SARVER, PA (Friday, Aug. 31, 2012) By Brian Liskai– Danny Holtgraver circled this weekend on his calendar two months ago. The Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania resident couldn’t wait for the University of Northwestern Ohio All Star Circuit of Champions’ event at Lernerville Speedway.
 
Holtgraver, a 2010 track champion at Lernerville, passed early leader Brian Ellenberger on lap 10 and survived a couple of late race restarts to score his second career UNOH All Star win Friday at “Savertown.” It marks the second consecutive win at Lernerville for Holtgraver and his fourth of the season at the track. He now had eight feature wins in 2012.
 
“I was so excited about this weekend. We’ve run well at Lernerville, so I knew we had a good shot at winning. And then we’re going to Attica (Saturday) where I got my first All Star win. The guys had the car awesome tonight. Everything went our way. We got tangled up in our heat and did some damage to the car (shock, jacob’s ladder) but was able to finish and transfer to the dash and that helped us start up front. We got through lapped traffic well,” said Holtgraver beside his Kargo Quality Cars & Trucks/Alternative Power Sources/Spinneweber Auto Sales/VRP Shocks backed machine.
 
Another former Lernerville champion – and three time UNOH All Star Champion – Tim Shaffer would score another runner-up finish aboard his Aaron Call/Janet Holbrook owned, Kistler Engines backed #83.
 
“Give all the credit to Danny and his guys. He was just better than ALL of us tonight. I guess I’ll have to quit helping him out so much,” joked Shaffer, who leads the UNOH All Star national points and is closing in on Dale Blaney for the series’ Ohio Region points lead. “I don’t think I’ve ever complained so much about finishing second and third in a season. It’s just been one of those years. We’ll just keep trying…my guys are working hard and I’m not going to give up…they deserve some wins.”
 
For the second UNOH All Star event in a row, Cap Henry would pass a lot of cars – from his eight place starting spot – to score a third place finish.
 
“I guess I need to qualify better. I have to thank Paul Kistler…our engines are running well and we’re finally able to show how good our team is. A.J. (Havens) and Andrew (Barman) have been busting their butts,” said Henry beside his Lucas Oil/FK Rod Ends/Fragola Performance Systems/GME Nields Steering backed #54. “We are definitely getting better. I feel like a win or two are just around the corner.”
 
Ellenberger and Shaffer would bring the field to the green for the 30-lap feature with Ellenberger grabbing the lead over Shaffer, Holtgraver, Stevie Smith, David Gravel, Bryan Sebetto, Henry, Ed Lynch Jr., Jared Ridge and Pete Miller. Ellenberger would set a quick pace and hit lapped traffic by the sixth circuit.
 
Holtgraver would use the traffic to drive by Shaffer for second on lap six while Henry would use the bottom groove to drive into fifth. By lap 10, the leaders were in heavy traffic and Holtgraver used it to his advantage as he drove into the lead.
 
At the half-way point the running order was Holtgraver, Ellenberger, Shaffer, Henry, Smith, Lynch, Gravel, Sebetto, Caleb Helms and 17th place starter Danny Smith. A lap later Shaffer would get by Ellenberger for second. Henry would continue his charge to the front by taking third on lap 19.
 
With seven laps to go, the car on the move was 16th starter Dale Blaney, another former Lernerville champion, who had worked his way up to eighth. With five laps to go, Holtgraver led Shaffer, Henry, Ellenberger, Smith, Lynch, Gravel, Blaney, Smith and Carl Bowser.
 
There were a couple of late race cautions that would put Shaffer right on Holtgraver’s rear bumper, but the youngster, whom Shaffer has mentored over the past couple of years, was able to pull away for the win. Shaffer, Henry, Smith and Ellenberger would round out the top five.

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