Freddie Rahmer scores fourth Central Pa. win at Williams Grove

MECHANICSBURG, Pa. — After starting the hefty month of June with a pair of DNFs, Freddie Rahmer righted the ship Friday night to win the H&N Landscaping LLC School’s Out 25-lap feature at Williams Grove Speedway.

It’s Rahmer’s fourth Central Pennsylvania win of the season and second overall at Williams Grove.

Rahmer started fourth and hounded Chad Trout for the top spot during the opening five laps. The 23-year-old driver generated runs off the top of Turn 2 on Laps 2, 3, 4, and 5, but Trout, using the bottom, slammed the door each time Rahmer attempted to overtake the lead.

Then, on Lap 6, Rahmer eased it into Turn 1, perhaps deceiving Trout, and then got back into the gas sooner off Turn 2 to finally power around Trout.

“I knew the top was going to be the play for the feature,” Rahmer said. “We were close every time, but it’s a fine line where you have to run down the straightaway and when you can roll into the corner. Because when you get right on him down the straightaway you kind of have to check up before he peels down to the bottom. So, [when I passed him], I kind of hung back and ran harder and just squeaked by at the exit.”

Rahmer checked out once he snagged the lead to score a 3.578-second win over points leader Danny Dietrich. Trout faded to third, while Kyle Reinardt and Rodney Westhafer rounded out the top five. Lucas Wolfe, Cory Haas, TJ Stutts, Brian Montieth, and Steve Buckwalter followed.

Dietrich’s runner-up finish gives him 16 podiums in 23 features this season, which is nine more than the next best — Lucas Wolfe (seven podiums in 21 features).

Rahmer’s four wins rank third in the Central Pa. area, behind only Dietrich (six) and Lance Dewease (five), who didn’t race Friday night. Rahmer also has five podiums in 23 features, a number he is trying to bolster with time.

Last week, Rahmer broke “something minor” at Williams Grove and then on Saturday night at Lincoln got put in a bad spot and wrecked out of the feature. He’ll be making a trip to Knoxville Raceway to prepare for August’s Five Hour Energy Knoxville Nationals and continue to tune for Pa. Speedweek, which starts at the end of June.

“I feel like we have the speed, it’s just I need to fix some things and we’ll be all right,” Rahmer said.

Heat 1

Rodney Westhafer led the final eight laps and held off a hard-charging Danny Dietrich to win the 10-lap heat by 0.431 seconds.

Dietrich, who started seventh, charged his way to second in three laps and pulled to Westhafer’s rear going into Turn 1 on the final lap but couldn’t size up the heat-winning pass. Steve Buckwalter and Kyle Reinhardt rounded out the top five. Cory Haas, TJ Stutts, Chris Arnold, and Kody Lehman were the rest of the finishers.

Lehman started on the pole and traded the lead with Westhafer five times, but pulled in the pits with two to go to finish eighth. Robbie Kendall scratched from the event.

Heat 2

Chad Trout came from fifth to score the Heat 2 win over Freddie Rahmer and Lucas Wolfe.

Brian Montieth, Dwight Leppo, Greg Plank, Tyler Bear, Troy Fraker, and Anthony Macri rounded out the field.

Macri, who started fourth, wrecked out of the heat on Lap 1 of Turn 1. Macri tried threading the needle going into the first turn of the heat and couldn’t make it stick, subsequently barrel-rolling four times through Turns 1 and 2.