Spence Nips Esh In 600cc Thriller; Rutherford Unbeatable Right Now In Clyde Martin 270’s
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Newmanstown, PA – You’d never know that Kyle Spence has only made a handful of starts in the 600cc Micro-Sprint Class.
On Saturday night, Spence captured his first 600cc winged victory at Lanco’s Clyde Martin Memorial Speedway. He also recorded a wingless triumph on July 4 and he notched a huge win (with a wing) at Greenwood Valley’s Dream at the Green on August 1.
The driver from Bear, Delaware, made Saturday’s victory an exciting one, launching off turn four on the final lap and just nipping Jared Esh at the line. The margin of victory for Spence was a slim 0.044-seconds.
Mike Rutherford, from Lititz, is simply unbeatable in the Clyde’s 270cc division right now, as the driver of the Kaylor Petro No. 5k registered his fourth consecutive triumph and fifth of the season in Saturday night’s 25-lap feature.
Jason Swavely, a three-time point champion in the Sportsman Class, has made a few sporadic starts in the division over the past two seasons. But Swavely is certainly comfortable in a Sportsman Micro, and found his way back to the winner’s circle on Saturday night in Joe Ilg’s No. 22j.
Dave Grube won his sixth feature of the year in the 125cc division and Zak Vickers earned his first career win in the 250cc Four-Stroke main event.
Coming up this Saturday, August 22nd, is Worley & Obetz Insurance Night at the speedway. The five weekly divisions will be back in action as the point chases head into their final four (point paying) events of the 2015 campaign. Warm-ups begin at 5 p.m. and the first heat race goes green at 6:00.
Jared Esh started from the pole position in the 25-lap main for the 600cc Micros on Saturday night. Esh set the pace for 24 of the 25 trips around the clay, but lapped traffic played havoc with the leader during the final stages of the race, allowing ninth-starting Kyle Spence to close in and challenge for the top spot.
On the final tour, as Esh got bottled up behind a gaggle of lapped cars, Spence pulled right up on the leader’s tail tank. The duo ran side by side through turns three and four and Spence won the drag race to the checkered by a narrow margin.
Chris Gerhart settled for third while Mike Rutherford reclaimed the point lead with a fourth place finish. A great run for Bret Cronrath ended in a fifth place finish for his No. 16.
Spence, Cronrath, Jack Conover, and Jason Swavely won heat races for the 34-car field. North Carolina’s Matt Carr and Heath Hehnly captured the two consolation races.
Rutherford rumbled from 11th to fourth in the first eight circuits of the 270cc feature. He passed Billy Logeman for the runner-up position on a restart with 11 complete, then ducked under Tyler Ulrich to snatch the top spot in turns three and four with ten revolutions remaining. He went on to win handily over Ulrich, who notched his best finish of the season. Kenny Miller III wound up third, 15th starter Mike Uhrich finished fourth, and Nick Skias completed the top five.
Skias, K. Miller III, and Rutherford were victorious in 270cc qualifying heats. There were 25 entries in the 270cc Class on Saturday.
Fleetwood, Pa.’s Jason Swavely weaved his way from 11th on the Sportsman starting grid to run second by lap 11. He stalked Ava Bellinger, who wound up leading the first 16 tours, before sneaking under Bellinger’s No. 3 with eight circuits left to run.
Swavely proceded to check out on the field, romping to the win by nearly two-seconds over 13th starter and current point leader Toby Blumenshine. Cameron Bellinger picked up the ride in Mike Rutherford’s No. 6, steering it to a third place effort, while Patrick Kirn made a late race charge to finish fourth. Ken Miller wound up fifth in the 25-lapper.
With 30 Sportsman Micros on hand, qualifying heat wins went to C. Bellinger, Robert Shanaman, and Swavely. Brandon Mundis won the consolation race.
Denver’s Dave Grube started ninth in Saturday’s main event for the 125cc racers, but he didn’t stay there for long.
Grube found himself in the runner-up position as lap five was scored, but he faced a tough task in trying to run down William Manotti, who was flying out front in his No. 77. Disaster struck Manotti at the halfway point of the 25-lap main as mechanical gremlins forced him to retire from the race, handing the lead to Grube.
The division’s big winner and point leader took full advantage of his golden opportunity, going on to win by a comfortable margin over Brandon Gibble, Chase Gutshall, a season best finish of fourth for Kelsey Heiney, and also a season best fifth place effort for Austin Graby.
Heat race winners included Gibble and Gutshall. A total of 20 of the 125cc Micros took part in Saturday’s program.
Zak Vickers had to make a pit stop before one lap could be completed in the 250cc Four-Stroke feature. Vickers’ team made the necessary repairs, got him back on the track before the green flag waved, and Vickers charged from the back of the pack to take the lead from Scott Renninger with six laps remaining.
