Weller Wins Wheel to Wheel Battle With Smith at Big Diamond
Josh Weller won his first United Racing Club sprint car feature or 2016 and his first as an official car owner Friday night at the Big Diamond Speedway. With 20 cars in the pits, and 2 heat races on tap, the heat races were won by Valley Forge Inc., GEI Enterprises #5g of Curt Michael and the Franek Auto Sales #28f of Davie Franek. After Michael pulled the "0" invert pill, the heads up start was used.
With Michael and Franek bringing the 20 car starting field to the green flag, Davie Franek jumped out to the lead with the Mach 1 Chassis M1 of Mark Smith putting on the pressure for the lead. The field was slowed due to a lap 6 caution due to the Buck Rubs #28 of Keith Prutzman spinning out in turn 2. Prutzman's night was done as he was removed from the speedway on the dreaded hook. On the restart Franek again jumped out to the lead but was quickly overtaken by the M1 of Mark Smith. Smith who has 3 wins already on the year with URC was looking for win #4 and was looking impressive in the early stages of the feature event.
A lap 7 caution due to a wreck in turns 4 involving the #4 of Jimmy Stitzel, 17j of Jonathan Swanson, the 7o6 of Mark Sasso and the 33w of Michael Walter again bunched up the field with this time Smith now leading the Schearer's VW and Audi Specialists, Victory Auto Glass #63 of Josh Weller, Franek, Michael and rookie Adam Carberry rounded out the top 5.
On the restart Weller flexed the Don Ott muscle overtaking Smith for the lead. A lap 9 caution for the 21 of Ed Aikin turned ugly when after Aikin was refired he drove over the front of 15 year old URC rookie Justin Whittall causing race ending damage to the front of the Pioneer Auto Body #67w. On the restart again, Weller jumped out to the lead with Smith close in tow behind the #63. Lap 15 saw Smith briefly overtake Weller for the top spot, but Weller retook the top spot from Smith exiting turn 4 with a text book slide job.
A lap 21 caution saw the B&G Auto Body #22 of Troy Betts sitting on the front stretch and being pushed to the pits. Weller who was just overtaken by Smith for the lead had a bit of lady luck on his side as the field reverted back to the previous lap and Weller was again the leader. A lap 21 restart saw Weller again jump out to the lead but this time Smith pressured Weller running wheel to wheel through turns 1 and 2, down the backstretch and going into turn 3. Weller finally took command of the top position coming off of turn 4 and never looked back as Weller went on to win the 25 lap feature event.
Next on tap for the United Racing Club, the United Racing Club will complete a 3 races in 8 days swing when they head to the famed 1/2 mile speedway of Williams Grove on Wednesday night June 22nd. URC will be sharing the card with the Super DIRT Modified Racing Series. Wednesday June 22nd, Hot Laps are at 7:30 and racing at 8:00.
Results: 1. 63 Josh Weller, 2. M1 Mark Smith, 3. 5g Curt Michael, 4. 28f Davie Franek, 5. 89 Robbie Stillwaggon, 6. 747 Davey Sammons, 7. 47 Adam Carberry, 8. 08 Jason Clauss, 9. 2 Art Liedl, 10. 33 Michael Walter, 11. 73b Brett Michalski, 12. 1w Eric Tomecek, 13. 17j Jonathan Swanson, 14. 67c Jason Cherry, 15. 22 Troy Betts, 16. 7o6 Mark Sasso, 17. 67w Justin Whittall, 18. 28 Keith Prutzman, 19. 4 Jimmy Stitzel, 21. Ed Aikin.
- Robbie Stillwaggon on Jun 18, 2016
- Article Date: 6/18/2016 by Tim Moran