The 2018 Pennsylvania Super Late Model Power Rankings: Week 18

Hey there race fans, it's Tuesday, and that means it's time for me to given an update on these rankings. Yeah, I know, it was a day late this week, but my internet wasn't working particularly well yesterday, so I figured I'd wait until today to see if the issue cleared itself up, and sure enough, it did.

So this week saw a lot of racing get in, with just one rainout, which was Eriez's show on Sunday. Eriez has had terrible luck with the weather up there this year. I feel bad for the fans and racers that call the place home. Technically, Dog Hollow rained out this week on Friday, but they utilized a Saturday raindate and got their show in with no issues.

In the case of Hummingbird, they actually got two scoring shows in, as they ran a makeup feature for the super lates on Saturday on top of their regular show. Lernerville, Port Royal, and Dog Hollow all had specials scheduled, which means they were scored on the 7 point scale this week. All that adds up to a ton of points being scored.

Now lets see how all of it shook out amongst this week's top ten.

1. Jeff Rine********, 95 points. Jeff came home third Friday night at Bedford.

2. Max Blair*******, 73 points. Max ran third at Dog Hollow Saturday.

3. Dylan Yoder****, 70 points. Dylan got a fourth at Port Royal Saturday.

4. Jared Miley*****, 65 points. Jared took home the win at Lernerville Friday, and was fourth at Dog Hollow Saturday.

5. Michael Norris********, 56 points. Michael couldn't manage to score any points this week.

6. Mike Maresca**, 47 points. Mike was also held scoreless this weekend.

7. Coleby Frye**, 39 points. Add Coleby to the scoreless bunch.

8. Bryan Bernheisel****, 38 points. Bryan was also held scoreless this week.

8. Greg Oakes***, 38 points. Greg failed to score this week too. 

10. Chris Farrell*****, 35 points. Chris won the regularly scheduled feature and ran fourth in the makeup feature at Hummingbird Saturday.

10. Doug Eck*, 35 points. Doug ran third in the regular feature and came home second in the makeup at Hummingbird Saturday.

And that's this week's top ten. Make sure to check back next week to see where your favorites end up.

That said, how about them Buccos going for it? If you would have told me that they wewould be buyers at the deadline like a month ago, I would have laughed in your face. But here we are, and the deadline has come and passed, and Huntington was a buyer, adding pieces that absolutely should help the team. Color me impressed. Let's go Bucs!

Jeff Rine- A Night at The Races- Flinner Impresses In Feature Victory

Rick Rarer Photo

From TDN Correspondent John McConnell

Sometimes, it' just doesn't go the way a driver expects. Every night is a new page in the book of a driver's career and at TDN we'd like to share some behind the scenes experiences of what a race night can be like, for better or for worse... 

On Saturday, July 28th, Jeff Rine elected to be our first driver feature in this new segment so enjoy a look of all that goes on as our own John McConnell takes you behind the scenes.

Usually the measure of a good team is measured by how much that team wins. Jeff Rine is definitely no stranger to victory lane .Whether he is in his #92 at Bedford Speedway or the 2J At Selinsgrove or Port Royal Speedway, Rine is seemingly always in the hunt for the victory.   Saturday night we chose to debut our new "At The Races" segment live interview broadcast with Jeff and the entire 2J team, (excerpt links can be found below). 

Video: Introduction to TDN At The Races Segments 

Jeff started his night off by being 3rd quick in hot laps. However, on this night, it was the highlight of the night.  Rine was slated for the pole in the 4th heat race of the evening as 34 cars were attempting to gain a spot in the 24 car field to do battle for the $2200 top prize in the Moonshine Camo Rt 35 series race.


Rine fired off in his heat race easily taking the lead on the opening lap from his pole starting position. And after three laps the 2J slowed down the front stretch and turned into the infield.  It was learned later on that an engine miss was the culprit as the Danville, PA driver shut it down, trying to preserve the engine. Rine and crew went to work looking for answers for the engine issue and at the time, the crew thrashed on the car and changed the battery making sure the electric system was fully charged.  

Video Interview: Jeff Rine Describes his night overall at Port Royal


Rine was relegated to the b main to try and secure a spot in the starting field.  Eight laps stood between him and making the a main feature. Starting deep in the bmain Jeff had to pay attention to a race car that he wasn’t sure was a 100% and try to race his way into the field.  As the laps clicked away Rine drove the 2J to a 3rd place finish securing a spot in the a main.  


After the car arrived back to the pit area the crew went to work again again trying to assess the issue that plagued the race car along with the regular perpetration for the a main.   It was learned that a loose distributor cap was the culprit for the engine miss and issued the team were facing.

Video Interview: Jeff Rine In the pits working to resolve motor issue

Jeff fired off in the feature from the 23rd starting spot and only two cautions slowed the 25 lap race.  The situation made it tough for any driver starting that deep in a stout field of cars such as the ones assembled at Port Royal on this Saturday night.  Jeff was able to make some great moves and avoid cautions and bring the 2j home in the 7th spot. To move from  23rd to 7th on a slick track after a 35 lap sprint car race isn’t bad for a night's work in a gutty performance that showed Rine's resolve to make the best of not so good circumstances. Rine and crew being the professionals that a quality team is made from, know the value of teamwork, communication, perseverance and trust.  The measure of a good team isn’t always measured by checkered flags but sometimes when things aren’t going as planned, they overcome adversity and work through it.  And I give The Jeff Rine Racing  2J an  A plus for the effort and teamwork they displayed during this night.  


