FORESTVILLE - Craig Von Dohren won Friday night's 25-lap 358 modified feature at Big Diamond Speedway and the first-place money that went with his track career-leading 79th victory.
He could have earned an extra $500, however, if he had won the Coca-Cola Challenge, a series of one-lap match races among the points leaders.
Instead, the Boyertown driver's No. 1C was sitting in the pits.
"We had a little ignition problem," he said. "It didn't want to start here for us. We got pushed out and it seemed OK. But just sitting in the infield, it didn't sound right. Something was going on, so we just came in. I don't know if something was draining some wiring. We changed the battery. We changed the alternator."
Once the car started, Von Dohren couldn't be stopped.
Starting seventh in the feature, he surged to third place after one lap, to second on the next go-round and passed race leader Duane Howard at the flagstand to finish the fourth lap. From there, Von Dohren drove off, winning by nearly 6 seconds for his fifth victory of the season at Big Diamond.
"It's tough to pass here at times, and you just don't know, so you've got to get to the front as quick as you can," Von Dohren said. "Some nights, it locks down to one lane and other nights it's wide. You've got to go when you can go."
That also was the case for Llewellyn's Kevin Beach as the Schuylkill County driver claimed his second 20-lap feature triumph in the sportsmen's last three programs at Big Diamond. Mohnton's Shon Elk captured his first feature victory of the season in the 20-lap roadrunner A-main.
While Von Dohren was cementing his hold upon the 358 modifieds' points lead, he left Howard and Jeff Strunk to battle for second place in the middle of heavy lapped traffic. Howard won the duel over Strunk, who had started eighth.
Doug Manmiller, who won the Coca-Cola Challenge, was fourth ahead of Tim Buckwalter, whose fifth place came after he joined Howard and Brad Arnold as heat winners.
The Coca-Cola Challenge pitted the lowest season scorer in points against a rival he chooses. Then, in each succeeding race, the winner chooses his next rival. The process continues until only two drivers remain.
Buckwalter took the first match race over Ricky Yetter, but was then beaten by Kevin Albert. Strunk then edged Albert and followed with four more wins before Frank Cozze ended the streak. Cozze then eliminated Meme DeSantis, but lost the final race to Manmiller, who chose the inside line to start and finally passed Cozze for good in the third turn.
In the sportsman feature, Beach surged away in the late stages after a three-car crash at the head of the front stretch forced a brief halt to the race.
"It took a while to get there," Beach said of his drive to the front, "and I think they screwed up there at the end with the laps. I think we ran about three extra laps on (lap) 16 or 17. The (score) board never changed.
"It was a really good run. Yeah, it was a really good run. Everybody was running a consistent line and, on the restart, we got to the top before everybody else and drove away."
Beach's fourth win of 2013 at Big Diamond also tightened the points chase in the sportsman division with six races remaining. While Jared Umbenhauer, who placed third Friday night, leads the group, Beach closed on runner-up Billy Moyer Jr., who was unable to start his heat race and eventually placed 11th in the feature.
"If Jared finishes consistently and I finish one or two spots ahead of him, it'll come down to him winning," said Beach, who was a heat winner. "We hope some luck comes our way."
Mike Glass placed second in Friday's feature while Doug Hendricks was fourth and Tim Fitzpatrick was fifth.
In the roadrunner feature, Elk paced every lap of a caution-filled feature. Eventually, the event was trimmed to 15 green-flag laps because of a time limit.
"All of those restarts were killing me," said Elk, who said he last won a Big Diamond feature in August 2012. "Every time I got a decent start and had some momentum, the caution would come out."
He added, "I knew Jeremy Becker was there (in second place). I jumped on the brakes and locked it down on the last lap in (turns) three and four. He might not be happy about it. I apologize to him, but I was doing what I had to do to protect the bottom and to park the thing in Victory Lane for a change."
Eight-time feature winner Mark Berzowski rallied from an early spin to place third while teammate Joe Kavanaugh took fourth and Chris Holland claimed fifth place.
Kavanaugh and T.J. Fitzpatrick took heat wins.
The night began with a moment of silence for both Kramer Williamson, a Palmyra sprint car driver killed two weeks ago in a crash at Lincoln Speedway in Hanover, and Wilbur Shuman, a longtime race team owner from the Hazleton area.
Big Diamond will host the Prelude to the Coalcracker, a 358 modified feature which pays $4,000 to the winner, next Friday night. The 8:15 p.m. program includes roadrunners and 305 sprints.