Grandview Sportsman Pit Notes – Hunter Iatalese Claims his First Career Sportsman Win at Grandview Speedway

Polesitter Hunter Iatalese took the lead on lap 1 and never looked back as he held off a closing Jessie Hirthler on the final lap in lapped traffic to pick up his first career win and trip to victory lane at Grandview Speedway.

Heat race winners for the 40 car sportsman field were Hunter Iatalese, Kaitlyn Bailey, Decker Swinehart and Ryan Graver.

Brad Grim and Tyler James won the consolation races.

T.P. TRUCK EQUIPMENT NASCAR SPORTSMAN FEATURE FINISH (25 laps):

1. HUNTER IATALESE, 2. Jesse Hirthler, 3. Kyle Smith, 4. Steve Young, 5. Cody Manmiller, 6. Addison Meitzler, 7. Logan Watt, 8. Brad Grim, 9. Brian Hirthler, 10. Parker Guldin, 11. Ronnie Solomon, 12.  Michael Burrows, 13. Adrianna Delliponti, 14. Tyler James, 15. Ryan Graver, 16. Logan Bauman, 17. Molly Struss, 18. Dakota Kohler, 19. Mark Gaugler, 20. Nathan Horn, 21. Kaitlyn Bailey, 22. Zane Roth,  23. Andy Ressler, 24. Decker Swinehart, 25. Brett Gilmore, 26. Colton Perry, 27. Kenny Bock, 28. Kyle Hartzell

DID NOT QUALIFY: Nick Faust, Zach Steffey, Tom Miller, Jesse Landis, Mark Mohr, Dallas Breidenbach, Nathan Mohr, Keith Haring, Tom Miller Jr., Nicholas Hamm, BJ Joly, Mike Schneck Jr.,

NASCAR Sportsman Pit Notes  

Hunter Iatalese took his first career Grandview feature win from the pole position and added it to a heat race win also from the pole position to round out a perfect day in the # 1 spot.  In the feature race he negotiated both lapped traffic and 4 restarts to open a 3-4 second lend over second place for most of the 25 lap feature.   

Hunter posted a 2^nd and 5^th place finish last year at Grandview but this winter the 625 team updated their equipment, and it all came together for Hunter on his first outing of the season in the 625 as he drove into victory lane for his first career win at Grandview Speedway.

Jesse Hirthler finished a charging to the front 2^nd place from his 7^th starting position.  Jesse’s opening day ended early after contact with the wall, and he pulled in to race another day.  So, after three weeks of rainouts, Jesse was ready to go when the “race another day” finally arrived this week and he got right back to his quest for the front in 2023 with a 2^nd place finish in his heat race.  Jesse carried the momentum right into the feature and systematically moved through the field picking off one car at a time until arriving in 2^nd place on lap 16.  In the final 10 laps of lapped traffic, he was able to close a 4 second lead down to a .6 second margin of victory for winner Hunter Iatalese.

Jesse recounted “In the feature I could pretty much run wherever I put the car, but I needed to get down to the bottom more on some laps. I passed some cars early and by lap 8 was in 3rd after starting 7th.  On the only restart, I messed up and let the 4th place driver get past me.  I was then able to pass the two cars that were in front of me and by lap 16 was able set my sights on the leader. After tracking him down from more than a straightaway lead, I could see he was getting caught up in the lap cars and I was getting closer every lap. It was shaping up for a close finish and I just ran out of laps in the end.  We will take 2nd and regroup, maintenance, and review what we learned so we are better and ready for next week.  After a pretty good first season in 2022, our season opener of pulling in early at the Moneymaker was not what I expected, but with racing it is what it is, and we’ll be ready to improve one spot next week.” 

Kyle Smith finished 3^rd from his 15^th starting position which he added to a solid 4^th place finish from opening day to quietly take the early points lead.  Kyle has been on a steady incline in the points standing  with a 6^th in 2021, improving to a 3^rd place point finish in 2022, and now he’s off to a good start and sitting right were he wants to be at the end of the 2023.

