The Grove, All-Star sprints, Dewease from front row? Forget about it. Jet 20th to 3rd

DEWEASE BEATS THE ALL STARS FOR SECOND WIN IN-A-ROW AT WILLIAMS GROVE MECHANICSBURG, PA, 5/2/03 - Fayetteville's Lance Dewease made it back-to-back wins in sprint car competition at Williams Grove Speedway as he topped the invading Haulmark All Star Circuit of Champions in the special $6,000-to-win Early Bird Championship Friday night. Dewease passed All Star point leader Chad Kemenah with a high side move off of turn four to lead the second lap and then simply out-classed the 24-car feature field to take the checkered 3.69 seconds ahead of Greg Hodnett at the end of 30 laps. Dewease's second win of the year at Williams Grove was also his 57th career win at the historic Mechanicsburg half-mile.

The win also marked Dewease's second in All Star competition in 2003 and upped his All Star win total to 20 victories. "We needed to be better from last Sunday in one and two and we made a lot of improvements," said a happy Dewease from victory lane with his car owned Al Hamilton by his side. "We were fortunate to get a good starting spot...the driver messed up there in time trials (9th quick) and just about wrecked."

"We worked hard on the race car all night. If anybody could see us, we kept pushing it off (on pit road). It had a bad stumble and I just couldn't get it to go. We didn't get any worse, but we didn't really get it any better. So we just kept the pace up on the starts."

Outside frontrow starter Kemenah got the jump on Dewease at the drop of the green for the 30 lap Diamond Series event with polesitter Dewease right on his tail. Dewease quickly went to work on Kemenah and powered around the high side of turns three and four to snare the lead at the end of two laps. A Dean Jacobs spin in the fourth turn slowed the pace on the 10th lap, erasing Dewease's 1.42 lead just as he was entering lapped traffic. On the restart, Kemenah, sixth-starting Greg Hodnett, and fourth-starting Niki Young gave chase to no avail as Dewease again pulled away to a full second lead before the caution waved again, this time on the 12th lap when Keith Kauffman spun in the third and fourth turns. Again Dewease controlled the restart over Kemenah as Hodnett began to flex his muscles and pressure the All Star point leader. But on the 18th lap Kemenah's dream of being the first All Star to ever win at Williams Grove ended as he slowed suddenly on the frontstretch and came to a stop.

That allowed Hodnett and 10th-starting Chad Layton the opportunity to chase Dewease on the restart but the result was the same as Dewease simply began to slowly pull away and opened up a 1.73 second lead with 10 laps to go. The leaders entered lapped traffic with four laps to go and all eyes began to look back as 20th-starting Jeff Shepard was charging madly to the front and got around third-place Chad Layton with only two laps to go. Shepard appeared to be only one caution away from seriously contending for the win but the laps ran out as Dewease took the checkered comfortably for his fifth overall win of 2003.

"We like the Pennsylvania cars winning this thing," said Dewease. "I'm sure Hodnett's happy for me if he couldn't have won it...there's a little deal from Florida that didn't make Hodnett happy."

Hodnett had to settle for second, with Hard Charger Shepard third, 410 sprint rookie Layton fourth, and Greg Wilson fifth. "We were really trying," said Hodnett afterwards. "We had a little too good of time (fast time in time trials) and then starting sixth and putting them guys on the front row...you can't put Lance on the frontrow because he's going to take advantage of it."

"We've been getting faster the last couple of weeks, but we still have a little problem here and there to fix. If we can cure that we'll be okay."

"The guys were working real good on the car tonight," said Shepard after his hard-earned third place finish in his first time in the Miller Rigging No.2 car formerly driven by Paul McMahan. "We didn't start off real good tonight, we were kind of behind the eight ball and it was a guessing game." "I said, 'we can't get much worse than we were in the heat race, so lets just try something' and we did. We still have a lot to work on here being our first night together. Where we started (20th) to third was pretty good. I've made a couple of laps around here (Williams Grove) and I'm happy to be up here. I needed to pass two more cars. But we'll take it from 20th."

Completing the top ten were Young, Kauffman, Todd Hestor, Donnie Kreitz Jr., and Fred Rahmer. The Crown Battery heat fell to Sean Michael, the B&B Products heat went to Doug Esh, the Engler Machine and Tool heat was won by Keith Kauffman and the TP Wings heat fell to Fred Rahmer. The United Aluminum Window Sales & Consulting B Main fell to Chad Layton while Chad Kemenah captured the Haulmark Dash. Greg Hodnett was the Huggins Cams Fast Time qualifier over the 38-car field with a one-lap time of 16.700 seconds (107.784 MPH).

