The Western Pennsylvania racing season came to a close this past weekend with the running of the eighth annual Steel City Stampede at Lernerville Speedway.
(Photo: Lonnie Riggs captured his fourth Little Guy Nationals title at Mercer Raceway Park. Photo by Rick Rarer)
It could be called a racing buffet with nine divisions of racing and nearly three hundred race cars seeing action over two days, with something for every racing fan.
AJ Flick capped off another successful season with his first Stampede win worth $3,000 to the Apollo racer.
After his strong run in the Working Man a few weeks back, Michael Norris dominated the late model feature Saturday.
Mike Bowman held off track champion Mat Williamson to win the big block modified feature while Corey McPherson continued his season-long dominance with a convincing win in the sportsman feature.
Other winners included John Mollick winning the RUSH late model feature, David Scott won the UMP-style modified feature, Rocky Kugel won the RUSH modified feature and Eric Boozel won the 4-Cylinder feature. After racing his sprint car in the first feature of the evening Darin Gallagher returned to win the 100-lap enduro to close out the evening.
Mercer Raceway Park closed out their season with the popular Little Guy Nationals.
The headlining 358 modified feature saw Lonnie Riggs score his fourth LGN triumph.
Other winners in the season-ending event included Greg Dobrosky ; 305 sprint cars, Joshua Ferry ; 2 Barrel e-mods, Ryan Fredericks ; micro sprints, Mark Marcucci; mod-lites, and Shane Shook captured the mini stock feature.
Pittsburgh’s Pennsylvania Motor Speedway closed out the season with their crown jewel event, The Pittsburgher 100 featuring the Lucas Oil Late Model Series. Josh Richards held off late model royalty as he bested legendary Scott Bloomquist to score his second Pittsburgher 100 and collect $20,000.
Local racer Gregg Satterlee of Rochester Mill continued his strong season with a third-place finish. While another local driver Michael Norris set quick time in qualifying over the forty-six car field.
Michael Norris closed out the season strong with a win at The Steel City Stampede. Photo by Rick Rarer
The World of Outlaws sprint car series made their final visit to Pennsylvania the past weekend.
The series returned to Williams Grove Speedway to complete the rain postponed National Open then moved to Port Royal Speedway for their annual stop.
Local favorite Danny Dietrich won his first ever National Open in thrilling fashion by passing World of Outlaw regular Joey Saldana on the final lap to score the $25,000 win.
Saturday at Port Royal former Pennsylvania racer turned Outlaw Logan Schuchart dominated the 30-lap affair for his second career Outlaw win.
Focus will now switch south to The Dirt Track at Charlotte in North Carolina for the World Finals. One of the most popular events of the season will feature the World of Outlaws sprint cars and late models in their final races of the season along with the DIRTcar big block modifieds.
Racing gets underway Thursday, October 27 and concludes on Saturday, October 29. Many local racers are expected to head south for the big event along with fans from the area and across the United States. All three series will crown their champions at the conclusion of the weekend.
The Cranberry Mall Racers Swap Meet is set for Saturday, October 29 for racers and fans. Things will get underway in front of the mall at 6 a.m. and will run until 2 p.m. There is expected to be a good turnout with already over 40 entries received.
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About Rick
Rick Rarer, a Franklin resident, is the owner of Racestud.com and SprintCarNews.com. He has been covering racing for 18 years, taking racing photos for 13 years, and has covered races at over 100 tracks in 15 states. Most recently, Rick won the Bill Steinbach Media Award at the Lernerville Speedway Annual Awards Banquet.
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