FORESTVILLE - After nearly 9.5 minutes of non-stop racing, the last thing Perkiomenville's Ray Swinehart needed to see was the chief flagman's yellow banner as he was leading Friday's 358 modified feature at Big Diamond Speedway with only two laps remaining.
Then again, when you're 61 years old and have spent much of your life at the racetrack like Swinehart has, there was no reason for panic.
"Well, I figured if my car was good enough, we'd still win," he said. "And I was hoping it was, and apparently it was."
Leading every lap from the pole, Swinehart collected the first-place purse of $2,750 after holding off Jeff Strunk over the final two tours of the 3/8-mile oval for his first victory of the season.
Swinehart was joined in Victory Lane by a father and son from Branchdale, as Tim Fitzpatrick and Tim Fitzpatrick Jr. took the sportsman and roadrunner features, respectively. Dover's Chad Trout won the first super sportsman feature held at Big Diamond since 2007.
However, Swinehart was the lone polesitter to walk away with the checkered flag.
Following three aborted attempts to start the 25-lap 358 modified feature, Swinehart
led the entire distance through two caution flags, one with only two laps down. The other came with two laps left, as Jamie Spears' No. 762 wound up nose first into the tractor tires at the exit of the fourth turn.
That put Strunk, who took second from Kevin Smith on the fourth lap, beside Swinehart for the restart. Swinehart drove away to win by .632 seconds, a one-week improvement of 24 positions.
"I thought we were pretty good last week, but we broke an axle early and really didn't know. So we really didn't change anything from last week, and here we are," Swinehart said.
Defending feature winner Billy Pauch Jr. took third ahead of Duane Howard and Stewart Friesen.
Rick Laubach took his division-leading third heat win of the season to join Smith and Frank Cozze as qualifying race winners. Kevin Albert Jr. claimed the consolation.
In other action, Tim Fitzpatrick, who placed second in the first sportsman feature of the season April 27, improved one spot for his first win of 2014. He passed polesitter Wayne Witmer on a third-lap restart and never looked back through several interruptions.
Those interruptions included the night's lone red flag when fire erupted on the rear end gear of Charles Webber's car with nine laps remaining.
"I just had to be on my game on the restart," Fitzpatrick said of his pass of Witmer. "I tried the first time (with one lap down) and came close, but I was a little quicker on the second start. That's what it took to get by him."
Clay Butler, who joined Ray Woodall Jr. as heat winners, passed Witmer late in the race for second spot. Defending feature winner Kevin Beach Jr. was fourth and Woodall came back from an early caution for fifth place.
Fitzpatrick's son did his homework and followed his father into Victory Lane in the roadrunner feature, which ended the program with a finish after midnight. Driving on a dry, slick surface, Fitzpatrick won his second straight roadrunner feature by taking the lead after starting seventh in the field.
"I knew it was going to be like that," Fitzpatrick Jr. said about the track. "I knew the sprint cars were coming up here, so we knew what we could expect."
Jeremy Becker finished close behind Fitzpatrick while Chris Holland, Tom Hablett and Glenn Rowan completed the top five. Hablett, who claimed his third such victory, and Terry Kramer won heat races.
Big Diamond drew 27 super sportsman teams, including Trout. He powered around polesitter Dave Socks in the second turn on a fourth-lap restart and held off Scott Dellinger in a duel of York County drivers to win the 25-lap feature by just .364 seconds.
Trout, who raced at Big Diamond for just his third time, said, "I knew I drive in (the turns) a little harder than those guys (ahead of me) do, so I knew that was my only option to get him, and I knew I had to get him early because there were some really good guys behind me."
Mike Enders, Scott Geesey and Dellinger won heat races. Doug Dodson took the consolation.
Big Diamond is slated to host the 358 modifieds, sportsmen and roadrunners next Friday on Ken's Tire Night, an 8:15 p.m. program.
Big Diamond Speedway
Friday's results
358 modifieds (25 laps) - 1. Ray Swinehart ($2,750), 2. Jeff Strunk, 3. Billy Pauch Jr., 4. Duane Howard, 5. Stewart Friesen, 6. Kevin Smith, 7. Meme DeSantis, 8. Jared Umbenhauer, 9. Andy Burkhart, 10. Frank Cozze, 11. Rick Laubach, 12. Craig Von Dohren, 13. Brett Kressley, 14. Kevin Albert Jr., 15. Shawn Ward, 16. Kyle Borror, 17. Shawn Fitzpatrick, 18. Jamie Spears, 19. Kyle Follweiler, 20. Ron Haring Jr., 21. Doug Manmiller, 22. Jimmy Bobbitt Jr., 23. Tom Umbenhauer, 24. Dale Hartz, 25. John Willman, 26. Colt Harris
Sportsman (20 laps) - 1. Tim Fitzpatrick ($1,000), 2. Clay Butler, 3. Wayne Witmer, 4. Kevin Beach Jr., 5. Ray Woodall Jr., 6. Doug Snyder, 7. Billy Moyer Jr., 8. Mike Glass, 9. Todd Huffman, 10. Chad Putalavage, 11. Doug Hendricks, 12. Charles Webber, 13. Josh Hertzog, 14. Kevin Brady, 15. Shawn Light, 16. A.J. Gerhart, 17. Charles Fayash III. DNS - Mike Lisowski, J.R. Fulper
Roadrunners (20 laps) - 1. Tim Fitzpatrick Jr. ($300), 2. Jeremy Becker, 3. Chris Holland, 4. Tom Hablett, 5. Glenn Rowan, 6. Devin Trexler, 7. Terry Kramer Jr., 8. Jim Kost, 9. T.J. Fitzpatrick, 10. Joe Kavanaugh, 11. Kris Ney, 12. Shon Elk, 13. Jared Seigfried, 14. Jesse Krasnitsky, 15. Bruce Ditzler, 16. Andrew Fayash Jr.
Super sportsmen (25 laps) - 1. Chad Trout, 2. Scott Dellinger, 3. Frankie Herr, 4. Rich Eichelberger, 5. Chad Criswell, 6. Mike Enders, 7. Duaine Smith, 8. Gregg Foster, 9. Russ Mitten, 10. Dave Socks, 11. Rick Barr, 12. Doug Dodson, 13. Stan Wanner, 14. David Conrad Jr., 15. John Wolfe, 16. Dave Berkheimer, 17. Joey Biasi, 18. Scott Geesey, 19. Tony Jackson, 20. Steve Fannasy, 21. Todd Leonard, 22. Tom Wyckoff, 23. Bobby Hockenberry, 24. David Walsh