Grandview Modified Pit Notes – 9/10/22 – Craig Von Dohren Wins 2022 Modified Points Championship and Ron Haring Claims his First Modified  Victory

Polesitter Ron Haring led 26 green flag laps and held on through two late restarts to take his first career Modified win at Grandview Speedway.

Craig Von Dohren finished 8^th tonight but that was more than enough to secure his 3rd consecutive Grandview points championship.  This season Von Dohren amassed 8 wins; 6 top five finishes, 2 top ten finishes and one 12^th place finish to win the 2022 Grandview points championship.

Polesitter Ron Haring  took the early lead and moved around lap traffic starting on lap 5 and then opened a 3 second lead over Eric Biehn in second place.  Haring led 26 green flag laps and then survived two late restarts to take his first win and trip into Grandview’s victory lane.

Heat winners for the 38 car modified field were Ron Haring Jr., Kyle Lillick, Kevin Hirthler and Craig Whitmoyer.   The last chance consolation was won by Jeff Strunk & Dave Dissinger.

MODIFIED FEATURE FINISH (30 laps): 1.RON HARING JR., 2. Craig Whitmoyer, 3. Bobby Trapper Jr., 4. Tim Buckwalter, 5. Jared Umbenhauer, 6. Jeff Strunk, 7. Eric Biehn, 8. Craig Von Dohren, 9. Brett Gilmore, 10. Doug Manmiller, 11. Kevin Hirthler, 12. Mike Lisowski, 13. Mike Gular, 14. Kyle Lilick, 15. Brad Arnold, 16. Dave Dissinger, 17. Brett Kressley, 18. Kevin Graver Jr., 19. Briggs Danner, 20. Dan Waisempacher, 21. Mark Kratz, 22. Justin Grim, 23. Ryan Grim, 24. Joe Funk, 25. Jesse Leiby, 26. John Willman, 27. Nate Brinker, 28. Dylan Swinehart, , 29. Meme DeSantis

DID NOT QUALIFY: Steve Swinehart, Ryan Beltz, Chris Gambler, Ryan Lilick, Cory Merkel, Lex Shive, Bobby Gunther-Walsh, Ray Swinehart, Duane Howard

Craig Von Dohren claimed his third consecutive modified track points championship winning the 2022 Grandview modified points championship over 2^nd place Brett Kressley. This is Craig’s 13^th overall championship at Grandview. Craig won his first points crown at Grandview during the 1988 racing season. He had a banner season during 2022, scoring eight point race wins on his way to the championship and twelve overall victories at Grandview.

Grandview Modified Pit Notes 9/10/22 –

Ron Haring posted his first career Grandview win from the pole position.  It wasn’t the first time that Ron Haring has started on the pole this year; but it was the first time in his career that he went wire to wire and made a trip to Grandview’s victory lane.  Ron hit the back of the field on lap 5 and negotiated lapped traffic and maintained a 2.5 second lead over 2^nd place Eric Biehn until the first caution came out on lap 26.  Ron had to deal with a second late caution on lap 28 but he managed to hold Craig Whitmoyer at bay during both restarts and cruised into victory lane for his career first Grandview win.

In victory lane Ron Haring Jr noted “Thanks to everyone that helps me.  Thanks to my brother who believed in me – we did it.   I know dad was watching.  We got a brand new Bicknell like everyone else, and it has worked from day one.  I was just going around and trying to hit my marks and I got to the back of the field on lap 5.  After I got around the first lapped car, it got easier, and I just kept rolling past the rest of them.  Then with go to 4 laps to go, the first caution came out which I didn’t want to see, but at least it was a single file restart.  One more red flag with two laps to go gave me too much time to think, but I knew I was in control of my own fate and I made it happen.”

Back at the trailer Ron noted “ We got this 2022 Bicknell frame new about 6 weeks ago.  Fast Four Shocks has hooked this car up.  This car works good on top and that is where I run the best.  In the heat race we ran very well but felt someone close and it turned out to be Trapper who was right on us.  We made some small adjustments for the feature and the car was on rails.  Some close encounters with lapped traffic but nothing significant or out of the ordinary.  I was able to  hang on through two single file restarts at the end.  Whitmoyer showed me the nose on the first and second restart, but I took the lane away from him and then ran away.   Just got to thank everyone that helps on the car and supports us week in and week out.  Thanks for all the fans coming out and supporting this track.  I couldn’t believe the cheers we got from them in victory lane.”

