I really wanted to win this week to be able dedicate our win to Marilyn Saxton and glad we got to dedicate the night to her. She was a huge part of Grandview and was Ernie’s  heart and soul . I spent a lot of Grandview champions vacations with the Rogers and Saxton’s that were put together by Marilyn and have a lot of great memories and fun times that I cherish. My heart goes out to Ernie and his family.”

Brett Kressley posted a 2^nd place finish from his 14^th starting position and bounced back from last week’s dismal 20^th place finish after a jingle on the 28^th lap last week.

Brett noted “We used our universal set up last week and had the same speed as everyone else which didn’t give us much of an opportunity to advance much last week.   We are back right were we want to be, and it showed right at the drop of the green as we moved forward immediately this week.”

Jared Umbenhauer finished 3^rd from his 11^th starting position and was among the faster cars again for the 3^rd week in a row.

Jared commented “The car is pretty good right now anywhere I want to put it.  We may be out of the points chase but we want to win just as much each week.  The main thing each week is getting in the handicap to get your best available starting position.”

Kevin Hirthler finished 4^th from his 10^th starting position.  Kevin changed cars a few weeks back to his 2019 car which has improved every week from a 7^th place finish last week to a 4^th place finish this week.  Kevin also moved up to 9^th place in the season points standings and into the top ten in points for the first time this season.

Kevin noted “Tonight I was in my primary Saturday night ride with the Murray power plant under the hood.  We had a good heat and just had to be patient.  I had to pick and choose which holes to hit on a very wide and racy track again this week. We made the invert for the feature and started 10th on the grid.   Car was fast right from the green, so we went to work straight away going both high and low and made it to first with the help of some yellows.  We then battled with Jeff for a bit, but then the top started to fade, and I was freeing up just a bit, so after Jeff went by on the bottom, I dropped down to the bottom of the track figuring the bottom was rubbering up.  Car got loose and I lost a couple more spots to the pair of 19 cars.  But I will take running up front a few laps and a 4th place finish and adjust for next week.”

Kevin continued “I’m so happy with Jesse’s performance in the Crate car and he has been doing an outstanding job.  He was very patient on Saturday and waited for stuff to thin out in the feature then went top side to pass about 5 cars at the end. He is building more and more confidence every week which is helping tremendously. He knows the car has the speed and is building more confidence every week which is helping him tremendously.  He is also working hard in the shop every night.”

Craig Von Dohren finished 5^th from his 15^th starting position.  This week Craig worked his way toward the front throughout the race passing one car at a time until he ran out of laps and finished a solid 5^th place.  Craig continues to lead the points championship by 83 points over 2^nd place Brett Kressley.    

Duane Howard finished 6^th from a 13^th starting position which is a huge improvement over last week’s 19^th place finish after a tangle with Brett Kressley.

Duane reflected “Yes we were very good in the heat race. I was able to roll the bottom really good, even in the cash dash we were very very good at rolling the bottom to the middle, then in the feature we made some ill-advised changes, and we were at best a top-five car. Restarts on the bottom did help me and probably should’ve stayed at the top of the racetrack a little longer.  We’ll regroup and try again next week.”

Doug Manmiller finished 7^th from his 19^th starting position.  Doug stated “ We were a little better than last week.  We are still a little off this week.  We need to find something and make chances to get a little better.  It must have been a full moon in the heat race with two wrecks in the first heat of the night.  I just need to get back into a top five car next week.  Sprint cars changed the track, but crews did a nice job as the track did not take any rubber.”

Dylan Swinehart finished 8^th from his 4^th starting position and led for a few laps.  Back at the trailer Dylan reflected “We have broken our two motors four times this season and I really thought we were done for the season.  My grandfather bought a 3^rd motor, and we came back last week and posted an 11^th first time out with the new motor. I really didn’t think we needed to continue after hurting our motor a 4^th time this season.  I’m very grateful for my grandfather who wants to keep racing and give me an opportunity to show how I can perform against the big guys.  Tonight, was our 3^rd actual finish of the season and I was very happy with the 8^th place finish.  We led a few laps on 12 & 13 but I picked the wrong lane on a restart and got freight trained by the big guys using the bottom.  We have a good car that gets in, rotates and gets out of the turn well and that is thanks to Fast Four Shocks & Ron Seltmann.”

