Nice Rebound For Kyle Weiss At Grandview Saturday

Column By: NICK FILLMAN / RPW – BECHTELSVILLE, PA – One week after his feature was over before it started, Kyle Weiss was able to park his Hig Fab Chassis in victory lane at the Grandivew Speedway in their yearly 35-lap, $3,500-to-win extra distance feature.

Last week, Weiss had an extremely fast car in his heat and feature. However a crash in the first turn on the initial green flag would leave him with an incredibly torn up race car and a trip to the hospital.

But, through the week, Weiss and his crew put the car back together to race again.

Kyle started out the evening picking up the heat race win against long-time Grandview veteran Danny Erb. He would move his way into the second spot once the feature got underway, quickly catching up to Erb, the early race leader.

Both drivers battled side by side for the lead for multiple laps with the top drivers in tow, looking to get to the front of the field. Weiss would be able to get under Erb a few times, but couldn’t pull off the pass for the lead.

He was able to get by Erb on lap 24 after the leader had an apparent engine issue bringing the car to a halt in turn 4.

By that point in the feature two of the top drivers in Pennsylvania were right behind Weiss in the form of Duane Howard and Craig VonDohren.

Try as they might, neither Howard nor VonDohren would be able to get around Weiss in the remaining ten laps of the feature event as the #21K went on to collect the pay check for his first victory of the season.

Coming home in the second position was Howard aboard the Norm’s Save Station 357 machine. Howard had a solid weekend after collecting a 4th place finish on Friday night at the Big Diamond Speedway. Last week, the veteran finished fifth Grandview and collect the victory on Sunday at the Bridgeport Speedway.

The Howard / Hansell combination is off to a very strong start on the 2017 season and look for the team to only get faster as the year goes on.

VonDohren was another driver who collected dual top 5 finishes this weekend, finishing 3rd at Big Diamond aboard the Dissinger 88x machine and coming home third on Saturday at Grandview. VonDohren started the feature mid-way in the field as this was the first week of handicapping.

VonDohren methodically work his way through the field and would close on the lead duo in the final five laps. but was unable to get to the front.

Mike Gular was another driver who rebounded after struggling last week. He collected a heat race victory and have a great starting spot for the feature event. The runner-up in the 2016 points hunt to Craig VonDohren was as high as third in the feature event before VonDohren got by late in the feature event.

Gular is a driver you can’t count out for the 2017 points championship aboard the Stankiewicz and Sons roofing entry.

Fifth place on the evening belonged to none other than Jeff Strunk. Strunk collected the victory on Friday night at Big Diamond and has been solid all year so far. Jeff finished second last saturday at Grandview and has also been fast at Bridgeport early this season as well.

Bridgeport is a track that Strunk has not conquered in his career and almost got the job done in the Doug Hoffman Memorial until engine issues late in the event allowed Stewart Friesen to get by for the victory.

Strunk was also fast in the season-opening Small Block special, and in their event last Sunday.

Look for Strunk to be a contender for the victory next sunday at Bridgeport in the Short Track Super Series event.

Kyle Borror is a driver who has had quite a career in running in the Sportsman division on the east coast, collecting victories at local speedways like Grandview and Brigeport. He was able to collect a Modified feature win last year at Grandview and had a shot Saturday night until fading. Borror was as high as third in the running order but ended up 7th at the finish.

After days of rain the new clay surface of Grandview Speedway was rough to say the least last week. One driver that found that out was Brian Krummel. Krummel had something break in the rear end of his car that sent it directly into the turn 3 wall almost resulting in the car flipping over.

Krummel and the Zubi’s Racing Team put their back up car together for this past Saturday and had a solid effort. Brian was as far up as 4th before a late race restart resulted in the 17z machine getting shuffled back, finishing in the 9th position.

Mike Lisowski was a Modified rookie in 2016, running special events at Grandview and Big Diamond. He is a full-time runner at Big Diamond this season and running Sportsman at Grandview.

Lisowski mounted a late race charge but couldn’t quite get by late race reader, and feature event winner Ryan Lilick.