YORK HAVEN, Pa.: It should come as no surprise that Frankie Herr is starting to find a little speed toward the end of the season at BAPS Motor Speedway.
The prestigious Gary Wolford Super Sportsman 100 is two weeks away, and Herr’s made a career at being the driver to beat. The Carlisle, Pa., driver has won it eight times — tops of any driver — at three different tracks and is looking to add to that total.
Herr took a step in that direction Saturday night at the York Haven facility. Not only did he shake off some recent struggles, he charged from ninth to his 19th career BAPS Motor Speedway victory in the 25-lap Super Sportsman main event.
“You try to do some stuff, and sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t,” Herr said. “We’ve had some sleepless Saturday nights back at the shop, and I want to thank Donny [Rexrode] and the whole team, especially Bill. He gives me everything I need to get this up front.
“Woodring Chassis, Troy Godfrey Engines, Wings Unlimited up top … I just have to thank everybody. It’s the whole race team. We needed to get the puzzle back together, and we are headed in the right direction.”
Jay Fannasy got the jump on pole-sitter Scott Grace at the start and took the early lead. Herr surged to the front and put himself in position to challenge for the lead after a Lap 6-caution for Paul Miller, who came to a stop on the racetrack.
The second and final caution period of the race occurred on the restart for an incident involving Rich Eichelberger and Allan Hollman. Dave Conrad also stopped.
It was all Fannsy on the restart. Meanwhile, Herr ran in the top four and was starting to gain on the leader as the laps clicked by on the scoreboard.
“It was dry-slick, and you’ve got to get the tires underneath you,” Herr said. “The beginning, we were biding our time, and I saw we were making headway. The yellow helped us, and we were able to get in the top two rows for the restart. I guess the rest was history.”
But, it certainly wasn’t easy. Not with Fannasy having a clear track and blasting around the cushion in all four corners of the speedway.
Herr kept chipping away at Fannasy’s lead. By the time Lap 20 was scored, the advantage was down to a couple of car-lengths. Herr closed the gap coming out of Turn 2 and made the pass for the lead going through the third and fourth corner on Lap 21.
“I figured if I was going to drive by him, I needed to get a run off two on the bottom,” Herr said. “I think I was, definitely, better up here [Turn 4].
“It was pretty hard and slick in the middle, and I had to float it close to the top a little bit and get a hold pretty good. He was running the top pretty far, which is kind of a long way around.”
Continued Herr, “It was a good racetrack, the same for everybody. Me and Donny had some sleepless Saturday nights of late putting our heads together and trying our hardest to get back out here.”
Fannasy settled for second, with 14th-place starter Russ Mitten finishing third. Scott Dellinger was forth, followed by Chase Gutshall, who started 16th. Dave Hollar, Scott Grace, and Fannasy were heat winners for the 24-car field.
In the Creekside Auto Sales 358 Late Model portion of the program, Bobby Beard wired the 16-car field for the victory.
Beard started on the outside pole and beat Travis Mease into the first and second corner. From there, he went unchallenged to take the win over Mease, Sean Merkel, Alan Sagi, and Danny Snyder.
Will Walls stalked early leader Bud Witmer before taking the lead and sprinting away to the win in the Morgan Paving/Aqua Fun Pools Street Stock main event.
Witmer started on the pole and won the dash into Turn 1. Walls followed and made his move on Lap 2, taking the lead and the eventual win.
Chad Smith got by Witmer for third. Eric Tripp and Russ Shoop completed the top five. Brian Walls and Jason Townsend were heat winners for the 19-car field.
The PASS/IMCA Sprint Series were also on the program, and Devin Adams took the win. He led all 20 laps and beat Christian Rumsey to the stripe.
Dom Melair, Jake Frye, and Larry McVay completed the top five in the 18-car field. Keith Prutzman and Jay Krout won heat races for the 305 Sprint Car division.