Justin Grimm finished a season best 9^th from an 8^th starting position and is seeing improvements from some recent shock and exhaust changes.   Justin stated “We’ve made big gains on the handling mostly from the new the shock package.  We had to go through a little bit of growing pains last week, but we’re rolling pretty good now.  I had a driver underneath me getting into 3 that decided he wanted to run the outside while I was already up there, it pushed me out of the groove and the car biked up and I was fortunate just set it down against the wall and took back off.  I’m really pleased with the improvement this week and I can’t thank my sponsors and my crew enough for sticking though the rough start of the year.  The new shock program feels like what we have been missing this year and Ron Seltmann has been a big help in turning our program around.”

Joe Funk posted a season best 10^th finish from his 2^nd starting position.  Joe noted “It all comes down to making the handicap then finishing in the feature.  We have been qualifying every week but not making the handicap.  In the past few features, we have had various issues resulting in not finishing (part failures, brakes, and a big wreck in turn 3 last week)…so it’s really good to finish, and finally get our first top 10 of the season.

Tim Buckwalter finished 12^th from his 25^th starting position.  It was one of those nights for the 23X team with an oil leak in hot laps, losing the brake line in the heat race and getting bent up in the big tangle in the feature but still posting a 12^th place finish.

The Rest of the Story

It was one of those nights on the hill with two major jingles in the heat races that were a precursor to the “Big One” in the feature and involved over half of the 29 car field.  21 cars remained on track after the “Big One” on lap 11.

Mike Lisowski finished 13^th from his 28^th starting position.  Mike reflected “The heats were really challenging with 12 cars scrambling for 7 spots.  After a rough last month and a half, we had a decent car come feature time which means we were able to stay straight and avoid the wrecks.”

Cory Merkel made good use of his provisional and finished 17^th from a 29^th starting position.  Cory endured a heavy jingle sending him to the pits and to the back of the consolation.  The consolation wasn’t much better for Cory as he was in another jingle and ended up on the DNQ list but exercised his provisional and was able to continue starting in every feature this season.

Ryan Grim finished 13^th from his 28^th starting position and was able to salvage a reasonable finish on a very trying night.  Ryan recalled “ We broke a right rear axle in the heat race.  We had a good car in the feature but then got the front end bent up in the big front stretch pile-up wreck and had to settle for a 13^th place finish.”

Ron Haring was on a rail from the poll position and had a 3 second lead over 2^nd place Joe Funk and the field until he spun on lap 11 and was collected by Brad Grim to end his night.

Nate Brinker had a good car in the feature but snapped a U joint on lap 5 which wiped out the driveline and transmission.

Last week’s 2^nd place finisher Kyle Lilick couldn’t make the call for the heat or consolation due to power steering issues.  

Kevin Graver took a hard tumble onto his lid in his heat race which ended his night with his first major contact tangle of the season.

Next up at Grandview on Tuesday, August 2, the final NAPA Auto Parts Thunder on the Hill Racing Series event of this season will be presented, featuring Big Block/Small Block Modifieds in the Triple Roaring 20’s, along with a complete show of 602 Sportsman paying $1000 to win starting at 7:30 pm.

The program will include qualifying races leading to 3/20-lap features races all paying $2000 to win and $200 to start. There will be a bonus of $5000 if a driver can win all three, or a $1000 bonus for winning two features all provided by Pioneer Pole Buildings. Also, if a driver captures his first Thunder Series win, an additional bonus of $3000 will be added to make for a $5000 win for a 20-lap feature. This race program will also see GT Radiator Repair putting up $1000 in bonus money for the Modified qualifying events.

On August 2, the Pit gates will open at 2:30 pm., Grandstand gates open at 5 pm., with racing starting at 7:30 pm. Adult grandstand admission is $30, children ages 6-11 are $10 and children ages 5 and under are admitted free of charge.