Flick Bags Second Win, T. Dietz Claims Third, Thomas Takes RUSH Win, Rudolph Bests BRP Modifieds!
Tommy Hein Photo
Sarver, PA (May 20, 2022) Lernerville Speedway track prep guru, Dan Bauman, has been known to prepare a beautiful racing surface in the past but, on Friday, May 20, Mr. Bauman went above and beyond after Mother Nature threw what many thought to be the final blow in the morning. Storms rolled through Western Pennsylvania through the morning hours, but Dan and his team worked tirelessly throughout the day to have ‘The Action Track’ ready to go in plenty of time for the BRP Tour Modifieds, Hovis Auto & Truck Supply RUSH Late Models, and the Fab4 Revved Up with Marburger Farm Dairy divisions of the Peoples Natural Gas Sprints and Millerstown Pic-A-Part Pro Stocks to take to the speedway at the traditional 7:30 PM. start time.
Lernerville regular Colton Walters and Tom Glenn led the BRP/Diehl Automotive Modifieds to the green for their 35-lap, $2,500 to-win main event with Glenn taking the early lead after Walters slipped back to the sixth spot in the running order. After a quick lap 2 caution, Rex King, Jr., made his way by Glenn to take command with Tyler Willard also getting by Glenn for the second spot. With King, Jr. at the helm, Willard, last week’s Fab4 winner Dave Murdick and Brad Rapp all battled for the third spot until Rapp, making a bid on the outside of the backstretch, slipped off the racing surface and came to a stop in turn three to bring out the caution on lap 6. On the ensuing restart, Willard got by King, Jr., for the lead as King Jr., jumped the cushion in turns three and four and fell back to the fourth position. While King Jr., tried to regroup, seventh starting Eric Rudolph found himself in the second spot and began to pressure Willard for the race lead. On lap 11, Rudolph was able to power his way to the lead using the bottom side of the speedway and begin to put some distance between himself and the rest of the field. Once in the lead, Rudolph jumped to the top line to set the pace for the remainder of the race to take home his first BRP Tour win of the year. After a strong late race charge, ninth starting Brian Swartzlander finished second followed by Garrett Krummert in third, Rex King Jr., in fourth and Brad Rapp rallied for a fifth-place finish.
‘I have to give it up to my crew here tonight,’ Rudolph said in Terry Bowser Excavating Victory Lane. ‘We had to change out a transmission after the heat race and we thrashed around to make a few other changes but, at feature time the car was about as good as it can be. I just tried to do what I did to get the lead, hit my marks, and not make any mistakes. It made it easy with how good the car was tonight.’
In the Peoples Sprints main event, 2021 Lernerville Champion A.J. Flick and Corbin Gurley, from Hebron, Indiana led the field to the green flag with Flick taking command early. Flick set a blistering pace and pulled away from the field by over five seconds by lap 15 when Ryan Timms, from Oklahoma City, OK slid past Carl Bowser for the second spot. Timms was able to close on the leader while Flick was in heavy traffic but was never able to mount a serious charge as Flick went on to lead all 25 laps and take home his second Fab4 win of the young 2022 season. Timms crossed the line second followed by Bowser in third, 10th starting Sye Lynch was fourth with Ohio’s Cody Bova rounding out the top-five.
‘Props to all the drivers, we’ve had three local (Fab4) shows here and only one caution, that’s just phenomenal. I was talking to my dad about maybe cutting some weight with fuel to see if we could be a bit quicker tonight and he said, no the track’s too fast tonight, we’re going to have cautions. Sure enough, no cautions.’ Flick said in Victory Lane after his second win of the 2022 season. ‘I knew that the 5T (Ryan Timms) would be coming and I was honestly hoping that the race would go nonstop, and I could get through lapped cars better than anyone else.’
Zach Morrow and Josh Ferry sat on the front row for the RUSH Late Models feature event with third starting Clate Copeman using the bottom side of turns one and two to take the early lead. Morrow, who started on the pole, fell back to sixth after jumping the cushion in turn two on the opening lap. Multi-time Lernerville winner, Michael Duritsky found himself in the runner-up spot on lap 2 before a caution slowed the field. On the restart, Duritsky worked his was around Copeman for the race lead while Joe Martin, who started 7th, gat past Copeman after a lap three restart. Duritsky paced the field as the laps ticked away until a lap 9 caution brought the field back together for another restart. The caution gave Martin some life as he was able to pressure Duritsky for a few laps, but the leader was able to separate himself while Will Thomas battled with Ferry for third. On lap 13, Martin got crossed up in turn four but was able to continue, not before falling back to the seventh position in the process. Martin’s misfortune opened the door for Thomas to get by Ferry and move into the second spot. A lap 15 caution set up a five-lap dash to the finish with the leaders as Duritsky and Thomas battled side-by-side until lap 17 when Thomas was able to pull ahead of Duritsky using the high side. Thomas was able to hold off duritsky for the final three circuits to take the win and the guaranteed starting spot for the ‘Bill Emig Memorial’ to be held June 23-24-25 during the ‘Big River Steel Firecracker 100’ weekend. Duritsky was second with Joe Martin fighting his way back to third. Josh Ferry was fourth with Matt Latta finishing fifth.