Flinner Impresses in Feature Victory

Rick Rarer Photo

The Moonshine Came Rt 35 series race had plenty of hype and drama during the night. One of the favorites had issues from the heat race and one of the young up and comers displayed patince and maturity beyond his years.   Jeff Rine, a clear pre-race favorite suffered issues related to a miss on the motor and young Colton Flinner went out and secured his 4th starting position on the 25 lap A main. 

Flinner took the green flag and immediately was engaged in a battle for the runner up spot with Tim Wilson.  Leader Gene Knaub took the early command of the race and set a blistering pace up front, creating a healthy advantage early on until fate intervened. The race's first caution was for Knaub as he slowed with a flat right rear tire while handing the lead to Tim Wilson.  Flinner was relegated to restart second and battle with the  Colby Frye as he carved his way to third and challenged Flinner for 2nd.  The race's second caution flag was displayed as Flinner began to challenge Wilson for the lead with an outside move in turn 2 and Wilson attempting to keep the lead while trying to move up the track with Flinner and Wilson making contact resulting in Wilson losing the handle momentarily and the 76 of Andy Haus being collected.

It was determined that Wilson never stopped and the lap was counted so he was allowed to keep his position as the caution car was the 76 of Haus. During the Delaware double file restart Flinner chose the outside line and action ramped up as Flinner chased the 3 of Wilson  and with two laps to go Flinner  drove deep into turn three and powered off turn four with the lead.  The final lap Flinner kept the 4t8 car up against the wall on the outside groove keeping the momentum up and securing the $2200 win.  

Video: Colton Flinner In Victory Lane Interview

During post race interview Flinner was very humble in his most recent victory which was career win number 24 for the talented young driver.  

Feature Results: 

1. Colton Flinner, 2. Jason Covert, 3. Tim Smith Jr., 4. Dylan Yoder, 5. Tim Wilson, 6. Mike Lupfer, 7. Jeff Rine, 8. Kenny Moreland, 9. Chad Myers, 10. Roy Deese Jr., 11. Andrew Yoder, 12. Austin Berry, 13. Jerry Bard, 14. Brett Schadel, 15. Scott Flickinger, 16. Billy Wampler, 17. Dave Stamm, 18. Kody Lyter, 19. Andy Haus, 20. Coleby Frye, 21. Hayes Mattern, 22. Matt Parks, 23. Shaun Jones, 24. Gene Knaub

The 2018 Pennsylvania Super Late Model Power Rankings: Week 17

Hey there folks, it's Monday, so that means It's time for me to update these here rankings for super late models in the state of Pennsylvania.

This week was a week that saw just two scoring races. Those races were a regular show at Thunder Mountain and a special at Old Bradford Speedway, both held on Saturday night. Everybody else who usually has super late models either rained out or weren't racing the division this week.

So that said, here really wasn't much in the way of movement this week. I thought about just saying screw it and not doing an update this week, but the two races that got in would have been lost in the shuffle. I didn't think that would be particularly fair to the drivers involved, so here's the update. Expect as many interesting ways to mention that a driver didn't score any points that I can think of.

1. Jeff Rine********, 92 points. Jeff had a scoreless weekend.

2. Max Blair*******, 68 points. Max ran second at Bradford Friday.

3. Dylan Yoder****, 66 points. Dylan wasn't able to score any points this week.

4. Michael Norris********, 56 points. Michael took an 0fer this week.

5. Jared Miley****, 54 points. Jared didn't score this week.

6. Michael Maresca**, 47 points. Michael batted .000 this week.

7. Coleby Frye**, 39 points. Coleby wasn't given the chance to score this week.

8. Greg Oakes***, 38 points. Greg came home fifth at Bradford Friday.

8. Bryan Bernehisel****, 38 points. Bryan made no gains in points this week.

10. Chris Madden**, 31 points. Chris wsn't able to score this week.


And that's our top ten for this week. Hopefully, this coming weekend allows the tracks to get shows in and drivers can score some points. There are a handful of specials scheduled, so there are a pretty fair amount of points up for grabs. We'll have to see if the weather allows it to happen...


 

Gunn Earns 1st Win at Thunder Mountain ; Sodeman Jr. Tops 34 Car Sprint Field

Brookville Pa, (July 21, 2018)  Jake Gunn of Pittsburgh Pa and John Britsky bested  23 Super Late Models to the green flag under some tricky track conditions on Friday night at Thunder Mountain Speedway. With the humid temps, sun and wind gusts on the mountain, the drivers were thrown a curve ball with the dry slick conditions.

Gunn jumped to the early lead but
quickly was slowed by the races's first of 7 cautions.On the ensuing restart a mid-pack right car pile up in turn 3 & 4 slowed action again.

With clean up complete they were back under green and Allison Park Pa’s Colton Flinner made a move to 4th from restarting 7th.

