WESTERN PA RACING REVIEW
by Walt Wimer

May 1, 2008 

         Mary & I were away on vacation last weekend, so I am still trying to catch-up on racing and other things. Spring showers are still around and canceled some races both last weekend and this week as well.

         SPRINTS: Last year, Kenny Jacobs was elected into the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame located in Knoxville, Iowa, an honor few drivers ever achieve.  During the past couple of years the Holmesville, Ohio, veteran has gone back and forth from retirement to limited schedules and back again. He knows he is getting up there in age for a Sprint Car driver, but he just doesn’t want to give up something he loves as much as driving a Sprint Car on a dirt track.  Regardless of when he finally does hang up the helmet for good, Jacobs, who just celebrated his 53rd birthday one day before the All Stars hit Lernerville Friday, can still get the job done!!  He proved that to the Lernerville fans and some 32 other drivers on hand for the $5,000-to-win race.  Jacobs started his career in 1973 and in 34 years has won over 200 races.  That total includes a record 97 All Star victories plus six World of Outlaws “A” Main wins and 10 total WoO victories.  Here in the western PA area, where he once ran weekly at such tracks as Sharon and Tri-City, Jacobs has won 44 of his 200+ victories. Over half of his local wins (26) have come at Sharon, with five at Lernerville and two each at Tri-City and Jennerstown.  The rest have come at a scattering of tracks, many of them All Star races.  Jacobs has long said Lernerville was one of his favorite tracks, and the Sarver speedplant treated him well on Friday night.

        I don’t think a lot of fans expected Jacobs in the Lernerville field, but there he was in the pits with his new ride, a sharp black & yellow #59 owned by Tom Leidic of Jupiter, Florida. Leidic was originally from Ohio and once owned cars driven by Kenny’s brothers, Dean and Bud Jacobs.  Right off the bat he let everyone know he was fast, turning in third quick time behind Paul McMahan and Ed Lynch, Jr. Jacobs then finished second to Bob Felmlee in his heat and with the redraw picked the pole. However, Rod George got him on the first lap and held the top spot until the tenth round.  George had been running high with Jacobs low. But he changed his line and that may have cost him the lead as Jacobs then went high and around George coming down for the end of 10 laps.  A couple of laps later, McMahan, in Rick Ferkel’s Zero car, also went past George and would chase Jacobs the rest of the 35-lap race.  Jacobs never lost the lead, but McMahan was always there trying high and low for the top spot. On the 21st lap, the final yellow came out, and right as that happened, Jacobs brushed the wall, bending a wheel. It appeared he was in trouble, but despite the handicap, he held on for his 98th career All Star victory.  Jacobs’ win was quite popular with the fans, as was McMahan’s second in the Ferkel car.  The Ferkel-McMahan team struggled big time in Florida. Going into the Lernerville race, McMahan was only 12th in points after failing to make the “A” Main all three nights at Volusia County.  The new team had failed to finish higher than 10th in the first six All Star races, so the Lernerville race was a much needed shot in the arm.

       George led the local contingent with a very solid and well-earned third. Dale Blaney timed poorly, started 14th, but came on late to beat Lynch for fourth. Lance Dewease was another poor timer and started 16th.  He made it up to fifth by the 15th lap, but could go no further. In fact he dropped back one when Blaney made his charge in the final 15 laps.  Tim Shaffer, the area’s only full-time WoO driver was a surprise entry when the WoO race at Huset’s Speedway in South Dakota was snowed out. He drove a back-up car from the Holtgraver team, which was reported to have had a “small” engine. Shaffer made the best of it, starting 21st and working the car up to ninth at the checkered. Brian Paulus broke on his first time trial lap, made the race through the “B”, and then drove up to 14th. 

      There were 33 cars on hand for the show, 14 of which were All Star runners, including locals Blaney and Brian Ellenberger.  The All Stars swept the time trials with seven of the top 10, but Lynch, George and Felmlee were right there with them, and they were the only three local weekly runners to make the top ten in the 35 lapper. Felmlee, Kevin Schaeffer, Danny Holtgraver, Rob Eyler, Scott Bonnell, Dan Shetler, Charlie Holben and Scott Priester also made the feature field.

