Wednesday, August 17, 2005

Ohsweken Insider: Geldart Wins First Ever All Star Sprint Feature at Thunder Hill Speedway

Courtesy Ohsweken Speedway Online

From Scott Hall: It was youth over experience Monday night at Thunder Hill Speedway (Mayetta, Kansas) in the Haulmark All Star Sprint Car 30 lap A Main Feature as 17-year-old Cody Geldart led all the way for his first career All Star win. Aboard the Geldart Transportation, Oshweken Speedway, and Kear’s Speed Shop Hampshire powered Maxim, the Mossley, Ontario, Canada resident defeated Californian Jonathan Allard for the triumph.

“This was awesome, I love this track…the track is awesome… I love the banking… the car was fast all night,” an excited Geldart recited in victory lane. “I knew that we lost some water but the engine temperature didn’t change so I kept going. I wasn’t going to stop for anything,” he concluded. He became the 17th feature winner of the year out of 24 All Star events.

For the start of the main it was All Star Rookie-of-the-Year point’s leader Geldart on the pole with Greg Wilson alongside with Jeremy Campbell and Allard in row two. Chad Kemenah and Randy Hannagan comprised row three and once the green flew, Hannagan and Kemenah tangled in turn one and flipped with Brock Mayes ending up on his side in the melee. Kemenah was eliminated from the event by the accident. Mayes was able to return for the original restart and Hannagan returned to the track following another yellow before a lap was in the books. The next attempt for a start saw Mayes hitting the turn three fence for another caution. Once the event finally started, Geldart jumped into the immediate lead, followed by Wilson’s Elden Racing No. 22 and Allard in the Williams No. 0. Geldart was just getting into lapped traffic on lap six when another red flew for the No. 20 of Ron Leifholz who hit the turn four fence. Leifholz was taken to a local hospital with back pains.

For the restart it was Geldart leading Wilson, Allard, Campbell, Dale Blaney, Danny Smith and Paul May. Geldart ran the top groove of the 3/8 mile high banked oval and pulled away again on the restart as Allard and Campbell battled for third behind Wilson. By the halfway point Geldart still leading running around the top groove with a straightaway lead on Wilson as Hannagan moved into the top ten after restarting last.

Lap 18 saw Hannagan get by Bob Bennett for seventh as the pack up front maintained their positions. With eight laps to go, all that changed as Allard snuck by Wilson then Wilson spun across the front stretch and ended up facing the wrong way with front end damage. The rest of the field avoided his machine, but he was done for the evening.

While the race was being restarted, Geldart’s machine was noted to be losing water on the front stretch. Although it was in the back of the leader’s mind, he kept racing. With six laps to go, action heated up with Smith moving to fourth passing Blaney and a circuit later May also got by Blaney for fifth and the amazing Hannagan got by for sixth. The final caution flew on lap 28 for Blaney’s flat right rear tire, which put him out of a top five finish. This set up a green, white, checkered sequence for the finish and Geldart won easily. He ran the top groove the entire time, dropping low down only to get by lapped cars. Allard rode home second, followed by Campbell, Smith, May, Hannagan, Blaney and Bennett, who recorded his best finish of the year.

Blaney’s finish and the DNF of series’ point’s leader Chad Kemenah enabled Blaney to pull within 61 points of the lead in the battle for the $50,000 All Star point’s championship.

The Crown Battery heat fell to Sam Hafertepe, Jr., the B&B Products heat went to Brock Mayes and the Engler Machine and Tool heat was won by Mike Leifholz. Hannagan was the Huggins Cams Fast Time qualifier with a new track record of 12.340 seconds and captured the Haulmark Dash.

Huggins Cams Time Trials: 1. Randy Hannagan, 12.34 (NTR); 2. Chad Kemenah, 12.41; 3. Jonathan Allard, 12.50; 4. Jeremy Campbell, 12.50; 5. Greg Wilson, 12.53; 6. Cody Geldart, 12.53; 7. Danny Smith, 12.59; 8. Brock Mayes, 12.63; 9. Jim Cameron, 12.71; 10. Dale Blaney, 12.75; 11. Paul May, 12.84; 12. Chad Meinholdt, 12.97; 13. Sam Hafertepe Jr., 13.00; 14. Bob Bennett, 13.03; 15. Mike Leifholz, 13.18; 16. Ron Leifholz, 13.32; 17. Chris Morgan, 13.72; 18. Tim Newman, 14.37; 19. Kelly Kneisler, 14.53.

Crown Battery Heat (8 laps): 1-Sam Hafertepe Jr. 2-Danny Smith 3-Dale Blaney 4-Jeremy Campbell 5-Randy Hannagan 6-Ron Leifholz 7-Kelly Kneisler.

B&B Products Heat (8 laps): 1-Brock Mayes 2-Chad Kemenah 3-Greg Wilson 4-Bob Bennett 5-Paul May 6-Chris Morgan.

Engler Machine & Tool Heat (8 laps): 1-Mike Leifholz 2-Cody Geldart 3-Jim Cameron 4-Chad Meinholdt 5-Jonathan Allard 6-Tim Newman.

Haulmark Dash (4 laps): 1. Hannagan 2. Kemenah 3. Wilson 4. Campbell 5. Smith 6. Geldart.

A Main (30 laps): 1-Cody Geldart 2-Jonathan Allard 3-Jeremy Campbell 4-Danny Smith 5-Paul May 6-Randy Hannagan 7-Dale Blaney 8-Bob Bennett 9-Sam Hafertepe Jr. 10-Tim Newman 11-Jim Cameron 12-Greg Wilson 13-Kelly Kneisler 14-Chris Morgan 15-Mike Leifholz 16-Ron Leifholz 17-Chad Kemenah 18-Brock Mayes 19-Chad Meinholdt.

Lap Leaders: Cody Geldart 1-30.

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