4/20/2024
Lernerville Speedway
Action Track Recap-Spithaler Holds Off Flick; Norris Outduels Ferree; Krummert Brings It Late In Big Blocks; Schneider Tops Pro Stocks
Jason Brown Photo
Sarver, PA (April 20, 2024) A cool spring evening turned into a hot night on the track as Opening Night featuring Fab4 racing Revved Up with Marburger Farm Dairy rolled onto a race surface, sent forward from a hopping pit area containing 84 cars. And when all was complete, four deserving drivers found their way to Terry Bowser Excavating Victory Lane.
Brandon Spithaler held off a hard charging AJ Flick in the closing laps to claim the feature win in Peoples Natural Gas Sprint Car action while in the Precise Racing Products Late Model main event, Michael Norris and Alex Ferree put on an amazing show, swapping the lead more than once in the final laps before Norris came up with the winning pass in a hard fought battle with clean racing between the two. In Diehl Automotive Big Block Modified action, it was anybody’s race late in the going until Garrett Krummert seized the upper hand and finished the job in collecting the opening night win while Christian Schneider was the class of the field on Friday night as he covered the Millerstown Pic-A-Part Pro Stock Field on hand.
Spithaler Holds Off Flick in Sprint Car Thriller
Cody Bova and Jared Zimbardi started on the front row of the 25 lap Peoples Natural Gas Sprint Car main event and it took fourth starting Brandon Spithaler less than half a lap to gather momentum on the top side and make his way around every car in front of him to take the lead. Behind him, Bova, Zimbardi and youngster Blaze Myers made up the early chase pack with Dale Blaney and Dan Kuriger in hot pursuit in the early laps.
Four laps in, Zimbardi made his way around Bova for second but out front, Spithaler was setting a torrid pace, seemingly running away from the field as lapped traffic and coming forward with authority was AJ Flick. The defending track champion started 13th on the grid, but just eight laps into the race, Flick seemed to be matching Spithaler’s pace and found himself running fifth, passing at better than a car per lap in the process. Flick made his way around Bova and Zimbardi, who had been eclipsed by Blaney now running second as the cross flags emerged from the flag stand with Spithaler directly behind heavy lapped traffic.
With 10 laps to go, Flick was engaged in a battle with Blaney for the second spot with Flick searching both high and low for a way around while Spithaler had his hands full with traffic, enabling his lead to evaporate to less than two seconds as lap 20 approached. Flick then found grip on the top side and made his way around Blaney in turn four with four laps left and cut Spithaler’s advantage to less than a second in the process. Flick was able to show his front wing to Spithaler with one lap left in turn one but Spithaler powered around in turn two while managing to side step one final piece of lapped traffic to claim a very narrow victory at the flag stand.
“With Farnham getting into the fence coming to the white, I kind of lifted and I hadn’t seen anybody the whole race and then I saw Flick’s nose going into one and two,” Spithaler said. “I didn’t know how close he was until the last lap. We had a good car, the first lap was great and from there we kind of set sail. We were a little free there at the end but we were a lot better than we were last week when we left Attica and didn’t make the Amain and were struggling. We went home, changed cars and did a bunch of work and went back to something that worked from last year and here we are in victory lane.”
Peoples Natural Gas Sprint Car Feature: 1. 22-Brandon Spithaler[4]; 2. 2F-AJ Flick[13]; 3. 32-Dale Blaney[7]; 4. 35-Jared Zimbardi[2]; 5. 20B-Cody Bova[1]; 6. 08-Danny Kuriger[6]; 7. 2-Ricky Peterson[9]; 8. 11-Carl Bowser[8]; 9. 43JR-Blaze Myers[3]; 10. 13-Brandon Matus[16]; 11. 46-Michael Bauer[10]; 12. 79W-Will Fleming[14]; 13. 3J-Jacob Begenwald[19]; 14. 35W-Jeremy Weaver[11]; 15. 33-Brent Matus[15]; 16. 3-John Jerich[20]; 17. 6-Bob Felmlee[17]; 18. 7NY-Matt Farnham[5]; 19. 44-Pete Landram[12]; 20. 55*-Matt Sherlock[18]
Norris Outlasts Ferree in Epic Late Model Battle
It was a stacked field of Precise Racing Products Late Models that took the green on Friday night which contained no fewer than six current or former track champions and they put on a show worthy of the talent level to the delight of fans in attendance. Two of those former champions, Ken Schaltenbrand and John Garvin Jr. made up the front row and following two aborted attempts due to cautions, brought the field to the green flag where Schaltenbrand took the early race lead followed by Garvin, Tyler Dietz and Michael Norris with Dietz taking looks early on underneath Garvin for the second spot three laps in.