Single file restarts were ulilized for the remainder of the feature and at the half way point it was Gunn, Chris Hackett of NY, and Charlie Powell of Brookville, PA, running out front. With Flinner and Britsky in the top 5.

The race's longest green flag run produced Gunn’s largest lead of the night as he pulled out to a comfortable lead. Meanwhile, Flinner made his wo 2nd ater challenging Powell and Hackett. Using the high side on the tricky slick track, Flinner started reeling Gunn in but it wasn’t enough to catch the 7g of Gunn for the $1400 dollar win and a career first feature win.


“I knew if I ran my line they were going to have to fight to get past me but starting up front helped me but you have to take advantage of that when you can and we did," Gunn said. 

“ I needed that to be a 35 lap race," Flinner said.

“We got a hot rod right now it’s consistent and I got to thank Freddie Carpenter for the help getting this 4T8 car rolling.”

1 Jake Gunn 2 Colton Flinner 3 Charlie Powell 4 Chris Hackett 5 Matt Lux 6 John Lee 7 John Britsky 8 Bob Dorman 9 Gale Huey 10 Scott Umbaugh 11Paul Kot 12 Joe Petyak 13 Bill Davis 14 Chad McClellan 15 John Weaver 14 Curtis Teets 15 Brandon Grater 16 Kyle Knapp 17 Nate Smith 18 Zach Meyers

23 cars

Heat Winners:

Hackett
Teets
Petyak

6 cautions

Rick Rarer Photo

Sodeman Tops Sprints

There were 34 winged 410 Sprint Cars for the special $3000 to win event and two 2nd generation Ohio drivers shared the front row for the 25 lap event in Trey Jacobs and Jack Sodeman Jr of Warren. The initial start was negated for a red flag for Chase Baker on the back stretch. Meanwhile on the front stretch A J Flick ran over a tire that was knocked onto the racing surface causing his sprinter to veer into the infield jumping the victory lane ramp, coming to rest with front end damage. After the clean up the the crew made repairs and Flick returned to start at the tail.

After the wild start Jacobs took the early lead and within 5 laps was pressured by Sodeman who was able to get the lead off of turn 2 when Jacobs slid to the middle grove allowing the 23jr to slip by. From there on Sodeman was able to hold a comfortable lead. 8th starting Sye Lynch of Apollo Pa jumped to the outside grove when no one else was up there paying off with a move to the 3rd spot.

Caution waved for another track tire issue as one was knocked onto the racing groove allowing a shot for Jacobs and Lynch to have a shot at the top spot and figure a way by the 23 car.   But the crafty Sodeman was up to the task as he easily endured one last caution  to hold onto the $3000 payday

“You can’t complain about that," A happy Sodeman said from his trailer during post race interview. When asked what his strategy was on such a tricky slick track Sodeman said “ I knew I had about 10 laps window to get down what you needed to and I was able to do that and in 3 & 4 I went to the outside and it worked Jacobs slid up in 1& 2 and I took advantage””


2nd place finisher Trey Jacobs had about the same take on the move that allowed Sodeman to get by in turn 1 & 2.  

“We heard about this race when we ran Mercer last week and got rained out at home so we want to travel more and get ourselves out there a little bit. And we were almost able to capitalize on that," summed up a positive Jacobs.

“We were fast all night and won the heat," Lynch said. quicker in hot laps the car felt good but the pill draw put us 8 th for the feature”.  When asked about his march forward Lynch added “ I found the groove by mistake and it stuck so we just went with it but it went away quickly once I got to 3rd.”

34 sprints on hand

Heat Winners

Jacobs
Lynch
Shelter
Flick

3 cautions
1 red flag

1 Jack Sodeman Jr 2 Trey Jacobs 3 Sye Lunch 4 Dan Shetler 5 Kyle Moody 6 George Hobaugh 7 Brandon Matus 8 Trevor Baker  9 Dan Kuriger 10 A J Flick 11 Michael Bauer 12 Randy Sterling 13   Randy Sterling 14 Anthony Fiore 15 Brad Knab 16 Brent Matus 17 C J Jones 18 Michael Mariano ll
19 Skip Daugherty 20 Dennis Wagner 21 Cody Bova 22 Clay Riney 23 Chase Baker 24 Jim Morris

2018 Silver Cup Pick 'Em Results

First and foremost, thank you to all of our fans and contestants that have helped us in donating $78.31 to the #Forever41 fund benefiting Jason Johnson's wife and son. For those that weren't aware, we were giving $41 for every 100 contestants that entered this Silver Cup Pick 'Em, and we ended with a final count of 191 people.

Kim Gerber had a strong showing and picked up the win in the 2018 edition of the Don Martin Memorial Silver Cup Pick 'Em contest. Gerber is consistent player of ours and it was only a matter of time before she struck gold. She racked up a whopping 175 points to win comfortably - her driver selections were Brad Sweet (45 pts), Donny Schatz (42 pts), Ian Madsen (38 pts), Tim Shaffer (34 pts) and Jason Sides (16 pts). Kim will receive the top prize of a $100 Visa gift card.

