BUFFALO TWP - Lernerville Speedway simply agrees with Chub Frank.

The veteran Late Model driver from Bear Lake won his fourth career Mid-Atlantic Championship Series feature Friday night at the Sarver track. It was his first MACS victory since last June - also at Lernerville.

In fact, Frank won a World of Outlaws Late Model race here last season as well.

"I like this place," Frank said. "When it gets slippery out there, you see some good racing."

While Frank picked up the $5,000 check for winning the 50-lap MACS Late Model feature, Ryan Coniam of Burlington, Ontario, became $5,000 richer by winning the 35-lap All-Star Circuit of Champions Sprint feature.

Coniam became the first Canadian driver ever to win a Sprint All-Stars feature.

But his win did not come as easily as Frank's.

Friday's MACS feature saw five restarts in the first 16 laps, then none for the final 34 laps. None of that mattered to Frank.

He started in the first row alongside pole-sitter Lynn Geisler of Cranberry Township and led the race throughout.

Frank opened big leads on restarts, then wove in and out of lap traffic with ease. He won the race by half a track length over runner-up Robbie Blair of Titusville, last year's MACS points champion.

"It's rare that someone wins a MACS race by that kind of margin," Blair said. "But this race was all Chub's. He had it hooked up from top to bottom."

Frank had not been having a good season before Friday's win. He wrecked a couple of cars earlier in the year.

"I've been trying to get my garage finished, trying to put a couple of cars together. … I've just been behind," Frank said. "We decided to try a few things tonight and everything worked."

Everything was working for Geisler earlier in the evening. He won his heat race, then rallied to win the 8-lap fast dash. Blair passed him on the inside halfway through the dash and Geisler dropped back to fourth.

Geisler rallied on the final lap, passing Blair on the back straightaway to claim the pole position for the feature.

"That was as good a fast dash as you're gonna see," Geisler said. "I knew the car was dialed in. I was patient while everyone else was aggressive and it paid off.

"The feature is a whole different thing, though. I had things figured out for eight laps, now I have to try figuring it out for 50."

Geisler wound up fourth in the feature.

Danny Smith of Danville, Ind., won the pole position for the Sprint feature and kept the lead for 19 laps. On the 20th lap, however, Coniam passed him on the front straightaway.

Coniam, who started from the third spot, held off a pair of hard-chargers in Jeremy Campbell and Rod George to grab the checkered.

Campbell started sixth and finished second, barely beating George to the finish line. Kittanning resident George, Lernerville's current Sprint points leader, settled for third after starting 15th.

"The track was slick and I like it that way," George said. "We're having a good year, but you won't see me at too many of these other (All-Star) races. I'm getting a little too old for that stuff."

Friday night marked the beginning of Sprint All-Star Race Week, with Lernerville kicking off a stretch of nine All-Star series races at various tracks in as many nights.

Coniam credited his crew for Friday's historic victory.

"I've had to stay home and work the past couple of weeks and they built a new car for race week," Coniam said. "I was running the bottom, but this car would have run anywhere we needed it to.

"I told the guys after fast laps … This car is very easy to drive. They did a great job."

Notes:

There were 87 cars in the pits, 49 Late Models and 38 Sprints. … Dale Blaney's wing came loose on his No. 22 Sprint during time trials. He recovered to qualify for the feature through his heat race and finished 12th. … The top three finishers in the Sprint feature are former All-Star Rookies of the Year. Coniam won the honor in 2003, Campbell in 2004 and George in 1988. … No driver came close to breaking the track's fast lap records. Campbell had the fastest Sprint lap during time trials at 13.862 seconds. Joey Saldana set the track record of 12.334 on May 14, 2002. Jim Bernheisel had the fastest Late Model lap of 16.108 seconds. Darrel Lanigan set the track record of 15.072 seconds on April 29 of this year.