Grandview Sportsman Pit Notes 6/08/24 – Mark Kemmerer Claims his First Sportsman Win of Season

Mark Kemmerer withstood 4 restarts and led the feature from green to checkered to take his first Grandview Speedway win of the 2024 season.

Outside Polesitter Mark Kemmerer took the early lead and never looked back as he pulled away from second place Steve Young on four different restarts to take his first Grandview win since the 2022 season.

Heat race winners for the 44-car sportsman field were Steve Young, Colton Perry, Jesse Landis and Mark Kemmerer.

The consolation races were won by Ronnie Solomon and Decker Swinehart.

T.P. TRUCK EQUIPMENT NASCAR SPORTSMAN FEATURE FINISH (25 laps): 1. MARK KEMMERER, 2. Steve Young, 3. Colton Perry, 4. Jesse Landis, 5. Mike Stofflet, 6. Logan Watt, 7. Mark Gaugler, 8. Kaitlyn Bailey, 9. Parker Guldin, 10. Zane Roth, 11. Brett Gilmore, 12. Mike Schneck Jr., 13. Dakota Kohler, 14. Dylan Swinehart, 15. Adrianna Delliponti, 16. Ronnie Solomon, 17. Brett Grim, 18. Nathan Mohr, 19, Teague Miller, 20, Ryan Graver, 21. Jesse Hirthler,22. Joey Vaccaro, 23. Shannon Slaughter, 24. TJ Mayberry, 25. Kenny Bock, 26.  Addison Meitzler, 27. Tyler James, DNS – Decker Swinehart

DID NOT QUALIFY: Brian Hirthler, Zach Steffey, Bobby Kupp, Mark Mohr, Troy Bollinger, Randy Graber, Lawson Szerencits, Logan Bauman, BJ Joly III, Gavyn Krupp, Nicholas Hamm, Alex Bartorillo, Nick Faust, Stephen Laubach, Kyle Hartzell, Dennis Graber

HARD CHARGER: Brett Gilmore +14

6/08/24 – SPORTSMAN PIT NOTES

Mark Kemmerer took the win from his 2^nd place starting position.  Mark raced a sportsman motor in 2022, moved to a 604-crate motor for the 2023 season and is now running a 602-crate motor for the first time. 

Back at trailer Mark noted “We were the quickest car in our hot lap group and is very comfortable thanks to help from the Brian and Kevin Hirthler.  We were able to win our heat race from the 2^nd starting position.”

“In the feature I knew going in that I had to get the jump at the green and to break away would be tough since the track locked down at the end of the modified feature.  I got the early lead and just as I saw the back of the field the yellow came out which I was very happy to see.  The yellows keep me away from the lappers and with everyone running in the rubbered-up bottom, I was relieved not to have to deal with getting through lapped traffic.  I didn’t even try the top and no one passed us on the top, each of the four yellows came out at the perfect time for us and they worked out well for us.”

Mark continued “The crate racing is better but not as fun in the car as sportsman racing with more horsepower.  We had too much gear and were up on the chip way too early on entry, but it did help us on this rubbered up locked down track.  We missed the gearing by mistake, but it was another thing that worked out for us tonight. If the track was dry and slick this gear would have killed us and this would have been a totally different outcome.  Sometimes things just work out.”   

Steve Young finished 2^nd from his 1^st starting position and posted his best finish of the season.  Steve held the bottom and ran green to checkered in 2^nd place.

Colton Perry finished 3^rd from his 4^th starting position and returned to the top five after two weeks of struggling to qualify in the field.

Colton commented “We didn’t do anything special this week.  We just fixed a small bind that we found from last week which wouldn’t let the car plant the rear onto the track.  This year has just been a roller coaster of emotions and it seems like that’s how my luck has also been. Hopefully we start putting some good runs together.  My grandparents put a good piece of equipment under me while Paul and Mike having this car set up perfectly.”

“In hot laps the car felt great, I could tell the bind was gone. In the heat race I was more worried about qualifying so I was content getting into 2^nd and riding it out.  But when I saw the leader slow on the final lap, I made a move and things just worked out for me to win the heat race.”

“In the feature I just wanted to stay out front.  I knew our car was going to be there, so I tried to be patient with my moves. I started to struggle towards the end, but I was able to keep a hold on third place and it was definitely a great feeling.”

Jesse Landis finished 4^th from his 6^th starting position.  Jesse noted “Car has speed and has been fast all year with just a few nights of bad luck and parts failures.  Started off season with fuel pick up issue resulting in an DNQ, then had a 2-lap penalty call in the consolation that took us out of the feature and then our 3^rd DNQ this season was the result of a parts failure.  But we did qualify for 3 races and have 3^rd, 4^th and 14^th place finishes.”

“This week in the heat race I picked my way from 4th to the lead in 3 laps and won the heat.”

“Started 6th in the feature, got up to 4th before the track really took rubber and rode around for 15 laps to the end of the feature.  The car has pretty good pace but without someone making a mistake or getting physical, I really didn’t have any options to go any farther forward.  A good week for us in a field of 44 and onto the next one.”

Mike Stofflet finished 5^th from his 10^th starting position which has moved him into 8^th in the early season points standings. Mike is also crew chief on Colton Perry’s 36 and the teammates both finished in the top five with Colton posting a 3rd and Mike’s a 5th place finish.

Mike commented “The car was good pretty much right out of the trailer again this week thanks to the guys that helped in the shop during the week.   In the heat we had a lucky break; while running 5th there was contact in front of us so I dove to the bottom to miss it, but the yellow never waved and then I found myself in second place with the leader in site.”