Vickers then gassed his No. 77z to the first triumph of his short career (this is his first season of Micro-Sprint competition), winning handily over Jarrett Imler. Kassidy Michael fought an ill-handling car to a third place finish, enabling the high school student to climb back into second in the Four-Stroke point standings. Devin Adams earned fourth place money and Ronald Wechter ended up fifth when the checkered flag waved.
A dozen Four-Strokes entered Saturday night’s show, with heat race victories going to Eddie Nocera and Renninger.
A grand total of 121 cars took part in Saturday’s five division program.
This week, gates will open at 3:30 with warm-ups at 5:00 p.m. The first heat race goes green at 6:00, and the night will be topped off by 25-lap Worley & Obetz Insurance main events for the 600cc, 270cc, Sportsman, 125cc, and 250cc Four-Stroke Micro-Sprints.
Come on out and LIVE the excitement that is Lanco!
RESULTS:
600cc Micro-Sprint Feature, 25 laps: 1.Kyle Spence, 2.Jared Esh, 3.Chris Gerhart, 4.Mike Rutherford, 5.Bret Cronrath, 6.Zach Light, 7.Jason Swavely, 8.Dan Souder, 9.Shaun Brandel, 10.Ryan Hook, 11.Jack Conover, 12.Kenny Miller III, 13.Heath Hehnly, 14.Chris Panczner, 15.Jered Hook, 16.Austin Bishop, 17.TJ Greve Jr., 18.Brittany Brown, 19.Matt Carr, 20.Brent Ely, 21.Tanner Gray, 22.Rebecca LaMothe, 23.Hank Stellar, 24.Jarid Kunkle.
DNQ: Patrick Ely, Jenna Heagy, Troy Musselman, Ryan Groff, William Urkuski, Dylan Binkley, Taylor Troxel, Brooklyn Gable, Josh Conover, Kody Hartlaub.
270cc Micro-Sprint Feature, 25 laps: 1.Mike Rutherford, 2.Tyler Ulrich, 3.Kenny Miller III, 4.Mike Uhrich, 5.Nick Skias, 6.Kyle Spence, 7.Brian Sholley, 8.Bradley Brown, 9.Ken Miller, 10.Dan Lane Jr., 11.Phil Durham, 12.Nate Weidman, 13.Dylan Adams, 14.Dave Grube, 15.Christi Sweigart, 16.Toby Blumenshine, 17.Brent Shearer, 18.Mark Yoder, 19.Brock Whisler, 20.Dustin Fox, 21.Nick Sweigart, 22.Nicole Whisler, 23.Cameron Bellinger, 24.Billy Logeman.
DNQ: Denise Pensel.
Sportsman Micro-Sprint Feature, 25 laps: 1.Jason Swavely, 2.Toby Blumenshine, 3.Cameron Bellinger, 4.Patrick Kirn, 5.Ken Miller, 6.Ava Bellinger, 7.Sheena Schaefer, 8.Jas Hehnly, 9.Robert Shanaman, 10.Angelo Mercado, 11.John Davis, 12.Ricky Sechrist, 13.Dave Schroeder, 14.Sami Schenck, 15.Jeff Hughes, 16.Adam Harnish, 17.Brandon Bucher, 18.Jeff Boyer, 19.Brandon Mundis, 20.Adam Minzer, 21.Megan Mercado, 22.Kerry Lengle, 23.Devin Adams, 24.Curtis R. Miller.
DNQ: Anthony Yerger, Dennis Fenstermacher, Steve Smith Sr., Katelin Vragovich, Brian Becker, Joshua Sears.
125cc Micro-Sprint Feature, 25 laps: 1.Dave Grube, 2.Brandon Gibble, 3.Chase Gutshall, 4.Kelsey Heiney, 5.Austin Graby, 6.Jay Fannasy, 7.Kyler Heiney, 8.Alexis Sheely, 9.Bobby Braxton, 10.Jas Hehnly, 11.Jarrett Imler, 12.Zach Hollinger, 13.William Manotti, 14.Justin Harrington, 15.Brooklyn Shearer, 16.Kody Hibshman, 17.Dustin Adams, 18.Tajae Adams. DQ: Corey Schmuck Jr.
250cc Four-Stroke Micro-Sprint Feature, 25 laps: 1.Zak Vickers, 2.Jarrett Imler, 3.Kassidy Michael, 4.Devin Adams, 5.Ronald Wechter, 6.Mike Coen, 7.Brandon Yoder, 8.Scott Renninger, 9.Brian Kramer, 10.Eddie Nocera, 11.Donna Geib, 12.Zach Hollinger.
