With only pit crews in the stands, five divisions of racing continue at Plymouth Speedway
By Greg Hildebrand
PLYMOUTH—The start of the 2020 season at Plymouth Speedway has been unique with no spectators allowed in the stands, Saturday’s Super Street Feature provided a unique winner. 120 cars across Indiana and surrounding states signed into the pits for the five different classes racing, providing a full night of A-features and several B-features.
Kory Conner, who shares the driving duties with his brother Kody, picked up his first feature since Sept. 2, 2017 in the Super Sports division. Defending Season Champion Frank Marshall captured his first feature of the season in UMP Modifieds. RJ Akers repeated in Street Stocks, Cody Williams won in the non-wing 600 Micro Sprints, and James Headley won again in the Mini Stocks driving a different car from last week.
Conner of Wheatfield, Ind. started on the pole of the Super Sports feature with Porter, Ind. driver Butch Fisher along side.
Conner remained on the point as the positions behind him would shuffle around with everyone trying to get to the bottom of the track. Just as the field started to get strung out a caution at lap 9 would bunch up the field with Ron Wilkes, Lowell, Ind., in second, Merriville’s Joe Spiewak, Fisher, and Gary’s Shaun Wiltjer lined up close behind.
A series of quick yellows would negate all the bumping and position swapping taking place in third through fifth as they would root and bang to swap spots on the restart on to have to give the spots back due to a yellow. Lap 13 caution was the fourth yellow in four laps and would take an extended time to get a couple of obstinate drivers sorted out. “I was thinking just throw the flag,” said Conner about the extended caution period. “I kept having to keep myself focused on the restart while we just circled waiting for the field to get sorted. There was a spot low between three and four that I could get a good restart from.”
The filed was able to get rolling again on lap 15 and race the remaining five circuits green with Conner holding off Wilkes and Spiewak for the win.
The UMP Modifieds would provide a thrilling race as most of the racing up to the feature had been on the bottom of the track, a quick rework of the clay would provide some cushion for the modified racers to use and would open up the racing groove.
Curtis Deisenroth, Oakharbor, Ohio, started on the pole with Clark Lake, Mich. resident Brian Ruhlman along side and these two would race at the front for 23 of the 25 laps. The only caution of the feature was large collection of racers on the front stretch at they were coming to the line to complete lap one Mike Hohlbein of Cloverdale, Ohio would lose the left rear tire due to a part failure and with everyone still bunched up it didn’t leave any room and collected a half dozen racers.
On the restart eventual winner Marshall, Valpariso, Ind., would start from the third row on the outside with eventual runner-up Derek Losh, Rensselaer, Ind., on the inside. These two moved to the cushion with Steven Brooks, New Lenox, Ill., along side.
Losh tried several slide jobs to get passed Marshall and Marshall looked at possible ways to the front. With the front two racing each other tight there just wasn’t a way past.
“The cushion was really high, but above that was mud,” said Marshall. “It took a long time for that high line to become available, but with two laps to go Ruhlman went low to block Deisenroth. When I saw that I had a party in my helmet.” Marshall was past both of them just that quick with two laps to go, Losh would get past coming to the line with the top five all finishing nose to tail.
Dillon Nusbaum and Bobby Stremme would both win their B-features to move to the A put were collected in the opening lap incident and would retire early.
Akers, Portage, Ind., won his second feature in as many weeks over a 26 car field. Trevor Bitterling, Star City, Ind., won the B-feature.
Akers started the feature in the fifth spot with Michael Roe, Valparaiso, Ind., and Lee Hall, Oxford, Ind., on the front row. Hall would lead the first half of the race with three cautions. Akers was in third on lap 6 when a caution slowed the field behind Lee and Roe. After the restart Akers would take the lead on lap 10 and hold on for the victory. Jason Fritz, Winamac, Ind., started eight and raced in the mix up front finishing second with Lee holding down third at the checkers. Jesse Simmons, Danville, Ill., would pick up hard charger of the race starting 14th and finishing just off the podium in fourth.
The 600 non-wing mini sprint had a full field of 21 open wheel racers on the bull ring. Granger’s Nick Schaefer would start on the pole and lead a lion’s share of the race until Cody Williams, Renselear, Ind., got past him with a hand full of laps left. Returning 2019 Track Champion Chad Hartzell also of Granger was back in action for the first time this young season. Hartzell started on the outside of the front row and would finish on the podium. Dylan Woodling, Warsaw, Ind., was the hard charger of the race moving up from his mid field 12th starting spot and finishing in fourth.
