Wolfe Howls in Jim Nace Memorial
SELINSGROVE, Pa. (September 17, 2016) – Lucas Wolfe of Mechananicsburg entered Selinsgrove Speedway Saturday for time trials and laid down the quickest lap of the night at 16.353 seconds. That would be an indication of what was to come for the 410 Sprint Car field in attendance for the Jim Nace Memorial 34th Annual National Open.
Wolfe, the 2005 winner of the event, qualified from his heat race to lock into the main event, and he would lead the field to the green flag for 30 laps and go on to set a new track record for the distance in 9:21.300, eclipsing the record held by Doug Wolfgang since 1985.
By lap five Wolfe was already catching the tail of the field and began to maneuver through lap traffic. Wolfe showed the way over Hodnett, Ryan Smith, Blane Heimbach, and TJ Stutts as lap sixth flashed onto the score board.
The distance between Wolfe and Hodnett shrunk and grew over the first 15 laps of the race as the field took half way. Brent Marks worked his way into the top five on lap 18 as he drove by Stutts.
By lap 20, Wolfe was into the thicker lap traffic and Hodnett began to cut into what was almost a three second lead. Only three laps later Hodnett was within a second of the race leader and continuing to close in.
Wolfe worked into the top ten running cars putting cars a lap down at a rapid pace as the race wound down. As the cars got more competitive going a lap down Hodnett chose his spot to attack.
Hodnett pulled within ten car lengths of Wolfe with the two to go sign displayed, but never got close enough to seriously challenge Wolfe as he drove to his second National Open win in record-setting time.
“We were good all night long,” said Wolfe in victory lane. “You know you had a good car when you’re lapping that far into the field. Danny (Dietrich) has two wins here this season and we were catching him to lap at the end.”
Wolfe’s first win of the season at the Super Speedway of Dirt Track Racing came on an $8,000 pay day. Hodnett, Smith, Marks, and Heimbach were the top five finishers. Doug Esh was sixth followed by TJ Stutts, Aaron Ott, Jason Shultz, and Danny Dietrich.
Heat races for the 22 car field were won by Dietrich, Marks, and Stutts.
SELINSGROVE SPEEDWAY RACE SUMMARY
410 Sprint Cars – 22 Entries
30-Lap A-Main: 1) 1W Lucas Wolfe 2) 27 Greg Hodnett 3) 94 Ryan Smith 4) 19M Brent Marks 5) 12 Blane Heimbach 6) 07 Doug Esh 7) 88 TJ Stutts 8) 25 Aaron Ott 9) 29 Jason Shultz 10) 48 Danny Dietrich 11) 3Z Brock Zearfoss 12) 17B Steve Buckwalter 13) 33 Curt Stroup 14) 0 Rick Lafferty 15) 47K Kody Lehman 16) 24B Dustin Baney 17) 33W Michael Walter II 18) 75 Nicole Bower 19) 77 Derek Locke 20) 15 Vince Snyder 21) 71 Charlie Anderson 22) 1W Eric Tomecek
Heat Winners: Danny Dietrich, Brent Marks, TJ Stutts
Time Trials: 1) 1 Lucas Wolfe 16.353 2) 27 Greg Hodnett 16.507 3) 12 Blane Heimbach 16.536 4) 94 Ryan Smith 16.588 5) 25 Aaron Ott 16.623 6) 29 Jason Shultz 16.645 7) 07 Doug Esh 16.671 8) 75 Nicole Bower 16.676 9) 88 TJ Stutts 16.700 10) 48 Danny Dietrich 16.805 11) 19M Brent Marks 16.813 12) 17B Steve Buckwalter 16.859 13) 3Z Brock Zearfoss 16.916 14) 33 Curt Stroup 17.019 15) 0 Rick Laferty 17.056 16) 77 Derek Locke 17.060 17) 47K Kody Lehman 17.097 18) 33W Michael Walter II 17.211 19) 15 Vince Snyder 17.561 20) 24B Dustin Baney 17.658 21) 71 Charlie Anderson 19.091 22) 1W Eric Tomocek DNT
