John
Bennett Reaches 50 Win Mark; Todd Stehle Grabs Another Late Model Win
A week ago the question
was, ‘Can anyone stop John Bennett?’ As it stands the answer remains no, at
least for now as the Lehighton ace was parked in familiar ground by night’s
end, Mahoning Valley Speedway’s Victory Lane. And, not only was it his
second straight and unprecedented sixth triumph of the season, it also
marked a milestone as Bennett becomes the first driver at Mahoning to reach
the 50-win mark. 19 of those have come in a Modified.
“It feels real good
tonight. We ran the same tires we had on last week. We tried to get an extra
week out of them and it worked out beautiful for us tonight. This is
awesome,” an elated Bennett said.
At first the race was a
runaway affair by Lou Strohl. Starting from the outside pole he beat Andy
Szapacs to lead lap one and then began distancing himself from the pack.
The race was moving along
swiftly as the first 17 circuits went caution free and in that time Strohl
held an authoritative lead. Unfortunately for him the race took on a whole
new outlook after the first of two cautions on lap 17.
When things got back
underway Strohl found himself fending off Bill Teel and tenth starting
Bennett in a scorching battle that was as hot as the blistering heat. Strohl
led the trio around with no room to spare.
Bennett used the high grove to eclipse Teel for second on lap 22 and then
tucked in behind Strohl. He was knocking loudly on Strohl’s rear bumper too.
Strohl was having none of it though as he kept turning away all of Bennett’s
challenges.
Things then took a drastic
change with nine laps remaining. Coming off turn two and under very close
conditions, Bennett tapped the back of Strohl who suddenly lost control and
spun.
After close consideration
Bennett was placed into the lead and from there it was all she wrote.
“It was close running up
front. Louie (Strohl) and I got together a little bit and it was ashamed to
see him go around in a ring but the same thing happened to me in the heat
(race) and he got into me and I went around and I guess that’s racing,” said
Bennett.
“When you’re running with
these guys that hard out front all the time it always makes for close racing
and that’s what we had tonight.”
Bill Teel took second with
James Pritcard, Jr., grabbing a season best third. Lonnie Behler and Chip
Santee completed the top five.
“We got bent during the
first lap and it was a complete restart and the car was never the same. When
John (Bennett) got me I didn’t have anything for him. I was trying to run my
groove and hold on as best I could,” said the three time Modified champ.
“It’s an amazing
accomplishment for him. John’s a good driver and my hats off to him. He’s a
very good race car driver.”
If winning for a sixth time
this season wasn’t enough, when Hand Three of the Modified 100 Poker Series
race resumes next Saturday night, August 22, Bennett is currently shown as
the leader in that race as well.
“Maybe we can pull off that one too,” added Bennett.
Late Model point leader
Todd Stehle of Lehighton capitalized on the misfortune of Frankie Althouse
and in doing so was able to race to his fourth win of the season.
Althouse had been in the
lead from lap two and was nicely holding off Stehle. However, just prior to
lap 15 Althouse came upon back-marker Todd Geist in turn four and as he
tried to sneak under him, Geist made slight contact and forced Althouse to
back off.
Stehle immediately went to
the high side and seized the lead. He then stayed smooth to the finish en
route to win number four. Last week’s winner Austin Kochenash was second.
“We were holding our own
and trying the waters on the outside a little bit and the car was a little
loose so I fell back in line. At that point I was just riding things out and
then we came up on lapped cars and things went our way. It had been a good
run up to that point running with Frankie (Althouse),” said Stehle on his
32nd Late Model win.
“We’ve been chasing it a
little bit the last few weeks with the set-up but the breaks went our way
tonight. We lost one the same way so we’ll take it,” said Stehle on his 32nd
Late Model win.
In Street Stock action
Justin Mooney of Lehighton started fifth, got to second on lap 11 and then
made his race winning pass on Chris May, who was having his run of the
season, at the completion of lap 14.
He then had no problem in
scoring his third ’09 win over Brian Labar and younger brother Josh Mooney.
