9.2.18 Patriot Sprint Tour Results

By Paul Harkenrider (Selinsgrove, PA) | Mark Smith backed up his win at Baps Motor Speedway Saturday night by scoring his second consecutive win with the Patriots Sunday evening at Selinsgrove Speedway.

“It takes me a few laps to get me going” Smith expressed in victory lane. “It is just our set up so when I start back in traffic, it gets a little more difficult for me, but starting up front in clean air it is definitely an advantage.”

Smith was fortunate to start on the front row along side previous Patriot Sprint Tour A-Main Winner at Selinsgrove, Chad Layton as the two veterans would bring the 22 car field to the green flag.

When the green flag dropped, Davie Franek’s car would not fire and the caution flag would immediately come out. After going to the work area and making it back to the track, his car still would not fire and the 2018 Selinsgrove track champion was done for the night.

Layton and Smith would bring the field back to green once again as the two would contest for the top spot with multiple exchanges for the lead occurring in the first two circuits of the 30 lap A-Main. Also running in the top and pressuring for the lead would be Cody Keller, Kyle Drum, and Chuck Hebing.

Then on the third lap, third place runner, Cody Keller contacted the turn three wall flipping several times bringing out the red flag.

An Open Red was then called for the teams to re-fuel and make tire adjustments, they were given ten minutes.

Smith would bring the single file field back to green extending his lead over Layton, Drum, Hebing and Jason Shultz.

Jason Shultz would continue to click by cars eventually finding himself battling for the second position with Chad Layton.

The second red flag of the night would come out on lap 13 when Jordan Thomas would lose control of his car heading into turn three hitting the wall hard and getting tipped over on his side. Thomas would be okay but his car was not as they had to tow it back to the pits making his night complete.

In the second half of the race, the top three would break away from the rest of the field with Smith still leading over Layton and Shultz. Shultz would get by Layton on lap 15 and start to chase Mark Smith.

Another driver starting to go forward was eighth place starter, Derek Locke as he was able to clear fourth place runner, Chuck Hebing on lap 18. Lap traffic would eventually go away from the race leaders which allowed Shultz to gain ground on Smith.

Shultz would get within striking distance on lap 27 before slipping up on turn two benefitting Smith to pull away for his second straight win of the weekend. Shultz would settle for second followed by Layton, Derek Locke and late race hard charger, Ryan Taylor.

“I was just hoping to hold my line on the straights and not open up my entry too much going into one, if nobody is there then you can give yourself a little bit of room but you still have to be careful.” Smith continued.

Jason Shultz finished on the podium once again at Selinsgrove with the Patriots and was very happy to hang on.

“I don’t know if I was doing the best job on the high side, but I was just trying to keep some speed” Shultz said. “I was hoping he might screw up but he didn’t and I did so I fell back a little.”

Shultz also really enjoyed the race he had with Chad Layton battling for that runner up position.

“Chad was really good tonight, I love racing with him, he is a real hard competitor so once you get by him you know you are doing something right.”

Chad Layton picked up the win with the Patriot Sprint Tour earlier this season for the Joe Whitcomb Memorial and was quite happy to take home another podium finish with PST, his third career overall at Selinsgrove.

“We tried our best, tried to keep it in striking distance, you never know what can happen in lap traffic” comment Layton. “It seems like we always rise to the occasion when these bigger races come up, we are always trying and it just seems to play out that way.”

Heat races went to Smith, Cody Keller, and Davie Franek. This was Mark Smith’s fourth career Patriot Sprint Tour win which includes a non-point race at Williams Grove Speedway back in 2011.

He and a strong field of cars will look to keep it going at the 14th Running of the Canadian Sprint Car Nationals in Ohsweken Ontario on Friday and Saturday, September 14 and 15. There is a make-up A-Main for the Patriots in the Friday program that pays $3,333 to win.

Please be sure to log onto patriotsprinttour.com to search for more information, or to like Patriot Sprint Tour on Facebook, or to follow @PatriotSprints on Instagram and Twitter.

A-Verdi Storage Containers Patriot Sprint Tour Quick Results- Selinsgrove Speedway

A Main: 1) M1-MARK SMITH (2) 2) 29-Jason Shultz 3) 35-Chad Layton 4) 77-Derek Locke 5) 3z-Ryan Taylor 6) 45-Chuck Hebing 7) 19-Colby Womer 8) 9-Ryan Linder 9) 47-Kyle Drum 10) 33w-Michael Walter II 11) 71-Jessica Anderson 12) 11-Jim Shuster 13) 49-Mallie Shuster 14) 6-Tyler Denochick 15) 30-Scott Goodrich 16) 67-Pete Richardson 17) 511-John Sharpe 18) 79-Jordan Thomas 19) 3-Todd Gracey 20) 121-Steve Glover 21) 99k-Cody Keller 22) 28f-Davie Franek 23) 66-Ryan Kissinger (DNF)

Heat 1: 1) Cody Keller 2) 29-Jason Shultz 3) 35-Chad Layton 4) 45-Chuck Hebing 5) 71-Jessica Anderson 6) 6- Tyler Denochick 7) 11-Jim Shuster 8) 67-Pete Richardson

Heat 2: 1) M1-Mark Smith 2) 77-Derek Locke 3) 79-Jordan Thomas 4) 19-Colby Womer 5) 33w-Michael Walter II 6) 49-Mallie Shuster 7) 511-John Sharpe 8) 66-Ryan Kissinger

Heat 3: 1) 28f-Davie Franek 2) 3z-Ryan Taylor 3) 47-Kyle Drum 4) 9-Ryan Linder 5) 30-Scott Goodrich 6) 3-Todd Gracey 7) 121-Steve Glover

Patriot Sprint Tour Championship Standings: 1) 45- Chuck Hebing (1629) 2) 79-Jordan Thomas (1550) 3) 47- Kyle Drum (1408) 4) 30- Scott Goodrich (1367) 5) 67-Pete Richardson (1346) 6) 121-Steve Glover (1299) 7) Paulie Colagiovanni (854) 8) 82-Jared Zimbardi (775) 9) 17z-Josh Azzi (770) 10) 28f-Davie Franek (664)