When you push people around, sometimes that person is known as a bully!

Not so for Doc and Betty Sarver of Cabot. These are two of the nicest people that you will ever meet in racing. They have been pushing Sprint cars with their drivers at Lernerville for about 45 years.

You see, Sprint cars don’t have starters. So these racecars that weigh about 1,250 pounds and can reach speeds of 140 mph must be shoved to start, which catches them in gear.

Doc went to mechanics school (Vale Tech) right out of Harbrach (Highlands) high school.

“That kind of got me interested in racing and that is how it all started,” Doc said.

He graduated from high school with Dick Swartzlander in 1949. The two of them liked to watch Bob Wearing Sr race in the big events at the Poconos.

Doc said: “For two years, Betty’s brother, Richard Sell, had a Pure Stock and I helped him. In fact I even bought some parts for him. On a race night, I would get my pick up truck and tow his car from Keasey Road to the racetrack with a chain. But when he messed it up a little bit, it was hard to tow it home, you know with the wheels turning out. Sometimes I had to drag it home sideways,” he chuckled.

After a couple of years Sell finally got a trailer. At the track, Doc used to unhook Sell’s car and then run in the track with his pick up. Later in the evening, he would push the Sprints.

Betty lived at Lernerville in a duplex. Since Lernerville was once an amusement park with a skating rink and pool, owner Steve Varos eventually transitioned the bathhouse into two homes when the pool closed.

“Don Martin had just opened the track in 1968,” added Betty. “My brother would get my son, Dave and go to the track.”

Betty worked in the mushroom mines for 26 years. Later, their son would help crew for John Garvin Sr, when he first started with a stock car and Jack Sodeman Sr. with his Sprint. Betty would be in the push truck, riding shotgun with Doc each night since the early 70’s.

He said: “There was a shortage of good push trucks and Don Martin decided to buy a fleet of old jeeps. I pushed until my truck totally broke down. About that time, I decided to retire from Westinghouse Electric in1989.”

Doc started to work at Lernerville every day. He helped to build the last set of bleachers in bitter cold weather. On Saturdays, “I would run the disc and Ouchie and Tommy (Roenigk) would run the graders.”

Because of a driver’s superstition about green being bad luck for a racecar, Martin had Doc’s truck painted yellow instead of green. Doc worked for Martin until the middle of the 1990’s.

When the Tomson Brothers bought the track Betty said, “I told them we’re grandfathered in here.” So they still run in the track every week.

One of the most horrendous accidents that they ever witnessed happened years ago during time trials. World of Outlaws driver Sammy Swindell came around turn four and a miscue occurred.

Another push truck was still on the front straight and Sammy didn’t see him and crashed into the back of the truck. Swindell was seriously injured, but recovered months later.

Doc likes all divisions. He doesn’t have a favorite one.

He does treasure a picture of them pushing WoO driver Brad Doty that he autographed!

“We have probably pushed every sprint that has come to Lernerville,” he said. “World of Outlaws and all. We did follow Ed Lynch Sr. I admired him. We used to take our truck to Pennsylvania Motor Speedway, and Sharon Speedway sometimes.”

Doc added, “When PA Motor Speedway would have Sprints, Pit Steward Smokey Schempp would say, ‘Come on down, I need some experienced push truck drivers.’ I remember one night there when Lynch Sr came around turn four where we were sitting in the trunk in the infield. He upset it and landed upside down. Fuel was leaking into his helmet.

“I hollered to turn the Sprint on its side at least. When I helped to do that, I cut my hand pretty bad but the people in the ambulance patched me up!”

Betty remembered Jack Sodeman Sr. had a bad wreck at Lernerville in turn one. Betty thought she heard line-up man Donnie Gallagher say I am going to get the hearse, “I must have had a funny look on my face cause he said, “Hurst cutting tool!”

For 40 years, they went to watch the Daytona 500 and the Indianapolis 500. One time Doc’s friend, the late Howard “Pee Wee” Garvin, had remodeled a bus, changing it into a camper. On the way to Florida, it broke down in Virginia. They rented a car and drove back to Sarver where Garvin’s junkyard was on Coal Hollow Road and got a distributor.

“Then they drove back to VA, fixed it and we were on our way,” Betty said.

Together Doc and Betty are working with the third generation of drivers.

“I’ve had the opportunity to push them all,” he proudly said.

Before the race, Betty volunteers to help the Buffalo Township firemen sell 50/50 tickets at the front gate. Look for the pretty lady with beautiful white hair and big smile.

Why do they keep going back every Friday night?

Betty said, “it is something to do and we enjoy it!”

Doc added, “It is kind of a part of our life.”

Doc will be 90 in November. They will continue to be at the racetrack every race night, “God willing and the Creeks don’t rise!”

Carol Gamble is a racing columnist for the Butler Eagle