Dewease Takes Johnny Grum Memorial/PA Speedweek Checkers
By Brett Rose
HAGERSTOWN, MD – In front of a huge crowd assembled on a Wednesday evening that packed the punch of some nationally known superstars, Lance Dewease drove his way through the field to the checkered flag in the 1st annual 30 Lap, $5,000 to win Johnny Grum Memorial.
Thirty-six 410 Sprint Cars signed into the pit area, and T.J. Stutts drove his No.11 machine to a quick lap of 15.580 seconds around the Hub City oval. It was the third straight quick time of PA Sprint Speedweek for the Liverpool, PA racer.
Freddie Rahmer shared the front row with former World of Outlaws champion Dave Blaney, and immediately put his No.51 into the lead. Rahmer began to pull away as Rico Abreu and Danny Dietrich began battling Blaney for the runner-up spot.
Dewease began marching through the field from his tenth-place start, and was up to third by Lap 14. A spin on the backstretch by James McFadden brought out the only caution of the feature at the halfway point.
Shortly after the restart, Rahmer sped away as Dewease passed Abreu for second on Lap 17. Rahmer hit lapped traffic on Lap 22, and that allowed Dewease to close in on the lead. The Fayetteville, PA veteran caught Rahmer, and made the pass for the lead in the Don Kreitz, Jr. No. 69k on the low side coming off of turn two with just three laps remaining.
Dewease drove on to victory to record his 15th career win at Hagerstown Speedway, and won the Pennsylvania Sprint Speedweek race at Hagerstown for the second straight year.
In his winner’s interview, Dewease said: “Tonight was a great night. We weren’t very good there in the heat race, and they kept working hard on it, and got it better. I’m glad I ain’t gonna have to race Little Freddie (Rahmer) the rest of my career, because he’ll be racing way longer than I’ll be racing. He’s turning into a helluva good racer in a little bit of time, and my hat’s off to him, his dad, and everybody on that team.”
“He probably had a little bit better car than me, but he just kinda didn’t know what to do with a couple of those lapped cars, and I hit a couple of those cars pretty good, got a good run at him, and it’s always easier when your second with lapped cars than what it is in the lead.”
Rahmer held on to second, while Abreu, Ryan Smith, and Danny Dietrich completed the top five.
Kyle Larson had his three race Speedweek win streak snapped. He started 18th and finished 11th, while Kasey Kahne started 15th and finished 17th.
Heat race winners were Dave Blaney, Freddie Rahmer, Ryan Smith, and Trey Starks. After a brief delay for a passing rain shower, the B-Main winner was Frankie Herr.
Feature Results
410 Sprint Cars- 1. Lance Dewease, 2. Freddie Rahmer, 3. Rico Abreu, 4. Ryan Smith, 5. Danny Dietrich, 6. Mike Wagner, 7. T.J. Stutts, 8. Lucas Wolfe, 9. Dale Blaney, 10. Trey Starks, 11. Kyle Larson, 12. Greg Hodnett, 13. Alan Krimes, 14. Brock Zearfoss, 15. Dave Blaney, 16. Brandon Rahmer, 17. Kasey Kahne, 18. Aaron Ott, 19. James McFadden, 20. Justin Barger, 21. Robbie Kendall, 22. Anthony Macri, 23. Frankie Herr, 24. Sammy Walsh