Williams Grove Speedway (Video Highlights from DirtVision.com)
10/4/19
Williams Grove Speedway
Mechanicsburg, PA
Williams Grove National Open Prelim
WoO
53 cars
David Gravel (7th car out to time) set quick time in his group at 16.206 seconds, not far off Brian Paulus’s track record of 16.140 seconds. Daryn Pittman (18th car out) was second quick, ahead of Brian Brown (9th), Ryan Smith (26th) and TJ Stutts (5th). Lance Dewease (5th) set quick time in the second group at 16.396 seconds on the big half-mile. Aaron Reutzel (15th) was second quick, followed by Gio Scelzi (6th), Landon Myers (3rd) and Chad Trout (21st)
Heat one (started): 1. Gravel 41 (1) 2. R. Smith 72 (2) 3. Brian Montieth 21P (5) / 4. Brad Sweet 49 (4) 5. Steve Buckwalter 17BX (8) 6. Dylan Cisney 5c (6) 7. Chase Dietz 75 (9) 8. Tim Wagaman 1* (7) 9. Tim Shaffer 7s (3)
8-lap heats transferred the top three to the A, and the top two to the Dash. Gravel jumped out to the early lead over R. Smith and quick advancing Montieth. The trio would retain their top spots. Shaffer exited early.
Heat two (started): 1. Pittman 83 (1) 2. Donny Schatz 15 (3) 3. Stutts 11 (2) / 4. Kerry Madsen 2m (4) 5. Paul McMahan 13 (6) 6. Trey Starks 44 (8) 7. Brett Michalski 73B (9) 8. Justin Whittall 67 (7) 9. Alan Krimes 87K (5)
Pittman led wire to wire. Stutts was second early before Krimes spun in turn one. Schatz got by him for the second Dash spot on the restart.
Heat three (started): 1. Brown 21 (1) 2. Danny Dietrich 48 (2) 3. Jeff Halligan 58 (3) / 4. Robbie Kendall 55K (5) 5. Brent Marks 19 (7) 6. Ian Madsen 18 (4) 7. Freddie Rahmer 51 (6) 8. Kyle Moody 99M (8) 9. Troy Fraker 12w (9)
Brown led the distance in a mostly single-file affair.
Heat four (started): 1. Dewease 69K (1) 2. Matt Campbell 1w (4) 3. Bill Balog 17B (3) / 4. Sheldon Haudenschild 17 (6) 5. Brock Zearfoss 3z (7) 6. Myers 19m (2) 7. Kraig Kinser 11K (5) 8. Bradley Howard 49H (8) DNS – Anthony Macri 39M
Myers was penalized from the front row for jumping. Dewease shot out to the lead over Balog and Campbell. Campbell would shoot by Balog for the final Dash spot with five to go. Great racing back in the pack between Haudenschild and Myers.
Heat five (started): 1. Reutzel 87 (1) 2. Jacob Allen 1a (3) 3. Carson Macedo 2 (6) / 4. Trout 1x (2) 5. Wayne Johnson 2c (7) 6. Logan Wagner 1 (5) 7. Jason Sides 7 (4) 8. Mason Daniel 33m (8) 9. Barry Shearer 12 (9)
Reutzel led the distance over Allen. The race was on for third, however. After a great battle, Macedo would get by Trout at the halfway point to transfer to the feature.
Heat six (started): 1. Scelzi 71 (1) 2. Cory Eliason 26 (3) 3. Logan Schuchart 1s (2) / 4. Shane Stewart 5 (4) 5. Cory Haas 39 (5) 6. Lucas Wolfe 24 (7) 7. Jared Esh 33 (6) 8. Nicole Bower 75B (8)
Scelzi led early and pulled away to a big win. Schuchart had a shaky start that saw him fall back to fifth from his row one starting position. On lap two, he captured fourth, then passed Shane Stewart on the high slide on lap seven for third at the white flag lap.
