In between the thunderstorms, the weekend was hot and humid and most area tracks were able to dodge the severe storms and complete racing action.
[PHOTO: Will Fleming, of Brookville, found victory lane at Lernerville in exciting fashion. (Rick Rarer Photo)]
With the sprint cars taking over the show at Lernerville Speedway on Friday, the BRP Modified Tour headlined the action at Thunder Mountain Speedway along with the super late models. A familiar face was in victory lane when the checkers flew on the modified feature. It was Rex King Jr adding another win to his impressive resume.
Jim Rasey, Dave Murdick, Chris Rudolph, and local favorite Paul Kot rounded out the top five in the thirty-five lap main event. The late model feature saw Mike Pegher Jr. invade to best a strong field for his first Thunder Mountain win of the season. Thunder Mountain will not be racing this Friday but will host the ULMS late model series this Wednesday night, July 3rd.
On Saturday night, the Modified Tour traveled south to Tyler County Speedway in West Virginia. Coming out on top in the feature there was Rex King Sr. making it a clean sweep of tour events for the King family over the weekend.
Four divisions of sprint cars filled the pits at Lernerville Speedway Friday night and a pair of photo finishes brought fans to their feet. First, it was Justin Owen who passed Carmen Perigo on the final lap for his second career BOSS victory at the Sarver oval. Defending track champion AJ Flick would settle for third in the only BOSS appearance of the season.
In what some are calling the race of the night, Brookville’s Will Fleming went from third to first on the final lap to win the RaceSaver 305 sprint feature. Race long leader Jonathan Jones would settle for second while Kyle Colwell of Knox would round out the podium. Chad Ruhlman continued his domination of the RUSH sprint car class with another convincing win while Ryan Beatty led the distance in the micro sprint feature.
This weekend Tony Stewart’s All-Star Circuit of Champions will invade western Pennsylvania for the only time this season. On Friday, the series will be at Lernerville Speedway to make up the race that was rained out back in May. On Saturday, the All-Stars will visit Sharon Speedway for the Lou Blaney Memorial joining the big block modifieds.
Just like our local tracks, the All-Stars have been suffering through one of the worst seasons weather wise in series history with nineteen rainouts already in the books. It is also currently one of the closest point battles in recent history coming into this weekend. Just two points separate defending series champion Aaron Reutzel from former six-time champion Dale Blaney.
Current point leader Aaron Reutzel, of Texas, leads the All-Stars into western Pennsylvania this weekend (Rick Rarer Photo)
Joining Reutzel and Blaney will be drivers like Tim Shaffer, Cory Eliason, Paul McMahan, and others as they take on the top area drivers like AJ Flick, Carl Bowser, Sye Lynch, and others. One driver up for the challenge is the popular veteran Dave Blaney who won the event last year. The former World of Outlaws champ and NASCAR regular dominated the action at Sharon Speedway this past Saturday besting a strong field of thirty sprinters.
Like his brother Dale, Dave would like nothing more than to win the Lou Blaney Memorial again this Saturday to honor his father. To do it, they will have to beat the best the All-Stars have to offer and all of the top local drivers. Like the sprint cars look for all of the area’s top modified drivers to be on hand as they battle for the two thousand dollar winner’s check. Racing is slated to get underway for this much-anticipated event at 7:00 p.m.
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