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$50K on the line this weekend at Williams Grove Speedway

MECHANICSBURG — It’s National Open time for the sprint cars this weekend at Williams Grove Speedway.

The 40-lap main event pays $50,000 to win Saturday night after two nights of preliminary action Thursday and Friday.

The weekend is sanctioned by the World of Outlaws Sprint Car Series and will bring together the very best in sprint car racing.

The preliminary features pay $10,000 to win each night. All drivers will race both nights earning points every time they hit the track including qualifying time trials, heat races and the main events. The points they earn will be used to set the line-ups for the heat races Saturday night.

The postponed Summer Nationals feature paying $20,000 to win will be held tonight with Greg Hodnett on the pole and David Gravel — the 2014 National Open winner and 14-time Outlaw winner this season — starting second.

Danny Dietrich of Gettysburg is the defending National Open winner. He took the lead late in last year’s race to score the $50,000 win. He has two Grove wins this season and 11 overall in central Pennsylvania sprint car racing.

“We’re excited and I feel like we have a fast racecar,” Dietrich said. “We just have to get all our ducks in a row. We need to start drawing better. I know that’s all luck, but the pill draw has been killing us lately. If we could find a unicorn here for this weekend maybe that would help us out.”

Lance Dewease of Fayetteville has already won more than $70,000 in the Month of Money by winning the Tuscarora 50 at Port Royal Speedway a few weeks ago worth $50,000 and then the Dirt Classic last Saturday night at Lincoln Speedway worth $20,000.

Dewease has three wins in the open with three different car owners, but hasn’t won the Grove’s biggest race since 2002.

“This team never gives up,” Dewease said after the Dirt Classic. “They keep plugging away and that’s the sign of a good team. They’ll do whatever it takes to try and win a race. It’s all about winning the race and if you don’t win the race, we’ll do the best we can.”

Dewease also has two Grove wins this season and 11 overall.

This will be the Grove’s third attempt at a three-day National Open. The first two have been plagued by rain. Last year, the weekend was lost to rain and the Open run on a Friday night one week later. Two years ago, Stevie Smith won it on a Sunday evening after the three regularly scheduled nights were rained out.

Eight-time World of Outlaws champion and 10-time Knoxville Nationals winner Donny Schatz is the only five-time winner of the National Open. He’s also the only repeat winner in the past 10 National Opens. His first Open win came all the way back in 2000. His next two came in 2004 and 2005. He won in 2007 and most recently in 2012.

Dietrich is the defending champion and Stevie Smith won two years ago. David Gravel won in 2014 and Fred Rahmer finally got his National Open win in 2013. Schatz won in 2012 and Jason Meyers in 2011. Sammy Swindell won in 2010. Greg Hodnett in 2009 and Cody Darrah in 2008.

The first Open was run in 1963 and won by Gordon Johncock, who later raced in the Indianapolis 500.

The annual National Open benefit will begin Saturday at 11 a.m. outside the back stretch pit gate with an auction at 1 p.m. Money raised will go to the York County Racing Club, Steve King Foundation and World of Outlaws Benevolent Fund.

A new track champion will be named at the conclusion of the weekend. Freddie Rahmer has a 465-point lead over Lucas Wolfe headed into the biggest weekend of the year. Rahmer’s dad, Fred, holds the most Grove track titles with nine and most wins, too, at 91.

Dietrich is third in points only 10 back of Wolfe. Hodnett is fourth, but only 30 back of Wolfe. Brian Montieth is fifth in points. Should Rahmer hold on to the title, he’ll be one of the youngest — if not the youngest — driver to ever win a Grove title at age 21.

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