SPRINTFREAK'S TRAVELS May 17, 1999
Once again it's time for SPRINTFREAK'S
TRAVELS!
I hope everyone had as good of a
time at the races this weekend as I did. Man
what great weather and great racing! The
sprintfreak was at Attica on Friday night,
Mercer on Saturday night, and Sharon on
Sunday night.
Lets start off with Attica. The Attica Raceway Park was once again the place to be with the All-star sprints invading the 1/3 mile high banked oval on Friday night. Jeff Shepard was the class of the field, Jeff was not only the quick timer of the night, but also went on to win the 40 lap A-main over Danny Goeden and Paul McMahan. There were 45 sprinters on hand for the show, so much for the decline of the All-stars! As always, the track was in great shape with three grooves for the drivers to choose from. Dale Blaney and Joey Saldana put on a great show just behind the leaders. Dale and Joey raced wheel to wheel for much of the race, probably costing both of them a chance at the win. However, the race up front was just as exciting with McMahan and Goeden fighting it out like cats and dogs. Near the end of the feature event it looked as if Goeden would be driving home the victor, but out of nowhere in the bottom groove came Shepard to take the win in the Zemco #1. Shepard said in victory lane that he had no idea if he was even leading the race! The flagman didn't see Shepard take the lead and was giving the two lap to go and the one lap to go signals to the wrong driver! Shepard said, "Holy Moly! I didn't even know who was leading this thing! All I knew was, if I wasn't leading I sure had a long way to go to catch the leader!" All in all, it was a great night of racing.
Some sidenotes from the this past weekend:
Dale Blaney seemed to be in a great mood at Attica this weekend. Dale got out of the car pumping his fist and high fiving crew chief Todd Palmer after his spirited fourth place run. It's great to see Dale happy again and I think that first win could be just around the corner!
It was also nice to see Andy Hilenburg have a good weekend with the World of Outlaws. Andy has really been struggling this year and a couple of top five finishes is just what he needed!
Another Outlaw driver headed in the right direction is Tyler Walker. Tyler had an outstanding weekend which included a win and to other top fives. With a little more seasoning, Tyler could be a title contender with the Outlaws!
Here on the local scene, Jimmy Hawley continues to impress. Jimmy had a win and two thrid place finishes over the weekend. I recently spoke via e-mail with Jimmy's car owners and they said Jimmy would be concentrating on the local circuit this year, with hopes of maybe hitting the road next season. I wish them all the best! Jimmy could easily be running with the All-stars in my opinion.
Jamie "The Jet" Smith picked up a win this weekend at the Mercer Raceway. Jamie looked as good as I've seen him in a while. In victory lane Jamie gave some of credit for the win to his switch to Maxim chassis this year. Like Bob Felmlee, Jamie has been a long time J&J chassis supporter, but like Bob, Jamie made the switch this year hoping to improve in the win column, looks like it might be helping! And speaking of Mr. Felmlee, he picked up the win at Tri-city Sunday night!
On Sunday night it was off to the Sharon
Speedway for the sprintfreak. I only live
nine miles from there, so it is a frequent
stop in my travels. Rob Chaney driving the
family #42 was too strong for the Sharon
locals! Rob seems to be at his best when he
is at Sharon. He says he likes the big fast
tracks the best, and that Sharon just suits
his driving style.
Also worth noting was
the impressive finish for Jamie Mckinney in
the #95. Jamie is only in his second year of
sprintcars and had been off to a slow start
in '99, but Sharon was just the medicine for
the Northeast Ohio regular who finished a
strong fifth in only his thrid start of the
season.
In a couple of the scarier
moments of the night, Brad Ellenberger took a
nasty ride through turn two after making
contact with Gary McCann. Ellenberger flipped
violently then took out a portion of fence in
turn two, he was not injured however. And in
another scary sight, Troy Preston had
something hit his oil filter as he was coming
down the front stretch at full song causing
the #36 sprinter to burst into a firery ball
of flames! It was something to see, the car
was completly engulfed in flames for about
twenty seconds, luckily Troy was able to get
out unhurt and the track fire squad quickly
put out the fire.
How about "Fast" Freddie Rahmer? The guy is on fire! Maybe it has something to do with Kevin Gobrecht being out on the Outlaw tour or maybe it is just because the Hamilton team has figured out the new J&J chassis. Who knows? But one thing is for sure, Fred is once again the man to beat in Central Pa.!
Also a tip of the hat must go to Todd Shaffer who won twice this weekend at both Port Royal and Selinsgrove. Todd has had some nasty crashes this year, but if there is one driver who comes back strong from bad crashes, it's Todd Shaffer!
