KEMENAH AND KING WIN FIRSTS IN SHARON SPRINTS AND MODIFIEDS

by Mike Leone

Hartford(OH) Highlighting wins on the sixth night of racing of the 70th anniversary season at Sharon Speedway on Sunday evening were Chad Kemenah (Sprint Cars) and Rex King (Bicknell Racing Products DIRT Modifieds). Other winners were Alan Dellinger (E-Mods) and Dwayne Clay (Stock Cars).

Chad Kemenah picked up where fellow central Ohio driver, Rob Chaney, left off. Kemenah smoked the 22-car 20-lap Sprint Car Feature in his first appearance of the year, while three-time winner, Chaney, was a no-show. "We came over here to race for (Ohio) speedweek and it looks like my crew didn’t do too bad of a job," said Kemenah who was on Goodyear tires aboard a Gamble chassis using a Kistler engine.

Kemenah started fifth and drove by Tommy Burns, Jr. for third on lap five. Three laps later the Fremont, Ohio driver disposed of Doug Kekich for second. Kemenah quickly closed on leader Jarod Larson on lap nine. Kemenah’s winning move came on lap 10 when he blasted by Larson and set sail. "It felt really good once we got the lead, but it took awhile," said the one-time 1998 winner.

Burns also got around Kekich on lap 11 for third. Kemenah left Larson and Burns battling for second as the race went non-stop with the UUI/Harble Motorsports #15 winning by more than a half-lap. "We had a great weekend with a second at Attica, a win last night at K-C, and came over here today and did it again. I want to thank all the fans for coming out. It’s a great race track," said a happy Kemenah.

Burns got by Larson for second on lap 16 ending Larson’s four-race string of second places. Burns followed his second at Mercer with his best Sharon finish of the year. Kekich was fourth and Tom Quarterson was fifth in his season debut. Sixth through tenth were central Pa.’s Mike Wagner in his own #55, sixteen year-old Kokomo, Indiana’s Boston Reid, Gary Edwards, and Terry Young. Central Pa.’s Chris Strait made his first-ever appearance and finished 11th. Heat winners were Troy Preston and Gary Edwards.

Rex King won his first race of 1999 by winning the 25-lap Bicknell Racing Products DIRT Modified Tour’99 race number three. "It started going away a little bit on the chassis setup and was starting to overheat at the end. The cushion kept getting pushed higher and higher every lap, " said King as he barely edged defending track champion, Tim Doran, for the win.

Doran started on the pole, while King started eighth. On lap four, King moved into third passing Brian Swartzlander. King drove by Jeff Hoffman for second on lap eight. By the half-way point, King ran down Doran. On lap 11, King made the winning move. Doran hung tight and was all over King on the final lap, but the Bristolvolle, Ohio driver of the King Bros. #65 had enough to win by a 1/2 car-length. "I saw Timmy (Doran) cut under me on the last lap in one and two so I thought I better not screw up," said a happy King from victory lane.

Hoffman was third in his first appearance of the year. Guy Griffin was fourth. Canada’s Pete Bicknell was fifth in his first-ever appearance to the speedway driving a Josh Skarzenski second entry. Sixth through tenth were Brian Swartzlander, Lou Blaney, Rodney Beltz, Tommy Kristyak, and Rick Hall. Doran, King, Griffin, and Swartzlander won the heats over the 37-car field. Scott Gurdak and Jim Weller won the two B mains.

Niles, Ohio’s Alan Dellinger survived to win the 15-lap E-Mod Feature. A major incident occurred on lap four involving seven cars causing severe damage to most of the cars. Everyone was okay. Dellinger, who started 12th, was up to third passing Chuck List, Sr. on lap five. On lap six, Dellinger disposed of early leader, Arlan Coy, for runner-up. On lap eight coming off turn four, Dellinger drove to the inside of Bob McCann to make the pass stick and cruised to his easy fourth win in his Boardman Engines/Ralph’s RV Center #19. McCann finished second. Third through fifth were the Coy Bros. team cars of Jeff Rudrick, Coy, and Jeff Sharp. Taking the heats were Dellinger and Bert Blackson.

