By Paul Harkenrider (Selinsgrove, PA) | It has been over 12 years since Chad Layton last visited victory lane at Selinsgrove Speedway. This would probably be a surprise to many who were in attendance Saturday night as the Selinsgrove Ford Sponsored No. 35 led all 25 laps securing the 15th annual Joe Whitcomb Memorial over Davie Franek and Cody Keller.
“The guys have been working really hard on this car all season long” said Layton. “Starting up front like that is definitely a clear advantage, there were a lot of fast race cars here and to stay in front of them is what its all about. It does not seem like you can win from eighth or tenth anymore.”
After a red flag involving nearly a third of the field, an open red was called by the PST officials which gave drivers and crew eight minutes to refuel and make tire pressure adjustments. Layton would restart the field next to Cody Keller and the two would begin to battle for the top position.
“On the restart, I was waiting for these cars to drive by me based on what has happened to our team the last couple of months” Layton continued. “It seems like I can never keep these cars behind me, I guess tonight was a little bit different.”
Layton would begin to pull away from second place driver, Cody Keller and build about a three second advantage over the rest of the field. Davie Franek, who started sixth on the grid continued to move forward and set his sights on second place driver Keller. Franek would get a solid line going on the bottom to clear Keller on lap 11.
Laps would continue to click by and Franek was gaining ground on the leader in Layton. Then on lap 21, Brian Nornhold would come to a stop and Layton’s three second advantage was gone. On the restart, Layton would once again get out in the clean air and go on to lead the final four laps and collect the win over Davie Franek, Cody Keller, Kevin Nagy and Justin Barger the top five.
Although finishing second, Franek would receive first place points due to being the first full PST member to cross the line.
“We will take second, we almost had a really big miscue with a lap car” commented Franek.
“We have a little bit of a bent-up race car but we are happy to finish of course and we will just move onto the next one”
When asked about the lap 21 restart, Franek was wishing he took a different racing line heading into three and four.
“He (Layton) did exactly what he had to do, he ran the middle part of the race track. I went high and was hoping it was going to work out but I should have picked the bottom.”
Cody Keller started on the outside pole next to Layton and ran second for the first half of the race before surrendering that second place spot to Franek.
“I just had a lot of fun racing tonight but I am still a little disappointed in the results” said Keller. “We got caught up going into one with a lap car and it was just about hanging on from that point really.”
Keller was still happy with the results, especially with a very strong field of cars in attendance.
“I am happy I am still looking at the car right now, but I think we could have had something for the 35 at the end, we are just happy we got a top three tonight and we will take it from there.”
Kyle Drum was among the PST regulars who had strong run. Drum was running in the top five for a majority of the race but after the lap 21 caution, his tires sealed over and would have to settle for an eighth-place run. Other PST drivers included Jordan Thomas, who finished 12th, as well as Pete Richardson and Steve Glover who finished 16th and 17th, respectively in their first ever starts at Selinsgrove.
The series will have its final race in the month of June this Saturday, June 23 at the Woodhull Raceway, which is a make up race from May 12.
Please be sure to visit www.patriotsprinttour.com, you can also like ‘Patriot Sprint Tour’ on facebook and by following us on Instagram and Twitter @PatriotSprints.
The Patriot Sprint Tour recognizes the following marketing partners for the 2018 season: A-Verdi Storage Containers, Hoosier Racing Tires, Prestige Pool & Spa, Einstein Construction Group, Bonnell’s Auto Group, Bonnell’s Rod Shop, Fine Touch Collision, Mike Emhof Motorsports Inc., Super Gen Products with Champion Power Equipment, Patriot Tank Lines, Danny Willmes Enterprises, Casey’s Truck Salvage, Just Signs & Designs, Brodix Cylinder Heads, Sunoco Race Fuels, Insinger Performance, Shuttleworth Asphalt Sealing, ASI Racewear, Curtis Berleue Photography.
