Monroe Spoils Stevens Party in Big Diamond ARDC
Minersville, PA — Stephanie Stevens has been running stronger of late in ARDC competition. Thursday night she seemed ready to "close the deal" in front of a huge crowd that turned out for the ARDC/USAC doubleheader at Big Diamond Raceway. She started from the pole and lead every lap up until a lap 16 red flag. That proved to be her undoing as Randy Monroe Jr. of Hampton, Va. was able to slip by and take the win when they got back to racing.
Stevens and Steve Lenig brought the 26 car field to the green flag. "Yellow fever" was the order of the night as the ARDC troops struggled to get the 20 lap feature event under way. There would be a grand total of four yellows before they were able to settle down and get into some green flag racing. Stevens showed her power on most of the restarts and was able to open a gap. On one restart, Lenig was able to get the upper hand, but that effort was to go for naught when he spun between turns 3 and 4.
When they finally got going, Stevens established herself at the front of the pack, opening a gap over 7th place starter Randy Monroe Jr. who avoided the early trouble to get up to the front. Andy Martin also worked his way into the front group, but had his hands full with 13th place starter Ryan Watt who hauled Fred Schell's vintage Pontiac powered Hawk to the front, mainly via the outside groove.
A lap 10 red flag was thrown for a multi-car flip that involved Johnny Heydenreich, who was making his first ARDC start in quite some time, nephew Eric Heydenreich and Nick Wean.
When the race was restarted, Stevens showed no signs of buckling under pressure as she held about five car lengths over Monroe. While she led the field, all kinds of action was going on behind her as Martin and Watt battled for third, with Watt finally moving into that spot. Other phenomenal runs were being turned in by Steve Buckwalter who went from 16th into the top 5 with five to go and visiting driver Darren Hagen who had the run of the night — starting 25th, riding 7th at lap 15 — and finally cracking the top five by the end of the race.
Lap 16 was the end of the party for Stevens as she slid just high enough for Monroe to sneak underneath coming out of turn four. "I was really focused tonight," Stevens would say later. "I stayed consistent and hit my marks on just about every lap. The track was slick at the end and I just slipped up a little bit. I'm just glad to get a podium finish after all those fourth place finishes last year. The crew really needed this one"
"Stephanie had the car to beat tonight," Monroe said. "She slipped up just enough where I could slide her and then I had to just hang on. I learned a little bit following her and her lines — I got a chance to play with my shock adjustments," he explained.
Steve Buckwalter made one of his patented late-race charges and was up to second when the race was on the line. There was a restart with one lap to go and Monroe had to hold off the cagey ARDC vet. "I didn't know who was behind me until I looked up at the scoreboard and saw that big number "0" up there," Monroe said. "Then I got a little nervous. I knew with him back there I had to make the car as wide as possible, and when we got to 3 and 4 I had to get as low as I could."
Even with all that, somehow Buckwalter managed to squeeze between the inside rail and Monroe to make it a drag race to the finish, which Monroe was able to win. It was Monroe's second victory of the season. Stevens was able to hang on for third in front of some major shuffling which saw the amazing Hagen come home fourth. Drew Heistand rounded out the top five, up from 12th starting spot. Hagen's run netted him the $1000 "Mike Grassmeyer Memorial" Hard Charger award. The award was the result of a fund raising effort by a group of fans from the Williams Grove Speedway message board to honor Grassmeyer (aka "Dusty Brew") a long-time wingless racing fan who passed away from cancer last year.
Night Notes: Thursday night marked the first time in two years that all three member of the Miller Racing Family, Mike, Tracy and Michell took to the track at the same time. Penn-Can winner Scott Zipp left the track with a broken front end in his heat race. The B-main was called to the track so quickly that there was no time to make repairs. Andy Martin's strange season continued as he ended the night with a rollover in turn 2 in a tangle that also involved PJ Gargiulo and Ray Bull. Tracy Hines ran the "Two Dogs Racing" no.49 usually driven by Billy Pauch Jr. 6-time ARDC Champ Ray Bull made his first start of the year in Donnie Hoffman's no.17.
33 ARDC Midgets signed in for competition. Heat races were won by Tracy Readinger, Drew Heistand and Brett Arndt.
20-lap ARDC Midget Feature. 1) 27-Randy Monroe Jr. 2) 0-Steve Buckwalter 3) 26-Stephanie Stevens 4) 5-Darren Hagen 5) 12-Drew Heistand 6) 75-Ryan Watt 7) 14-AJ Ernesto 8) 44-Frank Polimeda 9) 46-Brett Arndt 10) 4-Michelle Miller 11) 20-Carey Becker 12) 9-Steve Lenig 13) 29-Zack Martini 14) 49-Tracy Hines 15) 21-Andy Martin 16) 17-Ray Bull 17) 51-PJ Gargiulo 18) 96-PJ Pavlick 19) 54-Ryan Smith 20) 57-Johnny Heydenreich 21) 11-Eric Heydenreich 22) 77-Nick Wean 23) 3-Tracy Miller 24) 414-Taylor Malsom 25) 16-Dave Shirk 26) 2-Tracy Readinger
Sources: Mark Kielblock/ARDC