MECHANICSBURG, Pa. — Freddie Rahmer broke through for his first Williams Grove Speedway sprint car win of the season on Friday night, scoring the 20th checkered flag of his career at the oval after taking over as the third and final leader of the event.
Nash Ely was leading the 25-lap 410 sprint main ahead of Troy Wagaman Jr. when the red flag appeared on the third circuit for a series of frontstretch flips by Cole Knopp.
Knopp climbed from his racer under his own power.
The restart saw Wagaman muscle by Ely for control and third starter Rahmer followed suit a lap later.
And then the red flag again draped over the speedway, this time for Ely, who had bitten the fourth turn curb and flipped over.
Again the driver climbed from his racer under his own power.
After refueling the balance of the feature would go non-stop with Wagaman pulling out to a 1.3 second lead over Rahmer and Chase Dietz by the halfway point.
Rahmer nearly repeated the feat performed by Ely a few laps earlier after action had resumed as he too bit the fourth corner curb and nearly turned over only to save the car and regoup.
Shortly thereafter traffic came into play for Wagaman and by lap 16, with the track blocked in front of him, the cars of Rahmer, Dietz and also Lance Dewease were breathing down his neck.
Those four drivers all raced under a blanket for the next four laps within striking distance of one another before Rahmer finally got far enough alongside Wagaman to be scored the leader with two laps to go.
Relegated to second, Wagaman regrouped for the final mile and in the final set of turns he went for one big outside swoop to steal the lead back.
It was anybody’s raced as the pair blasted off of the fourth turn and Rahmer prevailed, holding Wagaman off by .136 seconds at the line as the pair bounced off of one another just before passing under the checkers.
Dietz was third followed by Dewease and Buddy Scheweibinz.
The finish:
Feature (25 laps): 1. Freddie Rahmer, 2. Troy Wagaman Jr., 3. Chase Dietz, 4. Lance Dewease, 5. Buddy Schweibinz, 6. TJ Stutts, 7. Samuel Miller, 8. JJ Loss, 9. Doug Hammaker, 10. Brent Shearer, 11. Austin Bishop, 12. James Roselli, 13. Justin Whittall, 14. Dallas Schott, 15. Dave Grube, 16. Aaron Bollinger, 17. Tim Glatfelter, 18. Ryan Smith, 19. Dylan Norris, 20. Joey Amantea, 21. Nash Ely, 22. Cole Knopp
