Gene Knaub Sweepts Thursday Night At Susquehanna
Story By: BRAD VORES / SUSQUEHANNA SPEEDWAY – YORK HAVEN, PA – If anyone can get around Susquehanna Speedway it is Gene Knaub.
The Dover, PA driver proved that Thursday night as he swept both the Creekside Auto Sales Ernie D’s Appalachian Mountain Late Model Speedweek feature and then came back to score the win in the Bernheisel Race Cars 358 Late Model feature.
Knaub lined up on the front row of the Appalachian Mountain Late Model Speedweek event and quickly shot into the lead over Keith Jackson. Knaub would lead the first six laps before fourth-starting Jared Miley took the top spot.
Miley’s lead was short-lived, leading just one lap before giving way to Knaub on the eighth circuit as Knaub then led the rest of the way to score the big $4,000 payday in the 40-lap main.
A late race caution on lap 29 would close the field on the veteran but Knaub was strong in scoring his first career Late Model Speedweek feature win aboard the Superior Homes, Lebarron’s Auto Salvage, JRs Driveway, Route 30 Seafood, 382 Auto Sales sponsored No. 1.
Jackson settled for the runner-up finish ahead of 2015 LM Speedweek champ Jeff Rine, eighth-starting and defending LM Speedweek champion Kenny Pettyjohn with Miley coming home fifth.
Rounding out the top ten finishers were Bryan Bernheisel, Kyle Hardy, 17th starting Jason Covert, Walker Arthur and 20th starting Austin Hubbard, who earned the Hard Charger Award.
Miley paced the 43-car super late model field in time trials with a lap of 17.795 seconds.
Heats were won by Knaub, Jackson, Rine and Pettyjohn with Matt Cosner and Shaun Jones splitting the double B-Main’s.
Knaub’s big night continued when he came back to capture the win in the 25-lap BRC 358 Late Model feature.
Starting seventh, Knaub worked his way to the front as Chase Billet led the first two laps before JR Rodriguez grabbed the top spot.
Rodriquez would lead until lap 13 when Knaub drove into the lead and never looked back in taking the $1,000 win over ninth starting Justin Weaver, 10th starting Shaun Jones, Billet and defending track champion Randy Christine, Jr. with Rodriguez, Ben Whitaker, Charles Potts, Brad Shank and Sean Merkel completing the top ten finishers.
Knaub, Christine and Weaver were heat race winners for the 24 358 late models.
Susquehanna Speedway will be dark this Saturday, June 3 but returns to action with a special Thursday night program on Thursday, June 8 as the BAPS Auto Paints and Supplies 410 Sprint Series takes center stage for the third race in the seven race series. IT will be Sprintcarunlimited.com night at the speedway as the Freedmont® Mortgage Lending PASS/IMCA 305 Sprints join the BAPS 410 Sprints. Race time is 7PM.
Then on Saturday, June 10, it will be the FK Rod Ends Carl Billet Memorial for the Bernheisel Race Cars 358 Late Models. The Billet Memorial will pay $1,500 to win for the 30-lap event. The Super Sportsman, Street Stocks and Extreme Stocks fill out the racing program. Race time is 7PM.
SUSQUEHANNA SPEEDWAY
RACE RESULTS 6/1/17
Ernie D’s Appalachian Mountain Late Model Speedweek, Presented by Creekside Auto Sales
(40 Laps):
1) 1 Gene Knaub 2) 11J Keith Jackson 3) 2J Jeff Rine 4) 38 Kenny Pettyjohn 5) H1 Jared Miley 6) 119B Bryan Bernheisel 7) 3V Kyle Hardy 8) 72 Jason Covert 9) 87 Walker
Arthur 10) 11 Austin Hubbard 11) 37c Brian Tavenner 12) 0f Colby Frye 13) 4s Danny Snyder 14) 14 Tyler Horst 15) 66c Matt Cosner 16) 5 Glenn Elliott 17) 22* GR Smith 18) 000
Shaun Jones 19) 72 Rance Garlock 20) 74 Tyler Hershey 21) 8Ball Mark Pettyjohn 22) 43a Mason Zeigler 23) 7 DJ Troutman 24) 9 Hayes Mattern
Did Not Qualify: 27 Jim Yoder, 70J DJ Myers, B2 Brian Booze, ) 06 Mike Lupfer, 46 Daniel Green, 5w Waylon Wagner, 7 Dave Troutman, 24 Dylan Yoder, 93 Pancho Lawler, 17 Nick Dickson, 4-D’s Chad Hollenback, 0 Larry Baer, 2 Dan Stone, 66 Justin Kann, 3 Tim Wilson, 10 Dave Stamm, 99* Rick Singleton, 86 Austin Berry, 22B Chase Billet
Bernheisel Race Cars 358 Late Models (25 Laps):
1) 1 Gene Knaub ( $ 1000.00 ) 2) 2J Justin Weaver 3) 32J Shaun Jones 4) 22 Chase Billet 5) 74 Randy Christine Jr. 6) 97 JR Rodriquez 7) 13x Ben Whitaker 8) 5 Charles Potts 9) 57
Brad Shank 10) 118 Sean Merkel 11) 55 Sam Rial 12) 21m Matt Murphy 13) 22H Eric Hohol 14) 20 Steve Billet 15) 24 Daulton Bigler 16) 19 Drew Weisser 17) 5 Jake Moser 18) 4M
Kyle Moser 19) 25 Jed Latshaw 20) 69 Justin Ehrhart 21) 50A Andrew Stotler 22) U10 Sam Gallagher 23) 33x Kenny Kluge
Did Not Start: 3B Cameron Benyou