With five laps down, Alex Ferree had made his way into the top five following his pass of Jon Lee and looked to be one of the fastest cars on the track while out front; Garvin was all over Schaltenbrand’s back bumper. Norris then made his way around Dietz for the third spot while Garvin found the necessary momentum on the top side to make his way around Schaltenbrand for the lead with 10 laps in the books. Norris was coming forward like a man on a mission having found his fastest line as he made his way past Schaltenbrand for second and set his sights on Garvin with 14 laps to go, while behind them Ferree dispatched of Dietz for fourth and was in the process of running down the top three on the track.
Norris took the lead one lap later as Ferree made his way to third, but out front Norris was stacking car lengths between himself and Garvin. However, all action came to a halt for a spun Logan Zarin with nine laps to go. Norris elected to restart on the bottom putting Garvin up top and the fast running Ferree behind on the bottom directly behind him. When action resumed, Ferree made his way by Garvin for second on the bottom with Michael Lake coming from the mid pack to fifth and then third moments later, before a caution for a spun Jared Miley restacked the field with eight laps remaining. On the ensuing restart, Ferree looked to have acquired the lead with a power move off the top of turn two as Tony Musolino found himself spun out to negate the pass. Norris got off to a better restart when the green flag flew but Ferree stayed close and eventually crossed under in turns three and four and made a pass for the lead with five laps to go. Michael Duritsky then brought out another caution with four laps down as Ferree selected the bottom side on the restart and took off like a rocket when action resumed with Norris right behind him. Norris then swapped the lead with Ferree in turn two and the back stretch with three laps to go setting up a wild finish as Norris took the lead away with a pass coming out of turn four with two laps to go and did not look back as crossed first under the checkered flag.
“I pretty much thought I had that race lost,” Norris remarked. “Every time I try to run the top, even at the beginning stages of the race it just seemed like it hadn’t been run in yet. Then he (Ferree) got by me and I saw where he was running and I thought I was gonna lose this race by him beating me on the top side, when does that ever happen? I thought for sure we were gonna run second. Alex is just so much fun to race with but I’m sure he’s bummed out and I hated to take it from him but every one of these is getting tougher and tougher and I just wasn’t going to be denied. The car was phenomenal, this is a brand new Rocket with a Gary Henry motor and it was just singing a song. “
Precise Racing Products Late Model Feature: 1. 72-Michael Norris[6]; 2. 10-Alex Ferree [8]; 3. 48-Colton Flinner[3]; 4. 27-Michael Lake[16]; 5. 10-John Garvin Jr [2]; 6. 5- John Lee [4]; 7. 77-Tyler Dietz [3]; 8. 29-Ken Schaltenbrand[1]; 9. 1Z-Logan Zarin [9]; 10. 24-Tyler Wyant [15]; 11. 9-Levi Yetter[13]; 12. 36-Tony Musolino [16]; 13. Daryl Charlier [5]; 14. 20J-Doug Eck [14]; 15. 40-Michael Duritsky Jr[11]; 16. 75-RJ Dallape [18]; 17. 57-Matt Tifft [14]; 18. 57L- Bo Lockwood [17]; 19. 4*-Douglas Eck [20]; 20. 75M- Jared Miley [7];
Krummert Brings It Late in Big Block Modified Win
Garrett Krummert had his work cut out for him in the Diehl Automotive Big Block Modified main event with an eighth starting spot and divisional heavyweights Will Thomas, Rex King Jr., and Jeremiah Shingledecker all lined up ahead of him. Thomas and King Jr. started on the front row and early on Thomas looked to have the car to beat as behind him Brad Rapp and Jeremiah Shingledeker came forward to challenge Thomas and King. Following a pair of early cautions, King Jr. emerged as the new race leader while Krummert made his way to fifth after he made his way around Rapp.
