BRYAN HOUSEHOLDER COLUMN: World of Outlaws' sprint cars return to area this weekend

• The World of Outlaws' sprint cars return to the area this weekend.
• The Summer Nationals are set for Williams Grove Speedway on Friday and Saturday evenings.
• The last time the Outlaws were in the area, David Gravel and Shane Stewart won at the Grove.

The World of Outlaws' sprint cars return to the area this weekend for the Summer Nationals at Williams Grove Speedway.

Two full nights of Outlaw racing at the Grove begin Friday night, with the finale on Saturday night.

The last time the Outlaws were in the area, back in May, David Gravel and Shane Stewart were winners at the Grove. Gravel also won at Lincoln.

Both Lincoln and Port Royal speedways will take off Saturday so the Pennsylvania Posse sprint car racers can tackle the Outlaws at the Grove with the hopes of evening the score for the season.

There is other racing around the area. Friday, Trailway offers the 358 sprints, 270cc micro sprints, legends and limited stocks.

Saturday, Susquehanna hosts the super sportsmen, plus the K1 Racegear Summer Series for the 358 sprints. Street stocks and Xtreme stocks round out the program on Auto Racing Club of Hagerstown Night.

Selinsgrove offers the 360 sprints, another round of the Moonshine Camo Route 35 Challenge for the late models, pro stocks and roadrunners. Hagerstown has the Red Ninninger Tribute race for the late models on Saturday, plus the pure stocks and hobby stocks.

PIT STOPS

Lucas Wolfe drives to Susquehanna win: Lucas Wolfe raced to a last-lap victory in Sunday’s 30-lap, sprint-car feature at Susquehanna Speedway.

Wolfe’s 10th overall win of the season was his first at Susky and eighth in a 410 sprint car. The win was worth $3,200.

Spring Grove’s Greg Hodnett started second and outgunned pole-sitter Tyler Walker at the start. Wolfe quickly moved from the third starting position to second and challenged Hodnett at various stages during the race. In the final third of the event, sixth-starter Danny Dietrich slipped by Wolfe and offered his own challenge to Hodnett. However, with six laps remaining, and Dietrich nipping at Hodnett’s heels, Dietrich collided with a lapped car and crashed out of the race.

On the restart, Wolfe kept pace with Hodnett, and slipped by on the backstretch of the final lap. Hodnett had to settle for second, with Brock Zearfoss, Brian Montieth and Walker in the top five. Rounding out the top 10 were Hellam’s Adrian Shaffer, Kyle Reinhardt, Mark Smith, Lewisberry’s Kyle Moody and York’s Glenndon Forsythe.

Track point leader Kenny Edkin powered from the 11th starting spot to the lead in 10 laps of the 25-lap, super-sportsman feature. Edkins’ win was his fourth at Susky this year. Tony Jackson finished second, with Lewisberry’s Scott Dellinger in third. Steve Fannasy and Doug Dodson completed the top five. Rounding out the top 10 were Fawn Grove’s Paul Miller, Chris Meleason, Russ Mitten, Mike Enders, who started 24th and earned the hard-charger award, and Gregg Foster.

YCRC meeting: The York County Racing Club will host a general membership meeting on Wednesday evening at the club hall in Zions View.

Strinestown’s Tommy Slanker, the current pro-stock point leader at Selinsgrove, will be the guest speaker. The meeting starts at 7;30 p.m.

Stuhler adds to total: Gary Stuhler raced to the late-model win at Port Royal on Saturday.

The win was only Stuhler’s second career win at the Port, but it was the 351st career win in the late-model class for the veteran speedster.

Stuhler leads all late-model drivers in wins on the area circuit. His career started back in the early 1970s.

Another Wolford: Tyler Wolford, the grandson of racing legend Gary Wolford, made his first racing start in the super-sportsman class at Lincoln Saturday.

Wolford started last in the 18-car field and finished 13th.

1972: It was a big weekend for racing in the area in 1972, and for a change, the only sign of rain was a pair of make-up features from the week before, one at Lincoln and one at Susquehanna.

Things kicked off on Friday evening. Out at Bedford, western Pennsylvania racer Buddy Cochran scored his second win of the season in the Koiser Brothers No. 8.

At Williams Grove on Friday evening, Kenny Weld kicked off a three-win weekend in Bob Weikert’s No. 29. Weld won at the Grove on Friday, then in the regularly scheduled feature at Lincoln Saturday and again at Hagerstown on Sunday. Those three wins pushed Weld’s season win total to 18.

The make-up feature at Lincoln on Saturday fell to Steve Smith in the O.J. Myers No. 19. That win was Smith’s fourth of the year. At Port Royal on Saturday, Dover’s Smokey Snellbaker put Roy Morral’s No. 880 in victory lane for the sixth time that season.

To make things interesting, Williams Grove also offered a Sunday show that weekend, with Wrightsville’s Bobbie Adamson scoring the win in Al Hamilton’s No. 77. The win was Adamson’s 13th on the season.

The area’s big winner to that point in the season was doing his thing at Susquehanna that Sunday evening. Jan Opperman, in the Bogar No. 99, won both the make-up race and the regularly-scheduled feature at Susky that night, to push his season win total up to 22.

Bryan Householder writes about dirt-track racing for The York Dispatch. He can be reached at sports@yorkdispatch.com.

2017 CHAMPION RACING OIL

BR MOTORSPORTS

CENTRAL PENNSYLVANIA SPRINT SERIES

PRESENTED BY HOSEHEADS.COM

1. 48 Danny Dietrich 935 7
2. 24 Lucas Wolfe 894 8
3. 27 Greg Hodnett 683 3
4. 69K Lance Dewease 681 8
5. 51 Freddie Rahmer 655 4
6. 21 Brian Montieth 519 1
7. 3z Brock Zearfoss 511 1
8. 1 Dale Blaney 365
9. 11 T J Stutts 339
10. 25 Aaron Ott 322
11. 87 Alan Krimes 298
12. 44 Trey Starks 291 2
13. 5 Dylan Cisney 289
14. 07 Doug Esh 285 2
15. 39 Cory Haas 269
16. 16 Gerard McIntyre Jr 206 1
17. 12 Blaney Heimbach 199 1
18. 55 Mike Wagner 181
19. 5 David Gravel 164 3
19. 20 Ryan Taylor 164
21. 8 Billy Dietrich 153
22. 0 Rick Lafferty 152
23. 16 Matt Campbell 151
24. 57 Kyle Larson 150 3
25. 59 Jim Siegel 146