James Headley, Wabash, Ind., picked up his second feature but this time in a second team car. Headley would start in fifth with Ashkum, Illinois’s Matthew Balthazor starting on the pole but faded to fourth. Jake Momper, Wilmington, Ill., started third and finished just out of the lead in second ahead of Chris Hillman Jr., Mooresville, Ind., in third.
All five divisions will return Saturday, June 13 with racing scheduled to start at 6:30 p.m. At this time the regulations that restrict spectators are not scheduled to be relaxed until June 14. Follow the track on Facebook or at the website plymouthspeedway.net for any last minute announcements.
6/6/2020 at Plymouth Speedway
Asphalt Mini Stocks
A Feature 1: 1. 0-James Headley[5]; 2. 43-Jake Momper[3]; 3. 11-Chris Hillman Jr[6]; 4. B12-Matthew Balthazor[1]; 5. 8BALL-David Gingerich[4]; 6. 24A-Gage Allen[2]; 7. WFO-Skylar Antonelli[16]; 8. 57X-Chris Joseph[11]; 9. 5X-Brian Isley[7]; 10. 5B-Matthew Baker[9]; 11. 3X-Phillip McCord[8]; 12. 18B-Chad Loyer[10]; 13. 31-Nick Ott[14]; 14. 11B-Michael Bennett[17]; 15. 3-Mike Faylor[12]; 16. 09-Jesse Arenas[15]; 17. 7L-Sam Landis[13]
Heat 1: 1. 24A-Gage Allen[1]; 2. B12-Matthew Balthazor[6]; 3. 0-James Headley[7]; 4. 5X-Brian Isley[2]; 5. 5B-Matthew Baker[4]; 6. 57X-Chris Joseph[3]; 7. 7L-Sam Landis[5]; 8. 09-Jesse Arenas[8]
Heat 2: 1. 8BALL-David Gingerich[3]; 2. 43-Jake Momper[8]; 3. 11-Chris Hillman Jr[9]; 4. 3X-Phillip McCord[4]; 5. 18B-Chad Loyer[2]; 6. 3-Mike Faylor[6]; 7. 31-Nick Ott[1]; 8. WFO-Skylar Antonelli[5]; 9. 11B-Michael Bennett[7]
UMP Modifieds
A Feature 1: 1. 28M-Frank Marshall[8]; 2. 21-Derek Losh[5]; 3. 2D-Curtis Deisenroth[1]; 4. 49-Brian Ruhlman[2]; 5. 5-Steven Brooks[4]; 6. 22C-Nick Clubb[7]; 7. 23-Luke Hubbell[3]; 8. 10-Bradley Jameson[9]; 9. 24-Zeke McKenzie[11]; 10. 0-Garrett Jameson[18]; 11. 22T-Tony Anderson[10]; 12. 2M-Matt Mitchell[15]; 13. 82-Darren Wireman[21]; 14. E85-Jesse Strange[14]; 15. 21C-Drew Charlson[19]; 16. 4G-Bill Griffith[12]; 17. 11H-Mike Hohlbein[6]; 18. 21A-Nick Allen[13]; 19. 17N-Dillon Nusbaum[16]; 20. 53-Bobby Stremme[17]; 21. (DNS) 65-Todd Sherman
B Feature 1: 1. 17N-Dillon Nusbaum[1]; 2. 0-Garrett Jameson[2]; 3. 65-Todd Sherman[6]; 4. 24M-Mike Miller[5]; 5. J7-Joey Iliff[4]; 6. 32-Dan Hubbell[7]; 7. 21M-Riley Misch[10]; 8. 32B-Scott Boyd Jr[8]
