Flick Dominates Sprints; Miley Tops Lates; Murdick Finds Magic; Zambotti Finds Victory Lane
Sarver, PA (August 17, 2019) Dominant performances, surprise endings and a first time champion being crowned topped the story lines at The Action Track on Friday night as the Fab4 Revved up with Marburger graced the clay amidst the backdrop of chamber of commerce type weather.
In Peoples Natural Gas Sprint car action, AJ Flick was in his own world after he made his way around Sye Lynch coming out of turn four with seven laps down. Flick never looked back as he lapped up to the sixth position and was flawless in lapped traffic in capturing his third feature victory of the 2019 campaign. Meanwhile, Carl Bowser made steady progress from his seventh starting spot to find his way to a runner up finish while points leader Jack Sodeman Jr. managed to work from 10th to the final podium spot at the end of 25 laps to keep a firm grip on his points lead heading into the final Friday night program of the season.
Jared Miley moved forward from his 13th starting spot to the lead with authority in the Precise Racing Products Late Model main event. The former two time track champion made his way past race leader Ken Schaltenbrand on a restart with seven laps remaining en route to his second feature win of the season. However, though he lost Friday night’s battle, Schaltenbrand won the 2019 points war as he clinched his first career Lernerville championship by virtue of his second place finish.
Brian Swartzlander looked to be well on his way to yet another feature win in the Diehl Automotive Big Block Modifieds and an important one at that. The DIRTcar Hall of Famer came into the evening six markers ahead of Rex King Jr. in the point standings and was looking to pad that lead. However, a shredded tire and some contact on the front stretch wall for the leader reset the stage and Dave Murdick took full advantage of it. Murdick took the lead from a fast running John Mollick in the final stages and made his way to Terry Bowser Excavating Victory Lane for the first time since 2014. Meanwhile, Swartzlander was able to rejoin the field and advance to the sixth spot to salvage what points he could. Swartzlander and King Jr. find themselves tied for the points lead going into next Friday night following King’s third place finish.
And in the Millerstown Pic-A-Part DIRTcar/RUSH Pro Stock feature, Tyler Dietz, who came into the night just two points behind leader Corey McPherson managed to take the lead away from Joe Kelley early in the running. However, ninth starting Joey Zambotti showed a tremendous amount of speed throughout the 20 lap main event and was able to make his way around Dietz with just three laps remaining for his third feature win of 2019 at Lernerville. Dietz crossed the line in the runner up spot, putting himself in the driver’s seat on top of the point standings following a fifth place finish by McPherson.