Championship form
BUFFALO TWP — With plenty at stake for the winner, Carl Bowser and Alex Ferree demonstrated championship form Friday night at Lernerville Speedway.
Defending points champs in their respective divisions, Sarver resident Bowser pulled away from the field early and cruised to the Sprint feature win while Saxonburg resident Ferree survived nine restarts in the final 17 laps to claim the Late Model feature.
“The car was good wherever I went on the track,” Bowser said. “We had some parts break early in the season and had two DNF's. Now we've won three of the past five (features) here.
“I feel like we've found something and hopefully we'll keep it going.”
Bowser started fourth and passed the front row of Ralph Spithaler and Scott Priester on the second lap. The No. 10 car was unchallenged from there, opening up a half-lap lead at one point over runner-up Ed Lynch Jr.
Bowser's official final winning margin was 3.3 seconds.
“Anytime the No. 2L is on the track, you know he's coming to win,” Bowser said. “I looked up at the board and saw the 2 was running second. I had no idea how close he was, so I kept pushing it.”
Friday night marked Lernerville's Mid-Season Championships. All four feature winners were guaranteed starting spots in signature events later this season.
For Bowser, that means a starting spot in the Don Martin Memorial Silver Cup race July 21 at the Sarver oval.
Ferree picked up a starting spot in next Saturday's Firecracker 100 World of Outlaw Late Model race.
“It's nice having that, but you still want to earn your way in,” Ferree said.
Ferree certainly earned his second win of the season — and 31st overall here — Friday.
He started on the pole and built a big lead early. Ferree continually built sizable leads, but a caution on the ninth lap, two on the 10th, one on the 11th and 13th, three on the 18th kept pulling him back. He endured a final caution with two laps remaining.
“They (cautions) are part of racing, but when you have that many, it's a little ridiculous,” Ferree admitted. “It's tough ... All it takes is one bobble on a restart and I've been known to do that.“The only problem with starting up front is you never know where the second and third-place cars are ... whether they're on your bumper or you're killing them.”Ferree held off Russell King and Ken Schaltenbrand to grab the checkered flag.Rex King Jr. of Bristolville, Ohio, came from the sixth starting position to win the Modified feature. He earned a berth in the Steel City Stampede here in October.Mat Williamson of St. Catharines, Ontario, had the pole for the Modified race, but fell behind former Butler resident Garrett Krummert early. Williamson passed Krummert on a seventh-lap restart, only to lose the lead to King on a 10th-lap restart.“I thought he jumped it,” Williamson said of the latter restart. “He hit the pedal before me. I asked the flagman about it after the race and he said he questioned it, but the officials upstairs said it was OK.“That was the race right there. It sucks to lose like that. Starting on the pole ... I need to win those.”King said he was aggressive on the restart because of Williamson's skills as a driver.“Matty is one of the best here,” he said. “When I saw him hit the pedal, I fired. What am I supposed to do, just let him go because he's starting first? I shouldn't even bother being out here racing then.”Williamson gained on King in lapped traffic before King ducked down low and zipped past two lapped cars running side-by-side. Williamson couldn't get around those cars.“That was a nice move. He got away from me there,” Williamson admitted.King was critical of the lapped cars, saying that “sometimes I don't think they know what the blue flag means. When I first started out in racing, I always respected the race leaders and moved over. That's what you have to do.”Longtime Sportsman Stock driver Joe Kelley won his feature to grab a spot in September's Autumn-Motiove Fest Sportsman Stock Spectacular. Butler's Terry Young finished second.Kelly's win was the 49th of his career in the Stock division at Lernerville. He's won 20 more features in the division than Scott Bocheck, who stands second on the track's all-time list.Notes: There were 81 cars in the pits. ... Six drivers — Bump Headman and Colton Flinner in the Late Models, Erick Rudolph and Butler's Shawn Fleeger in the Modifieds, Rimersburg's Preister in the Sprints and Jeff Miller in the Stocks — picked up their initial heat race wins of the season. Fleeger held off Williamson and all-time Modified feature win leader Brian Swartzlander in his heat. ... Butler resident Bob Moore, a rookie Late Model driver at age 64, hit the wall coming off Turn 4 during his heat race. He was unhurt. ... Kevin Bolland, Modified points champion in 2002, 2006 and 2010 at Lernerville, made his first appearance at the Sarver oval in a few years. He was 10th in the feature.
