Rick Hoctor wins 358 Modifieds for $2,000; Tony Hersh tops record 122 Stock Cars for $1,500 in Mercer Little Guy Nationals
Sat, Oct 5, 2002 -- "Little Guy Nationals"
Written by: Mike Leone
Mercer Raceway Park completed the third annual Little Guy Nationals on Saturday, October 5. Scoring wins and celebrating in the Moore’s Auto Body victory lane were Rick Hoctor-358 Modifieds, Tony Hersh-Stock Car A Feature, Bill Exley, Jr.-Stock Car B Feature, and Steve Lowery-Stock Car C Feature. James Youngblood of Warren, Ohio captured his first Mercer Demolition Derby victory in the $500 to-win G&G Auto Outlet “Gladiator Series” event.
One of the true “little guys”, Rick Hoctor recorded the biggest victory of his 30-year racing career by winning the 30-lap $2,000 to-win 358 Modified feature event. “I goofed in the heat,” admitted the Cheektowaga, New York winner. “I ran into the wall and bent the right rear. The welder welded it back into place and it lasted long enough. We didn’t need anymore cautions or laps. I just prayed to God it would hold up.”
From the pole position, Chad Reitz took command of the event as Hoctor and Andy Priest followed in second and third. Dave Murdick and Mike Jackson got around Bill Deming on the opening lap for third and fourth. By lap six, Reitz, who scored five wins overall in 2002 in the Sportsman Modified division, opened up a near straightaway lead on Hoctor and Priest. The laps ticked off caution-free as the top five running order remained the same. Reitz was in the midst of heavy lapped traffic on lap 19, which allowed Hoctor to close in. On lap 21, a three-car race ensued for second with Hoctor trying to hold off Priest and Murdick as the three closed in on Reitz.
Reitz’s shot at his biggest career win ended on lap 24 when he looped his car in turns one and two trying to negotiate heavy traffic bringing out the first and only caution of the event. This gave the lead to Hoctor who would hold off Priest in his “Bad Banana”, Able Agency Insurance/Casey’s Truck Salvage World/AA-1 Auto Wrecking-sponsored #18. The win was Hoctor’s sixth of his 30-year career, which includes 25 years behind the wheel of Modifieds.
“I couldn’t catch him (Reitz) at all,” expressed the happy winner. “The traffic was holding him up and he got goofed up there. I enjoy coming down here and it’s always a good way to end the year.”
Priest brought his own #21N home in second for a $1,000 payday. Robby Krull was the man on the move from the 12th starting spot. Krull passed Jackson for fourth on lap 24. Krull and Murdick then raced hard for the final three laps with Krull finally getting by on the final lap using the outside to place third. Murdick dropped to fourth in the Rick Ryder-owned #18. Jackson, who won last year’s event before coming up light at the scales, was fifth. Rich Richner, the inaugural event winner in 2000, was sixth. Deming and Eric VanSkiver made their first ever appearances and were seventh and eighth. Gary Smoker and Steve Barr rounded out the top 10. Heat winners over the record 57-car field were Priest, Richner, Hoctor, Deming, Krull, and Murdick. Winning the three B mains were Barr, John Buchanan, and Roger Williams.
Making his first ever appearance, Tony Hersh topped a field of 122 Stock Cars in what is believed to be a record western Pa. car count to claim his biggest career win in the 40-lap $1,500 to-win main event. The Somerset, Pa. winner raced six seasons on asphalt before switching to dirt. Hersh was a two-time victor at his home track- Thunder Valley Raceway, where he finished third in points.
The race began with a pair of #38s in Todd Matthews and Mike Laughard leading the way. On lap two, Matthews got high and yielded the lead to Laughard. Hersh, who started fourth, was able to pass Russ Kapalin and then got past Matthews for second on lap two. A wild three-car scramble for the lead on lap 10 saw Hersh take command from Laughard with Terry Kroner up to third.
