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USA

ALLSTAR: Tri-City Speedway 98-06-14

DEMPSEYTOWN, PA - Jeff Shepard passed race-long leader Kenny Jacobs on a late race restart to win the $5,000-to-win All Star sprint 30-lap Western Pa. Speedweek feature Sunday night at Tri-City Speedway. He was also crowned the 1998 Western Pa.

DEMPSEYTOWN, PA - Jeff Shepard passed race-long leader Kenny Jacobs on a late race restart to win the $5,000-to-win All Star sprint 30-lap Western Pa. Speedweek feature Sunday night at Tri-City Speedway. He was also crowned the 1998 Western Pa. Speedweek champion, worth an additional $1,000 from the series point fund.

Shepard told the story of the pass of Jacobs this way, "I got to run down there into one and I knew he was thinking I was going to dive under him so I went high and got a lot of momentum that allowed me to get close to him coming off turn two and down the back straightaway and he went low. Then I turned under him. We didn’t crowd him out." He added, "I’m just happy to be standing here. We had a real bad last month and a half and this is a great way to turn it around." Shepard drove the Double L Racing Maxim, using Kriner-Chevrolet power and riding Goodyear tires.

Jacobs led the initial 25 laps and took home $2,100 for second, plus regained the All Star points lead from Joey Saldana. "He kicked my butt, that’s about all I can say," Jacobs remarked. "We tried to take his line away and it just didn’t work out. He saw what I did on that last restart and he knew I was going to do it again. It worked out for him and not us."

Lynch started on the ButlerBuilt Hot Seat pole position with Kenny Jacobs alongside. Jacobs grabbed the immediate lead in the outside groove, with Lynch second and fourth starter Shepard third. Third starting Saldana tucked into fourth. Jacobs stretched out his lead, but by lap five had entered lapped traffic, allowing Lynch and Shepard to close. In heavy traffic on lap eight, Shepard got around Lynch in the high groove exiting turn two to take the runner-up spot. By lap ten, Shepard was right on the back pushbar of Jacobs, and they ran nose to tail through traffic. Shepard would close, then drop back several lengths due to the lapped cars. Jacobs got past most of the lapped machines with ease, but got held up on lap 13 by Bob Felmlee, allowing Shepard to close again. On lap 17, Shepard made a dive in turns one and two for the lead, but traffic thwarted his attempt and allowed Lynch to close. It was now a three car race, which was slowed by a lap 20 caution for a Dean Jacobs flat. He stopped on the backstretch, bringing out a yellow, but was able to get the tire changed and rejoin the pack. The order was now Jacobs, Shepard, Lynch, Saldana, Tim Shaffer, Fred Rahmer and Frankie Kerr.

The red appeared on lap 23 when local driver Jason Jacoby spun entering turn one, then his tires dug in and he flipped hard against the turn one guardrail. The second generation driver was not injured.

It was now a seven lap dash to the end. The restart order was Jacobs, Shepard, Lynch, Rahmer and Shaffer. Shepard got a good run down the backstretch on lap 25, and they were side by side in the turns with Shepard ducking under to lead lap 26. He then pulled out to a half straightaway win over the Tim Hughes J&J of Jacobs with Lynch holding third in his family’s J&J.

"I think we had something for them before that yellow," Lynch recalled of third. "After it we held our own. We tried all brands of tires tonight and used McCreary’s."

Rahmer got Saldana for fourth with two laps to go after starting 11th. Saldana was fifth, ahead of Shaffer, Keith Kauffman, Kevin Gobrecht, Kerr and Jimmy Hawley.

