KING BROTHERS NAB OPENING NIGHT LATE MODEL & MODIFIED WIN
Story By:LOU LONG/ LERNERVILLE SPEEDWAY MEDIA Photos By:TOMMY HEIN / RACERSGUIDE.COM
Sarver, PA – April 19, 2016- Nabbing Lernerville Speedway’s opening night feature wins were Jared Zimbardi for his second ever Sprint main win while Russ King captured his 10th Late Model main event while brother Rex King Jr collected his 12th Modified feature checkered while Corey McPherson picked up his 25th Sportsman Stock win
Outside pole setter Jared Zimbardi grabbed an early lead with second place Brent Matus fading behind him. Zimbardi then stretched out to a three second lead in the early laps while both Carl Bowser and AJ Flick were set to do battle for the second spot once they made their way around Matus in the early going. Zimbardi encountered lapped traffic on lap six and he was flawless as he maneuvered in all three grooves to keep Bowser and Flick at bay. Behind them, Jack Sodeman Jr. was making a move towards the front from his 14th starting position. He climbed to a sixth place finish in the end and was the only driver making any dramatic forward charge throughout the 25 lap feature as Zimbardi kept putting one piece of lapped traffic behind him after another. \
As the laps wound down, the 2015 track champion AJ Flick then desperately tried to make up ground as he made for the bottom and began to erase the gap toward runner up Carl Bowser. By the time the white flag was displayed, Flick was in position and did so coming out of the last set of turns beating Bowser to the flag stand in a thrilling drag race to the checkers. Brent Matus and John Garvin Jr finished fourth and fifth. Rounding out the top ten were Jack Sodeman Jr, Dan Kuriger, Brandon Matus, Scott Priester, and Dave Jones. Heat wins were to Flick and Brandon Matus.
Michael Lake and Kenny Schaltenbrand brought the field to the green flag with Lake setting the pace. The action came to a halt when local favorite Jared Miley went over the top of the turn three banking on lap two. On the ensuing restart, Michael Norris grabbed the lead briefly after splitting cars of Schaltenbrand and Lake coming out of turn two, but Lake would take it back in the next set of turns and would lead the early laps while behind him,
King was on the move from his seventh starting spot. He made his way around Schaltenbrand on lap three and went to work in the low groove of the race track where he would pass Norris for second on lap six and then Lake on lap seven to take the top spot going into the middle portion of the race.
King would enter lapped traffic on lap 10 and went to the top side to weave his way though while keeping Lake at bay until the caution flag was unfurled two laps later for Clayton Kennedy who was stopped at the bottom of turn three. Meanwhile, the man on the move was one Dave Hess Jr. who had charged from his 20th starting spot to ninth in the first 11 laps of action.
The race resumed on lap 12, and with the field re-racked, King resumed his torrid pace, easing his car through the turns with a feather touch while behind him, all eyes were watching the battle between Lake, Norris and Mike Pegher Jr. which would feature a door handle to door handle battle between Lake and Norris for the final ten laps As King goes on to take the his third year opening night in the row feature win,. Lake held on to take the second spot with third through fifth gone to Norris, Hess Jr, and Pegher Jr. Sixth through tenth were Alex Ferree, Max Lux, Kenny Schaltenbrand, Charlie Powell Jr, and Doug Glessner. Both Pegher Jr and Lake nabbed the heat wins.
Pole setter Rex King Jr grabbed the lead on the opening lap of the Modified feature and kept Ransomville, New York native Erick Rudolph at bay..
While King ran his race on the top side of the speedway, Rudolph worked the bottom in the early laps. Behind them Kevin Bolland, Jeremiah Shingledecker and Mat Williamson made up the remaining top five positions. However, there were no intense battles in the early going as the top five seemingly stretched out over half of the surface while King kept the ship running steady at the front.
The leader found his first steady dose of lapped traffic on lap 12 and made his way through with precision as Rudolph looked for anything he could find to close the gap between himself and King. Rudolph was able to gain some ground at different points over the final ten laps, but it almost seemed as if King was toying with him, stretching back out to a comfortable margin when he dispatched the lapped cars.
On lap 18, Rudolph clipped a yuke tire in turn four but was able to keep moving forward and made one last gasp at the lap 22 mark which would fall short. The eyes then turned to a battle between an oncoming Shingledecker who let it all hang out in the final lap in an attempt to get past Bolland for the third spot. Bolland was able to hold off the hard charge and with fourth and fifth going to Shingledecker and WIlliamson. Rounding out the top ten were Randy Chrysler, Garrett Krummert, Brian Swartzlander, Eric Gabany, and Dave Murdick. The three heat race checkered flags were awarded to Gabany, Williamson, and Shingledecker while the
B-Main goes to Steve Feder.
In the Sportsman Stock feature, Paul Schreckengost and Aaron Easler lead the field to the green flag but it was Egley who jumped out to the early lead while Brandon Wearing and McPherson made it a three way battle for the lead. Egley went to work on the top shelf normally occupied by McPherson while Wearing made the most of what was left of the low side. By the midpoint of the race, Egley was playing defense as best he could in an attempt to hold off McPherson and Wearing.
But following a lap 10 restart, McPherson found his way to the outside of Egley nabbing the lead position. Despite what second place chaser Egley threw at the race leader, the three time and defending track champion McPherson goes on to win the race with Egley taking second, Wearing third, Joey Zambotti fourth, and Tyler Dietz fifth. Sixth through tenth were Schreckengost, Brett McDonald, Terry Young, Easler, and Stan Riggle. Capturing the two heat Sportsman Stock wiins were Dietz and Zambotti.
