Dylan Yoder wins the Showdown On Sand Hill at Selinsgrove Speedway

SELINSGROVE, Pa. — After Dylan Yoder cleared pole-sitter Bryan Bernheisel in the early stages of Saturday night’s Super Late Model feature at Selinsgrove Speedway, there was only one thing on his mind: Hog the bottom and ride it to Victory Lane.

Rubber had built around the high-banked 0.5-mile dirt speedway and as the 30-lap feature wore on, passing became more difficult. Yoder passed Bernheisel on Lap 3 and led the final 27 laps to polish off his master plan, winning the Northeast Ultimate SLM Series Showdown On Sand Hill at Selinsgrove.

“It’s good to win a big race here,” said Yoder, who bagged $3,000 in the process. “My car was just really good on the bottom from the start. We got the lead past Bernheisel; he’s won a couple here already. When we passed him, I just held onto the bottom because I knew it’d be hard for him to pass me. I figured I’d be alright.”

Yoder had to fend off three restarts for his third SLM win of the season — on Laps 15, 17 and 23. On the first restart, he pulled away instantly from Jason Covert and the rest of the pack, but on the last two, more was needed.

Covert challenged Yoder on the Lap-17 restart, sticking his nose under Yoder’s rear as the two barreled down the backstretch.

“Heard a couple people behind me,” Yoder “You just gas it up as much as you can without spinning the tires. That’s all you can do.”

Five laps later, Covert’s right rear tire went flat, stacking up the field one more time. This time Jared Miley picked up steam rolling off Turn 2 and forced a side-by-side battle for the lead as eight laps remained. But Yoder chugged ahead once more and didn’t falter.

“We had a good run going down the backstretch there, but Dylan was just so good,” said Miley, who settle for second.

Gene Knaub, Coleby Frye, and Bernheisel rounded out the top five. Jeff Rine, Ross Robinson, Matt Cosner, Dave Brouse Jr. and Kyle Lee completed the top 10.

Yoder’s plans for the rest of the year is to compete for the Port Royal SLM track title, which he currently leads. He also wants to make a trip to Eldora Speedway in Ohio for at least one event — possibly the Daytona 500 of Super Late Model racing: The World 100.

“We ran with the Lucas Oil [Late Model Dirt Series] guys in the [2016] Pittsburgher 100,” said Yoder, referring to his 22nd-place finish amongst the national competition, a similar test to the World 100. “We did it before. So we can do it again.”

RESULTS

Full results from the Super Late Model Showdown On Sandy Hill at @RaceSelinsgrove. pic.twitter.com/zSGk5cFQiX

— Kyle McFadden (@kylermcfadden) June 10, 2018