B Feature 2: 1. 53-Bobby Stremme[1]; 2. 21C-Drew Charlson[5]; 3. 82-Darren Wireman[8]; 4. 11-Roger Cavness[4]; 5. 15W-Owen Wells[2]; 6. 3W-Dylan Woodling[3]; 7. 25M-Brian Mcfeeters[6]; 8. 48-Adam Pockrus[7]
Heat 1: 1. 21-Derek Losh[4]; 2. 28M-Frank Marshall[1]; 3. 24-Zeke McKenzie[3]; 4. 17N-Dillon Nusbaum[2]; 5. 3W-Dylan Woodling[6]; 6. 65-Todd Sherman[5]; 7. 82-Darren Wireman[7]
Heat 2: 1. 2D-Curtis Deisenroth[2]; 2. 11H-Mike Hohlbein[1]; 3. 4G-Bill Griffith[3]; 4. 53-Bobby Stremme[4]; 5. J7-Joey Iliff[6]; 6. 25M-Brian Mcfeeters[5]; 7. 25B-Braiden Bohlmann[7]
Heat 3: 1. 5-Steven Brooks[1]; 2. 22T-Tony Anderson[3]; 3. 21A-Nick Allen[4]; 4. 0-Garrett Jameson[2]; 5. 11-Roger Cavness[6]; 6. 32-Dan Hubbell[5]; 7. (DNS) 00-Cameron Head
Heat 4: 1. 23-Luke Hubbell[2]; 2. 10-Bradley Jameson[4]; 3. E85-Jesse Strange[3]; 4. 15W-Owen Wells[1]; 5. 24M-Mike Miller[7]; 6. 48-Adam Pockrus[6]; 7. 21M-Riley Misch[5]
Heat 5: 1. 49-Brian Ruhlman[1]; 2. 22C-Nick Clubb[3]; 3. 2M-Matt Mitchell[4]; 4. 17T-Michael Tarlton[2]; 5. 21C-Drew Charlson[5]; 6. 32B-Scott Boyd Jr[6]
Super Sports
A Feature 1: 1. 12-Kory Conner[1]; 2. 19-Ron Wilkes[5]; 3. 28-Joe Spiewak[4]; 4. 11S-Nick Seplak[6]; 5. 1W-Shaun Wiltjer[9]; 6. 20X-John Rhoads[16]; 7. 85-Chuck Smith[12]; 8. 31-Matthew Lambrecht[19]; 9. 15JR-Andrew Short[20]; 10. 83-James Williams[14]; 11. 09-Robert Myers[3]; 12. 22K-Bobby Keller[8]; 13. 57-Jeffery Jessup[7]; 14. 5-Jeff Hartzell[10]; 15. 29S-Tommy Sutton[15]; 16. 6P-Bill Peck[13]; 17. 03F-Butch Fischer[2]; 18. Y2J-Jim Ransom[11]; 19. 37-Dylan Stremme[17]; 20. H8-David Hurst[18]
B Feature 1: 1. 20X-John Rhoads[2]; 2. 37-Dylan Stremme[1]; 3. H8-David Hurst[6]; 4. 31-Matthew Lambrecht[3]; 5. 15JR-Andrew Short[10]; 6. 94-Linc Townsend[9]; 7. 99-Paul Nelson[8]; 8. 111-Kirby Trent[4]; 9. 29-Raigen Rich[7]
Heat 1: 1. 09-Robert Myers[1]; 2. 03F-Butch Fischer[5]; 3. 57-Jeffery Jessup[2]; 4. 5-Jeff Hartzell[8]; 5. 6P-Bill Peck[3]; 6. 37-Dylan Stremme[7]; 7. 111-Kirby Trent[6]; 8. 29-Raigen Rich[4]
Heat 2: 1. 19-Ron Wilkes[3]; 2. 28-Joe Spiewak[1]; 3. 22K-Bobby Keller[2]; 4. Y2J-Jim Ransom[7]; 5. 83-James Williams[4]; 6. 20X-John Rhoads[5]; 7. H0-Lee Hobbs[8]; 8. 99-Paul Nelson[6]
Heat 3: 1. 11S-Nick Seplak[3]; 2. 12-Kory Conner[4]; 3. 1W-Shaun Wiltjer[5]; 4. 85-Chuck Smith[2]; 5. 29S-Tommy Sutton[8]; 6. 31-Matthew Lambrecht[7]; 7. H8-David Hurst[6]; 8. 94-Linc Townsend[1]
Street Stocks
