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MECHANICSBURG – Greg Hodnett took the lead from Cory Haas on lap three and never looked back en route to a dominating sprint car feature win Friday night at Williams Grove Speedway.
His third Grove win of the season in the 410 sprints was worth $3,800 in a car owned by Mike Heffner.
Although the rule book was thrown out for the special “Run What You Brung” event, the sprint car teams were focused on one final tuneup before next Friday’s rescheduled National Open.
It was Hodnett’s second straight Grove win and the 66th of his career at the track. He’s won three races in the 360 sprints as well this year at the Grove.
“It has been a remarkable run,” said Hodnett, of Spring Grove. “I’ve been with some really great teams, really good crews and this one is one of the best I’ve been with. Mike gives us everything we need to be competitive and lets us do our jobs. I’ve been very fortunate.”
Haas started on the pole of the 25-lap main event and grabbed the early race lead over second starter Freddie Rahmer.
Hodnett was right on Rahmer’s bumper as they raced into turn three. Hodnett was able to get lower than Rahmer and took second off turn four. Hodnett would make a similar move on Haas to take the lead with three laps completed.
The first caution of the event flew with three laps completed with Steve Owings slowed.
Haas stayed right with Hodnett following the restart as Brian Montieth and Danny Dietrich battled for fourth. Montieth took the spot and was almost by Rahmer when the caution flew again with four laps completed for Jay Galloway’s second turn spin.
The battle continued for third following the restart, but Tyler Esh’s third turn spin slowed the field again with seven laps completed. One more lap was completed before Daryl Stimeling spun in turn two. Dietrich got back by Montieth and into fourth.
From there, the race went non-stop and it belonged to Hodnett as he stretched his lead to over a straightaway. Rahmer was able to get by Haas in turn two to take over second, but couldn’t close on Hodnett.
Logan Schuchart had raced his way into the top 10 from the last starting spot, but dropped out late in the race.
Hodnett won by more than 5 seconds.
“I didn’t feel that good,” Hodnett said. “I was surprised. I was pretty good getting under those guys and not crawling up. Lance (Dewease) has been really good at that and we’ve been working on it and I think we’re a little better at it, but I might have got too free later in the race because I blistered my left rear, so we’ve got some work to do.”
Rahmer, Haas, Dietrich and Brent Marks completed the top five. Lucas Wolfe, Montieth, Lance Dewease, T.J. Stutts and Rodney Westhafer rounded out the top 10. Montieth, Wolfe and Westhafer won the eight-lap heat races for the 26-car field. Dan Shetler won the consolation.
Bryan Bernheisel of Lebanon won the 15-lap late model feature over Gene Knaub, Tyler Horst, Colby Frye and Sam Rial. His first career Grove win was worth $2,000. Bernheisel had a large sideboard on the driver’s side of his car helping with down force in the corners allowing him to run a 17-second lap in the feature.