Esh Bags Clyde Martin 600cc Win; Spence Takes 270cc Victory With Stock Motor
Esh Bags Clyde Martin 600cc Win; Spence Takes 270cc Victory With Stock Motor
Newmanstown, PA – A few timely caution flags – and an extremely fast racecar – aided Jared Esh in his ride to the 600cc Micro-Sprint triumph on Saturday night at Lanco’s Clyde Martin Memorial Speedway. The entire racing program was sponsored by RTS Chassis of Reading, Pa.
Esh, from Millersville, Pa., won his first of the year, as did Kyle Spence, who claimed the 270cc victory using a stock motor. Toby Blumenshine notched the Sportsman checkered for the first Lanco feature win of his career. Dave Grube made it two straight in 125cc competition, as did Dave Ravel in the 250cc Four-Stroke main event.
Only three caution periods slowed the RTS Chassis 600cc headliner, and the last two yellows were a welcome sight for race leader Jared Esh.
On the initial green, Esh jumped into the top spot from his outside front row starting position. Driving Chris Snyder’s Hyper Racing, Bud’s Spring & Suspension No. 83, Esh blasted to a comfortable advantage over Jason Swavely. The first yellow flag flew with five laps complete, and Esh pulled away on the restart.
Just as the leader motored into a pack of heavy traffic and began lapping some of his rivals, the second caution period occurred as Taylor Troxel came to a stop in turn four. Swavely, Kameron Morral, and Brian Carber had cut their deficit considerably when Esh got stuck in traffic, but the yellow flag with 14 circuits scored cleared his path once again.
Esh got away from his pursuers on the restart, leaving Swavely, Morral, and Carber to fight for second among themselves. The third and final yellow, with six to go, was another nice break for the leader as he was catching the back of the pack one more time.
On the last restart of the 25-lapper, Esh again opened some daylight between himself and Swavely, cruising to the checkered by 0.803-seconds over Swavely. Morral and Carber traded sliders in a crowd pleasing battle for third, with Morral claiming the spot over 11th starting Carber. Chris Panczner finished fifth while consi winner Heath Hehnly rallied from 18th at the start to wind up sixth.
With 32 of the 600’s signed in for action on Saturday, heat race victories went to Dan Souder, Swavely, and Esh. Heath Hehnly won the consolation race.
For the second week in a row, Cameron Bellinger appeared to have one of the strongest 270’s and for the second straight Saturday night, Bellinger failed to see the checkered flag. And this time, his misfortune showed up at the most inopportune moment…while he was leading the 270cc feature sponsored by RTS Chassis.
The Delaware driver started on the pole and outgunned front row mate Kyle Spence on the start. Bellinger pulled out to a big lead, but fell out with a broken transmission just before the yellow waved at the halfway point of the 25-lap feature.
Spence inherited the lead when Bellinger dropped out and, driving the Angelo Mercado No. 3m with a stock motor, went on to record the victory by almost a full second over Billy Logeman. Opening Night winner Bradley Brown finished third, with Randy West and Tyler Ulrich rounding out the top five.
“We weren’t going to worry about the points this year, especially after we dropped out last week,” smiled Spence as he stood in the winner’s circle. “But now, here we are, and I guess this puts us back in the point chase, so here we go. I just can’t believe we won with a stock motor…I’ve got to thank Angelo for the opportunity to drive this car,” said Spence, who hails from Bear, Delaware.
Brown, Logeman, and Ken Miller were heat race victors for the 33-car field of 270cc Micros. Toby Blumenshine copped the consolation.
Reinholds, Pa.’s Toby Blumenshine snatched the top spot from Devin Adams on lap two of the Sportsman feature. Blumenshine proceeded to lead the rest of the way, although the previous week’s winner, Mike Rutherford, made things interesting at the end, pulling alongside Blumenshine’s Bad Apple Armor, Blumenshine Machine No. 21T on several occasions during the final eight trips around the progressively banked oval.
Rutherford would draw even on the high side and even had a nose in front as they crossed the stripe on a few laps, but Blumenshine edged back in front each time as the pair raced back into the first turn.
Blumenshine held on to win, beating Rutherford to the line by 0.171-seconds. Adams, Bret Habecker, and Patrick Kirn made up the first five at the finish.
Another excellent field of 32 Sportsman were on hand, with qualifying heat triumphs going to Adams, Rutherford, and Curtis R. Miller. Brandon Mundis was the consolation winner.
On opening night, Dave Grube benefited when 125cc race leader Justin Harrington spun, handing the top spot and eventual victory to Grube. On Saturday, though, Grube didn’t need any gifts as he sliced his way from eighth on the starting grid to run second in just two tours around the clay.
Grube, from Denver, Pa., ducked under Jas Hehnly in turns one and two on the ninth revolution, grabbing the lead for good. Last year’s 125cc point champ, Darren Miller, moved to the runner-up position on the tenth circuit, but he was no match for Grube on this night.
When Tim Gehret waved the black and white flag after 25 laps, Grube had almost a two-second margin over Miller to win the RTS Chassis 125cc main, his second in as many weeks. Miller was the runner-up while Jason Hehnly rebounded after going to the rear after a lap one incident to claim third place cash. Harrington and Jas Hehnly wound up fourth and fifth, respectively.
Grube and D. Miller won heat races for the 22-car field of 125cc racers.
Defending Four-Stroke Champion Dave Ravel, of Reading, scored his second consecutive triumph on Saturday, but sophomore sensation Jarrett Imler certainly made him work for the win.
Imler passed Donna Geib for the lead on the second trip around the oval while Ravel, who started seventh, steadily worked his way forward. Ravel zipped into the runner-up spot on lap nine, then wrestled the number one position from Imler as they accelerated out of turn two on the 14th circuit.
