Motorsports: Montieth earns another Speedweek victory

Motorsports

July 4, 2009

By Shawn Brouse The Daily Item Sat Jul 04, 2009, 12:00 AM EDT

MECHANICSBURG -- Brian Montieth won Thursday's rain delayed Pa Speedweek feature for sprint cars at Williams Grove Speedway, worth $5,000.

The win was the second of the week for Montieth, who kicked off the week-long event last Saturday with a $7,000 victory at Lincoln Speedway. The victories are Montieth's first in the 19-year series.

Montieth started sixth in the 25-lap main and watched the race for the lead unfold between Chris Meleason and Fred Rahmer for the first 11 laps.

Meleason was stout off of the pole and took the immediate lead over Rahmer before continuing to hold the hungry veteran at bay over the first half of the race.

Rahmer applied heavy pressure throughout the early going, ducking inside of the young leader on numerous occasions only to see Meleason ride the outside cushion back into control while the third-place machine of Chad Layton rallied into contention.

The race was close between the front trio when the first and only caution flag unfurled with 11 laps completed.

Meleason changed lanes on the restart and foiled Rahmer's bid for the lead in the first corner, which also ended up costing him his own chance at a first victory.

When Meleason dove low into the turns, Rahmer hopped up and over the leader's mount before flipping over the outside guardrail. Rahmer's exit also impacted Layton, who was making a run to the outside, eyeing a sweeping move for the lead.

With all three cars out of contention, Montieth inherited the lead and survived a strong restart by Speedweek point leader Greg Hodnett to streak to his first win of the season at the track and the third of his career as well.

Montieth termed the Rahmer-Meleason incident for the lead, "just racing.

"The track was pretty even and we were all just sitting there waiting for each other," he said.

Hodnett settled for second followed by Mark Smith, Stevie Smith and Daryn Pittman.

Sixth through 10th went to Todd Shaffer, Justin Henderson, Mike Erdley, Cody Darrah and Alan Krimes.

Heats for the 35-car field went to Erdley, Keith Kauffman, Henderson and Doug Esh with Dave Ely scoring the B Main. Hodnett set fast time with a lap of 16.656 seconds.

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