Grandview Sportsman Pit Notes 8/27/22 –  Brian Hirthler Wins 5th Saturday Night Sportsman Points Race Over Rookie Mark Mohr

Brian Hirthler picked up his 5^th Grandview point race win of the season with a lap 18 pass of Mark Mohr to take the lead and drive into victory lane.

Polesitter and rookie Mark Mohr survived four early cautions before lap 1 was in the books.  Mark lead for the first 17 laps, until a persistent Brian Hirthler passed him on for the lead and took his 5^th points race win of the season with rookie Mark Mohr taking a season’s best 2^nd place finish and Parker Guldin finishing a strong 3^rd from his 13^th starting position.

 Heat winners for the field of 37 sportsman were Jesse Landis, Mark Mohr, BJ Joly and Zack Steffy.  The last chance consolations were won by Dylan Hoch and Jimmy Leiby.

SPORTSMAN FEATURE FINISH (25 laps):

1.BRIAN HIRTHLER, 2. Mark Mohr, 3. Parker Guldin, 4. Mike Myers, 5. Matt Clay, 6. Joey Vaccaro, 7. Adrianna Delliponti, 8. Steve Young, 9. Nathan Mohr, 10. Dylan Hoch, 11. Jimmy Leiby, 12. Kyle Smith, 13. Cody Manmiller, 14. Decker Swinehart, 15. Mark Gaugler, 16. Keith Haring, 17. Zach Steffy, 18. Zane Roth, 19. Logan Bauman, 20. BJ Joly, 21. Bryan Rhoads, 22. Nathan Horn, 23. Kenny Bock, 24. Ryan Graver (provisional), 25. Dakota Kohler, 26. Mike Schneck Jr., 27 Michael Burrows, DNS – Jesse Landis

DID NOT QUALIFY: Josh Adams, Wayne Rotenberger, Weston Mensch, Nicholas Hamm, Hunter Iatalese, Chris Esposito, Katelyn Bailey, Kyle Hartzell, Jesse Hirthler

Grandview Sportsman Pit Notes 8/27/22

Brian Hirthler moved one step closer to the 2022 sportsman championship with a win from his 14^th starting position.  Before the first lap was in the books the caution flag flew 4 times and Brian moved from 14^th to 5^th with only one lap in the books.  Brian then used the next 24 green flag laps to move through the field and take the lead on lap 18 and roll into victory lane with a 1 second margin of victory over rookie Mark Mohr for his 5th win of the season.

Brian picked up his 3^rd win in his last 6 races which have all been top five finishes and moved one step closer to his 3^rd Grandview points championship.  Brian has a 367 point lead and can wrap-up the 2022 championship this week with a top five or better finish.

In victory lane Brian noted “the early double file restarts were tough but once we went to single file restarts then we started to go to work and move forward through the field.  I tried to pass the leader on the top, but the top was going away while the bottom took rubber, and I couldn’t get under Mark Mohr.  He was protecting the bottom, so I finally got him around the top and then cruised to the end and into victory lane.”

Brian commented “This week was pretty smooth, and we went 8th to 4th in the heat race passing as needed high & low on a very racy track.   Feature time we started 14th on the grid with a bunch of the faster cars missing the handicap.  I knew there might be a few early incidents as there was some new faces up front in the feature and we had back to back weeks of non-stop features which general analytics will tell you that trend won’t continue forever and especially at Grandview.”

“Right at the start of the feature I saw some contact between a few cars just in front of me, so I never got up to speed and just squeaked by the red flag tangle on the front stretch.  On the restart we went a half a lap and I saw a car sideways and lifted as I thought the chances of it turning into a sizeable accident were high and I was right.  I went 14th to 12th on the first accident and 12th to 7^th. After the 2nd accident and on the lap 1 restart, we went single file, and then I went to work on my march to the front.  Car seemed better on the bottom this week since the top was rather choppy.  Once I got to 2^nd, the leader was out pretty far but he is a relatively new driver at Grandview so I didn’t really have experience racing with him to know what his tendencies were. I took a few laps to see where I could make a pass and  I found the best spot to be off turn 2, made the pass, and never looked back to take win #5 on the season.”