Out front Shingledecker began to apply pressure to King with eight laps in the books while Krummert made his way around Colton Walters and then Thomas for third. Shingledecker began taking looks underneath King until a slowed Mike Kinney brought out the caution flag with 10 laps down. On the ensuing restart, King elected to start down low and barely survived a Shingledecker pass attempt. King would lose the lead to him one lap later and also let Krummert slip by for second as the halfway mark came and went.
Walters then re-entered the top five with a pass of Murdick. Shingledeker then had immediate pressure from Krummert with eight laps to go. Then with five laps left, the two leaders were running door handle to door handle with Shingledecker up top and Krummert on the bottom until Steve Slater found himself facing the wrong way in turn two with four laps remaining. When action resumed, Krummert simply put the field behind him with authority while King made his way around Shingledecker for the second spot and Will Thomas did so as well for third while entering the top five with a strong run for the night was Justin Shea.
“We were pretty good anywhere honestly, “ Krummert said. “I could run the top, the bottom, it didn’t really matter and to be honest if it stayed green I didn’t think I could get Jeremiah but he gave me the bottom and the moisture down there off of four and it was so good and I kept thinking there’s no way he’s gonna do this and he did and it let me launch and he was kind of stuck on the black. Great race, to come from eighth was cool.”
Diehl Automotive Big Block Modified Feature: 1. 29-Garrett Krummert[8]; 2. 165-Rex King Jr[2]; 3. 9-Will Thomas[1]; 4. 37MD-Jeremiah Shingledecker[4]; 5. 14S-Justin Shea[7]; 6. 11R-Brad Rapp[3]; 7. 18-Colton Walters[5]; 8. 45-Steve Feder[13]; 9. 61-Dave Murdick[6]; 10. 64-Rodney Beltz[14]; 11. JD57-Jordan Ehrenberg[9]; 12. 35-Steve Slater[12]; 13. 75-Jeff Miller[11]; 14. 3K-Shawn Kozar[16]; 15. 8M-Macey Adamik[18]; 16. 27R-Dave Reges[19]; 17. 20P-Mike Kinney[10]; 18. 5C-Ayden Cipriano[15]; 19. (DNS) 13-Rick Regalski Jr
Schneider Cruises in Pro Stocks
To get past a starting row comprised of Chris Schneider and Tyler Dietz in a Millerstown Pic-A-Part Pro Stock feature is quite a feat indeed. Christian Schneider started fourth and had no plans of finishing behind either of them on Friday night. After the green flag waved, Chris Schneider bolted out to the early lead with Christian and Dietz wound up wheel to wheel for second and a familiar face in six time track champion Corey McPherson found himself joining the party at the front, bolting from his 11th starting spot to fourth in the early going as Christian found his way around Dietz for second just three laps in.
Out front, Chris Schneider had built a half a straightaway advantage over the field which was erased with four laps in due to a Mike Bordt spin.
On the ensuing restart, the Schneiders found themselves door to door with Christian taking the lead at the flag stand. Behind them Chris, Dietz, Mike Miller and McPherson made up the formidable chase pack. Cody Koteles and Jake Dietz spun after contact just before the halfway point to reset the field. When action resumed Christian Schneider drove away using the top side of the speedway but his progress was halted by a John Peterman spin just one lap later.
McPherson used the restart to get a better crack at the leaders, engaging in a three car battle for the second spot, but out front it was all Christian Schneider who crossed over the line first in convincing fashion to collect the Opening Night honors.
“There’s no better way to do it than that,” Schneider remarked. “Hats off to them (Chris Schneider and Dietz), they’re such good race car drivers and to come out here and beat them both, starting behind them too, I’m tickled pink.
Millerstown Pic-A-Part Pro Stock Feature: 1. 56-Christian Schneider[4]; 2. 55S-Chris Schneider[1]; 3. 00-Tyler Dietz[2]; 4. C33-Corey McPherson[11]; 5. 25-Jason Fosnaught [9]; 6. 4-Brett Hutira[8]; 7. 1K-Cody Koteles[7]; 8. 155-Tyler Schneider[3]; 9. 27-Jacob Dietz[13]; 10. 00L-Cole Miller[10]; 11. 72B-Jim Kurpakus[5]; 12. 26-Mike Bordt[15]; 13. 68-John Peterman Jr[12]; 14. 7A-Tom Robertson[14]; 15. (DNF) 81-Mike Miller[6]
Submitted By: Gary Heeman