From Lernerville Speedway
Sarver, PA — (July 31, 2013) — The final month of Lernerville Speedway’s Fab Four Racing season is upon us and five Fast Fridays in August will determine the 2013 Budweiser Track Champions. Brandon Spithaler, Alex Ferree, Mat Williamson and AJ Flick enter the “Dog Days of Summer” as Bud Points leaders, but of the four, only Williamson enjoys a comfortable lead with five races remaining.
Williamson is the only driver in any division of Fab Four Racing having finished every race in the top five; having not yet finished worse than fourth in a feature in the Diehl Auto Group DIRTcar Northeast Modifieds. His four wins are second best only to Corey McPherson’s five this season. All Time Division wins leader and Seven-Time Track Champion Brian Swartzlander and Two-Time Track Champion Jeremiah Shingledecker are more than an entire night’s worth of points behind the Canadian Sensation, but won’t let the youngster cruise to the title. Dave Murdick, (a former Two-Time Track Champion in his own right), got the “first win of the season” monkey off his back and could be entering a hot streak to end the season as he has in years’ past. Murdick trails Shingledecker by 13 points.
The Peoples TWP DIRTcar Sprint division is now a four-car battle for the Track Championship as division wins leader Jack Sodeman Jr. is likely done for the season with fractured T3 and T4 vertebrae from a awkward flip and landing last Friday night during heat race competition. Brandon Spithaler retains the division lead over Brandon Matus, Eric Williams and Carl Bowser; holding 21, 22 and 33 points over his three rivals. Matus appeared to be on the way to his first feature win of the season last week before plowing into a lapped car that was stopped in turns one and two just seconds after retaking the lead from Carl Bowser in what was building to be an epic battle. Mike Lutz scored the win and could be a major factor in the McMillin 5M as the season draws to a close.
Former Three-Time Track Champion Alex Ferree lost the lead on a late race restart, but his runner-up finish in last Friday’s Precise Racing Products DIRTcar Late Model feature combined with incumbent Budweiser Points leader John Garvin Jr.’s flat tire vaulted him into the Budweiser Points lead by six markers. Last Friday’s feature winner and Defending Track Champion Jared Miley lurks just 13 points behind Ferree as he seeks a second straight Track Championship.
AJ Flick rode another podium finish to his biggest points lead of the season in the Millerstown Pic-A-Part DIRTcar Sportsman division as Defending Track Champion Corey McPherson suffered the same fate as Garvin; a late race flat tire. Flick and McPherson entered last Friday night tied in the points, but McPherson’s 16th place finish has wedged a 15-point gap between them with five races remaining on the schedule. Mike Miller scored his third win of the season and sits just one point behind third place and Seven-Time Track Champion Joe Kelley. Miller and Kelley are more than a full night’s worth of points behind second place McPherson.
Fab Four Racing will take a ride back into history next Friday, August 9 on Nostalgia Night. Organized annually by local racing media icon Don Gamble, Nostalgia Night serves as a racing family reunion each season recalling drivers and cars of days gone by for a look back at the rich, 40+ year history of Don Martin’s Lernerville Speedway. In addition to the return of the cars and stars of the past, the Hoffman family will memorialize husband and father Dave Hoffman, a member of the 2011 Lernerville Speedway Hall of Fame class, with the $1,700-to-win Dave Hoffman Memorial Late Model Race. Dave’s wife Mary, daughter Saundi and son Bobby will all participate in the unique pre-race festivities to honor and remember his 300 career wins; 19 of which came at Lernerville Speedway. Dave also won three consecutive Track Championships in the mid-70s and a fourth in 1991. The Hoffman family is adding an extra $300 to the winner’s share of the purse for his memorial race.