Photo by: Frank Buhrman
Melair takes Selinsgrove; Hagerstown next
06-14-24
By: Frank Buhrman
Starting on the pole certainly has its advantages, but when your competitors are bearing down on you and you catch up with the back of the field and need to lap cars while holding your lead, there are no guarantees.
On Thursday night at Selinsgrove Speedway, Mike Melair had the starting position advantage to take the initial lead, but keeping it in heavy traffic was the key to the Warrington racer’s third career victory in the River Valley Builders PA Sprint Series 20-lapper. It was his first win since last August, when he also tamed the sweeping Selinsgrove half mile.
Melair and a large number of other teams will move quickly to Hagerstown Speedway for Saturday’s Father’s Day Weekend program there, co-sanctioned by the Virginia Sprint Series and Laurel Highlands Sprint Series, ensuring a large turnout of cars.
Driving the College Hunks Moving & Hauling #36, Melair drew the pole starting position but still had to hold off fellow front-row starter Kruz Kepner of nearby Kreamer for the early lead. The early charge to the front came from Austin Reed of Etters, who went from seventh starting position into third in five laps. Four laps later, the front-runners entered traffic, and Melair began losing the nice lead he had built.
Kepner sought to be the opportunist, but Melair handled the traffic skillfully and denied his challenger any passing opportunities.
In the meantime, fourth-starting Timmy Bittner of Brush Creek had re-taken third place from Reed, and in the final laps he showed signs of possibly being able to take second and go for the top spot. Kepner was able to hold Bittner off, though, but their battle allowed Melair to complete the race without a last-lap challenge, and he posted a 0.672-second over Kepner, with Bittner taking third.
Ken Duke Jr. of Selinsgrove, who was in the top-five mix throughout, came home fourth, with Reed taking fifth.
Completing the top ten were “Nitro” Nick Sweigart of Myerstown, Owen Dimm of Mifflintown (who moved up six positions), Kenny Heffner of Watsontown, last Saturday’s Selinsgrove winner Dustin Young of Danville, and Josh Spicer of Julian.
The race went nonstop, finishing less than a second shy of exactly seven minutes.
The W.C. Eshenaur & Son Hard Charger Award went to Zach Rhodes of McVeytown, who almost earned the Hard-Luck Award instead. Rhodes’ #31Z experienced mechanical problems that largely kept him out of both hot laps and his heat race and relegated him to 26th starting position, but the Cale Reigle-led crew fixed the problem before the feature, and Rhodes moved forward smartly to a 14th-place finish, a charge of a dozen positions.
Heat races for the 26-car field went to Dustin Young, Sweigart, and Duke. The night’s only caution flag flew at the beginning of the third heat when Colton Hoover went around in the first turn, but he was able to restart and recover for a nice fifth-place finish.
Duke’s fourth-place finish broke his tie with Sweigart for the early points lead and gave him a two-point margin at the top. Early points are less important in the IMCA/RaceSaver/PASS system, though, because final standings count only a driver’s 20 best finishes, and the numbers begin to mean more after that 20th race.
Pit gates for Hagerstown on Saturday will open at 4:30 p.m. and grandstands at 5:00, with hot laps scheduled to get underway at 7:00. Adult general admission is $20 and pit admission is $35.
PASS is dedicated to the heritage of RaceSaver with stable and enforceable rules, consistent rules application and fair purse distribution paying 24th place one half of first place. Learn about our policy and how to support the series at pasprintseries.com and the heritage of RaceSaver at frenchgrimes.com. We’re on social media at Facebook and X.
Results from Selinsgrove Speedway, Sunday, June 2
HEAT 1 – 1. 25-Dustin Young; 2. 97-Kenny Heffner; 3. 19-Kruz Kepner; 4. 2-Erin Statler; 5. 17-Owen Dimm; 6. 7-Drew Young; 7. 28R-Jason Roush; 8. 51-Shelby Kelly; 9. 87-Kyle Knopp.
HEAT 2 – 1. 89-Nick Sweigart; 2. 71-Josh Spicer; 3. 14-Logan Spahr; 4. 01-Timmy Bittner; 5. 46-Mike Alleman; 6. 14M-Colton Moyer; 7. 06K-Eric Knopp; 8. 19K-Chris Kreider. DNS – 31Z-Zach Rhodes.
HEAT 3 – 1. 67-Ken Duke Jr.; 2. 36-Mike Melair; 3. 34-Austin Reed; 4. 1M-Paul Moyer; 5. 107-Colton Hoover; 6. 19A-Alan Rhodes; 7. 21-Andrew Boyer; 8. 53W-Jimmy White.
FEATURE – 1. 36-Mike Melair; 2. 19-Kruz Kepner; 3. 01-Timmy Bittner; 4. 67-Ken Duke Jr.; 5. 34-Austin Reed; 6. 89-Nick Sweigart; 7. 17-Owen Dimm; 8. 97-Kenny Heffner; 9. 25-Dustin Young; 10. 71-Josh Spicer; 11. 46-Mike Alleman; 12. 14-Logan Spahr; 13. 1M-Paul Moyer; 14. 31Z-Zach Rhodes; 15. 7-Drew Young; 16. 21-Andrew Boyer; 17. 2-Erin Statler; 18. 19A-Alan Rhodes; 19. 28R-Jason Roush; 20. 14-Colton Moyer; 21. 87-Kyle Knopp; 22. 51-Shelby Kelly; 23. 107-Colton Hoover (DNF); 24. 53W-Jimmy White (DNF); 25. 06K-Eric Knopp (DNF); 26. 19K-Chris Kreider (DNF).