Local Racing
Flick Fans Rejoice at Lernerville; Miley, King Sr., and Zambotti also Score
SARVER, PA (August 7, 2020): A.J. Flick dominated the 25 lap 410 Sprint Car race at Lernerville Speedway on Big Rig Night. It was his second consecutive win at the track and third of the year on the Western Pennsylvania circuit.
Three others followed Flick to victory lane this night. Jared Miley survived to win the Late Model feature, and Rex King, Sr. held off his son for the Big Block Modified triumph. Joey Zambotti came out ahead in a wheel to wheel battle with Tyler Dietz in the Pro Stock A Main to end the night.
“I was a little worried about what those big trucks would do to the track,” Flick said about the exhibition held right before the Sprint Cars took to the speedway. “But, they pretty much stayed in the middle and we were able to get around the outside pretty well.”
Indeed, Flick rolled into the third position on the opening lap. It took him seven more rounds to chase down and pass the initial leader, George Houbaugh, Jr. From there, Flick was able to stretch the lead with ease. The two cautions caused by Jeremy Hill, on laps 14 and 22, erased those advantages, but Flick was unstoppable. He amassed almost a four-second lead in just the final three laps.
While Flick was quite satisfied with the performance of his car, he knew that he would have his work cut out for him Saturday night, at Port Royal Speedway. “It was awesome because I know we really beat them pretty good tonight.” But, he observed, “those people out there don’t care what I did at Lernerville the night before.”
Hobaugh had to fight off a stiff challenge from Jack Sodeman Jr. to maintain the second position. Carl Bowser came on in the final laps to grab fourth. Clay Riney turned in a creditable performance to get fifth.
Dan Shetler was nipping on Riney’s heels, though. Positions seven through ten went to Brandon Spithaler, Sye Lynch, Brandon Matus, and Brent Matus.
George Hobaugh, Gary Kriess Jr and John Garvin Jr won the heat races in the 410 Sprint division. Brandon Spithaler copped the B Main.
In the Late Model feature, Jared Miley benefited from a mid-race restart to surge ahead of the battle-scarred racer of Russell King. King led from the start in Colton Flinner’s spare car, but it was physical. Most notably, King made contact with Mike Pegher Jr while fighting to regain his lead. After restarting his car, Pegher drove into the side of King while the field rolled past him under caution. After those incidents, King was no match for Miley.
“It was definitely a crazy race,” Miley said. “I don’t know if we were the best, but we were the smartest. We didn’t get into any of that stuff.”
King had a couple of chances on restarts, but he was not able to muster up the power to drive by Miley.
Drake Troutman made a charge to get third, followed by Mike Miller and Tyler Dietz. Kelvin Kohan, Clayton Kennedy, Joshua Powell, Levi Yetter, and Ron Hall completed the top ten.
Mike Pegher Jr and Colton Flinner won the heats for the Super Late Models. There was no B Main.
It was a generational contest in the Big Block Modifieds, with Rex King Sr emerging victorious over his son, Rex King Jr. “It was a real good night, we’re going to drive everything into the trailer,” the Ohio patriarch said.
King Sr overhauled Garrett Krummert near the midpoint of the race. Krummert had built a substantial lead in the early going after his crew worked feverishly to get his car to fire in the pits after his heat race. But a caution proved to be Krummert’s undoing, as King Sr was able to line up on his flank when the action resumed.
King Jr followed his father in the high groove to take second, as Krummert began to fade. Brian Swartzlander made the same move in the final laps for fourth. Krummert held on for fifth.
Sixth went to Dave Murdick, followed by Colton Walters, Steve Feder, Rick Regalski, and Eric Gabany.
Rex King Jr. and Garrett Krummert won their preliminaries for the Big Block Modifieds. There was no B Main.
