SODEMAN SIZZLES IN 1ST 410 WIN AT MERCER SINCE 2016 ENDING KEKICH STREAK; A PAIR OF KINGS TAKE VICTORIES REX KING JR (BIG BLOCK MODS) AND PHIL KING 1ST EVER IN MINI STOCKS; PRESTON COPE WINS 1ST EVER IN FASTRAK MODS; JAKE GOMOLA WINS 305 SPRINTS.
By Jim Balentine
Mercer, Pa
August 15, 2020
SODEMAN SIZZLES IN 1ST 410 WIN AT MERCER SINCE 2016 ENDING KEKICH STREAK;
A PAIR OF KINGS TAKE VICTORIES REX KING JR (BIG BLOCK MODS) AND PHIL KING
1ST EVER IN MINI STOCKS; PRESTON COPE WINS 1ST EVER IN FASTRAK MODS; JAKE
GOMOLA WINS 305 SPRINTS.
On a beautiful Saturday night in mid August Michaels Mercer Raceway
completed its fourth program of the season with four out of the five feature
winners taking the money home to the buckeye state of Ohio right across the
border . Jack Sodeman Jr (North Jackson,Oh) ended Adam Kekich ‘s win streak
by winning his first 410 sprint feature at Mercer since August 22 of 2016; in the
big block modified Rex King Jr (Bristolville,Oh) won his first Mercer feature
since May 11 of 2019 Jake Gomola (Seneca,Pa) picked up his second 305 sprint
feature of 2020. And Preston cope (Champion, Oh) in the fast track modified
and Phil King (Windham,Oh) in the mini stocks picked up their first career wins
as well.
For Jack Sodeman Jr coming back to Mercer is always a special place as he has
picked up 4 track championships out of the last five years that Mercer ran
weekly and after being shut out of victory Lane since August 22 2016 to
dominate the event and defeat two time winner Adam Kekich to win his first
410 win at Mercer and 2nd overall in 2020. Sodeman immediately gained
control from the start from the outside pole and aside from a few minor
cautions dominated the event. Kekich ended up finishing second Jeremy
Kornbau who started on the pole has been improving greatly in the past few
weeks picking up his highest ever finish at Mercer with third. Dan Kuriger was
fourth and Gary Kreiss jr was 5th.
Rex King Jr, who won the previous night at Lernerville , led flag to flag to win his
first Mercer big block modified feature since May 11 2019 and his 6th overall at
Mercer. He did so by holding off his father Rex Sr to take the 10 car 25 lapper.
Dave Murdick finished 3rd, JR McGinley 4th and Brad Rapp 5th.
Last years 305 sprint track champion Jake Gomola picked up his 2nd Mercer
feature of the season and the first repeat winner in 4 races. Gomola was easily
in the lead until the end when he lost a cylinder and allows 6 time Mercer
winner Greg Dobrosky to catch up and mount a charge at the white flag lap but
was to no avail as Gomola held him off . 10 time winner Jim Morris was 3rd,
rookie Tom Jasen 4th and Steve Cousins 5th.
The Jerry Schaffer cars in the FASTRAK Modifieds have now won 3 of 4 features
as youngster Preston Cope driving the Schaffer #24P pulled the upset and won
his 1st career feature over 2 time winner Eric Gabany. Cope starting on the
front row held off numerous restarts and challenges by the veteran Gabany but at the end Cope picked up his 1st career win at Mercer.
The mighty Mercer mini stocks once again ended in a nail biter as Phil King held
off 2 time winner Mike Porterfield at the line by .530 of a second to win his 1st
career feature at Mercer. Porterfield by virtue of his back to back wins came
from 10th started to challenge King in the latter stages of the race. Andy
Thompson and Mike Kelley led the field to green but King coming from 3rd took
the lead on lap 2 as Will Aley was then challenging King for the top spot. Lap
after lap Porterfield was reeling in King and as they came out of Turn 4 they
were side by side as King scraped the outside wall as they came across in
almost a dead heat !!Thompson and Kelley fell back to 6th and 7th while Aley
finished 3rd , Leonard Baker Jr was 4th and DJ McCrea moves up 11 spots to
finish 5th.
