This season, I'm going to do a rankings system for the local guys of western PA. There are plenty of national rankings and such. People even like to rank regional specials and such. But here in our area, nobody is doing anything to rank the local guys. You know, the guys we see every weekend at our local tracks. The unsung heros of the sport, the guys that allow the sport to continue. Without locals, there would be no regional/national stars in training.
So I figured it time for somebody to give those locals some shine. Every Monday evening, after the weekend's racing action, the rankings will be updated.
I'm using the following tracks to go into the poll: Lernerville, PPMS, Roaring Knob, Dog Hollow, Marion Center, America's Motorsports Park, Racing For Heros Raceway, McKean County Raceway, Eriez, and Bedford.
I devised a rather simple scoring system. The top five at every track get scored. Whoever wins gets 5 points, second gets 4 points, third gets 3 points, fourth gets 2 points and fifth gets 1 point. Why am I only scoring the top five? Because, it's a power poll. If you're running last every week, you don't belong on a power poll.
Only weekly events will be scored. Specials will not count in the standings.
Only races completed will be scored. No show up points for this one.
Scoring runs from May 1st to September 1st.
Now that we've established the rules, let's get to the rankings.
This weekend was hit especially hard by bad weather, as has much of the spring in Western Pennsylvania. Only three of the scoring tracks got their show in, Lernerville, Bedford, and Roaring Knob. Bedford's show was a Three State Flyers special, so it doesn't count towards the standings.
1. Alex Ferree: 5 points. Alex Picked up the win at Lernerville Friday night. He seems to be picking up right where he left off last season, in victory lane on a regular basis. If he can keep it up, he's going to be at or near the top of these standings all year.
1. Billy Holbert: 5 points. Billy picked up the win at Roaring Knob. He's usually in the mix for the win at the Knob week in and week out. he only runs one scoring track a week, though, so I don't know how long he'll stick around these rankings.
2. Russ King: 4 points. Russ ran second at Lernerville to back up his opening night win. If he runs locally all year, I look for him to be in contention for the end of the year title.
2. Brandon Delano: 4 points. Finished a strong second at the Knob. He's come a long way in his young career. I remember when he could barely get out of his own way, now he's running up front with the best of them. I'm excited to see what this year holds for him.
3. Garret Krummert: 3 points. The young gun moved around between a bunch of divisions throughout his career, but seems to have found a home in late models. Ran third at Lernerville, a track he seems to have terrible luck at. Maybe his luck is turning around.
3. Tim Senic: 3 points. The West Virginia hotshoe ran third at Roaring Knob. He's always fast at the bullring, and I expect him to take home some wins this year. Much like Holbert, though, he only runs one scoring track a week, so I don't know that he's going to be on these rankings all year, but he's certainly got to be a favorite whenever he unloads at the Knob.
4. Brian Swartzlander: 2 points. The double duty star turned in a very respectable fourth place finish at Lernerville. Everybody always likes to talk about Double Duty Dave Murdick, but Brian is every bit as versatile and possibly even more competitive in both divisions as Dave. Brian only runs one scoring track, so he's unlikely to stick around on these rankings, but whenever you so to the Ville, he's one to watch.
4. Scott Rhodes: 2 points. He's always right in the mix at the Knob. I'm not sure where he's going to be running on Fridays this year (if anywhere), but he's always a guy to keep an eye on. Super consistent and clean driver.
5. Kenny Schaltenbrand: 1 point. Took home fifth at Lernerville. I'm a huge fan of Kenny. Guy always does so much with so little. This year, though, he's got some new equipment, and from what I've seen, once he gets her dialed in, he's going to be right up front wherever he goes. I know I'm excited to see it. You should be too.
5. Quintin Wyandt: 1 point. Got fifth at Roaring Knob. I'm going to be completely honest here, I've always found him to be laughably bad whenever I saw him run. Like I'd find it hard to believe he'd even be competitive in a strictly stock in a two car field against a blind driver. I know, I know, that's mean. Thing is, he's apparently competitive now. The Knob's field isn't pushovers in any stretch of the word. Props to him, and I hope he keeps it up.
So that's it for this week. Lets hope all of these tracks get their shows in next weekend to bring a little diversity to all of this.
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