‘It seems like I’ve been coming to Lernerville for a lot of years, and I just haven’t stood in Victory Lane enough times,’ Thomas said while celebrating his win. ‘We’re definitely hungry to do it, just a lot of changes in our program. We’re doing a lot of racing by our house, I live up by Sharon Speedway, but we love to come to Lernerville, we love to support the RUSH Series.’
It was an all Dietz front row as the Millerstown Pro Stocks made their way onto the speedway for their feature event. Tyler and Jacob led the field to the green with Tyler taking the lead on the opening lap. Tyler Dietz would go on to lead all 20 laps enroute to his third Lernerville win of 2022. Todd Weldon finished second followed by Joey Zambotti in third, Jacob Dietz in fourth and Joe Kelly fifth.
‘I’m really happy, we made some changes, the car was pretty good but exactly how I wanted it,’ Tyler said. ‘I was getting a little bit free there at the end but, a win is a win. Starting on the pole is a little bit boring but, that’s my kind of track, the bottom was there, and I figured if I didn’t make any mistakes I had a pretty good chance.’
BRP Modified Tour/Diehl Automotive Big Block Modifieds Results:
McCutcheon Enterprises Heat 1: (Finish-Name-[Start]) 1. 18-Colton Walters[1]; 2. 25-Erick Rudolph[4]; 3. 37MD-Jeremiah Shingledecker[6]; 4. 18M-JR McGinley[3]; 5. 96-Rick Regalski[5]; 6. 88-Shawn Fleeger[8]; 7. 22-Kevin Long[7]; 8. 3K-Shawn Kozar[9]; 9. C3-Chas Wolbert[2]
Thermo Twin Windows Heat 2: (Finish-Name-[Start]) 1. 165-Rex King Jr[1]; 2. 61-Dave Murdick[4]; 3. 83T-Tom Glenn[3]; 4. 45-Steve Feder[6]; 5. 64-Rodney Beltz[5]; 6. 03-Mark Frankhouser[2]; 7. 1-Andrew Smith[7]; 8. 27Z-Ray Bliss[8]; 9. 74-Kevin Green[9]
Thrower Concrete Heat 3: (Finish-Name-[Start]) 1. 83-Brian Swartzlander[2]; 2. 11R-Brad Rapp[3]; 3. 29-Garrett Krummert[5]; 4. 33-Tyler Willard[7]; 5. 20P-Mike Kinney[4]; 6. 32-Jim Rasey[6]; 7. 35-Steve Slater[8]; 8. (DNS) 25B-Steve Barr
BRP/Diehl Automotive Feature: (Finish-Name-[Start]) 1. 25-Erick Rudolph[7]; 2. 83-Brian Swartzlander[9]; 3. 29-Garrett Krummert[8]; 4. 165-Rex King Jr[4]; 5. 11R-Brad Rapp[6]; 6. C3-Chas Wolbert[25]; 7. 20P-Mike Kinney[15]; 8. 96-Rick Regalski[13]; 9. 83T-Tom Glenn[2]; 10. 35-Steve Slater[21]; 11. 45-Steve Feder[11]; 12. 88-Shawn Fleeger[16]; 13. 64-Rodney Beltz[14]; 14. 3K-Shawn Kozar[22]; 15. 03-Mark Frankhouser[17]; 16. 74-Kevin Green[26]; 17. 61-Dave Murdick[5]; 18. 33-Tyler Willard[3]; 19. 18M-JR McGinley[12]; 20. 37MD-Jeremiah Shingledecker[10]; 21. 18-Colton Walters[1]; 22. 1-Andrew Smith[20]; 23. 25B-Steve Barr[24]; 24. 27Z-Ray Bliss[23]; 25. 32-Jim Rasey[18]; 26. 22-Kevin Long[19]
Peoples Natural Gas 410 Sprint Results:
Ferguson Heating and Air Conditioning Heat 1: (Finish-Name-[Start]) 1. 11-Carl Bowser[1]; 2. 20B-Cody Bova[4]; 3. 42-Sye Lynch[6]; 4. 12-Darin Gallagher[7]; 5. 29-Logan McCandless[2]; 6. 29S-Dan Shetler[9]; 7. 25-Jarrett Rosencrance[10]; 8. 4K-William Kiley[5]; 9. 33-Brent Matus[8]
Glassmere Fuel Service Heat 2: (Finish-Name-[Start]) 1. 12C-Corbin Gurley[2]; 2. 2-AJ Flick[1]; 3. 13-Brandon Matus[6]; 4. 5T-Ryan Timms[7]; 5. 40-George Hobaugh Jr[5]; 6. 23JR-Jack Sodeman Jr[8]; 7. 55*-Matt Sherlock[3]; 8. 11M-Nathen McDowell[4]; 9. 34-Adam Noland[9]
