CENTRAL CITY — The late model portion of Saturday night’s inaugural Willie Will Windmill 100 at Thunder Valley Raceway was billed as a 33-lap feature.
But winner Steve Everhart of Canoe Creek in Blair County needed less than a lap to get into the front spot and went on to claim the $2,000 top prize in the race, which had nine cautions.
“I was worried; it was supposed to be 33 laps, but it seemed like 1,000,” Everhart said in Victory Lane. “The motor was running hot, around 260 degrees, and I was afraid I was going to lose it and it’s the only one I have.”
That might have been the least of Everhart's problems. The rear end broke on his car just as he crossed the finish line and wouldn’t have been able to go another lap.
Everhart’s closest competition came from D.J. Myers, who made a strong run after moving into the second spot on Lap 12. Myers looked under Everhart, the current points leader at Thunder Valley, on several restarts, but was forced to retire on Lap 16 with mechanical problems.
That moved Somerset driver Scott Rhodes into the runner-up spot, but Rhodes was unable to mount a serious threat during the remaining laps.
Jeff Miller made a late-race charge past Tom Myers to finish third. Wayne Johnson rounded out the top five.
Bryan Bernheisel, Dave Bloss, Rance Garlock, Doug Glessner and Darrell Dick were sixth through 10th, respectively.
Twenty-five of the 27 late models in the pits started the feature.
The semi-lates were the first feature of the night and the 23-car field did a missing man formation lap in honor of track owner Will, who died in March.
In the 33-lap feature, it was Berlin’s Greg Cornell who bested the field and took the checkered flag, the fourth win this season for the points leader.
Cornell, who started ninth, battled his way through the field and settled in behind race leader Greg Hainsey on Lap 7, finally using the lapped traffic to get around Hainsey on the 16th lap.
Hainsey stayed close to Cornell throughout the rest of the race, but had to settle for second.
“After we got through traffic, I could hear him coming,” Cornell said. “My tires were going down and I just hugged the bottom of the race track.”
Jim Sayler was third, followed by Jason Breegle and Dave Brown.
The 33-lap four-cylinder feature was not completed by the press deadline.
Heat winners were Everhart, D.J. Myers and Chad McClellan in the late models; Breegle, Hainsey and Sayler in the semi-lates; and Michael Lauffer and Chris Booher in the four-cylinders.
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Steve Everhart (right) stays inside of Doug Glessner on Saturday night at Thunder Valley Raceway in Central City. John Tanish
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Everhart holds on for victory at TVR
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