Bennett
and Wagner Continue to Battle for Mahoning Modified Crown
John Bennett has been
making it hard for anyone to challenge him in the quest of this year’s
Modified crown by winning the postponed feature from July 11 and then
returning to score a runner-up in the nightcap.
But rest assured Don Wagner
is giving him all he can handle. Wharton, NJ’s Wagner kept Bennett from
making a sweep on the night as he picked up an overdue first win of the
season and remains very much in the point hunt with four races to go.
In the make-up feature from
July 11, Lehighton’s Bennett started fifth and took the lead on lap 14 when
he was able to narrowly avoid then leader Rick Kirkendall who spun directly
in front of him while coming off turn two.
After moving into the top spot Bennett then withstood both Lonnie Behler and
Wagner on his way to win number seven which helped put a comfort zone on his
point lead going into the evening’s regular scheduled main.
“I have to thank Billy
Swartz for letting us use his car to start the feature last time here after
we encountered motor issues. That would have been a huge hit for us with the
points. We lost some then but we made up for it tonight,” said Bennett.
“We’re tired of being
second or third but what are you going to do. Johnny (Bennett) is running
great. We’ll just keep doing our best and have fun,” said Wagner who placed
third.
In the regular scheduled
main Wagner was finally able to hold back Bennett. Starting third he zipped
by early leader Jarred Nace on lap three and then fought off Bennett the
rest of the way, taking the verdict by a scant two feet.
In the first feature Lou
Strohl jumped out to the early lead with Kirkendall close behind.
On lap five Kirkendall went
to the high side of Strohl and completed the pass as lap six was beginning.
Following suite was Bennett.
Kirkendall was doing well
in fending off Bennett as he denied all attempts of being overtaken,
however, in the blink of an eye his stay at the front vanished. Heading off
turn two on lap 13 his back end got loose and the car spun. Bennett veered
to the right and was able to evade contact.
“There was no contact between he and I and it was unfortunate for him. We
had some real close racing going on before that,” said Bennett.
Now in the lead Bennett had Wagner in chase and with three laps to go Behler
took over second but was unable to make a run at the leader. Brain DeFebo
and Rick Reichenbach rounded out the top five.
“Hopefully we can keep
things going in the right direction as we get towards the end of the year
and we’ll see how it goes,” added Bennett after the win, his unprecedented
51st of his career and 20th in a Modified.
For the regular feature
Nace led the pack to the green with Wagner grabbing second spot. On lap two
Wagner drove past for the lead with Bennett in tow.
It was then a dogfight
between the two as the race went nonstop the entire distance and in that
span Wagner was unyielding by the persistence of Bennett.
Lapped cars played out all
over the track as well but Wagner never lost focus of what lay ahead nor
what was on his tail.
Coming up on the final tour
the front dual came into thick traffic and Bennett was looking to trap
Wagner within in it. As they headed off the final corner Bennett was able to
go toe-to-toe with Wagner. At the conclusion Wagner eked out the win.
“It feels good to park it
down here on the front straight. Green to checker nonstop, we’ll take it. It
was a hard fought win and I knew Johnny was right there. He was hot on my
heels. We’ll take this,” said Wagner.
“The points are not out of reach although Johnny runs good and he’s a hard
man to beat in the points anymore but we’re not going to give it to him
we’re going to make him work for it.”
Wagner retains second in
the standings with the win. James Pritchard, Chip Santee and Reichenbach
completed the front five.
“Donny was running real
well out there tonight. I was trying hard to get by him and he was putting
on a heck of a race. You can’t complain about that one bit,” noted Bennett.
Late Model point leader
Todd Stehle of Jim Thorpe, “The Racing Referee,” cruised to his third
straight win and sixth of the year.
Coming from fourth on the grid, Stehle worked past Austin Kochenash for
second spot on lap five and two laps later made his race winning move on
pole sitter and early leader Frankie Althouse.
No one was able to mount
any serious challenge on him as he cruised home the rest of the way.
“This felt good. The last
two (wins) we were lucky being in the right place at the right time. But
tonight we were focused. We wanted to come out and dominate and show that we
are the team to beat,” said Stehle. “This was a total team effort. I could
have never done this without them. Everyone on this crew contributes in a
way that just makes my job easier.”
First time starter Jason Zatsko was runner-up with Joe Mooney notching
third.
In what has been a flawless
season for Stehle, with two features reaming he controls his own destiny in
the pursuit of third straight and fourth overall title.