Following a caution with 10 laps completed, Laughard drifted high on lap 11 and exited the speedway giving second to Kroner and third to Gary Miller, Jr. Trent Ogden, who started ninth, worked his way to the front. Ogden was able to get around Miller for third on lap 16. A great four-car battle for third ensued on lap 22 with Ogden holding off Miller, Bob McCann, and Jim McFadden. McCann took over fourth from Miller on lap 27.
Hersh really began to open up ground and had a straightaway lead on Kroner by lap 28. Ogden and McCann ran down Kroner and those three raced for second on lap 30, while McFadden dropped Miller back to fifth. Lap 31 saw Ogden and McCann get under Kroner for second and third on lap 31.
The 21-lap long green flag run saw Hersh finally catch the back markers and was in heavy traffic on lap 33 just before a caution for Chris Schneider bunched up the field. Under caution, McCann exited the event moving Kroner back to third for the restart.
The last eight laps would go green-to-checkered. McFadden was able to pass Kroner for third coming off the inside of turn four on lap 35. But up front, Hersh was able to hold on for the win in his Ford-powered, Ritco, Inc. #21. Ogden’s first ever appearance was a successful one claiming second. McFadden came all the way from the 24th starting spot to finish third for the second straight week. Kroner slowed in the closing laps, which allowed Miller to get back up to fourth at the finish. Ed Cornell, who started 16th, also got by Kroner for a career best Mercer finish in fifth.
Sixth through tenth were Rusty Moore, Bobby Whitling from 25th, Rusty Wheeler, Jim Sayler, and Kroner. Topping the 10 heat events were Kroner, Kapalin, Matthews, Ogden, Eric Baun, McCann, Laughard, Jeff Walters, Hersh, and Miller. The five B mains, which transferred the winner to the tail of the feature lineup, were won by Pete Alspaugh, Moore, Dan Lewis, McFadden, and Whitling.
In just his second race of the 2002 season, Bill Exley, Jr. of Kennerdell, Pa. picked up the $300 to-win 15-lap Stock Car consolation B feature. Exley started the event in fourth and passed Terry Wheeler and Shaun Hooks on the opening lap for second. Exley made the winning move on lap four taking the top spot away from Rod Laskey. By the halfway mark, Exley began to pull away from the field. Three late cautions were all that slowed Exley as he raced on to the win. Steve Keith inherited second on the final lap after Hooks and Gary Norman tangled. Ty Hanten was third over Darren Buell and Bruce Walker.
Steve Lowery, last week’s winner at Thunder Valley Raceway, closed out the Stock Car portion of the “Little Guy Nationals” by winning the 12-lap consolation C feature. Coming all the way from Chambersburg, Pa., Lowery led from start to finish for the $200 win. Mike Aley passed Jeff Sweeney on lap six to finish second. Sweeney was third ahead of Neil Tristani and Duane Grinnell.
Notes…Car counts have grown each of the three years of the “Little Guy Nationals”. The inaugural year saw 72 Stock Cars, last year grew to a whopping 112, and this year’s phenomenal count of 122. The 358 Modifieds had 42 in 2000, grew to 50 last year, and swelled to 57 this year. For the third race in a row, record car counts were established. Last week, the 176 cars set a four-division record. Friday’s 188 cars set a track high. Saturday’s 179 cars broke a two-division record plus there were approximately 40 demo cars on hand. Two $100 long tows were awarded in the Stock Car division. The one went to Gary Johns of Wheatley, Ontario, Canada and the second to Joe McCorkle, Jr. of Portsmouth, Virginia The 358 Modified breakdown included 20 cars that compete with the western Pa. big blocks, 14 sportsman modified regulars, 13 New York cars, 8 Gambler’s Raceway Park regulars, 1 local six-cylinder modified, and 1 eastern Pa. car.
