Scott Hall
MAYETTA, KS – It was youth over experience
Monday night at Thunder Hill
17-year-old Cody Geldart led
all the way for his first career All Star win.
Aboard the Geldart
Transportation, Oshweken Speedway, Kear’s Speed Shop
Hampshire powered Maxim, the
Mossley,
Californian Jonathan Allard
for the triumph.
“This was awesome, I love this track…the
track is awesome… I love the
banking… the car was fast
all night,” an excited Geldart recited in victory
lane. “I knew that we lost
some water but the engine temperature didn’t
change so I kept going. I
wasn’t going to stop for anything,” he concluded.
He became the 17th feature
winner of the year out of 24 All Star events.
For the start of the main it was All Star
Rookie-of-the-Year points
leader Geldart on the pole
with Greg Wilson alongside with Jeremy Campbell
and Allard in row two. Chad
Kemenah and Randy Hannagan comprised row three
and once the green flew,
Hannagan and Kemenah tangled in turn one and
flipped with Brock Mayes
ending up on his side in the melee. Kemenah was
eliminated from the event by
the accident. Mayes was able to return for the
original restart and
Hannagan returned to the track following another yellow
before a lap was in the
books. The next attempt for a start saw Mayes
hitting the turn three fence
for another caution. Once the event finally
started, Geldart jumped into
the immediate lead, followed by
Racing No. 22 and Allard in
the Williams No. 0. Geldart was just getting
into lapped traffic on lap
six when another red flew for the No. 20 of Ron
Leifholz who hit the turn
four fence. Leifholz was taken to a local hospital
with back pains.
For the restart it was Geldart leading
Wilson, Allard, Campbell, Dale
Blaney, Danny Smith and Paul
May. Geldart ran the top groove of the 3/8 mile
high banked oval and pulled
away again on the restart as Allard and Campbell
battled for third behind
running around the top
groove with a straightaway lead on
moved into the top ten after
restarting last.
Lap 18 saw Hannagan get by Bob Bennett for
seventh as the pack up front
maintained their positions.
With eight laps to go, all that changed as
Allard snuck by
up facing the wrong way with
front end damage. The rest of the field avoided
his machine, but he was done
for the evening.
While the race was being restarted,
Geldart’s machine was noted to be
losing water on the front
stretch. Although it was in the back of the
leader’s mind, he kept
racing. With six laps to go, action heated up with
Smith moving to fourth
passing Blaney and a circuit later May also got by
Blaney for fifth and the
amazing Hannagan got by for sixth. The final
caution flew on lap 28 for
Blaney’s flat right rear tire, which put him out
of a top five finish. This
set up a green, white, checkered sequence for the
finish and Geldart won
easily. He ran the top groove the entire time,
dropping low down only to
get by lapped cars. Allard rode home second,
followed by
his best finish of the year.
Blaney’s finish and the DNF of series’
points leader Chad Kemenah enabled
Blaney to pull within 61
points of the lead in the battle for the $50,000
All Star points
championship.
The Crown Battery heat fell to Sam
Hafertepe, Jr., the B&B Products heat
went to Brock Mayes and the
Engler Machine and Tool heat was won by Mike
Leifholz. Hannagan was the
Huggins Cams Fast Time qualifier with a new track
record of 12.340 seconds and
captured the Haulmark Dash
Huggins Cams Time Trials: 1. Randy Hannagan,
12.34 (NTR); 2.
Kemenah, 12.41; 3. Jonathan
Allard, 12.50; 4. Jeremy Campbell, 12.50; 5.
Greg Wilson, 12.53; 6. Cody
Geldart, 12.53; 7. Danny Smith, 12.59; 8. Brock
Mayes, 12.63; 9. Jim
Cameron, 12.71; 10. Dale Blaney, 12.75; 11. Paul May,
12.84; 12.
Bennett, 13.03; 15. Mike
Leifholz, 13.18; 16. Ron Leifholz, 13.32; 17. Chris
Morgan, 13.72; 18. Tim
Newman, 14.37; 19. Kelly Kneisler, 14.53.
Crown
Blaney 4-Jeremy
B&B Products Heat (8 laps): 1-Brock
Mayes 2-Chad Kemenah 3-Greg
4-Bob Bennett 5-Paul May
6-Chris Morgan
Engler Machine & Tool Heat (8 laps):
1-Mike Leifholz 2-Cody Geldart 3-Jim
Cameron 4-Chad Meinholdt
5-Jonathan Allard 6-Tim Newman
Haulmark Dash (4 laps): 1. Hannagan 2.
Kemenah 3.
Smith 6. Geldart.
A
4-Danny Smith
5-Paul May 6-Randy Hannagan
7-Dale Blaney 8-Bob Bennett 9-Sam Hafertepe Jr.
10-Tim Newman 11-Jim Cameron
12-Greg
Morgan 15-Mike Leifholz
16-Ron Leifholz 17-Chad Kemenah 18-Brock Mayes
19-Chad Meinholdt.
Lap Leaders: Cody Geldart 1-30