FORESTVILLE — Boyertown’s Ryan Watt doesn’t race often at Big Diamond Speedway, but it seems he has never lost the fast path around the track.
Watt was at Big Diamond for one of his rare appearances Friday, and it turned out to be worth it as he won the Money in the Mountains 40-lap open modified feature.
“I raced here for years with Franny Purcell. He brought me here, got me going here,” Watt said after his victory.
Since he’s running his own team, Watt said, it serves him better to race just Saturday nights.
“I really like racing here,” Watt said. “It’s just too much work trying to keep two cars going.”
But Watt raced Friday and eventually had 7,500 reasons. That was the dollar amount the feature polesitter won for leading all 40 laps of the third annual event that was twice postponed by rainouts.
In other races Friday, Orefield’s Brett Kressley claimed his second sportsman feature victory at Big Diamond this season. Minersville’s Joey Brennan took the 20-lap roadrunner feature and Quakertown’s Gary Landis won the 60-lap enduro dash.
Watt, who also won once last season at Big Diamond, got an assist from Stroudsburg’s Heath Metzger in his victory Friday.
Defending race champion Ryan Godown chased Watt for 11 laps, but then decided to squeeze to the inside of Metzger’s lapped car in a bid to keep up with Watt.
The move backfired when Godown made contact with Metzger, T-boning him into a front stretch slide, while Godown kept going.
Late in the race, Metzger remembered.
As Godown was still chasing Watt and attempting to lap Metzger again with four laps left, Metzger veered right just enough to break Godown’s momentum, widening his gap behind the leader.
Still, Godown placed second at the finish ahead of front-row starter Craig Von Dohren. Duane Howard was fourth, followed by Rick Laubach.
Laubach made it 2-for-2 in heat wins this season. Godown and Watt also won heats.
Kressley paced race-long leader Daryl Dissinger off the fourth turn of the final lap to win the 20-lap sportsman feature. That adds not to Kressley’s season-opening win at Big Diamond, but also to victories at both Grandview and Bridgeport speedways in 2015.
“We just have a good engine combination now and our shock package is good,” Kressley said. “I have good people behind me, and I guess I can drive a little bit.”
Steve Searock IV was third ahead of Mike Lisowski and Mike Mammana.
Lisowski and Kressley, who also won in the season-opening program, took heat victories.
Brennan took the lead from Jim Kost on a 10th-lap restart and led the rest of the way in the roadrunner feature.
“It brought back good memories,” Brennan said. “We won the championship in 2012 and then the car kind of fell apart. Finally got everything straightened out and we’re going to come back and try to win some more.”
Chris Holland placed second ahead of Tim Fitzpatrick, Kost and Jeremy Becker.
Holland took his second heat win of the season while Kris Ney took the other qualifier.
All of the night’s heat races went non-stop as the qualifiers took just 37 minutes to complete.
In the enduro dash, Tyler Lucas held a three-lap lead when his car broke six laps from the finish.
That put the final car running among seven starters, driven by Landis, into victory lane.
Big Diamond Speedway Friday’s results
358/410 modifieds (Money in the Mountains, 40 laps) —1. Ryan Watt ($7,500), 2. Ryan Godown, 3. Craig Von Dohren, 4. Duane Howard, 5. Rick Laubach, 6. Doug Manmiller, 7. Erick Rudolph, 8. Danny Johnson, 9. Billy Pauch Jr., 10. Tyler Siri, 11. Meme DeSantis, 12. Jimmy Reppert, 13. Heath Metzger, 14. Mario Dinatale, 15. Jeff Strunk, 16. Randy Chrysler, 17. Mike Gular, 18. Colt Harris, 19. Shawn Fitzpatrick, 20. Kevin Beach Jr., 21. Justin Grim.
Sportsmen (20 laps) —1. Brett Kressley ($1,000), 2. Daryl Dissinger, 3. Steve Searock IV, 4. Mike Lisowski, 5. Mike Mammana, 6. Tim Fitzpatrick, 7. Wayne Witmer, 8. Charles Fayash III, 9. Rob Light, 10. Shawn Light, 11. Chad Putalavage, 12. Billy Moyer Jr., 13. Jack Butler, 14. Steve Desmelyk, 15. Matt Clay, 16. Charles Webber, 17. Paul Kline, 18. Doug Hendricks, 19. J.R. Fulper, 20. Glenn Rowen. DNS — Mike Glass.
Roadrunners (20 laps) —1. Joey Brennan ($300), 2. Chris Holland, 3. Tim Fitzpatrick, 4. Jim Kost, 5. Jeremy Becker, 6. Terry Kramer Jr., 7. Shon Elk, 8. Devin Trexler, 9. T.J. Fitzpatrick, 10. Kermit Jacoby, 11. Jon Schlauch, 12. Dave Long Jr., 13. Jesse Krasnitsky, 14. Kris Ney, 15. Chris Natale, 16. Andy Fayash III, 17. Bruce Ditzler, 18. Joe Kavanaugh, 19. Dan Shoener, 20. Kyle Wingle.
Enduro (60 laps) —1. Gary Landis; 2. Tyler Lucas, 3. Ben Ferree, 4. Chuck Detweiler, 5. Joel Matter, 6. Keith Ramos, 7. Curt Breiwich.