Taking advantage
BUFFALO TWP — The track was sticky in some spots, slick in others.
And drivers were taking advantage of it Friday night at Lernerville Speedway.
Plenty of passing and position changes took place all night as Danny Holtgraver (Sprints), Dave Hess Jr. (Late Models), Brian Swartzlander (Modifieds) and Chris Schneider (Spedctator Stocks) claimed feature wins.
“There were two good grooves out there tonight and that makes it fun,” Slippery Rock resident Dave Murdick said. “This was as racy as this track has been all year.”
Murdick finished third in the Late Model and Modified features. He started 16th in the Late Model race and eighth in the Modified event.
Jared Miley of South Park was running second in the Late Model feature when he spun out on the fourth lap and had to go to the back of the pack. Miley was back in second place by the 17th lap.
Three restarts within two laps after Miley's spin-out enabled him to get through the field quickly.
“Those cautions helped me a ton. I was passing three or four cars on each restart,” Miley said. “Guys with experience here know how to find the traction and get around people.”
Tommy Beck had the pole for the Late Model feature, but slid off Turn 4 on the first lap. After tailing the field, he rallied to finish fifth.
Hess held off a hard-charging Miley by half a car length to win the feature. It was his fourth Lernerville win of the year, tops among drivers in all divisions.“One more lap and I might have had him. I found something on the bottom late in this race,” Miley said.“There was a lot of contact out there tonight because cars were getting sideways on the slick spots and the track was so racy,” Hess said. “It was hard to get out and go.“I like lapped cars, though. I see them coming up ahead and plan what I'm going to do. But I know Jared does the same thing, so I wasn't going to play around too much.”Swartzlander's Modified win was only his second of the season at Lernerville. It extended his career track record in Modified victories to 71.The No. 83 car took the lead from Mars' Tom Winkle on the 10th lap and kept it from there. The race ran wire to wire with no cautions.“Good ... I didn't need any,” Swartzlander said. “We've had some tough breaks this year, finishing second, third or fourth a bunch of times. It felt good to get this one.”Winkle's No. 28 car made its first appearance of the season.“When you're tight on money, you have to park the car for a while,” Winkle said. “We do this for fun anyway.“I was surprised we did this well. We've done nothing with the car since the end of last year. We just showed up and ran it as is.”Holtgraver's Sprint win was his second career Lernerville victory. The Pittsburgh driver of the No. D4 car has been running a lot of All-Star races this season.Holtgraver finished third in points during Ohio speedweek recently and has three feature wins overall this year. He ran away from Friday's field to win by a half-lap margin.Schneider secured his third Spectator Stock win of the year by passing Chicora's Mike Miller on the 18th lap. Miller was bidding for his third win of the year as well.
<B>Notes: </B>There were 81 cars in the pits. ... Five drivers picked up their first heat race wins of the season: Carl Bowser in Sprints, Lynn Geisler in Late Models, Kevin Hoffman in Modifieds, Terry Young and Mark Sanders in Sportsman Stocks. ... Drivers passed their helmets through the stands to raise money for former Butler resident Jack Sodeman Jr., who suffered a badly broken leg and other injuries in a recent Sprint car crash in Canada. Total money collected was $2,736. ... The 20th annual Don Martin Memorial Cup World of Outlaws Sprint show is Tuesday night.
