Penn National report 96-07-04
SPRINTS: Penn National 96-07-04 June 16, 1996 Grantville, PA Greetings sprint car fans from the Penn National Speedway located adjacent to the Penn National horse racing facility. Sorry for the delay in posting. Penn National Speedway is ...
SPRINTS: Penn National 96-07-04 June 16, 1996 Grantville, PA Greetings sprint car fans from the Penn National Speedway located adjacent to the Penn National horse racing facility. Sorry for the delay in posting. Penn National Speedway is found at exit 28 off of I-81, approximately 10 miles northeast of Harrisburg. This was Mr. G's and my second visit to the track this year. The track is considered a half mile dirt oval with very slight banking. There is a high wooden main grandstand on the front stretch with regular grandstand seating at the turn one and four ends of the front stretch. Under the main grandstand are modern bathroom facilities, good tasting food which was reasonably priced, and a great variety of souvenir's. There is also an infield and a drive in spectator viewing area. This was supposed to be the fourth stop in the Pennsylvania Speedweek Series. However, it actually was the first night as Hagerstown, MD; Silver Springs, and Grandview were all rained out. The racing program found the 410 sprint cars appearing for the 30 laps with $4,000 to the winner. In addition to the sprint cars the ARMACLAD KARS Limited Sprints ran a 20 lap feature. The racing program for the evening started with time trials for the 410 Sprinters, three 10 lap 410 Sprint heats, three 10 lap KARS heats, the KARS consi, the 410 consi, the KARS feature and then the 410 feature. Signed into the pits were 30 of the 410 Sprint cars and 29 of the KARS limited sprints.
HOT LAP NOTES ARMACLAD KARS Limited Sprints The #a18 of Becca Anderson hit the turn 1/2 wall and required a hook to remove the car from the racing surface, she was not injured and did make her heat race. The #7 of Rick Horn hit the turn 1/2 wall but did not require a wrecker. The #23R of Doug Ressler experienced engine problems and was done for the evening.
410 SPRINTS The #69 of Shawn Weaver hit the wall in turn 1/2 and required a wrecker. This put him out of action for the evening.
TIME TRIALS TOP TEN The one lap record was set by Fred Rahmer was on June 29, 1995, with a lap of 17.71 seconds. The track only gave time to the hundredth of a second. #19 Steve Smith Sr. 18.81 18.72 #17e Cris Eash 18.28 18.45 #92 Kevin Gobrecht 18.41 18.38 #461 Lance Dewease 18.48 18.49 #77 Fred Rahmer 18.68 18.67 #29 Dave Calaman 18.81 18.72 #11H Greg Hodnett 18.82 18.72 #88 Todd Shaffer 18.92 18.73 #12 Keith Kauffman 19.08 18.80 #5K Mark Richard 19.33 18.94
The following heat information provides the finishing position, the car number, the drivers name (when available) and their starting position in the heat in brackets.
410 SPRINTS Ten laps the distance with six to qualify and get their time back.
410 HEAT ONE QUALIFIERS 1.) #19 Steve Smith [8] 2.) #10N Jeff Thompson [2] 3.) #11 Greg Hodnett [6] 4.) #461 Lance Dewease [7] 5.) #59 Todd Gracey [4] 6.) #17 Alan Cole [3]
410 HEAT ONE NON QUALIFIERS #3 Bob Bennett, #121 Judi Bates, #92A Jon Armstrong, #81 Mike Dillman
410 HEAT TWO QUALIFIERS 1.) #77 Fred Rahmer [7] 2.) #07 Dave Haight [4] 3.) #5K Mark Richard [5] 4.) #14C Troy Camp [2] 5.) #88 Todd Shaffer [6] 6.) #08 Jason Claus [3] 410 HEAT TWO NON QUALIFIERS #5 Craig Eshenaur, #17e Cris Eash, 1X Denny Soltus, #5W Dwayne England Eash lost a rear tire and came to a stop in turn four on lap eight.
410 HEAT THREE Qualifiers 1.) #16 Bill Brian Jr. [4] 2.) #12 Keith Kauffman [6] 3.) #55s Bill Sims [1] 4.) #77L Howie Locke [2] 5.) #1 Rich Hench [5] 6.) #29 Dave Calaman [7] HEAT THREE NON QUALIFIERS #77T Jess Thomas, #49 Bob Howard, #92 Kevin Gobrecht Gobrecht hit the wall hard between turns 1 and 2 and did front end damage which required a wrecker to remove his car from the racing surface. Kevin was not injured.
ARMACLAD Limited Sprints Six cars qualified with the top four being handicapped in the feature based on KARS point standings.
KARS Heat One Qualifiers 1.) #95 Mike Lehman [9] 2.) #10K Mark Yinger [1] 3.) #21 Jeff Stelter [5] 4.) #a18 Becca Anderson [4] 5.) #21J Judd Shepard [8] 6.) #31 Tim Higgins [7]
KARS Heat Two Qualifiers 1.) #1 Tom Walston [2] 2.) #5 Rusty Pressley [6] 3.) #69R Randy Rhoads [4] 4.) #32 Brook Weibley [8] 5.) #46 Bill Albright [7] 6.) #81X Rich Carnathan [3]
KARS Heat Three Qualifiers 1.) #50 Brian Seidel [8] 2.) #56 Scott Heisey [1] 3.) #7K Todd Reid [4] 4.) #12 Jimmy Stizel [7] 5.) #7 Rick Horn [2] 6.) #2 Denny Gross [5]
410 SPRINT CAR CONSI Top two finisher got their time back while the remaining were added to the rear of the feature. 1.) #17e Cris Eash [1] 2.) #92 Kevin Gobrecht [13] 3.) #121 Judi Bates [2] 4.) #5 Craig Eshenaur [4] 5.) #77T Jess Thomas [3] 6.) #3 Bob Bennett [5] The #92 of Gobrecht was slated for the front row but his crew was still working on the car and missed making the line up and had to start shot gun on the field. On the last lap Gobrecht managed to pass Judi Bates exiting turn four to get the second qualifier spot.
