Hodnett Powers to Williams Grove Win

Hodnett Powers to Williams Grove Win

Story By: Tim Moran/URC

Photos By: Dan DeMarco/RacersGuide.com

Greg Hodnett and the Lelands.com, Trone Outdoor, C&N Mushroom, Heffner Racing enterprises used his 5th starting position to overtake Mark Smith on lap 4 to cruise to the Capitol Renegade United Racing Club Van May/Kramer Williamson Tribute Race.

With 42 360 sprint cars signed into the pit area, five heat races and two B-Mains were used to set the field for the 25-feature event. Heat race wins went to the Jersey Jet, JJ Grasso, Robbie Stillwaggon, Lucas Wolfe, Mark Smith and Trey Starks. With an all-star lineup heading to the redraw, the Jersey Jet fresh off his Jersey Rush 5 victory picked the magic #1 for the pole position for the feature event. Cody Keller and Adam Carberry picked up B-Main victories and the 63 of Josh Weller and the 47D of Kyle Drum used their URC and Patriot Sprint Tour Provisionals to advance into the feature event.

At the drop of the green, the New York runner Steve Collins tagged the turn 4 wall and the caution was quickly thrown. On the restart, Puyallup Washington native, Trey Starks jumped out to the early lead. Starks’ lead was short lived as the King of the 360’s former winner Mark Smith took the cat bird seat by lap 3.

On the start, pole sitter JJ Grasso fell back to third and something appeared to be wrong with the car. On lap 3, coming out of turn 2, the 25 of Grasso exploded the left rear time, as the 25 slowed down the back stretch the rest of the field scrambled to avoid the slowing car. The 42 of Eddie Strada was unfortunately unable avoid the slowing Grasso, flipping violently down the back stretch.

As the race was heading back to the restart, New Yorker Jared Zimbardi was caught up in a front stretch flip which the driver of the Performance Powder Coating, Bundle of Warmth Firewood and Kindling 35 car remained in the car and ultimately had to be helped from the car was taken to the local hospital for observation. Current United Racing Club points leader Curt Michael was also caught up in the wreck and returned to racing action as the field attempted a single file restart.
On the restart Hodnett darted to the lead going into turn 1 and exited turn 2 with the lead as Mark Smith and a strong running Robbie Stillwaggon now followed. By lap 4, Starks took back 3rd place and a hard charging Josh Weller was up to 9th from his 26th starting position by lap 6.
The caution was back out for a spinning George Suprick on lap 7, on the restart, Hodnett went uncontested once again jumping out to the lead.

Except for a lap 19 yellow which saw, Hodnett and Smith go wheel to wheel off of turn 4, Hodnett cruised to his third Capitol Renegade Untied Racing Club victory of the 2017 season. Rounding out the top 10 was the M1 of Smith, 5W of Lucas Wolfe, 29 of Jason Schultz, 44 of Trey Starks, 3z of Steve Buckwalter, 45N of Kevin Nagy, 5G of Curt Michael, 63 of Josh Weller and the 89 of Robbie Stillwaggon.

URC Tidbits: With his third win of the 2017 season, Greg Hodnett has now claimed $11,000 with his 3 wins. Long Haul of the night goes to #4A Jon Agan who made the long tow from Knoxville, Iowa. Josh Weller used a provisional starting 26th on the field and finishing 9th. Robbie Stillwaggon made a car change after hot laps but before heat race action. Stillwaggon’s primary mount experience motor issues. Stillwaggon went out a won his heat race with the backup car. Curt Michael rallied from a lap 4 incident to finish 8th. Hard luck of the night goes to Justin Whittall who was 3rd quick in hot laps, but experienced heat race issues that he couldn’t recover from. Making his first start of 2017 in the URC was Trey Starks and Brian Carber. The 3Z was piloted by Steve Buckwalter and not Coby Womer.

The Capitol Renegade United Racing Club will be back in action on Saturday night at the team travel just up route 15 to the Selinsgrove Speedway.

URC 360 FEATURE: 1) #27 GREG HODNETT, 2) #M1 MARK SMITH, 3) #5W LUCAS WOLFE, 4) #29 JASON SCHULTZ, 5) #44 TREY STARKS, 6) #3Z STEVE BUCKWALTER, 7) #45N KEVIN NAGY, 8) #5G CURT MICHAEL, 9) #63 JOSH WELLER, 10) #89 ROBBIE STILLWAGON, 11) #77 DEREK LOCKE, 12) #79 JORDAN THOMAS, 13) #98 JOE TRENCA, 14) #22B TROY BETTS, 15) #4A JON AGAN, 16) #47D KYLE DRUM, 17) #87 GEORGE SUPRICK, 18) #45 CHUCK HEBING, 19) #22G BRYN GOHN, 20) #1W ERIC TOMECEK, 21) #47C ADAM CARBERRY, 22) #35 JARED ZIMBARDI, 23) #25 JJ GRASSO, 24) #42E EDDIE STRADA, 25) #99 KODY KELLER, 26) #67 STEVE COLLINS

DNQ: #56M CHRIS COYLE, #63 JOSH WELLER, #91 DAVID QUACKENBUSH, #71 CHRIS ALLEN JR, #706 MARK SASSO, #2AU WARREN FERGUSON, #8C BRIAN CARBER, #73B BRETT MICHALSKI, #2W GLENNDON FORSYTHE, #47D KYLE DRUM, #67W JUSTIN WHITTALL, #17Z JOSH AZZI, #81 DEREK JONATHAN, #19 TROY WAGAMAN