Von Dohren, Pauch Jr and Alex Yankowski win a Modified Triple 20’s and Yankowski  Posts First Grandview Win at Thunder on the Hill

The Thunder on the Hill modified triple 20’s saw three different winners in each triple of the triple 20’s race – Craig Von Dohren won the first triple 20; Billy Pauch Jr won the second and Alex Yankowski won the 3^rd triple 20 as well as a bonus of $3,000 for being a first time winner at Thunder on the Hill.

First 20 Lap Feature

Craig Von Dohren drew the pole in the opening triple 20 and lead from green to checkered with a 1.2 margin of victory over Brett Kressley who moved into 2^nd from his 7^th starting position.  Mike Gular, Jeff Strunk, Duane Howard and Bobby Trapper were all involved in an early jingle but recovered for some top 10 finishes later in the night.  

Craig Von Dohren won followed by Brett Kressley in 2^nd, Ryan Watt, Kevin Hirthler, Billy Pauch Jr and Doug Manmiller in 6^th.    The top 6 inverted for the 2^nd triple which put Doug Manmiller and Milly Pauch Jr on the front row of the 2^nd feature.

Second 20 lap Feature

After a 10 minute break in the staging lanes for track prep Doug Manmiller lead the field to green in feature # 2.  An early on only yellow of feature 2 saw Kevin Hirthler retire to the pits for suspension breakage.  Billy Pauch Jr. took the win with Manmiller, Kressley and Von Dohren trailing closely in a breakaway top 4.

The top ten was rounded out by Doug Manmiller in 2^nd followed by Brett Kressley, Craig Von Dohren, Ryan Watt, Mike Gular, Jeff Strunk, Rick Laubach, Alex Yankowski and Bobby Trapper in 10^th.  The top ten inverted and put Bobby Trapper on the pole of feature #3.

Third 20 lap Feature

Alex Yankowski took the lead from the outside pool and led the entire non-stop feature from green to checkered over Jeff Strunk  in second followed by Rick Laubach, Mike Gular, Brett Kressley, Bobby Trapper, Craig Von Dohren, Doug Manmiller, Ryan Watt, Billy Pauch Jr, Ryan Watt and Frank Cozze in 10^th place.

Alex not only won the 3^rd triple 20 but also won his first Thunder on the Hill race which earned him another $3,000 bonus making his winnings on the night $5,525.

The heat races were won by Doug Manmiller, Brett Kressley and Ron Kline.  The last chance consolation was won by Kyle Smith. 

Feature 1 (20 Laps) –

1. Craig Von Dohren 2. Brett Kressley 3. Ryan Watt 4. Kevin Hirthler 5. Billy Pauch Jr. 6. Doug Manmiller 7. Rick Laubach 8. Mike Gular 9. Jeff Strunk 10. John Willman 11. Frank Cozze 12. Brian Hirthler 13. Bobby Trapper, Jr. 14. Craig Whitmoyer 15. Duane Howard 16. Jesse Leiby 17. Kyle Smith 18. Alex Yankowski 19. Ron Kline 20. Joe Funk 21. Justin Grim 22. Jack Butler 23. Ryan Beltz 24. Steve Young

Feature 2 (20 Laps) – 1. Billy Pauch, Jr. 2. Doug Manmiller 3. Brett Kressley 4. Craig Von Dohren 5. Ryan Watt 6. Mike Gular 7. Jeff Strunk 8. Rick Laubach 9. Alex Yankowski 10. Bobby Tapper, Jr. 11. Frank Cozze 12. Craig Whitmoyer 13. John Willman 14. Duane Howard 15. Dylan Swinehart 16. Jesse Leiby 17. Brian Hirthler 18. Kyle Smith 19. Justin Grim 20. Ron Kline 21. Joe Funk 22. Steve Young 23. Ryan Beltz 24. Kevin Hirthler

Feature 3 (20 Laps) – 1. Alex Yankowski 2. Jeff Strunk 3. Rick Laubach 4. Mike Gular 5. Brett Kressley 6. Bobby Trapper, Jr. 7. Craig Von Dohren 8. Doug Manmiller 9. Ryan Watt 10. Billy Pauch, Jr. 11. Frank Cozze 12. Craig Whitmoyer 13. Jesse Leiby 14. Brian Hirthler 15. Kyle Smith 16. John Willman 17. Justin Grim 18. Ron Kline 19. Joe Funk 20. Steve Young 21. Ryan Beltz 22. Duane Howard 23. Kevin Hirthler 24. Jack Butler

DNQ –  Dylan Swinehart (1st Alt), Jimmy Leiby, Jared Umbenhauer, Brett Gilmore

Thunder on the Hill – Triple Twenties

Timed hot laps set the fields for the heat races with an invert of the top 6 times.  The top 4 cars from each heat went into a traditional redraw for the first feature and then winner pulled a number of 6, 8 or 10 for the invert in the next feature.

Jared Umbenhauer flipped and rolled hard at the start of the first heat after contact with a yuke tire.  Jared walked away but the car was done for the night.

Alex Yankowski picked up his first win at Thunder on the Hill and his first Grandview win.  Alex who is now 18 has been racing for the past 4 years and is seeing his experience at Grandview, Bridgeport, Big Diamond, Utica Rome, Fonda, Short Track Super Series, Super Dirtcar Series and more all come together on any given night and land him in victory lane.

Alex noted “The key to tonight was being able to recover from getting knocked back to 10^th early in our heat race and being able to race back to 5^th on a restart.  I felt the right rear tire going down the last couple of laps but was able to keep it going for the win, but it was flat by time I got in victory lane.”

The two best overall finishes in all three of the 20 lap features were: Brett Kressley with a 2^nd, 3^rd and 5^th and Craig Von Dohren with a win, 4^th, and 7^th.

Local racer Bobby Trapper continues to impress this season with two 6^th place finishes to add to two 5^th place finishes in weekly competition all along while changing his chassis a few weeks ago.

If there was a bonus for consistency Frank Cozze would have landed it with his three 11^th place finishes in all three 20 lap features.

Next Saturday, August 6 the night of racing will be known as Do It in the Dirt Night featuring Bob Hilbert Sportswear as the race night sponsor celebrating the very first tee shirt that Bob Hilbert made and sold at the speedway, he first sold tee shirts at Grandview Speedway.  The Bob Hilbert Sportswear Team will be there with fan giveaways that evening along with selling the brand new 50^th anniversary edition of the Do It in the Dirt tee shirt.  They are rolling back the prices and selling this limited-edition tee for JUST $5.00 EACH!  This race program will include the T.P. Trailer Modifieds and T.P. Truck Equipment Sportsman in another NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Racing Series double-header.  Pit gates will open at 4 pm. with grandstand gates opening at 5:30 pm. warm-ups will be starting at 6:30 pm. Adult grandstand admission is $18, while children ages 11 and under are admitted free of charge.