358 Modified Feature (30 laps): 1. RICK HOCTOR ($2,000) 2. Andy Priest 3. Robby Krull 4. Dave Murdick 5. Mike Jackson 6. Rick Richner 7. Bill Deming 8. Eric VanSkiver 9. Gary Smoker 10. Steve Barr 11. Ray McClure 12. Stacy Jackson 13. Mike Butterworth 14. Les Myers 15. Chad Reitz 16. Allen Ferry 17. Roger Williams 18. Lou Gentile 19. Jim Rombold, Jr. 20. Scott Smith 21. Dave Myers 22. Bill Adams 23. Lyle Sherwood 24. John Buchanan DNQ-Mike Stine, John Zimmerman, Mark Frankhouser, Pud Welsh, Lee Miller, Tom Mattocks, Buck Buchanan, Dave George, Ron Eperthener, Jr., Tom Holden, Jerry O’Rock, Bob McCann, Jim Faas, Ken Schaffer, Brian May, Bob Sloss, Matt Baker, Frank Fenush, Stanley Bell, Justin Broerman, Adam Kozar, Marvin Williams, Rick Kress, Steve Hartman, Chuck Kennison, Mike Gibson, Howard Duff, Dion LaSalle, Dylan DeWert, Greg Unrue, Brian Fink, Keith Nagy, Kenny Hardy.
Stock Car A Feature (40 laps): 1. Tony Hersh ($1,500) 2. Trent Ogden 3. Jim McFadden 4. Gary Miller, Jr. 5. Ed Cornell 6. Rusty Moore 7. Bobby Whitling 8. Rusty Wheeler 9. Jim Sayler 10. Terry Kroner 11. Bobby Heim 12. Wayne Mohawk 13. Pete Alspaugh 14. Ken Zimmer 15. Eric Baun 16. Jeff Walters 17. Bob McCann 18. Russ Kapalin 19. Chris Schneider 20. Andy Thompson 21. Phil Kaufman 22. Dan Lewis 23. Denny Walker 24. Mike Laughard 25. Todd Matthews.
Stock Car B Feature (15 laps): 1. Bill Exley, Jr. ($300) 2. Steve Keith 3. Ty Hanten 4. Darren Buell 5. Bruce Walker 6. John Weaver 7. Danny Rich 8. Jason Johns 9. Jonathan Hayman 10. Rod Laskey 11. Jeremy Stafford 12. Gary Norman 13. Shaun Hooks 14. Tommy Fox 15. Eric Rising 16. Rick Norco 17. Terry Wheeler 18. Brian Miller 19. Dave Willoughby 20. Brian Douglas 21. Willie Aley 22. Mike Boyd 23. Paul Schreckengost 24. Mark Felicetty 25. Tim Deutsch-DNS 26. Justin Kreider-DNS.
Stock Car C Feature (12 laps): 1. Steve Lowery ($200) 2. Mike Aley 3. Jeff Sweeney 4. Neil Tristani 5. Duane Grinnell 6. Howard Fraley 7. Andy Michael 8. Tom Baun 9. Doug Iorio 10. Henry Wilfong 11. Ray Bailey, Jr. 12. Jeff Bastin 13. Scott Malone 14. Darrell Calvert 15. Mike Swope 16. Justin Tatlow 17. Mark Thompson, Jr. 18. Tim Zuschlag 19. Ed Hays 20. Jason Schoonmaker 21. Ken Kerr 22. George Kafantaris 23. Rick Yanssen 24. Jim Britton 25. Rick Thompson.
Did not qualify for any of the three features: Ed Hart, Fred Snyder, John Emigh, Jr., Rick Anthony, Clyde Roberts, Russ Stanke, Rick Lanigan, Brian Stambaugh, Mark Hopkins, Rich Chess, Sr., Dave Johnson, Brian Fingado, Travis Calhoun, Phil Stanke, Bob Egley, Fred Pfeifer, Todd Canter, James Huff, Mike Miller, Bill Lanigan, Todd Myers, Gary Johns, Steve D’Apolito, Gary Davis, Matthew Allen, Wayne Johnson, Tom Williams, Carmen DePinto, Jason Broerman, Bob Sloss, Brian Johnson, Jeff Stambaugh, Joe McCorkle, Jr., Jason Reagle, Steve Babos, George Corral, Harold Sebring, Mike Mathieson, Andy Buckley, Chuck Kerr, Tony Bruno, Lester Bates, Dan Fedorchak, Dan Smeal, Don Greenlee, Jay Watson