7/14/2024
Lernerville Speedway
Action Track Recap- Rudolph Tops BRP Mods; Smith Invades and Collects; Johnson Takes UEMS Win; Schneider Makes it Four in 2024
Jason Brown Photo
Sarver, PA (July 13, 2024) With a sweltering summer night surrounding The Action Track, a different kind of Fab4 racing returned on Friday night as visits from the BRP Modified Tour and the Elite Motorsports UEMS Emod Racing Series highlighted the evening’s racing card with the Peoples Natural Gas Sprint cars and Millerstown Pic-A-Part Pro Stocks also on the menu, continuing their weekly racing seasons. Over 90 cars graced the pits on Friday, yielding four features worth of cars that put on an entertaining night of racing for the crowd on hand.
Erick Rudolph made the four hour haul from Ransomville, NY and for the second time in 2024, made the haul worthwhile as he put on a clinic in the 35 lap BRP Modified main event, winning by over a four second margin, while another invader took the honors in the Peoples Sprint Cars feature as Mark Smith ventured from Central, PA to take the feature win. Veteran Pilot Troy Johnson took home a very popular and hard earned win in UEMS Emod action and Chris Schneider made it four wins total in the 2024 season, garnering yet another feature win by holding off Christian Schneider in the waning laps.
Rudolph Cruises in BRP Main Event
Erick Rudolph has authored wins from Quebec to Florida in his career up to date. But perhaps his best work has come in the Pennsylvania-Ohio territories where his stats go from very good to amazing. Rudolph came into Friday night’s BRP Mod Tour Event sporting a 50 plus percent win rate with 31 wins in 59 career starts and combined with occasional weekly visits and other special events, his win total in the twin-state area now tops 35 feature wins in limited action over the past few years.
Rudolph started fifth on the grid of the 24 car field in the 35-lap main event on Friday night, alongside track points leader Garrett Krummert and just ahead of former and three time track champion Rex King Jr. Up front, eight time track champion and DIRTcar Hall of Famer Brian Swartzlander made his return to The Action Track in a car owned by Sprint Car veteran pilot driver Bill Rose, adding a layer of intrigue to the $3,000-to-win main event. Swartzlander started on the pole alongside Jordan Ehrenberg and when the green flag waved Swartzlander assumed command of the field with Eherenberg and Ayden Cipriano in tow. Cipriano didn’t stay back in third for long however as he managed to make his way past both Ehrenberg and Swartzlander coming out of turn four with three laps in the books. Just one lap later, Rudolph had made his way past Eherenberg and Swartzlander and the battle for the lead was on.
Cipriano kept a blistering pace out front as he held a half second advantage over Rudolph with seven laps down. Behind the action up front, Krummert and King were making their charges from their starting positions to the third and fourth spots respectively as the 10 lap mark approached, looking to both run down Cipriano and Rudolph up front. Then with lapped traffic in front of the leaders, Rudolph patiendly picked his moment as he moved to the bottom groove of the speedway. Cipriano’s car then began billowing smoke as he desperately clung to a slim lead with 15 laps in the books when Rudolph powered his way past the leader coming off the bottom of turn two while Cipriano’s car sent more smoke behind it. Rudolph then went straight to work in lapped traffic, making his way around one piece of it after another while putting car lengths between himself and Cipirano and company. With 14 laps remaining, Cipriano’s car fell off the pace significantly allowing Krummert, King and Jeremiah Shingledecker to pass while Rudolph had accumulated a 4.7 second lead which he mostly maintained over the course of the final laps as King and Krummert rounded out the podium.
“When I first went out there I saw how high the top was and it looked like it would be there for us tonight,” Rudolph remarked. “I contemplated running the middle bottom and very bottom. I was kind of gauging myself off of the five car (Ciprano) and I seemed to reel him in a bit and then he started smoking.”
“I would have loved a caution,” King said. “The track was really racy. We would have liked to have had a yellow so we could have run up front and see if we had something for Erick. He was really good. I felt like I was catching him when he was in lapped traffic and I wasn’t great but we had a lot of fun coming from eighth up to second.”
