Pittman takes finale, Hodnett claims overall title

By Shawn Brouse
For The Daily Item

SELINSGROVE — Oklahoma's Daryn Pittman put on a thrilling performance with Lance Dewease of Fayetteville to claim the Pennsylvania Speedweek Jan Opperman Memorial for 410 sprints at Selinsgrove Speedway Sunday night in the finale of the 20th annual speedweek series worth $5,000.

Pittman started second, alongside Dewease on the front row for the 30-lapper and allowed Dewease to lead only the first lap before taking control of the event with a low side move in the first corner.

Pittman, also the speedweek winner on Friday night at Williams Grove Speedway, appeared to have Dewease handled before the red flag waved with 11 laps completed for Blane Heimbach, who was running third.

Heimbach's racer broke and caught fire in the second turn, but he escaped injury.

On the restart, Dewease took off on the low side and led the 12th circuit by just .091 seconds, with Pittman in tow circling the extreme top of the oval.

In a frantic effort to run Dewease back down for his second win of the year at the track, Pittman slammed the outside third-turn wall with 10 laps to go before trying the bottom groove.

But he found no traction on the bottom and instead went back to the top and when Dewease got caught up in lapped traffic, he was there with the momentum to overtake the leader, whose racer would not operate when he strayed from his low line.

It was off turn four with three laps to go when Pittman went back out front by a scant .062 second margin, one that he would not expand that much more before the finish.

Instead, Dewease kept pace with Pittman right to the end, but fell short by .442 seconds.

"Man, we aint dead 'til that checkered flag falls, that's what I keep telling myself," Pittman said" We keep sneaking these away at the end."

It was his seventh overall win of the season for owner Michael Heffner. The pair also won the Keystone Cup feature at the track in May.

"I was thinking, man what am I doing up here and I almost took the wall down one time," Pittman said, referring to his brush with the wall. "We just kept plugging away on top and I was hoping he'd just get caught up in traffic, and that's what happened," Pittman said.

Fred Rahmer, Salfordville, rode home third followed by Greg Hodnett, who claimed the 2010 speedweek series championship. Todd Shaffer was fifth. Danny Dietrich, Brent Marks, Rick Lafferty, Mark Smith and Doug Esh completed the top 10.

Hodnett's title was the third of his career after also scoring laurels in 2002 and in 2009. Pittman finished second in speedweek points, followed by Dewease, Mark Smith and Alan Krimes. Heat races were won by Dewease, Pittman and Rahmer. Chad Layton won the B Main. Fast time was set by Blane Heimbach of Selinsgrove with a time of 17.775 seconds.

Mark Smith was the winner of the series opener June 26 at Lincoln Speedway. Ed Lynch Jr. won June 27 at Bedford. Tuesday's event at Grandview went to Tyler Walker, with Alan Krimes scoring Wednesday at Hagerstown and Dewease on top Thursday in a second round at Lincoln. Pittman took leg six at Williams Grove on Friday, and Hodnett was the winner Saturday at Port Royal.

An excerpt:

1(tie). Daryn Pittman(1) - 6th @ Grandview, 4th @ Hagerstown, 4th @ Lincoln,1st @ WG, 3rd @ Port, 1st @ Selinsgrove - Speedweek average of 3.88, finished runner-up and scored 2 more wins. 20 straight top-10s in the Heffner 27.

by Stephanie Odom

Owasso’s Daryn Pittman won the Pennsylvania Speedweek finale Sunday night at Selinsgrove Speedway worth $5,000. Pittman cruised his Lelands.com #27 to his second career win at Selinsgrove and seventh of the season. Pittman, who drives for Michael Heffner, was the only driver to have repeat wins in the twentieth anniversary Pennsylvania Speedweek.

Greg Hodnett won the Pennsylvania Speedweek title for the second year in a row and third time in his career.

Photo by Jason Walls of WRT SweedWerx

Lance Dewease set the pace for the feature and would take the lead when the green flag dropped. However Daryn Pittman, who started aside him, would make a pass the following lap to take over the top spot. The second lap also saw the first caution of the night when Phil Walter came to a stop with a flat tire in turn three. Nothing would change on the restart with the top two positions. Blane Heimbach started in the fourth position and was able to advance to third being followed by Fred Rahmer and Brent Marks.

On lap eleven the red flag came out after Heimbach’s car made contact with the wall in turn two causing a small fire to break out. On the restart Dewease kept the first position with Pittman close behind. Pittman would follow until lap twenty-seven when he made the pass at the start/finish line and would hold on through lapped traffic to secure the win. Dewease trailed with Rahmer, Hodnett and Todd Shaffer completing the top five.

By BOB VORES For Public Opinion

Excerpts:

The Pennsylvania Sprint Car Speedweek events have concluded and in the end, Daryn Pittman won the battle but Greg Hodnett won the war.

Pittman, of Owasso, Okla., was the only driver to win twice all week, taking Friday's Mitch Smith Memorial at Williams Grove Speedway for the second consecutive time and also Sunday's Selinsgrove finale to amass a total of 1,087 points. That was 35 points short of Greg Hodnett of Thomasville. Hodnett won Saturday at Port Royal which helped with the overall speedweek points. He won for the second consecutive and third overall time in his career. In last year's events, Hodnett won over Pittman by 239 points.

WILLIAMS GROVE: Race six, the Mitch Smith Memorial, found Stevie Smith taking the lead but Pittman got by him on the third circuit while fifth starter Hodnett took the runner-up spot two laps later. Donnie Kreitz Jr. then entered the picture and finally got the spot from Hodnett on the 14th lap.

During the battle for second, Pittman opened a sizeable lead, but Kreitz began to close in until a lap-22 red flag.

On the restart, Pittman pulled away while Hodnett regained second on lap 26, but was unable to reel in Pittman, who went on to win the $10,000 event by 1.56 seconds. Kreitz ended third while Hagerstown winner and fast-timer Alan Krimes was fourth with Lance Dewease coming from 12th to finish fifth.

"We haven't been great this week, we've been solid," Pittman said. "I'm glad to win when the money is on theline. Any time ten-grand is on the line, it makes you step up in the seat. It's good to get these guys back to victory lane."

...

SELINSGROVE: Pittman out-dueled Dewease on the second lap to come away with the lead and later, a slim victory in Sunday's finale, the Jan Opperman Memorial.

Dewease began on the pole with Pittman outside, but Pittman used the inside line to grab the lead.

On a lap 12 restart, Dewease pulled alongside and dragged Pittman down the backstretch and reclaimed the top spot off turn four.

Pittman continued his quest to regain the top spot and did so with three laps remaining as Dewease came up a mere .44 seconds short of becoming the eighth different winner in the eight events.

"We aren't dead until the checkered flag falls -- that's what I keep telling myself," Pittman said. "We keep plugging away until the end of the race. Hats off to this whole team. We got off to a slow start, but we picked it up as the week went on."

SELINSGROVE, Pa. – Daryn Pittman of Owasso, Okl., out-dueled Lance Dewease of Fayetteville for another exciting win at Selinsgrove Speedway in Sunday night’s Jan Opperman Memorial/PA Speedweek finale for 410 sprint cars sponsored by Mach 1 Chassis.

The $5,000 victory in the 30-lap feature marked the second of Pittman’s career at Selinsgrove and the seventh of the 2010 season driving the Leelands.com No. 27 for car owner Michael Heffner.

While Pittman became the first and only repeat winner in the 20th anniversary eight-race series, Greg Hodnett of Thomasville clinched the prestigious PA Speedweek title for the second year in a row and third time in his career.