Font ResizeAfter all, after rain forced track officials to call off Saturday's Cleveland Brothers Summer Nationals finale at 12:05 a.m. Sunday, the decision was made to conduct the postponed feature on Friday, Oct. 2, during Williams Grove's National Open.
Until then, the Outlaws will have to wait, a frustrating prospect after their chance to topple the Pennsylvania Posse last Friday went awry.
After nine of the top 10 drivers in the tour's May feature at Williams Grove, also cut short by rain, visit came from the Posse, eight of 10 from last Friday's feature came from the same group.
"You're always disappointed when you pull the No. 1 (pill for the dash) at a place like this where the competition is so tough and then to give it away is disappointing," the Outlaws' Jason Meyers said after he settled for third.
To get that, the night's fastest qualifier needed half of Friday's feature to get past New Oxford's Brian Leppo, one of the Posse which ganged up on the visiting tour.
That group was led by Thomasville's Greg Hodnett, who has become a master of the big events in 2009. However, the Pennsylvania Sprint Speedweek champion, who also beat all comers in May during the Outlaws' previous visit, nearly failed to qualify for the 25-lap feature.
Hodnett's J&S Fabrication crew discovered an oil leak before the dash but got some needed help
"If the heat race would have lasted a lap or two more, we would have fried it," Hodnett said of the engine. "(York Springs engine builder) Don Ott did a great job. He came down and fixed it for us. He knew exactly what it was and went to work on it."
The repair enabled Hodnett, a former Outlaw, to edge part-time Posse member Stevie Smith, another former Outlaw, for the feature triumph.
And that left the current Outlaws reaching for answers. Before Saturday night's rain, they won three of the four heat races, and Joey Saldana had the pole for the postponed dash.
And, when the tour returns in October, the racers might have found the way to repel the Posse by then. Until then, though, the World of Outlaws was left grasping.
Meyers said Friday, "I needed a 40-lap race, and I think we would have had something for them."
Shootout Leader: After winning the opening feature of the 3-Track Shootout limited late model series on Saturday night at Lincoln Speedway, Hanover's Bobby Beard talked as though he wanted to shoot his car.
"The thing just wanted to push, and then it wanted to spin out," he said of his No. 81S. "I kept picking out the holes (in the track) and if I could hit the holes just right, it would turn the car."
The fact Beard could find the holes might be attributed to his long knowledge of Lincoln. After all, he has 18 career thundercar feature wins and three track championships.
Considering his three victories this season at Williams Grove and another at Trail-Way, the series' other tracks, he will be a favorite to repeat his Shootout crown, despite an infusion of talent from the thundercar class.
"Unfortunately, it's a class that, if you don't have money to progress, nobody pays attention," he said of that division.
Fuel Mileage Trail-Way track officials were concerned last Friday as a 42-minute 358 sprint feature sputtered over 25 laps to its conclusion.
By the finish of the caution-marred event, it was estimated drivers had only four laps of fuel remaining. And Brad McClelland had less than that.
"We ran out of fuel there with two to go. It was shutting off in the corners," the Westminster, Md., driver said in victory lane. "Down the straightaways going into the corners, it would just shut off."
However, by hugging the bottom of the 3/8-mile oval, McClelland not only had just enough fuel to finish but beat York's Jeff Rohrbaugh to tie him with 20 career wins, most at the speedway.
Notes: Rain forced the cancellation of Wednesday's races at The Fairgrounds at Kutztown Speedway. ...
Dover's Matt Boland became the ninth different 358 sprint feature winner in nine programs at Lincoln on Saturday and, once again, Rohrbaugh had to settle for second place.
"I want to think, first off, my wife for putting up with me all this time," Boland said. "She was wondering if we'd ever win, and finally we got it." ...
Gettysburg's Will Walls won one of the closest races of the season by edging Gino Comi by 2 feet at the finish of Saturday's thundercar feature at Lincoln. He dedicated the win to his uncle Mike.
"Over at Trail-Way, he told me to get it up on the cushion and gas it," Will Walls said. "That's what worked tonight." ...
When Ed Hollenbach won the 4-cylinder stock feature last Friday at Trail-Way, it marked the return of a former regular division to the track. And he remembered.
"I miss this place," he said after his 13th career win at the track.
Chuck Curley is the sports editor at The (Hanover) Evening Sun.