A Feature 1: 1. 14-RJ Akers[5]; 2. 51-Jason Fritz[8]; 3. 90-Lee Hall[2]; 4. 42-Jesse Simmons[14]; 5. 10-Michael Roe[1]; 6. 19-Gregg Tarr[11]; 7. 416-Jason Fuller[9]; 8. 8-Clint Hall[17]; 9. 15-Timothy Larson[15]; 10. 82-Hedy Larson[20]; 11. 78-Clint Bell[7]; 12. 48C-Wade Clemmons[18]; 13. X225-Trevor Bitterling[16]; 14. 62-Josh Warren[6]; 15. 65-Wally Kerst[3]; 16. 114-Austen Hubbard[4]; 17. 77-Greg Long[10]; 18. 58-Nathan Tarr[19]; 19. 9-Ryan Arnett[13]; 20. 28-Rick Paul[12]
B Feature 1: 1. X225-Trevor Bitterling[7]; 2. 8-Clint Hall[8]; 3. 48C-Wade Clemmons[2]; 4. 58-Nathan Tarr[3]; 5. 82-Hedy Larson[1]; 6. 12-Daphine Wheeler[9]; 7. 20S-John Sevison[6]; 8. 94-Blayne Townsend[5]
Heat 1: 1. 65-Wally Kerst[7]; 2. 62-Josh Warren[4]; 3. 78-Clint Bell[5]; 4. 77-Greg Long[8]; 5. 9-Ryan Arnett[1]; 6. 82-Hedy Larson[9]; 7. 21K-Jacob Kolwyck[2]; 8. X225-Trevor Bitterling[3]; 9. 12T-Jamie Tarr[6]
Heat 2: 1. 10-Michael Roe[2]; 2. 90-Lee Hall[3]; 3. 51-Jason Fritz[9]; 4. 19-Gregg Tarr[4]; 5. 42-Jesse Simmons[7]; 6. 48C-Wade Clemmons[5]; 7. 94-Blayne Townsend[1]; 8. 8-Clint Hall[8]; 9. (DNS) 5H-Joshua Hotsinpiller
Heat 3: 1. 14-RJ Akers[2]; 2. 114-Austen Hubbard[6]; 3. 416-Jason Fuller[4]; 4. 28-Rick Paul[7]; 5. 15-Timothy Larson[8]; 6. 58-Nathan Tarr[3]; 7. 20S-John Sevison[5]; 8. 12-Daphine Wheeler[1]
600cc Non Winged Micros
A Feature 1: 1. 26-Cody Williams[4]; 2. 6-Nick Schaefer[1]; 3. 57-Chad Hartzell[2]; 4. 3W-Dylan Woodling[12]; 5. 88-Brian Kunze[5]; 6. 12-Jacob Ruppe[9]; 7. 4S-Parker Tatro[6]; 8. 0-Keith Ousley[3]; 9. 45-Ed Cleveland[11]; 10. 4T-John Barnes[15]; 11. 57P-Robert Pell[14]; 12. 20-Mike Shellenberger[17]; 13. 54-Zachary Clark[13]; 14. 349-Eric Saunders[8]; 15. 29-Kayla Cleveland[7]; 16. A67-Malachi Sweat[20]; 17. 35-Brandon Sweat[19]; 18. 18-Maddy Kinzer[21]; 19. 4-Cameron McArthur[16]; 20. 88J-Jacob Van Wazer[10]; 21. 1A-Andy Alderfer[18]
Heat 1: 1. 6-Nick Schaefer[6]; 2. 88-Brian Kunze[4]; 3. 29-Kayla Cleveland[3]; 4. 88J-Jacob Van Wazer[7]; 5. 54-Zachary Clark[1]; 6. 4-Cameron McArthur[2]; 7. (DNS) 35-Brandon Sweat
Heat 2: 1. 4S-Parker Tatro[5]; 2. 0-Keith Ousley[4]; 3. 349-Eric Saunders[1]; 4. 45-Ed Cleveland[2]; 5. 57P-Robert Pell[7]; 6. 20-Mike Shellenberger[3]; 7. A67-Malachi Sweat[6]
Heat 3: 1. 57-Chad Hartzell[1]; 2. 26-Cody Williams[5]; 3. 12-Jacob Ruppe[7]; 4. 3W-Dylan Woodling[6]; 5. 4T-John Barnes[3]; 6. 1A-Andy Alderfer[4]; 7. 18-Maddy Kinzer[2]
