MECHANICSBURG – Brock Zearfoss won the Billy Kimmel Memorial for the sprint cars Friday night at Williams Grove Speedway.

It was his first Grove win of the season in the Rich Eichelberger-owned No. 8. He earned $5,000.

He started second, grabbed the lead from Port Royal champion Justin Whittall on the opening lap and never looked back other than a brief challenge from Whittall in slower traffic.

Zearfoss, of Jonestown, controlled a lap 12 restart. Chase Dietz passed two cars on the restart to take over third as Zearfoss pulled away to over a two-second lead.

He had to lap slower traffic over the final five laps but still won by 3.6 seconds over Whittall. Dietz, Lance Dewease and Chad Trout completed the top five. Kody Hartlaub, Freddie Rahmer, Lucas Wolfe, Troy Wagaman Jr., and Cameron Smith rounded out the top 10.

Dewease set quick time over the 27-car field Friday night at the Grove with a lap of 16.745. Trout, Wagaman Jr., Whittall and Dietz completed the top five in qualifying.

Whittall, Dietz and Zearfoss won the heat races. The heat winners, plus the fastest three qualifiers redrew for the top six feature starting spots in the 25-lap Billy Kimmel Memorial.

Wagaman led the championship point standings heading into Friday night’s race by 285 over Freddie Rahmer. Wagaman is seeking his first career track title at Williams Grove, while Rahmer already has four. Wagaman’s car owner Mike Heffner has three track titles with the late Greg Hodnett.

Seth Schnoke, Matt Findley and Kyle Spence won heat races for the 358 sprint cars.

The dirt track racing schedule across the mid-state remains busy thru September and into October.

Williams Grove has three more Friday night racing programs remaining, plus the 63rd Annual National Open on Saturday night, Oct. 4, paying $75,000 to win sanctioned by the World of Outlaws.

Selinsgrove Speedway also has an active schedule coming up, including tonight’s Late Model National Open and then the Jim Nace Memorial National Open for the 410 sprint cars on Sunday night. Selinsgrove’s schedule continues the next two Friday nights with late models and 305 sprint cars. Selinsgrove also has a make-up date on Friday night, Oct. 10, for the 410 and 360 sprint cars.

Lincoln Speedway hosts the Weldon Sterner Memorial for the sprint cars tonight, and BAPS Motor Speedway hosts the Kevin Gobrecht Classic next Saturday night.