Plymouth, IN (May 25, 2008) – South Bend, Indiana veteran racer Lou Stremme started on the pole and led all 75 laps of the Transit Mix Concrete 75 Howe CRA Sportsman Series event at Plymouth Speedway, Saturday night ending Tony Dager’s streak of four straight wins in the series first four events of the 2008 season. The father of NASCAR driver David Stremme, never led by more than a few car lengths and had to negotiate several accidents and restarts to get the win, his first ever CRA win, joining son David as a CRA winner, David has a win with the CRA Super Series late models.

"I have had a lot better cars here and finished a lot worse."  Stremme remarked.  "The track started to work better up high as the race went on, but with those guys right there with me I could not bring myself to go up there."

Charlie Hanna finished second after pressuring Stremme the last 25 laps, trying the high side, but he could not get a strong enough run to pass Stremme, and ended the race fighting to stay in second. Justin Alsip was running third working to get by Hanna with Hanna going out high in an attempt to pass Stremme on the outside. In the closing laps Alsip slipped along side Hanna and forced him to abandon his chase of Stremme and forcing him to race for second, which Hanna got by less than a fender length. Rick Rinehart finished fourth and Billy Hutson fifth. Mike Scewchuk finished in sixth, he was the highest finishing Plymouth Speedway Sportsman Division regular.

The largest field of Howe CRA Sportsman cars ever turned out at Plymouth Speedway with 44 cars taking qualifying times for the 28 positions in the field. Rookie Tony Dager continued his impressive performance so far in 2008 by getting the Holley Performance Fast Qualifier Award, his second such award in the five series events this season. He then drew an eight for the invert putting Lou Stremme on the pole and Rich Segvich on the outside of the front row. The racing was furious from the onset.

Stremme jumped out to the lead at a track he has raced at for many years. Segvich would run in the Top 5 for the first third of the race before a fire under the hood during the one red flag of the race forced him to retire on the restart.

Series point’s leader Tony Dager moved up from his eighth starting place to fourth and was working on the lead pack when a flat left rear tire after contact with Rick Rinehart caused him to spin on the 62^nd lap. Dager’s attempt to win his fifth straight Howe CRA Sportsman race was ruined after he had to restart at the tail following a pit stop to change the tire. Dager would still manage to get a ninth place finish to keep his series points lead.

Several drivers made very impressive runs during the event including Rich Mersereau who came from the 19^th to finish seventh and Barry Holdeman who came from his 26^th starting position to finish eighth.

The Top 20 starting positions for the Transit Mix Concrete 75 were determined by qualifying times, with the next four from the two Last Chance Races, Jesse Opliger won one 15 lap last chance race, and Kevin Papa won the second, even with no practice time Saturday after arriving as qualifying began. Gary Chapman and Dave Mannia were second in their respective races to transfer into the feature. Bill Lovely moved in as the highest Howe CRA Sportsman driver that was not in the race, Matt Elliot and Kevin Gunkel moved in as the highest Plymouth Sportsman drivers based on 2007 points not already in field. Barry Holdeman got in as the next quickest qualifier not in race and Josh Smith started 28th when Nick Pressler was unable to start as the cars were moving to the starting grid.

John Marshall and Rich Mersereau won the two ten lap heat races for the top 20 qualifiers.

The next Howe CRA Sportsman Event will be Saturday, June 7 at Baer Field Speedway in Ft. Wayne, IN. For more information about the Howe CRA Sportsman series see www.craracing.net.

Photos and Videos of the race available from:

Victory Lane Photo's & Video's

Beth Woods

574-457-8553 or 574-322-0075

Videos $20.00 each.