BAPS Super Sportsman
Feature (25 Laps) – 1. 70D-Frankie Herr, [9]; 2. 360-Jay Fannasy, [2]; 3. 77-Russ Mitten, [14]; 4. 30-Scott Dellinger, [10]; 5. 1A-Chase Gutshall, [16]; 6. 3B-Mike Enders, [5]; 7. 14-Nate Young, [3]; 8. 318-Steve Fannasy, [4]; 9. 83-Bruce Buckwalter Jr., [6]; 10. 71K-Tyler Wolford, [18]; 11. 2M-Matt Ondek, [19]; 12. 8-Rich Eichelberger, [17]; 13. 35-John Edkin, [7]; 14. 29-Adam Wray, [13]; 15. 34-Chuck Landis, [21]; 16. 22-Daniel John, [24]; 17. 77W-Tom Wyckoff, [11]; 18. 38-Allan Hallman, [23]; 19. (DNF) 75-Kenny Edkin, [20]; 20. (DNF) 10H-Dave Hollar, [12]; 21. (DNF) 18-Dave Conrad, [22]; 22. (DNF) 58-Paul Miller, [8]; 23. (DNF) 99G-Scott Grace, [1]; 24. (DNF) 5D-Luke Deatrick, [15].
Lap Leaders – Jay Fannasy (1-20), Frankie Herr (21-25)
Super Sportsman Heat 1 Finish (10 Laps/All Qualify) – 1. 10H-Dave Hollar, [3]; 2. 83-Bruce Buckwalter Jr., [6]; 3. 30-Scott Dellinger, [8]; 4. 14-Nate Young, [4]; 5. 29-Adam Wray, [2]; 6. 1A-Chase Gutshall, [7]; 7. 2M-Matt Ondek, [5]; 8. 34-Chuck Landis, [1].
Super Sportsman Heat 2 Finish (10 Laps/All Qualify) – 1. 99G-Scott Grace, [1]; 2. 58-Paul Miller, [7]; 3. 77W-Tom Wyckoff, [2]; 4. 318-Steve Fannasy, [5]; 5. 77-Russ Mitten, [6]; 6. 8-Rich Eichelberger, [4]; 7. 75-Kenny Edkin, [8]; (DNS) 22-Daniel John.
Super Sportsman Heat 3 Finish (10 Laps/All Qualify) – 1. 360-Jay Fannasy, [2]; 2. 70D-Frankie Herr, [7]; 3. 35-John Edkin, [6]; 4. 3B-Mike Enders, [5]; 5. 5D-Luke Deatrick, [4]; 6. 71K-Tyler Wolford, [3]; 7. (DNF) 18-Dave Conrad, [1]; 8. (DNF) 38-Allan Hallman, [8].
CREEKSIDE AUTO SALES LATE MODELS
Feature (20 Laps) – 1. 12BB-Bobby Beard, [2]; 2. 116-Travis Mease, [1]; 3. 118-Sean Merkel, [5]; 4. NINE-Alan Sagi, [3]; 5. 44-Danny Snyder, [6]; 6. 13X-Ben Whitaker, [7]; 7. 72-Wayne Pfeil, [4]; 8. 711-Jennifer Hartz, [16]; 9. 6-Corry Gingerich, [11]; 10. (DNF) 19-Dan Hoffman, [14]; 11. (DNF) 5L-Jon Lee, [12]; 12. (DNF) 12-Randy Stoudt, [15]; 13. (DNF) NINEX-Ross Leinbach, [13]; 14. (DNF) 85-Chad Earnst, [9]; 15. (DNF) 5-Charles Potts, [10]; 16. (DNF) 22-Chase Billet, [8].
Lap Leaders – Bobby Beard (1-20)
Late Model Heat 1 Finish (8 Laps/All Qualify) – 1. 22-Chase Billet, [5]; 2. 44-Danny Snyder, [2]; 3. 72-Wayne Pfeil, [7]; 4. 12BB-Bobby Beard, [8]; 5. 85-Chad Earnst, [4]; 6. 6-Corry Gingerich, [1]; 7. NINEX-Ross Leinbach, [3]; 8. (DNF) 12-Randy Stoudt, [6].
Late Model Heat 2 Finish (8 Laps/All Qualify) – 1. 13X-Ben Whitaker, [3]; 2. 118-Sean Merkel, [4]; 3. NINE-Alan Sagi, [7]; 4. 116-Travis Mease, [2]; 5. 5-Charles Potts, [6]; 6. 5L-Jon Lee, [5]; 7. 19-Dan Hoffman, [1]; 8. (DNF) 711-Jennifer Hartz, [8].
