(Tom Myers) Fan Notes from Wayne County Speedway All Star Sprints 4/16/2016
The weather on Saturday was even better than the day before...and the breeze was much more subdued...it was a beautiful day for racing!
When I arrived, the track was being run in and watered and they had plenty of moisture in it. I noticed the new turn 3 fencing and a new handicapped section with expanded seating. Really nice. The owners have worked hard to improve this facility the last few years. New clay has been laid down recently, new lights have been installed on the front stretch, and there looks to be an addition to the press box being worked on at present. The scoreboard was used to list the running order and the lap number and hopefully, lap times and names can be displayed in the future.
There were 31 cars signed in for the All Stars and it was a quality group. I was surprised to see Brent Marks in the 19m car make the tow from PA....maybe a trial run for an attempt to race the upcoming All Star Sprint Speedweek? Jac Haudenschild was also in attendance racing the Jamie Miller 6 car. This car has been slow recently…but I noticed a change of chassis on this evening. Gone was the weird looking red chassis, and it looks like they bolted everything onto a new Triple XXX. I am not an advocate of any chassis or brand, but I have noticed guys switching to this frame after struggling with something else....and getting better results.
It was hard to hear the times over the PA system where I was sitting, so I had to guess a little. Jac broke the track record and ended up being fastest timer of the evening, with Holtraver being 2nd quick in the group. Sheldon set 2nd fastest time of the night. Rob Chaney, Cole Duncan, Cap Henry, Dale Blaney and Caleb Armstrong were fast as well.
The track had a heavy cushion and was fastest when you drove through it. This track is a driver's track and if you don't drive it right, you wreck or go slow. It takes an aggressive approach into the turns and courage to ride on top of the cushion to keep your momentum up. During time trials you could tell who was really committed!
Kraig Kinser continued to have horrible luck. His time trial didn't look as strong as some of the others....he doesn't seem comfortable in the car...the handling looks off. And then in his heat, while running outside of a transfer spot, he flipped it between turns 1 and 2. It is quite possible he hooked the cushion or maybe touched tires with someone...I didn't see the start of it, only the end. He was done for the evening.
Jac and Rob Chaney finished 1 and 2 in first heat. The second heat had Sheldon Haud smoking badly and staying put in the 3rd position until a yellow.....On the restart, Sheldon made a pedal down run around the outside through 1 and 2, dirt flying everywhere, to storm past the first two racers and into the lead, delighting the hometown crowd. Now the question was if the motor would stay together, as the smoke just poured out of it lap after lap....It did stay together and Sheldon was in the dash.
Chad Kemanah and Tim Shaffer were the top two in heat 3. In the Dash draw Jac, picking first, drew the number 1 spot. Sheldon, picking second, drew the second spot! Blaney drew the 3rd spot and Holtgraver got the 4th starting position.
The feature start was interesting because of the Haudenschilds on the front row. Jac drove low into turn 1 and then slid up into turn 2 to block Sheldon and then set sail. Jac was the class of the field and no one was going to catch him. On lap 15, Sheldon got together with a lapped car in turn 3 and had to go to the tail. The rest of the race was Jac navigating the traffic on the way to a convincing win. This makes up for the All Star win he had in the bag a few years ago here, while driving the 0 car for Rick Ferkel. In that one, the left rear tire popped with 5 laps to go....robbing Jac and Rick. Tonight, Jac had it all the way. Hats off to Cap Henry and Cole Duncan, who waged a torrid war for the 4th and 5th position, swapping places numerous times during the feature.
The race was over by 10 and I was able to drive away at 10:15. Thank you Wayne County Speedway.