Sarver, PA (August 14, 2020) There were no unfamiliar names in Terry Bowser Excavating Victory Lane on Friday Night; in fact all four winners have 20+ wins in their career at Lernerville Speedway. But it was how they each won that was significant.
Feature action started with a flat out dominant performance in the Precise Racing Products DIRTcar Late Models by six-time track champion Alex Ferree. Breaking out a new-to-him, blue Rocket, “The A-Train” led 24 of 26 laps; a caution on the final lap necessitated a green-white-checkered restart, thus an extra lap. However, at various points throughout the race, defending track champion Kenny Schaltenbrand was a thorn in Ferree’s side. Alex and Kenny traded sliders mid-race with Kenny leading lap 13, and then Kenny mounted a late race charge which came up 0.169 seconds short. For Ferree, it was his 38th career Lernerville feature win, tying him with Racin’ Ralphie Spithaler for 17th on the all time Lernerville wins list. Brockville, PA invader Kyle Knapp was right in the hunt late in the race and turned in an impressive third place finish ahead of Joshua Powell. Points leader Colton Flinner endured a rough 26 laps, but salvaged a fifth place finish to maintain the top spot in the season long standings.
In the Diehl Automotive DIRTcar Big Block Modifieds, it appeared for a long time that eight-time and defending track champion Brian Swartzlander would secure his 98th career feature win, but the big, bad cushion in turns three & four had others ideas. After taking a pounding from Swartzlander for more than a dozen laps, the cushion jumped up and bit him on lap 18. Rex King Jr. was at the right place at the right time to power into the lead and once out front, “Cooter” would not be beat. He secured a third straight feature win for the King Bros. Racing team, with his father winning last Friday Night and Cooter himself winning the week before. The win is the 24th of Cooter’s career at the Action Track. Points leader Garrett Krummert and John Mollick recorded podium finishes, while early leader Brian Swartzlander would have to settle for fourth and the aforementioned Rex King Sr. finished fifth.
Due to winning last Friday’s Peoples Natural Gas DIRTcar Sprint feature, (his second straight at that point), AJ Flick had to once again start ninth of the 20-car starting grid. And despite not getting the terrific start he did last week when he vaulted to third on the opening lap, the three-time track champion eventually made his way to the front. On lap 18, Flick rocketed around the top of turns one & two, passing leader Brandon Spithaler and Michael Bauer whom Spithaler passed just a lap earlier for the lead. The two-for-one pass by Flick found him in the lead on the backstretch and he cruised to his third straight feature win. Points leader Carl Bowser uncharacteristically brought out a caution on lap two, but rallied from the tail to an impressive second place finish and maintains a nine-point lead over Flick for the season. Bauer looked prime to score his second career Lernerville feature win as he led most of the first 16 laps, but settled for a podium finish. Dan Shetler got upside down and torn up in his heat race, transferred into the feature through the B-main, and deftly navigated his way to an impressive fourth place finish. Dan Kuriger rounded out the top five.
As they’ve done so many times in the past few seasons, defending track champion and current points Tyler Dietz, and six-time champ Corey McPherson battled for the lead late in the race. McPherson started on the pole and led all 20 laps en route to his first win of 2020, but Dietz gave him a run for his money after coming from the sixth row on the starting grid. Unfortunately for Dietz, last week’s feature winner Joey Zambotti was also charging from the sixth row and pressured him for second, which resulted in neither driver being able to stop McPherson from scoring his 47th career Lernerville feature win tying him with Hall of Famer Ed Lynch Sr. for 13th on the all time wins list. Zambotti prevailed over Dietz for second, Mike Miller came home fourth, followed by Chase Lambert in fifth.
8.14.2020
Peoples Natural Gas DIRTcar 410 Sprint Feature: (25 Laps)
1 2 A.J. Flick
2 11 Carl Bowser
3 46 Michael Bauer
4 7K Dan Shetler
5 8 Dan Kuriger
6 22 Brandon Spithaler
7 13 Brandon Matus
8 33 Brent Matus
9 40 George Hobaugh
10 23Jr Jack Sodeman Jr.
11 250 Jared McFarland
12 7NY Matt Farnham
13 29 Dylan Proctor
14 23 Darren Pifer
15 76 Davey Jones
16 27 Zach Morrow
17 14H Jeremy Hill
18 C1 Clay Riney
19 38 Leyton Wagner
20 J4 John Garvin Jr.
Heat Winners: A.J. Flick, Dan Kuriger, Carl Bowser
B-Main Winner: Matt Farnham
Precise Racing Products DIRTcar Late Models Feature: (25 Laps)
1 4 Alex Ferree
2 29 Ken Schaltenbrand
3 33K Kyle Knapp
4 11 Joshua Powell
5 48 Colton Flinner
6 81 Mike G. Miller
7 10 Gary Lyle
8 9Y Levi Yetter
9 01H Ron Hall
10 77 Tyler Dietz
11 12 John Myers
12 217 Howard Fraley
13 92 Jayme Beck
14 15* Kelvin Kohan
15 14R Clay Ruffo
16 91 Tommy Beck
DNS B1D Brandon Groters
Heat Winners: Tommy Beck, Colton Flinner
Diehl Automotive DIRTcar Big Block Modified Feature: (25 Laps)
1 165 Rex King Jr.
2 29 Garrett Krummert
3 4J John Mollick
4 83 Brian Swartzlander
5 65 Rex King
6 61 Dave Murdick
7 37MD Jeremiah Shingledecker
8 13 Rick Regalski
9 35 Steve Slater
10 83T Tom Glenn
11 45 Steve Feder
12 18W Colton Walters
13 96 Mike Turner
14 32R Chris Rudolph
15 18G Eric Gabany
16 22 Kevin Long
DNS 3K Shawn Kozar
Heat Winners: John Mollick, Garrett Krummert
Millerstown Pic-A-Part DIRTcar Pro Stock Feature: (20 Laps)
1 C33 Corey McPherson
2 948 Joey Zambotti
3 27 Tyler Dietz
4 81 Mike Miller
5 22Jr Chase Lambert
6 30 Bob Egley
7 66 Joe Kelley
8 25 Brett McDonald
9 72A Mike Anderson
10 21 Jeff Miller
11 5 James Bertges
12 99T Teddy Baumgartner
13 26 Mike Bordt
14 19M Ryan Maglione
15 310 Dale Tuche
16 56 Bryan Wagner
17 35B Jacob Dietz
DNS 4* Douglas Eck
Heat Winners: Tyler Dietz, Mike Miller
Car Count Total: 74
Peoples Sprints: 22
Precise Late Models: 17
Diehl Modifieds: 17
Pic-A-Part Pro Stocks: 18