ABBOTTSTOWN, Pa. — Freddie Rahmer captured a thrilling victory on Fallen Firefighters Night at Lincoln Speedway, narrowly fending off a hard-charging Chase Dietz to claim the $6,000 prize in the 36-lap Guise-Little Memorial on Saturday night.
Rahmer jumped to the early lead from the pole, with Aaron Bollinger, Kyle Moody, and Matt Campbell slotting into the top four as the field raced into turn one. Campbell and Ashton Torgerson engaged in an early battle for fourth, trading slide jobs before Torgerson secured the position with a turn two slider on lap four, just before a caution for a stopped Tyler Esh brought the action to a halt.
On the restart, Campbell wasted no time reclaiming fourth from Torgerson with a slider in turn two on lap six, while Tyler Ross and Troy Wagaman battled for sixth behind them.
Meanwhile, Rahmer began to stretch his lead as he approached lapped traffic by lap 12, with Campbell quickly catching and overtaking Moody for third.
Campbell then set his sights on Bollinger for second, closing the gap in traffic until a lapped car allowed Bollinger to pull away briefly. Just as Bollinger had closed in on Rahmer for the lead, a lap-21 caution for a spun Brandon Rahmer in turn two tightened the field for a critical restart.
Rahmer protected the low line into turn one, but Campbell pounced, sliding under Bollinger for second. Dietz, who had been methodically picking his way through the field from his 13th starting spot, cracked the top five on the restart and surged past both Moody and Bollinger to move into third by lap 30, just before a caution for Joey Amantea reset the field for a final six-lap dash.
Dietz wasted no time, quickly getting by Campbell and setting his sights on Rahmer. The two raced wheel-to-wheel as the laps wound down, with Dietz nosing into the lead with three to go.
However, Rahmer fought back, reclaiming the point as they came to the white flag. With Campbell rejoining the fight, the top three raced under a blanket, thrilling the fans.
Rahmer held on for the win by a razor-thin .045 seconds over Dietz, with Campbell completing the podium in an exciting finish.
Dylan Norris powered his way to a commanding victory in the 20-lap, $1,500-to-win 358 sprint car feature.
The finish:
Feature (36 Laps): 1. 51-Freddie Rahmer[1]; 2. 23-Chase Dietz[13]; 3. X-Matt Campbell[3]; 4. 5E-Aaron Bollinger[2]; 5. 99M-Kyle Moody[4]; 6. 1A-Ashton Torgerson[6]; 7. 27-Troy Wagaman Jr[8]; 8. 5R-Tyler Ross[5]; 9. 75-Cameron Smith[7]; 10. 66-Ryan Newton[9]; 11. 00-Chris Frank[12]; 12. 55-Domenic Melair[14]; 13. 8-Billy Dietrich[20]; 14. 91-Preston Lattomus[16]; 15. 1X-Chad Trout[11]; 16. 67-JJ Loss[22]; 17. 6-Cole Knopp[24]; 18. 55S-Dallas Schott[15]; 19. (DNF) 88J-Joey Amantea[23]; 20. (DNF) 38-Brett Strickler[18]; 21. (DNF) 88-Brandon Rahmer[10]; 22. (DNF) 17-Dylan Norris[21]; 23. (DNF) 35-Tyler Esh[17]; 24. (DNF) 95-Kody Hartlaub[19]
