|
|
|
|
Shaffer gets 7th All Star win, passes Pittman late for Mercer win |
MERCER, PA (8-27-11) By Brian Liskai - Tim Shaffer continued his hot streak with the All Star Circuit of Champions Saturday at Mercer Raceway Park. The native of Aliquippa, PA, was just 50 minutes from his home when he was standing in victory lane.
Shaffer passed Daryn Pittman late in the 30-lap affair to claim his seventh All Star win of the year and 42nd of his career, moving him into a tie for ninth on the series' all-time win list with Kelly Kinser. Shaffer, who recently won the $10,000 top prize for winning the All Stars' Great Plains Region points battle, padded his lead in the series' national point standings, while drawing closer to three-time All Star champion Dale Blaney in the $20,000-to-win Ohio Region Points contest.
"Boy, they sure made me work for that one, huh," said Shaffer after scoring the popular win. He had to search out a different line while hew was giving chase to early leader Pittman.
"We were pretty good there early, and I kept telling myself that we needed to find something different," Shaffer explained beside his Kistler Racing Products/Kistler Engines/VRP Shocks backed CH Motorsports machine. "If you follow the guy and run the same line he is, it makes it hard to get past."
For his part, Pittman was disappointed. "We just got beat," he said standing beside his Heffner Racing/Lelands.com/Pasquariello's/Rider Racing Engines backed machine. "The car was probably good enough, but I started making mistakes." He made no excuses, though. "You just don't lead that many laps and fall back to third and blame anybody but yourself," he said.
On the opposite end of the scale of emotions was runner-up David Gravel.
"We were really coming there at the end," he said. "I just wish that it was 35 or 40 laps."
Gravel explained that, in the late stages of the race, he had the wing back on his DDR Motorsports/JRC Transportation backed machine, and "the car was just awesome, it just sucks that we were second." He gave the credit to his new crew chief of four races, Tyler Swank, and to Brian Kemenah (Shaffer's crew chief), who had been giving the Gravel team a garage from which to work.
Pittman, who owns a couple of All Star wins in 2011, and Shaffer led the field to the green for the 30 lapper. Pittman led the first lap, ahead of Shaffer, 2010 Lernerville Speedway champion Danny Holtgraver, Rod George, Gravel and Ed Lynch, Jr.
Pittman set a blistering pace, encountering lapped traffic by the fifth circuit. This allowed Shaffer to close quickly and he took a look to Pittman's inside as they were weaving their way past the slower cars. Holtgraver remained within striking distance.
The action slowed on lap 9 for a rare miscue by George, who spun off turn two while running fourth.
On the restart, Pittman and Shaffer got away cleanly, as did Holtgraver. Austrailia's Marty "Muscles" Perovich, in one of his final outings before returning home, moved up to fourth ahead of Gavel.
Recently crowned Lernerville Speedway champion Carl Bower would bring out the red on lap 11 when he flipped in turn four. He was unhurt, but the car was unable to continue.
Green flag conditions prevailed for two more laps, with Gravel passing Perovich for fourth as the only significant change at the front of the pack. On lap 13, though, Andy McKisson - who won a Midwest All Star Sprint Series feature at Tri-City Speedway in July - spun off the track at the inside of turn two.
On the restart, Pittman held the lead, but just one lap later, Shaffer got a full head of steam going down the back stretch. Shaffer dove to the inside and pulled alongside Pittman through the turns. Shaffer grabbed the lead coming off turn four and never looked back.
After the final caution, Gavel was the man on the move, charging from fourth to second. However, by the time he got to the runner-up spot, Shaffer held a full straightaway advantage. Gravel slowly chopped into that lead, but Shaffer had more than enough of a cushion to preserve the win.
Following Shaffer, Gravel and Pittman to the checkers was Holtgraver who recovered for fourth after falling back to fifth while racing through lapped traffic, and Blaney.
Danny Smith, who leads the Midwest All Star Sprint Series (this was a MASS and All Star sanctioned event) would come home sixth while Lynch Jr. and Mercer point leder Bob Felmlee finished seventh and Eighth. Fred Rahmer and Aaron Ott would round out the top 10.
