ROSSBURG, Ohio (April 22, 2017) – Veteran Earnie Woodard earned a bit of redemption in the Eldora Stock Car main event, while Joel Dick (DIRTcar UMP Modifieds) and Ricky Weaver (Vore’s Compact Touring Series) both visited Eldora Speedway’s Victory Stage for the first-time during the Saturday Night SpeedFest at the high-banked half-mile oval.
A week ago, Woodard looked to be heading to victory lane in the season opener when his power steering failed causing him to spin out of the lead with only a handful of laps remaining.
Saturday night, the Georgetown, Kentucky chased early leader Craig Swartz and Rob Trent through the first half of the 15-lap Feature race. Trent wrestled the lead away from Swartz on lap eight and the defending track champ looked to be heading to his second consecutive win to start the 2017 season.
Woodard had other ideas. He aggressively passed Swartz for the runner-up position on lap nine and then ran down Trent powering under the leader in turn four on lap 11. Woodard cruised from there, picking up his first win of the 2017 season.
“We got into a couple guys trying to get to the front,” Woodard said from victory lane. “The track was tough. You would just throw (the car) in there and you are not sure where you are going to end up but we had to go there. I felt like they owed me one after last week,” Woodard continued. “We had a power steering belt come off last week and I really wanted this one tonight.”
Trent held off Jordan Conover for second-place, while Brent Sutton and Gary Rahe, Jr. completed the top five. Finishing fifth through tenth were Frank Paladino, Brandon Archey, Donnie Jeschke, Anthony Goode and Casey Barr.
Heat races were won by Conover, Swartz and Woodard.
Dick, who finished second in the season-long point’s chase in 2016, made the long trek from Leamington, Ontario, Canada worth it picking up his first career Eldora victory leading the 20-lap main event, flag-to-flag.
“Isn’t this cool?” Dick said from victory lane. “There is no better place to win than this. You dream about this, seeing this all the time. You fans are awesome and make this all happen. The race was a lot of fun. I got a little worried with all the lapped traffic but it was a lot of fun driving out there. This is Eldora. Nice heavy cushion and a fast race track and I just had a ball.” Jerry Bowersock finished in the runner-up position for the second consecutive week, while Evan Taylor, Josh Morton, and Weasel Phlipot rounded out the top-five.
“The cushion was a little more treacherous than I like it,” Bowersock said. “Last week was more my style, I think I am getting too old for the fast-track stuff. But we won last night in Lima and a second tonight so we will take it.”
Dick and second-generation driver Dylan Woodling won the two heat races.
The Vores Compact Touring Series made their only appearance of the 2017 season at the World Greatest Dirt Track and the 37 competitors did not disappoint. The event featured four lead changes, three-wide racing and several drivers making charges to the front from deep in the field.
Weaver, of York, Pennsylvania, survived a mid-race battle with Terry Eaton to pick up the $1,000 top prize. Weaver and Eaton swapped the lead three times before Weaver took control of the 15-lap event on lap nine. Eaton finished in second-place ahead of defending race winner Matthew Morris, who led the first three laps. The top three finishes qualified Weaver, Eaton and Morris for the series race at Bristol Motor Speedway next month. Mark Mason, who started 21st and Trent Gosser rounded out the top five.
Harvey Yoder, Bo Hoelscher and Eaton won the three heat races.
Eldora Speedway will return to action on Friday, May 12th and Saturday, May 13th with the #LetsRaceTwo Doubleheader Weekend featuring the winged sprint cars of the World of Outlaws Craftsman Sprint Car Series and the wingless United States Auto Club (USAC) Amsoil National Sprint Cars.
DIRTcar UMP Modifieds
