By KEN BRUCE

For the first time in many years, Jeff Heotzler did not call Orange County Fair Speedway his Saturday night home and it was not by choice. In the off-season, Heotzler went out and got himself a new four-link car to race with. Unfortunately for Heotzler, when the speedway decided to join the DIRTcar organization for 2020 that car became illegal to use at the track he has called home for over 30 years.

Heotzler, who has one Eastern States 200 win (2007), was facing the prospect of sitting out this year 200 when an opportunity came along to put together an old TEO car from the HBR shop. It was a last-minute opportunity that was going to require a lot of hard work to get it done in time but in true Heotzler fashion the team got it done.

“This was a last-minute deal for sure,” said Heotzler as he explained how it all came together. “I went to work last Saturday morning and when I got home my son had the four-link car stripped and started to hang the parts on this bare chassis because this was a DIRT legal chassis.  He told me were are going to Eastern States so I said okay, let’s do it. So, we busted our butts all week long to get it done and we got it here and dam if it wasn’t pretty fast right out of the box.”

The car continued to be fast all weekend long and the team was able to come home a satisfying 10^th place finish in Saturday’s 200.

“We were very fortunate,” cited a worn out Heotzler.  “The car in the feature was nearly as good as it was yesterday, but we caught some breaks with cautions coming out at just the right times to keep us on the same lap.  Some other cars weren’t as fortunate and that put us ahead of them. We were a 15^th to 20^th place car and finished1oth so that ain’t bad, especially for an old guy like me.

“The track was really slick tonight, and you could spin the tires whenever you wanted to. We have to improve our tire management for these slick tracks, we’re not up to snuff yet on how to cut and groove these soft tires so that put us at a little disadvantage there but we’ll get the hang of it.”

ORANGE COUNTY FAIR SPEEDWAY
EASTERN STATES WEEKEND
BIG-BLOCK MODIFIEDS
UNOFFICIAL RACE RESULTS 10/25/20

FEATURE FINISH (200-LAPS):
1 Mat Williamson
2 Stewart Friesen
3 Mike Mahaney
4 Tim Sears Jr.
5 Tyler Dippel
6 Jimmy Phelps
7 Pat Ward
8 Max McLaughlin
9 Billy VanInwegen
10 Jeff Heotzler
11 Tommy Meier
12 Peter Britten
13 Ryan Godown
14 Marc Johnson
15 Anthony Perrego
16 Jack Lehner
17 Dillon Steuer
18 Kevin Root
19 Allison Ricci
20 Jessica Friesen
21 Matt Hitchcock
22 Richard Smith
23 Tim Fuller
24 Ronnie Johnson
25 Andy Bachetti
26 Larry Wight
27 Billy Decker
28 Matt Sheppard
29 Shane Jablonka
30 Jimmy Horton
31 Tyler Trump
32 LJ Lombardo
33 Tyler Boniface
34 Bobby Henschel
35 Rocky Warner
36 Kyle Armstrong
37 JR Heffner