Placing in second by virtue of winning the tiebreaker is "Donald Schatz" - a.k.a. Tom Schwarzl (@tschwarzl23). His picks of Donny Schatz (42 pts), David Gravel (40 pts), Tim Shaffer (34 pts), Chad Kemenah (30 pts) and Greg Wilson (18 pts) netted him a total of 164 and placed him in a tie for second, where he would go on to win the tiebreaker. His guess of 38 cars was just one off the actual count of 37, and just barely closer than our third place's guess of 35. Schwarzl gets his choice of t-shirt from R&R Racewear.

Rounding out the podium is Emily Conrad (@emtherad1), who we've already mentioned lost a the tiebreaker with Schwarzl for second place. Her picks were identical to his - Schatz, Gravel, Shaffer, Kemenah and Wilson. Conrad will receive a hard-earned $25 Visa gift card for placing in third.

The best possible driver picks, based on our pre-determined groups, was Brad Sweet (45), Donny Schatz (42), Ian Madsen (38), Tim Shaffer (34) and Cale Conley (28). That would have resulted in a final tally of 187 points.

Join us again in a couple of weeks when we unveil our Knoxville Nationals Pick 'Em contest. And just a little teaser...that special event pick 'em will boast our highest grand prize to date.

Pos. 1-60

Pos. 61-120

Pos. 121-180

Post. 181-191

The 2018 Pennsylvania Super Late Model Power Rankings: Week 16

Hey there race fans, it's Monday, so that means I'm here with an update to the rankings.

This week saw everybody who had a show scheduled get it in, as Mother Nature played nice again. There wasn't s many specials this week as last week either, as the majority of scoring shows were regular weekly shows. There were just two specials, the 8200 hundred to win show at Bedford Friday, and the 3k, which ended up being 5053 because winner Michael Norris qualified for a bonus that required him to be in attendance at the Herb Scott Memorial that went down a couple weeks ago, ans he was in attendance at that show.

There was a scoring error last week, as I erroneously reported that Jared Miley failed to score points, but that wasn't the case. He finished third at Bedford last Friday. The results I use to compute the  scores omitted Jared's name from the results for some odd reason. It's the second time that's happened this season. Might have been the fact that he's now in the Corrado 10 instead of the family H. His name was in the results this week though, so maybe the source I used has fixed the issue. 

That said, let's go ahead and get to this week's top ten...


 1. Jeff Rine********, 92 points. Jeff ran second at Bedford Friday and was fourth at Port Royal Saturday.


2. Dylan Yoder****, 66 points. Dylan was third at Port Royal Saturday.

3. Max Blair*******, 62 points. Max came home third at Eriez Sunday.

4.Michael Norris********, 56 points. Michael swept the weekend, with wins at Lernervlle Friday and PPMS Saturday.

5. Jared Miley****, 54 points. Jared wasn't able to score any points this week, but as mentioned, he does get credit for third at Bedford last Friday.

6. Mike Maresca**, 47 points. Mike ran fourth at PPMS Saturday.

7. Coleby Frye**, 39 points. Coleby got the win at Port Royal Saturday.

8. Bryan Bernheisel****, 38 points. Bryan picked up the win at Selinsgrove Saturday.

9. Greg Oakes***, 35 points. Greg failed to score any points this week.

10. Chris Madden**, 33 points. Chris was also unable to score this week.

And that's it for this week. It's only like second time this year that there's no ties in the top ten, and that 2-5 battle is heating up, with them all being within 12 points of each other. Should be real interesting headed down the stretch! 


'

Hubbard Capitalizes On Ferree's Misfortune En Route to $8200 Payday at Bedford

Howie Balis Photo

Sometimes a break in the schedule is just what a driver needs. Austin Hubbard's season to date had yet to produce a win in limited appearances. And on Friday night at Bedford Speedway, Hubbard had the fastest car in time trials and drove a fast and patient race in the $8200 to win Billy Winn Classic. Hubbard made his way to the front from his sixth starting spot and found himself in the right place at the right time as leader Alex Ferree watched his hopes for victory vanish with a flat tire with five laps left.

"All race long I just wanted to have a car at the end and be there at the end to have a shot." Hubbard said.  "That’s how these extra distance races go you need to have something for the end. I didn’t push the car at all during the early part of the race.'

Howie Balis Photo

Ferree, of Saxonburg Pa and Nathan Lasalle of Everett Pa led the 25 car field to green on the fast Bedford surface. Ferree jumped out to the lead early until a lap 6 caution slowed the action as  Matt Cosner lost a driveshaft. A pair of restarts were needed to get action back under way and Ferree once again set the pace in his XR1 Rocket but once again on lap 11 caution was needed as the lights along the front stretch went out.  When action resumed,  Ferree again was again leader and was setting a torrid pace up front while being followed by 6th starting Austin’s Hubbard and Jeff Rine. 

While Ferree was stretching out fairly large leads out front, the action behind him was intense as Hubbard, Rine and fifth starting Tyler Bare were locked into a three car battle for the third spot. Behind the trio, Jared Miley was making his way forward with authority from his 21st starting spot. the current Ultimate NE Late Model points leader was able to cross the line in the sixth spot when all was said and done. As the laps wound down, Ferree looked like a lock to take his biggest victory of the 2018 season. But, a late race caution for Andy Friese would set the stage for the drama which was ready to unfold.  On the ensuing restart Ferree slowed off of turn two the RR tire went flat as he handed the lead to Hubbard. For the last five laps Hubbard kept the 92 of Rine and the 43a of Bare behind him crossing the finish line with a huge fist pump out the window.