PASS/IMCA 305 SPRINT CARS
Feature (20 Laps) – 1. 99-Devin Adams, [2]; 2. 1R-Christian Rumsey, [3]; 3. 55-Domenic Melair, [7]; 4. 56-Jake Frye, [1]; 5. 83L-Larry McVey, [10]; 6. 20-Doug Dodson, [9]; 7. 83-Billy Ney, [8]; 8. 5-John Walp, [14]; 9. 11Z-Zachary Newlin, [13]; 10. 8-Nick Sweigart, [11]; 11. 50-Jay Krout, [6]; 12. 3D-David Grube II, [5]; 13. 2-Erin Statler, [12]; 14. 28-Keith Prutzman, [4]; 15. 11-Dylan Smith, [18]; 16. 44K-Kirsten Hess, [16]; 17. 69-Landon Price, [17]; 18. (DNF) 51-Dave Graber, [15].
Lap Leaders – Devin Adams (1-20)
305 Sprint Car Heat 1 Finish (8 Laps/All Qualify) – 1. 28-Keith Prutzman, [5]; 2. 56-Jake Frye, [4]; 3. 83-Billy Ney, [2]; 4. 1R-Christian Rumsey, [8]; 5. 20-Doug Dodson, [6]; 6. 8-Nick Sweigart, [9]; 7. 11Z-Zachary Newlin, [1]; 8. 51-Dave Graber, [7]; 9. 69-Landon Price, [3].
305 Sprint Car Heat 2 Finish (8 Laps/All Qualify) – 1. 50-Jay Krout, [1]; 2. 99-Devin Adams, [2]; 3. 3D-David Grube II, [4]; 4. 55-Domenic Melair, [3]; 5. 83L-Larry McVey, [5]; 6. 2-Erin Statler, [6]; 7. 5-John Walp, [7]; 8. 11-Dylan Smith, [9]; 9. 44K-Kirsten Hess, [8].
MORGAN PAVING/AQUAFUN POOLS STREET STOCKS
Feature (20 Laps) – 1. 2W-Will Walls, [2]; 2. 99-Chad Smith, [6]; 3. 41W-Bud Witmer, [1]; 4. 43T-Eric Tripp, [16]; 5. 72M-Russ Shoop, [14]; 6. 10C-Kevin Heckman, [11]; 7. 64W-Stan Wanner, [5]; 8. 15-Brian Boughter, [18]; 9. 26-Shawn Liddick, [15]; 10. 1B-Gregg Foster, [17]; 11. (DNF) 75-Marshall McMullen, [7]; 12. (DNF) 64-Brandon Wanner, [13]; 13. (DNF) 80D-Greg Diehl, [9]; 14. (DNF) FOUR-Tommy Slanker, [10]; 15. (DNF) 72-Jason Townsend, [3]; 16. (DNF) 7P-Jim Palm, [12]; 17. (DNF) 52-Brian Walls, [4]; 18. (DNF) 43-Jake Jones, [8]; 19. (DNF) M1-Mike Potts, [19].
Lap Leaders – Bud Witmer (1), Will Walls (2-20)
Street Stock Heat 1 Finish (8 Laps/All Qualify) – 1. 52-Brian Walls, [6]; 2. 2W-Will Walls, [3]; 3. 64W-Stan Wanner, [1]; 4. 75-Marshall McMullen, [4]; 5. 80D-Greg Diehl, [9]; 6. 10C-Kevin Heckman, [10]; 7. 64-Brandon Wanner, [8]; 8. 26-Shawn Liddick, [7]; 9. (DNF) 1B-Gregg Foster, [5]; (DNS) M1-Mike Potts.
Street Stock Heat 2 Finish (8 Laps/All Qualify) – 1. 72-Jason Townsend, [6]; 2. 41W-Bud Witmer, [5]; 3. 99-Chad Smith, [8]; 4. 43-Jake Jones, [3]; 5. FOUR-Tommy Slanker, [4]; 6. 7P-Jim Palm, [1]; 7. 72M-Russ Shoop, [7]; 8. 43T-Eric Tripp, [9]; 9. (DNF) 15-Brian Boughter, [2].
- administrator on Oct 28, 2019
- Article Date: 8/31/2019 by BAPS Motor Speedway