BUFFALO TWP - Memorial Day weekend began with a memorable win for Doug Eck of Corry Friday night at Lernerville Speedway.

While his son, who is Eck's crew chief, is stationed in the Germany with the Air Force, the veteran driver of the No. 03 Late Model drew the pole and led from start to finish to post his second-career feature victory at the Sarver track.

His first was May 30 of last year - with son Jordan, who was a Corry High School senior, setting up the car.

"Jordan had been my crew chief for five years," Eck said. "He knows everything about cars. He did a better job at this than some guys who have been doing it for 20 years."

Jordan Eck joined the Air Force last fall and, as a fuel system specialist, figured to be stationed somewhere in the United States.

"He was gonna fly in for race weekends this year," Eck said.

As it was, the Air Force had a shortage of his talents overseas and Eck's son was sent to Germany, where he'll be stationed for 14 months.

But he still works on his father's race car - by phone.

"I talked to him 10 minutes before I went out on the track," Eck said. "He gives us advice and I send a tape of every race to him."

Dave McCray, a member of Eck's crew for 10 years, is the new crew chief.

"It's a lot different not having Jordan here," McCray said. "He knew a lot about setup, about what to change and when to change it."

Eck has won a number of features at Stateline Speedway in New York State and Eriez Speedway near Erie over the years, but cherishes his two Lernerville wins.

"This is Jordan's favorite track," he said. "It's great to win a race at this place. The history goes on and on."

In other Lernerville feature races:

Kevin Bolland of New Brighton had the pole in the regularly scheduled Modified race, lost the lead to Jim Weller on the fourth lap, then got it back on the 16th lap to take the checkered flag.

It was the first feature win of the season anywhere for Bolland, who has run into hard luck since winning the Modified points title here in 2002.

"We had a pistons problem last year," Bolland said. "This year, we blew our big-block motor while leading our qualifying race in Charlotte the first week of April.

"Running a small-block motor on a tacky track doesn't win races for you. But we found a way tonight," he added.

Bolland has won 24 feature races at Lernerville over the years. The parts are in for his big-block motor and he will likely have it in the car by next weekend.

Tom Winkle of Mars took the lead from Slippery Rock's Dave Murdick on the sixth lap and won going away in the Modified feature that was postponed by rain May 14.

The win was Winkle's third career triumph at Lernerville and first since June 20 of last year. He hasn't won anywhere else since then.

"There's a lot more bite and a lot more traction out there when you're the first race," Winkle said. "My car runs better on a biting track."

The Modified makeup feature was the first race held Friday night.

Winkle followed up his feature win by winning his heat race during the regular show. He finished eighth in the regular Modified feature.

Ed Lynch Jr. had the pole for the Sprint feature and led from start to finish. It was his fourth feature win at Lernerville this year and he extended his career Sprint win record at the Sarver track to 68.

"I had the best starting spot you can have," Lynch admitted. "You have to take them when you can get them."

Greg Beach of Chicora won his sixth-career Pure Stock feature here and first this season. He started fourth and overtook pole-sitter Scott Bochek on the sixth lap.

Beach became the fifth different feature winner in as many races in the Pure Stock division at Lernerville this year, following Gary Norman, Rob Shook, Bob Lipinski and Joe Kelley.

Notes:

There were 91 cars in the pits. … Gary Rankin of Renfrew (Sprints) and Jeff Henry of Butler (Late Models) won heat races for the first time in more than three years. … Red lights hit the speedway as Sprinters Terry Bowser and Arnie Kent, and Modified driver Josh Skarzenski flipped their cars during heat races. No one was injured. … The Bill Steinbach Memorial Sprint Race will be part of the Fab Four racing card next Friday.