Howie Balis Photo

"We had a long layoff from racing but it feels good to be back out here and to get the W I love this track it’s been good to me." 

Second place finisher Jeff Rine was pleased with his performance on the night overall. "When the track takes rubber here it’s hard to pass," Rine said.  "We didn’t have anything for the 4 car tonight but we will take 2nd and move on."

The ever optimistic Alex Ferree summed his night up by saying “What can you do? It’s racing.  It happens.  We've just got to keep doing what we are doing”

Heat Winners: 

Heat 1 Alex Ferree
Heat 2 Nathan Lasalle
Heat 3 Daryl Hills
Heat 4 Ross Robinson

B-Main Winner:  Jared Miley
Fast Qualifier:  Austin Hubbard
Hard Charger: Jared Miley

Final Feature Results- 50 Laps- $8200 to Win Billy Winn Classic

1. 11 Austin Hubbard
2. 92 Jeff Rine
3. 43a Tyler Bare
4. 7r Ross Robinson
5. 87 Walker Arthur
6.  10m Jared Miley
7. c9 Steve Casebolt
8. 76 Andy Haus
9. 24 Dylan Yoder
10. 7h Daryl Hills
11. 1 Gene Knaub
12. 119 Bryan Bernheisel
13. 5 Chuck Clise
14. 68 Nathan Lasalle
15. 82 Andy Fries
16. 4 Alex Ferree
17. 3  Kyle Hardy
18. 15 Matt Parks
19. 14 Tyler Horst
20. 44 Ralph Morgan
21. 0f Colby Frye
22. 45 Jamie Lauthrom
23. 7t Dave Troutman
24/ 66c Matt Cosner
25. 7 Dj Troutman

2018 Don Martin Memorial Silver Cup Pick 'Em

It's time for the 8th Annual Don Martin Silver Cup Memorial Pick'Em Contest! It's fun, free and you could win one of three top prizes! Plus, it gives just a little more edge to the racing!

Also, as a tribute to the late Jason Johnson, we are going to donate $41 for every 100 competitors to the official #Forever41 fund - all proceeds will go directly to his wife Bobbi and son Jaxx.

Rick Rarer photo

So how do you play? It's very simple! Just click on the link at the bottom of the page and you will be re-directed to our contest page. From there, you enter your information and make your selections! Don't forget to write down your selections so you remember who you're rooting for on Tuesday night.

Your selections will then be scored with the following system:

Feature - 1st (50), 2nd (45), 3rd (42), 4th (40), 5th (38), 6th (36), 7th (34), 8th (32), 9th (30), 10th (28), 11th (26), 12th (24), 13th (22), 14th (20), 15th (18), 16th (16), 17th (14), 18th (12), 19th (10), 20th (9), 21st (8), 22nd (7), 23rd (6), 24th+ (5), Hard Charger (10)

The contest may be free, but we still award prizes to the top three finishers. Below is our prize list for this year's contest:

1st - $100 Visa gift card
2nd - Choice of t-shirt from R&R Racewear
3rd - $25 Visa gift card

So go ahead, make your selections, and join in the fun. Good luck from all of us at TDN, and as always thanks for playing!

2018 Don Martin Silver Cup Pick 'Em Contest Link

The Story From Sharon: Blaney Makes History; Hobaugh Nearly Pulls Upset; Maresca Wires Modifieds

Zack Anthony Photography

The 10th Annual Lou Blaney Memorial has become a true must see event over it's history, and on Saturday night, history was made as a legendary driver known to all became the first ever multi-time winner of the All Star Sprint Car portion of the event. Meanwhile, another driver who has been steadily improving at a good pace in recent years made his imprint on a memorable night for those in attendance, and a driver who looks to be on his way to becoming a household name managed to take his first BRP Modified Tour feature win as he bested a stout field of cars in Modified Tour racing action.

Dave Blaney, George Hobaugh and Michael Maresca each made their marks on Saturday night, giving fans a night to remember with moments provided by all three of them.


Blaney Holds Off  Hobaugh To Make History

Carl Bowser and Blaney brought the Arcit Cat All Star Circuit of Champions Sprint Cars to the green flag where Blaney quickly jumped out the early lead in the first two laps of action. Australian invader Mitchell Wormall  brought out the yellow flag just two laps in to the 30 lap main event and when action resumed, Blaney picked up right where he left off setting a quick pace at the front of the field. With seven laps down, the leader found himself dealing with lapped traffic where he would find himself being hunted with relentless pursuit from Hobaugh.

Rick Rarer Photo

The Chicora, PA native had been having his share of good results and had looked impressive in an earlier All Star appearance at Sharon in May, and on this night, the current points championship contender at Lernerville Speedway found himself on the verge of scoring the biggest victory of his career to date as he made his way around red hot tour regular Carson Macedo and veteran West Coast Sprint Car pilot Gary Taylor in the very early stages and around Bowser for the second position just moments later.  Using the bottom of the surface at critical times, Hobaugh arrived at Blaney's tail tank on lap 18, and on lap 21 he put himself under Blaney and in the lead for a brief period before Blaney made his way back around just before the caution flag waved for Parker Price Miller.

