By Shawn Wood
For The Daily Item
SELINSGROVE -- Pat Cannon, fresh off being crowned the 358 Sprint Car champion at Selinsgrove Speedway, captured his second straight Jim Nace Memorial National Open for 410 Sprint Cars on Saturday.
It was the 30th anniversary for the event and Cannon collected $6,000 for the win.
Cannon, who started the second segment on the pole, led all 22 laps for the Open win.
An intense battle developed over the last few laps between Mark Smith and Blane Heimbach with Heimbach, who tagged the wall on lap 42 in turn two, holding on for second. Smith was third with Greg Hodnett taking fourth and Chad Layton finishing fifth.
Sixth through 10th were Daryn Pittman, Logan Schuchart, Lance Dewease, Brent Marks and T.J. Stutts, respectively.
Brian Leppo who set fast time in qualifying, slowed coming out of turn four on lap 24 to bring out the first caution in the second segment. While under caution, Danny Lasoski who dominate the first 22-lap segment for the win, pulled into the pits and missed out on the $14,000 bonus if he could have won the segment.
It's the third time in three years that the bonus was not claimed.
The second red flag of the night came out on lap 32 when Davey Sammons took a wild ride, flipping in turn two. Sammons, who running sixth at the time.
In the first 22-lap segment, Danny Lasoski led all 22 laps to collect the $6,000 segment prize.
Lasoski, who timed 13th quick, easily won his heat race and then drew the third starting spot for the A-Main.
The initial start was called back when Line Mountain graduate Mike Erdly spun in turn three.
Lasoski took the lead on the second attempt and started to pull away from newly crowned Lincoln Speedway 410 Sprint Car champion Danny Dietrich.
The leaders encountered lapped traffic on lap six with Lasoski rim-ridding in the turns to maintain the lead with Dietrich closing in.
Doug Esh brought out the first yellow when he slowed on lap 11 with a right-rear flat tire. On the restart, Lasoski again pulled away while Dietrich who made an incredible save after getting sideways in turn two.
Brian Montieth brought out the red flag on lap 16 when a flat tire caused him to flip in turn two. He was able to return to the track to complete the first segment.
Lasoski went on to win the first segment by nearly three second over Greg Hodnett — who moved into second with a low-side turn four pass of Dietrich on lap 17.
Layton finished third with Pittman finishing fourth and Dietrich rounding out the top five. Sixth through 10th were Smith, Dewease, Cannon, Schuchart and Sammons, respectively.
Heats for the 29 410 Sprint Cars went to Lasoski, Layton, Niki Young and Hodnett. Colby Womer, the nephew of the late Jim Nace, won the B-Main while Leppo set fast time in qualifying with a lap of 15.993 seconds, just missing the track record set by Pittman of 15.810 seconds.
The late model race was not started before press time. Heat winners for the 27 late models went to Meade Hahn, Chris Huey and Tony Adams.
Jim Yoder won the consolation event.
