HOUSEHOLDER: Dirt Classic winner will earn $20,000 Saturday at Lincoln

The second annual Dirt Classic at Lincoln Speedway highlights this weekend's racing action.

The Saturday program benefits the Kasey Kahne Foundation. Last year, Stevie Smith won the event, which replaced the Kenny Weld Memorial Race on Lincoln's schedule.

This year's race will again pay $20,000 to the winner, but the purse has been increased back through the field.

Already several outsiders have plans to attend, including Sammy Swindell and Jac Haudenschild, both members of the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame. Former NASCAR racer Dave Blaney also has the race on his schedule, as does Midwest driver Dusty Zomer and western Pennsylvania ace A.J. Flick.

The sprint cars will be a stand-alone division at Lincoln on Saturday. Last year both Kahne and Kyle Larson stopped by to watch the racing at Lincoln on this weekend.

Williams Grove races Friday with a tune-up for the following weekend's National Open. The sprint cars will race under the World of Outlaws format. The 358 sprints are also on the program.

As mentioned Haudenschild is expected to race at Lincoln this Saturday. In fact, the exciting racer has been in the area for several weeks now. Haudenschild has picked up a late-season ride with car owner Tom Buch.

They competed at the Tuscarora 50 two weeks ago, and then last weekend at Williams Grove, Selinsgrove and Susquehanna. While the first several shows were plagued with little troubles, Haudenschild led the first half of Susquehanna's race on Sunday and finished second to Greg Hodnett there.

The team will race at both Williams Grove and Lincoln this weekend, and then return for the Williams Grove National Open the following week.

PIT STOPS

Harry Fletcher: Last week, longtime area car owner Harry Fletcher died.

Fletcher began in the late 1950s with the stock cars that raced around the area. He transitioned through the bugs and into the sprint cars.

Fletcher started with Tom Bowers in his cars, then Dizzy Dean, Johnny Grum and Steve Smith. Then his son, Bobby Fletcher, took over the driving chores. After some time off, Fletcher returned with his grandson, Cody Fletcher, behind the wheel.

Fletcher won the Williams Grove National Open with both Grum and Smith and championships all around the area with both drivers.

He scored wins with all of his drivers, and just this season got to see his grandson pick up two wins at Trailway in the 358 sprints.

While Fletcher was a master mechanic, who once built a winning "sidewinder" for the local dirt tracks, perhaps his greatest claim to fame was the fact that he was an all-around nice guy. It's an attribute he passed on to both his son and grandson, who both have numerous "sportsmanship" awards gracing their trophy cases.

Harry Fletcher was 76 and will be missed greatly.

Big news at Susky: It was recently announced that Susquehanna Speedway Park has been sold to Scott Gobrecht.

Last week word filtered down that the "Saturday Night Series" will move to Susky in 2016.

The program of super sportsmen, limited late models and street stocks began at the fabled Silver Spring Speedway in 1954. When the Spring closed about a decade ago, the program moved to Williams Grove. Now it will move on to Susquehanna.

Todd and Rhonda Fisher will continue to operate Susquehanna through the end of this racing season, but they have made several changes to their racing schedule. There will be no racing at Susky this coming weekend. In fact, only three dates remain on the Susquehanna schedule for this season. The sprint cars and 305 sprints return for the next race on Oct. 18. After that, there is the Candy Bowl on Oct. 31 and the Final Showdown in mid-November.

1970: This was a wet weekend in 1970. The Reading Fairgrounds presented a sprint car show on Friday evening, with Kenny Weld scoring his 19th win of the season in Bud Grimm's No. 88.

After that, things got wet. Williams Grove was rained out on both Saturday and Sunday, while Lincoln got rain at feature time on Saturday.

Speedway Motors/Champion Racing Oil Central Pennsylvania Sprint Car standings

Presented by Hoseheads.com

Name (Wins)......................................Pts.

1. Greg Hodnett (16) 1,818

2. Danny Dietrich (15) 1,624

3. Brian Montieth (8) 1,194

4. Lucas Wolfe (4) 1,128

5. Brent Marks (3) 1,010

6. Lance Dewease (1) 893

7. Aaron Ott (2) 753

8. Alan Krimes (2) 648

9. Stevie Smith (8) 635

10. Cory Haas (1) 560

11. Steve Buckwalter (3) 550

12. Austin Hogue (1) 480

13. Doug Esh (2) 303

14. Freddie Rahmer (1) 280

15. Brock Zearfoss 273

16. Jim Siegel (1) 264

17. Ryan Taylor 254

18. Mike Wagner 251

19. Tim Glatfelter 242

20. Dylan Cisney 234

21. Kyle Moody 217

22. Robbie Kendall 214

23. Ryan Smith 198

24. Logan Wagner (1) 197

25. Davey Sammons 180