Patriot Sprint Tour Quick Results
Selinsgrove Speedway– Joe Whitcomb Memorial
A Main: 1) 35-CHAD LAYTON (1) 2) 28F-Davie Franek 3) 99k-Cody Keller 4) 45n-Kevin Nagy 5) 5-Justin Barger 6) 47c-Adam Carberry 7) 77-Derek Locke 8) 47-Kyle Drum 9) 66-Ryan Kissinger 10) 49s-Mallie Shuster 11) 14-Coleman Gulick 12) 79-Jordan Thomas 13) 90-Matt Tanner 14) 22r-Mike Koehler 15) 11-Jim Shuster 16) 67-Pete Richardson 17) 121-Steve Glover 18) 17-Josh Azzi 19) 82-Jared Zimbardi 20) 5n-Brian Nornhold 21) 30-Scott Goodrich 22) 14b-Brett Wright 23) 10-Paulie Colagiovanni 24) 45-Chuck Hebing 25) Michael Walter II
Heat 1: 1) 66-Ryan Kissinger 2) 5-Justin Barger 3) 49-Mallie Shuster 4) 47-Kyle Drum 5) 90-Matt Tanner 6) 11-Jim Shuster 7) 30-Scott Goodrich 8) 21-Eric Valinsky
Heat 2: 1) 45n-Kevin Nagy 2) 10-Paulie Colagiovanni 3) 67-Pete Richardson 4) 14B-Brett Wright 5) 17-Josh Azzi 6) 5n-Brian Nornhold
Heat 3: 1) 28f-Davie Franek 2) 99K-Cody Keller 3) 79-Jordan Thomas 4) 14-Coleman Gulick 5) 121-Steve Glover 6) 19-Colby Womer 7) 71-Charlie Anderson
Heat 4: 1) 45-Chuck Hebing 2) 35-Chad Layton 3) 77-Derek Locke 4) 82-Jared Zimbardi 5) 33- Mike Walter 6) 6M- Hank Donavan Jr 7) 22r-Mike Koehler
B Main: 1) 47c-Adam Carberry 2) 11-Jim Shuster 3) 5n-Brian Nornhold 4) 22r-Mike Koehler 5) 30-Scott Goodrich 6) 6m-Hank Donavan Jr 7) 71-Charlie Anderson 8) 21- Eric Valinsky 9) 29-Jason Shultz
Time Trial Results: 1) 49s-Mallie Shuster (17.424) 2) 47c-Adam Carberry (17.449) 3) 79-Jordan Thomas (17.547) 4) 77-Derek Locke (17.516) 5) 47-Kyle Drum (17.539) 6) 45n-Kevin Nagy (17.598) 7) 28f-Davie Franek (17.598) 8) 82-Jared Zimbardi (17.608) 9) 66-Ryan Kissinger (17.642) 10) 10-Paulie Colagiovanni (16.642) 11) 99k-Cody Keller (17.646) 12) 35-Chad Layton (17.669) 13) 5-Justin Barger (17.697) 14) 67-Pete Richardson (17.736) 15) 29-Jason Shultz (17.737) 16) 45-Chuck Hebing (17.753) 17) 90-Matt Tanner (17.842) 18) 5-Brian Nornhold (18.021) 19) 14-Coleman Gulick (18.078) 20) 33-Michael Walter (18.154) 21) 11-Jim Shuster (18.162) 22) 17-Josh Azzi (18.228) 23) 121-Steve Glover (18.225) 24) 6m-Hank Donavan (18.271) 25) 30-Scott Goodrich (18.336) 26) 14B-Brett Wright (18.435) 27) 71-Charlie Anderson (19.100) 28) 22r-Mike Koehler (19.768) 29) 21-Eric Valinsky
Patriot Sprint Tour American Standings: 1) 45-Chuck Hebing (835) 2) 79-Jordan Thomas (762) 3) 10-Paulie Colagiovanni (753) 4) 47-Kyle Drum (712) 5) 67r-Pete Richardson (664) 6) 30-Scott Goodrich (629) 7) 121-Steve Glover (623) 8) 17z-Josh Azzi (554) 9) 81-Derek Jonathan (541) 10) 2-Steven Hutchinson Jr (440) 11) 14b-Brett Wright (407) 12) 28f-Davie Franek (400)