Selinsgrove Speedway is set to cap off the 2009 season with the eighth annual Open for 358 sprints Saturday at 7 p.m..
Etters driver Pat Cannon has to be the favorite to claim the biggest event of the season for the weekly division aboard the Highlands No. 3 machine.
Cannon is the two-time, defending Open winner and a seven-time victor at the track this year.
This year's race pays $3,000 for 30 laps of work and although Cannon is the favorite, that's not to say he's not worried about the competition.
"Usually your normal guys," Cannon says of who he's most worried about keeping him from three-peating in the Open.
"Obviously (T.J.) Stutts has gotten faster the last couple weeks and (Blane) Heimbach's been hit or miss and you never know when Nate's going to put one together," Cannon said of newly crowned track champion Nate Snyder of Halifax.
Snyder identifies Cannon as his biggest nemesis to picking up his first win of the season at the track in the Open, despite claiming the title.
"I tell you what, he's definitely going to be good but he's definitely beatable," Snyder says of Cannon.
"There were nights when we were close to him. We gotta go with our A game and give it 100 percent but them boys there, they got their program together," he says of the Cannon/Highlands team.
As a two-time winner at the track this year and one-time 358 Open winner in 2005, Selinsgrove's Blane Heimbach feels he does have a shot at Cannon this weekend despite his own lack of consistent speed this year.
"I'm not really worried about stopping the three, cause if I have my car the way I need it, I won't have a problem," Heimbach says.
"He's just had his car really, really good, but he's beatable. But you gotta get your car right.
"You just gotta do everything you possibly can to put yourself in a position to win that race and that's what we plan on doing and if it works out for us it does and if not, then back to the drawing board again," said Heimbach.
Both Cannon and Heimbach expressed dismay that the marquee event for 358s at the track has seen a reduction in purse this year, paying $2,000 less to the winner than last year.
"Is it a disappointment? Heck yeah! It's always kind of scary when it goes down. And that could be a route to go back down the following year," Heimbach notes.
Cannon says he'd like to see the purse for the 358 Open mirror or better that of the 410s at the track instead of being less.
"You never want to go backwards or regress, you want to feel like you're moving forward and it is like you'd almost like to see the 358s get the bigger purse than the 410s, the way it's gone the last couple years," Cannon says of the track's trend in recent seasons of producing better fields of 358s and better racing.
But in the end, Cannon sums up everyone's game plan for Saturday night the best.
"You just gotta' be on your toes and go after it."
Sports
Related Photos
Discussion
Motorsports: Cannon the favorite In 358 Open
- Sports
-
-
Defense helps Crusaders snap skid
The going hasn't been easy for the Susquehanna University women's basketball team this season. So much so, that it hasn't won a game in more than a month.
-
SU rides Harley to win
With the chants of "ride the Harley" coming from the student body, sophomore Harley Sellinger certainly took visiting Goucher for a spin Friday night.
-
HS Roundup: Braves close in on playoff bid
Counted for dead not too long ago, the Shikellamy Braves are still alive and kicking and they are now one win away from making the District 4 playoffs.
-
Danville stays in HAC-I title race
When their 13-point lead had been whittled to seven midway through the fourth quarter Friday, the Danville girls were at a tipping point.
-
Harold Raker's column on high school wrestling: Playing the name game
Going into last weekend, with four Valley teams competing in the District 4 Class AA and AAA Duals Tournament, I had already made tentative plans to be in Hershey this week. Had things gone really well, I would have still been in Chocolatetown, covering at least one of them in the state tournament.
-
NCAA denies UConn APR waiver request
The NCAA on Friday turned down the University of Connecticut's request for a waiver that would allow its men's basketball team to play in the 2013 national championship tournament.
-
College Lacrosse: Bucknell men prepare to improve upon great season
LEWISBURG -- It started a handful of years ago, when the Bucknell men's lacrosse team put a big 'X' on the national map in Central Pennsylvania with an upset of No. 1 Maryland. From that point on Bison coach Frank Fedorjaka has had a difficult time getting big-time opponents on the schedule, even with Bucknell opting to travel under the worst of circumstances.
-
High school football: Pratt says Kutztown the right fit
SUNBURY -- When Shikellamy's Tyler Pratt joins the Kutztown University football team as a free safety next fall, he will already have a good feeling for what his position coach will expect from him. Pratt, who signed a national letter of intent this week to accept a scholarship offer to play for the Golden Bears, will be under the tutelage of his father's high school football coach.
-
Todd Stanford On high school boys basketball: Increasing the refs' workload
If two heads are better than one, does that mean six eyes are better than four? Not necessarily, according to some Heartland Athletic Conference officials. There is a move afoot in the HAC to cut the number of basketball referees from three to two for part of the season beginning next year.
-
High School Roundup: Greenwood boys complete perfect TVL season
Greenwood capped off an unbeaten 2011-12 Tri-Valley League season by crushing Halifax 61-38 on Thursday Night.
- More Sports Headlines
-
Defense helps Crusaders snap skid