In the Street Stock make-up
feature from July 11, Randy Ahner, Jr., of Jim Thorpe, passed Alan Schlenker
on a lap 13 restart and then gradually pulled away to his third win of the
year. Top two point-men Shawn Sitarchyk and TJ Gursky finished second and
third.
Lehighton’s Kevin Graver,
Jr., enjoyed a banner night as he tied then broke not one but two Pro4 Late
Model records.
The make-up Pro4 Late Model
event was a record tying one as Graver notched his ninth win and equaled the
single season mark originally set by Tyler Haydt in 2000.
Graver went around Dave
Chapman at the midway mark and then held off teammate Jim Wismer, Jr. The
win put him even in class victories with Jeremy Miller at 23.
Graver then returned to win
the regular scheduled feature, his record 10th and 24th overall.
In the history setting run
Graver began from seventh spot and by the time he reached leader Jake Kibler
on lap 10 they then went into an awesome side-by-side battle. Kibler,
looking for his first win, was barely clinging to the lead as Graver run
just inches to his right.
With two laps remaining
Graver found the needed power to overtake Kibler and drive into the record
books.
Chad Jones of Perkasie
scored his second straight and division leading fourth Dirt Modified win of
the season in what was easily the most dominating class win this year.
Jones took the lead from
Alex Mayer on lap two and then pulled away to a commanding four second win
over Randy Thomas.
Modified Feature Finish, 35 Laps: 1.John Bennett 2.Bill Teel 3.James
Pritchard, Jr. 4.Lonnie Behler 5.Chip Santee 6.Lou Strohl 7.Jarred Nace
8.Andy Szapacs 9.Don Wagner 10.Matt Higgins 11.Keith Mullineaux 12.Stacey
Brown 13.Tom Flanagan
Late Model Feature Finish, 25 Laps: 1.Todd Stehle 2.Austin Kochenash 3.Rick
Wallace 4.Frankie Althouse 5.Joe Mooney 6.Todd Geist 7.Joe Stamm 8.Don
Holland, Jr.
Street Stock Feature Finish, 25 Laps: 1.Justin Mooney 2.Brian Labar 3.Josh
Mooney 4.Chris May 5.Shawn Sitarchyk 6.Randy Ahner, Jr. 7.Alan Schlenker
8.Jaason Frey 9.TJ Gursky 10.Todd Ahner 11.Chip Wanamaker 12.Devin Gibson
13.Jillian Long 14.Zach Graver 15.Mike Garris, Jr. 16.Jamie Smith 17.Kristy
Morone Arthofer 18.TJ Kemmerer 19.Adam Santee 20.Paul Effrig
Make-up Street Stock Feature Finish (7/11), 25 Laps: 1.Randy Ahner, Jr.
2.Sitarchyck 3.Morone Arthofer 4.Smith 6.Brian Ahner 7.Frey 8.Wanamaker
9.Effrig 10.May 11.Gibson 12.Graver 13.Schlenker 14.Josh Mooney 15.Santee
16.Justin Mooney 17.Labar 18.Kemmerer 19.Garris
Pro4 Late Model Feature Finish, 20 Laps: 1.Kevin Graver, Jr. 2.Jake Kibler
3.Jim Wismer, Jr. 4.Jeremy Miller 5.Dave Chapman 6.Barry Christman, Jr.
7.Mike Stofflet 8.Mike Stinger 9.Dennis Silfies 10.Gene Bowers 11.Clarence
Ruppert
Make-up Pro4 Late Model Feature Finish (7/25), 20 Laps: 1.Graver 2.Wismer
3.Mller 4.Stringer 5.Chapman 6.Christman 7.Sifies 8.Kibler 9.Ruppert
10.Stofflet 11.Bowers
Dirt Modified Feature Finish, 20 Laps: 1.Chad Jones 2.Randy Thomas 3.Alex
Mayer 4.Steve Folk 5.Dave Thomas Did not start: Bill Sittler