Brian continued “It was unfortunate that some of the top runners had a tough night including my nephew who had some mechanical issues but the top 10 in points stayed the same only shuffled a bit internally.”

Mark Mohr finished 2^nd from his 2^nd starting position.  Mark qualified for the feature last week in his 5^th race of his rookie season and finished 22^nd from a 20^th starting position.  This week he qualified for his second point race and he handicappe4d to the pole position which he turned into a 2^nd place finish in only his 7^th career drive in the sportsman division.  Mark held the lead through the lap 1 restart and then lead 18 of 24 green flag laps on his way to a career base 2^nd place finish.

 Mark reflected “after last week’s feature we went to the drawing board and made some adjustments to the car in hopes to find some speed and it worked out really good for us. Won the heat race and the car got better during the race, but we didn’t know what type of adjustments to throw at it for the feature. We threw something at it and after 4 cautions on the first lap we took the lead from the outside and I felt comfortable out there in front of the field.  I saw the cross flags and thought maybe I have a shot at winning this but about lap 15-16, I could hear someone right on me and I started getting loose. I lost the lead on lap 18 to Brian Hirthler who had the better long run car. We ran 2nd in only my 3rd career feature start. We look forward to this Saturday night and hope to continue to make gains even though only 3 weeks left and possibly last year of racing at Grandview.”

Parker Guldin finished 3^rd from his 13^th starting position for his best finish since his win in week 2 of the season.  In the past few weeks Parker has struggled qualifying but not this week.  Parker had the car dialed in and was passing cars on the outside on his way to a season best 2^nd place finish in the heat from his 6^th starting position.  His success continued in the feature with a strong car and a solid 3^rd place finish in the 24 lap green to checkered feature.

Parker stated “I still consider myself lucky because the whole night just fell out in our favor. I was able to make up 4 spots in our heat going from 6th to 2nd which was huge for our points chase for 5th place. In the feature I was able to make up even more positions going from my initial 12^th starting position and work my way up to 3rd while avoiding all the unfortunate chaos that struck the field which was also huge for our points chase. I have zero complaints from last night other than the wrecks which I never like to see.  The track surface for my heat was racy and there were two very good lanes.  What was incredible to me, is that after the modified feature there was still 2 very good lanes of racing for our feature.  I looked at my lap times from each individual lap of my feature and the laps on the top were very close to the lap times on the bottom.  I was extremely happy with our car last night.  Usually once or twice in a night I will fight the car or the track, but last night it just seemed like everything was clicking just right for me on every lap.  I think that played a big role in my success last night but going forward the true test will be if we can carry this momentum into the final two point races of the season.”

Parker has moved back into 5^th in the point standings with Mike Schneck, Cody Manmiller and Dakota Kessler following him in 6^th to 8^th respectively.

Mike Myers finished 4^th from his 7^th starting position and posted his 2^nd top five finish in 3 races.  After finishing 3^rd a few weeks ago, Mike had a violent vibration in hot laps the next week and later found that the transmission broke just as he was crossing the line in 3^rd place a few weeks ago, so he ended up as a DNS after the hot laps last week.  He fixed the transmission and then proceeded to post another good finish this week with a 4^th tonight.

Matt Clay finished a strong 5^th from a 22^nd starting position.  Matt reflected “We had some contact from the rear in the heat race and missed qualifying from the heat by one position.  We made a lot of small changes  after the heat race.  We added spacers and offsets and they worked well in the feature.  Car was tight but drivable.  We didn’t have any new tires, but we were able to go 22^nd to 5^th on the tires we had on hand.  I told my son Doug I wanted to do good for his birthday and I was able to deliver.”