Kyle reflected “In the heat the car was fast, and I had trouble getting by some cars but in the end it all worked out and I finished 2^nd in the heat which was far more than what I needed to make the handicap.”

“In the feature we started 15^th and stayed on the bottom and the car was on a rail. Made it to 8^th before the first and only caution of the race came out on lap 7.  Under 18 laps of green flag racing, we moved from 8^th to 3^rd and just needed one more caution to get a chance at the last two cars.  Track was strange in the heats with no curb and rubbered up in the middle but nonetheless it was a very good track for me tonight.”

Steve Young finished 4^th from his 8^th starting position.  Steve finished 3^rd in his heat race but was disqualified in error by Grandview but the track then corrected their error and reinstated Steve back into the feature program.  Steve made the best of his opportunity and posted a solid 4^th place finish.

Cody Manmiller posted a solid 5^th place finish from his 13^th starting position which propelled him into 4^th place in the early season point standings.

Cody stated “Car was pretty good, and I’ve felt good all year.  I was able to snag a few spots early in the heat to get in the handicap.  In the feature I was caught in the wrong lane in the first few laps and lost spots to Kyle and Logan.  On that one restart, Kyle and I were able to get a few positions on the top and moved into the top 8 or so.  I had a nice back and forth battle with Logan and was able to grab the 5^th spot on the final lap. There was not a ton of grip if you were off the bottom in the feature and when it gets like that, I’m very happy being able to get up to a  5^th place finish.”

Addison Meitzler finished 6^th from his 9^th starting position. 

Addison stated “Our car shut off right before we went out for warmups, and it took us 10 minutes to get it running again so we didn’t make it out for warmups at all. On opening day, the car was way too tight, so we changed some things for this week during the three week rain break.”

“In the heat race the car was back to normal from last week and we ran to a 2^nd place finish which put us 9th in feature. We just tightened the car up too much for the feature.  In the beginning we made progress and moved up to 4^th place only to slow down as the car got tighter and fall back to 6^th place.  The track developed some ruts, and I couldn’t get through them how I needed to.  We got our setup back in the ballpark this week and we are just an adjustment away from where we want to be.  We will be fine.”

Logan Watt finished 7^th in the feature from his 16^th starting position. 

Logan had an eventful heat race with a late flat tire and returned to the tail of the field with only two laps to go, but despite the flat tire Logan still managed to handicap into the feature.

Logan adds this week’s 7^th place finish to his opening day 3^rd place finish which places him in a in an early season tie in NASCAR points with Brian Hirthler for 2^nd place behind points leader Kyle Smith.

Brad Grim continues to post good runs in his return to the sportsman ranks with an 8^th place finish from his 22^nd starting position in the feature.

Brad recounted “Our heat was not very good as we started in the back of heat 2 and there just wasn’t much passing, but we did manage to get a front row starting spot for the consolation.  We were much better in the consolation and won it hands down from the front row.  We started 22^nd and made a strong forward run to 8^th and probably could have gone into the top 5 but the car started to get free late in the race.”

Brian Hirthler finished 9^th from his 17^th starting position in the one caution 25 lap feature.

Brian stated, “overall the night was pretty good, we were testing quite a bit all night, learned a few new things which we should be able to apply in the future.”

“In the heat I was fortunate to be in the right place at the right time and move 9^th to 5^th and qualify.  In the feature I  potentially could of have a top 5 run but ended up with some contact on the only restart and lost a few spots.  Move on to next week and looking to have some fun.”

Parker Guldin finished 10^th from his 11^th starting position and through two races has been dealing with mechanical failures during the feature.  In the season opener the right rear suspension broke in the middle of the feature and Parker was still able to navigate his Bicknell to finish the race.  This week it was the front suspension that broke half-way through the feature and Parker was again able to continue to race with a broken car and hang on for a 10^th place finish.

