Rich Vleck, MERCER,
PA, (June 1, 2013)- Sometimes overall track experience is just more critical
than time on the track that night.
Danny Holtgraver,
of Pittsburgh , PA , used his hundreds of laps around Mercer Raceway Park ’s
unique 3/8-mile oval over his career to his advantage on Saturday Night as he
drove from his 20th place starting position to a thrilling win in the
first Patriot Sprint Tour feature at “The Great Race Place” since
2005.
Holtgraver’s participation in the PST event was in
question even after the heat race action as his team’s hauler was broken down
just outside of town and unable to get to the track. Once the No. 45 was in the
pits, he got two quick laps during the dash, which appeared to be all the time
the youngster needed.
“We had an awesome car for getting just two hot laps,”
noted Holtgraver, 23, in Victory Lane . “We just made some good moves and it was
fun out there.”
Scott Kreutter and Justin Barger, the defending PST
America and Canada Champions, respectively, started on the front row, with
Kreutter jumping out to the early advantage. Barger appeared poised to pounce
on the lead on a lap six restart, but Kreutter stayed in front and eventually
Jared Zimbardi would take over the runner-up position. Zimbardi was positioning
himself well, but while that was happening, Holtgraver was on a mad-dash to the
front.
At the time of the first caution flag on lap five,
Holtgraver’s No. 45 was already inside the top 10. Getting inside the top five
was a taller task, but he was still able to accomplish it via some extra
restarts. Holtgraver was up to third by lap nine and already in
position.
Despite cracking in to the top three before halfway, Kreutter and Zimbardi were not ready to roll over. The two most recent winners on tour, as well as the two most recent PST America Champions battled it out for the lead over the second half of the race, but with five laps remaining, Zimbardi was going for the lead on two occasions when the caution flew. On his third bid, “The Juice” drifted high coming off of turn two, opening up the door for Holtgraver to snatch second.
Kreutter still had a solid car, but as he approached lap
traffic coming to three laps to go, Holtgraver saw his opportunity and dove to
the inside of the No. 52 entering turn three and had just enough momentum to
lead coming back to complete lap 22. Over the final three circuits, he would
pad his lead and hang on to become the 52nd different winner of a PST
Points-paying race.
Holtgraver’s win makes it five different winners in the
five PST America events this season. Add to it Steve Poirier’s victory in the
PST Canada race at Merrittville, and no driver has won multiple PST events thus
far in 2013.
Kreutter would surely would have liked to win his fourth
feature in his last five starts in Pennsylvania , but his second place showing
not only preserved his point lead, but helped him expand on it. Zimbardi’s
third place effort enabled him to move into second in the standings as the
season nears its halfway point.
George Suprick won the Original Pizza Logs Four Laps of
Fame Dash for the second time this season and parlayed that performance into a
fourth place finish. Unfortunately, as great as his evening was, his night took
a frightening turn as he suffered a heart attack on the ride home and was flown
to University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.
Justin Barger faded back to fifth with a tight-handling
race car, placing just ahead of Tommy Wickham, who won his heat and finished
sixth for the third straight race. Steve Collins also won his heat and would
place in seventh at one of his favorite tracks.
Brad Knab would finish eighth, just ahead of Adam
Anderson, who charged up from ninth to move in front of Geoff Quackenbush, who
rounded out the top 10.
A total of 20 Patriot Sprints were in competition once
Holtgraver’s No. 45 finally made it into the pits. Jason Scoville was a
surprise heat race winner but spun during the feature drawing on of the four
cautions of the event.
For more information, visit www.PatriotSprintTour.com.
Patriot Sprint Tour America Series Results: 6/1/13, Mercer Raceway Park , Mercer, PA.
Bonnell’s Collision A-Main (25 Laps)-
1. Danny Holtgraver (45), 2. Scott Kreutter (52), 3. Jared
Zimbardi (35), 4. George Suprick (87), 5. Justin Barger (5), 6. Tommy Wickham
(75), 7. Steve Collins (67), 8. Brad Knab (38), 9. Adam Anderson (69), 10. Geoff
Quackenbush (25), 11. Steven Hutchinson Jr. (2), 12. Bruce DeWick (22D), 13.
Dennis Wagner (38o), 14. Jason Scoville (26), 15. Clint Ide (3), 16. Tyler
Graves (25G), 17. Scott Just (54jx), 18. Brandan Warner (10b), 19. Scott Just
(54j), 20. Dave Wickham (80).
Lap Leaders- Kreutter 1-21, Holtgraver
22-25.
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