By Brad Brickel
Thu, May 13, 2010
Forestville, PA - As part of Yetter Law Offices Night, Craig Whitmoyer of Hamburg PA won his first 20-lap Sportsman feature of the year this past Friday, May 7th at Big Diamond Raceway in Minersville, PA. The victory was the 24th sportsman modified feature victory for this multi-time Big Diamond Raceway track champion.
Brad Force led the opening four circuits until third year racer Mike Lisowski Jr. took command on lap five. While the young second generation racer remained up front, eyes were focusing on TeamRAACE driver Craig Whitmoyer, who began the feature event in thirteenth position. Whitmoyer smoothly worked his way to the top five throughout the early going.
Like Rambo on a secret mission, Whitmoyer strategically worked through the front five one by one. Whitmoyer, driving his #99 TeamRAACE Bicknell chassis sportsman modified, advanced into second on lap 14 and quickly gained the lead on a lap 16 restart. Once in front, Whitmoyer was never challenged and became the fifth different winner of the season in the heavily contested sportsman modified division at Big Diamond Raceway. It was Craig's 24th career Sportsman feature win, which puts him on top of the all-time winner's list.
Mike Lisowski scored his highest finish of the year holding on for second place, while popular area racer Doug Hendricks ended up in third. After a week away, Mike Mammana returned for a fourth place finish. Brad Force finished a strong night in fifth.
Although laps 5 through 13 were completed without a caution flag, lap 14 proved to be the most destructive lap in the race. A hard crash involving previous week's winner Andy Fayash Jr., Kevin Smith, Steven Hughes, and Billy Moyer Jr. brought out the red flag. Moyer's car was actually removed from the speedway on the crane. No injuries took place in the incident.
The RAACE Foundations Family of Drivers member Kyle Weiss made a surprise appearance at Big Diamond Raceway in the TeamRAACE #xx5 owned by fellow TeamRAACE driver Darryl Dissinger. Kyle returning from minor back surgery that had him sidelined for the early part of the season started 9th in his heat race, finishing 7th and qualifying for the feature. In the feature he started 21st and had some car troubles ending his night early in 22nd spot.
Heat winners in the 29 car field were: Tom Brennan, Kevin Beach, and Mike Lisowski Jr. Craig was excited about his victory and very happy about being able to take The RAACE Foundations awareness message to victory lane. This was probably the best win of my career I believe very strongly in what RAACE is trying to do and I hope that more people join TeamRAACE and donate to this very worthwhile cause.
Action resumes on Friday May 14 at Big Diamond Raceway with a three division show of 358 Modifieds, Sportsman, and Roadrunners, and three enduro races on Sunday May 16.
BIG DIAMOND RACEWAY - COMPLETE RESULTS - FRIDAY MAY 7, 2010
358 MODIFIED FEATURE (25-LAPS): 1) 39-Danny Nicholas, 2) CR7-Colt Harris, 3) T102-Billy Pauch Jr., 4) 14M-Doug Manmiller, 5) 357-Ryan Godown, 6) 1c-Craig Von Dohren, 7) 88D-Meme DeSantis, 8) 74W-John Willman, 9) 44-Gary Hager, 10) 4-Duane Howard, 11) 5JP-Richie Pratt Jr., 12) 71-David Van Horn Jr., 13) 33-Ray Swinehart, 14) J3-Dale Hartz, 15) 42-Kyle Follweiler, 16) 5-Ricky Yetter, 17) 37x-Tommy Scheetz III, 18) R1-Rick Laubach, 19) 112-Eric Kocher, 20) 41-Jeff Strunk, 21) 27-Troy Wink, 22) 107-Danny Hieber, 23) 1L-Billy Lowden Jr., 24) 3-Mike Nicholas, 25) 14D-AJ DeSantis, 26) 47-Gary Wagner Jr. DNQ: 44B-Jim Bobbitt, 78-Neil Huber, 24-Scott Miller, 3A-Kevin Albert Jr.
SPORTSMAN FEATURE (20-LAPS): 1) 99-Craig Whitmoyer, 2) 15-Mike Lisowski Jr., 3) 8H-Doug Hendricks, 4) 71-Mike Mammana, 5) 8-Brad Force, 6) 93-Ryan Moyer, 7) T102-Tim Fitzpatrick, 8) 17x-Kevin Beach, 9) 18-Michael Weinert, 10) 19-Brad Brightbill, 11) 45x-Andy Fayash Jr., 12) 24H-Justin Andrews, 13) 88D-Nick DeSantis, 14) 17D-Mike Loney, 15) 14J-Joey Funk III, 16) 343-Jeremy Hertzog, 17) 29-Sammy Piazza, 18) 26-Tom Brennan, 19) 00-John Kovatch IV, 20) 7-Kevin Smith, 21) 17-Billy Moyer Jr., 22) xx5-Kyle Weiss, 23) 04-Steven Hughes, 24) 31-Harry Landis, 25) 32-Kevin Reese, 26) 5-Jordan Dreher. DNQ: 19U-Jared Umbenhauer, 72-Ray Woodall Jr., 83-Josh Hertzog.
WOODEN KEG TAVERN ROADRUNNER FEATURE (20-LAPS): 1) 454-Mike Radocha, 2) 29B-Ricky Bender, 3) 450-Kevin Olenick, 4) 23-Ed Kuperavage, 5) 66K-Marc Berzowski, 6) 22G-Steve Gromis, 7) 88-Toby Chase, 8) 61S-Christian Donati, 9) 4-Nate Klinger, 10) 45-Ryan Olenick, 11) 102-TJ Fitzpatrick, 12) 550-Joe Kavanaugh, 13) CR7-Jordan Quinn, 14) K9-Kirby Schlappich, 15) 6-Jim Kost, 16) 95K-Kody Sites, 17) 11x-Joey Hendricks, 18) 98K-Chip
