Thunder Cup Notebook

Thunder Cup Notebook By: Pete MacDonald

I took my first trip up to Grandview Speedway for the first time in a number of years on Tuesday for the 2015 Edition of the Thunder Cup. Grandview is such a perfect Sprint Car track, its small with a ton of banking, I just wish more teams supported it.

31 358 Modifieds and 22 410 Sprint Cars competed in the evening’s festivities, a huge crowd was on hand despite temperatures in the mid 90s.

Lucas Wolfe set fast time at 12.135 on the high-banked 1/3 mile. Wolfe would be running second and chasing down leader Greg Hodnett when he tangled with the lapped car of Brad Franks on lap 25 with Wolfe ending up flipping off of turn four.

The 410 Feature was one of the best I had seen in a long time with Ryan Smith, Danny Dietrich and Greg Hodnett swapping the lead back and forth. I thought once Hodnett was out in front it would be over but Dietrich ran such a disciplined line on the bottom and never gave up getting aggressive only when he needed to late in the going. The three 410 sprint car heat race events were won by Lance Dewease, Australia’s Darren Mollenuyux and 410 newcomer Brian Carber.

Dietrich would take the lead with only a few laps remaining with a pass off of turn four on Hodnett to win his First Career Grandview Feature. Hodnett would come home second followed by Alan Krimes who I think passed more cars than anybody throughout the 35-lap affair, Lance Dewease and Freddie Rahmer.

Jeff Strunk would redraw the pole for the 30-lap 358 Modified feature which was only slowed by one yellow the entire race when Brian Kressley and Ryan Grim tangled in turn two with Grim getting the worst of it. Jimmy Horton, Billy Pauch Jr., Danny Erb and Craig VonDohren rounded out the Top-5. 358 Modified Heats were won by Ray Swinehart, Jeff Strunk and Craig VonDohren with Tim Buckwalter winning the B-Main.

“I didn’t have anything for Strunk, I could have tried to pass Jimmy (Horton) but I didn’t want to leave the bottom open”, said Pauch Jr.

Delaware Super Late Model Standout Kenny Pettyjohn made a rare Modified start behind the wheel of the Brad Grim 611.

Jimmy Horton showed up to the event with his New Egypt Speedway legal Sail Panels on his Lou Cicconi owned mount. Horton ran to nearby Ryan Watt’s shop to grab a pair of windows and mounted them up for the evening. “I just put the body back on like normal after we washed it, it never even dawned on me that I couldn’t use them” said Horton with a smile.

After making the show against the World of Outlaws on Saturday at Williams Grove with a new motor, Kyle Reinhardt finished eighth  on Tuesday at Grandview. “It’s a good piece, it just struggles to get going but once it does it seems to work”, said Reinhardt.

I’m heading to Delaware next Tuesday for Brett Deyo’s Diamond State 50 at Charlie Cathell’s Delaware International Speedway, I have been looking forward to this one since it was announced and can’t wait to get there, then it’s off to Knoxville for the Knoxville Nationals and Bowman Gray Stadium in back to back weeks.

For questions, comments or concerns I can be emailed at racersguide@gmail.com or I’m on Twitter @PMacDonald51 Thanks!

My Photo Gallery from Tuesday is up at : http://racersguide.com/photos/