Tommy Classic Kicks Off ’25 Diamond Series Friday At Williams Grove; Hinnershitz Legacy Honored
Story By: SHAWN BROUSE / WILLIAMS GROVE SPEEDWAY – MECHANICSBURG, PA – Presented by the family of late car owner Joe Harz, the Tommy Hinnershitz Classic for Lawrence Chevrolet 410 sprint cars is on tap this Friday night, April 18 at Williams Grove Speedway.
Friday will be Kids Easter Night at Williams Grove with the first 150 youth ages 12 and under entering the frontstretch admission gates receiving a FREE chocolate Easter Bunny courtesy of Hoseheads.com and J & S Classics.
Also the first race in the 2025 Hoosier Diamond Series of races, the Tommy Classic for 410 sprints will pay the 410 sprint drivers $8,088 to win the 30-lap main event on Friday night.
Time trials will be used to set lineups for the 410 sprint cars with the driver who sets quick time earning the $300 Fast Tees Fast Time Award.
Action gets underway at 7:30 pm.
The remaining 20 laps of the opening night sprint car main from April 4 will also be completed as part of the show, paying the winner $5,500.
A sweep of the night by one driver would net him nearly $13,600.
Street stocks are also part of the racing program.
Adult general admission for April 18 is $25 with youth ages 13 – 20 admitted for just $10.
Kids ages 12 and under are always FREE at Williams Grove Speedway.
Gates will open at 5:30 pm.
Williams Grove Speedway will host ARCH Night on April 25, featuring a Yellow Breeches 500 race for the 410 sprints plus a program of HJ Towing & Recovery 358 sprint car racing.
The make-up Dirty Deeds 25 for the 358 sprints held over from the season opener on April 4 is also on the agenda for April 25.
Hinnershitz Legacy Honored Friday
Friday’s sprint car show will honor its original winner.
He was the first. He had one of the most recognizable names in motorsports history dating back to the 1930s.
On tap at Williams Grove on Friday will be the annual Tommy Hinnershitz Memorial Spring Classic, honoring the late, great racer from Oley that holds the distinction of winning the first ever race held at the brand new Williams Grove Speedway back on Sunday, May 21, 1939.
Hinnershitz won the race in what was called a “hard and heady” event to best the famed Joie Chitwood.
Hinnershitz’s death in 1999 left behind an auto-racing legacy worthy of note by any standards.
During his 30-year career spanning 1930-1960, “The Fying Dutchman,” as he was known, amassed seven AAA/USAC Eastern Big Car Championships, taking titles in 1949, 1950, 1951, 1952, 1955, 1956 and in 1959.
He had garnered 103 total AAA/USAC feature wins with 19 taking place at Williams Grove.
Hinnershitz set 43 AAA track records during his tenure and would compete in three Indianapolis 500s.At the time of his death, the 87-year old was ranked second behind Steve Kinser on the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame’s Top Sprint Car Drivers of All Time list.
Back in 1939, when Hinnershitz passed Chitwood for the lead in that maiden race at Williams Grove, the duel was billed as “one of the most thrilling bits of driving ever witnessed on a Pennsylvania speedway.”
It was said that when Hinnershitz passed Chitwood, “the Big Chief was met with acclaim from the crowd.”
And Williams Grove will bestow even more worthy acclaim in the Big Chief’s honor this Friday night.
RacingJunk.com is the Official Classifieds for Williams Grove Speedway.
