SELINSGROVE, Pa. - April 1, 2006 Defending champion and 358 sprint car opening day winner Blane Heimbach of Selinsgrove outperformed a stellar field of 46 entries for his victory in the 25-lap sprint car main event Saturday night at Selinsgrove Speedway.
Heimbach was wheeling the Creasy Signs/Goff Racing No. 12 for his 12th career victory at the track.
Chris Wilkinson of Dornsife held off defending champion Donnie Schick of Middleburg for the 25-lap late model season opener.
Gary Beward of Thompsontown won his third straight 15-lap pro stock race of the season at the track, while Gary Kerstetter of McClure won the first 12-lap roadrunner race of the year.
Selinsgrove Speedway will present a four division show of 358 sprints, late models, pro stocks and roadrunners at 6 p.m. Saturday, April 8.
Second-place starter Joey Borich, the 1996 410 sprint car champion, powered into the lead at the start of the sprint car feature. Borich was chased by polesitter Blane Heimbach, with fourth-place starter Kyle Purks in third.
The first caution flag unfurled on lap 12 when Babe Mader stopped on the racetrack. When the race resumed, Borich did everything in his power to defend his lead from the hard-charging Heimbach.
On the 16th circuit, Heimbach made the winning pass using the inside lane in turn two. Once in front of the pack, Heimbach began to stretch his lead, while Borich, Purks, 10th-place starter Pat Cannon and sixth-place starter Kevin Nagy dueled for positions in the top five.
The final caution flag waved on lap 24 when Adrian Shaffer's No. 4-B went up in smoke on the backstretch. The one-lap chase to the checkered flag saw Heimbach cruise to the win, while Purks drove by Borich for second. Borich, Cannon and Nagy completed the top five.
Polesitter Dustin Hoffman led the first two laps of the late model feature before spinning his No. 7 in turns three and four. At this point, fourth-place starter Jeff Rine inherited the lead, with sixth-place starter Tony Adams and eighth-place starter Chris Wilkinson behind him.
On the third circuit, Adams lost control in turn three while dueling with Rine for the lead. Wilkinson took over second, then took the lead when Rine withdrew from the race with mechanical problems on lap five.
Defending champion and seventh-place starter Donnie Schick moved into second and tormented Wilkinson for the lead and the win. On several occasions, Schick and Wilkinson raced side-by-side around the oval. At the checkered flag, Wilkinson was victorious by the slimmest of margins
over Schick, Jeff Smith, Brian Cochran and Chris Shuey.
Polesitter Bill Conrad led the first three laps of the pro stock feature. On lap four, third-place starter AJ Stroup powered into the lead, with eighth-place starter Peanut Heintzelman in close pursuit.
At the midway point of the event, a four-car battle unfolded for the lead between Stroup, Heintzelman, seventh-place starter Troy Miller and 10th-place starter Gary Beward.
On lap 11, Beward stormed to the front of the field with a pass by Stroup in turn two. Beward went on to post his third win of the season over Stroup, Miller, Heintzelman and Jim Somers.
Second-place starter Doug Minium drove into the lead at the start of the roadrunner main event. Eighth-place starter Keith Bissinger passed Minium for the lead in turns one and two on the sixth circuit.
Defending champion and fourth-place starter Brad Mitch reeled in Bissinger the second half of the event. On lap 10, Bissinger and Mitch collided on the backstretch, allowing fifth-place starter Gary
Kerstetter to take the lead.
At the finish, Kerstetter was victorious over Matt Drum, Anthony Munn, Mark Spencer and Tim Campbell.
SELINSGROVE SPEEDWAY SUMMARY - 1 April 2006
358 Sprint Cars - 46 Entries
25-Lap A-Main: 1) 12 Blane Heimbach $1,200 2) 45 Kyle Purks 3) 7 Joey
Borich 4) 3 Pat Cannon 5) 45N Kevin Nagy 6) 6 Colby Womer 7) 3K Len
Krautheim 8) 4R Kevin Nouse 9) 63 Mike Walter 10) 24 Brian Buckwalter
11) 5C Dan Corroza 12) 12G Bryan Golden 13) 39 Cory Haas 14) 81 Bob
Beidleman 15) 4B Adrian Shaffer 16) L70 Larry Kelleher 17) 2 Jason
Shultz 18) 28 Keith Prutzman 19) 31 Tim Higgins 20) 28F Davey Franek 21)
1M Babe Mader 22) 10 Jeff Furlong 23) 1A Cale Reigle 24) 1J Jake
Raudabaugh
Heat Winners: Kevin Nouse, Pat Cannon, Kevin Nagy, Colby Womer, Kyle
Purks
B-Main: Kyle Bachman (Did not start A-Main due to mechanical problems)
C-Main: Jamie Schwartz
Late Models - 21 Entries
25-Lap A-Main: 1) 64 Chris Wilkinson $1,200 2) 6 Donnie Schick 3) 32
Jeff Smith 4) 16 Brian Cochran 5) 21 Chris Shuey 6) 4S Dave Shulski 7) 5
Jeremy Ohl 8) 12S Robbie Smith 9) 92 Randall Paxton 10) 90 Kyle Rhoads
11) 1 Brett Schadel 12) 8H Glen Heddings 13) 8 Jimmy Adams 14) 8T Troy
Miller 15) 45 Eric Hons 16) 14 Todd Hestor 17) 7 Dustin Hoffman 18) 2J
Jeff Rine 19) 88 Tony Adams 20) 61T Ken Trevitz 21) 17 Dave Brouse, Sr.
Heat Winners: Chris Shuey, Dustin Hoffman
Pro Stocks - 23 Entries
15-Lap A-Main: 1) 19 Gary Beward 2) 26 AJ Stroup 3) 115 Troy Miller 4)
99H Peanut Heintzelman 5) 23 Jim Somers 6) 7 Meade Hahn 7) 54 Sammy
Troup 8) 14 Bill Conrad 9) 13 Chris Badger 10) 8 Brad Trump 11) 14B Dave
Brouse, Jr. 12) 5 Neil Langtry 13) 70 Bill Glass 14) 711 Jim Jurasich
15) 81 Todd Kiger 16) 17 Brian Bowersox 17) 18 Roger Stoneroad 18) 28
Jason Smith 19) 6 Dan Jensen 20) 6F Frank Reiser 21) 7X Jeff Rayson 22)
8C Jace Cresswell 23) 19H Larry Hare
Heat Winners: AJ Stroup, Troy Miller
Roadrunners - 19 Entries
12-Lap A-Main: 1) 05 Gary Kerstetter 2) 48 Matt Drum 3) 67 Anthony Munn
4) 57 Mark Spencer 5) 69 Tim Mitch 6) 1 Kyle Miller 7) 27 Wayne Weist 8)
10 Tim Mitch 9) 41 Dennis Conrad 10) 11B Keith Bissinger 11) 17 Ray
Rothfuss 12) 010 Matt Keister 13) 22 Zack Lingle 14) 31 Brandon Shultz
15) 32 Matt Dutter 16) 44 Jim Collier Sr. 17) 10M Brad Mitch 18) 12 Doug
Minium 19) 9 Dave Kamp
Heat Winners: Keith Bissinger, Matt Keister