Craig Whitmoyer finished 2^nd from his 5^th starting position.  Craig moved into second on lap 26 but with single file restarts and fading track conditions stayed in 2^nd for his best finish of the season.  In the last month of racing, Craig has been in and out of about 4 different chassis due to a string of hard wrecks and flips.  The most recent was Friday night at Diamond were his 99 dug-in and rolled in warmups for the Coal cracker.  Craig then went home and pulled his recently rebuilt 2591 backup car out for tonight and posted his best finish of the season.

Craig commented ”We have been plagued by bad luck in the last month and have destroyed several race cars.  It seems like I am getting familiar with a new car every week because of a wreck last week.  This week it was the wreck of our 99 last night which put us back in our recently rebuilt 2591 tonight.  In the heat the car was very good, and we made some important moves to get the win.  We made some changes for the feature which seemed to be the right ones.  On the single file restarts I was able to get next to him (Haring), but he had momentum and went back around me.  I could have gone harder but didn’t have enough time in our backup car yet to know how much the car could take.”  

Bobby Trapper finished a season best 3^rd from his 6^th starting position.  Bobby had a 5^th place finish in June with some dated equipment, but he then upgraded to a newer chassis and has posted another 5^th, 7^th and then tonight’s 3^rd place finish in addition to 2 top ten finishes at Thunder on the Hill races this year.

Bobby reflected “Really just about getting back in the car and getting laps and comfortable again.  The Bicknell chassis has been handling good and a big help for us to get better for sure. Car felt great in the heat and happy to get into a comfortable qualifying position early and hold onto it.  For sure the long green stretches are always advantageous to us guys starting up front. It makes it very hard for the big guys to work their way to the front like they usual do when they have restarts. The lap traffic was hit and miss for me.  Some brake issues hindered our handling about mid race in the feature which hurt my ability to maneuver around at times.  All in all, it was a good run that came up just a bit short.”

Timmy Buckwalter finished 4^th from his 12^th starting position which was a vast improvement from last week when Timmy lost a motor in the heat race and had to jump into Brett Gilmore’s car for the consolation and feature to keep his points chase moving forward. 

Back at the trailer Timmy noted “Having a motor that last the whole race is a key goal for the Buckwalter camp this week.  Hats off to the guys for not giving up.  We put in our only remaining motor and went to Big Diamond last night to shake it down.  We made some changes in the shop today and things worked out pretty good for us with an 8 year old motor built by an old drag racer.  We finished 4^th in the feature and moved up one position in the season points to 5^th in the final point standings.”

Timmy continued “We are back on coils and had good balance in the car all night, so we didn’t make any adjustments all night long.  I benefited from a couple of right decisions early in the feature.   The track was good tonight and we had very little wear on our tires which we also ran for 45 laps last night at Big Diamond.  They look good enough to possibly use for the 76er heat race.”

Jared Umbenhauer finished 5^th from his 11^th starting position and posted his second consecutive 4^th place finish at Grandview.  Jared stated “ At least for once this season we had a smooth heat and made it cleanly to 3^rd and into the handicap . The top side was a little tricky during the feature, when you hit it right you made up a lot of ground.  The car was very good on the bottom too.  The car has been good every week, we just didn’t have the cautions last night. The red flag wasn’t any problem for us.”

Jeff Strunk finished 6^th from his 20^th starting position.  Jeff noted “We had a good run again and track position was really important as it always is everywhere anymore.  We struggled in our heat race since the 1st heat of the night is always extra challenging.  We didn’t qualify in the heat but won the consolation.  In the feature, we passed a bunch of very good cars again in 26 green flag laps to run to a solid 6^th place finish and it shows just how important it is to make the invert.  The track had a lot of grip, all night long and that kind of threw us a bit of a  curve ball but we had setup were it needed to be by time when we got to the feature.  We could have used an early caution with a double fine restart for a possible top 3 finish.”

Jeff Continued “We started preparing for the 6er last week and it is my favorite race of the year. It is possibly the last race at Grandview, so it will be a packed house and hold a lot of history.  We are hopeful we can get win # 9 and get Zubi his first 6er win which he definitely deserves after being so close to winning it in 2015.”

