Lance Dewease Wins Rain Shortened Williams Grove National Open Preliminary
Lance Dewease Wins Rain Shortened Williams Grove National Open Preliminary
Mechanicsburg – Lance Dewease raced through the raindrops to win an abbreviated Champion Racing Oil World of Outlaws Sprint Cars National Open Preliminary at Williams Grove Speedway on Friday night.
The win completed a clean sweep of September action at Williams Grove by Dewease who also took three other main events during the month.
Friday’s win was the 110th of Dewease’s career at the oval, worth $10,000. It was also his seventh victory of the season there and the third of his career in the National Open Preliminary event.
Some 51 cars entered the big event on Friday at Williams Grove, meant to set the stage for Saturday’s Diamond Anniversary, 40-lap, $75,000 to win Champion Racing Oil National Open itself.
And Dewease earned the pole for what was to be the 25-lap Friday main by winning the dash over Sheldon Haudenschild.
As light rain began to fall, the feature took the green flag with Dewease beating Haudenschild into the first corner to take the early lead as Carson Macedo, Anthony Macri and Brent Marks gave chase.
By lap four Dewease had built a 1.6 second lead over Ohio’s Haudenschild.
The pacesetter was just ready to enter the rear of the field, just a few car lengths from beginning to put cars a lap down in the first corner when outlaws officials called for a yellow flag due to a slickening racing surface thanks to the moisture.
The caution period lasted approximately five minutes as officials kept cars circling the half-mile oval with intentions to work the surface back into racing condition.
And the tenacity paid off when the green flag again appeared for a restart with Haudenschild and Macedo following while Marks was up to fourth.
Already an outlaws winner at the track earlier this season, Marks was on the move when action resumed as he muscled third away from Macedo by lap 10.
But then moments later as Dewease was just about to complete lap 11, Marks went catapulting out over the third turn rail before ending up against the speedway grounds perimeter fencing.
The Myerstown driver had hopped the cushion as he entered the third corner, causing his car to barrel into a series high-flying flips.
Luckily the pilot escaped injury.
The stoppage for the Marks crash saw the persistent light rains continue, forcing officials to remove cars from the track.
After another 30-minute delay due to the showers, cars were called back to the track when the moisture relented and the surface was just put back into race-ready condition and the cars were lining up for a restart when another round of rain began falling.
Under World of Outlaws rules, outlaws officials then certified the race complete with 10 laps recorded.
Dewease would take the win by 1.3 seconds over Haudenschild.
Macedo inherited third, followed by Macri and David Gravel.
Sixth through 10th went to Brad Sweet, Jacob Allen, Donny Schatz, Spencer Bayston and Justin Peck.
Heats went to Haudenschild, Gravel, Marks and Macri.
Steve Buckwalter won the C Main and Dylan Cisney took the B Main.
Marks set overall fast time in time trials with a lap of 16.520 seconds.
Feature Finish
9/30/22
410 sprint cars, 10 laps: 1. Lance Dewease, 2. Sheldon Haudenschild, 3. Carson Macedo, 4. Anthony Macri, 5. David Gravel, 6. Brad Sweet, 7. Jacob Allen, 8. Donny Schatz, Spencer Bayston, 10. Justin Peck, 11. Buddy Kofoid, 12. Danny Dietrich, 13. Rico Abreu, 14. Cory Eliason, 15. Gio Scelzi, 16. Lucas Wolfe, 17. James McFadden, 18. Logan Schuchart, 19. Freddie Rahmer, 20. Dylan Norris, 21. TJ Stutts, 22. Brock Zearfoss, 23. Daryn Pittman, 24. Dylan Cisney, 25. Ayron Gennetten, 26. Brent Shearer, 27. Brent Marks
DNQ: Chad Trout, Ryan Smith, Brian Brown, Kyle Reinhardt, Kyle Moody, Austin Bishop, Noah Gass, Jeff Halligan, Devon Borden, Matt Campbell, Steve Buckwalter, Tyler Ross, Landon Myers, Tim Buckwalter, Chase Dietz, Robbie Kendall, Troy Wagaman, Bryn Gohn, Alan Krimes, Riley Emig, Kraig Kinser, Kasey Kahne, Troy Fraker, Robbie Price
