BUFFALO TWP — Talk about testing one's patience.

Three-time defending Late Model points champion Alex Ferree of Saxonburg hadn't won a feature at Lernerville Speedway in 11 months.

He started on the pole Friday night and had to sweat out nine restarts, but he maintained the lead from wire to wire for his first checkered flag at the Sarver track since Aug. 21.

"I kept waiting for someone to fly past me on one of those restarts," Ferree said. "I don't think we raced more than three consecutive laps green tonight."

Runner-up Jared Miley of South Park wished they had.

"I could have used 10 or 12 straight laps of green flag racing," Miley said. "The track was fun to race on, but it was hard to pass tonight.

"You could stay fast on top of (turns) three and four and on the bottom of one and two. Those were the lines and Alex had them."

And the driver of the No. 4 car wasn't about to give them up.

"(Ferree) drove a flawless race," Miley said. "I stayed right behind him the whole time, waiting for the mistake that never came."

Ferree knew Miley was on his back bumper.

"One hiccup and I get beat," he admitted. "I'm glad it didn't happen."

Dave Hess Jr., sporting an 86-point lead over second-place Miley entering the night, pitted after six laps and never returned. Hess hadn't finished worse than fourth in a Lernerville Late Model feature this year.

Cranberry Township's Lynn Geisler was running third when he was forced to the pits with five laps to go. A faulty ignition wire ended his night.

In other features:

n Jim Weller Jr. of Hubbard, Ohio, claimed his second Modified win of the year and the 35th of his career at Lernerville — but not without a scare from Tom Winkle.

The Mars driver, racing only sparingly this season, started up front with Weller and grabbed the lead on the 18th lap.

Weller got the lead back on the first turn of the following lap and held on from there.

"That proved a lot more challenging than I thought it'd be," Weller said. "I didn't think anybody could get around me on the bottom of turns three and four, but Tommy did it.

"He's not usually a bottom feeder. That caught me by surprise."

Winkle spun out on Turn 3 of the final lap, catching the cushion too high while making a last-ditch effort to overtake Weller.

"It was either settle for second or go for it," Winkle said. "I decided to go for it."

Winkle's family is building a house this year, so he nearly decided not to race at all this season.

"We just show up when we feel like it now," he said.

n Andy McKisson of Strattanville had the pole and led the Sprint feature from start to finish, securing his first career Lernerville win in that division.

"This feels really awesome," McKisson said. "We struggled early in the year. We couldn't get the thing going."

Ed Lynch Jr. of Apollo, bidding for his third straight feature win at the Sarver track, started 12th and finished second.

• Jason Fosnaught of Creighton won his first Sportsman Stock feature since July 2008. He didn't race in the division last season.

Fosnaught started up front and led the entire way.

Seven-time 2010 feature winner Joe Kelley started 12th, pitted early in the race, then came from the back of the field to finish second.

Notes: There were 73 cars in the pits. ... Sarver's Carl Bowser violently hit the wall in his No. 10 Sprint car during the feature. The car rolled over and was severely damaged, but Bowser was unhurt. ... The Firecracker 100 will be televised at 5 p.m. Saturday on the SPEED Channel. ... The Joe Pitkavish Memorial Modified race takes place next Friday at Lernerville.