“In the feature I found out very quickly we were not good on the top and needed to run the bottom.  As the race went on the bottom locked down.  With these rubbered up lock down track conditions, you have to be patient as a driver or use your bumper to get around the car in front of you.  So, I was just settled for what we were given and waited to pounce if any mistakes were made by drivers in front of me. My patience paid off as I was able to go 10th to 5th.  I think we might have been able to get a couple more, but I wanted to keep our nose clean and come away with the best finish possible so our two-car team could finish with both Colton and my car in the top five for the first time.”

“We had another good points night and I think the key to consistency this year is the maturity in the driver and the whole team is meshing really well from the shop to the track this year. I think our key to success so far this year is our great sponsors, the motor KB Performance did for us over the off season, our new carb guy, Hoffmans speed shop for always answering questions and helping  get this new car dialed in, and Fast Four Shocks for giving us such a good shock package that has allowed us to focus more on the little things to improve in our week to week performances.”

Logan Watt finished 6^th from his 16^th starting position and has gone into overdrive with consistent weekly results in the top 10 or better and he now leads the point standings by 236 points over Adrianna Delliponti. 

Early in the feature Logan moved into 10^th using the top of the track but when the bottom rubbered up the top stalled.  On a late restart, Logan was able to use top and restart to move forward another four positions to take a 6th place finish on a difficult locked down rubber up track.

Mark Gaugler finished 7^th from his pole starting position to post his best finish of the season.

Mike stated “This is my Grandview car, and it hasn’t been bad all year.  We run a different car at Big Diamond on Friday nights.  We won a heat here at Grandview earlier this year but have had bad luck in the features.  A few weeks ago, we got in a big topside pile-in tangle with a bunch of cars and lost a top ten finish that night.  We had already moved 5 spots forward before running head on into a pile with nowhere to go.”

“I didn’t make it out for hot laps tonight as couldn’t get the car out of reverse. In the heat race we were loose but still qualified.”

“I tightened the car up for the feature, but it was not enough.  The track tonight was completely different than three weeks ago which was the last time I ran. I battled a loose car for the entire feature.  All in all, I’m very happy with my finish tonight.”

Kaitlyn Bailey finished 8^th from her 5^th starting position to post her second top ten finish this season.

Kaitlyn noted “About five laps into the feature I realized that there weren’t two lanes. I tried to go run the top and I created a bigger gap to the cars in front of me, so I quickly got back down to the inside line.  I knew the track was taking rubber from how the car was changing and the tires were heating up.  The restarts became a big thing without two equal lanes and restarts is definitely one area that I need to improve on.”  

Parker Guldin finished 9^th from his 11^th starting position and continues his consistent finishes this season which has placed him 9^th in the early season points standings.

Parker reflected “Qualifying was pretty good.  I feel like we had a good car in the heat but a lot of the reason why I finished where I did was because of another driver’s misfortune.  As much as I needed that, I always hate to see others being taken out of competition before your night even starts for whatever reason. I’ve been there too many times and it’s a terrible feeling.”

“In the feature almost the same can be said however, I was able to capitalize more as a driver rather than just capitalize on failures or accidents. That leads me to truly and sincerely thank my sponsors for giving me the opportunity to have a competitive car against these other drivers.  It takes having the best of the best to run with the best that race here at Grandview.  I get that due to the circumstances of a rubbered-up track there wasn’t much passing, but I feel like we have both the car and the driver with good potential no matter what the on-track circumstances.  Overall, I’m extremely pleased with the night as a whole.  We were able to go forward in every event we competed in and was able to avoid the consolation. So, given our sheer volume of competition in the sportsman class (44 cars), that’s a win in of itself.  It really is amazing to see the sportsman class fill up like it has but at the same time that means more and more tough competition.  We’ll continue to push on every week.”

Zane Roth posted a 10^th place finish from his 18^th starting position.

Zane commented “We have been struggling in qualifying and making some adjustments to the car as well as my driving style. We didn’t have many problems tonight except for a bad start in the heat race and missing the handicap by one.  In the feature we were able to move forward on a lock down rubbered up track which was a good night for us.”

Brett Gilmore finished 11^th from his 25^th starting position and continues to move forward in the season points to 5^th.

Brett stated “It was an eventful night with a rough heat race that had a wreck in front of me on the first lap that I was able to clear.  The track went immediately to one lane on the bottom, and you couldn’t get by anyone.  No passing.  In the consolation I started pole and got my doors blown off by Solomon and Adie because they were just really good on the top.”

“In the feature started 25^th, and just picked off cars on restarts and when they would try the top.  Track rubbered up on lap one and just wasn’t a fun time.  On the restarts I could keep my left side tires in the rubber and make up some ground.  Other than that, I’ll take the hard charger for the night.”

Dylan Swinehart finished 14^th from his 26^th starting position.  For the 4^th time in 6 races Dylan has charged +10 or more from a consolation starting position 21^st to 28^th and has still managed to sit in 3^rd place in the early season points standings which is result of consistent deep runs from back to front in the feature on a weekly basis.

Next up on Saturday, June 15 will be a two-division program under the NASCAR Advance Auto Parts Weekly Series banner for the T.P. Trailer 358 Modifieds and T.P. Truck Equipment Sportsman. The program will consist of qualifying races leading up to the 30-lap Modified and 25-lap Sportsman main events.  Pit gates open at 4:00 and Spectator gates at 5:00 with hot laps at 6:00 and racing at 7:30.