Dwayne Clay finally won his first Stock Car Feature at Sharon Speedway. The Warren, Ohio driver started fourth and raced by Nathan Miller, Larry Keener, and Joe Porter on lap one for the lead. Clay led the rest of the way in his #007 for the win. Tom Miller was second and actually passed Clay for the lead on lap 11, but a caution negated the pass and never got close in the final four laps. A scary incident took place on lap six when Prosser got sideways and Nathan Miller skyrocketed into the air with both cars flipping. Both drivers were okay. Porter was third with Russ Kapalin fourth in his season debut. Eric Gibson was fifth. Winning the heats were Kapalin, Tom Miller, and Clay.

Sprint Car Feature Finish: 1. CHAD KEMENAH 2. Tommy Burns, Jr. 3. Jarod Larson 4. Doug Kekich 5. Tom Quarterson 6. Mike Wagner 7. Boston Reid 8. Arnie Kent 9. Gary Edwards 10. Terry Young 11. Chris Strait 12. Bob Lime 13. Mike Kekich 14. Jamie McKinney 15. C.W. Harshman 16. Eric Hysong 17. Troy Cochran 18. Jerry Frew 19. Jermey Dickerson 20. Troy Preston 21. Dan Taylor 22. Mark Imler-DNS.

B.R.P. DIRT Modified Tour ‘99 Race #3 Feature Finish: 1. REX KING 2. Tim Doran 3. Jeff Hoffman 4. Guy Griffin 5. Pete Bicknell 6. Brian Swartzlander 7. Lou Blaney 8. Rodney Beltz 9. Tommy Kristyak 10. Rick Hall 11. Joe Crawford 12. Carl Murdick 13. Dave Murdick 14. Jeff Schaffer 15. Mike Sutton 16. Pete Simpson 17. Brian Fink 18. Josh Skarzenski 19. Scott Gurdak 20. Dean Pearson 21. Jim Rasey 22. Jim Weller 23. Del Rougeux, Jr. 24. Steve Young DNQ-Chris Schiffer, Tom Smith, Randy Snider, Tim Engles, Dale Fuller, Skip Moore, George Hobaugh, Jason Engles, Gerry Bruce, Lonny Riggs, Rich Ferguson, Andy Priest, Chip Ritchey.

E-Mod Feature Finish: 1. ALAN DELLINGER 2. Bob McCann 3. Jeff Rudrick 4. Arlan Coy 5. Jeff Sharp 6. Chuck List, Sr. 7. Jeff Johnson 8. Steve Haefke 9. J.R. Mechling 10. Craig Douglas 11. Gary Miller, Jr. 12. Jim White, Jr. 13. Bert Blackson 14. Bill Taylor 15. Dennis Niederriter 16. Dave McLaughlin 17. Ron Jaeger 18. Bob Bongorni 19. Scott Stiffler-DNS.

Stock Car Feature Finish: 1. DWAYNE CLAY 2. Tom Miller 3. Joe Porter 4. Russ Kapalin 5. Eric Gibson 6. Larry Keener 7. Mark Felicetty 8. Bill McMurray 9. Paul Gabrielson 10. Ralph Blackson 11. Robert Kutsch 12. Jim Davis 13. Rich Howell 14. Jason Longwell 15. Gary Robinson 16. Darrell Neal 17. Carl Pasternack 18. Rick Prosser, Jr. 19. Nathan Miller 20. Jeff Buccella 21. Clint Gibson 22. Glenn Pupino 23. Steve Babos 24. George Kafantaris 25. Ken Moy, Jr. 26. Jim White, Jr.-DNS 27. Mike Sohm-DNS.

Upcoming shows:

June 20 Regular show. Father’s day-all dads receive $2 off general admission.
June 27 Regular show. Kids bike races.
July 01 Ohio All Star Sprint Speedweek for Sprint Cars plus York Triathlon Series E-Mods and Stock Cars.
July 04 Sprint Cars, DIRT Modifieds, and Stock Cars. Kids bike races.
July 11 Regular show/GM/Delphi Packard Employee Night-$2 off general admission with company ID.
Gates open at 4:30 p.m. with racing at 6:30 p.m.

Media Contact: Mike Leone, 53 East Glenora Drive, Grove City, PA 16127. Phone/Fax: 724-748-3358. E-mail: mleone@infonline.net

Sharon Speedway is north of Interstate 80 on Route 7 to Route 305, then east on Custer-Orangeville Road in Hartford, Oh. For more information call (330) 652-5030 or the speedway on race day at (330) 772-5481. The fax number is (330) 772-7704. The mailing address is P.O. Box 403, Mineral Ridge, OH 44440.

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