Joey Vaccaro finished 6^th from his 9^th starting position.  Joey recalled “heat races are always difficult, but we have the car figured out so that we can make the show every week and be in the handicap. I don’t think I’ve even been in a consolation all this year.  Going into the feature starting 9^th, I just wanted to survive the first few laps and pick a few cars off but that never seems to happen.  I’m not sure what happened, but I had a car come down off of the top of 4 and into my RR quarter panel on the first lap.  After I got an official’s attention, they told me I had to go in to get it fixed which I did.  Huge thanks to my crew and Louden Reimert for getting some zip ties on the car and getting me back out on the track. We made a few changes to the car for the feature but nothing major, so I wanted to at least get some laps on the car and I’m glad I did because we found some speed.  Most of the time speed hasn’t been the issue this year, it has been luck and last night except for the first lap our luck was better last night.  I drove from the back to the front, and it was fun hard racing through the pack from last to 6^th.”

Adie Delliponti finished 7^th from her 22^nd starting position.  Adie missed qualifying by one position in her heat race but qualified from the consolation.  Adie recalled “didn’t have a great heat due to the inability to pass in the first heat and everyone was so even on track.  We qualified through the consolation to get into the feature.  In the feature, I got caught up in the first caution flag of the night and had to go to the back of the field. I barely got around the three other big wrecks on lap 1, but did manage to get through them somehow. Then in 24 laps of straight green flag racing I got all the way up to 6th but faded a bit in the end to a 7^th place finish.  I did have some body damage at the end of the night, but that’s normal for Grandview.”

Steve Young finished 8^th from his 15^th starting position.  Steve is the only driver that week to week swings from a sportsman car to a modified car.  After posting a win in his sportsman car on 8/13/22; Steve returned to his modified last week and then this week he returned to his sportsman car and posted an 8^th place finish.

Nat Mohr finished 9^th from a 27^th  starting position and posted his third 5^th place finish of the season.  Nat just missed the setup in the heat and had to go to the consolation were he missed qualifying by one position and ended up as first alternate.  He made the feature when Jesse Landis had to leave the track due to a family emergency (everyone is fine).  Nat made the best of his opportunity with a 9^th place finish from a dead last starting position.

Nat reflected “what a wild night. The car wasn’t right in the heat race, so we had to run the consolation.  In the consolation we were not good either and I couldn’t move forward one position so ended up missing the feature by one spot and being the first alternate.  We got notice we made feature as an alternate with 5 laps to go in mod feature; so we had to do a mad scramble to get ready for the feature.  We had a close call on the lap 1 wreck but made it through.  I got some positions on cautions, but I was very fast on the long run and passed some cars.  Overall, it was a real good night with a real bad start.”

Dylan Hoch finished 10^th from his 20^th starting position.  Dylan noted “just could not catch an opening to move forward in the feature.  Kept getting held up behind slower cars and battling some handling issues all night made it a tough race for us.  Unfortunately, it just wasn’t a great night for us.  When something happens in front of you, it just comes down to luck if you can get through it or not without getting tore up. It would be a lot safer starting up front, but we don’t have that luxury right now.”

Jimmy Leiby finished 11^th from his 21^st starting position.  Jimmy noted “ In the heat I got put in the wall with two laps to go while passing for 5^th.  I won the consolation race with bent rear-end parts that we fixed in time for feature. We were missing a little forward bite in the feature and we have the solution for next week.”  Jimmy currently sits 4^th in the season point standings and is 3 points behind place Kyle Smith for 3rd place in the point standings.

Cody Mamillar finished 13^th from a 17^th starting position.  Cody stated “the heat was follow the leader, but I did enough in the first lap to get to 5th and qualify. In the feature, while coming to the green a massive pile up tore me up pretty bad and bent the front axle at a 45 degree angle. We were able to get it raceable and then just did what we could in the feature.

Racing next weekend on the Grandview Speedway schedule will be Saturday, September 3, featuring the T.P. Trailer NASCAR Modifieds and the T.P. Truck Equipment NASCAR Sportsman in another NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Racing Series program, that will also see the Wingless Super Sportsman Racers joining the show starting at 7:30 pm.

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 $20, while children ages 11 and under are admitted free of charge.

Friday, September 2 will feature Round 8 with the Outlaw Racing Series Enduro and Outlaw Racing Series Vintage Cars in action starting at 7 pm. Pit gates open at 2 pm., Grandstand gates open at 6 pm. Grandstand admission will be $10, with children ages 12 and under admitted for free. Pit admission is $30 for the Friday event.