Sprint
Williams Grove Results 97-05-16
Todd Shaffer became the first driver to win three features this season at Williams Grove by winning the twenty five lap feature friday night. Shaffer was also the first driver to win back to back races this season. Brook Weibley took the lead at ...
Edited: May 8, 2001, 12:19 PM
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Todd Shaffer became the first driver to win three features this season at Williams Grove by winning the twenty five lap feature friday night. Shaffer was also the first driver to win back to back races this season.
Brook Weibley took the lead at the drop of the green with Joey Allen right on his tail. Eshenauer was third with Todd Shaffer all over the back of Eshenauer's #5 sprinter. Shaffer moved quickly into third as Joey Allen, who started on the pole, began to move backwards. On lap five, Weibley drove through the middle of turns one and two while Shaffer and Eshenauer made their bids for the lead. Shaffer went low and Eshenauer went high. Eshenauer slid over the cushion, hit the wall and flipped in turn two, bringing out the red flag.
Weibley continued to lead while Allen and Rohrbough raced for third. Further back in the field the big guns were making their way to the front. When the yellow flew on lap eight for Sean Michael's car stopped on the backstretch, Shaffer was third and Dewease was fifth. During the this yellow, the leader, Brook Weibley's car stopped handing the lead to the 45 car of Jeff Rohrbough.
On the restart, Bill Brian hit the wall hard in turn one causing the second red flag of the evening. Brian was unhurt.
When the green replaced the red, Fred Rahmer was in fourth as he passed under the flag stand. Rahmer made his bid for third going into three and then moved into second on the next lap.
Meanwhile Todd Shaffer took the lead and pulled away from the field.
The track was getting hard and slick by mid race making it hard to pass for position in the top five. Dewease, Pauch and Eash all had trouble getting into the top five. Joey Allen and Jeff Rohrbough ran in the top five until late in the race and neither one gave up their postions without a fierce battle.
A yellow with 22 laps in the books became a red flag when it was noticed that there was a low hanging wire in turn three. The wire which was to the third turn signal lights was hanging low enough for the cars to be hitting it as they passed under it. Racing continued after the wire was disconnected and racers were notified that the light was not functioning.
Two lapped cars separated Shaffer and Rahmer on the restart and that was all Todd Shaffer needed to take the first back to back win at the Grove this season. The top five cars in points finished in the top five, keeping the points battle close.
Heat One Results 1. 45 Jeff Rohrbough 2. 17e Cris Eash 3. 1 Billy Pauch 4. 69k Don Kreitz 5. 07 Dave Haight 6. 1st Steve Surniak
Heat Two Results 1. 15d Brook Weibley 2. 5 Craig Eshenauer 3. 29 Mike Lutz 4. 17 Alan Cole 5. 461 Lance Dewease 6. 55 Mike Wagner
Heat Three Results 1. 77 Fred Rahmer 2. 88 Todd Shaffer 3. 10 Len Thompson 4. 2$ Joey Allen 5. 5g Rod George 6. 16 Bill Brian 7. 88x Sean Michael 8. 8 Dan Dietrich 9. 121 Judi Bates (DNS) 10. 10n Jeff Thompson (DNS)
Sprint Consi Results 1. 3 Bob Bennett 2. 12j Bill Jones 3. 88x Sean Michael 4. X Bobby Weaver 5. 7 Dave Cordier 6. 8 Dan Dietrich 7. 16c Cliff Brian 8. 77t Jess Thomas 9. 53 Shawn Keen 10. 81 Bob Beidleman (DNF) 11. 10n Jeff Thompson (DNF) 12. 41 Jeff Shepard (DNF) 13. 121 Judi Bates
Super Sprint Feature Results 1. Todd Shaffer 2. Fred Rahmer 3. Lance Dewease 4. Billy Pauch 5. Cris Eash 6. Joey Allen 7. Jeff Rohrbough 8. Len Thompson 9. Don Kreitz 10. Mike Lutz 11. Rod George 12. Mike Wagner 13. Dave Haight 14. Steve Surniak 15. Bobby Weaver 16. Brook Weibley 17. Dave Cordier 18. Bob Bennett 19. Sean Michael 20. Alan Cole 21. Bill Brian 22. Craig Eshenauer 23. Dan Dietrich 24. Bill Jones
358 Sprint Heat Winners: Heat One - 59 Mike Lehman Heat Two - 3x Dave Gable Heat Three - 119 Greg Leiby Heat Four - 88 Terry Leininger
358 Consi Winners: Consi One - 32 Brook Weibley Consi Two - 24 Brian Buckwalters
358 Feature Winner: 59 Mike Lehman
Sprint Notes: Both Bob Beidleman and Brook Weibley didi double duty tonight. Weibley drove the 15d in the 410 race and the 32 car in the 358 division. Beidleman drove his #81 358 sprinter in both divisions.
Brian Paulus who ran the World of Outlaws series last season and is back running the Grove this season is out for four weeks with mono.
Steve Kinser, who's qualified a car at Indianapolis has said that he expects to be at all World of Outlaw races this season. He'll be busy next week.
The World of Outlaws race at Williams Grove will be live on TNN next friday night. Warm ups are at 6:30, time trials at 7:00 and live TV starts at 8:00 p.m.
Mike Lutz was the feature winner last week at Sharon Speedway in Ohio. It's been quite sometime soince the #29 Weikert Livestock car has been in victory lane.
With no All Stars race on the schedule next weekend, the Grove should see very high car counts next week for the WoO. URC regulars Bobby Weaver and Sean Michael were invaders at the Grove this week. Maybe they'll back next week to run with the Outlaws.
Tyler Walker the rookie driver from California has confirmed that he'll be at the Grove next weekend to run with the WoO.
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