Chad Brachman picks up $5000 in the Mod tour Michael’s memorial at Mercer Raceway. Adam Kekich goes 3 for 3 in 410 sprints; Randy Sterling wins 1st Mercer 305 sprint feature; Chas Wolbert (FASTRAK mods) and Mike Porterfield (mini stocks) also win.
By Jim Balentine
Mercer pa
Chad Brachman survived two multi car pile ups and challenges of Rex King Jr to pick up the second annual Michaels memorial at Michaels Mercer Raceway winning $5000 in the process.
New York State is now three for three in modified features at Mercer this season . Brachman started on the outside pole immediately took the lead but things were halted on lot number five for a multi car pile up involving at least nine cars coming out of turn number four. Once the carnage was cleared they went back to green and then another multi car pile up on the front straightaway took more cars out. The place to be was upfront as Rex King Jr and Jim Rasey were battling for second position behind Brachman who was opening up a big lead. Garrett Krummert who started 14th was already up in to the top four after all of the accidents challenging Rex King Jr. for second On lap number 30 Brachman the leader began to get into lapped traffic with five lap cars in front of him going down the back straight away as Brachman slid off the track a little bit and lost some momentum allowing king and Krummert to catch up but a caution came out allowing Brachman to have a clear track in front of him as he went on to win the second annual Michaels Memorial which paid $5000 to the Sanborn New York driver. King Jr with settle for second Krummert third Jim Rasey fourth and Brad Rapp was fifth.
“What a difference the track is from the last time we were here” said Brachman in victory lane..”i’ll take the dust over the rough any day..thank you to the race track for all the work In getting this race track better..I was thankful for that caution because of those lapped cars in front of me and I didn’t know if I could get around them..when I saw the double sticks (2 laps to go) I knew I had to hang in there for a little bit more.”
Adam Kekich has Mercer to his liking as he now has gone 3 for 3 in the last 3 410 sprint features at Mercer. Kekich from his pole starting spot was the man to beat as he again was on a rail encountering lapped traffic already on lap 4. Ken Rossey would bring out a yellow on lap 4 bunching up the field again. Dan Kuriger, Jeremy Kornbau, and Cody Bova would Chase Kekich around the speedway. An excellent battle between Brandon Spithaler and Jack Sodeman was taking place as they would swap 5th and 6th numerous times. Bova would then be showing sparks as his left rear rotor was glowing bright orange. As the laps ticked away a crash with 2 laps to go that involved Spithaler and Bova would set up what would be a wild finish. Spithaler would go in the pits to change a tire and as the field was coming to green Spithaler came out of the pits with a push truck behind and as the field was going full speed a caution had to be waved for the push truck still on the speedway and that resulted in the field bunched up and a nasty flip by Jack Sodeman jr in turn 2 brought out the red. Jack was ok after the incident. When the green came back out Kekich again took off and lapped up to 9th place and picked up the $2000 first place money.
Kekich said “We don’t want to see finishes like that but starting up front definitely helped..lapped traffic helped us tonight too and we are just out having fun out here. The car has been great and we got lucky with that pill draw tonight and we will see what happens next week to see if we can go 4 for 4. I just want to give thanks and glory to god tonight” Kuriger would finish 2nd, Bova 3rd, Gary Kreiss 4th and Leyton Wagner 5th.
In the FASTRAK modified feature Chas Wolbert who has multiple wins at other speedways picked up just his second career win at Mercer last time winning the first night ever for the crate modifieds at the speedway. Wolbert would start on the pole as 2 time and undefeated feature winner Eric Gabany would start 10th. Garrett Krummert, who has been on a tear this season also was battling Wolbert toward the end of the race but as the two were coming down side by side with two laps remaining Krummert got into a lap car directly in front of the two resulting in the lap car hitting the inside turn one fence and Krummert was sent to the tail for rough driving. Gabany would move up eight spots to finish 2nd, Preston Cope finished a career best third Jordan Ehrenberg was fourth and Brandon Ritchey was fifth.
Randy Sterling has been an infrequent competitor at Mercer in the 305 sprints over the years .. but last night he starting on the pole held off charges from Kyle Colwell and Greg Dobrosky to pick up his first ever Mercer checkered.
In the mini stock nightcap Mike Porterfield who started 10th picked up another exciting feature event defeating Pete Blaczak a 15 time winner By half a car length. Andy Thompson would finish third Phil king drove from 20th to finish fourth and DJ McRae ended up fifth.
