With rain all around the speedway, the management of Big Diamond Speedway pushed on with the once rained out Friday night portion of Coalcracker weekend to close out the 2018 season at the 4/10’s mile dirt oval.
The USS Achey Sportsman division was the headliner on the evening at they took part in the Leindecker Race Engines 40 lap main event with $1800 going to the winner. It was veteran Sportsman campaigner Craig Whitmoyer holding up the big check in victory lane as he led the race from start to finish.
By the luck of the draw it was Whitmoyer starting on the pole for the big main event with cagey veteran Doug Hendricks outside of him. With the drop of the green, it was Whitmoyer who jumped out to the early lead with Hendricks and Kris Lillick in tow.
The 2018 USS Achey Sportsman champion Alex Yankowski was on the move early from his seventh starting spot and up to fourth as the field completed lap two. A lap eight caution slowed the action as Chuck Fayash spun in turns one and two. What happened after the restart proved to be the turning point of the race.
Whitmoyer once again jumped to the front on the restart with a hornet’s nest of action going on behind him. Yankowksi was on the move once again as he moved by Lillick into third and set to make a move on Hendricks as they completed lap nine. Yankowski and Hendricks raced side by side down the backstretch with the two making contact forcing Yankowski to spin with Hendricks, Lillick and Nate Klinger also involved. All four drivers involved headed to the pits with Lillick and Klinger coming back out to rejoin the field right away.
Shawn Light spun as the field went back to green to once again bring out the yellow. As they field restarted and headed into turn one Yankowksi had been able to make repairs and made his return to the track in turn two. It was determined that Yankowski had run the red light at the entrance in turn two forcing the officials to black flag the young driver. After stopping on the track to bring out the yellow and talking to the official Yankowski took his #84Y to the pits done for the evening.
While all of this was going, invader Kyle Kania has quietly made his way up to the second spot looking to challenge Whitmoyer. On the restart Whitmoyer again stayed in front and started to put space between himself and Kania. Whitmoyer had to survive one more restart on lap 25 but it didn’t prove to be a challenge for the veteran as Whitmoyer went on to take the win over the invader Kania, Cale Ross, Kris Lillick and Grandview regular Jim Houseworth. Nate Klinger, Shawn Light, Dakota Kohler, Chuck Fayash and Glenn Rowan completed the top ten.
“We had a good run here tonight” cited Whitmoyer as his car was being inspected after the victory. “It’s been a good year here for us, not great but good. The car was really good tonight, we’ve been making changes. It’s been hard on restarts here for us and it’s been hard to get to go. It’s usually been a little bit tight on the starts, but we’ve been making changes every week and I think we’ve gotten it better each time. Tonight, we could at least restart and not lose any spots. At the big race (Summer Sportsman Classic) the restarts are what killed us, and we probably should’ve won that race as well. It’s a good way to end the season here at Big Diamond and now we look towards next weekend.”
Cory Lindenmuth led the Savage 61 Road Runners to the green flag for their final event of the 2018 season with the points championship on the line. Mike Reichert was the leader going into the final race with Kris Ney in the second spot. Lindenmuth grabbed the lead at the start and looked to lead lap one but coming off of turn four to complete lap one LIndenmuth spun to the infield but continued on handing the lead to Jim Kost. The first yellow of the race came on lap seven and on the restart Kris Ney outpowered Kost to take the lead.
K.Ney held the lead through a rash of cautions that plagued the middle part of the race and was never headed as he went on to take the win over Kost, newly crowned point champion Mike Reichert, Shon Elk and Matt Ney.
In the No Sweat Service Group Street Stock division, Jason Geesaman continued his late season dominance in taking the big win. Jeff Haag led the field to green and jumped out to a quick lead but Geesaman was on the move quickly from his ninth starting spot and was into the runner-up spot by the completion of lap one. Haag held the lead through a couple of restarts, but a lap eleven restart proved to be his downfall as Geesaman grabbed the lead from Haag and never looked back to lead the remaining laps to take the win. Haag held on for second with Ryan Smith, Chris Derr and Joey Brennan completing the top five.
Short Results from 9/07/18
Leindecker Race Engines Sportsman Coalcracker 40 - 1. Craig Whotmoyer 2. Kyle Kania 3. Cale Ross 4. Kris Lillick 5. Jim Houseworth 6. Nate Klinger 7. Shawn Light 8. Dakota Kohler 9. Chuck Fayash 10. Glenn Rowan 11. Kevin Brady (DNF) 12. Nate Moore 13. Michael Burrows 14. Jeremy Hertzog 15. Gary Grim 16. Alex Yankowski 17. Doug Hendricks 18. Jeff Hertzog
Sportsman Heat Winners - Alex Yankowski & Doug Hendricks
Savage 61 Road Runners Feature - 1. Kris Ney 2. Jim Kost 3. Mike Reichert 4. Shon Elk 5. Matt Ney 6. Shawn Mulhall 7. Terry Kramer (DNF) 8. Cory Lindenmuth 9. Jeff Wrightstowne 10. Alex Dixler 11. Fred Everly 12. Chris Holland
Road Runner Heat winner - Cory Lindenmuth
No Sweat Service Group Street Stock Feature - 1. Jason Geesaman 2. Jeff Haag 3. Ryan Smith 4. Chris Derr 5. Joey Brennan 6. Kyle Saylor 7. Bobby Kupp 8. Chris Heller 9. Elvin Brennan 10. Mike Radocha Jr 11. Mike Radocha 12. Butch Heisel 13. Scott Thomberg 14. Robin Wagner 15. Dean Hine 16. Cory Phillips
Street Stock Heat Winners – Jason Geesaman & Elvin Brennan