BUFFALO TWP - Ron Davies enjoyed his homecoming Friday night at Lernerville Speedway.

He hopes to cap it off next Friday evening.

The veteran Late Model driver from Warren led the feature from wire to wire and won his first race at the Sarver oval since May 10, 1991.

"I know it's been a long time," Davies said.

Davies was Lernerville Late Model points champion in 1990, the only year he raced for points here. He now races regularly at Raceway 7 and has won numerous points titles at Stateline Speedway in Erie.

Immediately after winning Friday's feature, Davies and his crew loaded the truck and headed for Nashville, Tenn., and a $20,000 MACS race Saturday night.

"We're looking at a seven-hour drive overnight," he said. "We'll sleep when we get there. This win will make the ride a lot easier."

There were 38 Late Models in the pits Friday night. More than 60 are expected next week, when the inaugural World of Outlaws Late Model series comes to town.

And Davies will be one of them. He finished second to David Scott in the Late Model feature at Lernerville last week.

"I'm very pleased with what we've been able to do here," Davies said. "I think we can come out with a top-five finish in that race next week."

Brian Swartzlander of Leechburg was very pleased with his performance in Friday's Modified feature. He started up front with pole-sitter Del Rougeux Jr., and passed him on the race's sixth restart - on just the seventh lap.

Swartzlander held off an onrushing Kevin Bolland to win his second Lernerville feature of the season, which was 43rd of his career here and the 97th of his career overall.

"Honestly, I haven't even been thinking about 100 (wins)," Swartzlander said. "I know I'm close, but I didn't know what the exact number of wins I had was until I heard it tonight."

Down the stretch, Swartzlander, Bolland and Jim Weller - owners of the past seven Modified points titles at Lernerville - were running 1-2-3. Dave Murdick of Slippery Rock eventually passed Weller for third.

"I never worry about who's behind me," Swartzlander said. "I just run my race and worry about who's in front of me."

Bolland hopes to be in front of him in a couple of weeks.

"We were running a small-block engine tonight and needed a slick track to be effective," Bolland said. "Thank goodness there were a lot of cars here tonight."

Ed Lynch Jr. won his third Sprint feature in as many race nights at Lernerville. He started from the 12th spot - based on his consecutive wins at the Sarver track - and went on to claim the Spring Sprint Spectacular and the $1,400 winner's purse.

Lynch passed brother-in-law Chad Hill on the ninth lap and was never challenged the rest of the way.

"I didn't feel it was justified that I automatically started 12th, so I'm parked right here," Lynch said of victory lane.

Lynch said that because Friday's race was a special race carrying an inflated purse, he should not have been forced to start 12th until the next regularly scheduled Sprint feature.

Because he won his third straight Lernerville feature, he will tail the field next time.

"That's fine with me because it's a regular race," Lynch said. "If it was a special race, it wouldn't be right."

Lynch's victory extended his Lernerville career Sprint feature win mark to 66.

The Pure Stock division saw two Lernerville first-time winners Friday. Bob Lipinski of Pittsburgh started on the pole of the regularly scheduled feature and held off Greg Beach of Chicora and defending points champion Joe Kelley for the win.

Lipinski had won a feature here two years ago, but was later disqualified.

"They found a small technicality with my car," he said. "I changed the chassis setup on my wheel track this year and I'm running much better."

Lipinski finished second in last week's feature and won his heat race Friday. He races a 9-year-old Pontiac Firebird.

"It's the oldest car in the division here except for Matt Rubright (No. 35x of Harmony), who runs one of Bruce Milbert's old cars," Lipinski said.

Gary Norman of New Castle won the makeup race of the March 26 Pure Stock rainout when Herman Bertolini was disqualified for spinning Norman out on the back straightaway of the final lap.

Norman has won track championships at Tri-City and Hickory, but rarely races at Lernerville.

Notes:

There were 131 cars in the pits Friday night. … Mike Turner of Butler finished a career-best second in the Pure Stock rain makeup feature. … Late Models will be the only division at Lernerville next Friday. The World of Outlaws series pays $10,000 to the winner. Time trials are at 7:15 p.m., racing at 8.