Heat 1 – (8 Laps) 1. 3W-Dylan Woodling[1] ; 2. 95J-Jerry Bowersock[6] ; 3. 5-Jonathan Taylor[8] ; 4. 52-Weasel Phlipot[9] ; 5. 11H-Mike Hohlbein[2] ; 6. 7-Evan Taylor[5] ; 7. P0-Brody Pompe[10] ; 8. 13-Andy Galgoci[7] ; 9. 20M-Josh Morton[3] ; 10. 4-Mike Learman[4]
Heat 2 – (8 Laps) 1. 09D-Joel Dick[5] ; 2. 88-Scott Orr[1] ; 3. 01-Earnie Woodard[8] ; 4. 18-Ryan Sutter[6] ; 5. 71D-Anthony Davis[10] ; 6. 188-Aaron Orr[3] ; 7. 17-Jeffrey Ramsey[7] ; 8. 31-Jeffrey Surber[9] ; 9. 11S-Tyler Smith[4]
A-Feature – (20 Laps) 1. 09D-Joel Dick[1] ; 2. 95J-Jerry Bowersock[3] ; 3. 7-Evan Taylor[11] ; 4. 20M-Josh Morton[17] ; 5. 52-Weasel Phlipot[7] ; 6. 11H-Mike Hohlbein[9] ; 7. 13-Andy Galgoci[15] ; 8. 18-Ryan Sutter[8] ; 9. 3W-Dylan Woodling[2] ; 10. 01-Earnie Woodard[6] ; 11. 5-Jonathan Taylor[5] ; 12. 11S-Tyler Smith[18] ; 13. 71D-Anthony Davis[10] ; 14. P0-Brody Pompe[13]
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Eldora Stock Cars
Heat 1 – (8 Laps) 1. 7-Jordan Conover[5] ; 2. J2-Rob Trent[2] ; 3. 5G-Anthony Goode[1] ; 4. 27-Frank Paladino[8] ; 5. 15-Drew Trick[7] ; 6. 99-Andy King[3] ; 7. 1W-Mark Wooten[4] ; 8. 11-T.J Smith[6]
Heat 2 – (8 Laps) 1. 5W-Craig Swartz[7] ; 2. 65-Brent Sutton[3] ; 3. 91-Ed Hounshell[6] ; 4. 463-Daniel Sanchez[5] ; 5. 23-Casey Barr[1] ; 6. 14-Ronnie Bloomfield[4] ; 7. 87-Andy Welch[2]
Heat 3 – (8 Laps) 1. 01-Earnie Woodard[5] ; 2. 17C-Jeremy Creech[3] ; 3. 95-Gary Rahe Jr[7] ; 4. 55-Brandon Archey[2] ; 5. 99J-Donnie Jeschke[1] ; 6. 33-Erik Skaggs[4] ; 7. 17-Red Harvey Jr.[6]
A-Feature – (15 Laps) 1. 01-Earnie Woodard[3] ; 2. J2-Rob Trent[4] ; 3. 7-Jordan Conover[1] ; 4. 65-Brent Sutton[5] ; 5. 95-Gary Rahe Jr[9] ; 6. 27-Frank Paladino[10] ; 7. 55-Brandon Archey[12] ; 8. 99J-Donnie Jeschke[15] ; 9. 5G-Anthony Goode[7] ; 10. 23-Casey Barr[14] ; 11. 463-Daniel Sanchez[11] ; 12. 5W-Craig Swartz[2] ; 13. 91-Ed Hounshell[8] ; 14. 1W-Mark Wooten[19] ; 15. 17C-Jeremy Creech[6] ; 16. 99-Andy King[16] ; 17. 11-T.J Smith[22] ; 18. 17-Red Harvey Jr.[21]
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Vore’s Compacts
Heat 1 – (8 Laps) 1. 82-Harvey Yoder[1] ; 2. 88-Josh Foltz[4] ; 3. 00-Dan Smith[10] ; 4. 53D-Tim Dilg[7] ; 5. 51-Tom Mayworm[8] ; 6. 24T-Aaron Teegarden[5] ; 7. 9T-Nicholas Meade[2] ; 8. 28-BJ Honious[6] ; 9. 17-William Honious[9] ; 10. 14-Joseph Jennings[3]
Heat 2 – (8 Laps) 1. 27-Bo Hoelscher[4] ; 2. 54-John Trimble[2] ; 3. 024-Cole Roelofs[7] ; 4. 13-Mark Jennings[6] ; 5. 18B-Brogan Rehklau[11] ; 6. 91G-Cory Gumm[1] ; 7. 07-Steve Vore[9] ; 8. 63-Larry Hatfield[5] ; 9. 67-Robert Rahm[13] ; 10. 25S-Jacob Straka[12] ; 11. 31-JR Vester[8] ; 12. 23-Case Roelofs[10]
Heat 3 – (8 Laps) 1. 4-Terry Eaton[1] ; 2. 21-Ricky Weaver[13] ; 3. 97M-Matthew Morris[4] ; 4. 71E-Trent Gosser[12] ; 5. 1T-Chad Tomezak[7] ; 6. 95-David Yoder[2] ; 7. 1X-Mark Mason[8] ; 8. 69X-Jeff Isbell[11] ; 9. 0-Tom Gossar[3] ; 10. 37-Darek Morris[6] ; 11. 56-Sean Frederick[10] ; 12. 01-David Nehl[9] ; 13. 5B-Brett Smith[5]
A-Feature – (15 Laps) 1. 21-Ricky Weaver[5] ; 2. 4-Terry Eaton[8] ; 3. 97M-Matthew Morris[2] ; 4. 1X-Mark Mason[21] ; 5. 71E-Trent Gosser[12] ; 6. 27-Bo Hoelscher[9] ; 7. 024-Cole Roelofs[3] ; 8. 0-Tom Gossar[27] ; 9. 54-John Trimble[6] ; 10. 82-Harvey Yoder[10] ; 11. 95-David Yoder[18] ; 12. 88-Josh Foltz[7] ; 13. 53D-Tim Dilg[1] ; 14. 24T-Aaron Teegarden[16] ; 15. 37-Darek Morris[30] ; 16. 51-Tom Mayworm[13] ; 17. 00-Dan Smith[4] ; 18. 07-Steve Vore[20] ; 19. 13-Mark Jennings[11] ; 20. 31-JR Vester[31] ; 21. 28-BJ Honious[22] ; 22. 63-Larry Hatfield[23] ; 23. 67-Robert Rahm[26] ; 24. 01-David Nehl[34] ; 25. 9T-Nicholas Meade[19] ; 26. 69X-Jeff Isbell[24] ; 27. 56-Sean Frederick[32] ; 28. 17-William Honious[25] ; 29. 5B-Brett Smith[35] ; 30. 18B-Brogan Rehklau[14] ; 31. 14-Joseph Jennings[28] ; 32. 1T-Chad Tomezak[15] ; 33. 25S-Jacob Straka[29] ; 34. 91G-Cory Gumm[17] ; 35. 33-Justin Brown[36]
Courtesy CampbellPhoto.com
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Lap chart PDF documents can be viewed below. The charts show running order, lap times and charge (+/-) for each lap crossing and each car.