SPRINT: Williams Grove report 96-07-05

• "RUSS GOULD"
• MNI - Motorsport News International
• Mon Jul 8 23:37:36 EDT 1996

Sprints: Williams Grove 96-07-05
July 5, 1996
Mechanicsburg, PA
	Greetings sprint car fans as r4 and Mr. G. return to Williams Grove for the
Friday night show.  The 410 sprint cars were running the Mitch Smith Memorial
which was a 30 lap feature which paid $10,000 to win as part of Pennsylvania
Speedweek.  Signed into the pits were 48 of the 410 sprinters.  Three cars had
aluminum heads (#6F, #5W, #F1) and one was a cast iron block(#55X).  The Grove
was packed, I have been there for Outlaw shows and have not seen it as full as
it was Friday night.

TOP TEN TIME TRIAL
The one lap record at the Grove is held by Mark Kinser with a time of 17.191
seconds.
1.)  	#461	Lance Dewease	18.600	18.529
2.)  	#17	Alan Cole		18.670	18.569
3.)  	#12	Keith Kauffman	18.671	18.725
4.)	#19	Steve Smith Sr.	18.869	18.733
5.)  	#5G	Rod George		18.806	18.756
6.)  	#1Z	Billy Pauch		18.916	18.786
7.)  	#17e	Cris Eash		18.955	18.864
8.)  	#11H	Greg Hodnett	19.056	18.875
9.)  	#88	Todd Shaffer	18.894	19.191
10.)  #92	Kevin Gobrecht	19.148	19.002
  
410 HEATS and CONSI
The following is the heat information for the 410 sprints.  Heats were ten laps
in distance with the top five getting their time back.  Information given is
finishing position, car number, driver and starting position is in brackets.
HEAT ONE QUALIFIERS
1.) #59 Todd Gracey [1]		2.) #77 Fred Rahmer [3]
3.) #55 Mike Wagner [2]		4.) #461 Lance Dewease [6]
5.) #5G Rod George [5]	

HEAT TWO QUALIFIERS
1.) #92 Kevin Gobrecht [4]	2.) #1Z Billy Pauch [5]
3.) #10 Len Thompson [3]	4.) #17 Alan Cole [6]
5.) #55S Bill Sims [7]		
On lap five the #16 of Bill Brian Jr. cooked an engine and bailed out of his
car on the front stretch as it resulted in a fire.

HEAT THREE QUALIFIERS
1.) #12 Keith Kauffman [6]	2.) #17e Cris Eash [5]
3.) #2W Jesse Wentz [4]		4.) #07 Dave Haight [7]
5.) #7M Barry Camp [8]		

HEAT FOUR QUALIFIERS
1.) #1H Rick Hench [4]		2.) #121 Judi Bates [1]
3.) #11H Greg Hodnett [5]	4.) #77T Jess Thomas [3]
5.) #49 Bob Howard [2] 
#19 Steve Smith scratched from his heat with engine problems.

C MAIN 8 Laps
Top four Finishers were added to the B Main
1.) #4H Robin Johnston [1]	2.) #81 Mike Dillman [2]
3.) #10N Jeff Thompson [8]	4.) #F1 French Grimes [3]
The C main was kind of a joke as the majority of the cars did not make the
track in time to take their starting position.  Starting positions were then
assigned as the cars came to the racing surface. 

B MAIN QUALIFIERS 12 Laps
1.) #88 Todd Shaffer [1]	2.) #5K Mark Richard [2]
3.) #5 Craig Eshenaur [4]	4.) #X Bobby Weaver [13]
Two cars scratched from the B Main.  The #29 of Dave Calaman and the #7 of Dave
Cordier.


NON QUALIFIERS
#65 1/2 Christine Karns		#5W Dwayne England	#55X Jerry Speck, 
#15L Larry Miller			#3 Bob Bennett		#7 Dave Cordier
#2c Will Cramer			#77L Howie Locke		#29 Dave Calaman
#16C Cliff Brian			#79 Tom Bear		#14c Troy Camp
#12W Troy Fraker			#25 Scotte Ausherman	#08 Jason Clauss
#6F Bill Fannasy			#4H Robin Johnston	#81 Mike Dillman
#10N Jeff Thompson		#F1 French Grimes	 