Joey Zambotti chased down Mike Miller early in the Pro Stock feature. Miller bobbled on the backstretch to hand over the lead and then he spun on the frontstretch to eliminate himself as a contender. Tyler Dietz then took up the chase and he fought Zambotti wheel to wheel for over half the race. While Dietz had the momentum going up top. Zambotti kept chugging away at the bottom of the track. He was able to put several good laps together at the end to take the win by a scant 0.010 seconds!
Corey McPherson was lurking in third, looking for any opening. But nothing came his way. He was followed by Chase Lambert and Mike Bordt. Then came John Hartman, Brett McDonald, Ryan Maglione, Gary Churchfield, and Mike Miller.
Tyler Dietz and Mike Miller took heat wins for the Pro Stocks. There was no B Mian.
Lernerville Speedway will have another Fab 4 Friday next week. It will be Go Kart Night at the Action Track.
SARVER, PA (April 26, 2024) AJ Flick picked up his first Peoples Natural Gas Sprint Car win of 2024 at Lernerville Speedway on Friday night and Michael Norris made it back-to-back wins in the Late Model Division.
Flick started fourth on the grid and passed leader and pole-sitter Carl Bowser using the bottom side on lap 8 while Bowser worked the high side. Bowser wouldn’t go away easily, pulling side-by-side with Flick at the halfway mark. Flick eventually was able to hold Bowser at bay, building a three-second lead as he encountered lap traffic.
A caution flag with five-laps-to-go bunched up the field but Flick got an impressive restart and kept the field at bay to pick up the victory. Bowser finished second and Michael Bauer finished third after starting eighth.
“I didn’t expect it to slick off as much as it did,” Flick said about the track conditions. “It was odd because it wasn’t really wide but yet the actual racing groove was getting slick and starting to come in already. I missed it in the heat race, but come feature time it seems like we’re starting to dial it in a bit more.”
Norris started 10th and put on a clinic coming through the field to make it two straight at ‘The action Track.’
“Luck was on our side tonight,” Norris said. “I always seem to have late race cautions. Thanks to John Garvin for leaving me a lane, he got me pretty good on that last restart but I knew as long as I could be even with him going into turn one, the top was so good and it was.”
Erick Rudolph made the trip to Sarver from Ransomville, New York and it paid off. Rudolph took home the feature victory in the Diehl Automotive Big Block Modified main event.
“There’s something about Lernerville Speedway,” said Rudolph. “It’s one of my favorite tracks in the country and anytime we get a chance to come down here it’s always something we look forward to.”
Tyler Dietz proved to be the class of the field once again, garnering his first feature win in the Millerstown Pic-A-Part Pro Stock main event. Dietz survived a late race restart and held off front row starter Tim Bish and a hard charging Chris Schneider to grab the checkered flag.
“I kind of thought that he (Bish) was going to take the bottom,” Dietz stated, remarking about the crucial restart. “I was hoping he would go high because I think I was better up high but I just never got the chance to go up there.”
PITTSBURGH, PA (April 24, 2025) The Historic Stock Car Racing Association (HSCRA) is joining the lineup of racing groups at this year’s Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix (PVGP) Historics at Pittsburgh International Race Complex. This is the first time the HSCRA will race in the PVGP Historics 3-day weekend, July 26 to 28, 2024.
“We are thrilled to welcome the HSCRA to our 2024 event,” said Dan DelBianco, Executive Director of the Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix. “Their participation not only broadens the appeal of the PVGP Historics but also aligns with our mission to celebrate all automotive history. This is a fantastic opportunity for race fans of all types to witness the power and beauty of historic stock cars in action.”
The HSCRA, renowned for its commitment to preserving and celebrating the history of stock car racing, will bring a new dimension to the PVGP Historics. The group is open to all stock cars that ran in one of the major NASCAR series.
“The HSCRA is anxious to bring NASCAR to Pittsburgh,” said Carlus Gann of HSCRA. “We look forward to making this a regular stop on our tour. Western Pennsylvania has deep roots in racing, and building a world-class track at Pitt Race in Beaver County makes it a perfect fit.”