Eric Biehn finished 7^th from his 3^rd starting position.  Eric held 2^nd place for 25 laps and fell off the pace after the two late restarts to a 7^th place finish.  Eric recalled “  We had fuel pressure issue in warmups, but had it fixed it for heat race.  Once I found the top in heat race, we were good.  We had a great run in feature. and I thought we could challenge for the win, but motor started to lay down and overheat with 8 laps to go and then we were down a cylinder.  We found out back at the shop that the water pump came loose or broke causing engine to overheat and damaged the engine.  With both our motors damaged and out to the engine builder we are done for the rest of the season.”

Craig Von Dohren finished 8^th from 14^th starting position.  Craig usually moves forward early but this week he got hung up and lost some positions early while the race ran green for 26 laps.  He did make some late progress on the two single file restarts to get up to an 8^th place finish which easily secured the 2022 Grandview modified points championship and was his 3^rd year consecutive points championship at Grandview.  Craig capped a spectacular season with 8 point races wins and 12 overall wins this season at Grandview.

Brett Gilmore finished 9^th from his 2^nd starting position to post two top ten finishes in his last three starts.  Brett stated “ We started the night with a good car in the heat race and made the handicap.  The only change we made for the feature was the right rear tire.  In the feature we were setup for the end of the race and the track did come to us late in the race as we had planned.  I had a hard time getting around some cars that appeared to be fading late in the race.  We were very good on the long 26 lap green flag run.  I am very happy to see Ron Haring get his trip to victory lane.  My goal for the 76er is to qualify.”

The Rest of the Story

Brett Kressley qualified in the handicap but found engine damage after the heat race and had to change motors which caused him to lose his starting position.  He used a provisional and was able to start 29^th on the field.  Brett finished 17^th from the 29^th starting position.

Meme DeSantis made his first appearance of the season in preparation for the 76er.  In his heat race Meme came from scratch on the field and finished 4^th to qualify for the handicap.  Meme pulled off early but will return next week for the 76er as a former winner of the event.

Mike Gular finished 13^th from his 18^th starting position.  Mike has returned to Grandview to prepare for next week’s 76er.

Briggs Danner qualified for the field and finished 19^th from his 22^nd starting position.  Briggs is shaking down Doug Manmiller’s 44D backup car in preparation for a brief return to modified racing at the 76er.

The good news for Justin Grim is that he qualified and started all 17 features this season which was accomplished by only 5 other cars and Justin.  The bad news in the past 3 weeks he has been involved in two major incidents in the feature.  2 weeks ago, he had a huge flip in turn 3 and had to change his motor to his backup car for the past two weeks.   Another turn 3 incident this week resulted in heavy damage to the front end, shocks, headers, body, bumper, and some frame damage.    Despite this recent bad racing luck don’t be surprised to see Justin at the 76er looking to extend his qualifying streak to 18 at the Freedom 76er.  Justin noted “The frame needed some slugs repaired and I’m dropping it off tonight to get it done and we’re working to have it ready for the 76er this weekend.”    

Duane Howard was involved in two tangles in his heat race and the second one put him hard into the wall which ended his night.  Duane recalled “We had a bad deal in the heat race and took a hard hit into the wall.  The Grandview car needs a front clip.  We are bringing the Big Diamond car to the 76er.”

The Freedom 76 weekend begins on Friday, September 16 with the 9^th annual Freedom 38 Sportsman Championship race paying $2000 to the winner, along with qualifying events plus practice time for Modified drivers wishing to participate in the Freedom 76.

On Friday, pit gates open at 3 pm with grandstand gates opening at 5:30 pm. and racing at 7:30 pm. Adult Grandstand admission is just $5, while children ages 11 and under are admitted for free. Pit admission on Friday is $35, and no license is required. There is no rain date for the Friday event.

On Saturday, September 17, the 52^nd annual Freedom 76 will be run for the 358 Modifieds paying $30,060 to the winner. The program will include qualifying heats, consolation races, a cash dash along with the Schaeffer Racing Minuteman 20 leading to the 76-lap championship feature. Pit gates open at 9 am for inspections, Grandstand ticket windows open at 3 pm. with racing starting at 7 pm. Fans will be able to enter the Grandstand areas between 9 am. and 12 Noon to reserve seats with blankets.

Adult Grandstand tickets on Saturday will be $40, while children ages 6-11 are $10, with children ages 5 and under admitted for free. Pit admission will be $45, and no license is required. There will be no advanced tickets sold for this event, and the rain date is Saturday, September 24.