“We’re having a blast.
Things are falling into place for us and if it’s meant to be then it’s meant
to be.”
Todd Ahner of Slatington
may have raced to his second Street Stock win of the season but it was by no
means an easy task as the victory came in the form of a real barnburner.
TJ Gursky made an all out
last lap effort to pass him only to fall short by a bumper.
After taking the lead on
lap 13 from Zach Graver, Ahner then found himself in a torrid battle that
included Gursky, Kristy Arthofer and Devin Gibson.
While Ahner barely led,
there was two, three and four wide racing in his path. With three laps to go
Arthofer, while under intense pressure, spun in turn three. As the field
took evasive action, point leader Shawn Sitarchyk wasn’t as lucky as he was
collected in the incident and exited the race with a disappointing 18th
place showing.
Over the final three
circuits Ahner did all he could to handle hard charging Gursky. The win was
his 24th in a Street Stock which keeps him atop the all-time win list.
In Pro4 Late Model action
Jeremy Miller led only one lap but it was the one that counted most, the
final. Miller, of Walnutport, slipped underneath race long leader Gene
Bowers on the white flag lap and went on to score his second win in a row
and fifth of the year.
Although it was a tough
pill to swallow for Bowers, the rookie did a exceptional job in driving to a
season best finish of second and showed that a win is within reach.
Steve Folk of Collegeville
returned to the Winner’s Circle for the first time in over two months with
the Dirt Modifieds.
Folk, who started second,
easily outgunned pole sitter Dave Thomas at the outset to take the lead
which he would never relinquish. In what was a very solid performance, Folk
went unchallenged over the 20-lap distance, taking a 1.5-second victory over
Chad Jones. Point leader Randy Thomas was third.
Modified Feature Finish, 35 Laps: 1.Don Wagner 2.John Bennett 3.James
Pritchard 4.Chip Santee 5.Rick Reichenbach 6.Lonnie Behler 7.John Markovic
8.Brian DeFebo 9.Todd Baer 10.Rick Kirkendall 11.Jarred Nace 12.Stacey Brown
13.Mike Hosier 14.Matt Higgins 15.Keith Mullineaux 16.Billy Swartz 17.Mike
Sweeney 18.Matt Clemens 19.Andy Szapacs Did not start: Keith Mellars, Bill
Weichert
Make-up Modified Feature Finish (7/11), 35 Laps: 1.Bennett 2.Behler 3.Wagner
4.DeFebo 5.Reichenbach 6.Pritchard 7.Markovic 8.Hosier 9.Higgins 10.Nace
11.Santee 12.Brown 13.Kirkendall 14.Szapacs 15.Baer 16.Strohl 17.Sweeney
18.Weichert 19.Swartz Did not start: Keith Mellars, Bill Teel, Tom Flanagan
Late Model Feature Finish,
25 Laps: 1.Todd Stehle 2.Tony Zatsko 3.Joe Mooney 4.Austin Kochenash 5.Chub
Steigerwalt 6.Doug Bell 7.Frankie Althouse 8.Mike VanFossen 9.Todd Geist
10.Geno Steigerwalt
Street Stock Feature
Finish, 25 Laps: 1.Todd Ahner 2.TJ Gursky 3.Justin Mooney 4.Devin Gibson
5.Jason Frey 6.Josh Mooney 7.Chris May 8.Zach Graver 9.Jillian Long 10.Jamie
Smith 11.Randy Ahner, Jr. 12.Kevin Smith 13.Kristy Arthofer 14.Steve Hoffman
15.Brian Labar 16.Pete Wayda 17.Matt May 18.Shawn Sitarchyk 19.Adam Santee
20.Eric Danyluk Did not qualify: Chris Smith
Pro4 Late Model Feature
Finish, 20 Laps: 1.Jeremy Miller 2.Gene Bowers 3.Dennis Silfies 4.Mike
Stofflet 5.Kris Gruber 6.Dave Chapman 7.Jake Kibler 8.Dave Freundt 9.Mike
Stringer 10.Kevin Graver, Jr.
Dirt Modified Feature
Finish, 20 Laps: 1.Steve Folk 2.Chad Jones 3.Randy Thomas 4.Tom Cremer
5.Dave Thomas 6.Tim Pitts 7.DJ Wagner 8.Bill Sitler 9.Don Hildebrandt 10.Joe
Stangle 11.Bill Briggs Did not start: Jeff Parker