As the old expression goes; you win some-you lose some -unless you’re Charlie Sheen, then you’re always winning. Suffice it to say, in racing, up and down weekends are always going to happen. This past weekend, Team Fully Injected had one of those weekends – with most having an up, and down, portion of the weekend. My weekend, on the other hand, was pretty exciting; consisting of racing on Friday night and a wedding reception on Saturday- leaving me to rely on Twitter for constant race updates. All in all, it was a fun weekend. Congratulations to Curtis and Ashley Stivason on their marriage Saturday; may their future together be happy and loving.
Friday night, I made my usual stop at the Lernerville Speedway in Sarver, Pennsylvania for one of their weekly Fab Four events. With it only being 20 miles from my house, it’s hard to pass up the opportunity to go there; especially when you can watch 3 of the top divisions, including 410 sprint cars, in the country race on a weekly basis. There were only 18 sprinters in the pit area Friday night, but, there were plenty of fast cars. Danny Smith, a native of Danville, Indiana but now calls Chillicothe, Ohio home, invaded the western PA 4/10’s mile to try and steal the show. He would do just that- passing Danny Holtgraver around the half way mark of the race and never looked back. Smith would survive one last ditch effort slidejob by Brian Ellenberger on the last lap, but keep his composure and drive back underneath the former WoO regular, Ellenberger, to keep the lead and take the victory. Speaking of Danny Holtgraver, he would hold on to finish 2nd behind the living legend, Danny Smith – who now owns 99 wins at 99 different race tracks. Fully Injected had a fantastic evening at the Sarver, PA oval – Danny Holtgraver, Rod George, and Brandon Matus all finished in the top 5 respectively. Holtgraver was 2nd, George 4th, and Matus 5th. Congrats to that! I wish Saturday night was just as spectacular.
As far as other action around the country is concerned; Friday evening proved to be spectacular. In KISS action in the state of Indiana, over 50 cars signed in to try and conquer the Bloomington ¼ mile oval. The King of Indiana Sprint Series round 1 went to Brady Short. Brady also leads the current point standings rolling into next Friday’s stop at the Gas City I-69 Speedway in Gas City, Indiana. Dave Dareland was last year’s KISS winner at Gas City.
The World of Outlaw Sprint Car Series was supposed to have a 2 day show at the Big E over the weekend. Eldora Speedway officials and World of Outlaws officials were forced to cancel Saturday night’s portion of the event due to rain and extra wet conditions; big surprise. Anyways; Friday night was wild. After receiving the results on my phone via twitter, I was happy to learn that Joey Saldana came out on top and conquered the half mile by winning the Good Year Thunder opener at Eldora Speedway. Joey earned that win; holding off charges by Donny Schatz for most of the race. Kolten Gouse, who endorses Fully Injected gear and works as the tire specialist for Joey Saldana’s Redbull maxim, would inform me soon after that he forgot to wear his Fully Injected hat for the victory lane picture; that’s a bummer- next time, Kolten- next time. Sam Hafertepe Jr., the Texas native and half “Pennsylvania Posse Member” this season, finished a strong 2nd with Donny Schatz rounding out the top 3. The World of Outlaws will now travel to the heart of Pennsylvania Posse territory and compete at the Williams Grove Speedway in Mechanicsburg, PA for two nights of action this Friday and Saturday. Joey Saldana still continues to lead the point standings.
Since we are on the top of central Pennsylvania, I would be wise to discuss results from this past weekend. Williams Grove Speedway hosted their pre-outlaw invasion “Outlaw Tune-up” on Friday evening. For those of you who might not understand, this is a full program in a World of Outlaws format that gives the PA locals a chance to time trial and compete in a WoO style program to prepare for the WoO invasion. Fred Rahmer took home the outlaw tune-up victory Friday night.
Lincoln Speedway would see Alan Krimes grab the victory with Justin Henderson standing on top of the podium at Port Royal. Lance Dewease still leads by 10 points over Greg Hodnett in the Central PA point standings.
Saturday night, at Mercer Raceway Park in Mercer, Pennsylvania, sprint car racing resumed with a slew of sprint car entries. It also proved to be the “down” part of the weekend for most of the Fully Injected team. Brandon Matus, the youngster from Wampum, Pennsylvania, had some radiator issues early on in the evening which set the pace for the rest of the night. A bad heat race finish granted him the privilege of competing in the consolation race, which proved to be the “fork” in the rest of his evening plans. Brandon would fail to make the A-main line-up. Danny Holtgraver, the Pittsburgh native and this month’s “Behind the Scene” star- made the show but suffered a flat tire and failed to return to the speedway. Scott Priester, the fulltime driver of the familiar Dionese #15, would make the show via the B-Main, but would surrender his evening without finishing. The twenty-five year veteran would pull off due to his concerns with safety. I was informed that due to all of the heavy moisture from the air and racetrack, water developed on his shield-stopping all ability to see. Scott would fail to return to the racing surface.
Rod George at Lernerville Speedway- Rick Rarer Photo
Rod George, of Rod George Racing, would have the only semi-good luck on Saturday evening. After transferring from his heat to the feature by means of staring 11th and finishing 4th, the Kittanning native would earn an upfront starting position and keep pace with the leader, Danny Smith’ in the runner up spot for most of the feature. Misfortune would strike Rod in the closing laps as contact with the leader would cause a front tire to go down disrupting his ability to control the car soundly. He would hold on to finish just outside the top 5 in 6th. Rod, Scott, and the rest of the Fully Injected team will try again next week when the All Star Circuit of Champions invade the Mercer bullring for a $5,000 to win event.
Brandon Matus at Lernerville Speedway- Rick Rarer Photo
The King of the West Series would suffer their first rainout of the season at the Silver Dollar Speedway in Chico, California. The west coast 410ci series will head to Tulare next weekend to try and tame the Thunderbowl. “TK” Tim Kaeding still holds the point in the point standings. The FAST series also picks back up next weekend. The Fremont-Attica Sprint Title championship is currently being lead by Byron Reed. He, along with the other FAST competitors, will head to Attica and Fremont this Friday and Saturday evening. Knoxville Raceway would welcome Dusty Zomer to victory lane on Saturday night. He would cash in for his first victory of the season at the Marion County Fairgrounds half mile. ASCS regional action would have two familiar faces in victory lane; Jason Johnson and Johnny Herrera. While the ASCS National Series schedule was at rest for the weekend, these two national tour championship contenders brought home victories in their respective ascs regions.
As for my upcoming weekend plans; they include Williams Grove Speedway on Friday and Saturday for the World of Outlaw Sprint Car Series events. Hopefully the rain holds out and allows for two full nights of uninterrupted sprint car action. I have yet to visit Williams Grove Speedway without it raining at least once during the evening.
The new shirts will be in soon! Super excited! Don’t forget to check out all of our merch on the merchandise page!
Thank you for reading!