      After Lernerville, the All Stars headed to Eldora. With the WoO rained out at Knoxville, Iowa, the All Stars found some tough competition waiting for them as WoO drivers swept the top four with Joey Saldana winning over Daryn Pittman, Donny Schatz and Steve Kinser. McMahan, in the Ferkel car, was the best of the All Stars at fifth, while Jacobs was seventh. Lynch took 13th, after timing second quick, Ellenberger was 19th and Dale Blaney dropped out for last in the main.  The All Stars will return to Lernerville on Friday August 29 for a double header with the MACS Late Models. They will also hit the Central PA Speedway at Clearfield on Wednesday June 11. That mid-week show should bring Sprint Car racing to a large number of fans who seldom have a chance to see the winged warriors close to home.  The only weekly action was Saturday at Mercer where Bob Felmlee led flag-to-flag to take the win over Scott Bonell and Rob Eyler.  The car count was only 14, disappointing with Sharon not running and no Sunday night track this year and owner/promoter Vicki Emig was not happy!!

          MODIFIEIDS:  Tri-City opened their gates Sunday night to see Jeremiah Shingledecker take a hotly contested opening night victory, his ninth career score on the big half-mile.  Joe Crawford led well over half of the race, running high wide and handsome on the outside holding off Shingledecker. But Shingledecker got by after a lap 15 restart and then held off Andy Priest and Crawford the rest of the way.  On the first try at a restart after the yellow with 14 down, several drivers were involved in a nasty backstretch crash. Del Rougeux, Jr., and Priest were going at it for third at the time when it appeared some contact was made. Rougeux bounced off the wall and then came to a halt in the middle of the track. He was hit hard by J.R. McGinley, who in turn was hit by Les Myers. No injuries, but a lot of car damage. McGinley’s #66 went off on the flatbed while Rougeux got the double hook. From my vantagepoint in the tower, it appeared McGinley’s car got the worst of it. Not the way any of the drivers wanted to start the season!!  A big surprise was the appearance of Tommy Kristyak with his #26z car. The Sandy Lake veteran was on the sidelines all last year and only ran a limited schedule in the small blocks at Mercer in 2006.  Kristyak looked good in his heat, taking a win, but went nowhere in the main, finishing 10th, two spots back of where he started.  Another surprise was Les Myers behind the wheel of the Jeremy Paup “X” car. Paup was not feeling well, so his stepfather, a long time Tri-City favorite, filled in for him. Unfortunately, Paup probably feels worse now looking at a crashed race car!! Dave Murdick was forced out with a flat tire as his Tri-City bad luck continued, while defending champ Kevin Bolland never could get going and had to settle for fourth after Rougeux and Murdick were gone.

           LIMITED LATE MODELS:  The first week of both Mercer and Tri-City running FASTRAK Late Models is in the record books with mixed results. The car counts of 12 at Mercer and 13 at Tri-City were less than most expected and somewhat disappointing. But the feature at Tri-City was excellent and I would say the best feature of the night on a program that had no bad features.  Late Model veteran Dave Lyon of Corry took the win, but not without a side-by-side, lap-after-lap battle with Bobby Whitling, the track’s all time top Pro Stock winner.  Whitling, a 44-time winner in Tri-City Pro Stocks, was making his first start in a FASTRAK car. But you would have never known it the way he ran Lyon, a veteran of many years of Late Model racing on the Eriez-Stateline circuit. The pair exchanged the lead a number of times with Whitling low and Lyon high before Lyon led the last four laps. Dennis Lunger, Jr., winner of the “Chiller Thriller” at Mercer a few weeks back, came up to make it a three-car race in the final stages.  At Mercer, former Stock Car champ Brian Booher scored the victory over Steve Hollabaugh and Rusty Moore, who has returned to action.  Strangely enough, there were only three drivers, Hollabaugh, Bobby Powell and Dave Airgood, Jr., who ran both nights. There are still a lot of drivers who have not got their new cars ready for this class, so the car counts should increase quite a bit in the coming weeks.