SHANE COTTLE OVERCOMES SETBACK AT SELINSGROVE SPEEDWAY
(Steve Koletar Photo)
BACK FOR MORE: 75 LAPS AWAIT
USAC SILVER CROWN SUNDAY AT SELINSGROVE
By: Richie Murray – USAC Media
Selinsgrove, Pennsylvania (August 6, 2021)………A stumbling engine in qualifying, a last row starting spot and an accident with 43 laps remaining that resulted with him backwards against the guardrail with a flat tyre – those were just a few of the mountains Shane Cottle overcame to reach victory lane in last year’s inaugural Bill Holland Classic at Pennsylvania’s Selinsgrove Speedway.
This Sunday night, August 8, Cottle and a field of 23 champ cars take on the big half-mile once again for 75 laps, honoring the 75th anniversary of the first racing event held at Selinsgrove Speedway on July 20, 1946, won by 1949 Indianapolis 500 winner and National Sprint Car Hall of Fame inductee, Bill Holland.
Last August, it took Cottle every bit of the distance to reach the pinnacle of the night as he worked his way around race-long leader C.J. Leary on the white flag lap to conquer his second career USAC Silver Crown victory, and his first in nearly 13 years.
By doing so, Cottle became the newest record holder of the longest duration between USAC Silver Crown victories. It had been 12 years, 11 months and 8 days since the Kansas, Ill. driver raced to victory at the Du Quoin (Ill.) State Fairgrounds in 2007.
Not only that, on the 31st of 74 laps, major trouble ensued for the then 11th running Cottle who had a left rear tire go down on the front straightaway. In the ensuing melee, Cottle spun backwards into the inside front straightaway guardrail. Cottle exited the car and stood on the front straightaway mulling over the situation which provided him nary a shred of confidence to continue in the race.
“I was really upset,” Cottle recalled at the time. “I actually wasn’t even going to change the tire. I told the crew, ‘you know what, heck with it. We’re going to the back and it’s kind of hard to pass.’ They said ‘nope, we’re changing it, get back in there.’
Cottle, sporting a right rear tire with which he estimated as maybe having ‘just a couple more laps left’ at the end, took the show into his own hands, squaring up Leary through turns three and four coming to the white flag, then swung to the outside to rip around him and lead at the stripe by a car length before making a beeline to the bottom of turn one to take away the low line from Leary.
Cottle’s victory last year at Selinsgrove from the 23rd spot ranks as the 8th furthest back any driver has started to win a Silver Crown race, the most positions overcome to win since Rich Tobias Jr.’s Du Quoin triumph from 25th in 2003. Kenny Irwin Jr. owns the top-two ultimate hard-charging performances in Silver Crown history, coming from the 28th position to win at both the Illinois State Fairgrounds in 1995 and Indianapolis Raceway Park in 1997.
Among the drivers aiming to “up” their finish after debuting at Selinsgrove in 2020 are series point leader and five-time Silver Crown champ, Kingsburg, California’s Kody Swanson (11th in 2020); Levittown, Pennsylvania’s Mike Haggenbottom (12th); Pendleton, Indiana’s Travis Welpott (14th); Pleasant Hill, Ohio’s Matt Westfall (20th); Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania’s Dave Berkheimer (21st) and Shullsburg, Wisconsin’s David Byrne (23rd), the latter two of which got upside down in last year’s event.
Jason McDougal (Broken Arrow, Okla.) won the pole and set a new track record at Williams Grove in June. He’ll be making his first Selinsgrove appearance this Sunday as will past Silver Crown winner and championship runner-up Eric Gordon (Greenfield, Ind.) and series veteran Austin Nemire (Sylvania, Ohio).
Two drivers, Nick Bilbee and Erik Karlsen, will be making their first-ever USAC Silver Crown appearances. Bilbee (Indianapolis, Ind.) is the 2020 Lawrenceburg Speedway Sprint Car track champion while Karlsen is a CRSA 305 Sprint Car champion at New York’s Canandaigua Speedway and a veteran of Empire Super Sprints competition.
Sunday night’s Bill Holland Classic USAC Silver Crown event features USAC Silver Crown and USAC Rapid Tire East Coast Sprintcars.
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