Two tours later, Imler threw a slide job on Ravel to reclaim the lead as the duo blasted off turn four. Ravel had to tap the brakes as Imler slide up in front of him, allowing Eddie Nocera to get by as well and kick Ravel back to third.
Ravel diced with Nocera for a few laps before he secured second place, then set his sights on Imler once more as the race entered its final stages. Ravel ran down the leader and pinned Imler behind a lapped car, diving to the low lane and passing both Imler and the lapped car to move back in front.
Driving the Al’s Service Center, Subway of Denver, NAPA No. 69k owned by Earl Eveland, Ravel drove to the victory by a half-second over the impressive Imler. Kassidy Michael wound up third, with Nocera falling to fourth and Zach Hollinger finishing fifth.
Heats for the 11 Four-Strokes went to Ravel and K. Michael.
This Saturday, April 25, the 600cc, 270cc, Sportsman, 125cc, and 250cc Four-Stroke Micro-Sprints will be back in action, competing in qualifying heats, consolations, and 25-lap main events.
Gates open at 3:30, with warm-ups beginning at 5 p.m. The first heat race goes green at 6:00.
After the April 25 and May 2nd racing programs, Fan Appreciation Night will take place on Saturday, May 9. To show appreciation to its loyal fan base, the Lanco club will offer a $1.00 General Admission price on May 9, with special recognition planned for Wounded Heroes and sponsorship from Grace Fellowship Church. In addition, Ivan Stoltzfus, who drove his specially prepared Johnabilt tractor across the United States last summer to raise money for Wounded Heroes, will be at the Clyde with his one of a kind tractor.
Great racing action and Fan Appreciation Night mean only one thing…you’ve just gotta come out and LIVE the excitement that is Lanco!
RESULTS:
RTS Chassis 600cc Micro-Sprint Finish, 25 laps: 1.Jared Esh, 2.Jason Swavely, 3.Kameron Morral, 4.Brian Carber, 5.Chris Panczner, 6.Heath Hehnly, 7.Mike Rutherford, 8.Chris Gerhart, 9.Zach Light, 10.Shaun Brandel, 11.Dan Souder, 12.Tyler Devault, 13.Brittany Brown, 14.Dylan Binkley, 15.Bruce Ginther Jr., 16.Josh Conover, 17.Justin Whittall, 18.James Morris, 19.Steve Whary, 20.Taylor Troxel, 21.Jarid Kunkle, 22.Rebecca LaMothe, 23.Kenny Miller III, 24.Ryan Groff. DNS: Will Urkuski; Jack Conover.
DNQ: Jenna Heagy, Brooklyn Gable, Troy Musselman, Patrick Ely, Brent Ely, Corry Roth.
RTS Chassis 270cc Micro-Sprint Finish, 25 laps: 1.Kyle Spence, 2.Billy Logeman, 3.Bradley Brown, 4.Randy West, 5.Tyler Ulrich, 6.Mike Rutherford, 7.Dan Lane Jr., 8.Kenny Miller III, 9.Nick Skias, 10.Jesse Maurer, 11.Ken Miller, 12.Dave Grube, 13.Heath Hehnly, 14.Toby Blumenshine, 15.Nate Weidman, 16.Nick Sweigart, 17.Mike Uhrich, 18.Brian Sholley, 19.Michael Binkley, 20.Richie Hartman, 21.Cameron Bellinger, 22.TJ Greve Jr., 23.Damon Bomgardner, 24.Dylan Adams.
DNQ: Ricky Sechrist, Elizabeth Helmick, Anthony Yerger, Christi Sweigart, Brock Whisler, Dustin Fox, Melvin Bainbridge, Nicole Whisler, Kyle Hehnly.
RTS Chassis Sportsman Micro-Sprint Finish, 25 laps: 1.Toby Blumenshine, 2.Mike Rutherford, 3.Devin Adams, 4.Bret Habecker, 5.Patrick Kirn, 6.John Davis, 7.Kerry Lengle, 8.Brandon Bucher, 9.Randy Landis, 10.Megan Mercado, 11.Steve Smith Sr., 12.Dave Ravel, 13.Michael Kreiser, 14.Robert Shanaman, 15.Curtis R. Miller, 16.Ava Bellinger, 17.Adam Minzer, 18.Dennis Fenstermacher, 19.Brandon Mundis, 20.Charles Hellinger, 21.Angelo Mercado, 22.Ken Miller, 23.Anthony Yerger, 24.Josh Swavely. DQ: Joe Ilg; Jas Hehnly.
DNQ: Joshua Sears, Sami Schenck, Cody Sechrist, Wes Fasnacht, Brian Becker, Jeff Boyer.
RTS Chassis 125cc Micro-Sprint Finish, 25 laps: 1. Dave Grube, 2.Darren Miller, 3.Jason Hehnly, 4.Justin Harrington, 5.Jas Hehnly, 6.Nick Sweigart, 7.Corey Schmuck Jr., 8.Jimmy Wampole, 9.Jarrett Imler, 10.Austin Graby, 11.Michael Zimmerman, 12.Alexis Sheely, 13.Tajae Adams, 14.Kelsey Heiney, 15.Walt Wampole, 16.Brie Weiler, 17.Thomas Kelley, 18.Chase Gutshall, 19.Brandon Gibble, 20.Kody Hibshman, 21.Sonny Sweitzer, 22.Melvin Bainbridge.
RTS Chassis 250cc Four-Stroke Finish, 25 laps: 1.Dave Ravel, 2.Jarrett Imler, 3.Kassidy Michael, 4.Eddie Nocera, 5.Zach Hollinger, 6.Dick Huzzard, 7.Donna Geib, 8.Brian Kramer, 9.Zackery Vickers, 10.Lester Dise, 11.Aidan Jones.