“I still don’t think we had anything for Erick,” Krummert said. “He probably would have raced a little harder if the caution came out. It’s a third, we’ll take it and try to get a little bit better. “
Diehl Automotive Feature: (Finish-Name-[Start]) 1. 25-Erick Rudolph[5]; 2. 165-Rex King Jr[8]; 3. 29-Garrett Krummert[6]; 4. 37MD-Jeremiah Shingledecker[7]; 5. 9-Will Thomas[11]; 6. 3RS-Dalton Slack[16]; 7. JD57-Jordan Ehrenberg[2]; 8. 5C-Ayden Cipriano[3]; 9. 18-Colton Walters[4]; 10. 45-Steve Feder[10]; 11. 14S-Justin Shea[12]; 12. 13-Rick Regalski Jr[14]; 13. 11R-Brad Rapp[18]; 14. 777-Tyler Willard[20]; 15. 66F-Kyle Fink[15]; 16. 61-Dave Murdick[24]; 17. 18JR-Mike Dougherty Jr[17]; 18. 25B-Steve Barr[21]; 19. 75-Jeff Miller[23]; 20. 9R-Chad Reitz[22]; 21. 20P-Mike Kinney[9]; 22. 5A-Austin Eyler[13]; 23. (DNF) 6X-Brian Swartzlander[1]; 24. (DNF) 6-Lenny Leibold[19]
Mark Smith Invades; And Cashes In
Mark Smith doesn’t normally skip over to The Action Track on Friday nights, but he does make the trip worth it more often than not. Smith, currently running a mix of 360 and 410 events in the Eastern US, earmarked Friday as his return following his last visit to Lernerville on May 31 where he finished seventh on Western PA Speedweek night and gave a performance as good as has been seen this season with the Peoples Natural Gas Sprint Cars.
Smith drew the pole for the 25-lap main event and lined up next to up and coming pilot Jacob Begenwald as the green flag waved with Smith immediately opening up an unchallenged lead while Begenwald fell back. Behind Smith, Cody Bova, Jeremy Weaver and Jack Sodeman Jr. made up a formidable chase pack in the early going while points leader AJ Flick moved forward from his ninth starting spot almost immediately to just beyond the top five in just two laps. Weaver then took the second spot from Bova showing a great amount of speed as he looked to run down Smith in the lead early on. A four car battle for the third spot then emerged between Sodeman, Bova, Dan Shetler and Flick all running nose to tail tank with four laps in. Flick then split Bova and Sodeman coming out of turn four to take the third spot behind Smith and Weaver.
The caution flag waved for a John Jerich spin in turns three and four with six laps down, causing a single file restart with Smith and Weaver just ahead. However, if Flick had any visions of overtaking the top two quickly, he had another thing coming as Weaver fired the first shot, sliding up in front of Smith in turns one and two and keeping the lead at the flag stand with seven laps in the books. One lap later, Smith, now running on the top side, kept his momentum up and rocketed around Weaver in turns one and two to retake the lead with Flick following suit, moving up to the second spot with eight laps down.
By the halfway mark, Smith had opened up some daylight between himself and Flick with nearly a straightway advantage with 12 laps to go. Smith then began having difficulty with the soon to become lapped car of Tommy Jasen, allowing Flick to move to within three car lengths when the caution flag came out again, this time for Nick Fritz with 10 laps to go. When action resumed, Weaver went straight to work, sliding up in front of Flick to take the second spot away while out front, Smith began stacking car lengths between himself and Weaver. Flick and Weaver would trade the second spot for two laps until Flick took the spot for good with seven laps left as he tried to close the gap with Smith out front. Adam Herb brought out the third caution of the race with five laps remaining and when action resumed, 12th starting David Kalb took the third spot from Weaver. Flick threw the kitchen sink at Smith for the lead but was unable to come up with enough traction or momentum to pull off the move as Smith crossed the line first at the end of 25 laps.
“Well, he’s (Flick) always tough here,” Smith said. “You come to his turf and he’s tough to beat but we had a pretty good car tonight, I didn’t know how good, but we made out pretty good on the last two restarts and I really didn’t see him so we must have been pretty good.”
Peoples Natural Gas Sprint Car Feature: (Finish-Name-Start) 1. M1-Mark Smith[1]; 2. 2-AJ Flick[9]; 3. 11J-David Kalb[12]; 4. 11-Carl Bowser[6]; 5. 5-Jeremy Weaver[4]; 6. 23JR-Jack Sodeman Jr[5]; 7. 29-Dan Shetler[8]; 8. 40-George Hobaugh Jr[15]; 9. 08-Danny Kuriger[11]; 10. 13-Brandon Matus[7]; 11. 20B-Cody Bova[3]; 12. 46-Michael Bauer[13]; 13. 79W-Will Fleming[16]; 14. 33-Brent Matus[18]; 15. 3-John Jerich[20]; 16. 44-Pete Landram[19]; 17. 3J-Jacob Begenwald[2]; 18. 4K-Nick Fritz[17]; 19. (DNF) 05-Adam Herb[14]; 20. (DNF) 12G-Tommy Jasen[10]
Johnson Takes Hard Fought UEMS Victory
The Elite Motorsports UEMS Modifieds had not seen action at The Action Track during the regular season in quite some time, but returned on Friday night, giving a performance that was worth the wait as a determined Troy Johnson etched his name on the winner’s list in the $1,000-to-win, 20 lap main event.