SPRINT CAR NON QUALIFIERS #92A Jon Armstrong, #1X Denny Soltus, #49 Bob Howard, #81 Mike Dillman, #5W Dwayne England, #69 Shawn Weaver, #15L Larry Miller
ARMACLAD KARS Consi 10 laps with six to qualify 1.) #80R Dan Richcreek [2] 2.) #30 Tom Leach [3] 3.) #2a Burt Shoope [1] 4.) #11 Johnny Martin [4] 5.) #2H Skip Hopping [5] 6.) #73 Dave Sands [7]
ARMACLAD KARS 20 LAP SPRINT FEATURE A good battle for the lead was brewing in this event, unfortunately the out come was not to be decided by on track action. The #95 of Mike Lehman and the #50 of Brian Seidel were battling for the lead by lap fifteen. On lap sixteen Seidel had the lead only to brush the wall in turn one which allowed Lehman to get past him as they both were coming up on lapped traffic. On lap eighteen the caution flew for an incident exiting turn two which allegedly involved Lehman hitting the #2H of Skip Hopping who was then collected by the #73 of Dave Sands. Even though the contact resulted in a spin it was not done to gain a position on the track but let a lapped car know that he was holding up a faster car. Unfortunately the KARS officials did not see it that way and placed Lehman to the rear of the field for rough riding. This brought a loud round of boo's from the crowd. Lehman being the gentleman that he is took the KARS officials decision and went to the rear of the field. On lap eighteen the red flag flew for a hard flip in turn one involving the #21J of Judd Shepard. Shepard was not injured in the accident but the car required two wreckers to remove it from the racing surface. All the cars worked their way around to the front stretch and stopped. At this point Mike Lehman got out of his car and was questioning the officials judgment call. The crowd was going wild and cheering Mike on. Unfortunately, the officials took an even dimmer view of this and his car was ordered to the pits. This really brought out the boo's from the crowd. On the restart Seidel was not challenged for the lead and went on to his second victory of the week after winning a special KARS show on Wednesday night at Lincoln. At the end of the race the third place car of Bill Albright drove straight into the wall and came back down and collected the #10K of Mark Yinger. The complete front end of Albright's car was gone. Both drivers were uninjured.
VICTORY LANE As soon as Seidel took the checkered flag the boo's began again. In victory lane he said "I do not know what happened with Mike so I can not comment. It sounds like we have a lot of judges here tonight but I won and I don't give a s--t what they think."
KARS TOP SIX FINISHERS 1.) #50 Brian Seidel [11] 2.) #7K Todd Reid [6] 3.) #46 Bill Albright [14] 4.) #10K Mark Yinger [1] 5.) #80R Dan Richcreek [19] 6.) #56 Scotty Heisey [2]
SPRINT CAR 30 LAP FEATURE Row 1: #461 Lance Dewease #92 Kevin Gobrecht Row 2: #17e Cris Eash #19 Steve Smith Sr. Row 3: #77 Fred Rahmer #29 Dave Calaman Row 4: #11H Greg Hodnett #88 Todd Shaffer Row 5: #12 Keith Kauffman #5K Mark Richard Row 6: #1 Rick Hench #59 Todd Gracey Row 7: #07 Dave Haight #16 Bill Brian Row 8: #17 Alan Cole #08 Jason Claus Row 9: #10N Jeff Thompson #77L Howie Locke Row 10: #14c Troy Camp #55s Bill Sims Row 11: #121 Judi Bates #5 Craig Eshenaur Row 12: #77T Jess Thomas #3 Bob Bennett
Once the green dropped the #461 of Lance Dewease was off and running after clearing the #92 of Gobrecht on the second lap. Only Billy Pauch and Lance have won the sprint car features at Penn National. So with Pauch running his modified at Rolling Wheels in NY the question was who would finish second. The answer was Kevin Gobrecht although he got pressured at times by the #77 of Fred Rahmer. Rahmer even got past Gobrecht on the restart on lap twenty but Gobrecht got back by Rahmer. The uncharacteristic action on the track was that in the latter stages of the event the #19 of Steve Smith Sr. who had been running as high as fourth started to drop back through the field. Rahmer was still running third but on lap twenty-seven his day came to an end when he and the #11H of Greg Hodnett got tangled together and hit the wall between turn three and four bring out the caution. On the restart Lance pulled away from the field and won the event. The event was slowed on several occasions: Lap 2, #5 Craig Eshenaur into the turn two wall Lap 20, #16 Bill Brian Jr. stopped on the front stretch and he bailed out as if there was an oil leak in the drivers compartment. Lap 27, #77 Fred Rahmer and #11H of Greg Hodnett turn three and four wall.
TOP TEN FINISHERS #461, #92, #88, #17e, #12, #19, #59, #5K, #17, #55S
VICTORY LANE INTERVIEW Lance said that they picked the right tire compound this time while Pauch had picked it for the Tobias Memorial earlier this year. Lance also said he dedicated the win to Mike Lehman who he felt got a bad deal. Lance said "If a lapped car got in my way I would move him too." As always I welcome any news, comments, suggestions or questions. You can reach me at: rgould@oehs.upenn.edu
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