Forum: HoseHeads Sprint Car General Forum (go)
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Lucas Wolfe took home a cool $6,000 in the Jack Gunn Memorial for his 11th career win at Williams Grove but 1st in 2014. The  Zemco 1z was blistering fast in his first heat race charging from 6th to the lead in 4 laps. 

For the first time to my knowledge Williams Grove utilized an Aussie format with each driver running 2 heats full inverted by time. This format had drivers, crews and even track officials searching for answers for a chunk of the evening. The format is designed for larger car counts but only 24 410's signed in for action on Friday. 

After time trials and the two rounds of heats, the top 8 in points were put in a dash that determined the lineup for the 30-lap feature. 

Stevie Smith set fast time with a 16.777 

Fred Rahmer saw the low car count and had Brandon Rahmer'a 88 in the hauler and let B pull the car out and take some laps at the back of the heats and the feature. Brandon and Freddie have only run at Lincoln and Grandview this season. 

There were some fireworks in the feature that saw Pennsylvania's two young talents Danny Dietrich and Brent Marks racing intensely for the 7th position, swapping slide jobs nearly every corner, but it ended when Marks made contact with Dietrich sending him into the frontstretch guardrail. DD threw his steering wheel at the 19m in frustration. 

Lance Dewease continued his late resurgence this season with a runner up position. Lance took the lead momentarily on the backstretch on about lap 10, but Lucas powered back by before they crossed the line. 

Stevie Smith showed no signs of slowing down coming home 3rd. The current Williams Grove points leader Don Kreitz Jr crossed the line 4th with 2nd in points Greg Hodnett rounding out the top 5.  Alan Krimes was the hard charger coming from 18th to 6th. 

Feature finish: 1. Wolfe (2) 2. Dewease (4) 3. S. Smith (3) 4. Kreitz (1) 5. Hodnett (5) 6. Krimes (18) 7. Esh (7) 8. Marks (11) 9. Montieth (6) 10. Haas (10) 

Tonight was the first of 4 consecutive nights for the Posse with action being at Port Royal/Lincoln tomorrow, back to the Grove Sunday for the Billy Kimmel memorial and off to Port Royal for the annual Labor Day show. I'll be at Lincoln tomorrow for the final points night before heading back to school Sunday morning! 

Thanks for reading! 

AC

Starting to get concerned with the car counts in PA. 24 cars for a 6k to win show? Did the format keep teams away?

Careful, someone may think you're trying to take their job!

_

I have a hard time believing the format would have scared people away. I think it's moreso just the time of year. Hopefully car counts pick up for the upcoming Tuscorara 50, Selinsgrove National Open, Dirt Classic and obviously the National Open. 

It seems that Adam Wilt has become a Lincoln-only team. GMac was also noticeably absent. Chad Layton, Curt Michael, and Aaron Ott were also MIA. 

First of all Anthony, you're race recaps are great. Keep up the good work. Second, I too am concerned about 410 car counts. There are 28 at Port tonight and 27 at Lincoln..that's 55 410 teams and the Grove can't get a full field for a $6,000 to win show!! Something is wrong. I don't think the format was the problem, I believe that more and more teams can only afford to race one night a week. Sad, and we just learned that another team (Lisi/Erdley) is closing shop. Have to find a way to cut expenses.

Everyone  should be   concerned   about   car  counts , not  only  at  Williams Grove  where   track is  one problem  but how  a  certain  party   treats  all  concerned  there including   fans . Costs  are   the  main problem  , motors , tires  and  fuel  are hurting  all  teams  which  in turn  makes it difficult  to  race  at one or  two races  a  weekend where  usually   there  are  one track on Friday   night  ,three  tracks  on Saturday night , then there  are  weekday  night races .So   rising  costs  are  causing   teams  to  not race  or pick there  spots  carefully . So  the teams  , tracks  and fans  are  suffering  because  of low car  counts .  Every fan   knows  the answer   to these  problems   but a  certain group  is not  tending  to finding ways  to lower  costs   for  all  teams . It  is very  disappointing  to this fan  that   we   are  seeing this happen but then we

knew  it was  coming didn't  we .  Yes  , it   is  very  unfortunate that  all  tracks , promoters, sanctioning groups can't work more   together to improve  the experience for  everyone and make racing  the way  it should be .

What's your solution?

May be a stupid opinion, but I believe more teams choose to race one night a week, not only because they can only afford to but a lot of our owners/drivers work full time jobs, so to work say 9-5 on a Friday, or something like that, could be too much to get off work at 5( granted you don't have to stay late) go home, get your stuff ready, then make an x hour trip to the track, you may not get there till 630-7.  I also believe previous races track prep may have something to do with it, or teams just can't afford the high dollar motor needed to compete.  Again im not bashing, or being negative, just looking at it from a blue collar owner/driver stand point

Your   right  about some  teams  only choose to race  one night  , but  most  can't  afford  to race  more then one . But  again  times  have  changed  of who  works  on cars , not being able to get up from racing  nights  and going to work , we  use  to do  it all  the time  but  not any more  . While  guys  are dedicated  who work on the cars  , they  are  not  as  dedicated  as   years  gone by . You  have  really love  working on the  cars , traveling , and the overall  experience  of being involved  on  a  race team .

The  solutions  aren't   difficult   but  no  one  wants  to work   together  on these issues  , greed  comes into  play ,  tracks  not  working  together  to  provide  the fans with higher   weekly  car counts that  provides   good racing  , not  alternating weekly shows  , holding  down  motor  costs  or parts costs  and other  ideas  that could work  if they  would  work together . But  the bottom line  is  everyone  suffers drivers, owners, and especially  fans but  not  seeing  better  shows .