By KEN BRUCE
The touring professionals of the Super DIRTcar Series brought their talents and skills to the quarter mile bullring in Bechtelsville, Pa., on Thursday night for the running of the 2016 “Traffic Jam.” The race was part of the long running Bob Miller promoted “Thunder on the Hill” series.
When the SDS comes to town it’s always a battle between the track regulars and the touring professionals. For the second year in a row the touring pro’s dominated the top five with one driver in particular setting the pace.
ANOTHER RACE, ANOTHER SHEPPARD WIN
That driver is “Super” Matt Sheppard who for the second year in a row dominated the race to pick up the winners share of the purse. It was a cool $7,000 for the driver out of Waterloo, N.Y. Sheppard, who was lucky enough to pick the pole, jumped out front at the start to lead all 60 laps en route to the big victory. With the victory Sheppard remains on top of the Super DIRTcar Series points.
“We were lucky to draw a good number tonight and get out front and hold on. Traffic was a little interesting tonight. You know sometime it’s tough when you start up front because you don’t know where to be or where to go on the track, but I think our car was good enough tonight to get the job done.”
It looked early on that Sheppard was having some handling issues but the car seemed to get better as the race progressed.
“It definitely was tight in (to the turns) but lucky for me I was able to use the track up there early. The car had good grip and good forward drive. Sometimes when you have that going you can deal with the car being a little tight.”
Although it’s been a great season so far for Sheppard, it’s not been without its trials and tribulations. Everyone can remember back to last off-season when Sheppard found out that he was no longer going to be part of the high dollar Heinke-Baldwin Racing operation leaving him without a home for the 2016 season. After much speculation of where Sheppard would land he decided to start his own team from scratch. It was a whirlwind to get everything ready for the season but with lots of hard work it is starting to payoff for driver.
“Everybody is working really hard back in the shop. We are on quite a stretch here and now we have I think seven or eight in a row now that we’ve finished in the top four. That’s pretty impressive on the SDS. We had a third or fourth there a couple of nights and I think we were better than that on those nights but we just started a little too far back. We are doing all of this with only two cars right now. I got some guys that come with me on the tour races that take off their regular jobs to do that. Right now it’s just me in the shop every day doing the work for the most part.”
I asked Sheppard if it feels good to him to have proven that he can do it on his own without the big money behind him.
“It feels good, but I’ve always had confidence in my ability to get it done and it just proves that you don’t have to have a million bucks behind you to be successful. You just have to learn to spend your money wisely.”
A SOLID SECOND FOR BATMAN
Peter Britten has been on the SDS trail for a few years now, but with Grandview being off of the schedule for awhile and only coming back last season it was only the second ever visit to the speedway for the driver out of Brisbane, Australia.
“I always look forward to coming to Grandview. The first year I started running the series they stopped coming here for that little stretch. I always thought it was one of those tracks that seemed really cool and I always wanted to race it. Last year was my first time here and we sort of missed it a little bit. This year we hit on it pretty good.”
Britten was able to close in on Sheppard late in the race and thought he might have had a shot at the lead. It just didn’t work out.
“I had maybe one or two chances to maybe do something around the outside. The first time I just couldn’t do it and the next time I about lost it actually. But it was one of those things where I am just going to go for it and I either got it or I didn’t. Luckily I was able to hold onto it and end up with a good second. Anytime you can finish second in a series race to these guys is a good thing.”
It’s been an up and down year for the HBR driver and he was glad to see all of the team’s hard work finally paying off.
“We’ve been strong all year this year, at least feeling strong. The results haven’t always been there but we feel like we’ve been good and it feels great to run second. It’s good for us. Hopefully this will give us a good boost going forward. It’ll be great if we can keep the momentum up going forward into next week.”
It’s been a busy season so far for Britten who maintains not only his HBR but also the other cars of Jimmy Phelps, Max McLaughlin and Dave Blaney in the HBR stable.
“It’s definitely a lot of work to keep these cars going and we have a big stretch coming up with Eldora and Sharon next week and then onto Quebec the following week. The long hours are always a little easier to take when you are running well so tonight will be a good energy boost for us.”
FRIESEN THIRD; TRUCKS ON TAP
Stewart Friesen gets a well earned third place and looks forward to racing in the truck race next week at Eldora
If Stewart Friesen doesn’t have enough going on with new son Parker at home, running a screen printing business and starting a new super team with Halmar International and Jeff Daley. You would think that would be enough but not for the driver out of Sprakers, N.Y. Next week Friesen will try to start a new chapter in his life by trying to qualify for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at the famed Eldora Speedway. Not only will all that be going on but he will be also running his powerful TEO Chassis Modified the same night as well as the night before. It’s going to be a busy week for Friesen but he thinks he is up to the challenge.
Friesen was in Tennessee on Wednesday to test the newly purchased KBM truck chassis which will be powered by an ECR Chevy engine.
“The test went good, we got comfortable in it and were able to work out some of the bugs. We wanted to get the brakes working right. We were able to do that. It was really neat and I am definitely looking forward to it next week. The weight of the truck gets some getting used but I’ve been fortunate to run a pavement Modified before and the characteristics are very similar to that handling wise. Even though we were on dirt some of the pavement experience tapped into it. Thankfully I was able to pick it up pretty quick, lay down some good laps and hopefully we can have some fun.”
