BUTLER TWP— Alex Ferree had a special season. Brian Swartzlander is having a special career.

Both will be back to defend their respective points championships at Lernerville Speedway when the 2008 season opens March 28.

Lernerville held its annual banquet Saturday night at the Butler Days Inn. Its track champions from 2007, Kevin Schaeffer in Sprints, Ferree in Late Models, Swartzlander in Modifieds and Mike Pegher Jr., in Pure Stocks, received their trophies at the event.

Saxonburg's Ferree won nine of 16 features, the MACSfeature on June 27 and tallied eight heat race triumphs. He beat out Late Model runner-up Gary Lyle by 165 points.

"Alex was flat-out awesome this year,"fellow driver Jared Miley said.

Cranberry Township's Lynn Geisler said Ferree's 2007 season will extend well beyond his track championship.

"Alex asserted himself as a good race driver and that will go on forever,"Geisler said. "It's a big step in any driver's career."

Ferree credited crew chief Fred Bratchie and the rest of the car's handlers for his success.

"Go in the pits and you'll see me walking around while they're working on the car,"Ferree said.

"There was a lot of good, clean competition on the track last year. Rubbing is racing, but respect for equipment is important, too."

Leechburg's Swartzlander won his fifth Modified title at Lernerville, claiming six feature wins and six heat race triumphs.

He has 54 career Modified wins at the Sarver track, ranking fourth on the division's all-time list.

"I can still remember my first career win at Lernerville and now it's our fifth track championship. It's pretty neat," Swartzlander said.

"We win a lot of our races in the garage, not at the racetrack. My crew members are in there every night of the week. They do a great job preparing the car."

Swartzlander partnered with Lernerville general manager and former Modified driver Gary Risch Jr. last season and won the Modified Challenge Series championship, Cavalcade points and the DIRTWestern Regionals. He and Risch will not team up this year.

Overall, Swartzlander had nine feature wins and 24 top-three finishes in racing during 2007 to become only the third driver to win at least three Cavalcade points titles, joining Lou Blaney and Blackie Watt.

Swartzlander won Cavalcade crowns in 1998 and 2001 as well.

"I've been blessed to be surrounded by a lot of great people in this sport,"Swartzlander said.

Kittanning's Schaefer is a two-time Sprint points champion and said he will race only at Lernerville in 2008.

"This sport's getting pretty expensive,"he said.

Ed Lynch Jr. won six features and nine heat races last year, hiking his track record of Sprint victories to 88.

"I'll be back out there getting a few more notches in my belt if I can,"Lynch said.

Pegher, a Seneca Valley graduate who won his first Pure Stocks points title with three feature wins, nine heat race victories and 13 top-five finishes, could not attend the banquet because he was tending to his ill grandmother.

In other banquet news:

• Butler's Steve Feder won Lernerville's Rookie of the Year Award, finishing 13th in Modified points after racing lawn tractors in 2006.

"The biggest difference was being able to go from zero to 100 (mph) instead of zero to 20,"Feder quipped.

• Morris Steinhiser, who mans the pit gate, won the Grover Clasper Award for courage and determination as he overcame a serious illness to work his post every Friday.

• Sprint driver Rod George and his family received the Milestone in Racing Award. George won five features at Lernerville and 21 features overall in 2007.

• Four drivers, Jeremiah Shingledecker, Dutch Davies, Rob Blair and Greg Satterlee, were recognized for winning their first Lernerville features in 2007.

• Risch announced the Firecracker 100 Late Model race on June 27 and 28 and Don Martin Memorial Sprint race on July 15 will pay $40,000 to the winner.