30 LAP FEATURE $10,000 to Win
Prior to the Feature Lance Dewease pulled a pill and the top eight by time were
inverted.
Row 1:  #88 Todd Shaffer	#11H Greg Hodnett		
Row 2:  #17e Cris Eash		#1 Billy Pauch	
Row 3:  #5G Rod George		#12 Keith Kauffman	
Row 4:  #17 Alan Cole		#461 Lance Dewease
Row 5:  #92 Kevin Gobrecht	#2W Jesse Wentz
Row 6:  #1H Rick Hench		#77 Fred Rahmer
Row 7:  #10 Len Thompson	#5K Mark Richard 	
Row 8:  #77T Jess Thomas	#55 Mike Wagner
Row 9:  #49 Bob Howard		#59 Todd Gracey
Row 10: #121 Judi Bates		#55S Bill Sims
Row 11: #07 Dave Haight		#7M Barry Camp 
Row 12: #5 Craig Eshenaur	#X Bobby Weaver
The #10 of Len Thompson scratched from the event allowing the #25 of Scotte
Ausherman who was first alternate to make the event.

Talk about luck.  The previous night at Penn National the #92 of Gobrecht
worked through the B Main to get his time back and started on the outside pole
for the feature.  At the Grove the #88 of Shaffer won the B Main and got his
back his time and found himself on the pole.  That was the end of his luck
though.  There were two false starts with the first one having Shaffer jumping
and the second one having the #11H of Hodnett jumping the start.  As is the
rule at the Grove when there are two false starts due to the front row the
first two rows invert.  This put the #17e of Cris Eash on the pole with the #1
of Billy Pauch on the outside of him.

	The green finally waved and stayed out and the man on the move was the #12 of
Keith Kauffman who by the end of the first lap was fourth with the #461 of
Lance Dewease directly behind him.  Eash lead the parade with Pauch second.  
	There was some excellent racing going on.  Pauch was all over the leader Eash
while Dewease was all over Kauffman for third.  Not to be outdone the battle
raged further back with the #88 of Shaffer all over the #5G of Rod George for
fifth and Gobrecht and Hodnett were going at it for seventh position.  It was
hard to keep up with all the action in the top ten cars.
	The first caution waved on lap seven for the #55 of Mike Wagner in turn two
which tightened up the field.  However a pass for the lead had occurred with
Pauch passing the finish line before the yellow came out.  On the restart Pauch
started to pull away while Dewease pressured Kauffman for third.  Dewease and
Kauffman switched the lead several times on a single lap while Gobrecht and
Hodnett did the same thing further back in the pack for seventh.  Meanwhile
back up front Pauch was motoring away.  By lap thirteen the #77 of Rahmer was
pressuring the #88 of Shaffer as the other battles waged on.  The racing was
excellent with the positions switching back and forth.
	On lap sixteen Pauch swung low in turn four to pass lapped traffic but they
cut down on him and almost wrecked him which allowed Eash to close.  On lap
twenty-one the battle between Gobrecht and Hodnett ended when Hodnett stopped
on the front stretch.  At this point twenty two of the twenty four starters
were still running.
	When the green came back out Pauch once again showed his dominance and pulled
away from the field.  Gobrecht was now pressuring Dewease for fourth.  On lap
twenty-two Pauch's run came to an end when the rear broke and he dramatically
slowed in turn one which backed up the cars following him.  Dewease and
Gobrecht ended up going into turn one and hitting the wall bringing their hopes
for a win to an end.  Both cars were able to continue on.  Kauffman took all
this to his benefit and took the lead as the caution waved.  The red then came
out for a fuel stop.
	When the green came out again Rahmer passed the #5G of Rod George on the
inside in turn two to take over third while Eash tried to close on the leader
Kauffman.  On lap twenty-six the #49 of Bob Howard and Gobrecht got tangled
together in turn three with Gobrecht's top wing collapsing in the front and
Howard having a flat and wing damage.  Howard was given two laps to change his
tire and rejoined the field while Gobrecht was done for the evening.  On the
restart the #07 of Dave Haight stopped in turn four bring out the caution
again.
	With four laps to go the field took the green and the battle was for fourth
between George and Shaffer who swapped places several times before Shaffer was
able to finally complete the pass.
		      				
TOP FIVE FINISHERS
#12, #17e, #77, #88, #5G

The win put Kauffman two away from tying Lynn Paxton on the all time win list
at the Grove.
	

As always I welcome any news, comments, suggestions or questions.  I changed my
reporting format again.  Let me know what you think of it. You can reach me at:
 rgould@oehs.upenn.edu