7/1/06
Port Royal Speedway
Port Royal, PA
Pennsylvania Speedweek Round 5
29 cars
Lucas Wolfe (7th car out to time) set quick time on the 1/2 mile with a lap of 16.667 seconds. Mark Smith (18th car out) was second quick, followed by Lance Dewease (1st), Jeff Shepard (25th), Fred Rahmer (26th), Doug Esh (28th), Stevie Smith (24th), Mark Coldren (17th), Kyle Pruitt (5th) and Greg Hodnett (11th). Cliff Brian got one lap in after going to his back-up machine after a hot laps blown engine.
Heat one (started): 1. Brian Leppo 71 (1) 2. Keith Kauffman 7 (2) 3. Hodnett 77 (3) 4. S. Smith 19 (4) 5. Shepard 4J (5) 6. Wolfe 5w (6) / 7. Justin Seigler 17s (8) 8. Cliff Brian 13 (10) 9. Dave Hahn 2H (7) 10. Vince Snyder 15 (9)
Leppo led the 10 lapper flag to flag. The best race was for second with Kauffman using the low side to best Hodnett. The invert was six in the heats tonight, I thought it was supposed to be seven, like Susky. Quick timers didn't need to pass anyone to make the show.
Heat two (started): 1. Rahmer 22 (5) 2. Alan Cole 35 (3) 3. M. Smith 1 (6) 4. Mike Erdley 11 (7) 5. Coldren 07 (4) 6. Dan Shetler 98 (9) / 7. Niki Young 10n (1) 8. Randy Baughman 3B (8) 9. Josh Dressler 007 (10) 10. TJ Stutts 88 (2)
Stutts led early and pulled away from Cole in second. Soon Rahmer was pecking his way forward, but couldn't overtake Cole for second. On lap eight, Stutts left rear flattened, sending him spinning and into a tipover. Cole assumed the lead and engaged in a spirited duel which he lost to Rahmer one lap aftter the restart. Shetler also benefited from the restart, grabbing the last transfer from Young on the last lap, besting the 10n by a nose.
Heat three (started): 1. Dewease 25 (6) 2. Chad Layton 12 (1) 3. Rick Lafferty 0 (3) 4. Bob Bennett 3 (7) 5. Michael Carber 69 (2) 6. Pruitt 22z
(4) / 7. Daryl Stimeling 18 (9) 8. Clark Simonton Jr. 03 (8) 9. Esh 30 (5)
Layton jumped out to an early advantage, but it was clear Dewease was the fastest machine on the track. After picking his way forward, he found his way around Layton on lap seven. Two laps later, Esh went up in smoke while in a transfer spot, setting up a green, white, checker finish. On the restart, Dewease led Layton, Lafferty, Carber, Pruitt and Bennett.
Bennett was on a mission and shot under both Pruitt and Carber when the green fell again, garnering fourth late.
B main (started): 1. Stutts (2) 2. Esh (1) 3. Young (3) 4. Brian (8) 5.
Hahn (4) 6. Seigler (5) / 7. Simonton (7) 8. Dressler (10) 9. Stimeling
(9) 10. Snyder (6) DNS - Baughman
Esh grabbed an early lead, but Stutts wheeled around the heavily smoking 30 on the next go-around. Brian had worked his way to sixth on lap 3 of the 12 lapper, when he spun. Stutts led Esh, Hahn, Young, Seigler and Simonton back to green. He extended his lead through lap eight when Snyder spun. Now he led Esh, Young, Hahn, a surging Stimeling and Seigler. On the restart, Simonton got a jump from seventh and was attempting to move into a transfer when he spun in turn four. The next try at green saw Seigler spin out of sixth as no one seemed to want the final transfer. Stimeling was working the turn one berm when he got the front end up and came down hard. The next time around he spun after losing the final transfer spot. The yellow negated a Simonton pass for sixth, as Seigler held onto it.
A main (started): 1. Rahmer (2) 2. Dewease (4) 3. Shepard (3) 4. Wolfe (6) 5. Esh (9) 6. Kauffman (13) 7. Cole (11) 8. M. Smith (5) 9. Layton (18) 10. Erdley (20) 11. Young (17) 12. Brian (24) 13. Shetler (23) 14. Leppo (16) 15. Pruitt (8) 16. S. Smith (1) 17. Hodnett (10) 18. Carber (15) 19. Lafferty (12) 20. Hahn (19) 21. Coldren (7) 22. Stutts (14) 23. Seigler (22) 24. Bennett (21)
S. Smith shot out to an early lead in the 30 lapper and held it for one lap until Bennett got upside down in turn one. He was uninjured. S. Smith led Rahmer, Dewease, Shepard, Wolfe and Esh back to green flag racing. The next 11 laps saw S. Smith pull away and enter traffic.
Stutts had moved forward to 8th when he brought a caution on lap 13 and exited while smoking. Now S. Smith led Rahmer, Dewease, Wolfe, Shepard and Hodnett. S. Smith pulled away again as another 11 laps were in the books before Coldren slowed bringing another caution. The top three remained the same, but Shepard had got back by Wolfe, who was ahead of Hodnett in fifth. When Hodnett slid Wolfe for fifth in turn two on the restart, Kauffman slid under both when they made contact. Coming into turn four, Wolfe showed Hodnett his right rear, sending the 77 hard into the wall. He was then struck hard by Coldren and the incident also collected Carber who tipped over, Pruitt and Hahn. All were done.
Shetler was also involved, but continued. Hodnett was transported to the local hospital for a check-over. Rahmer who was still sitting second made the most of the final restart going for a slider in turn one, only to have S. Smith drive back under him down the backstretch. A similar move in turns three and four did stick and Rahmer pulled away for his first 2006 Speedweek win. Brian earned hard-charger honors moving forward 12 spots.