Before we get to the results of last weeks poll questions, the sprintfreak wants to peak your interest a little. I will have some big news from the sprintfreak camp coming in a few weeks. All of the plans and details have not been finalized yet, so I can not comment on what it is yet, but I will in the coming weeks so stay tuned!
On to the results:
Who is the best driver in or from
California?
And the winner is:
1) Randy Hannagan 23% of the total votes.
2) Bud Keading 20%
3) Randy Tiner 14%
4) Brent Keading 11%
5) Richard Griffin 8%
This was a very popular question with many
drivers voted for, these are the top
five!
Which driver has the best nickname who is
still currently racing?
1) Randy "Boo" Tiner 29% of the total
votes
2) Randy "The Hurricane" Hannagan 19%
3) "The Apollo Rocket" Ed Lynch Jr. 12%
4) Johnny "Hollywood" Herrera 9%
5) Shane "The Flyin Hawaiian" Scott 6%
This was a fun question with many
responses!
Here are some of the nicknames
that did not make the top five:
Jac "The Wild Child" Haudenschild
"Rip" Williams
Richard "The Gas Man" Griffin
Ron "Sleepy" Tripp
Danny "The Dude" Lasoski
Rickey "The Hound Dog" Hood
Jack "Dew it" Hewitt
Those are some of the top vote getters that
did not make the top five.
Here are the results from this weekend:
All-stars
Attica 5.14
1) Shepard 1
2) Goeden 27
3) McMahan U2
4) Blaney 94
5) Reed 5
45 cars
Eldora 5.15
1) K.Jacobs 6
2) Saldana 17
3) Reed 5
4) Lynch Jr. 2L
5) Nier 00
40 cars
WoO
State Fair 5.14
1) S.Kinser 11
2) Herrera 1bk
3) Walker 35
4) Lasoski 83
5) Hilenburg 2
28 cars
Tri-city ILL. 5.15
1) Walker 35
2) Smith 19
3) M.Kinser 5m
4) Schatz 15
5) Herrera 1bk
27 cars
Tri-state 5.16
1) M.Kinser 5m
2) Smith 19
3) Hilenburg 2
4) S.Kinser 11
5) Walker 35
35 cars
Williams Grove 5.14
1) Rahmer 77
2) Eash 17e
3) Ely 77
4) Hodnett 12
5) PJ Chesson 76
Lernerville 5.14
1) Hawley CIII
2) Jones 76
3) Ruth 5x
4) Schaeffer 9
5) Matus 33
Lincoln 5.15
1) Rahmer 77
2) Kreitz 69k
3) Jones 8j
4) Eash 17e
5) Hodnett 12
Port Royal 5.15
1) Shaffer 88
2) DeWease 461
3) Kauffman 7
4) Keen 53
5) Hestor 7h
Mercer 5.15
1) Smith 5
2) Kent 18
3) Hawley CIII
4) Preston 36
5) Kekich 5k
K-C 5.15
1) Stinson 84
2) K.Kinser 4k
3) Roepke 99
4) McGuire 4
5) Horton 80
33 cars
Selinsgrove 5.16
1) Shaffer 88
2) Borich 9
3) Kauffman 7
4) Keen 53
5) Thomas 77
Sharon 5.16
1) Chaney 42
2) Larson 47
3) Ruble 63
4) Kekich 5k
5) McKinney 95
18 cars
Millstream 5.16
1) McMahan U2
2) Keegan 92
3) Wilson 63
4) Dukes 3
5) Weaver 8
17 cars
Tri-city Pa. 5.16
1) Felmlee 6
2) Lynch 2L
3) Hawley CIII
4) Rankin 77
5) Powell 35
13 cars
This weeks poll questions are:
Who was the best driver to drive for Bob
Weikert?
1) Doug Wolfgang
2) Bobby Davis Jr.
3) Kenny Weld
4) Kenny Jacobs
5) Keith Kauffman
Pick any of these drivers or anyone who drove
the Beefmobile.
Who is the best 360 driver in the
country?
1) Phil Gressman
2) Danny Wood
3) Bobby Clark
4) Gary Wright
5) Tim Crawley
Pick any of these drivers or any 360 driver
you feel is the best.
You can e-mail your answers to me at: sprintfreak@hotmail.com
Well, that wraps up another week of sprintcar
racing.
Next weekend the sprintfreak will
be watching the live TNN broadcast Friday
night, then heading to the Mercer Raceway on
Saturday, and finally heading to the
Millstresm Speedway for the All-star show on
Sunday.
Hopefully the weather agrees with
us sprintcar fans and gives us beautiful
weather for the weekend! Until next week,
happy sprintcar racing!
~HoMe~
