(01/9/13) Chuck Heller had been fairly quiet this season. No wins and some pretty bad finishes hadn't draw much attention his way. But, Wednesday night, things changed fast. Heller was on the "big" track in his basement, his favorite venue. A hundred and twenty-five laps later, two of Heller's cars were in victory lane being photographed. There was a bit of irony present as the man behind the camera, Lee Greenawalt, was the runner-up in both SCORE events.
From the moment Heller started his rotation in the USAC dirt champ race, he seemed in control. Seventy-five laps afterwards, Heller had collected a nice 46-point total, three more than Greenawalt. Enduring a terrible opening segment, Mike Lengel regrouped to finish strongly, just a pair of markers behind Greenawalt and edging Tim Musser for the third spot. Point leader Carey Becker struggled from the beginning, but managed to top the rest of the nine drivers for fifth.
While Heller's first win of the evening was noteworthy, his victory in the USAC sprint feature was even more impressive. Four segment wins and a second place in the 50 lapper gave Heller a six point bulge ahead of Greenawalt in the final tally. Close behind Greenawalt, Dave Balloch took the third-place honors by tie-breaker over Becker. Musser was just a counter down to the duo to round-out the top five.
With the completion of Wednesday's events, the SCORE season has reached the halfway mark.
USAC Dirt Champ point standings :
C.Becker(2)-235, Balloch(1)-211, Greenawalt-210, H.Hiester-207, Lengel(1)-200, B.Buckwalter-162, Heller(1)-140, D.Becker-133, D.Hiester-131, T.Kobylarz-126, T.Buckwalter-123, Brenner-73, T.Musser,Sr.-69, D.Kurtz-66.
USAC Sprint Car point standings :
Greenawalt(2)-300, C.Becker(2)-273, H.Hiester(1)-224, Balloch-215, Lengel-213, D.Kurtz-198, T.Musser,Sr.-197, D.Becker-177, Heller(1)-176, T.Kobylarz-159, B.Buckwalter-147, T.Buckwalter-121, D.Hiester-95, Brenner-67, Ruppert-23.
***The next race will be USAC midgets and dirt champ cars at Fairview Speedway on January 23.
USAC CHAMP DIRT CARS UP FIRST!
USAC SPRINTS NEXT!