Column By: TOM WENNER / RPW – MINERSVILLE, PA – Dylan Hoch rebounded from a tough start to his night Saturday at Grandview Speedway to score the 602 Crate Sportsman Modified Season Opener.
Hoch had troubles in the Open Sportsman qualifying that saw him take a provisional starting spot to make the A Main.
Dylan then proceeded to drive from 27th to 7th in the Open Sportsman main event.
The Hoch Motorsports team then turned the #35 car over for the 25 lap 602 Main and Dylan drove from the fourth starting spot to a very strong feature win.
Hoch finished 2nd in 602 Crate points in ’21 with 2 feature wins. It is safe to say that Mr. Hoch will be one of the cars to beat this season at Grandview when 602 Crates are on the card.
At the drop of the 25 lap 602 Crate Feature Michael Storms driving the Cody Manmiller 00 “Stormed” into the lead. Storms is a well respected Dirt Modified veteran that has logged many laps at the Orange County Fair Speedway in Middletown, NY and as well as some other tracks.
With Cody out of town, Storms was tabbed to be the “sub” driver for the night.
Storms led for 2 laps until the caution lights were turned on for Ryan Graver, Graver pulled off from competition. Jesse Hirthler also went pitside during this caution.
After the field was reset, Storms and Dylan Hoch up from his 4th starting spot went to battle for the lead. In tow were Jimmy Leiby, Tyler Peet and Nate Brinker.
On lap 3 the caution was out again, John Leiby and Ryan Grim were collected in turn 2. Ryan Grim was towed off on the business end of the wrecker.
After a lap was completed, Yellow was again displayed for Logan Bauman. Logan was not under power and had to be pushed off.
The field was now reset and green was out with Dylan Hoch out front, Michael Storms 2nd, Jimmy Leiby 3rd, Nate Brinker 4th, Tyler Peet 5th.
On lap 6, Parker Guldin retired from the event.
At the 10 down mark Dylan Hoch was pulling away from the field. Storms, Leiby, Peet, Brinker were the Top-5
The caution lights were back on for lap 11 as Kenny Bock in his #6 came to stop
The field was reset and back to green we went. Dylan was again driving away from the field. Storms, Leiby, Peet and Brinker were left to do battle for the reminder of the Top 5 spots.
At the 5 to go mark Dylan Hoch had a comfortable lead, Storms holding down 2nd, Leiby 3rd, Brinker 4th, Dylan Swinehart in the Bauman 14 was 5th.
Mertztown, PA’s Dylan Hoch easily scored the popular 602 Crate feature win. Finishing in 2nd was Michael Storms running the Cody Manmiller 00, Jimmy Leiby was 3rd – 2 Top 5’s for Leiby on Saturday Night, Nate Brinker 4th, Dylan Swinehart 5th, Keith Brightbill 6th, Tyler Peet 7th, Brad Grim 8th, Dakota Kohler 9th, Steve Young 10th.