WOLFE WINS 23rd NATIONAL OPEN FOR 410 SPRINT CARS;
Open Concludes Track’s 60th Year Celebration
By Steve Inch
SELINSGROVE, Pa. - Third-year sprint car driver Lucas Wolfe of Mechanicsburg wired the field for his victory in the 23rd Salem RV Center National Open for 410 Sprint Cars at Selinsgrove Speedway Saturday night.
For Wolfe, at the wheel of the E&G Classics No. 5W, the $7,500 win was his third of the 2005 season in central Pennsylvania.
Mark Smith of Carlisle was the night’s fast qualifier with a lap time of 16.593.
Dan Jensen won his second pro stock feature of the season in the 15-lap main event.
The next event on Selinsgrove Speedway’s schedule is the annual awards banquet at the Wyndham Harrisburg-Hershey Hotel on Saturday, Nov. 12.
Polesitter Lucas Wolfe powered into the lead at the start of the sprint car feature. Wolfe was chased by second-place starter Lance Dewease and fourth-place starter Rick Lafferty. On the fifth circuit, while racing fourth, third-place starter Stevie Smith withdrew from the race with engine failure.
Sixth-place starter Mark Smith took over the third position only to enter the pit area to change a flat tire while pacing under caution on the 10th circuit. When the race resumed, Dewease and eighth-place starter Greg Hodnett set their sites on Wolfe.
On the 16th lap, Dewease pulled off the race track with mechanical problems, allowing Hodnett to take over second. On the 18th circuit, 10th-place starter and five-time Open winner Fred Rahmer stormed into third.
The race was stopped on lap 26 for refueling. When the race resumed, Wolfe stretched his lead over Hodnett and Rahmer, who dueled for runner up laurels. Wolfe’s margin of victory was 1.66 seconds. Keith Kauffman and Chad Layton completed the top five.
Polesitter Gary Beward led the first 12 laps of the pro stock feature. Eighth-place starter Dan Jensen stormed into the runner up position on the fifth circuit, while sixth-place starter Jim Somers raced third.
Jensen made a pass for the lead on the 13th circuit and held off several hard charging drivers behind him. At the finish, Jensen was victorious by one second over Todd Snook, Peanut Heintzelman, Jim Somers and Daryl Naiman.
SELINSGROVE SPEEDWAY SUMMARY - 9/17/05
30-Lap Open: - 31 Entries
25-Lap-A-Main: 1) 5W Lucas Wolfe $7,500 2) 77 Greg Hodnett 3) 88H Fred
Rahmer 4) 7 Keith Kauffman 5) 12 Chad Layton 6) 35 Alan Cole 7) 12 Blane
Heimbach 8) 0 Rick Lafferty 9) 22 Jason Johnson 10) 11 Mike Erdley 11)
18 Ryan Bohlke 12) 4 Todd Hestor 13) 69 Michael Carber 14) 17B Mark
Freeland 15) 49 Mike Walter 16) 6 Josh Wells 17) 29K Brett Kluge 18) 1
Mark Smith 19) 17S Justin Seigler 20) 25 Lance Dewease 21) 26 Curt
Stroup 22) 14 Matt Heimbach 23) 19 Stevie Smith 24) 13 Cliff Brian
Time Trials: 1) Mark Smith 16.593 2) Keith Kauffman 16.788 3) Rick
Lafferty 16.804 4) Stevie Smith 16.839 5) Lance Dewease 16.887 6) Lucas
Wolfe 16.937 7) Chad Layton 16.961 8) Greg Hodnett 17.013 9) Jason
Johnson 17.080 10) Fred Rahmer 17.107 11) Alan Cole 17.112 12) Mike
Erdley 17.144 13) Justin Seigler 17.182 14) Blane Heimbach 17.211 15)
Josh Wells 17.297 16) Mark Freeland 17.340 17) Michael Carber 17.377 18)
Cliff Brian 17.400 19) Justin Collett 17.407 20) Todd Hestor 17.448 21)
Curt Stroup 17.512 22) Mike Walter 17.544 23) Ryan Bohlke 17.614 24)
Brett Kluge 17.936 25) Dave Hahn 18.107 26) Randy Baughman 18.176 27)
Jay Reichard 18.679 28) Charlie Anderson 18.798 29) Matt Heimbach 18.871
30) Randy West No Time 31) Phil Walter No Time
Heat Winners: Mark Freeland, Fred Rahmer, Cliff Brian
B-Main: Michael Carber
Pro Stocks - 32 Entries
15-Lap A-Main: 1) 6 Dan Jensen 2) 23 Todd Snook 3) 99 Peanut Heintzelman
4) 23 Jim Somers 5) 111 Daryl Naiman 6) 1W John Wert 7) 83 Ron Kauffman
8) 10 Daryl Walter 9) 19 Gary Beward 10) 38 Rob Baker 11) 21 AJ Hoffman
12) 01 Bill Arnold 13) 26 AJ Stroup 14) 05 John Schmidt 15) 18 Roger
Stoneroad 16) 70G Bill Glass 17) 55 John Troxell 18) 66 Jason Phillips
Heat Winners: Gary Beward, AJ Hoffman
