Bad Luck Behind, Chip Santee Is Back To Mahoning Winner’s Circle

Bad Luck Behind, Chip Santee Is Back To Mahoning Winner’s Circle
By DINO OBERTO

(LEHIGHTON, Pa. 6-6-15) To say Chip Santee has struggled in recent times would be a bit of an understatement. His keen driving has always been on, that was never the issue, rather his Central States Used Clothing No. 5 has gone through a slew changes as the team had been chasing the set-up for the right combination to get the two-time Mahoning Valley Speedway Modified champion back into the Winner’s Circle.

On Saturday night, Santee, of Walnutport, had the magic touch back as he raced in the lead for all 35 laps and won for the first time in nearly two years. He is the eighth different winner so far in 2015.

Santee took advantage of his pole starting spot and grabbed the opening lap lead and despite continued pressure he was top notch all the way.

Paul Frantz had a crowd pleasing battle for the first 26 laps, turning in his best ever performance at this track. Earl Paules was able to sneak by in the waning portion of the race and would then hound Santee to the checkers.

“I’ve been struggling out here for a number of weeks. My car still wasn’t perfect tonight but I tried hard. The 10 (Frantz) ran me hard and he kept coming down on me and I got into him and I didn’t mean to, we were just racing hard. I’ll take this win and it feels great to get that monkey off our backs,” said Santee.

After Santee took the early lead, Frantz, who started second, was turning in quite the performance, never letting up and fighting tooth and nail for the lead. It was indeed an exciting two-by-two battle and the energetic crowd was loving every lap.

Frantz did take a share of the lead at times but Santee was just as determined and hustled right back to the front in short order.

After 26 hard fought laps, Santee and Frantz touched and it was just enough to cause the No. 10 to falter a tad, which allowed Paules and Austin Kochenash to slip by.

After shaking off Frantz, Santee was far from home free as now it was Paules who would shadow him the rest of the way. So hungry to shudder his bad run of late, Santee was not about to give up the front and would hold off Paules for his 28th career Modified win.

“Like the old saying goes…I’ve been on the other end of the shoe with good luck when my car was working well. I figured I got the lead and I was going to do what I had to in order to hold on and get my first victory in over two years. There’s a bunch of great guys behind me that finished second and third and everywhere here. The last couple years they all picked up the pace and you have to work hard for every win at this place,” said Santee.

Kochenash was third while Frantz held on for a career best Mahoning finish of fourth. Point leader Don Wagner started last and drove to respectable fifth.

Paul Koehler Jr., of Northampton got back to winning in the Late Models. After starting out the season with three straight victories, Koehler had been beaten by Mike Sweeney twice and more recently by Jeremy Miller.

In this week’s event Koehler scooted by early leader Francis Gross III on lap four and was never seriously challenged. The multi-time champion did have Sweeney on his tail but there was no holding back from the leader as he drove to perfection for his unprecedented 44th Mahoning Late Model win.

In the Street Stock main Jason Kuhn of Lehighton ended two years from last winning a feature. Always among the fastest and front runners, Kuhn had just been shy on one to many occasions in the ultra-competitive class.

Steven Steigerwalt would jump into the early lead and remained in a position to become the first repeat winner of the year. However, Kuhn, who started third, made his way around then runner-up Jared Ahner on lap eight and soon set his sights on Steigerwalt. From the outside line Kuhn was able to hammer down and drive into first place with 13 laps in. He was never headed the rest of the way. With the win Kuhn becomes the eighth different winner in as many weeks.

In the make-up Dirt Mod feature from May 30 it was Mike Stofflet of Mertztown taking top honors. Stofflet jumped into the lead on lap one and never looked back. He had great battle over the first half of the race with Aleia Geisler and then in the final 10 circuits it was point leader Ricky Yetter who gave him a run for his money.

During the regular scheduled feature Lorin Arthofer II of Bath, a driver who has raced and won in numerous Mahoning classes, picked up his first win with a Dirt Mod.

Arthofer took the lead on lap one and was having to deal with Dave Gorbatuk. With laps winding down Yetter joined the fray and while Arthofer was busy holding off those two off at the same time he was trying to race between lapped traffic. Years of experience helped him to do both and the win, his 31st at Mahoning, was secured.

