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Fab4 Fueled by Turner's Opening Night Race Report 4.15

King Bros. sweep Opening Night again
Jared Zimbardi returns beat Bowser and Flick
Corey McPherson rolls past Egley and Wearing for 25th win
 

Sarver, PA (April 15, 2016) Mother nature was a race fan for the Opening Night of Fab4 Fueled by Turners Premium Iced Teas Friday night under a clear sky and comfortable temperatures. And when the dust settled, Bradford, PAs Jared Zimbardi found himself in Dlubak Powder Coating Victory Lane with a convincing performance in a caution free Peoples Sprint feature while Russ King wasted no time in putting the Precise Late Model field to bed for his 10th career victory at Lernerville.  Keeping it in the family, Rex King Jr. managed to hold off a hard charging Erick Rudolph to collect the Diehl Modified feature and Corey McPherson picked up right where he left off in 2015 earning the Pic-A-Part Sportsman honors following an exciting battle with Bob Egley and Brandon Wearing for the greater part of 20 laps.

 

Peoples Natural Gas Sprint Cars

Having a great starting position may be a great thing, but it's only as good as a driver can keep a hungry pack behind him. Jared Zimbardi did that and more en route to the opening night win on Friday night. Zimbardi drew the outside pole and headed for the high side on the opening lap putting pole sitter Brent Matus behind him with relative ease.  Zimbardi then stretched out to a three second lead in the early laps while behind him 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, Carl Bowser looked to be headed home with a second place finish with a decent amount of distance between himself and Flick running third. The 2015 track champion then desperately tried to make up ground as he made for the bottom and began to erase the gap. By the time the white flag was displayed, Flick was in position to take the second spot on the podium 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. But the night belonged to Zimbardi who simply would not be caught and made it look easy in the win.

"We won down here a while ago, back in 2014, and we struggled in the 410's last year so we ran mostly 360 stuff and we changed chassis this year," Zimbardi said following his second career Lernerville victory. "I could go anywhere with the car and I watched a lot of youtube videos of Dale Blaney and watch the success he's had over the years here and I try to mimic that."

Top 10:

Jared Zimbardi
AJ Flick
Carl Bowser
Brent Matus
John Garvin Jr.
Jack Sodeman Jr.
Dan Kuriger
Brandon Matus
Scott Priester
Davey Jones

 

 

Precise Racing Products DIRTcar Late Models

It's a different year, with the same driver and same result as for the third year in a row, Russ King put his car in Dlubak Powder Coating Victory Lane on Opening Night. But on this night, King had to hold off a different opponent as Michael Lake made his presence known both in his heat and in the main event.  Lake and Kenny Schaltenbrand brought the field to the green flag and early on it was Lake who seemed destined for victory. The action came to a halt when perennial 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. Lake held on to take the second spot after King had crossed the finish line with a convincing win.

Top 10:

Russ King
Michael Lake
Michael Norris
Dave Hess Jr.
Mike Pegher Jr.
Alex Ferree
Matt Lux
Kenny Schaltenbrand
Charles Powell Jr.
Doug Glessner

 

 

Diehl Automotive DIRTcar Northeast Big Block Modifieds

Rex King Jr. has made a statement two races into the 2016 campaign with two wins against formidable competition. That statement probably reads something along the lines of a declaration that he has resumed the level of his capability that saw him win two track championships and a BRP Modified Tour championship in 2014.  King started up front and never looked back on Friday night as for the second race in a row, he kept Ransomville, New York native Erick Rudolph bay to go two for two on the young season; having won previously at Mercer Raceway Park.

Ironically enough, both drivers would comprise the front row in the main event as King  took the early lead.  And it was a battle of different grooves early on as King took up a residence on the top side of the speedway while 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 barely edge his car over the line ahead of Shingledecker's to take the final podium spot.

 

Top 10:

Rex King Jr.
Erick Rudolph
Kevin Bolland
Jeremiah Shingledecker
Mat Williamson
Randy Chrysler
Garrett Krummert
Brian Swartzlander
Eric Gabany
Dave Murdick

 

Millerstown Pic-A-Part DIRTcar Crate Sportsman

To say the Pic-A-Part Crate Sportsman feature was a bit caution marred would be an understatement on this night. To say that it didn't have its thrilling four wide battles for positions would be false. But no matter how anyone in attendance might have observed Friday night's Sportsman feature, they were left entertained by a field of cars that normally put on one of the best shows of the evening.

Corey McPherson has been the reason some fans have had more fun watching a battle for second place in recent seasons.  But on this night, the Three-Time and Defending Track Champion had his hands full and then some as Bob Egley threw everything but the kitchen sink at McPherson to keep him at bay.

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 and never looked back despite more cautions and restarts.

The Opening Night win was the 25th of Corey McPhersons career and was all captured by an LA Film Crew that has been profiling McPherson (and a handful of other drivers) this week with the intent to develop a pilot for a reality show that will be pitched to networks for consideration to become a weekly series.

 

Top 10:

Corey McPherson
Bob Egley
Brandon Wearing
Joey Zambotti
Tyler Dietz
Paul Schreckengost
Brett McDonald
Terry Young
Aaron Easler
Stan Riggle

 

 

Contact: Lernerville Speedway

Eric J. Westendorf, Public Relations Director

(724) 664-1075 / ewestendorf@tsmlernerville.com

Race Report provided courtesy of Gary Heeman / www.TheDirtNetwork.blogspot.com

Photos Courtesy of John Stivason/Stivason Photos

 

 

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