Sharon Speedway race report

HARTFORD, OH - Kenny Jacobs has always loved Sharon Speedway. Friday night at Sharon in the All Star sprint 30-lap feature, Jacobs pocketed another $5,000 for his first win of 2001, outrunning a hard charging Jerrod Hull.

"Jerrod caught me off guard," Jacobs recalled. "I was going down the back straightaway and all of a sudden there's a car. I thought 'wow, where did he come from'? Jerrod just made me run a lot harder than I was running. The tires started locking down and we got good at the end." Jacobs' Maxim, with Kriner power and Goodyear tires, is sponsored by Classic Racing Products and wrenched by Aaron Hammer and Chad Jones.

Rodney Duncan started the Harrison Trucking machine on the ButlerBuilt Hot Seat pole with Kenny Jacobs alongside and Dean Jacobs in the Peterbilt No. 7 and Chad Kemenah's Gambler comprised row two.

Kenny Jacobs jumped out to the immediate lead at the start, with Duncan second and Kemenah third. Lynch, who started sixth, passed Kemenah then tried Duncan on the front stretch for three laps unsuccessfully before passing Duncan high on the backstretch on lap five for second. Lynch began cutting into Jacobs' huge lead as the leader entered lapped traffic.

Lap eight was a disaster for several top runners as the lapped cars of Bruce Robenalt and Barry Ruble collided, with Ruble being hit by fifth place Greg Wilson, who flipped. Sixth running Dean Jacobs was also involved in the collision, which brought out the red. Second place Lynch had to change a flat under the red, relegating him to the tail for the restart. Wilson and D. Jacobs were able to restart on the tail.

The restart order was now K. Jacobs, Duncan, Kemenah and Danny Smith, who started seventh.

Jacobs pulled ahead of Duncan when the green reappeared, with Kemenah third and ninth starter Hull moving into fourth ahead of Smith. Dean Jacobs stopped on the track on lap 13, ending his race. Kelly Kinser also stopped a lap later, dropping him from ninth. The order was now K. Jacobs, Duncan, Hull, who got past Kemenah just before the last yellow, Jason Johnson and Smith. Scott Bonnell stopped on lap 16 for yet another caution. Following that restart, Hull moved Guy Webb's machine past Duncan for the runner-up spot. Hull was running the high groove and moved in on Jacobs. The pair were side by side on lap 19, and Hull pulled ahead by a nose going down the front stretch to lead lap 20. He was also ahead on lap 21, but Jacobs regained the top spot for good on lap 22. He led the rest of the way, pulling away from Hull to win by three seconds at the end of the 15 mile contest.

Hull's second was the best finish of his All Star career. "The car was working good. Galen Fox gave us a brand new engine, we just put it in tonight and man did this thing run," Hull said. "We just picked them off one at a time. We changed gears under the red and then we got the lead for a bit but Kenny figured it out and got back around us."

Duncan wheeled the Harrison Trucking machine home third. "We were okay tonight, but they were just better. I'm happy with third," he said.

Danny Smith ended up fourth with Kemenah fifth and Travis Rilat sixth after starting last. Jason Johnson finished seventh, winning the Team Simpson Racing Lucky Seven award after using the high groove to get up to third at one point. Brian Ellenberger, Greg Wilson and Lynch completed the top ten.

The K-T Equipment heat went to Kelly Kinser, the JB Enterprise Racing Products heat to Jerrod Hull, the Crown Battery heat to Jason Johnson and the Engler Machine & Tool heat to Rob Chaney while Phil Gressman won the B Main. Dean Jacobs captured the Haulmark Dash. Mike Wagner flipped on the last lap of his heat race, and he emerged uninjured but was unable to start the B Main. Travis Rilat changed an engine following his heat, but did not get repairs completed in time to start the B Main. Rilat entered the A Main as a provisional starter. Ed Lynch, Jr.'s lap of 15.538 seconds was a new track record, snapping Jeff Shepard's 15.710 mark set last September.

Scott Stiffler won the 15 lap e-mod main over Jim White, who led the first nine laps. Bob McCann was third ahead of Paul Phillips and Russ Dunn.

