Hodnett Puts Stop to Smith's URC Win Streak
Greg Hodnett and the Mike Heffner owned #27 360 sprint car found the winning combination on Friday night at the Williams Grove Speedway and put a stop to Mark Smith's recent dominance of the United Racing Club.
Friday night's visit to the Williams Grove Speedway brought 23 United Racing Club sprint cars into the pit area. The 3 URC heat races were won by Greg Hodnett, Burlington NJ's Robbie Stillwaggon in the Quality Auto Body #89 and Ocean View DE's Curt Michael in the Bill Gallagher owned Valley Forge Inc, GEI Enterprises, K&N Filters #5g.
After heat #1 winner Greg Hodnett pulled the #6 invert pill, the stage was set with the front row comprised of the two drivers with the most 2016 URC wins, Mark Smith and Davie Franek who both have 3 URC wins on the year.
At the drop of the green flag the Mach 1 Chassis 1m of Mark Smith jumped out to the early lead until a lap 2 caution for the 22 B&G Auto Body of Troy Betts bunched up the field again. Smith again jumped out to the lead with the 27 of Hodnett now running in the 2nd position. A lap 3 caution for a slowing #67 of 15 yr old URC rookie Justin Whittall due to a broken drive shaft again brought the field together for another double file restart. This time Hodnett's #27 took command of the race until a lap 7 caution due to two separate incidents of 08 Jason Clauss slowed on the front stretch and the 706 of Rookie Mark Sasso spinning in turns 1-2.
Again Hodnett jumped out to the lead and on lap 10, the 5g of Curt Michael (starting 4th), the 63 of Josh Weller (starting 11th) and the 89 of Robbie Stillwaggon (starting 5th) were all on the move. The rest of the race went caution free with Hodnett picking up a 5.9 second victory. Rounding out the top 5 were Mark Smith, Curt Michael, Robbie Stillwaggon, and Josh Weller. Current URC points leader Davie Franek finished in the 6th position just outside the top 5, but Michael and Stillwaggon gained valuable points in search of the 2016 URC Championship.
The United Racing Club will again head north to the Selinsgrove Speedway for Saturday Night June 4th's event. Last week Mark Smith's luck landed him in victory lane when leader Eric Tomecek crashed into the turn 4 wall during the 25 lap feature event. Can Tomecek and the 1W finish what they started just 1 week ago and park the 1W in victory lane? Track gates open at 5 and racing at 7pm.
URC FEATURE: 1) #27 GREG HODNETT 2) #M1 MARK SMITH 3) #5G CURT MICHAEL 4) #89 ROBBIE STILLWAGGON 5) #63 JOSH WELLER 6) #28F DAVIE FRANEK 7) #77 DEREK LOCKE 8) #8C BRIAN CARBER 9) #1W ERIC TOMECEK 10) #29 JASON SHULTZ 11) #2W GLENDON FORSYTHE 12) #4 JIMMY STITZEL 13) #23 CHRIS ARNOLD 14) #19 TROY WAGAMAN 15) #10K ROB DIETRICK 16) #47 ADAM CARBERRY 17) #706 MARK SASSO 18) #08 JASON CLAUSS 19) #67W JUSTIN WHITTALL 20) #22 TROY BETTS 21) #21 ED AIKIN
DNS: #21C CODY JOURDAN, #56 RANDY WEST
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Tim Moran
www.wrtspeedwerx.com
WRT Speedwerx Photos
Official Photographer of United Racing Club
- Robbie Stillwaggon on Jun 03, 2016
- Article Date: 6/3/2016 by Tim Moran