Fan Notes from Mansfield's Sprint Car World Championship Night #2

The Elite 8 Dash at Mansfield (Hutch Xtreme Racing Photos) (Tom Myers) 4/28/2018 – I arrived at the track at 5:00 and the racing surface looked great and the event was on schedule. I learned from the previous evening to dress really warm, especially since the temperature was going to be even colder on this evening! So, I had 6 layers on top and fleece lined work pants and two pairs of socks on. I stayed pretty toasty all night long and that made it much more enjoyable.

62 cars returned for the final night of action. On the schedule were six heat races for the non-qualifiers. Each heat winner goes to the big A main. Then there were four B mains and I think the top 2 went to the big A main. So, combined with the previous night’s top 4 finishers in each A-main, this would give us 22 cars if my math is correct. Add Caleb Armstrong and Adam Kekich, the two guys who were locked in from last year’s 1-2 finish at the Great Lakes Nationals, and that gets us a 24 car field.

The track crew was in prime form as the push trucks were flying around and the race organizers were lining up the cars very quickly. I was very impressed and very thankful they were hurrying along because of the extreme cold and also because I was so dang tired from the late night the previous evening!

In the first heat, Parker Price Miller just ran away from 2nd finisher Kerry Madsen. The heat 2 winner was Cap Henry. In the third heat, Chad Kemenah wins it as Lance Dewease has smoke pouring from his engine and Brock Zearfoss makes contact with the outside wall. In heat 4, Danny Dietrich takes the win. The track started out smooth but the ridges and ruts are starting to appear in the turns. It’s fastest to run in the middle or up higher where it is smoother. As the night wore on, some were making the bottom work to their advantage. James McFadden wins heat 5 and Spencer Bayston wins heat 6. Sammy didn’t get a great start in his heat and ended up 5th or so and had to go to one of the B mains.

The Elite 8 Dash was to be run before the B mains. They drew spots and Tim Shaffer drew the first spot. It was just his weekend. The Dash finish was Shaffer, Ruetzel, Schurenburg, Scelzi, Macedo, Brown, McIntyre and Saldana.

In the first B main, Caleb Helms won it followed by Kerry Madsen. B Main 2 was Travis Philo and Dave Blaney. B main 3 was Rico Abreu followed by Rob Chaney. In the last B main, leader Danny Holtgraver popped a tire giving the win to Tyler Gunn who was followed by D.J. Netto. So now your field was set!

Originally, the non-qualifiers race was to be run before the big race but the track switched the order and ran the Championship first.

Tim Shaffer won $100,000 at the Sprint Car World Championship in Mansfield Saturday (Hutch Xtreme Racing Photos) Wow, there were lots of pyrotechnics and fireworks and flaming flames and screeching rockets during the driver introductions. The best of all of it, I thought, was when they lit off the four flames and one time and they must have really poured the fuel to them because all four exploded into huge mushroom clouds and their smoke rose high in the air and it looked like the aftermath of 4 nuclear bombs going off, really neat. And the flames were so big that you could feel the warmth of the heat on your face up in the stands!

So, here we go. The feature starts and Shaffer grabs the lead. On the 2nd lap, Henry gets sideways going into turn 1 and collects Madsen with Madsen doing a soft roll onto his top. He was done but Henry continued. When action resumed Shaffer gets out to a nice lead as the cars behind him jockey for position. The race went along until a lap 18 yellow stopped the action. The running order was Shaffer, Macedo, Ruetzel, Brown and Scelzi. Macedo had closed to within a few car lengths of Shaffer as the leaders reached traffic but then fell back.

On the restart, Reutzel got by Macedo and set sail after Shaffer. There was another yellow on lap 21 for Tyler Gunn. On the restart, Shaffer would diamond off turn three and head for the inside of turn 4 to grab moisture and scoot down the front straight. He did this on all the restarts except the last restart where he said he was caught off guard by the green flag when he thought he had another pace lap.

There was then a fuel stop on lap 25. The running order was still Shaffer out front followed by Ruetzel, Macedo, Scelzi and Brown. Abreu and Price Miller both had flats and had to restart on the tail. Rico was working forward and was in the top ten I believe. Bad break for them both. On lap 26, McFadden bounces through turn 1 and 2 and into the turn 2 wall, bringing out the yellow and is done for the night. Brown stops in the pits for a flat tire but didn’t get a new one in time to rejoin the race. I thought maybe Brian should have had another lap but I don’t know what was going on in the infield. On the next lap, Scelzi brings out the caution when a torsion stop stopped stopping and his car was leaning badly to one side.

Shaffer again commands the lead when the green falls and Ruetzel is lurking in second. Shaffer uses the middle through turns 1 and 2 and Ruetzel is throwing everything he can at Shaffer to catch him but Tim stays out front. On lap 43 Schurenburg runs into the turn 4 wall bringing out a red. The running order was Shaffer, Reutzel, Macedo and….Chad Kemenah in fourth! When the race goes green again, they run 2 laps and third running Macedo hits the turn 4 wall and flattens a RR tire…bringing out the last yellow.

This last restart is the one that caught Shaffer off guard and Ruetzel was right on Tim’s gas tank. On the last lap Ruetzel passes Shaffer in turn three with a slider but Aaron jumps the cushion and Tim diamonds off turn 4 to win it!

The top 10 finishers were: 1 #49X Tim Shaffer 2 #87 Aaron Reutzel 3 #10H Chad Kemenah 4 #26 Joey Saldana 5 #21b Cap Henry 6 #48 Danny Dietrich 7 #39 Spencer Bayston 8 #4 Parker Price-Miller 9 #24R Rico Abreu 10 #7C Caleb Armstrong. In spite of flat tires, Abreu and PPM make it into the top 10!

What a great race! A big crowd, a fast show and big money to the winner! Thank you Mansfied Motor Speedway and Thank you to the drivers for a great show and thank you Cody Sommer for putting this race on. Let’s do this again next year!