Story By: MIKE FELTENBERGER / SHELLHAMMER’S SPEEDWAY – LEESPORT, PA – With Mother Nature finally cooperating and allowing race teams and fans to converge on the high banked 1/8th mile,it was a night of high speed action on the newly clayed raceway.
Shellhammer track crew did a great job in putting together a smooth,non-abrasive racing surface allowing for some close,clean 3 wide racing.
With minimums met,all 6 classes were running for the $500 to win payouts.
First up for their A Main were the always exciting Junior Slingshots.A few early yellows,were followed by 14 laps of green flag racing.Polesitter Chase Zimmer,used that to his advantage to capture the win.He had to wheel through some slower traffic but took the checker as the battle for 2nd was the show.Last year’s big Junior winner Ryan Rochelle had to ward off the challenges of Chase Schott as the pair raced side by side for 5 laps before Rochelle got the bite needed off of turn 2 to take the 2nd spot.Schott ran Rochelle clean enroute to a solid 3rd place run.Griffin Hendershot was in a podium position challenging spot but ran out of laps and finished 4th.Dylan Hahn could not get his #42 to cooperate heading into turn 1 on the 1st lap from his 2nd starting position and fell back a few positions,but had a strong run in capturing 5th.The next 3 spots were having a race of their own with Parker Hendricks,Daniel Betz and Ryder Miller rounding out the top 8.
The125 micros had a solid field of 18 entries with Chris Dolan notching the win in his 7D.Chris had 1 bobble coming out of turn 2 and almost lost the lead to a fast closing Sam Borger,who had his 04 locked down in the turns for much of the 20 lap affair.Showing some wheelsmanship in only his 2nd Shellhammer outing was Michael Hoffmaster who was getting faster as the race went on.AJ Gerhart could not hold off Borger and Hoffmaster and took 4th place money.Finishing 5th was a steady John Maurer,who had a late race challenge for the spot from the 18th place starter Chase Layser who ran an attention getting race for 6th.Jas Hehnly and Easton Miller were 7th and 8th.
One of the biggest fields of Stage 1 Modifieds converged on Shellies and the early race yellow was costly for leader Mike Glass as he got caught up with a slower car and had to go to the rear.With Glass to the back,Anthony Chrobak found a groove to his liking and hit his marks for the opening night win.He was literally chased to the checkered by AJ Gerhart who had the house car working on the high side.2021 champion Matt Mertz,who battled Glass for the lead early took the checkered in 3rd.Bryce Dodig looks like he is ready for some top finishing spots as he captured a strong 4th.JT Bierman had his ready to be lettered 76 in for the 5th spot.Bobby Kibler came from 11th to 6th with Glass rebounding from his early race incident to get 7th.Chad Riddle was his usual steady self in getting 8th.
For the 16 270 micros it was who was going to make the mistake that would change a few positions and one little mistake was used by winner Louden Reimert who passed Dakota Barlet in turn 2 after Dakota slid slightly out of his groove.These 2 ran side by side for 3 laps before Reimert made the pass.Richie Hartman entered the race picture and while challenging for 2nd had to hold off the pressure applied by 4th place runner Jarrett Imler.5th place Josh Patterson and Dan Lane,Jr. ,who finished 6th were all within 1.3 seconds of the top 3.Adam Buchel claimed 7th from his 12th starting spot and Matt Hoffman getting 8th after having a car drive over his front end as he continued on in the 21H.
20 All Star Slingshots signed in and all made the main event with 2021 champion Dylan Hoch,picking up where he left off as he had his brother Tyler and a very fast Brett Bieber waiting for a mistake that eventually would not happen.Tyler was wheeling a #50 that was a throwback paint scheme to his Uncle Troy and Bieber made some bold moves on the lowside to get 3rd from his 9th starting spot.Moving up to the All Stars from the Juniors seemed to be of no issues for 4th and 5th place finishers ,who both looked quite impressive in the 25 lap main with Alex Lagun just getting to the line ahead of 2021 Junior champion Tucker Cole.The ladies showed their speed on the high banks as Tess Horvath had just enough to ward off the advances of Kaitlyn Swist for 6th with Swist 7th.Getting a good 8th place payout was Ryan Raidline ,who found some late race bite in the turns to get 8th.
All 28 600 micro entries were slotted in for the main event of the night and what a race it was as Bradley Brown could not shake the charges of 2021 champion Richie Hartman ,who was occasionally seeing Tyler Lindsay ,who found a fast way around the oval by going as low as he possibly could to charge from his 10th starting position.Trevor Kobylarz,had different handling issues at each end of the track,but was still a contender at race’s end for 4th.Wayne Scott tried a new shock set up and with a little refinement looks to improve on his 5th place run.Jacob Severn had a good line off of turn 4 to keep his 6th place spot just ahead of Dan Lane,Jr.Rounding out the top 8 was Fred Heinly,who got shuffled to the high side on the start and found a groove to slot in at 8th.
Brenda Cordier wanted everyone to know that she appreciates everyone’s patience as opening day computer glitches delayed the making and printing of the lineups,causing a set back of time.
The stars and cars of Wingless Weds. return for another night of close,competitive racing on April 20th.