Buckwalter & Keller Wire Williams Grove Sprint Fields For Wins Friday
Story By: SHAWN BROUSE / WILLIAMS GROVE SPEEDWAY – MECHANICSBURG, PA – Steve Buckwalter and Cody Keller wired the sprint car fields for victories on Friday night at Williams Grove Speedway, in the 410 and 358 sprint car divisions, respectively.
Buckwalter started second in the field to lead every lap of the 25-circuit main event for the 410 sprint cars.
His pace was slowed only once, on the fifth lap when the red flag appeared for a fire on the machine of Eric Tomecek.
For the restart, Kody Lehman chased Buckwalter but fifth starter Cory Haas moved into the second spot on the 13th tour just as the leader entered the backmarkers.
Eighth starter Brock Zearfoss followed Haas and took third one lap later.
Although Zearfoss took his shots at Haas, it was Haas who tried to spoil Buckwalter’s party late in the race.
Haas steadily drove down Buckwalter’s advantage, shaving a full second off of his lead from lap 17 to lap 20.
However during the final circuits, Buckwalter was again able to stretch out his advantage to 1.277 seconds at the finish.
Haas shot low across the third and fourth turns repeatedly during the late going trying to stick with Buckwalter but instead rode home second.
The victory was the eighth of Buckwalter’s career at Williams Grove Speedway.
Zearfoss crossed the line in third followed by Lucas Wolfe and Freddie Rahmer.
Sixth through 10th went to Alan Krimes, Kody Lehman, Anthony Macri, Brian Montieth and Rick Lafferty.
Heats went to Nicole Bower, Lafferty and Wolfe.
Keller of Selinsgrove ran the ragged edge and sometimes over it to pick up his first career 358-sprint victory at the speedway.
After starting second in the field, Keller would lead all 25 laps of the K1 RaceGear Summer Series main event to take home a $1,500 payday.
However the Snyder County pilot nearly gave the win away on several occasions when he jumpsed the cusion at both ends of the speedway.
The initial lap of the 358 sprint main was halted for an eight-car melee in the third turn that saw at least two cars flip.
No injuries were reported however.
Keller entered the backmarkers on the ninth tour of the event, chased by Brett Wanner and Phil Walter.
However one-time 2017 winner Kevin Nouse was on the move through the top-five and eventually worked his way into second with a pair of laps to go.
And by that time, Keller was losing ground and hopping the cushion repeatedly, creating a closer finish at the end than perhaps would have developed otherwise.
Nouse rode home second behing an exciting performance by Keller, followed by Wanner, Chad Trout and Troy Wagaman Jr.
Sixth through 10th went to Steve Owings, Chase Dietz, Phil Walter, Chris Frank and Brent Shearer.
Heats went to Walter, Keller, Nouse and Nyle Berkes with Denny Gross scoring the consolation race.
August 25, 2017
Feature Finishes
410 sprints, 25 laps: 1. Steve Buckwalter, 2. Cory Haas, 3. Brock Zearfoss, 4. Lucas Wolfe, 5. Freddie Rahmer, 6. Alan Krimes, 7. Kody Lehman, 8. Anthony Macri, 9. Brian Montieth, 10. Rick Lafferty, 11. Matt Campbell, 12. Nicole Bower, 13. TJ Stutts, 14. Chad Trout, 15. Kyle Pruitt, 16. Ryan Higgins, 17. Troy Fraker, 18. Chris Arnold, 19. Dwigth Leppo, 20. Danny Dietrich, 21. Eric Tomecek, 22. Rodney Westhafer, 23. Brandon Rahmer
358 sprints, 25 laps: 1. Cody Keller, 2. Kevin Nouse, 3. Brett Wanner, 4. Chad Trout, 5. Troy Wagaman Jr., 6. Steve Owings, 7. Chase Dietz, 8. Phil Walter, 9. Chris Frank, 10. Brent Shearer, 11. Matt Findley, 12. Steve Drevicki, 13. Wyatt Hinkle, 14. Denny Gross, 15. Micheael Hamer, 16. Dalton Dietrich, 17. Shai Morris, 18. Jared Esh, 19. Nyle Berkes, 20. Jordan Givler, 21. Doug Hammaker, 22. Adrian Shaffer, 23. Brie Hershey, 24. Kyle Denmyer
DNQ: Kenny Kuhn, Hank Donovan Jr., Zachary Allman, Rich Eichelberger, Cody Fletcher, Ashley Capetta, Eric Parker, Adam Lyman, Dan Richcreek, TJ Dehaven, Scott Fisher
