By Aaron Fry
Indiana sprint car chauffeurs Isaac Chapple and Parker Frederickson swept both nights of the MPD Racing Buckeye Outlaw Sprint Series weekend in Pennsylvania. Willow Branch, Indiana’s Chapple had to reel in early race leaders Dallas Hewitt and Steve Drevicki to win at Lernerville Speedway on Friday night. One night later, it was Kokomo, Indiana’s Parker Frederickson scoring his first career BOSS win, leading all 25 laps and fending off a late charge by Ventura, California’s Ricky Lewis who earlier lowered the Pittsburgh PA Motor Speedway track record.
Twenty-three drivers signed in for Friday night’s show with Drevicki, Justin Owen and Chapple quick timing their groups during ARP Fasteners Qualifying. The youngster, Saban Bibent, claimed the win in TCB Speed heat 1 with Ricky Lewis scoring the win in Brave Breed Rescue heat 2. Dallas Hewitt held of Chapple to score the win in TheCushion.com heat 3.
Lewis and Drevecki started from the front row with Drevicki grabbing the early lead. Dallas Hewitt looked to go back-to-back and roared to the lead, but it was Chapple, starting fifth, who was not to be denied as he repeated his Lernerville win from a year ago. Drevecki and Hewitt held on for 2nd and third with Brian Ruhlman up 8 spots to finish 4th while Carmen Perigo completed the top 5. The rest of the top 10 were Jesse Vermillion, A.J. Flick, Saban Bibent, Ricky Lewis and Joey Amantea.
On to Pittburgh’s PA Motor Speedway, early afternoon showers left the racing outlook pretty grim. The rain subsided around 3 pm and the Miley family agreed to give racing a shot! In an effort rarely seen these days, the staff at PPMS put in a great effort to put on a show and reward the long tows by the BOSS race teams. With just a 90 minute late start, the program was pushed along, and the BOSS feature was done at roughly 11 pm.
Aaron Fry Photo
Seventeen BOSS sprint car drivers were willing the brave a very fast “Monster Half Mile”. The “very fast” part was proven early when Parker Frederickson quick timed heat number one with a new track record of 18.426 and an average speed of 122.110 mph. However, the record was short lived as three cars in group 2 went even quicker, led by Ricky Lewis, with an official new non wing track record of 17.669 and an average speed of 127.342 mph.
Frederickson would let it be known early that this was the only driver to run quicker lap times in his heat race than his qualifying run as he ran from 4th to first to win the heat. The second heat race was won by current tour point leader Isaac Chapple. In a rare 4 car redraw, it was heat winners Frederickson and Chapple on the front row of the main event.
At the drop of the green flag, Frederickson rocketed to the early lead as the seventeen starters roared into Pittsburgh’s wide first turn faster than any field of traditional sprint cars in history. The front half of the field was in the 18 second bracket in the early laps as the field began to stretch out, Fourth starting Chad Ruhlman showed speed early running second with Chapple, Perigo and Lewis completing the early top 5. Two yellows would plague the event. The first caution came on lap 17 when John Mollick stopped in turn 4. Ricky Lewis had battled his was to the runner-up spot over the 17 lap green flag run and appeared poised to battle Frederickson for which would get their first tour win.
On the restart, Lewis played his hand, and threw “all in” into turn one on the restart. However, Lewis did not yet know his right rear tire was deflating. In a scary second, Lewis masterfully kept his pushing mount from colliding with the leader, skated up the track and fell to fourth place. From that point, Frederickson appeared to be unchallenged. Then, a final caution 2 laps from the end for Joey Amantea shredding a tire, set up a 2-lap dash.
As it has been much of the last 2 seasons, Isaac Chapple was there at the finish, the final challenger to Frederickson’s dominant run. On this night, it was Parker Frederickson who refused to be denied his first ever tour win with Chapple 0.673 seconds behind at the line. Carmen Perigo represented the Pennsylvania contingent well by rounding out the podium. Ricky Lewis nursed his deflating right rear to a very respectable fourth place with Dustin Smith back in the locally owned Gagliardi car finishing fifth. Rounding out the top 10 were Chad Ruhlman, Justin Owen, Jesse Vermillion, Steve Irwin and Brian Ruhlman.
Next up for the BOSS tour is the Saturday, August 13th event at Fremont Speedway where the companion Ti22 Performance FAST On Dirt tour will join them once again. A week later, on August 20th, BOSS will make its return appearance at the always well prepared Wayne County Speedway near Orrville, Ohio.
