Final points race at Plymouth Speedway

[rebelracewriter]

Photo by Greg Hildebrand The Super Street winners are (from left) Joshua Frye (second place), Joe Spiewak (first) and track points winner Shaun Wiltjer (third place). Final points race at Plymouth Speedway PLYMOUTH—Saturday night was the final points night of the regular season at the Plymouth Speedway.  An exciting last-lap incident capped off an action-packed 600 feature. Noah Miller of Akron started on the pole with Granger’s Chad Hartzell along side. An early yellow on lap three had Miller ahead of Hartzell, followed by Jacob Ruppe of South Bend. Hartzell was able to get around Miller only to have the yellow come out at lap six and he had to give the position back.    Once the race went back to green, it wasn’t too many laps and the leaders were catching the tail of the 22-car field. Working their way through lapped track, Joshua James of Logansport moved into second ahead of Hartzell and Bradley Jameson, also of Logansport, was fourth with these four cars separating themselves from the pack.  Nappanee’s Kevin Hapner, who started 18th, was making moves towards the front four when the yellow flew at lap 13. Jameson had passed Hartzell for third just before the restart and was able to keep the position. With seven laps remaining, the leaders were separated from the lapped cars again. Miller, James, Jameson and Hartzell  took the green flag and remained in that order until with only three laps remaining James and Hartzell started looking up high to get around the competition.    With the top four running two-wide, they caught the tail of the field with two laps remaining. Coming to the white flag, James tried to get under a lapped car with Miller along side. They tangled as Hartzell had to make an evasive move, and Jameson found a hole and made it through untouched, coming across the stripe in first. James grabbed second and Fowler’s Andy Hall snuck in to third, with Hapner fourth and Hartzell fifth.    Miller was credited with 19th after leading the lion share of the race. Hartzell was crowned track champion with Hapner in second and Warsaw’s Blake Lamb finishing third in points for the season.   • The modified feature started with some early cautions, but once the field thinned, the 25-lap feature finished on a long green flag run. Fifteen cars took the opening green flag with the early lead going to Jameson — who did double duty in the modified and the 600. Behind Jameson in the 24 car was Claypool’s Zeke McKenzie and Valparaiso’s Frank Marshall. The next caution on lap six, Steven Hogue of Akron, Ohio spun Jameson, who was still leading with Marshall and McKenzie trading positions. After the restart, Marshall had the lead on lap eight with McKenzie passing Jameson a lap latter for second. Lap 10 saw another yellow, the second spin for Josh Elliott. The top three finished in the same position 15 laps later.    Marion’s Randy Lines had wrapped up the season points race last week, and was absent from the night’s racing. Marshall finished second ahead of Jamie Lomax, of Lake Village, with Lafayette’s Matt Mitchell and Hobart’s DJ Streeter rounding out the top five in season points.   • Super Streets had a first-time feature winner with Merrillville’s Joe Spiewak taking the checkers. The green flag dropped on Winamac’s David Fritz on the pole with Spiewak’s father, Joe Sr., sharing the front row ahead of Gary’s Shaun Wiltjer and the younger Spiewak.    Fritz grabbed the lead over Wiltjer followed by Spiewak through a couple of yellows and for the first half of the race. Wiltjer was pressuring Fritz for the lead early, until Spiewak made it a three-car race. While Wiltjer and Spiewak battled for second, Fritz was able to stretch a little bit of a lead, until a yellow at lap 17 for the 17 car driven by Preston Oberle of Battle Ground.     On the restart, Fritz’s engine had gone soft allowing Spiewak to get past for his win of the season. Second place went to Joshua Frye of Ravenna, Mich. Wiltjer, who finished third, was named the track champion, finishing the year with five wins — 14 top fives in 15 feature starts. Hobart’s Bob McLean finished the year second in points ahead of Fritz and Rochester’s Mike Fincher in fourth.   • The Thunder Stocks race featured the closest finish of the night as Plymouth’s Tom Grall was able to get a front quarter ahead of South Bend’s Shane Sanders at the white flag, but it wasn’t decided until the final turn when Grall was able to complete the pass for the checkered flag. Sanders started sixth but had the lead by lap five when pole sitter Tommy Sutton, of Black Oak, was spun bringing out the yellow. Sanders’ lead over Hall (another pulling double duty in the Thunder Stocks as well as the 600s) with Grall in third and Hobart’s Wade Clemmons in fourth. The top four cars ran nose-to-tail most of the race. Lap 12 saw Grall get by Hall for second. With five laps remaining, the first four started to catch lapped traffic. Grall looked high to get past Sanders, only to drop back into line as a lapper was running up there. A lap later Grall looked low as they approached a couple of lapped cars racing for position. Sanders got around them and as Grall moved down to pass, Hall saw an opportunity to block Grall from getting the spot. Grall’s rear bumper got locked onto Hall’s nose tearing the nose from the car and getting Hall loose. Hall collected the lapped car of Don Dykhuizen of Gary in a crash on the front stretch that brought out an extended yellow flag. Once racing resumed, Grall went to work to get past Sanders with two laps remaining for the win.    Grall finished first in points followed by Hobart’s Kevin Kerlin in second and Hall in third.   • The green flag dropped on a 10-car field of Pro Sprints with the season championship somewhat up in the air, but Lakeville’s Garrett Saunders won the season championship by 53 points over Plymouth’s Zane DeVault with his second place finish to DeVault in the feature. DeVault started the feature from the pole with Saunders starting sixth. Saunders made short work of the four cars between DeVault and himself. but that also gave DeVault time to get out to the lead. As they ran laps, Michael Summers of Warsaw was busy picking up positions from his ninth-place starting position to work his way to the front. As the leaders would catch lapped cars, it would close the gap, but Saunders was unable to get close enough to pass. On lap 15, Saunders looped the 71 in turn 4 but was able to keep the engine firing and continued on in second  — giving up most of a straight away. On the next lap, the 48 of Nicholas Hull of South Whitley looped it in about the same spot, which brought out a yellow with four laps to go. The restart bunched up the field and DeVault was able to get a clean start holding off Saunders. Goshen’s Tyler Fitzpatrick restarted in third but was passed by Summers a lap later. Summers finished third after suffering with an ill-running car in the heat which kept him busy working to remedy in the pits throughout the night. Summers also claimed the third place in the season points race.   • The first feature of the evening was the Mini Wedge. Eau Claire, Michigan’s Ryan Zelmer started on the outside of the front row took the lead on the first lap and let things shuffle behind him. Zelmer got the win and the season points championship. Kokomo’s Clinton Hunter finished second in the feature and for the season while Preston Prater of Rochester came home third after starting on the pole  to also finish third in the season points. South Bend’s Samantha Banta finished the season in fourth with 15 feature starts and 15 top 10s.   The weekly points racing maybe over but next weekend’s racing will be the final racing of the year. The two-day World Series of Dirt show begins Friday with Pro Sprints, Non-wing 600s, Thunder Stocks, Mini Wedges and Front Wheel Drives making an appearance. Saturday will feature two 30-lap Mod races with a special incentive to win both races. Super Streets and Thunder Cars will also race. Ending the season will be two nights of Monster Truck Racing Sept. 23 and 24. Contact Plymouth Speedway for more information on those events: 574-936-0900.