Time Trials: 1. Ed Lynch, Jr., Lynch 2L, 15.538 (NTR); 2. Greg Wilson,
Hampshire 63, 15.656; 3. Chad Kemenah, Harble 15k, 15.689; 4. Dean Jacobs,
Daugherty 7, 15.693; 5. Travis Rilat, Archer U2, 15.858; 6. Kenny Jacobs,
Jacobs/Honecker 6, 15.866; 7. Rodney Duncan, Harrison 22, 15.922; 8. Danny
Smith, Baker 4, 15.999; 9. Johnny Herrera, Holbrook 8H, 16.007; 10. Jerrod
Hull, Webb 51, 16.010; 11. Jason Johnson, Elden 22e, 16.022; 12. Mike
Wagner, Wagner 55, 16.049; 13. Jarod Larson, Clemson 47, 16.064; 14. Phil
Gressman, Wise 97, 16.085; 15. Byron Reed, B&S 5, 16.104; 16. Scott
Bonnell, Bonnell 3, 16.115; 17. Kelly Kinser, Kinser 4k, 16.141; 18. Brian
Ellenberger, Ellenberger 20, 16.175; 19. Bruce Robenalt, Robenalt 98,
16.208; 20. Rob Chaney, Courtad 9x, 16.277; 21. Gary Edwards, Schuller 61,
16.286; 22. Mike Lutz, Scott & Shaffer 45, 16.366; 23. Jamie McKinney,
Momentum 95, 16.422; 24. Barry Ruble, Ruble 63, 16.422; 25. Marty Ling,
Best 47, 16.452; 26. Mike Kekich, Kekich 5k, 16.572; 27. Brad Ellenberger,
Ellenberger 87, 16.633; 28. Mike Woodring, Woodring 19, 16.767; 29. C. W.
Harshman, Harshman 53, 16.809; 30. Chad Hill, Hill 44, 16.857; 31. Gary
McCollum, McCollum 17, 17.002; 32. Paul White, White 00, 17.694; 33. Dan
Taylor, Taylor 22, 17.769; 34. Shawn Stidfole, Stidfole 37, 18.191; 35.
Butch Beasley, Beasley 1, 23.147; 36. Mike Marano II, M&M 34, 24.786.

   K-T Equipment Rental Heat (8 laps): 1. Kinser 2. Herrera 3. Lynch 4.
Edwards 5. Larson 6. Rilat 7. Ling 8. Harshman 9. Taylor.

   JB Enterprise Racing Products Heat (8 laps): 1. Hull 2. K. Jacobs 3.
Lutz 4. Brian Ellenberger 5. Wilson 6. Gressman 7. Kekich 8. Stidfole 9.
Hill.

   Crown Battery Heat (8 laps): 1. Johnson 2. Reed 3. Kemenah 4. Duncan 5.
McKinney 6. Robenalt 7. Brad Ellenberger 8. McCollum 9. Beasley.

   Engler Machine & Tool Heat (8 laps): 1. Chaney 2. D. Jacobs 3. Bonnell
4. Smith 5. Ruble 6. Woodring 7. Wagner 8. White.

   Haulmark Dash (4 laps): 1. D. Jacobs 2. Lynch 3. Kemenah 4. Wilson 5.
K. Jacobs 6. Duncan.

   B Main (12 laps): 1. Gressman 2. Robenalt 3. Ling 4. Kekich 5. Woodring
6. Stidfole 7. Harshman 8. McCollum 9. White 10. Taylor 11. Beasley.

   A Main (30 laps): 1. Kenny Jacobs 2. Jerrod Hull 3. Rodney Duncan 4.
Danny Smith 5. Chad Kemenah 6. Travis Rilat 7. Jason Johnson 8. Brian
Ellenberger 9. Greg Wilson 10. Ed Lynch Jr. 11. Byron Reed 12. Mike Kekich
13. Johnny Herrera 14. Phil Gressman 15. Rob Chaney 16. Jamie McKinney 17.
Scott Bonnell 18. Marty Ling 19. Kelly Kinser 20. Dean Jacobs 21. Barry
Ruble 22. Bruce Robenalt 23. Jarod Larson 24. Gary Edwards 25. Mike Lutz
(DNS).

Lap Leaders; Kenny Jacobs 1-19; Jerrod Hull 20-21; Kenny Jacobs 22-30.

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