Persistent Rain Forces Money In The Mountains Postponement…Again

Column By: NICHOLAS FILLMAN / RPW – MINERSVILLE, PA – Heavy late evening rain showers forced the third postponement of Big Diamond’s “Money in the Mountains” special event for open competition Big and Small Block Modifieds.

Early season rain had forced the two earlier attempts at running the show to be washed out before a date was set for this Friday. Throughout the day, forecasts were in favor of the speedway, showing no rain forecasted and only battling a small shower here and there throughout the day.

Shortly after 7:30 the call was made to the pit area for cars to begin to move out on to the speedway for track packing when the heaviest rain of the day began to fall. Rains continued to fall until the decision was made that it would take too much time to re-work the track, coupled with the less than favorable radar readings.

36 Modifieds packed the pit area Friday night, with apparent strong fields for the Sportsman, Road Runners, and Street Stocks.

With the Brett Deyo-style rules format some of the regular Friday night, many teams opted to bring a different car and engine combination to the speedway grounds.

Weekly drivers Jeff Strunk, Billy Pauch Jr, and Rick Laubach all featured a different ride or engine combination in the pit area. Pauch Jr. was running the Danny’s Pizza, Bayshore Trucking 51 entry, and Laubach in the Pine Creek Holdings, Ryan Kerr owned 1k instead of his weekly Flurer 16 ride.

New York state was represented by talented modified standout Stewart Friesen, who was accompanied by legendary New Jersey racer, and Halmar International teammate Jimmy Horton.

New Egypt Speedway was represented by three strong competitors in the form of Danny Bouc, Ryan Krachun, and David VanHorn.

Danny Bouc was back with the Team 88 Racing, Troyer entry that he piloted to an impressive second place finish at the Bridgeport Speedway in the “South Jersey Shootout” STSS event.

David VanHorn was in the pit area aboard the Valshing equipment 323ov machine, which was a brand new Teo chassis entry. The team usually runs a Bicknell chassis on a weekly basis at New Egypt.

Notable Penn Can Speedway driver Alan Rudalavage made the trip down to Big Diamond for a rare appearance with their recognizable 145 entry.

Current Sportsman point leader at Big Diamond, Mike Mammana was aboard the JYD Motorsports #4 Big Block Modified entry before the rains came. This is the same team Mammana runs for weekly at the Grandview Speedway in the Sportsman division.

With the invaders that were in attendance, coupled with the weekly standouts like Jared Umbenhauer, Craig Von Dohren, Ryan Godown, Duane Howard and a plethora of others, the racing was sure to be excellent.

Fans who were in attendance should keep their wristbands from Friday evening, and stay tuned to the Big Diamond Speedway Facebook page for an update on the rescheduled date for the $6,000 to win, 40 lap, “Money in the Mountains” special.