Williams Grove and Lincoln Speedway’s PA (Easter Road Trip 2008)

RICK @ the RACES (Easter 2008 Road Trip)

21 March Williams Grove Speedway PA

22 March Lincoln Speedway PA

It was six years ago that I made my first ten hour journey to the Hagerstown Speedway in Maryland, from Ontario, which I did in a rusty old Honda Civic, that owned at the time. I remember ‘roughing it’ by sleeping in the car on the way down . The trip was a blast, and the racing I witnessed that night was first class. I saw Gary Tomkins win his first big SUPER DIRT SERIES race.

Since that day, back in 2002, I’ve completed three more trips to Hagerstown in an attempt to re-live that first experience. They have all been unsuccessful.

On my second visit, the night came to an end after snow started falling during the rolling laps of the first race.

On my third visit , it got canceled when bad weather was expected , and the same thing has just happened this weekend !

Lucky for long distance race fans, there are other tracks in the area.

For the second time, the Lincoln Speedway in Pennsylvania came to my rescue.

I left a snow covered Maxville in Eastern Ontario at 5-30 am on Good Friday with the intention of catching the evening races for Sprint Cars at the Williams Grove Speedway PA on the way down. Like my previous road trip south, I was accompanied by my buddy Roger Aubin and we used his Ford Escape as our transport.

Once we crossed in to the USA the snow on the ground disappeared, and by the time we arrived at the ‘Grove’ ( mid afternoon) we were in another world.

The sun was shining and the grass was clearly visible. I haven’t seen the grass in my garden since last November !
It wasn’t long after our arrival that I bumped into a couple of DIRT Modified fans from New York that I knew, (photographer Bobby Armbruster and his buddy) and it was them that relayed the bad news about my latest Hagerstown cancellation.

Apparently it was called off early , to save race teams and fans a wasted journey with some predicted bad weather on the way. Of course this was too late for us.

This was my second visit to Williams Grove, and although Sprint Cars are not my favorite division, this place has to be one of the best places to see them. This part of the USA is a hot-bed of Sprint Car racing with many local hero’s and the famed ‘PA Posse’.

Joining local stars ,’Fast’ Freddy Rahmer, Greg Hodnett , and Lance Dewease were the World Of Outlaws invaders, of Craig Dollansky ( Minnesota) and Joey Saldana (Indiana).

Making an appearance in the spare Saldana car was NASCAR SPRINT CUP driver Kasey Kahne, taking advantage of the series break for Easter and get back to his roots
I was there early enough to wander through the pits soon after they opened, and before it got too busy. I soon spotted Kasey , wearing a grey touque (beanie) who was working on his car. I must admit, it surprised me to see him grab the fuel can and funnel and fill it up. He followed this by working on his tires. I guess you don’t expect a ‘Superstar’ to be in the pits getting his hands dirty with the rest of the crew. He was definitely not aloof and it was obvious he just wanted to be ‘one of the guys’.

When the fans started arriving in the pits he found time to chat , sign autographs and have pictures taken. Great Stuff ! Full Marks to you Kasey !

The nights feature came under red flag conditions after Chris Meleason flipped and hit the front stretch inner wall. After the restart Dollansky, current World of Outlaws points leader took the checkers.

That night was spent in a motel close to the Flying J Truck Stop at Carlisle and we awoke Saturday morning to find about an inch of snow on the car. The snow soon melted and following breakfast, our next task was to figure out where ( and if ) we were going to see any more racing over the weekend.

Of course, with my past record of Hagerstown cancellations, I’d made back up plans.

There were three possibilities of local Saturday night tracks.

After phoning Port Royal Speedway PA, we found they had canceled. We checked the Selinsgrove Speedway PA web site on the Truck Stop internet service, and found that they had canceled too.

We couldn’t get through, by phone ( it was permanently busy) to the Lincoln Speedway PA , but decided to risk it, and go anyway.

This proved to be a good move .

The place was dry, there were race car haulers waiting to get in the gate,and a team of guys were working on the track. All good signs ! We even met up with a bunch of fellow Canadian race fans from Quebec.

Like Williams Grove , the headline division were the 410 Sprint Cars, with many of the previous nights runners, including Kasey Kahne. Legends and Thunder Cars were also on the program. I was very impressed with the appearance of the Thunder Cars ( the regular 8 cylinder stock car division) Nearly all of them had top quality paint jobs, and were a credit to their owners.

The Sprint Car feature which was completed nicely around 9-00pm was won by local favorite Greg Hodnett.Once again I enjoyed my visit to the Lincoln Speedway , an impressive dirt track that I can recommend . The swift turn around of the show and the early finish allowed us to be on our way, and we were booked into a motel in Scranton PA around mid-night.