Hagerstown's Octoberfest offers big-time prize money
The local racing season is rapidly drawing to a close.
Williams Grove ended its season last weekend. Still, there are a few more big programs remaining, and this weekend has two of them.
Hagerstown’s Octoberfest 350 is set to go to the post on Saturday and Sunday. Saturday is qualifying day, while Sunday will be for the features. The Octoberfest 350 showcases four of the top Northeast classes of dirt-track racing. The sprint cars, late models, modifieds and 358 modifieds all compete.
The sprint-car feature on Sunday will run for 50 laps, while all three other divisions compete in 100-lap features. Each of the four features offer up $10,000 to the winner.
The Octoberfest will close out Hagerstown’s racing season.
The other big event on the racing slate this weekend is the J&K Salvage “Candy Bowl” at Susquehanna Speedway Park. The Candy Bowl reels off on Saturday afternoon. Six divisions of racing will be featured, plus trick or treating with a twist.
All the racers will be parked on the track at intermission and the youngsters will get to trick or treat their favorite drivers.
On the racing card are the ARDC midgets, 600cc micro sprints, Legends, thundercars, sportsman modifieds and minivans.
Susquehanna will still have two events on its 2010 schedule after this weekend. The Turkey 200 Enduro runs on Nov. 6 with enduro races for big cars and small cars, plus races for classic cars and minivans.
Susky concludes the season on Nov. 13 with the Season Showdown for sprint cars and 358 sprint cars.
PIT STOPS
ALMOST THERE: With two sprint-car races remaining on the local calendar, Greg Hodnett is just two points away from clinching his second consecutive Speed Dawg overall point title.
The Thomasville driver holds a 98-point lead on Lance Dewease with only a 100-point gain available. Basically, Dewease needs to win both remaining races, while Hodnett must finish out of the top 10 in both.
A single top-10 finish will wrap up the title for Hodnett.
Third-place Brian Montieth is out of the title hunt, but could catch Dewease for second place.
NOT YET: Red Lion’s Cody Darrah was set to return to racing last Saturday at Williams Grove, but it didn’t happen.
Darrah suffered serious leg injuries in a highway crash in Daytona in February. He hasn’t raced since, but recently did some testing.
The test sessions were by himself on the track, and his lap times were very good. However, his left leg is still very weak and he had trouble pushing the break pedal. His team went to work building a special braking system, that would give him better control of the break pedal. When the system was finished late last week, Darrah still didn’t feel comfortable with his ability to break the car and decided for safety reasons to put his return on hold a while longer.
DREAM REALIZED: It took two full seasons, but teenage racer Brent Marks realized a childhood dream on Saturday night. Marks won his first Williams Grove sprint-car feature.
Earlier this season, Marks scored two wins at Lincoln, but the Grove win was the one he wanted most.
Marks grew up watching sprint-car races at Williams Grove, when his father was a sponsor for 358 sprint racer Donnie Wolfe. Before venturing into sprint cars last season, Marks had raced with great success in go-karts and micro sprints. Now he has that Grove win too.
SAD TO END THE SEASON: Super-sportsman champion Frankie Herr is probably sad to see the season end.
Herr won eight times this year with the super-sportsman cars, which is more than average for the competitive class. However, he was really just coming into stride. Herr won the last three races at Williams Grove, including Saturday evening.
OK I’ll DRIVE IT: Dover’s Gene Knaub has won 15 limited-late-model races this season, but after the point season ended at Williams Grove a week ago, his season was over.
Knaub was a spectator at the Grove’s Fallfest, but when driver Duane Harbaugh didn’t make it to the track, Knaub accepted a last-minute offer to drive Harbaugh’s car. Knaub didn’t climb into the car until just before the feature, and started the race with no laps in the car ever. He started last in the 16-car field and was up to fifth at the checkered flag.
OK, I’LL TAKE IT: The 358 sprint feature Saturday at the Grove was unusual.
Five different drivers led the race, but only two of them were around at the end of the event. Eric Tomecek led at the beginning until he and Kevin Nouse tangled on the fourth turn, with Tomecek vaulting over the fence.
Nouse had the lead for the restart, but didn’t make a lap before mechanical problems sidelined his efforts. That turned the lead over to York’s Ted Thomas Jr., who led until track champion Pat Cannon, of Etters, took over the top spot on the 17th lap. At the time, Dover’s Chad Trout was in close pursuit of Cannon. A lap later, Cannon too had mechanical problems and handed the lead over to Trout, who won the race. Thomas finished third.
Kyle Moody finished second in the event. The Lewisberry teen has had an eventful year. Moody started the season with Clair Wintermyer’s 410 sprint team, but also raced his family’s 358 sprinter at the Grove.
When Moody and Wintermyer parted ways, Moody continued to race the family machine until finances put them on the sidelines. Moody picked up a part-time ride with neighbor Mike Ressler for a couple of weeks, and then missed a race or two before hooking up with Stan Campbell for the last two races of the season. His second-place run Saturday was the best ever for Campbell’s machine.
– Bryan Householder writes about dirt-track racing for The York Dispatch. He can be reached at sports@yorkdis patch.com.