Haggenbottom is a 4 time TSRS Series Champion, Brown takes home the win at Grandview Speedway
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September 11, 2015 Bechtelsville, PA
The TSRS drivers were ready for their final points night of the 2015 racing season. Mike Haggenbottom had already clinched his 4th consecutive points championship the prior week at Bridgeport Speedway, but the battle was on between Eddie Wagner, Adam Carberry and Tim Tanner to see who would take home the runner up spot.
The first heat of the evening was a great run that provided the fans a chance to see Eddie Strata work his way from his 4th place starting spot to being the leader and beating Dave Brown Jr. The second heat had the red flag come out when Randy Wilbert found himself going a little high between turns 3 and 4 and meeting the catch fence, while the driver was ok, the car was unable to continue the race and had suffered too much damage to be able to run the feature. Rick Stief would go on to win the heat and Tommy Carberry would be able to work his way back up to the runner up spot after an early race incident put him at the back of the pack. The third heat was just as exciting as the champ, Mike Haggenbottom took home the win, but Jeff Geiges was able to work his way from the back of the pack to the front for the runner up spot at the checkers.
The heats were done and the teams went to work dialing in the cars for their 25 lap feature event. Tim Tanner and Samantha Lieberman would bring the field to the green flag. The caution would fly as the first lap was completed when Eddie Strata would spin. The field would be reset and Tanner and Lieberman once again brought them back to green. The yellow flew on lap 3 when debris was spotted on the racing surface. This restart would take two attempts because when the green flag came out there was a double spin that involved Mike Esposito and Ryan Stillwagon between turns 1 and 2 but both cars were able to continue. As the teams began to string together some great green flag racing, Dave Brown worked his way to the front and soon he and Tanner would put on a great battle of swapping the lead back and forth. On lap 12, Brown would take over the lead and begin to work his way through the back half of the field lapping the cars at the tail end of the pack.
Lap 16 saw the caution fly after the newly crowned points champion found himself caught up in a mishap involving a few of the cars that had been put a lap down. Tony Smolenyak and Dave Bonner tangled in turn 4 and spun and Haggenbottom was left with no where to go but into the cars sitting still on the track. Haggenbottom would be unable to continue the race and would be credited with finishing in 21st for the evening. Brown would bring the field back to the green flag and never open the door for anyone else to win, despite how hard Tanner tried to find the right line to make the pass, he was unable to and would finish in the runner up spot. Tommy Carberry would finish third followed by Jeff Geiges and Jon Haegele.
Next up on the schedule the teams will travel to Port Royal for an interregional event on October 10. After that they will head back to Grandview Speedway on October 17 and then to Bridgeport on November 13. Be sure to follow them on Facebook through TSRS Sprint Car Series or on the web at www.tsrs1.com.
Coming Events:
October 10 – Port Royal Speedway
October 17 – Grandview Speedway
November 13 – Bridgeport Speedway
Feature Race Results
1. Dave Brown 2. Tim Tanner 3. Tom Carberry 4. Jeff Geiges 5. Jon Haegele 6. Rick Stief 7. Eddie Strada 8. Joe Kay 9. Samantha Leiberman 10. Dave Graber 11. Joe Kata 12. Karl Freyer 13. Stephanie Dodson 14. Eddie Wagner 15. Scott Frack 16. Keith Anderson 17. Zack Burd 18. Tony Smolenyak 19. David Bonner 20. Tim Smolenyak 21. Mike Haggenbottom 22. Ryan Stillwagon 23. Mike Esposito DNS – Randy Wilbert and Adam Carberry
