Jul. 4—FORESTVILLE — Orefield’s Brett Kressley showed up on June 4 at Big Diamond Speedway with a new paint scheme and number, 1B, on his 358 modified. He has kept that paint scheme and number in every subsequent visit
After Friday night’s 40th Georgie Stevenson Memorial feature, he may want to keep the new number, honoring long-time team supporter Anthony Sparacino, for the rest of the 2021 season.
Earning his first victory at Big Diamond since Aug. 20, 2017, Kressley captured his second Georgie Stevenson Memorial championship when he held off Ryan Krachun over the final lap of the 30-lap race.
“We won it in ’17, so two times, that definitely is a cool thing to do, for sure,” he said.
Kressley became the 16th different driver to score multiple victories in the annual Independence Day classic. It is named for a Pottsville boy who was an avid fan at Big Diamond and who died at age 12 after raising money for research to cure cancer, the disease that cost him his life.
Kressley’s victory was one of four in Friday’s program. The other winners were Collegeville’s Alex Bright in the United States Auto Club East Coast wingless sprints, Mount Gretna’s Jonathan Swift in 602 crate sportsmen and Llewellyn’s Alex Schoffstall in roadrunners.
Winning by just .164 seconds, Kressley kept Krachun behind him over the final six nonstop laps of a caution-filled Stevenson Memorial.
Kressley had passed race leader Cole Stangle, whose right rear tire was going flat, on the 14th lap. Stangle had led through several restarts, including a fourth-lap resumption following a seven-car pileup on the frontstretch that ended Craig Von Dohren’s bid for 100 career wins, including 10 Stevenson Memorials, at Big Diamond.
Once in front, Kressley held off the charge of Krachun, who had started seventh and grabbed the runner-up spot with six laps remaining.
“We’ve been struggling here a little bit, just trying to find things that work for us,” Kressley said. “We were definitely closer tonight. It definitely showed. This is the kind of performances we should have. We were kind of struggling, dropping out, getting in some melees we shouldn’t have gotten in. If all goes well, you should have a top-five car at the end of the night consistently.”
Nick Rochinski took third place ahead of Alex Yankowski and Billy Pauch Jr.
In the USAC East Coast sprints’ feature, Bright won the division’s first feature this season at Big Diamond after a May appearance was rained out. With a second-turn sliding pass, he took the lead from Bethlehem’s Tommy Kunsman on the 23rd lap and drove away to his fourth victory on the group’s tour this season.
“You have to finish the races to stay out front (of the tour points),” Bright said. “Points lead or no points lead, I don’t care. I just want to win.”
Chris Allen, of Wrightstown, New Jersey, was third ahead of Scranton’s Colin White and Wernersville’s Nash Ely at the finish.
Swift, who works as the elementary band director for the Eastern Lebanon County School District, captured his first victory in a 602 crate sportsman by leading all 20 laps from the pole.
The win came one week after he came to Big Diamond as the lone crate sportsman entrant in a field of open sportsmen.
“I completely changed the weight (distribution) as far as scaling my car,” Swift said. ” … I changed back everything to what (chassis builder) Teo says you’re supposed to run. That was the whole reason I came last week, just to test the car. No other 602s came. It was just me, and here I am.”
Trailing by .528 seconds, Joel Smith took second place ahead of Steve Davis, Tyler Peet and Lehighton’s Josh Mooney.
Fans who left prior to the roadrunner feature, which began after midnight, missed a wild race that included a red flag forced by a four-car crash on the third lap. The feature came down to a three-car duel between Ronny Suhr Jr., Andrew Fayash III and Schoffstall. When the trio approached to lap Tonya Lance’s car, Suhr and Fayash veered into the infield after contact and Schoffstall went from third place to first.
The result was Schoffstall’s fourth victory of the season.
“That definitely opened up the door,” said Schoffstall, the son of former Stevenson Memorial champion Dave Schoffstall. “I definitely didn’t have the car to beat.”
Fayash held onto second place ahead of Matt Ney, Don Murphy and Joe Bassininsky.
In heat action, Mike Gular, Kressley and Mike Lisowski took modified heats. Scott Albert claimed the consolation after Pottsville’s Shawn Fitzpatrick was forced to drop out while leading late in the event.
The other qualifying winners were Jonathan Swanson, Bright and Kunsman in sprints, Mooney, Swift and Brandon Firestine in crate sportsmen and Schoffstall and Fayash in roadrunners. The second sprint heat was stopped twice because of flips by the cars of Joey Amantea and Damon Paul.
Roadrunner driver C.J. Ferguson brought out a red flag in the roadrunner heats with a grinding crash into the frontstretch wall. That earned him one of three Hard Luck awards presented by the Dog Pound fan group. The other recipients were Fitzpatrick in modifieds and Shon Elk in crate sportsmen.
The group also presented Hard Charger awards to Jeff Strunk in modifieds, Ryan Graver and Davis in crate sportsmen and Schoffstall and Bassininsky in roadrunners.
Big Diamond will host a program of twin 20-lap features for 358 modifieds along with both sportsman classes and roadrunners next Friday night.
Contact the writer: ccurley@republicanherald.com; 570-628-6019; @ChuckCurley on Twitter