Aaron Ott of East Berlin chased down New Jersey's Davie Franek in the first half of Saturday night's 34th running of the Jack Gunn Memorial for 360 sprint cars at Selinsgrove Speedway before securing the lead and rocketing to his first career win at the big half-mile.
Ott earned $3,500 for his victory in the 30-lap United Racing Company-sanctioned tribute race to the late Hall of Fame promoter Jack Gunn at the wheel of the Don Ott Racing Engines No. 25. Ott, who also won the URC 360 sprint car race Friday night at Williams Grove Speedway, became the fourth different 360 sprint car feature winner this season at Selinsgrove.
"I wanted to win here for so long," said Ott. "My hat's off to my crew and the racetrack. This was an absolutely awesome racetrack tonight on both the top and bottom. I'm just ecstatic to be here. I can't say enough about this weekend."
Third generation racer Derek Locke set fast time over the 29-car field with a lap of 17.287.
Ott beat track heavy-hitters T.J. Stutts and point leader Mark Smith. Greg Hodnett, a 410 sprint car regular, was fourth and Pat Cannon came from the back to finish fifth. Franek faded to sixth and Locke was seventh.
In the 25-lap super late model feature, it was Port Royal's Tim Wilson scoring his first career Selinsgrove win. Donnie Schick, Jeff Rine, Dave Zona and Bryan Bernhseisel rounded out the top five.
Kyle Bachman beat Brad Mitch and Andrew Shoop to win the 15-lap pro stock feature.
At Williams Grove Speedway Friday, Donnie Kreitz came from a straightaway behind to win the 25-lap sprint car feature by .01 seconds over Brian Montieth, who had led the first 24 laps. Steve Buckwalter, Cory Haas and Justin Barger followed.
Montieth led by a straightaway when Kreitz took second with five laps to go. He worked his way to Montieth's bumper on the final lap. Montieth went low to block, but not low enough. Kreitz got under him coming off turn four. They were side-by-side at the line, with the electronic transponder system showing Kreitz the winner by 0.01 seconds.
Ott was the URC winner over Smith, Robbie Stillwaggon, Locke and Curt Michael.
At Port Royal Speedway, Brady Bacon scored the $6,000 win in the USAC sprint car Eastern Storm main event. Bacon beat Kevin Thomas Jr. and Jon Stanbrough and led the Eastern Storm points heading into the series finale Sunday night at Susquehanna Speedway Park, York.
New Jersey's J.J. Grasso won the Gohn Memorial at Lincoln Speedway worth $4,600 over Alan Krimes, Danny Dietrich, Cory Haas and Steve Owings.
Pennsylvania Speedweek coming soon
This year's Pennsylvania Sprint Car Speedweek is less than three weeks away and will once again start at Williams Grove on Friday night, June 27. The series heads to Lincoln Speedway from there for the Kevin Gobrecht Memorial on Saturday night. Fred Rahmer will promote Speedweek's third stop at Path Valley Speedway on Sunday night.
From there, it's off on Monday night before Grandview on Tuesday, July 1, and Hagerstown on Wednesday, July 2. The series heads to Port Royal for its first of two shows on Thursday night, July 3, and then it's the Mitch Smith Memorial at the Grove on Friday, July 4. They head back to Port Royal on Saturday night and head to Selinsgrove Speedway for the Jan Opperman Memorial to conclude Speedweek.