SPRINT: Penn National report 96-07-04

• "RUSS GOULD"
• MNI - Motorsport News International
• Mon Jul 8 23:37:32 EDT 1996

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