ABBOTTSTOWN, PA , 8/7/10 - There were only two caution flags in Saturday's World Energy Systems World Championship for 358 Sprint Cars. But the second and final one had everything to do with the outcome of the race. And in the end, it was Hallam's Adrian Shaffer taking advantage of Dale Hammaker's horrible luck and pulling into victory lane to accept the $5,500 top prize. The night didn't start well for Shaffer, who missed his turn in time trials and was forced to start seventh in his qualifying event. He advanced to a qualifying spot in his heat, and by virtue of his fastest time in his heat group, was one of the ten drivers to redraw for starting spots at the front of the World Championship field. Shaffer drew a #5 pill for the start, and actually went backwards in the early going, scored sixth as late as lap 13. He moved back into the top
five by passing Brad McClelland on lap 14.
And that's about the time that things started getting crazy. Lincoln points leader and polesitter Dale Hammaker dominated the early stages of the race until hitting lapped traffic at the same time Shaffer was moving into fifth. Fourth-starting Jeff Rohrbaugh, driving Mike Bittinger's #12, moved past front row starter Nate Snyder on lap five and began closing on Hammaker when the leader reached the lapped traffic. Hammaker's 3.44-second lead on lap nine dwindled to .53 seconds on lap 15. For the next five laps, Hammaker and Rohrbaugh raced side-by-side behind lapped traffic.
That's when disaster struck for Hammaker, whose steering wheel fell off. The veteran driver known as "the Godfather" of the 358 sprints controlled his spin on the backstretch, but handed the lead to Rohrbaugh. It was the second time in two years (including last year at Trail-Way) that Hammaker lost a steering wheel while leading. Hammaker put the steering wheel back on the car and rejoined the field. We was 20th at the finish. But Rohrbaugh's luck wasn't much better. Although was the new leader, he had a right rear tire going flat, and could only keep the leadfor two laps.
Shaffer dove under Rohrbaugh in the first and second turns of lap 22 and took off like he was shot out of a cannon to grab the race lead. Over the final laps, Shaffer continued to pull away and took the checkered by a huge 5.36-seconds over Selinsgrove invader Nate Snyder. "It's a shame what happened to Dale, and then Rohrbaugh was going to check out," said a jubilant Shaffer upon exiting the Jeff Boll and Mike Miller #91 sprinter, "And then all of sudden it looked like he had a right rear flat. I said to myself 'McClelland is pointing...Nate's pointing...it's like, we better get rolling here."
"As soon as we took the green (lap 20), Brad was making his move, and I put the pressure on Nate as hard as I could, because it was time to go," added Shaffer, "I knew Jeff was going to run it for all it was worth and I needed to get by him before I got into trouble and somebody else got around." Shaffer joked that reason he missed his time trial order was because the team was playing bingo in the transporter. McClelland, who raced back and forth with Aaron Ott over the five laps, reclaimed third on lap 27 and won the Trail-Way/Lincoln "Shootout" and the $500 bonus that went with it. Ott settled for fourth with Scott Geesey completing the top five. Sixth through tenth were Chad Criswell, 22nd-starting Logan Schuchart (who picked up $400 in hard charger bonuses from Livingston's Lawn Care and the Gear Shop in Baltimore, MD), Ted Thomas, Jr., John Barnett, and Billy Johns. Heats for the "358" Sprints were won by Glenndon Forsythe, Dale Hammaker, Barnett, Rohrbaugh, and McClelland. Tim Berkheimer won the C-Main and Mike Bittinger won the B-Main in a new 12-lap track record time of 3:25.89. Billy Dietrich set a new one lap track record for the 358 Sprints in time trials against the 51-car field with a one-lap time of 14.283-seconds (94.518 MPH) The old record, 14.309-seconds was set by his father Dan Dietrich on 9/6/2003.
RACE RESULTS
Saturday, August 7, 2010
LINCOLN SPEEDWAY
Abbottstown, PA
WORLD ENERGY SYSTEMS WORLD 358 SPRINT CHAMPIONSHIP
Feature (30 Laps) - 1. 91-Adrian Shaffer ($5,500); 2. 56-Nate Snyder; 3. 6-Brad McClelland; 4. 52-Aaron Ott; 5. 18-Scott Geesey; 6. 84C-Chad Criswell; 7. 1S-Logan Schuchart; 8. 94-Ted Thomas Jr.; 9. 15B-John Barnett; 10. 2J-Billy Johns; 11. 5T-Glenndon Forsythe; 12. 12-Jeff Rohrbaugh; 13. 39-Cory Haas; 14. 35-Steve Owings; 15. 1*-Tim Wagaman; 16. 66H-Doug
Hammaker; 17. B52-Brook Weibley; 18. 00-Mike Bittinger; 19. 99M-Kyle Moody;
20. 66-Dale Hammaker; 21. 7C-Chad Trout (DNF); 22. 34-Austin Reed (DNF); 23.
88-Billy Dietrich (DNF); 24. 1-Jason Schultz (DNF); 25. 08-Jason Clauss
(DNF). No Time
Lap Leaders - Dale Hammaker (1-19), Jeff Rohrbaugh (20-21), Adrian Shaffer
(22-30)
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