I talked to Friesen about representing the Modified world at Eldora along with Lebanon Valley Speedway regular JR Heffner.
“It’s going to be really cool to be there but it’s tough at that level to compete. Halmar International is providing us great opportunity to do it. Chris Larsen (Halmar Int’l owner) is helping us out and we are super pumped to do it. Hopefully I can represent us dirt Modified drivers well.”
It’s been a season so far for Friesen that at first started slow but now has really heated up as he went on his much publicized streak last week winning three high paying races in a row.
“Things are starting to go well. It’s been an up and down season so far but I think we have the team going in the right direction now. Everyone’s been working hard to make it happen. Eric (Mack) and Ryan (Wilder) have been busting their butts, it’s been a lot of racing. We’ve never done this much racing all together. Before it’s been for different teams with different guys and it was only about 20/30 races a year. I think this year we are already at about 40 races. We are rolling right now and we got a good routine going in the shop. It took us awhile to get in a rhythm but I think we’re there now and hopefully we can keep in going.”
Friesen was happy with his third place run. He thought if he had a better draw the outcome could’ve been better.
“We had great car but we were a victim of the redraw. It was only a one lane track which was weird. The track was awesome for about the first ten laps then the outside just blew off. It seemed a little sandy which is very untypical for this place. Usually Grandview has two good grooves going. To draw ninth, get up to third and have a shot at it is all you can ask for. To finish third in a series race is nothing to get down on. “
HOWARD LEAD LOCALS
When it comes to a series race at your local speedway the hometown fans always seem to have an extra incentive to see their regular weekly drivers do well against the touring pros and at Grandview Speedway it is even more prevalent. Sort of like when the World of Outlaws come east to compete against the PA Posse. Everyone seems to band together to root on their hometown favorites even though they may not on a normal night. They might not want to admit it, but they do.
Duane Howard, although not a weekly competitor at the speedway since June, is still considered a hometown favorite with two wins already this season at Grandview. He was looking forward to having the opportunity to compete against the best on his home turf. Howard looked strong in his heat finishing third to earn a spot in the redraw but in true Howard fashion this season, his unluckiness in the draw continued when he had to start 10th in the main event. After slipping back early Howard was able to get the car dialed in after about 20 laps. He made a run to the front, ultimately finishing in the fourth spot after a hard battle with Billy Decker.
“We were just way too tight in the beginning and I couldn’t get the car to turn. I fell back there a little. Around halfway it started coming to me. After that point we had a really good freaking race car. I wish the race would’ve been 100 laps instead of 60. We had a good battle going there with Decker and I could’ve stuck my nose in there a couple of times but I wanted to give him some room and race him clean. It’s really fun racing with these guys.”
Howard thought he could make up some ground in the first few laps on the outside but instead went backwards.
“We had a good race car but we just went backwards in the beginning. You just can’t do that in these races and lose positions. When the race started they all bunched up down on the bottom. I thought I could just roll top and drive thru it. I just couldn’t. We were just way too tight in the beginning.”
MCLAUGHLIN AND WILLIAMSON MAKE GRANDVIEW DEBUTS
Max McLaughlin was making his first ever start at Grandview last night and was impressed with the track itself.
“It’s a really cool place, hot laps and time trials were fun. Unfortunately in our heat it seemed like the outside groove got dusted up after the Sportsman heats. I started second alongside (Billy) Decker and when I went into turn three there was nothing there. I slid up the track. So we’ll have to start deep in the field tonight. We had a nice top ten at Five Mile Point in the series race on Tuesday so we’ll try to keep it rolling tonight.”
Mat Williamson was also making his first start at the speedway and was glad to be here after a bad night at Five Mile Point on Tuesday in more ways than one.
”We’ve had a tough season so far. We seem to be only going good at one track, Lernerville. We seem to be struggling everywhere else. We are working hard to get better and I think we’ll get there eventually.”
Williamson was not impressed with FMP on Tuesday and was not shy when it came to discuss it.
“It was the worst race track I’ve ever been to in my life. If the people that run it want to give me a call I will tell them what they can do to make it better. I’m not just trying to be a d**k and tweeting about, I just want to give them some constructive criticism. I mean it was 4am in the morning when we got home because the show got over so late after they promised us we would be out of there by 10. There was a lot of things that went wrong that night and I expressed myself over Twitter.”
GRANDVIEW SDS NEWS N NOTES
There were a total of 30 drivers on hand with the three heats being won by Decker, Friesen and Larry Wight. There was no consi needed as all cars qualified for the race….
Along with Howard in fourth the local drivers were well represented in the top ten with Craig Von Dohren finishing seventh, Jimmy Horton ninth and Ryan Watt coming back from an early pit stop to finish 10th….
Ryan Godown looked to be strong early in the feature but eventually faded back to a 15th place finish. Godwn said they went with the wrong set-up and also made the wrong tire choice for the feature. The Troyer #747 was equipped with a CC Performance motor instead of their normal ERD engine….
Missing in action was the #7 of Rick Laubach. Laubach said he only has one big-block motor as of right now and wants to save it for action at Bridgeport Speedway where he is battling for the points championship….
As always I can be reached for questions and comments at dirtracefan25@hotmail.com and on Twitter @dirtracefan25