Starting up front every race would be an ideal situation for any driver. For 20 years, Barry Lucas has been leading the pack as the pace truck driver at Lernerville Speedway.

Lucas loves racing and is a dependable, dedicated employee who does whatever he can to enhance auto racing. He was introduced to racing by his neighbor, Al Stivenson, who took him to Heidelberg Raceway. He was immediately hooked on racing and Dick Swartzlander became his favorite driver. He was so excited when Lernerville was built so close to his Freeport home.

After marriage, his wife Shirley, and their three children (Barry Jr., Jammie and Stevie) also developed a passion for racing. When the children were young, Lucas’ wife was tragically killed in an automobile accident. Lucas said, “Sometimes life deals you a bad hand, but you have to play the cards you are dealt!”

He immediately became “Mr. Mom.”

After working at Allegheny Ludlum, he came home to do the cooking, laundry, and everything else needed to raise children. A friend of his told Lucas, “Whatever you do, keep the children busy!” The boys had Go-Carts and later Micro-Sprints and they went to Blanket Hill and the former Challenger Raceway.

Lucas is a proud grandfather. He attends all his grandchildren’s races and other sports activities. Parker Lucas is racing a 270 SR Micro Sprint and Nash Lucas is in a JR 270 Micro Sprint. Cody and Dawson Contrael are racing Go-Carts.

Barry’s daughter, Jammie, said, “I’ve been going to the races since I was two-weeks old! When we leave for vacation, it is always Sunday through Friday so we are back for the races at Lernerville and can compete in the Go-Carts Saturday.”

This is the 12th year of racing Go-Carts for Jammie and Tom Contrael’s family. Their boys went to Lenape Vocational Technical School where they majored in Precision Machinery. They were 4.0 students and played football and basketball.

Cody and Dawson are both working at Penn United and paying for their cost of racing. Dawson will graduate from high school in 2023. He has a Go-Cart championship in the Senior Champ car already. This year he has won eight races. His favorite drivers are Brandon Overton and Sheldon Haudenschild. They affectionately call Dawson “the Sprint driver Brandon Matus look-alike” and he would like to be in a Sprint car someday. He recently raced for Jason Carnahan in the 390 Predator.

The older sibling, Cody, is competing in the Predator 390 and 425, leading the points race in the 390. His favorite driver is Bobby Pierce and he, too, would like to drive a Late Model in the future.

While celebrating his sixth Lernerville win of 2022, tenth of the season overall, AJ Flick said, “My dad stressed to me, be patient, we knew we had a decent enough car that we can at least race and get to the front”.

He now is tied with Carl Bowser for eighth on the Lernerville all-time Sprint win list with 28 victories.

According to Speed Sport’s Sprint Rankings, Flick leads the Ohio/PA Sprint list, followed by Jack Sodeman Jr., Brandon Matus, Carl Bowser and Dan Kuriger. Looking at the USA Speed Sport Rankings, Brent Marks is first and trailing him is Justin Peck, Dan Dietrich, Anthony Macri, Brad Sweet, and Flick is sixth. A Sprint driver must have competed in 20 events to be eligible. Flick is also on top of the 2022 Lernerville points chart, leading Darin Gallagher by 58 digits and looking to capture his sixth Sprint title.

Daryl Charlier won his first-career Super Late Model feature at Lernerville Speedway by defeating Tyler Dietz. The victory now gives Charlier three wins in three different divisions at “The Action Track”. In 2021, Charlier won in a Pro Stock and just two weeks ago, he won the RUSH Summer Showcase with the RUSH Late Model Touring Series. His wife, Tanya, drives a Pro Stock. John Garvin tops the points list by 43 over his teammate and defending champion, Colton Flinner.

Jeremiah Shingledecker claimed his second V-8 Modified feature at the Sarver oval.

“I knew early on that my car was pretty good, I was trying to save my tires, so I had a little bit left at the end,” Shingledecker said in victory lane.

Chaz Wolbert finished second in his first year in a Big Block. Shingledecker added of Wolbert, “He has a lot of laps in the Crate car, but he did a really great job, can’t take anything away from him. We were just a little bit better.”

In the race for the Modified title, defending champion Shingledecker leads both Dave Murdick and Garrett Krummert by 25 points.

Chris Schneider checkered his third Pro Stock feature last Friday, which moved him up to third on the all-time Lernerville win chart, tying him with Scott Bochek at 29. Tyler Dietz is the point leader by 12 over Todd Weldon. Friday is the Penn-Ohio Pro Stock Tour race with an increased purse.

CBS carried the recent Tony Stewart’s SRX Series Late Model Race at Sharon on prime-time TV. It was a sell-out crowd and no tickets were sold the day of the race. The Late Model-type cars are all equally built and driven by stars from either NASCAR or the Indy Series.

It was a nice touch to see Katy Blaney, wife of the late Lou Blaney, give the command to start your engines. Chase Elliot and Tony Stewart battled for the win with Elliot claiming the checkered flag.

Carol Gamble is a racing columnist for the Butler Eagle