"We were fortunate the track slicked off cause I hate running the top so I tried to be good on the bottom," Hobaugh said. "It was really awesome to race with those guys. Dad raced with Lou for years. I got to watch Lou race when I was a kid and to be out here racing with Dave for the lead- that’s a blast and you can’t do any better than that.”

Blaney hit his marks the rest of the way and would not be run down again the rest of the way while Spencer Bayston finished his charge from the 8th starting spot to join Blaney and Hobaugh on the podium.

Rick Rarer Photo

"I was just happy to win it once this is a very cool race for me and dale and the entire family to come be a part of," Blaney said.  With the talent here winning it twice means so much to me and our family."

"We were able to salvage a 3rd after the mistake I made on the last restart," Bayston said post race.  "I’m happy for Dave I know this means a lot to them and it was cool being part of it."

Feature Finish- Arctic Cat All Star Circuit of Champions Sprint Cars- 30 Laps ($5,000)

1. Dave Blaney  2. George Hobaugh (40) 3. Spencer Bayston )39) 4. Gary Taylor (11) 5. Chad Kemenah (10H) 6. Lee Jacobs (81) 7. Carl Bowser (98) 8. Paul McMahan  9. Carson Macedo (3G) 10. Max Stambaugh 5M) 11. Cale Conley (7K) 12. Dan Shetler (7K) 13. Jared Zimbardi (35) 14. Tim Shaffer (49X) 15. Andrew Palker (57x) 16. Dale Blaney  (21) 17. Jac Haudenschild (3) 18. Aaron Reutzel (87) 19. John Garvin, Jr. (51) 20. Brandon Spithaler (22) 21. Mitchell Wormall (97AU) 22. Tyler Esh (35) 23. Parker Price-Miller (4) 24. Tony Stewart (14) 25. Brandon Matus (13)


Maresca Wires Caution Modified Main Event

It's been quite a season for Michael Maresca, one that started in Florida in February doing double duty with the National Late Model Tours and the Super DIRTcar Series Modifieds.  And what he's learned in racing at high levels of competition in both cars, and what's he's taken in from veteran Late Model and Big Block Modified pilot Russ King looks to be paying off in either car. Maresca took his first two feature wins in the early part of 2018 and now has two Modified wins for the year as well as a weekly win at the legendary Fonda Speedway in 2017.

Rick rarer Photo

Maresca shared the front row with Kevin Hoffman and was never threatened throughout 35 laps of racing. Maresca entered lapped traffic with 10 laps in the books and kept the field behind him, disposing of lappers with ease on virtually every lap.  Hoffman was able to draw somewhat closer for different periods, but his attention was drawn away somewhat by Jim Weller Jr. which allowed Maresca to stretch his advantage over the field once again.

"We have been working a lot on maneuverability and being able to adjust and I think we were able to do that tonight," Maresca said. "The car felt good wherever we put it.  Knowing who Lou Blaney, was this is defiantly cool to win this race and an honor to have won it.”

Zack Anthony Photo

Feature Finish- The Modified Tour ($2,500 to win)- 35 laps

1. Mike Maresca (7m)  2. Kevin Hoffman (00) 3. Jim Weller, Jr. (31) 4. Rex King (65) 5. Rex King, Jr. (165) 6. Jim Rasey (32) 7. Dave Murdick (61) 8. Garrett Krummert (29) 9. Travis Shingledecker (73MD) 10. Rick Richner (26) 11. Rick Regalski, Jr. (13) 12. Jeremiah Shingledecker (37MD) 13. Will Thomas III (9) 14. Tyler Willard (777) 15. Chris Haines (35H) 16. J.R. McGinley (66M) 17. Sid Unverzagt, Jr. (17JR) 18. Lonny Riggs (Black 58) 19. Colton Walters (18) 20. Kyle Fink (66F) 21. Jimmy Holden (28H) 22. Bob Warren (96B) 23. Skip Moore (17M) 24. Mark Frankhouser (03) 25. Tom Holden (68H) 26. Brian Swartzlander (83).

Photos From Rick Rarer and Zack Anthony Photography

The 2018 Pennsylvania Super Late Model Power Rankings: Week 15

Hey there race fans, It's Monday, so that means it's time to update these rankings.

This runs from last Monday all the way through last night, and with it being a holiday week, there were a ton of races, and amazingly, all of them got in without a hitch from Mother Nature. I can't even begin to list all the races that counted towards this, so I'll just list the the finishes for the top ten as usual.

I made mention last week that I had trouble finding full results for Mckean's show on June 30th. I was finally able to locate those results, and the point totals for scoring drivers have been added to the totals.

That said, as I mentioned earlier, there were a ton of races within this scoring period. I believe I have located all the results for those races, but there's always a chance I have missed something. If you ever notice a result that I have messed up, please don't hesitate to let us know.

Now let's go ahead and get to those results.