The United Expressline heat fell to Shepard who had a clean sweep for the night (fast time, heat and feature), the Southwest Expressline heat to Joey Saldana, the Southwest Glass heat and Commercial Truck & Trailer Dash were won by Kenny Jacobs and the United Specialties heat went to Jamie Smith. Rahmer was the United Expressline B Main winner after dropping out of his heat with a broken driveline while leading. Shepard’s lap of 15.107 was a new track record, worth 1,000 quarters from Carriage City Car Wash, bringing his total for the evening to $6,250. Time Trials: 1. Jeff Shepard, Double L 4J, 15.107 (NTR); 2. Joey Saldana, Mox 17, 15.109; 3. Kenny Jacobs, Hughes 94, 15.210; 4. Ed Lynch, Jr., Lynch 2L, 15.250; 5. Keith Kauffman, Johnson U2, 15.314; 6. Frankie Kerr, Shoff 23s, 15.368; 7. Tim Shaffer, Stewart 12, 15.371; 8. Todd Gracey, Cooper 25, 15.453; 9. Kevin Gobrecht, Gobrecht 92, 15.508; 10. Scott Jones, Jones 8J, 15.604; 11. Fred Rahmer, Hamilton 77, 15.619; 12. Tom Quarterson, R&R 27, 15.650; 13. Bob Felmlee, Felmlee 6, 15.664; 14. Mike Woodring, Woodring 19, 15.680; 15. Dean Jacobs, Ashworth 92, 15.754; 16. Jimmy Hawley, Crawford C3, 15.761; 17. Brad Ellenberger, Ellenberger 87, 15.923; 18. Brian Ellenberger, Ellenberger 20, 15.950; 19. Scott Bonnell, Bonnell 3, 16.013; 20. Jamie Smith, Smith 5, 16.043; 21. Craig Rankin, Guzzo 77, 16.043; 22. James Wray, Wray 24, 16.070; 23. Bobby Allen, Pell 1a, 16.209; 24. Jason Jacoby, Jacoby 4J, 16.248; 25. Andy McKisson, McKisson 0, 16.383; 26. Brian Smith, Smith 2+, 16.539; 27. Daryl Stimeling, Stimeling 30, 16.621; 28. Brian Staph, Staph 1, 16.695; 29. Rich Kerstetter, Kerstetter 11K, 16.714; 30. Bill Kiley, Kiley 4K, 16.751; 31. Skip Dougherty, Covell 81, 17.418; 32. Kevin Andrusky, Best 7, 17.454; 33. Gale Ruth, Jr., Ruth 5x, 17.522; 34. Bruce Powell, Powell 35, 17.792; 35. Gary Rankin, Rankin 16, 17.939; 36. Eric Smith, Smith 7z, 18.070; 37. Mike Marano II, M&M 34, 18.103; 38. Brian Rivers, Rivers 187, 18.400; 39. Shelia Rankin, Rankin 6, NT.

United Expressline Heat (8 laps): 1. Shepard 2. Kauffman 3. Gobrecht 4. C. Rankin 5. Felmlee 6. Kerstetter 7. McKisson 8. Ruth 9. Brad Ellenberger 10. Marano (DNS).

Southwest Expressline Heat (8 laps): 1. Saldana 2. Wray 3. Woodring 4. Kerr 5. Brian Ellenberger 6. Jones 7. B. Smith 8. Kiley 9. Powell 10. Rivers.

Southwest Glass Heat (8 laps): 1. K. Jacobs 2. Shaffer 3. D. Jacobs 4. Allen 5. Bonnell 6. Stimeling 7. G. Rankin 8. Dougherty 9. Rahmer.

United Specialties Heat (8 laps): 1. J. Smith 2. Hawley 3. Lynch 4. Quarterson 5. Gracey 6. Jacoby 7. Staph 8. Andrusky 9. E. Smith.

Commercial Truck & Trailer Dash: (4 laps): 1. K. Jacobs 2. Lynch 3. Shepard 4. Saldana 5. Kauffman 6. Kerr.

United Expressline B Main (12 laps): 1. Rahmer 2. Jones 3. Stimeling 4. Jacoby 5. McKisson 6. Kerstetter 7. B. Smith 8. G. Rankin 9. Staph 10. Powell 11. Mariano 12. Rivers 13. Kiley 14. E. Smith 15. Ruth, DNS: Brad Ellenberger, Dougherty, Andrusky.

A Main (30 laps): 1. Shepard 2. K. Jacobs 3. Lynch 4. Rahmer 5. Saldana 6. Shaffer 7. Kauffman 8. Gobrecht 9. Kerr 10. Hawley 11. Woodring 12. D. Jacobs 13. Jones 14. Allen 15. Felmlee 16. J. Smith 17. Brian Ellenberger 18. Bonnell 19. Stimeling 20. Wray 21. Jacobs 22. Gracey 23. Quarterson 24. C. Rankin.

All Star Points: 1. Kenny Jacobs 2066; 2. Joey Saldana 2058; 3. Frankie Kerr 1945; 4. Dean Jacobs 1894; 5. Keith Kauffman 1889; 6. Scott Jones 1497; 7.Brian Smith 1436; 8. Judi Bates 1048; 9. Kevin Huntley 912; 10. Sarah Fisher 526.

WESTERN PA. SPEEDWEEK POINTS: 1. Jeff Shepard 200; 2. Ed Lynch Jr. 196; 3. Kenny Jacobs & Keith Kauffman 192; 5. Joey Saldana & Dean Jacobs 191; 7. Frankie Kerr 190 8. Jimmy Hawley 187; 9. Scott Jones & Bob Felmlee 181.

- www.allstarsprint.com -

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