Nick Baer, from New Tripoli, had to beat and bang his way to a second Pro 4 win as the cars of Tyler Stangle and Jake Kibler traded paint and rubbed fenders with him. On lap 12 that same action caused Stangle and Kibler to lock horns and crash out. Baer then took over from there to the finish.

Palmerton’s Cody Geist recorded his first Hobby Stock win of the season. He would actually pass his brother, Shayne Geist, on lap 10 for the lead and the two bros made it a Geist 1-2 finish.

Modified Feature Finish (35 Laps): 1. Chip Santee, 2. Earl Paules, 3. Austin Kochenash, 4. Paul Frantz, 5. Don Wagner, 6. DJ Wagner, 7. Bobby Jones, 8. Eric Beers, 9. Kevin Rex Jr., 10. Brian Romig Jr., 11. John Markovic, 12. Zane Zeiner, 13. Kris Graver, 14. Matt Higgins, 15. Neil Rutt III, 16. Eric Kocher, 17. Kyle Strohl, 18. Paul Hartwig Jr., 19. Terry Markovic

Late Model Feature Finish (25 Laps): 1. Paul Koehler Jr., 2. Mike Sweeney, 3. Jeremy Miller, 4. Jason Zatsko, 5. Jacob Kerstetter, 6. Franke Althouse, 7. Jacob Nemeth8. Pat Hargan, 9. Francis Gross III, 10. Kenny Hein, 11. Geno Steigerwalt, 12. Mark Tyson, 13. Tony Hilliard

Street Stock Feature Finish (30 Laps): 1. Jason Kuhn, 2. Steven Steigerwalt, 3. Jason Frey, 4. Jared Ahner, 5. Cory Edelman, 6. Zach Graver, 7. Aaron Kromer, 8. Jillian Long, 9. Randy Schlenker, 10. Justin Mooney, 11. Kristy Arthofer, 12. Gene Bowers, 13. Todd Ahner, 14. Josh Mooney, 15. TJ Gursky, 16. Randy Ahner Jr., 17. Joe Stangle, 18. Stacey Brown, 19. Jonathan Tracey, 20. Brian Labar

DNQ: Lonnie Behler Sr., Dave Chapman, Cody Roth, Jeff Larrison Jr., George Ramos, Jamie Smith

Dirt Mod Feature Finish May 30 Make-up (25 Laps): 1. Mike Stofflet, 2. Ricky Yetter, 3. Aleia Geisler, 4. Dave Gorbatuk, 5. Jack Ely, 6. Josh Schaffer, 7. JP Curry, 8. Scott Adams, 9. Billy Lasko, 10. Bill Sittler, 11. Paul Effrig, 12. Lorin Arthofer II, 13. Drew Reinbold, 14. Ray Deemer

Dirt Mod Feature Finish (25 Laps): 1. Arthofer, 2. Gorbatuk, 3. Yetter, 4. Ely, 5. Stofflet, 6. Geisler, 7. Curry, 8. Adams, 9. Schaffer, 10. Effrig, 11. Sittler, 12. Reinbold, 13. Deemer DNS: Lasko

Pro 4 Feature Finish (20 Laps): 1. Nick Baer, 2. Cody Kohler, 3. Jason Muffley, 4. Jake Kibler, 5. TJ Kemmerer, 6. Tyler Stangle, 7. Kailyn Beers, 8. JD Light, 9. Bobby Kibler Jr., 10. Johnny Bennett, 11. Bobby Kibler Sr., 12. Chad Miller

Hobby Stock Feature Finish (15 Laps): 1. Cody Geist, 2. Shayne Geist, 3. Sam Ryan, 4. Gunner Yost, 5. BJ Wambold, 6. Lyndsay Buss, 7. Devin Schmidt, 8. Daniel Hargan, 9. Rich Mutarelli, 10. Kyle Krempasky, 11. Tom Hunsicker Jr., 12. Colin Bollinger, 13. Kyle Williams, 14. Steve McDonough, 15. Jeff Biegley, 16. Seth VanFossen DNS: Tim Oswald