Big Block Modified feature
- 3- Chad Brachman 2. 165- Rex King Jr. 3. 29-Garrett Krummert 4. 32- Jim Rasey 5. 11R-Brad Rapp 6. 7$-Paul Kot 7. 35-Steve Slater 8. 4-Greg Martin 9. 37MD-Jeremiah Shingledecker 10. 44V-Phil Vigneri 11. 66-J.R. McGinley 12. 32R-Chris Rudolph 13. 13-Rick Regalski 14. 03-Mark Frankhouser 15. 18-Eric Gabany 16. 65-Rex King Sr. 17. 15B-Dillon Barr 18. 64-Rodney Beltz 19. 61-Dave Murdick 20. 83T-Tom Glenn 21. 6F-Kyle Fink 22. 25B-Steve Barr 23. 3K-Adam Kozar 24. 55-Scott Kay 25. 27R-Dave Reges 26. 1X-Cory Riffe 27. 88-Shawn Fleeger-DNS 28. 00-Kevin Hoffman-DNS
Heat Winners: 65-Rex King Sr.; 61-Dave Murdick; 32-Jim Rasey
410 Sprint Feature
- 5K-Adam Kekich[1]; 2. 08-Dan Kuriger[5]; 3. 20B-Cody Bova[6]; 4. 55-Gary Kriess Jr[10]; 5. 38-Leyton Wagner[11]; 6. 34M-Mike Marano[2]; 7. 4J-Jacob Gamola[13]; 8. 19-Joe Kubiniec[12]; 9. 11X-George Englert[17]; 10. 36-John Trenca[14]; 11. 1L-Ivan Johnson[19]; 12. 27K-Jeremy Kornbau[4]; 13. 23JR-Jack Sodeman Jr[7]; 14. 22-Brandon Spithaler[8]; 15. G1-Mike Miller[9]; 16. 66-Ken Rossey[15]; 17. 23G-Justin Gurdack[18]; 18. 27-Zach Morrow[3]
Heat winners: 27-Zach Morrow; 5K-Adam Kekich
305 Sprints Feature
- 00S-Randy Sterling[1]; 2. 88-Greg Dobrosky[5]; 3. 27H-Kyle Colwell[4]; 4. 16-Jim Morris[3]; 5. 56-Steve Cousins[2]; 6. 4J-Jacob Gamola[10]; 7. 47-Brett Brunkenhofer[6]; 8. X7-Andy Cavanaugh[11]; 9. 110-Ed Snyder[8]; 10. 12G-Tommy Jasen[12]; 11. 34-Adam Noland[9]
Heat winners: 00S-Randy Sterling; 56-Steve Cousins
Mini Stock feature
- 23MP-Michael Porterfield[10]; 2. 77-Pete Blaczak[1]; 3. 5-Andy Thompson[4]; 4. 12-Phil King[24]; 5. 36PACK-DJ McCrae[6]; 6. 0-Carl Ealy[3]; 7. 15B-Shane Shook[2]; 8. 17J-Mike Salsgiver[7]; 9. 1-James Tasker[16]; 10. 7-Brad Gamble[15]; 11. 64-Summer Pitts[9]; 12. 31-Greg Marks[18]; 13. 0R-Randy Ealy[8]; 14. 16R-Jordan Reges[17]; 15. 47S-Steven Fedokovitz[26]; 16. 41-Tyler Beeler[11]; 17. 0B-Leonard Baker Jr[21]; 18. 24D-Kyle Donnelly[19]; 19. 77H-Cameron Hutchins[20]; 20. 9W-Davey Cox[14]; 21. 54-Tim Callahan[5]; 22. 10S-trevn schaffer[12]; 23. 7X-Justin Bailey[13]; 24. 999-Adam Aley[23]; 25. 9-William Aley[25]; 26. 27-Travis Shingledecker[22]
Heat winners: 54-Tim Callahan; 5-Andy Thompson; 23MP-Michael Porterfield
FASTRAK Modifieds
- RKR1-Chas Wolbert[1]; 2. 4S-Eric Gabany[10]; 3. 24-Preston Cope[4]; 4. JD57-jordan ehrenberg[2]; 5. 17-Brandon Ritchey[7]; 6. 5-Brian Sadler[3]; 7. 14-Jeff Schaffer Jr[9]; 8. 2-Cole Holden[11]; 9. 404-MIchael Kristyak[8]; 10. 11J-david kalb[14]; 11. 41-Brian Schaffer[13]; 12. 71-Gage Priester[12]; 13. 113-Don Cornelius[16]; 14. 33G-Todd Gabriel[17]; 15. 25L-Jordan Little[19]; 16. 10S-Garrett Krummert[5]; 17. 7P-Caden Petry[18]; 18. 11G-Nathen McDowell[6]; 19. 86-Shayne Izzo[15]
Heat winners: 4S-Eric Gabany; 10S-Garrett Krummert
- administrator on Aug 12, 2020
- Article Date: 8/12/2020