D main (started): 1. Starks (3) 2. Daniel (2) / 3. Dietz (5) 4. Michalski (7) 5. Bower (4) 6. Fraker (8) 7. Shearer (6) 8. Buckwalter (1) DNS – Moody, Howard
Buckwalter led the 8-lapper until slowing with two to go, handing the transfers to the C main to Starks and Daniel.
C main (started): 1. Cisney (1) 2. Haas (2) / 3. McMahan (3) 4. Rahmer (5) 5. Marks (9) 6. Starks (11) 7. Whittall (7) 8. Zearfoss (10) 9. Wolfe (8) 10. Daniel (12) 11. W. Johnson (13) 12. Haudenschild (6) 13. Esh (4) DNS – Wagaman
The 10-lapper saw the top two transfer to the B. W. Johnson elected for the rear. Cisney and Haas led the pack the distance. Contact between Esh and Haudenschild ended the race for both three laps in.
Dash one (started): 1. Gravel (1) 2. Schatz (2) 3. Brown (3) 4. R. Smith (5) 5. Pittman (6) 6. Dietrich (4)
The six-lap heat set the inside of the first six rows of the feature. Brown briefly got by Schatz for second on lap two in the best racing in this one.
Dash two (started): 1. Eliason (1) 2. Scelzi (3) 3. Dewease (4) 4. Campbell (6) 5. Allen (5) 6. Reutzel (2)
Eliason led the distance. Reutzel was running third five laps in, when his engine went up in smoke.
B main (started): 1. Shaffer (1) 2. Sweet (3) 3. K. Madsen (5) 4. Myers (2) 5. Trout (4) 6. I. Madsen (7) / 7. Stewart (8) 8. Kinser (10) 9. Haas (14) 10. Krimes (9) 11. Kendall (11) 12. Wagner (12) 13. Sides (6) 14. Cisney (13)
The 12-lapper saw Shaffer lead the distance over Sweet. K. Madsen moved up well, passing Trout for fourth on lap three and landing third from Myers late. The best battle was for the sixth and final transfer to the a. I. Madsen held it, but Stewart slid him on lap nine to take the spot over. I. Madsen came back on lap ten to retake the spot in a good battle.
A main (started): 1. Gravel (1) 2. Dewease (6) 3. Schatz (3) 4. Scelzi (4) 5. Reutzel (12) 6. Dietrich (11) 7. Brown (5) 8. Pittman (9) 9. Campbell (8) 10. Sweet (20) 11. R. Smith (7) 12. Eliason (2) 13. Schuchart (18) 14. Montieth (13) 15. I. Madsen (24) 16. Rahmer (26, prov.) 17. Stutts (15) 18. Trout (23) 19. Macedo (16) 20. Balog (14) 21. Marks (29, prov.) 22. Stewart (25, prov.) 23. Haudenschild (27, prov.) 24. Allen (10) 25. Kinser (30, prov.) 26. Shaffer (19) 27. Haas (28, prov.) 28. Halligan (17) 29. Myers (22) 30. K. Madsen (21)
The 25-lapper saw Gravel leading Eliason and Schatz early. When Eliason got over the turn four cushion, Schatz under him into second on lap two. K. Madsen slowed and exited bringing a caution two laps in. Gravel chose the inside groove in the double-file restart, ahead of Schatz, Eliason, Scelzi, Dewease and Brown. Dewease jumped two spots into third, and Brown moved into fifth on the restart. On lap four, Brown would ride under Eliason into fourth. A lap later, an oil fire on Halligan’s car slowed things again. Scelzi got by Brown for fourth when the green flew again, while Dewease took a shot at Schatz for second, but settled back into third. On lap 17, Gravel, still pulling away, entered lapped traffic. Dewease was all over Schatz, but could not get by him. On lap 21, Reutzel moved into the top five. Dewease would use a low line in turn four to finally wrestle the runner-up spot from Schatz. Up front, Gravel was sailing to a convincing win, completing a sweep of the night. Sweet was the hard-charger.