1. Jeff Rine********, 83 points. Jeff won Friday at Bedford.

2. Dylan Yoder****, 63 points. Dylan was second Tuesday at Selinsgrove and fourth Friday at Bedford.

3. Max Blair*******, 59 points. Max won at Mckean on Tuesday.

4. Jared Miley****, 49 points. Jared had a scoreless week.

5. Michael Norris******, 43 points. Michael picked up the win Friday at Lernerville.

6. Mike Maresca**, 42 points. Mike failed to score any points this week.

7. Greg Oakes***, 35 points. Greg was third Tuesday at Mckean and got the win at Thunder Mountain Friday.

8. Coleby Frye*, 34 points. Coleby batted .000 for the week.

9. Bryan Bernheisel***, 33 points. Bryan won Tuesday at Selinsgrove.

9. Chris Madden**, 33 points. Chris was unable to score this week.


And that's our top ten. Check back next week to see where your favorites land after this weekend's action. Weather looks good for a full slate of action again. After an early season full of disappointment, it looks like we've finally turned the corner with the weather. Maybe Mother Nature is a racing fan after all.

A Turning Point? O'Neal and Zeigler Look To Carry Sharon Success Forward

Zack Anthony Photo

The 2018 season has not gone exactly to plan for former Lucas Oil Late Model Series Champion Don O'Neal and this year's Rookie of the Year candidate Mason Zeigler. But on Monday night at Sharon Speedway, the two drivers turned in performances that could point to results based turning point on the horizon for O'Neal, and a confidence boost for Zeigler. 

O'Neal broke through in the win column for the year the previous night at Mansfield Speedway (OH) when he dominated the field in collecting the $12,000 victory in the "Freedom 50". The veteran pilot believes the recent decision to skip the "Firecracker 100" at Lernerville Speedway to take a vacation may have played a part in the recent upturn that he parlayed into back to back wins in series action. O'Neal, who started third on the grid, took advantage of a mistake from race leader Zeigler on lap nine and made his way underneath for the lead which he never gave up. 

"The key for us was to be good from the middle groove down and let the car roll the center," O'Neal said. "

For Zeigler, the second place finish came with some sting as he watched an opportunity to find victory lane slipped away. However, he was please with the result as he crossed the line behind O'Neal. " It felt good to have a good result with the way the racing luck has been for our team," Zeigler said. "My crew and all the guys needed this and I’m just happy for them to get the result we did”

Zack Anthony Photo

Zeigler and  Earl Pearson Jr. brought the field to green flag and Zeigler jumped out to the early lead. Series points leader Johnathan Davenport was the first to jump to the top side of the track and he made it pay off as he vaulted his machine to second early on. O’Neal made his presence known as he wrested the runner up spot away three laps later.

The race's most pivotal moment came on lap nine as Zeigler was entering turn three. Zeigler got a little to high, slapping off the wall with the right side of his Late Model killing all momentum and allowing O’Neal to pull along side utilizing the middle of the surface in each set of corners. By lap 20 O’Neal had built up a huge lead as he lapped car after car.  Zeigler in the meantime was mired in traffic as well contending with Davenport who was looking to take the second position from him, and on lap 22, Josh Richards made his way to 3rd.  With everyone hugging the bottom grove passing was at a premium. At the halfway point it was O’Neal, Zeigler , Richards , Davenport  and Lanigan occupying the top five positions. The longer  action continued without a caution the more important real estate became. With 10 to go Zeigler had cut into O’Neal’s lead. But it would be a case of too little, too late as O'Neal crossed the finish line with  Zeigler a mere three car lengths behind in a race they went caution free.  

Richards found himself in second place in the standings following the podium finish. “We are pleased with the result despite how things started," Richards said. “We had a water pump fail and we weren’t sure if it hurt the motor.  I'd like to thank Matt Cosner and team for lending us one. We missed hot laps so that put us behind."

Feature Finish ($12,000 Lucas Oil Late Model Series Steel Valley 50)

1. Don O'Neal (5) 2. Mason Zeigler (25z) 3. Josh Richards (1) 4. Jonathan Davenport (49) 5. Darrell Lanigan (14) 6. Bobby Pierce (32) 7. Earl Pearson, Jr. (1) 8. Tim McCreadie (39) 9. Jimmy Owens (20) 10. Mike Maresca (7MM) 11. Max Blair (111) 12. Jackie Boggs (4B) 13. Scott Bloomquist (0) 14. Gregg Satterlee (22) 15. Hudson O’Neal (71) 16. Austin Rettig (94) 17. Dennis Erb, Jr. (28) 18. Jared Miley (10) 19. Kyle Bronson (40B) 20. Matt Cosner (66c) 21. Charlie Powell (94) 22. Jason Jameson (12) 23. Bob Anderzack (8) 24. Doug Drown (12)

Photos Courtesy of Zack Anthony Photography

The 2018 Pennsylvania Super Late Model Power Rankings: Week 14

Hey there race fans, it's Monday, so that means it's time for our weekly update to our rankings.

This week saw everybody who had a super late model show in Pennsylvania get their show in, which is pretty damn rare for this season. It also saw two tracks who don't run super lates weekly hold shows. Those two tracks are Clinton County on Friday, who had a 2k special for the supers, and Mckean Family Raceway who held the Jim and Mike Duffy Memorial for the supers. I wasn't able to find full results for Mckean, just the winner. So the winner got his points. Once I do find the full results, I'll update the point totals for every driver who scored there and those points will be reflected in future updates.