410 Sprints Feature
23JR-Jack Sodeman Jr[2]; 2. 5K-Adam Kekich[4]; 3. 27K-Jeremy Kornbau[1]; 4.
08-Danny Kuriger[5]; 5. 55-Gary Kriess Jr[8]; 6. 11X-George Englert[6]; 7. 250-
Jared McFarland[10]; 8. 66-Ken Rossey[9]; 9. 38-Leyton Wagner[3]; 10. 22-
Brandon Spithaler[12]; 11. 34M-Mike Marano[11]; 12. 4J-Jacob Gamola[7]; 13.
76-Davey Jones[13]; 14. 1L-Ivan Johnson[15]; 15. 23G-Justin Gurdack[14]
Heat winners
27K-Jeremy Kornbau; 23JR-Jack Sodeman Jr
Big Block Modifieds Feature
165-Rex King Jr[1]; 2. 65-Rex King Sr[2]; 3. 61-Dave Murdick[5]; 4. 66-JR
McGinley[3]; 5. 11R-Brad Rapp[4]; 6. 3K-shawn kozar[6]; 7. 55-Scott Kay[9]; 8.
74-Kevin Green[10]; 9. 717-Billy Adams[7]
Heat winner: 165-Rex King Jr
305 Sprints Feature
4J-Jacob Gamola[1]; 2. 88-Greg Dobrosky[3]; 3. 16-Jim Morris[6]; 4. 12G-
Tommy Jasen[2]; 5. 56-Steve Cousins[7]; 6. X7-Andy Cavanagh[4]; 7. 22-George
Fredrick[8]; 8. 347-Nevan O’Donnell[9]; 9. 27H-Kyle Colwell[5]
Heat winner: 4J-Jacob Gamola
Mini Stock feature
12-Phil King[3]; 2. 23MP-Michael Porterfield[9]; 3. 9-William Aley[7]; 4. 0B-
Leonard Baker Jr[6]; 5. 36PACK-DJ McCrae[16]; 6. 5-Andy Thompson[1]; 7.
6-Mike Kelley[2]; 8. 1-James Tasker[10]; 9. 53Z-Larry Blake[12]; 10. 999-Adam
Aley[8]; 11. 77H-Cameron Hutchins[5]; 12. 31-Greg Marks[19]; 13. 16R-Jordan
Reges[17]; 14. 27-Tim Zuschlag[22]; 15. 64-Summer Pitts[14]; 16. 15B-Shane
Shook[11]; 17. 325Z-Zack Swartz[24]; 18. 8BALL-Ed Haylett[4]; 19. 77-Pete
Blaczak[23]; 20. 47S-Steven Fedokovitz[21]; 21. 54-Tim Callahan[20]; 22. 10S-
trevn schaffer[15]; 23. 17J-Mike Salsgiver[13]; 24. 7-Brad Gamble[18]
Heat winners: 9-William Aley; 23MP-Michael Porterfield; 0B-Leonard Baker Jr
FASTRAK Modifieds Feature
24-Preston Cope[2]; 2. 4S-Eric Gabany[1]; 3. 86-Shayne Izzo[10]; 4. 17-
Brandon Ritchey[4]; 5. 41-Brian Schaffer[6]; 6. 5-Brian Sadler[5]; 7. 44-JIm
Bryce[11]; 8. 404-Michael Kristyak[8]; 9. 28J-Jacob Jordan[12]; 10. 2-Cole
Holden[3]; 11. 11G-Nathen McDowell[14]; 12. 27-ryan covelli[16]; 13. 33G-
Dalton Gabriel[17]; 14. 71-Gage Priester[7]; 15. 14-Jeff Schaffer Jr[9]; 16. 7P-
Caden Petry[13]; 17. 113-Don Cornelius[15]
Heat winners: 41-Brian Schaffer; 5-Brian Sadler