Lernerville Speedway will have fireworks in the sky and plenty of action-packed Fab-4 racing on the track Friday evening.

It is the pre-July 4th #1 Cochran Fan Appreciation holiday show! In the Super Late Model class, Jared Miley, who has one Lernerville feature win, is ahead of Alex Ferree by one digit in the points standings. Ferree has finished second in a main event, but is still looking to win the big one in 2022. Colten Flinner, defending champion and last week’s victor, is six points behind.

Five-time Sprint champion AJ Flick continues to lead the way in that division with 115 points, having won three 2022 features. Sye Lynch, with one victory, has 96 and Carl Bowser 95. Incidentally, the late Lou Blaney is the only person to have six titles in the Sprint division.

After last week’s feature win, Jeremiah Shingledecker tops the V-8 Modified chart with 133 marks over Dr. Brad Rapp 126 and Rex King Jr. 122. In the Pro Stocks, Tyler Dietz has been red-hot with three victories this season, gaining 183 points over Todd Weldon’s 165 and Jared Zambotti’s 138.

Flick had a perfect weekend defending his home turf in Western Pennsylvania Sprint Week to earn $9,000. He swept the three features of the mini-series at Lernerville, Sharon and Tri-City and garnered their points championship as well. The opening two rounds scheduled for Mercer and PA Motor Speedway were rained out. Flick said, “It is just great to be here and to be part of this special event. To sweep it is unbelievable”.

He acknowledged that to do so, he needed a combination of speed and luck. “We had some bad pill-draws; we had some good pill draws. We were able to overcome the bad ones. I have been making small adjustments to the car, which has gotten faster in recent weeks.” He further added, “The heritage from Western PA Speedweek is crazy, so to know that we came out with a title after Tyler Beichner brought it back is great! A huge shout out to him and his father and for all they did to get this going again. This is special!”

Western PA Sprint Week was started in 1993. Challenger Raceway in Indiana, Pa., hosted the inaugural event and Donnie Krietz Jr. captured the win. After eight years, the program was discontinued and only revived in 2021 when Ryan Smith claimed wins at Lernerville and Sharon to capture the Speedweek’s title.

A father-daughter race team made the Western Pa. event — Rod Jones and his 19-year-old daughter, Vivian. It was her first time in a 410 Sprint, having formerly raced a 305 Sprint.

The famous Lucas Oil Super Late Models are coming to Sarver June 23-25. There will be three complete shows for the Lucas Oil Late Models when they make their Lernerville debut. It will be a $6,000 to win Thursday and Friday and 100 laps for $50,000 to the winner on Saturday.

The Bill Emig Memorial Crate Late 50-lap feature will pay $20,000 to win, $600 to start. The Rush Crate cars will have practice and qualifying on Thursday, heat races and dash on Friday and B-Main and feature on Saturday. So, the Rush Crate program is spaced out over the three days while the Lucas Oil Super Lates have three complete programs!

Track manager Mike Lysakowski shared, “This will be the biggest event in Lernerville history! There has never been a larger purse; there has never been anything of this magnitude. To my knowledge, I don’t think there is anywhere else in America where there is a $50,000 Super Late model race and a $20,00 Crate Late Model race. To have both of those races increased to that level at the same time has made this something special. There has been a buzz about this everywhere I have gone!”

He further added, “We have live bands all three nights afterward because the increase in camping has been unbelievable. We sold more reserved camping spots three months ago than we had coming to the door on the event night. So, the camping is pretty much overtaking the entire property and with that many people spending all their time here, we wanted to give them better entertainment so there is a live band all three nights.”

What number of drivers does the track expect for this first-time event? Lysakowski replied, “We have no idea what to expect. That is partly because in the Late Model world right now numerous drivers are hunting and pecking the highest-paying races in the country as opposed to loyally following any of the touring series out there.

“Fortunately, this is one of the highest paying three-day segments anywhere in the United States, when you factor in that a driver could make $62,000 by sweeping all three nights. The drivers that are non-committed to any tour all have this date circled on their calendar, because they are hunting money and they know there is more money available at this “Firecracker” than ever before. We know the Lucas Oil regular drivers, like Tim McCreadie, will be here because they have to earn the points. So, we are expecting a Late Model count of upwards of 50 maybe approaching 60 or more.“

Lernerville will have four satellite parking areas for this race and a bus shuttle service to the track will be provided by W.L. Roenigk Bus Company. The areas are located at the trailer court where the paved area is next to Vocelli’s Pizza, the lot around the former Copper Station Restaurant North of the speedway and two grass lots surrounding the area near the Vocelli Pizza building. The owners of these lots will be charging $5 per car to park.

Owner John Tomson is very excited about this event. He said, “I pray to God we have good weather!”

Carol Gamble is a racing columnist for the Butler Eagle