AUTO RACING: Yankowski adds name to Money in the Mountains champions
May 16—FORESTVILLE — At the tender age of 16, Alex Yankowski is already compiling an impressive resumé at Big Diamond Speedway. He has bigger plans ahead.
After the Throop area resident won Friday's Money in the Mountains 40-lap modified feature and its $5,000 winner's purse, Yankowski wondered aloud if he had found the key to winning the track's crown jewel, the Jack Rich Coalcracker 72, in September.
"We should have won the Coal Cracker a couple of times doing that same thing," the 2018 sportsman track champion said about use of the track's high groove. "Hopefully, we'll get the Coal Cracker off our back this year. It's been a thorn in our side, that's for sure."
Taking the lead from defending track champion Mike Gular on the ninth lap, Yankowski won the Money in the Mountains by 1.142 seconds to begin a parade of feature winners Friday night.
In the track's first program since April 23, Yankowski was joined in Victory Lane by Lehighton's Brandon Edgar in open sportsmen, Cresco's Eric Palmer in 602 crate sportsmen and Llewellyn's Alex Schoffstall in roadrunners.
The American Racing Drivers Club midgets also began their 2021 schedule at Big Diamond, where Shawn Jackson, of Bear, Delaware, won Friday's 20-lap feature.
Becoming the seventh different winner in eight Money in the Mountains races at Big Diamond, Yankowski started sixth after he was the first of 15 drivers to draw the number during intermission. Yankowski was second by the eighth lap. He passed Gular two laps later with an outside move in the third and fourth turns.
From there, Yankowski withstood just one caution flag, waved for the stopped car of Rick Laubach on the 19th lap, en route to his third modified feature win in his career at Big Diamond.
"It's huge. The payday is a big, big part of it," Yankowski said. "We spend a lot of money over the year to run up front. When you don't capitalize and you're struggling and you spend a lot of money, it sucks, to be honest."
Craig Von Dohren, the 2019 Money in the Mountains champion before last year's race was cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic, placed second ahead of Gular, Louden Rerimert and Tim Buckwalter.
Yankowski also beat fellow heat winners Gular and Von Dohren to win the DirtTrackDigestTV.com Dash for Cash, a three-lap, three-car race that lasted 49 seconds, to win $400 extra.
Edgar outlasted Ken Eckert Jr. to win the open sportsman feature. The two passed race leader Nico Flammer and then dueled side-by-side for several laps for the lead in the 20-lap feature.
"I think, because the 41 (Nico Flammer) was so focused on parking it around the bottom, he made Ken move up and Ken was good on the outside there," Edgar said. "He could carry the momentum, so he just made me hit my marks around the bottom perfect."
A last-lap spin by Tajae Adams set up a one-lap sprint to the finish, but Edgar held off Eckert over that lap to win. Wayne Witmer placed third ahead of Mike Schneck and Doug Hendricks. Flammer was sixth at the checkered flag.
Getting the roadrunner feature started was a problem. Three multi-car crashes reduced the field from 19 to 11 cars before a single lap was completed, and officials then ordered a single-file restart.
By then, the attrition had moved two-time defending feature winner Andrew Fayash III from eighth to second. He led until Schoffstall passed him on the sixth lap. Schoffstall never looked back from there.
"On a track like this, you really have to bide your time," Schoffstall said after winning the night's final feature on a track that hosted more than 200 laps of racing Friday night. "There's no sense in going all out. You just have to ride."
Fayash took second ahead of Jesse Krasnitsky, Kris Ney and Alex Ditzler.
Palmer led every lap of the 602 crate sportsman feature after starting on the pole. Following three caution flags in the race's first two laps, he drove the final 17 laps non-stop to victory.
Joel Smith, defending track champion Cody Manmiller, Danny Buccafusca and Tyler Peet completed the top five.
In the ARDC midgets' first appearance at Big Diamond since July 20, 2018, Jackson led all 20 laps and finished 0.548 seconds ahead of Hanover's Michael Markey. Jimmy Glenn, Jake Winters and Steve Craig completed the top five.
Big Diamond hosted 14 qualifying races before the features. In addition to the modified winners, the victors included Flammer and Edgar in open sportsmen; Palmer, Buccafusca and Ryan Conrad in crate sportsmen; Don Murphy and Schoffstall in roadrunners; and Jackson and Glenn in midgets.
Edgar became the first driver with two heat victories this season. Von Dohren also has two qualifying wins, but one came in a consolation.
Duane Howard won the modifieds' consolation. Zane Roth claimed the crate sportsmen's consolation.
Next Friday night, Big Diamond is scheduled to host 358 modifieds, the United Racing Club sprints, 602 crate sportsmen and roadrunners.
Contact the writer: ccurley@republicanherald.com; 570-628-6019; @ChuckCurley on Twitter