Mercer Raceway Park - 8/27/2011
All Star Circuit of Champions (31 Cars)
[#]-Starting Position
Qualifying - Kistler Engines
1. 89G-David Gravel, 13.591
2. 83-Tim Shaffer, 13.614
3. 45-Rob Chaney, 13.658
4. 4G-Rod George, 13.729
5. 27-Daryn Pittman, 13.746
6. D4-Danny Holtgraver, 13.759
7. 2L-Ed Lynch Jr., 13.807
8. 2-Dale Blaney, 13.841
9. 23-Jimmy Light, 13.865
10. 6F-Bob Felmlee, 13.947
11. 51-Fred Rahmer, 13.968
12. 4-Danny Smith, 14.041
13. 7-Eric Williams, 14.050
14. O8-Dan Kuriger, 14.059
15. 15-Scott Priester, 14.091
16. 77-Aaron Ott, 14.096
17. 17-Marty Perovich, 14.102
18. 10-Carl Bowser, 14.108
19. 20E-Brian Ellenberger, 14.132
20. 3-Pete Miller III, 14.174
21. Ox-Andy McKisson, 14.204
22. 5K-Adam Kekich, 14.291
23. 12-Jared Ridge, 14.447
24. W20-Greg Wilson, 14.560
25. O4-Cap Henry, 14.563
26. 13-Brandon Matus, 14.599
27. 96-Lindsay Enscoe, 14.707
28. 33-Brent Matus, 14.821
29. 2S-Francis Sesco, 99.999
30. 22S-Brandon Spithaler, 99.999
31. 1R-Gale Ruth, 99.999
Heat 1 - Kears Speed Shop (8 Laps - Top 6 finishers transfer to the A-feature)
1. 77-Aaron Ott[1]
2. 7-Eric Williams[2]
3. 6F-Bob Felmlee[3]
4. 4G-Rod George[5]
5. 2L-Ed Lynch Jr.[4]
6. 89G-David Gravel[6]
7. 20E-Brian Ellenberger[7]
8. 5K-Adam Kekich[8]
9. O4-Cap Henry[9]
10. 33-Brent Matus[10]
Heat 2 - All Pro Heads (8 Laps - Top 6 finishers transfer to the A-feature)
1. 17-Marty Perovich[1]
2. O8-Dan Kuriger[2]
3. 83-Tim Shaffer[6]
4. 51-Fred Rahmer[3]
5. 27-Daryn Pittman[5]
6. 2-Dale Blaney[4]
7. 3-Pete Miller III[7]
8. 12-Jared Ridge[8]
9. 13-Brandon Matus[9]
10. 2S-Francis Sesco[10]
Heat 3 - MSD Ignition (8 Laps - Top 6 finishers transfer to the A-feature)
1. 10-Carl Bowser[1]
2. 23-Jimmy Light[4]
3. 4-Danny Smith[3]
4. D4-Danny Holtgraver[5]
5. 45-Rob Chaney[6]
6. Ox-Andy McKisson[7]
7. 15-Scott Priester[2]
8. W20-Greg Wilson[8]
9. 96-Lindsay Enscoe[9]
10. 22S-Brandon Spithaler[10]
Dash - Outerwears Performance Products (6 Laps, finishing order determined first 6 starting positions of A-feature
1. 83-Tim Shaffer[1]
2. 27-Daryn Pittman[2]
3. 4G-Rod George[3]
4. D4-Danny Holtgraver[4]
5. 89G-David Gravel[5]
6. 45-Rob Chaney[6]
B-Main - University of Northwestern Ohio (12 Laps - Top 6 finishers transfer to the A-feature)
1. 20E-Brian Ellenberger[2]
2. 15-Scott Priester[1]
3. 3-Pete Miller III[3]
4. 5K-Adam Kekich[4]
5. 33-Brent Matus[10]
6. 12-Jared Ridge[5]
7. 96-Lindsay Enscoe[9]
8. 1R-Gale Ruth[13]
9. W20-Greg Wilson[6]
10. 13-Brandon Matus[8]
11. O4-Cap Henry[7]
12. 22S-Brandon Spithaler[12]
13. 2S-Francis Sesco[11]
A-Main - University of Northwestern Ohio (30 Laps)
1. 83-Tim Shaffer[1]
2. 89G-David Gravel[5]
3. 27-Daryn Pittman[2]
4. D4-Danny Holtgraver[4]
5. 2-Dale Blaney[8]
6. 4-Danny Smith[12]
7. 2L-Ed Lynch Jr.[7]
8. 6F-Bob Felmlee[10]
9. 51-Fred Rahmer[11]
10. 77-Aaron Ott[16]
11. 23-Jimmy Light[9]
12. 20E-Brian Ellenberger[19]
13. 7-Eric Williams[13]
14. 4G-Rod George[3]
15. Ox-Andy McKisson[21]
16. 15-Scott Priester[15]
17. 12-Jared Ridge[23]
18. 17-Marty Perovich[17]
19. 33-Brent Matus[24]
20. 5K-Adam Kekich[22]
21. 45-Rob Chaney[6]
22. 3-Pete Miller III[20]
23. 10-Carl Bowser[18]
24. O8-Dan Kuriger[14]
Hard Charger: 20E-Brian Ellenberger[+7] |
|
The UNOH College of Applied Technologies' High Performance Department's reputation for producing highly-educated graduates means your diploma or associate degree will give you a distinct advantage in a competitive workplace.The University of Northwestern Ohio invented the high performance/motorsports program in 1992 and has been training students with the latest technology available in the industry since. 
The All Stars are one of the premier sprint car sanctioning bodies in the USA. It is owned by an Illinois businessman, and now in their 30th year of operation, the All Stars take pride in their reputation of providing highly competitive, fair, exciting racing for outlaw sprint cars with many different winners in a year. About 400 drivers participate in All Star races yearly in front of an average of 5,000 spectators per event. Currently 40+ races are scheduled in numerous states, such as Florida, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Michigan, Tennessee, Nebraska, West Virginia, and Kansas. 
Ohio Sprint Speedweek proves to be one of the most competitive weeks in racing during the 2010 All Star season. Tough battles happened in the 2010 Ohio Sprint Speedweek season, as it included nine straight nights of racing action in the buckeye state, it challenged the best of the best, but young David Gravel- DDR Motorsports was crowned the 2010 champion.