Huggins Cams Time Trials - 1. 12-Greg Hodnett, 16.700; 2. 17H-Jason Hagenbuch, 16.964; 3. 7M-Todd Hestor, 17.110; 4. 10N-Niki Young, 17.117; 5. 32-Brook Weibley, 17.133; 6. 63-Greg Wilson, 17.161; 7. 6C-Ryan Coniam, 17.188; 8. 15K-Chad Kemenah, 17.203; 9. 77-Lance Dewease, 17.206; 10. 30-Doug Esh, 17.228; 11. U1-Chad Layton, 17.239; 12. 69K-Donnie Kreitz Jr., 17.242; 13. 17E-Cris Eash, 17.247; 14. 6B-Bill Rose, 17.262; 15. 29-Dean Jacobs, 17.272; 16. 21P-Glenndon Forsythe, 17.338; 17. 25-Adrian Shaffer, 17.345; 18. 11-Mike Erdley, 17.347; 19. 7-Keith Kauffman, 17.364; 20. 53-Mark Smith, 17.376; 21. 1-Sean Michael, 17.390; 22. 2-Jeff Shepard, 17.447; 23. 22-Jason Johnson, 17.456; 24. 88H-Fred Rahmer, 17.516; 25. 4-Pete Green, 17.546; 26. 55-Mike Wagner, 17.617; 27. 0-Rick Lafferty, 17.620; 28. 6W-Josh Wells, 17.742; 29. 19-Stevie Smith, 17.754; 30. 9-Craig Keel, 17.854; 31. 88-Todd Shaffer, 17.868; 32. 63-Barry Ruble, 17.995; 33. 5W-Lucas Wolfe, 18.506; 34. 17C-Keith Anderson, 19.451; 35. 3W-Chris Webb, 19.849; 36. 47-Jay Coates, 21.292; 37. CIII-Len Thompson, NT; 38. 17B-Troy Whitesel, NT (failed to report to scales after time trial laps).

Crown Battery Heat (8 Laps/5 to qualify) - 1. 1-Sean Michael; 2. 77-Lance Dewease; 3. 12-Greg Hodnett; 4. 17E-Cris Eash; 5. 25-Adrian Shaffer; 6. 32-Brook Weibley; 7. 19-Stevie Smith; 8. 4-Pete Green; 9. 5W-Lucas Wolfe. Time - 2:25.24

B&B Products Heat (8 Laps/5 to qualify) - 1. 30-Doug Esh; 2. 11-Mike Erdley; 3. 6B-Bill Rose; 4. 2-Jeff Shepard; 5. 63-Greg Wilson; 6. 17H-Jason Hagenbuch; 7. 55-Mike Wagner; 8. 9-Craig Keel; 9. 17C-Keith Anderson. Time - 2:28.43

Engler Machine & Tool Heat (8 Laps/5 to qualify) - 1. 7-Keith Kauffman; 2. 29-Dean Jacobs; 3. 22-Jason Johnson; 4. 88-Todd Shaffer; 5. 7M-Todd Hestor; 6. 0-Rick Lafferty; 7. U1-Chad Layton; 8. 6C-Ryan Coniam; 9. 3W-Chris Webb; DNS - 17B-Troy Whitesel. Time - 2:26.50

TP Wings Heat (8 Laps/5 to qualify) - 1. 88H-Fred Rahmer; 2. 69K-Donnie Kreitz Jr.; 3. 53-Mark Smith; 4. 10N-Niki Young; 5. 15K-Chad Kemenah; 6. CIII-Len Thompson; 7. 6W-Josh Wells; 8. 63R-Barry Ruble; 9. 47-Jay Coates; 10. 21P-Glenndon Forsythe (DNF). No Time

Haulmark Dash (4 Laps) - 1. 15K-Chad Kemenah; 2. 12-Greg Hodnett; 3. 77-Lance Dewease; 4. 63W-Greg Wilson; 5. 6B-Bill Rose; 6. 29-Dean Jacobs (penalized one spot for jumping on the start). No Time

United Aluminum Window Sales & Consulting B-Main (12 Laps/4 to advance to A-Main) - 1. U1-Chad Layton; 2. 32-Brook Weibley; 3. 6C-Ryan Coniam; 4. 4-Pete Green; 5. 0-Rick Lafferty; 6. 55-Mike Wagner; 7. 9-Craig Keel; 8. CIII-Len Thompson; 9. 6W-Josh Wells; 10. 5W-Lucas Wolfe; 11. 63R-Barry Ruble; 12. 21P-Glenndon Forsythe; 13. 17C-Keith Anderson; 14. 19-Stevie Smith (DNF); 15. 47-Jay Coates (DNF); 16. 17H-Jason Hagenbuch (DNF); DNS - 3W-Chris Webb. No Time.

Haulmark A-Main (30 Laps) - 1. 77-Lance Dewease ($6,000); 2. 12-Greg Hodnett; 3. 2-Jeff Shepard; 4. U1-Chad Layton; 5. 63W-Greg Wilson; 6. 10N-Niki Young; 7. 7-Keith Kauffman; 8. 7M-Todd Hestor; 9. 69K-Donnie Kreitz Jr.; 10. 88H-Fred Rahmer; 11. 1-Sean Michael; 12. 30-Doug Esh; 13. 53-Mark Smith; 14. 11-Mike Erdley; 15. 22-Jason Johnson; 16. 4-Pete Green; 17. 32-Brook Weibley (DNF); 18. 6C-Ryan Coniam (DNF); 19. 25-Adrian Shaffer (DNF); 20. 15K-Chad Kemenah (DNF); 21. 6B-Bill Rose (DNF); 22. 29-Dean Jacobs (DNF); 23. 88-Todd Shaffer (DNF); DISQUALIFIED - 17E-Cris Eash (under-weight)

Lap Leaders - Chad Kemenah (1), Lance Dewease (2-30)

HammerDownUSA.com home.