Rahmer Wins First For Sell In Williams Grove Opener, Perigo Opens Sportsman Season
3/29/13
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Mechanicsburg – Fred Rahmer drove the Rob Sell No. 20S to its first sprint car win anywhere in the East on Friday night at Williams Grove Speedway, wiring the field from the pole for the 25-lap season opener, worth $3,600.
The win was the 88th of Rahmer’s career at the track and his sixth in the prestigious Williams Grove opener.
It also extended to 24 consecutive years his streak of winning at least one Williams Grove feature every season.
In the 20-lap super sportsman feature, Chris Meleason lost what looked like a sure win with two laps to go when his engine expired, giving the win to Carmen Perigo Jr.
Rahmer took off from the pole in the sprint car main and had fourth starter Ryan Taylor giving chase during the first 13 nonstop laps before the races only caution flag appeared.
Even in traffic before the caution, Taylor kept Rahmer in sight and when the restart occurred he took a shot to Rahmer’s inside to no avail as second-starter Brian Montieth restarted third.
Steadily, Taylor inched up on Rahmer as the race entered its final five laps and with three laps to go Taylor made two valiant efforts to steal his first Williams Grove win by driving to Rahmer’s inside in both sets of turns.
But Rahmer was just strong enough in the outside lane to thwart Taylor’s efforts as the pair raced to the two to go sign after which time Rahmer pulled out just far enough to prevent any other attempts at his lead from developing.
“Now we just need more,” Rahmer said of getting his first win of the season under his belt.
“For a washed up, no driving son of a bitch I couldn’t be happier right now,” he said.
“Believe it or not I can still drive a race car.”
Taylor of Perkasie raced home second followed by Montieth, Greg Hodnett and Don Kreitz Jr.
Sixth through 10th went to Mark Smith, Brent Marks, Cory Haas, Lance Dewease and Logan Schuchart.
Heats for the 29 410 sprints went to Marks, Taylor and Montieth with Schuchart taking the consolation race.
Meleason started on the pole of the sportsman feature and was really never tested during his run at the front, which was slowed for a caution with six away and stopped for a red flag with five laps to go.
After the red for a two-car tangle in the second corner for Scott Geesey and Rick Barr, Meleason took two more laps under power before clouds of white smoke began spewing out of his machine, ending his night.
At that point, 10th starter Perigo assumed the lead and took the win over seventh starter Russ Mitten.
Leory Martin, Steve Fannasy and Scott Dellinger completed the top five.
Sixth through 10th went to Paul Miller, Gregg Foster, Mike Enders, Lanny Hake and Rich Eichelberger.
Heats for the 40 cars went to Perigo, Mitten, Foster and Hake with twin consolations going to Chad Criswell and Scott Geesey.
March 29, 2013 Feature Finishes:
Williams Grove Speedway 3-29-13
Lawrence Chevrolet 410 Sprints ( 29 ):
1) 20s Fred Rahmer 2) 20 Ryan Taylor 3) 21 Brian Montieth 4) 39 Greg Hodnett 5) 69K Don Kreitz Jr. 6) M1 Mark Smith 7) 19M Brent Marks 8) 11c Cory Haas 9) 27 Lance Dewease 10) 1s Logan Schuchart 11) 2 Jim Siegel 12) 17B Steve Buckwalter 13) 0 Rick Lafferty 14) 69 Ryan Smith 15) 48 Danny Dietrich 16) 87 Alan Krimes 17) 15 Adam Wilt 18) 29 Ryan Wilson 19) 47 Eric Riggens Jr. 20) 13 Jason Leffler 21) 75 Nicole Bower 22) 44 Joey Hershey 23) 747 Davey Sammons 24) 3 Pat Cannon
DNQ:
5 Glenndon Forsythe, 14 Gerard McIntyre Jr., 10 Dave Blaney, 1z Jessica Zemken, 1A Jacob Allen
Heat Winners Brent Martks, Ryan Taylor, Brian Montieth
Consi Winner Logan Schuchart
Blazer’s Body Shop Super Sportsman ( 40 ) :
1) 93 Carmen Perigo Jr. 2) 77 Russ Mitten 3) 21 LeRoy Martin 4) 11 Steve Fannasy 5) 30 Scott Dellinger ( Hard Charger ) 6) 1 Paul Miller 7) 32 Gregg Foster 8) 3B Mike Enders 9) 91 Lanny Hake 10) 8 Rich Eichelberger 11) 43 Doug Dodson 12) 25 Bobby Hockenberry 13) 83 Cody Fairchok 14) 77w Tom Wyckoff 15) 5 Dave Berkheimer 16) 29 Duaine Smith 17) 49 Mallie Shuster 18) 2 Ken Keyton 19) 318 Chris Meleason 20) 00 Rick Barr 21) 33 Scott Geesey 22) 99G Scott Grace 23) 55c Chad Criswell 24) 99 Frankie Herr
DNQ:
69 Jim Shuster, 20w Davey Walsh, 888 John Wolfe, 70D Bobby Forsyth, 20 Eric Eckert, 56 Jake Miller, 7 Todd Leonard, 75 Kenny Edkin, 9R Brent Rumberger, 57G Geoff Gill, 17 Brian Gontz, 64 Stan Wanner, 222 Jay Fannasy, 88w Eric Walker, 35 Gary Johnston, 44 John Garman