Peoples Natural Gas Feature: (Finish-Name-[Start]) 1. 2-AJ Flick[1]; 2. 5T-Ryan Timms[5]; 3. 11-Carl Bowser[6]; 4. 42-Sye Lynch[10]; 5. 20B-Cody Bova[7]; 6. 12C-Corbin Gurley[8]; 7. 29-Logan McCandless[4]; 8. 40-George Hobaugh Jr[3]; 9. 13-Brandon Matus[9]; 10. 23JR-Jack Sodeman Jr[12]; 11. 29S-Dan Shetler[11]; 12. 46-Michael Bauer[19]; 13. 55*-Matt Sherlock[14]; 14. 33-Brent Matus[17]; 15. 11M-Nathen McDowell[16]; 16. 4K-William Kiley[15]; 17. 25-Jarrett Rosencrance[13]; 18. 12-Darin Gallagher[2]; 19. 34-Adam Noland[18]
Hovis Auto & Truck Supply RUSH Late Models Results:
#1Cochran Heat 1: (Finish-Name-[Start]) 1. 90J-Michael Duritsky[1]; 2. 9-Will Thomas[6]; 3. 21J-Jim Rasey[3]; 4. 9K-Bill Kessler[2]; 5. 14G-Jake Gunn[4]; 6. 58-Braeden Dillinger[9]; 7. 112-Jacob Peterson[5]; 8. 58B-Zach Kane[8]; 9. 77-Tom Klein[7]
GetPhil.com Heat 2: (Finish-Name-[Start]) 1. 21-Matt Latta[1]; 2. 28H-Clate Copeman[3]; 3. 10S-Joe Martin[7]; 4. 33-Josh Ferry[4]; 5. 60M-Zach Morrow[5]; 6. 31-Noah Brunell[8]; 7. 75-RJ Dallape[2]; 8. 24C-Rob Coffaro[6]
Hovis Auto & Truck Supply RUSHFeature: (Finish-Name-[Start]) 1. 9-Will Thomas[8]; 2. 90J-Michael Duritsky[5]; 3. 10S-Joe Martin[7]; 4. 33-Josh Ferry[2]; 5. 21-Matt Latta[10]; 6. 31-Noah Brunell[12]; 7. 28H-Clate Copeman[3]; 8. 14G-Jake Gunn[6]; 9. 112-Jacob Peterson[13]; 10. 75-RJ Dallape[14]; 11. 9K-Bill Kessler[9]; 12. 24C-Rob Coffaro[16]; 13. 58B-Zach Kane[15]; 14. 60M-Zach Morrow[1]; 15. 21J-Jim Rasey[4]; 16. 58-Braeden Dillinger[11]; 17. 77-Tom Klein[17]
Millerstown Pic-A-Part Pro Stocks Results:
Hovis Auto and Truck Supply Heat 1: (Finish-Name-[Start]) 1. 948-Joey Zambotti III[1]; 2. 66-Joe Kelly[2]; 3. 00-Tyler Dietz[6]; 4. 25-Brett McDonald[4]; 5. 27-Jacob Dietz[5]; 6. 05-Frank Magill[3]; 7. (DNS) 31X-Ron Richter
McCann & Chester Heat 2: (Finish-Name-[Start]) 1. 1K-Cody Koteles[1]; 2. 45-Todd Weldon[4]; 3. 22-Chase Lambert[2]; 4. 26-Mike Bordt[5]; 5. 8C-brandon dolund[3]; 6. 87-Jacob Weyer[6]
Millerstown Pic-A-Part Feature: (Finish-Name-[Start]) 1. 00-Tyler Dietz[1]; 2. 45-Todd Weldon[6]; 3. 948-Joey Zambotti III[3]; 4. 27-Jacob Dietz[2]; 5. 66-Joe Kelly[10]; 6. 25-Brett McDonald[9]; 7. 22-Chase Lambert[7]; 8. 8C-brandon dolund[5]; 9. 1K-Cody Koteles[8]; 10. 26-Mike Bordt[4]; 11. 87-Jacob Weyer[12]; 12. 05-Frank Magill[11]; 13. 31X-Ron Richter[13]
Up next at ‘The Action Track’ will be another Fab4 Revved Up with Marburger Farm Dairy on Friday, May 27. Joining the Peoples Natural Gas Sprint Cars, Diehl Automotive Big Block Modifieds, Millerstown Pic-A-Part Pro Stocks, will be the 305 Sprint Cars as the Precise Racing Products Late Models have the week off.
Next Friday’s action and all Fab4 Revved Up with Marburger Farm Dairy shows will be livestreamed on Lernerville.TV. The Pre-Race Show will go live on LernervilleTV around 6:30 to preview the night’s racing and talk to some of the stars of the nights action! Single race passes are available for $20, but the better deal is the monthly subscription for just $10 more; $30 gets you a full month of Fab4 Racing Revved Up with the Marburger Farm Dairy.
Tickets for Lernerville Speedway events including Fab4 Revved Up with Marburger Farm Dairy shows, the $50,000 to-win ‘Big River Steel Firecracker 100’ featuring the Lucas Oil Late Model Dirt Series and all other upcoming events can be purchased at www.Lernerville.com, the online home of Lernerville Speedway.
For more information on Lernerville Speedway including schedule, ticket prices, and FAQ’s, please visit www.Lernerville.com.