 Parker noted “We had a front suspension failure and still had a positive top 10^th finish, and we are very happy with that outcome considering we broke the front suspension half-way through the feature.  This is only the second outing in our new Bicknell, so we are still learning and getting a baseline for our setup, but we were still able to move forward in both the feature and heat race.  We lost our motor at practice in March and big thank you to Scott Kohler for providing his motor to keep us going.”

“With 40 cars the past two races it’s evident that qualifying each week going to be very important and gut wrenching every week since the heat races are usually going to be on a one lane track that doesn’t allow much passing.  I’m incredibly thankful that I was not only able to pass cars in the heat this week but more importantly lockdown a third place finish in the handicap from 6^th starting spot and avoid running the consolation for the first time in a long time.”

“In the feature there really wasn’t much up top, but the top was there for a little while and I used the top until I couldn’t use it anymore.  About half-way through the feature our handling became unpredictable, and the car became uncomfortable to drive.  A post-race inspection revealed that we lost a bolt for a front radius rod.  Although we have been dealing with a lot of little nit-picking stuff, we are extremely happy with the performance of our new Bicknell.”

Ronnie Solomon finished 11^th in the feature from his 6^th starting position in only his second career Grandview start.

Ronnie reflected “ Well at our first Grandview race we struggled with a super tight car and missed the feature. We worked hard on the car over the rainout weeks to get it ready for this week. I think starting 2^nd in the heat helped us with qualifying this week.  I know I’m a smart young driver with a lot to learn this year and that’s what I intend to do.  I also believe we are off to a pretty good start to our season.”

The Grandview girls made some noise this week with all three sportsman ladies making the feature together for the first time ever.  Kaitlyn Bailey, Molly Strussy and Adie Delliponti all started in the feature, and this was the first time all three young ladies started in a Grandview Sportsman feature race.

Kaitlyn Bailey won her first career Sportsman heat race. In the feature Kaitlyn ran 2^nd for the first 10 laps until she got bumped high and lost a bunch of spots and then had to deal with an increasingly tight race car dropping her to a 21^st finish.

Kaitlyn noted “Our heat race was great, and we won our first heat race with a tight race car in the turns.  In the feature we had a strong car but after the restart the car started to get tighter, and we took a bump in the left rear that sent me high, and everyone got underneath us.  I tried to hold my position the best I could, but the car continued to tighten which made it a struggle as the car got tighter and tighter.”

Molly Strussy finished 17^th from her 4^th starting position in her first career feature start at Grandview.  In only her 4^th points race at Grandview she qualified for the feature in a 40 car field of cars.

Molly reflected “In both the heat race and feature I was protecting the bottom to get consistent laps under my belt.  This was my first ever crate feature and I wasn’t expecting much.  I just wanted to keep the car in one piece and finish the race and I did just that.  I’m working on getting more comfortable on a slick track in the feature which is like an ice skating rink and requires a different driving style.”

Adie Delliponti finished 13^th from her 28^th provisional starting position.  Adie is the senior member of the Grandview’s sportsman gal group and is in her 3^rd year of racing at Grandview.

Track conditions in Adie’s heat # 2 did not permit passing in the no caution qualifying heat sending her to the consolation were she missed qualifying to the feature by one spot.  Adie finished in 10^th in the 2022 points standings, so she was able to use a provisional and to start 28^th in the feature. Despite only one caution and 18 green flag laps Adie was able to finish 13^th from her 28^th starting position.

Grandview Speedway will be presenting another NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series program next week featuring the T.P. Trailer NASCAR Modifieds and T.P. Truck Equipment NASCAR Sportsman, plus the only visit of the season by the Rapid Tire USAC East Coast Wingless Sprint Cars.

The show on Saturday, May 13 will include qualifying events for all three classes leading into a 30-lap T.P. Trailer Modified feature and 25-lap features for the T.P. Truck Equipment Sportsman and USAC EC Sprints Cars.