All of the races getting in meant lots of points were scored this week in our top ten, with many of those points coming from raised purse specials, which means higher point totals. Jeff Rine is still firmly at the top of these rankings, but the next three guys after him are all within five points of each other. The battle for 2-4 should be wildly entertaining down the stretch, as it seems all of them tend to score a bunch of points each week.

Now lets see how it all lines up.

1. Jeff Rine*******, 76 points. Jeff got the win Saturday night at Port Royal.

2. Max Blair******, 54 points. Max got the win Sunday at Eriez.

3. Dylan Yoder****, 53 points. Dylan won Friday at Clinton County and got a third at Port Royal Saturday.

4. Jared Miley****, 49 points. Jared won Saturday at  PPMS and ran second at Eriez Sunday.

5. Mike Maresca**, 42 points. Mike came home fourth at Eriez Sunday.

6. Michael Norris*****, 38 points. Michael went scoreless this week.

7. Coleby Frye*, 35 points. Coleby fuinished second at Clinton County Friday and won Saturday at Selinsgrove.

8. Chris Madden**, 33 points. Chris was unable to score this week.

9. Greg Oakes**, 27 points. Greg won Friday at Thunder Mountain and got another win at Mckean Saturday.

9. Mike Marlar, 27 points. Mike didn't score any points this week.


And that's the first ten names on my list for this week. Check back next week to see what happened after this week's action, which, amazingly enough, looks like it should be run off without a hitch again.

And I'm sure many of you are planning holiday parties this week. Please use your head and keep it safe. Being proud of your country does not give you license to get stupid. If you're drinking heavily, maybe leave the fireworks you bought for another day. Losing a finger (or worse) isn't worth it.


That said, God Bless America!

The Story From Raceway 7- Weller Outlasts Competition; Murdick Charges To Podium Spot

Bill Galford Photo

Sometimes, it's all about survival, and on Friday night, Jim Weller survived and then some as he survived early cautions pushed his way through to the front of the field on hand from his 11th starting spot to find victory lane.  It was a wild night for the BRP Modified Tour at Raceway 7. Perhaps it was the full moon or blazing hot temperatures and the action on the track once momentum was established was perhaps just as hot as the air.

Veteran pilot and Mod Tour regular JR McGinley and St. Catharine Ontario's Tyler Willard brought mighty Big Block Modifieds to green flag, followed by several yellow ones as laps proved hard to click off in the early going. Within one lap the tone was set with several early cautions. Early leader McGinley lost the handle in turn one, handing the lead to Willard. Two more cautions followed causing the single file restart rule be become enforced.

Bill Galford Photo

Once racing got back under way Williard began setting a blistering pace at the front, turning the fastest lap of the race on lap six. Contact on lap nine between sixth starting tour regular Garrett Krummert and Weller Jr sent Krummert spinning. Krummert, who was none to happy about the circumstances retaliated under caution and was sent to the pits.

The race's hard charger for the night, 23rd starting Dave Murdock of Slippery Rock, PA was turning heads making his way into the top 5 after the lap nine caution.  Meanwhile up front the 777 of Willard held the top spot through all the restarts until lap 24 when Weller took the top spot. Weller was able to hold serve through the last restart to secure the victory. Early leader JR McGinley rebounded for a solid forth place finish from the tail.

John McConnell Photo

“I hated to have that contact with the 29 car," Weller said. I got into him but didn’t want to so I’m sorry for that”.

Willard was pleased with his 2nd place finish on the evening. "For never having been to Raceway 7, I'm pretty happy with it," Willard said. "Before I watched videos online to see what line worked. I had a good line going when I tried to protect the bottom I scrubbed off speed and the 31 got by me."

Hard charger Dave Murdick may have been even happier with his performance.   “In the heat race we had some trouble and had to start at the tail for the feature," Murdick said. "We made some adjustments and got this Troyer Race car working well and we  haven’t been out of the top nine yet this year."


Cautions: 8
Hard Charger:  Dave Murdick
Heat Winners:  Jim Weller, Rex King Sr., Travis Shingledecker
                   
BRP Modified Tour Main Event (Round 3- 35 Laps) 

1.    31      Jim Weller
2.   777    Tyler Willard
3.    61     Dave Murdick
4.    66M   J.R. McGinley
5.   165    Rex King JR
6.   13      Rick Regalski
7.   32      Jim Rasey
8.   25B    Steve Barr
9.   66F    Kyle Fink
10. 65      Rex King Sr.
11. 35H   Chris Haines
12. 73MD Travis Shingledecker
13. 69     Tom Mattocks
14. 03     Mark Frankhouser
15. 17JR  Sidney Unversagt
16. 74     Kevin Green
17. 96B    Bob Warren
18. 19W  Richard Whitney
19.  25    Chris Rudolph
20.  29    Garrett Krummert
21.  58    Lonny Riggs
22.  00    Kevin Hoffman
23. 17M  Skip Moore
24. 29*   Eric Beggs  - Did Not Start
25. 11R  Brad Rapp- Did Not Start