Dewease Tunes For Williams Grove Open & Outlaws With “Tricky” Sprints Win Friday

Story By: SHAWN BROUSE / WILLIAMS GROVE SPEEDWAY – MECHANICSBURG, PA – Lance Dewease of Fayetteville scored his 98th career Williams Grove Speedway sprint car win on Friday night in the World of Outlaws tune up race for 410 sprint cars.

Dewease took home $8,000 for his fifth win of the year at the track after overtaking Freddie Rahmer for the win.

In the 358 sprint feature, Doug Hammaker put an exclamation point on his 2019 track title in the division by claiming the final race of the year.

The initial start of the 30-lap outlaws tune up race was red flagged for a vicious crash just before the first lap could be completed when Tyler Reeser and Cody Keller tangled just as they exited turn four.

Reeser’s car was destroyed with the front end of the mount totally torn away.

The restart saw polesitter Freddie Rahmer jet into the lead over second starter Brian Montieth with Dewease racing third.

The only caution flag of the race unfurled with four laps away, regrouping the field.

Dewease began challenging Montieth for second on the restart and took a low lane underneath him in the first and second turns to net the second spot on the sixth loop.

Rahmer began working traffic with 20 laps to go at by the halfway point both he and Dewease seemed to be struggling to work through the field.

At times Rahmer would slip over the third turn cushion while Dewease would burst off of the second turn but then slide around in the third and fourth corner.

Dewease took his first swipe at the lead with 11 laps to go in the first turn when he caught Rahmer as he came up on a backmarker.

Dewease took the opportunity to go three wide through the turns, racing in the middle groove and drawing even with Rahmer who was to his outside.

However Rahmer pulled ahead onto the backchute and Dewease regrouped.

With six laps to go, Dewease had again run up on Rahmer in traffic and he bolted underneath him in the third turn to drive up across the track, catch the cushion and take control but Rahmer turned his car off of the cushion and reclaimed the top spot at the line although the naked eye would have trouble seeing who got to the line first.

Dewease then mashed the brakes and turned the car from the outside lane to the inside as he and Rahmer set their cars into the first turn and as Rahmer swept across the cushion Dewease throttled his No. 69K across the bottom to bite fast low in the second turn and take the point.

Once in front, Dewease threaded his way through traffic to get the win by 1.281 seconds.

“I think we need to be better than that,” said Dewease about his chances against the outlaws in the National Open next week, comparing his just completed run to the win against the competition he’ll face in the Open.

“The track was tricky tonight.”

Rahmer was second followed by Brian Montieth, who won the 2019 Diamond Series title by taking the podium spot.

Brian Brown rode home fourth followed by Matt Campbell in the Westbrook No. 1W.

Sixth through 10th went to Danny Dietrich, TJ Stutts, Ryan Smith, Cory Haas and Anthony Macri.

Heats went to Rahmer, Dewease and Montieth with Rahmer claiming the dash and Nicole Bower winning the consolation.

Matt Campbell set quick time over the 28 car field with a lap of 16.779 seconds.

Doug Hammaker would lead all 20 laps of the 358 sprint main to claim his third feature of the season at the track and ninth of his career at the oval.

The run came on top of the 2019 track title that he officially wrapped up by entering the night’s action.

Rich Eichelberger trailed Hammaker for the win the entire distance.

Kyle Denmyer, Matt Findley and Troy Wagaman Jr. rounding out the top five finishers.

Twin heats went to Eichelberger and Hammaker.

Feature finishes:

9/27/19

410 sprints, 30 laps: 1. Lance Dewease, 2. Freddie Rahmer, 3. Brian Montieth, 4. Brian Brown, 5. Matt Campbell, 6. Danny Dietrich, 7. TJ Stutts, 8. Ryan Smith, 9. Cory Haas, 10. Anthony Macri, 11. Chad Trout, 12. Alan Krimes, 13. Lucas Wolfe, 14. Kyle Moody, 15. Dylan Cisney, 16. Jared Esh, 17. Jeff Halligan, 18. Nicole Bower, 19. Brett Michalski, 20. Troy Fraker, 21. Mark Smith, 22. Todd Zinn, 23. Cody Keller, 24. Tyler Reeser

DNQ: Greg Plank, Tim Wagaman, Bradley Howard

DQ: George Riden

358 sprints, 20 laps: 1. Doug Hammaker, 2. Rich Eichelberger, 3. Kyle Denmyer, 4. Matt Findley, 5. Troy Wagaman, 6. Dylan Norris, 7. Wyatt Hinkle, 8. Chris Frank, 9. Mark Van Vorst, 10. Glenndon Forsythe, 11. Brett Wanner, 12. Cody Fletcher, 13. Ashley Capetta, 14. Gregg Foster, 15. Scott Fisher, 16. Andrew Hake, 17. Denny Gross, 18. Dan Richcreek