Friday night’s action at 34 Raceway near Burlington was night number one of two for the Sebastian Sandblasting Sprint Nationals with two divisions of Sprint Cars on the card. The Ideal Ready Mix Sprint Invaders were the headliners for the weekend, but on Friday night the 305 c.i. division that competes at the track on a weekly basis was featured in a bittersweet manner. The 2008 track champion Brian Hetrick tragically lost his life in a motorcycle accident just a couple weeks prior from putting the closing touches on that championship and on this night his family and friends would pay tribute to him by raising the purse money for the Brian Hetrick Memorial.
Brian and his younger brother Kevin grew up in a sprint car racing family as both their father and their uncle drove the open wheelers at 34 Raceway and, when Brian started racing, it was in a 360 c.i. sprint car. He wasn’t an instant winner in the division, but as his experience grew the wins started coming and before his untimely death last August he had established himself as one of the men to beat on a weekly basis at 34. Kevin started his racing career in the two-driver "thunder car" division and when that class went by the wayside he transitioned to a Hobby Stock. When the track near Burlington brought sprint cars back as a weekly division with the 305 c.i. motors under the hood, Kevin upheld the family tradition by ditching the stock cars and taking the wheel of a winged sprint car. Coming into Friday night Kevin was still looking for his first sprint car victory, but keep in mind that in most of his sprint car races so far one of the drivers that he had to beat was his brother Brian. On this night though, they would work together.
Kevin started third in tonight’s main event, the race in memory of his brother, and the first two attempts at a start resulted in caution flags for incidents in turns one and two. With the drivers involved having to restart at the rear Hetrick now found himself starting next to Bobby Mincer on row two. Mincer, who was the winner on opening night two weeks ago, took the original green from the tenth starting spot and used his good fortune to take the lead from Ryan Jamison on lap number two. The red flag appeared moments later when Jarrod Schneiderman climbed the retaining wall coming off of turn four launching him into a wild series of flips including some significant airtime. Thankfully Schneiderman quickly crawled out of his destroyed racecar uninjured.
With Mincer set to restart out front, past experience would have lead fans to believe that the race would now be for second, especially with top contender Donnie Steward still deep in the field after being involved in one of the cautions at the start. Kevin Hetrick had another scenario in mind. After watching the Sprint Invader feature earlier in the night Hetrick knew that the high line was fast in three and four while the low groove was the place to be in turns one and two, so he went to work on the leader. On lap six Hetrick drove to the outside of Mincer in turn four and had just enough room to stay off of the wall and take the lead down the front straightaway. I could hear the crowd over the roaring engines as I watched from the infield and it was obvious that something special was to happen tonight.
Mincer stayed within striking distance and the laps seemed to take forever to click away. On lap thirteen David Saffell spun in turn two, right in front of Hetrick and Kevin calmly made the move to narrowly avoid him as the caution waved. With just seven laps remaining the crowd was electric on the restart and Hetrick was not to be denied. This did not look like a driver who was headed for his first win, a win in a race that is dedicated to the big brother that meant so much to him. You would have expected a tense moment or two over those final seven laps, perhaps a slip out of the preferred groove or a bobble that would have given Mincer an opportunity to make one last bid for the lead. No, Kevin drove those final seven laps just like a seasoned veteran would have, like a driver who had visited victory lane many times, like a driver who had won track championships. Kevin Hetrick drove those last seven laps just like Brian would have, and you can bet that this first win will not be his last.
Mincer is a competitor who hates to lose, but on this night he was satisfied with second. Matt Krieger drove a solid race to finish third followed by Jayson Ditsworth and Donnie Steward.
Kevin Hetrick addresses the crowd after his emotional victory as announcer Jeff Broeg (left) and promoter Jeff Laue look on - Photo courtesy of Dewain Hulett at http://www.tristatespeedreview.com/
The Sprint Invaders put on a quite a show themselves on this first warm night for racing as the format consisting of qualifying and fully inverted heat races produced three and four wide racing all evening. Rookie-of-the-Year contender Ben Wagoner started from the pole of the twenty-lap main event and paced the field for the first circuit. Veteran driver Ryan Jamison dispatched the rookie on lap two, but the man to watch was Matt Rogerson. Starting twelfth, Rogerson was hooked up and hauling on the hub of the 3/8-mile oval and moved to third by driving past Brian Brown on lap number five. The caution appeared for a spin on lap six and the break seemed to take away Rogerson’s rhythm, but it was eaxactly the opportunity that Kaley Gharst was looking for. On the restart Gharst, driving the Plath Motoorsports #14P, went to work on Jamison and two laps later he flew around the leader on the outside of turn four. Jamsion tried to maintain the pace and challenged a couple of times over the next few laps, but there was no stopping the 2007 Sprint Invaders champion Gharst as he cruised to victory.
Jamison posted a strong runner-up finish with Rogerson not far behind in third, Brown settled for a fourth-place finish and defending series champion John Schulz completed the top five.
The Hobby Stock division provided some entertaining support class action tonight and it was Doug Fenton who picked up a win that he dedicated to his father Donald who passed away earlier this year. Dan Wenig was the early leader before mechanical issues put him on the sidelines handing the lead over to young Derek St. Clair. It was a battle between the youngster and the veteran mid-race and the veteran prevailed as Fenton picked up the lead on lap eight. Dean Kratzer, who ran the majority of the race with a damaged right front suspension, passed St. Clair late for second with Brandon Symmonds and Blaine Dopler completing the top five.
34 Raceway Notes…….Bobby Mincer was one of five drivers doing double duty tonight and his Sprint Invader effort got off to a rough start when he suffered a flat tire in his qualifying heat. Mincer came back to win the B-Main to start sixteenth in the feature and he put forth a solid effort to finish seventh…..Jerrod Hull was a double duty driver who had a tough night in both sprint divisions. Hull has the most wins in Invader history, but he dropped from his heat and scratched for the remainder of the evening. In the 305’s after being unable to make a qualifying run, Hull was able to get things together and run second in his heat race and in the feature he quickly moved from eleventh up to third. But the gremlins reappeared and he pulled to the infield mid-race to end a forgettable evening…...Kansas driver Pete Crall was leading the Sprint Invader B-Main coming to the white flag before tagging the frontstretch retaining wall and fading to sixth, one spot out of a qualifying spot. His luck turned though on a another driver’s misfortune as Russ Hall later scratched from the A-Main allowing Crall to start twentieth as an alternate……John Oliver Jr. started in the fourth row of the Hobby Stock feature and was up to second with two laps to go before his engine sputtered and he pulled to the pits.
No comments:
Post a Comment