BOX SCORE
Lernerville Speedway
Friday, July 22, 2022
ARP Fasteners Qualifying
Group 1: 1. 19-Steve Drevicki 15.764, 2. 21-Carmen Perigo 15.923, 3. 98-Saban Bibent 15.959, 4. 4jm-John Mollick 16.207, 5. 22-Brandon Spithaler 16.256, 6. 0-Steve Irwin 16.376, 7. 88j-Joey Amantea 16.439, 8. 49c-Chad Ruhlman 16.499
Group 2: 1. 4J-Justin Owen 15.783, 2. 34-Parker Frederickson 15.911, 3. 77-Dustin Smith 16.280, 4. 41-Ricky Lewis 16.506, 5. 73-Blake Vermillion 16.537, 6. 33-Jeremy Weaver 16.545, 7. 13-Brandon Matus 16.715, 8. 4K-Todd Burgard 18.182
Group 3: 1. 52-Isaac Chapple 15.857, 2. 2-A.J. Flick 16.090, 3. 18-Dallas Hewitt 16.482, 4. 5v-Jesse Vermillion 16.668, 5. 53-Steve Little 16.762, 6. 49-Brian Ruhlman 17.086, 7. 5m-Bob McMillin 17.617
TCB Speed – Heat 1: 1. 98-Bibent[2] ; 2. 21-Perigo[3] ; 3. 4jm-Mollick[1] ; 4. 19-Drevicki[4] ; 5. 49c-C.Ruhlman[8] ; 6. 0-Irwin[6] ; 7. 88j-Amantea[7] ; 8. 22-Spithaler[5]
Brave Breed Rescue – Heat 2: 1. 41-Lewis[1] ; 2. 34-Frederickson[3] ; 3. 77-Smith[2] ; 4. 4J-Owen[4] ; 5. 33-Weaver[6] ; 6. 73-B.Vermillion[5] ; 7. 13-Matus[7] ; 8. 4K-Burgard[8]
TheCushion.com – Heat 3: 1. 18-Hewitt[2] ; 2. 52-Chapple[4] ; 3. 2-Flick[3] ; 4. 49-B.Ruhlman[6] ; 5. 5v-J.Vermillion[1] ; 6. 5m-McMillin[7] ; 7. 53-Little[5]
MPD Racing – A Main: 1. 52-Chapple[5] ; 2. 19-Drevicki[2] ; 3. 18-Hewitt[4] ; 4. 49-B.Ruhlman[12] ; 5. 21-Perigo[7] ; 6. 5v-J.Vermillion[15] ; 7. 2-A.J. Flick[11] ; 8. 98-Bibent[3] ; 9. 41-Lewis[1] ; 10. 88j-Amantea[19] ; 11. 0-Irwin[16] ; 12. 77-Smith[10] ; 13. 34-Frederickson[8] ; 14. 53-Little[21] ; 15. 73-B.Vermillion[17] ; 16. 33-Weaver[14] ; 17. 5m-McMillin[18] ; 18. 4K-Burgard[23] ; 19. 22-Spithaler[22] ; 20. 49c-C.Ruhlman[13] ; 21. 4J-Owen[6] ; 22. 13-Matus[20] ; 23. 4jm-Mollick[9]
Hoosier Tire Bonus – Free Tire: 52 Chapple
Accu-Force Shock Dyno – Hard Charger: 5v-Vermillion
J&F Construction – Lucky Pill Draw: 98-Bibent
All Pro Cylinder Heads – Perseverance: 49-B.Ruhlman
Cowen Truck Line – Steel Block Bonus: 4K-Burgard
BOX SCORE
Pittsburgh’s PA Motor Speedway
Saturday, July 23, 2022
ARP Fasteners Qualifying
Group 1: 1. 34-Parker Frederickson 18.426, 2. 49c-Chad Ruhlman 18.630, 3. 77-Dustin Smith 18.709, 4. 0-Steve Irwin 18.733, 5. 4J-Justin Owen 18.776, 6. 53-Steve Little 18.849, 7. 49-Brian Ruhlman 18.930, 8. 73-Blake Vermillion 19.425, 9. 4jm-John Mollick 19.432
Group 2: 1. 41-Ricky Lewis 17.669, 2. 88j-Joey Amantea 17.918, 3. 52-Isaac Chapple 18.408, 4. 21-Carmen Perigo 18.630, 5. 5v-Jesse Vermillion 19.379, 6. 91x-Aaron Middaugh 19.894, 7. 5m-Bob McMillin 20.763, 8. 19-Steven Drevicki 25.485
TCB Speed – Heat 1: 1. 34-Frederickson[4] ; 2. 0-Irwin[1] ; 3. 77-Smith[2] ; 4. 49c-C.Ruhlman[3] ; 5. 4J-Owen[5] ; 6. 53-Little[6] ; 7. 49-B.Ruhlman[7] ; 8. 4jm-Mollick[9] ; 9. 73-B.Vermillion[8]
Brave Breed Rescue – Heat 2: 1. 41-Lewis[4] ; 2. 88j-Amantea[3] ; 3. 52-Chapple[2] ; 4. 21-Perigo[1] ; 5. 5v-J.Vermillion[5] ; 6. 91x-Middaugh[6] ; 7. 5m-McMillin[7] ; 8. 19-Drevicki[8]
MPD Racing – A Main: 1. 34-Frederickson[1] ; 2. 52-Chapple[2] ; 3. 21-Perigo[6] ; 4. 41-Lewis[3] ; 5. 77-Smith[7] ; 6. 49c-C.Ruhlman[4] ; 7. 4J-Owen[9] ; 8. 5v-J.Vermillion[10] ; 9. 0-Irwin[5] ; 10. 49-B.Ruhlman[13] ; 11. 73-B.Vermillion[17] ; 12. 88j-Amantea[8] ; 13. 5m-McMillin[14] ; 14. 4jm-Mollick[15] ; 15. 91x-Middaugh[12] ; 16. 53-Little[11] ; 17. 19-Drevicki[16]
Hoosier Race Tire – Free Tire: Parker Frederickson
Accu-Force Shock Dyno – Hard Charger: Blake Vermillion
J & F Construction – Lucky Pill Draw: Steve Little
All Pro Cylinder Heads – Perseverance: Aaron Middaugh
Elizabeth Gardner Photography – Hard Luck: Joey Amantea