30 Lap Track Record Goes Down; Hodnett, Smith Finish 2nd-3rd
Story By: STEVE INCH / SELINSGROVE SPEEDWAY MEDIA
Photos By: DAN DEMARCO / RACERSGUIDE.COM
SELINSGROVE, Pa. -September 17, 2016-Lucas Wolfe of Mechananicsburg entered Selinsgrove Speedway Saturday for time trials and laid down the quickest lap of the night at 16.353 seconds. That would be an indication of what was to come for the 410 Sprint Car field in attendance for the Jim Nace Memorial 34th Annual National Open.
Wolfe, the 2005 winner of the event, qualified from his heat race to lock into the main event, and he would lead the field to the green flag for 30 laps and go on to set a new track record for the distance in 9:21.300, eclipsing the record held by Doug Wolfgang since 1985.
By lap five Wolfe was already catching the tail of the field and began to maneuver through lap traffic. Wolfe showed the way over Hodnett, Ryan Smith, Blane Heimbach, and TJ Stutts as lap sixth flashed onto the score board.
The distance between Wolfe and Hodnett shrunk and grew over the first 15 laps of the race as the field took half way. Brent Marks worked his way into the top five on lap 18 as he drove by Stutts.
By lap 20, Wolfe was into the thicker lap traffic and Hodnett began to cut into what was almost a three second lead. Only three laps later Hodnett was within a second of the race leader and continuing to close in.
Wolfe worked into the top ten running cars putting cars a lap down at a rapid pace as the race wound down. As the cars got more competitive going a lap down Hodnett chose his spot to attack.
Hodnett pulled within ten car lengths of Wolfe with the two to go sign displayed, but never got close enough to seriously challenge Wolfe as he drove to his second National Open win in record-setting time.
“We were good all night long,” said Wolfe in victory lane. “You know you had a good car when you’re lapping that far into the field. Danny (Dietrich) has two wins here this season and we were catching him to lap at the end.”
Wolfe’s first win of the season at the Super Speedway of Dirt Track Racing came on an $8,000 pay day. Hodnett, Smith, Marks, and Heimbach were the top five finishers. Doug Esh was sixth followed by TJ Stutts, Aaron Ott, Jason Shultz, and Danny Dietrich.
Heat races for the 22 car field were won by Dietrich, Marks, and Stutts.
Dylan Yoder Captures Late Model Finale’ From 13th Starting Spot
It’s not often that a winner in the Jeff’s Auto Body and Recycling Center Late Models comes from outside the top ten. Dylan Yoder did just that in the final race of the 2016 season. Yoder came from the 13th starting spot to claim the victory.
Mike Lupfer led the race early on before being passed by Donnie Schick. Schick led until a lap five restart when Andy Haus went by. Haus set the pace on the outside of the race track for the next ten laps. The outside line proved to be tricky when Haus made contact with the third turn wall allowing Lupfer, Kyle Hardy, and a hard charging Yoder to move to his rear bumper.
A caution flag came out for a Kyle Rhoads tire blow out to stop the battle right as Yoder pulled even with the race leader after passing Lupfer for second the corner before.
On the restart, Haus slide high and that allowed Yoder to bolt into the race lead for good. Any doubt about whether or not Yoder had anything left to offer the front runners after charging through the field was gone as Yoder pulled away to the win.
Yoder’s win came over Lupfer, Hardy, Haus, and Brian Bernheisel. Schick crossed the line sixth followed by Tim Wilson, Jeff Rine, Hayes Mattern, and Jeremy Miller.
Andy Haus, Hayes Mattern, and Danny Snyder took heat races wins in the racing for 24 cars
SELINSGROVE SPEEDWAY RACE SUMMARY – 17 September 2016
410 Sprint Cars – 22 Entries
30-Lap A-Main: 1) 1W Lucas Wolfe 2) 27 Greg Hodnett 3) 94 Ryan Smith 4) 19M Brent Marks 5) 12 Blane Heimbach 6) 07 Doug Esh 7) 88 TJ Stutts 8) 25 Aaron Ott 9) 29 Jason Shultz 10) 48 Danny Dietrich 11) 3Z Brock Zearfoss 12) 17B Steve Buckwalter 13) 33 Curt Stroup 14) 0 Rick Lafferty 15) 47K Kody Lehman 16) 24B Dustin Baney 17) 33W Michael Walter II 18) 75 Nicole Bower 19) 77 Derek Locke 20) 15 Vince Snyder 21) 71 Charlie Anderson 22) 1W Eric Tomecek
Heat Winners: Danny Dietrich, Brent Marks, TJ Stutts
Time Trials: 1) 1 Lucas Wolfe 16.353 2) 27 Greg Hodnett 16.507 3) 12 Blane Heimbach 16.536 4) 94 Ryan Smith 16.588 5) 25 Aaron Ott 16.623 6) 29 Jason Shultz 16.645 7) 07 Doug Esh 16.671 8) 75 Nicole Bower 16.676 9) 88 TJ Stutts 16.700 10) 48 Danny Dietrich 16.805 11) 19M Brent Marks 16.813 12) 17B Steve Buckwalter 16.859 13) 3Z Brock Zearfoss 16.916 14) 33 Curt Stroup 17.019 15) 0 Rick Laferty 17.056 16) 77 Derek Locke 17.060 17) 47K Kody Lehman 17.097 18) 33W Michael Walter II 17.211 19) 15 Vince Snyder 17.561 20) 24B Dustin Baney 17.658 21) 71 Charlie Anderson 19.091 22) 1W Eric Tomocek DNT
Late Models – 24 Entries
25-Lap A-Main: 1) 24 Dylan Yoderr 2) 06 Mike Lupfer 3) 99V Kyle Hardy 4) 76 Andy Haus 5) 119B Bryan Bernheisel 6) 6 Donnie Schick 7) 3 Tim Wilson 8) 2J Jeff Rine 9) 9 Hayes Mattern 10) 1V Jeremy Miller 11) 2D Dan Stone 12) 27 Jim Yoder 13) 2 Andrew Yoder 14) 88 Tony Adams 15) Z14 Dave Brouse Jr. 16) 15 Luke Hoffner 17) 99 Steve Stitt 18) 6F Jared Fulkroad 19) 90 Kyle Rhoads 20) 98 Randy Croop 21) 1 Gene Knaub 22) 99X Rick Singleton 23) 4S Dan Snyder 24) 67 Tommy Slanker
Heat Winners: Andy Haus, Hayes Mattern, Danny Snyder
