Lance Dewease Opens PA Speedweek With Williams Grove Victory Friday
Story By: SHAWN BROUSE / WILLIAMS GROVE SPEEDWAY – MECHANICSBURG, PA – Lance Dewease pocketed his 96th career sprint car win at Williams Grove Speedway on Friday night with a flag to flag performance in the Pennsylvania Speedweek opener, worth $5,000.
The Fayetteville driver took the victory by a 7.571 second margin over Brian Montieth in what was a nonstop event. The win was the 27th Dewease’s career in speedweek action.
In the 358 sprint car main, Doug Hammaker drove by Kevin Nouse to get his second win of the year at the track in as many weeks.
Dewease took the lead from the pole of the 25-lap 410 sprint car main with TJ Stutts giving chase.
Fifth starter Brian Montieth was up to third by lap seven and the leaders entered the rear of the field on the eighth tour with Dewease holding a half straightaway lead.
Dewease had a 2.5 second advantage at the halfway point as Montieth began to battle with Stutts for second.
The pair swapped the spot twice with 10 laps to go before Montieth finally took the spot for keeps.
Seventh starter Freddie Rahmer continued his advancement forward on lap 17 by taking third from Stutts but only after the two made contact on the frontstretch.
By lap 20 Dewease had a commanding straightaway lead that was growing with every lap and he would continue to stretch his advantage all the way to the finish.
Dewease had lapped up to the 12th spot before the checkers unfurled.
He and his crew replaced the rear end in the car between his heat race and the main event.
Montieth was second in the race followed by Rahmer, Lucas Wolfe and Stutts.
Sixth through 10th went to Danny Dietrich, Anthony Macri, Robbie Kendall, Cory Haas and Kyle Reinhardt.
Heats went to Stutts, Dietrich, Chase Dietz and Kendall with the consolation going to Adrian Shaffer.
Dewease set quick time over the 32-car field with a lap of 16.840 seconds.
Scott Fisher took the lead at the start of the 20-lap 358 sprint main while seventh starter Doug Hammaker drove into fourth.
Kevin Nouse battled with Fisher for the top spot on only the first lap before getting control with two away while finding Hammaker now up to third.
Nouse worked the top of the track while Hammaker used the bottom groove and steadily drove down Nouse’s advantage.
Hammker worked the inside lane in the first and second turns to drive into control on lap 10 and begin pulling away in traffic.
However the red flag unfurled with five laps to go for a nasty frontstretch flip by Rodney Westhafer, regrouping the field.
Nouse took a shot on the restart and again on another restart with four laps to go but both times Hammaker pulled away with control.
It was the Grantville driver’s eighth career limited sprint car win at the track.
Nouse was second followed by Chris Frank, Scott Fisher and Gregg Foster.
Heats went to Fisher and Nouse.
Keep up to date on all the latest speedway news and information by visiting the oval’s official website located at www.williamsgrove.com or by following the track on Twitter and Facebook.
Feature finishes:
6/28/19
410 sprints, 25 laps: 1. Lance Dewease, 2. Brian Montieth, 3. Freddie Rahmer, 4. Lucas Wolfe, 5. TJ Stutts, 6. Danny Dietrich, 7. Anthony Macri, 8. Robbie Kendall, 9. Cory Haas, 10. Kyle Reinhardt, 11. Chad Trout, 12. Ryan Smith, 13. Brandon Rahmer, 14. Dylan Cisney, 15. Tony Stewart, 16. Jared Esh, 17. Adrian Shaffer, 18. Darren Mollenoyux, 19. Jessie Attard, 20. Mark Smith, 21. Chase Dietz, 22. Tim Wagaman, 23. Steve Buckwalter, 24. Logan Wagner
DNQ: Kyle Moody, Brett Michalski, Kody Lehman, Troy Fraker, Greg Plank, Nicole Bower, Landon Myers, Chris Arnold
358 sprints, 20 laps: 1. Doug Hammaker, 2. Kevin Nouse, 3. Chris Frank, 4. Scott Fisher, 5. Gregg Foster, 6. Kyle Denmyer, 7. Dylan Norris, 8. Matt Findley, 9. Todd Rittenhouse JR., 10. Jay Krout, 11. Troy Rhome, 12. Steve Kisamore, 13. Mark Van Vorst, 14. Steve Buckwalter, 15. Rich Eichelberger, 16. Rodney Westhafer, 17. Glenndon Forsythe, 18. Tyler Templin
