Young delivers Sportsman win
BUFFALO TWP — There's winning. Then there's winning.
Terry Young experienced the latter Friday night at Lernerville Speedway.
The Butler driver of the No. 28 Sportsman Stock started seventh in the feature, grabbed the lead from Pat Hanley on a 16th-lap restart, then held off Hanley and Corey McPherson to grab the checkered flag.
Young's win was his second of the season and fourth of his 10-year career at Lernerville.
But it was his biggest.
“No doubt. This is my best win, my favorite win,” he said in Victory Lane. “Something happened to somebody in front of me during my other three victories.
“Either somebody's car broke, there was a wreck ... something. But not tonight. This was the first time I actually had to win a race on my own and it feels great.”
Young is off to the best start of his racing career and he is doing so in Mike Gilliland's No. 24 car from last year. The Portersville resident got out of racing after last season.
“Mike sold me all of his stuff,” Young said. “Honestly, this is the best race car I've ever had. It handles so well.”
Young said he had enough faith in the car to push it hard off the top cushion rather than try to duck down to another groove to ward off McPherson.
“Their car was jumping off those turns up high,” he said. “I felt like if I hit it right, I could stay in front and it worked out.”
In other features Friday night:•Danny Holtgraver cruised to victory in the Sprint feature, grabbing the lead from pole-sitter Jack Sodeman Jr. on the second lap and never being threatened from there.Holtgraver started the race in the front row and won it by nearly a full straightaway margin over Sodeman. It was the Pittsburgh driver's first win at Lernerville in 2012 and the third of his career.Victory came in his No. D4 car, but the decal on the side of the car showed Rod George's CIII.“Rod got banged up pretty good in a crash at Mercer last week and he's running for points here,” Holtgraver said. “I'm not doing points this year, so he asked me to use his number and get him some points tonight. It all worked out.”World of Outlaws driver Tim Shaffer and Holtgraver's father have been working together on the set-up of the car.“It was perfect tonight,” Holtgraver said. “All I had to do was drive it around the track. It would have taken a lot for me to screw this up.”• Chub Frank started 10th in the Late Model feature, grabbed the lead by the fourth lap and held off hard-chargers Davey Johnson, Saxonburg's Alex Ferree and Jared Miley to post his second win at Lernerville in as many weeks.Frank now has 16 career victories at Lernerville.“I felt like I could race anywhere on this track tonight, but once I got the lead and was up top, I decided to stay there,” Frank said.“I slowed up a bit toward the final few laps. The cushion was about gone on Turns 3 and 4. I didn't want to make a mistake and drive off the end.”• The 358 small-block Modifieds ran Friday night instead of the big blocks. Eric Gabany of Mercer — who has been running against the big blocks at the Sarver track this season — picked up the win.Gabany started 11th, but took the lead for good on the eighth lap in a race that had nine restarts.“Running here earlier in the year definitely helped me tonight,” Gabany said. “It felt familiar out there.”Despite running his small-block car, Gabany has finished fourth and fifth in big block Modified features at Lernerville this season.Lonny Riggs, who had not run at the Sarver track since 2003, finished second.“Most of these guys run up at Mercer and don't know how this track slicks up by feature time,” Riggs said. “A lot of the cars got too loose in the set-up and that's what caused all of the yellow flags.”There were 83 cars in the pits Friday night.