The most popular class is Generation 4 Cup cars built for the 1992-2007 seasons. During this era, teams built a few cars for the two road courses on the schedule.
“We are hoping for a full field of meticulously restored stock cars,” added Chris Evans of the HSCRA. “Former NASCAR winners like Joe Nemechek and a competitive lineup of today’s top historic stock car drivers will be on hand.”
Gary Moore, a seasoned participant in over a dozen PVGP races, knows the intricacies and challenges of the Pitt Race track. Moore will be showcasing his 1969 Mercury Cyclone (right), victoriously driven by Cale Yarborough, exclaiming, “It’s quite the adventure behind the wheel!”
The HSCRA will have a practice session in the morning and a qualifying race in the afternoon on Friday, July 26. A morning and afternoon practice session on Saturday, July 27. Sunday, July 28 will see the HSCRA have a short morning warm-up prior to being one of the featured Sunday afternoon races.
The Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix Motorsport Festival features two weekends of racing action. The first weekend is the PVGP Historics at Pittsburgh International Race Complex. The second weekend is racing through a 2.33-mile road course set on the streets of Pittsburgh’s Schenley Park. In addition to the race weekends, the PVGP stages car shows, parties, road rallies, and a black-tie formal. The PVGP’s mission is to provide residential care, treatment and support for people with autism and intellectual/developmental disabilities – donating $6.7 million to charity since 1983.
IMPERIAL, PA (April 20, 2024) Aliquippa’s Tim Shaffer started on the pole position and survived several caution flags and restarts to win the Herb Scott Memorial Saturday night at Pittsburgh’s Pennsylvania Motor Speedway (PPMS).
“Boy I earned that one huh,” said Shaffer following the race. “These wins just keep getting better and better. Herb Scott won a lot of features and I have a long way to go to catch him, but my career went on the road and it became hard to win races. It’s kind of back home racing now for me and it’s a lot of fun.”
Brock Pinkerous and Dave Hess Jr. staged an epic battle over the last several laps with Pinkerous scoring an emotional runner-up finish.
“Congrats to Tim on the win,” said Pinkerous, who hails from Ellenville, NY. “He’s really good at this track. Him and Dave are legends around this area. It’s really cool to battle with them; they raced me clean and I raced them clean. Even though we didn’t win tonight, this is for my uncle tonight who passed away about a month ago. I hope he’s watching over us tonight, and I really love you uncle Chris.”
“We were really good on those restarts,” said Hess, the 39-year-old Waterford, Pa. driver. “A little tweak to the car and maybe a gear change and we could have had something for the leaders. Once those two (Shaffer and Pinkerous) got rolling, they were a little better than I was.”
Kyle Lukon finished fifth and Logan Roberson rounded out the Top 5.
A Feature (30 Laps): 1. 45-Tim Shaffer[1]; 2. 555-Brock Pinkerous[4]; 3. 44-Dave Hess Jr[21]; 4. 184-Kyle Lukon[5]; 5. 17R-Logan Roberson[19]; 6. 10S-Joe Martin[16]; 7. 36-Cody Dawson[7]; 8. 3J-Jeremy Wonderling[10]; 9. 42-Daryl Charlier[6]; 10. 184C-Justin Chance[13]; 11. 21J-Jim Rasey[24]; 12. 184P-Cole Petrelle[20]; 13. 77-Tom Klein[23]; 14. 57-Charlie Sandercock[11]; 15. 36B-Colby Beighey[15]; 16. 18-Mike Wonderling[25]; 17. 29-Ryan Hare[17]; 18. 60H-Brian Huchko[22]; 19. 9R-Mike Reft[14]; 20. 25-Zachary Kane[9]; 21. 72B-Kassidy Kamicker[18]; 22. 75-Jared Miley[3]; 23. 60-Brandon Burgoon[2]; 24. 14AJ-AJ Miller[8]; 25. 14G-Jake Gunn[12]
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