Grandview Sportsman Pit Notes 8/02/25 – Brett Gilmore Battles to his First Sportsman win of the Season

Alex Bartorillo took a strong earlier lead over the field with Brett Gilmore moving into 2^nd  on lap 10 and a spirited battle for the lead ensued until Brett made the pass for the lead on lap 17 to take his first win of the season.

Heat race winners for the 36 car sportsman field were Alex Bartorillo, Ebby Ridge, Ryan Graver, and Brad Brightbill

Consolation races were won by Addison Meitzler and Chase Gular.

SPORTSMAN FEATURE FINISH (25 laps): 1. BRETT GILMORE (11), 2. Alex Bartorillo (1), 3. Ebby Ridge (16), 4. Brad Brightbill (8), 5. Lawson Szerencits (7), 6. Ryan Graver (10), 7. Teague Miller (12), 8. Gavyn Krupp (13), 9. Zach Steffy (2), 10. Xavier Sprague (15), 11. Colin Cox (18), 12. Mike Schneck Jr. (17), 13. Kenny Gilmore (20), 14. Addison Meitzler (21), 15. Nathan Mohr (28), 16. Stephen Laubach (3), 17. TJ Mayberry (25), 18. Jesse Landis (14), 19. Dylan Swinehart (19), 20.Shannon Slaughter (16), 21. Chase Gular (22), 22. Colton Perry (24), 23. BJ Joly III (4), 24. Nate Horn (23), 25. Adrianna Delliponti (9), 26. Joey Vaccaro (5)

DID NOT QUALIFY: Dakota Kohler, Brett Grim, Mark Behm, Jason Graber, Mark Mohr, Brayden Shelton, Mark Gaugler, Dennis Graber, Taylor Kramer, Tom Miller Sr.

HARD CHARGER: Nathan Mohr +11

SPORTSMAN PIT NOTES – 8/02/25

Brett Gilmore took the win from his 11^th starting position in only his second week out with a new motor after breaking a motor two weeks ago in what seemed like a season ending moment at the time. 

In victory lane Brett recalled “We have been good every week and then something always happens but tonight was different and we finally broke through for the win and into victory lane.  The rule change to the right side Panhard fits my driving style.  I have 4 inches of stagger in this car and I’m pretty sure no one else is even close to that much stagger but it works on the top, middle and bottom for me.”

“It took several laps to pass Alex for the lead, and it was tough getting by him as the bottom had rubber and both lanes were close to even.  Once in the lead, I came down into the rubber quickly, maybe a bit too quick as we made some contact.  Once I got down in the rubber, we were off to the checkered flag and victory lane.”  

Bask at the trailer Brett commented “Warmups were not bad, and the car was good, but the track was already slightly dry, which I figured would be good for the heat.  Lowered the Panhard bar a little for the heat and just had to keep my nose clean with all the lane shifting, people missing the bottom, and blowing it into the turns.  Managed to pull a 3rd place finish off from a 6th starting position after finding a little something in the middle.”

“I watched a little of the mod feature and saw Justin Grim put on a clinic on using the bottom, so I just set my car up to run the bottom.  4 1/2 inches of stagger and just ran the bottom passing cars who missed the grip down there.  Ran below the rubber to get to the 261, and I knew he wasn’t going to come off the bottom out of the rubber.  So, I threw the old Charley Gilmore Special at him and ran as high up as I could to get some grip.  Really had to go in high and try to come down off the banking to get enough of a run to get around him but this thing just works.  It took me about 4 laps to finally get around Alex, but I dropped right back down into the rubber because I knew that would inevitably be the best way around.  What a great night I mean, just the car did everything I needed it to do, and I can’t thank everyone who helped get me back on track after losing the motor 2 weeks ago. This thing is working and I’m hoping we can get some more good finishes.”

Alex Bartorilli finished 2nd from his pole starting position. Alex posted his first win in 2024 during his first year of racing at Grandview. Alex got a late start to the season due to his college studies and his first five appearances were DNQ’s; but the car is now sorted out and he back on track with an 8th and a 2nd in his last two races.

Alex reflected ” We started the day at 9 AM spent six hours at John Willman’s house scaling and going over the car. John helped me a ton. John went through my whole car with me, and I ended up with a completely different setup and car then last week.”

“For the feature I chose a 48 RR tire which cost us at the end since it faded late in the race.  The car felt very good and smooth throughout the night and was way better than last week. Thanks to my sponsor DEX Sam Lawn Care, John Willman and my dad for all their help this year.”

Ebby Ridge finished 3rd from his 6th starting position and posted his 3rd top five finish of the season.

Ebby noted “Well last week we had carb issues in hot laps, and we came in changed carbs. We went out for the heat and still had problems, so we dropped out.  We figured out that the float levels where too low, adjusted them and made the call for the consolation. In the consolation the car seemed good and started to pass cars.  I was passing another car and got hit and hooked and rode into the wall together.”

“This week we did repairs to the car and thought we had the issues resolved but the gremlin where back in hot laps.  So again, we changed the carb, distributor cap and plugs and went out for the heat . Started 4^th in the heat race. I got a good start and was able to get a couple spots on the outside and on another restart, I was able to get the lead and ended up with the heat race win. Which put me starting 6th in the feature.”

“I figured I would have to be on my A game with Joey Vaccaro next to me and Brad Brightbill not far behind.  Fortunately, I got another good start and was 3rd by the lap 2 restart.  I stayed tight to the leader moving into 2nd and keeping pace with the leader.  I started to get a little free which allowed Gilmore to get me, and I figured I would get in behind him and follow since I didn’t know how close the rest of the field was.  At one point Brad got under me in 3 and 4 and we made a little contact, but I must give Brad credit, he raced me clean and could of very easily just moved me. After that I just rolled into the corner to keep the car on the bottom and was just easy on the throttle to end up with a solid 3^rd.”

Brad Brightbill finished 4^th from his 8^th starting position and posted his 4^th top five/ten finish of the season despite being on his 3^rd motor of the season.  Brad has lost two motors in competition this season.

Back at the trailer Brad stated, “In the heat we had a good car and started 4^th working our way to the front for the heat race win placing us in the 8^th starting position for the feature.”

“We struggled in the first part of the feature but then our 50 RR came in late with about ten laps to go and we started to catch the leaders but too little too late.  This was the first time out on our 3^rd motor of the season, and we are also searching a bit with a new setup too.  All in all, a good night for us and heading in the right direction.”

Lawson Szerencits finished 5th from his 7th starting position. Lawson has posted two top five finishes THIS SEASON and in hopes of improving his consistency from week to week.

Lawson commented “The last two weeks we have chased our tail with a lot of setups that ran us into a hole we couldn’t get out of.  We did one thing, and it didn’t work; then other things that shouldn’t have worked did work.  We went back to basics and just Re blocked the car and spent a lot of time at our shock guys garage this week figuring out what was wrong internally with the shocks. We tried a new spring package that worked in our favor later in the race.  We ran a 50 as most people do and sipped the tire so it would fire as soon as possible.  The car was well balanced early in the night and we just made minimal changes to keep the car under me in the slick.”

Next up on Saturday, August 9 will be the Forrest Rogers Memorial paying $10,000 to the Modified winner of a 50-lap feature along with a 25-lap sportsman feature. Hot laps at 6:15 and racing at 7:30 pm.