Heavy hitters Brian Ruhlman and Evan Taylor started on the front row and were virtually tied at the flag stand after lap one with Taylor working the high side of the speedway early on. Taylor was able to gain some separation in the early laps ahead of Ruhlaman, Johnson and Ty Rhoades. Johnson then went to work on Ruhlman, taking looks underneath while out front, Taylor was seemingly being reeled in by both his pursuers at the seven lap mark. Johnson was able to pull door to door with Ruhlman at the halfway mark, taking the second spot away with 10 to go and then immediately took looks from the bottom at Taylor, making the pass for the lead just one lap later. Johnson was able to use all three grooves, allowing him to move around in lapped traffic as the caution flag waved when third running Rhoads and Ruhlman made contact causing Rhoades to spin in turn four.
On the ensuing restart, Johnson skated out to the lead once again while Ruhlman shuffled back to fifth spot and Joel Watson and Eric Reinwald entered the top five. All progress was then halted with 17 laps down for a caution. And when action resumed Watson managed to steal the second spot from Taylor, but out front, Johnson crossed under the checkered flag first, completing a smooth and determined performance.
“The car felt pretty good tonight,” Johnson said. “I’m not used to it and it does everything it’s supposed to do, I didn’t do a thing to it. I screwed up in the heat and I hope I didn’t screw anybody else up. It’s a pretty stout class of cars here so if we can pull off a win I’m good with it. It’s our first one of the year.”
UEMS EMod Feature Finish: (Finish-Name-[Start]) 1. 2J-Troy Johnson[4]; 2. 92-Joel Watson[9]; 3. 7-Evan Taylor[2]; 4. 49-Brian Ruhlman[1]; 5. 72-Eric Reinwald[5]; 6. 28-Mason Lobb[3]; 7. 07P-Tim Peterson[8]; 8. 11-Troy Loomis[7]; 9. 77D-Dustin DeMattia[12]; 10. 7G-Garrett Calvert[10]; 11. 71-Alan Brewer[18]; 12. 64-Chris Schneider[15]; 13. 1-Vinnie DePizzo[14]; 14. 17G-Brandon Grossman[13]; 15. T2-Greg Hauger[21]; 16. D2-Nolan Dalton[17]; 17. 4J-Jim Plance[16]; 18. 2G-Tim Gould[19]; 19. (DNF) 12R-Ty Rhoades[6]; 20. (DNF) 21R-Randy Bauknecht[11]; 21. (DNS) 74-Jeffrey Bametzrieder
Schneider Racks Up Fourth Win of Season
The battle at the front of the Millerstown Pic-A-Part Pro Stock standings between Christian and Chris Schneider took another step forward on Friday night as the two drivers once again were the class of the field once again. Tyler Schneider and Lane Reinwald started the 20 lap main event from the front row and from the wave of the green flag, Tyler Schneider was in protect mode as Christian Schneider moved forward with authority on the opening lap to pull to Schneider’s bumper before lap one was in the books with Cody Koteles also in the mix in an attempt to take the lead away. Koteles moved to second, one spot ahead of Christian as the three cars went three wide for the lead on occasion in the early laps.
Tom Robertson brought out the caution flag with three laps in the books and when action resumed, Tyler Schneider found himself shuffled back to the fourth spot behind now third running Chris Schneider as Koteles and Christian Schneider battled for the lead out front. Koteles won the race to the flagstand but was unable to shake Christian who stayed door to door with Chris and Tyler Schneider directly behind them. Mike DiFrancesca then brought out the second caution period of the race with six laps down. When the green flag waved, Koteles and Christian Schneider resumed their door to door battle with Christian taking the lead at the eight lap mark. Behind them and coming forward was Chris Schneider and he took the lead from Christian with nine laps in the books, never looking back en route to his fourth feature win of the season.
“We had to wheel it tonight,” Schneider said. “I just had to pick my opportunity when it was there because if Christian got out front he was going to be gone. We just had to wheel it while we could.”
Millerstown Pic-A-Part Feature: (Finish-Name-[Start]) 1. 55S-Chris Schneider[6]; 2. 56-Christian Schneider[4]; 3. 1K-Cody Koteles[3]; 4. 155-Tyler Schneider[1]; 5. 26-Mike Bordt[5]; 6. 25-Brett McDonald[7]; 7. 68-John Peterman Jr[11]; 8. 0-Larry Kugel[9]; 9. 72B-Jim Kurpakus[10]; 10. 11R-Lane Reinwald[2]; 11. 47-Dalton Gabriel[8]; 12. 7A-Tom Robertson[12]; 13. 9-Mike DiFrancesca[14]; 14. 97-Anthony Bruno[13]
Submitted By: Gary Heeman