Fan Notes from the Attica Dirt Classic

Chad Kemenah and Dale Blaney (Tom Myers) 9/3/2016 - Attica Raceway Park hosted the All Star sprints Saturday September 3rd and it was also a $10,000 to win qualifier for the Dirt Classic later this month at Lincoln Speedway in Pennsylvania. 

The winner of this Attica race would get a "golden ticket"...which was an automatic starting spot in the $20,000 to win main event Dirt Classic at Lincoln. Because the All Star Sprints have a race scheduled on the same day as the Dirt Classic Lincoln race, the highest finishing Attica regular was going to get the "golden ticket". 

35 winged 410 sprints were in the pits on this beautiful, sunny, breezy evening. The regular All Star followers were joined by many of the Attica and Fremont regulars, including Byron Reed, who won the $5,000 to win event the previous evening here and Stuart Brubaker, who won the Attica race last weekend. In addition to the $10,000 and the "golden ticket" up for grabs, the top 3 in All Star points were focused on having a good points night....to stay in the running for the championship. 

A stroll through the pit area reveals that Cole Duncan is driving the Cortad 9x. This is the ride that Rob Chaney has been in for quite a few years now. Gary Taylor is driving the Seeling yellow 97 that Dean Jacobs has piloted for so long. 

Max Stambaugh is in Caleb Griffith's 33m Yellow Buckeye Machine ride. Brandon Hanks from Tennessee, is making his All Star debut in the white and red 84.  Brent Marks is also here as is Kyle Patrick in the black 33k.

Brent Marks The program starts on time and as advertised, at 5:30. Good job Attica! During warm ups, Lee Jacobs struggles with a backfiring motor. He got it fixed in time for time trials.  Chad Kemenah times in quickest with Brent Marks timing second quick. Jody Keegan, who is retiring after this season, had to scratch after time trials. He is a local favorite around here and it was too bad he didn't get to race tonight. The track is in good shape. There is traction everywhere with a ledge developing around the top of both turns. It's too tall to call it a cushion. After qualifying, the track crew reworks both turns to knock down the ledge and also smooth out a few ridges.  But overall, the surface is pretty good, considering that the night before, there was a big late model feature as well as a 410 feature run on it. 

Heat 1 finishes with Stuart Brubaker at the front, followed by Byron Reed, D.J. Foos, Chad Kemenah, Duane Zablocki, Caleb Helms and Lee Jacobs. Not much passing. This heat was pretty much follow the leader although Zablocki got past Helms for a transfer spot. 

Heat 2 was Dale Blaney, Craig Mintz, Cap Henry, Brent Marks, Taylor, Stambaugh and Duncan. Blaney was smoking pretty badly the last few laps. Dale's guys ended up changing the motor before the dash.  

Heat 3 was Tim Shaffer, Chris Andrews, Brian Lay, Andrew Paulker, and Caleb Armstrong. The race for the final transfer spot was a good one as Dean Jacobs and TJ Michaels traded the 5th spot back and forth with Armstrong until the final lap when Armstrong sealed the deal. 

Heat 4 finished with Broc Martin in front, followed by Sheldon Haudenschild, Travis Philo, Kraig Kinser and Danny Holtgraver. Holtraver made a last lap pass on Hanks at the flag stand to get the last transfer spot. Holtgraver didn't seem to have much speed. Motor didn't seem to be pulling very well.

The dash finish was Blaney, Reed, Shaffer, Haud, Marks, Andrews, Kemenah and Mintz. Blaney got to start at the front and Kemenah started on the back. Positions 4 thru 6 were throwing sliders with Haud getting 4th.

Jody Keegan B Main was Helms, Duncan, Stambaugh and Hannigan.  Lee Jacobs and TJ Michaels use a provisional to start at the tail of the feature...growing the field to 26 cars. 

At the start of the A, Sheldon goes around the top and grabs the lead with Blaney and Reed and Mintz and Shaffer following. Little Haud is really blasting around the top up against the cushion. Andrews spins off of the track in turn 4 on lap 3. On the restart Sheldon again goes up top and drives away. After getting into traffic, Sheldon goes low in turn 3 and has to check up to avoid Stuart Brubaker. This causes Sheldon to do a 360 in turn 4, allowing Blaney and Reed to pass him.  Sheldon somehow held onto the 3rd spot by keeping his foot in it and not stalling. Not long after that, on about lap 12, Reed passed Blaney for the lead and the crowd heartily approved!  A caution stopped the action on lap 16 and this right after Sheldon had passed Blaney for second. Sheldon was on the move and back in contention. Kemenah, who was in 7th or so at the time, had a RR tire go down and had to go to the back....that's a bad break.  After the restart, Little Haud pressures Reed and passes him back for the lead on lap 20! Sheldon is still banging the ledge with reckless abandon. On lap 22, Shaffer and Henry touch and both do a pirouette at the turn 4 exit. No one was hurt, it was soft contact but Henry did get on his side.  On the restart, Sheldon once again ran away from everyone......he was just flying, banging the cushion lap after lap. On lap 31, as Sheldon was negotiating traffic, he executed a slide job on Broc Martin going into turn 3. As Sheldon slid up into turn 4, Martin didn't check up or maybe he didn't have any brakes. As a result, Sheldon's tail hits the front wheels of Martrn's car and punts Martin off the turn and into the pit exit barrier. Martin was okay and amazingly, Little Haud didn't sustain any damage. During the red, it was determined that the cars needed fuel. After refueling, the madness resumed and Sheldon again pulled away. I expected a tire to go down or a wheel to fly off for Sheldon, or that he would bust the cushion too hard and then see Blaney to pass Reed for the win.......but that didn't happen. Little Haud rode it all the way for the win! Great race! Lots of fun.

The top 10 finishers were Haudenschild, Reed, Blaney, Marks, Mintz, Philo, Lee Jacobs up from 26th!, Holtgraver up from 20th, Kinser up from 16th and Kemenah, up from the tail after having a flat RR.  Reed gets the Golden Ticket. Now on to Wayne County for another $10,000 to win at the Pete Jacobs Memorial!