Raceway 7 Penn Ohio Cash Goes To Rusty Martz!

By Jay Pees

Conneaut, OH (June 5, 2015): The Homack Penn Ohio Pro Stock Series visited Raceway 7 with twenty-seven of the region’s best stock cars signing in to joust for the win in the Campbell’s Mini-Storage Street Stocks division. At the end of the night five drivers celebrated their first wins of the season at Raceway 7 with Rusty Martz capturing the Penn Ohio event then 2009 Evergreen Lake Park Campground Crate Late Models champion getting his first of the season, Justin Carlson getting his first Bonnell Collision Center E-Mods win in his first appearance of the season, Brad Blackshear getting his first-ever Raceway 7 win, and 2012 Specialty Products Mini Stocks champion Bud Sergeff collecting his first win of the season.

The evening began with a remembrance of Jackie Vogt, who passed away early in the morning after losing her battle with cancer. Jackie had been a track scorer for the past 22 years and will be missed by the entire racing family.

The Bonnell Auto Sales Economod feature was first in the line-up with Kyle Fellows starting on the pole position and Brad Blackshear outside. Caution flew when the pack reached turn two as James Myers wound up in the outside wall. On the restart Myers again failed to negotiate turn two, this time spinning into the infield. Yellow flew as the field finally completed the first lap with Blackshear leading Rick Prosser and Chuck Steinle Sr. Blackshear then led Prosser with the two opening a gap on third running Steinle until lap four when Myers again spun, relegating himself to the pit. At five laps complete Eric Reinwald had worked his way to the third spot but with six laps in Prosser, Josh Ferry, and Devin Henry got together and slid into the turn one wall. Ferry needed towed from the scene but Prosser and Henry were able to continue. Blackshear brought the field back to green with Reinwald second and Russ Kapalin third. By halfway Prosser had worked his way back to fourth with Fellows now fifth. The final laps were run without incident and the top five remained the same with Blackshear scoring his first-ever Raceway 7 feature.

The Homack Penn Ohio Pro Stock Series started 24 of the 27 entrants for the twenty lap finale for the Campbell’s Mini-Storage Street Stocks with Jackson Humanic and Rusty Martz on the front row. Martz jumped into the lead at the drop of the green with fourth staring Chris Schneider coming to second. At five laps into the event caution flew as defending track champion Chris Withers looped his mount in turn three. Martz led the field back to green but Randy Wyatt, Rob Bates, and Ed Bolyard piled up in turn four coming to green. On the next attempt to resume the event Humanic got back by Schneider but Leigh Wheeler spun in turn three, again slowing the event. At the end of one lap of green Martz led Schneider, Himanic, Mark Frontera, and Rusty Moore. At halfway the order remained the same but one lap past halfway Fuzzy Fields rode the front straight wall but kept going while an infield marking tire got moved onto the racing surface, forcing caution again to fly. Fields retired to the pit. At green Humanic again regained the runner-up spot. With five laps remaining Martz had a half lap advantage over Humanic with Schneider another three lengths back. Schneider closed the gap on Humanic with two laps to go then yellow flew for an unknown reason, closing the gap to the leader. The final two laps were all Martz, who opened his lead back to nearly half a straight in just the two laps. Humanic wound up second with Schneider third, Frontera fourth and last year’s winner Shaun Fawcett fifth.

Justin Carlson and Bill Taylor led the Bonnell Collision Center E-Mods to the green with Carlson taking the early lead but caution flew at the end of one lap when two-time winner Ken Zimmer came to a halt at the pit entrance. At the end of two laps Carlson led fourth starting Brent Rhebergen and eighth starting Joel Watson. As the cars came to the flag at the end of four laps Taylor suddenly slowed in a cloud of smoke, stacking up Chuck Steinle Jr and Paul Schreckengost with Josh McDonald spinning in the melee. Carlson then led Watson, Rhebergen, Dan McDonald, and Mike Potosky through lap nine but then Watson slowed and exited the event. Yellow flew at lap twelve for debris in turn four with Carlson now leading Rhebergen Dan McDonald, Potosky, and Steinle Jr. By lap fourteen Potosky had slipped back to seventh then spun in turn four, collecting Josh McDonald in the process. Under the caution Dan McDonald retired to the pit with a flat tire, returning before the wreck was cleared. With five laps remaining Steinle got by Rhebergen with Percy McDonald now fourth and Troy Johnson fifth. The order remained the same to the finish with Carlson picking up his first win of the season at Raceway 7.

Points leader Chad Wright started the Evergreen Lake Park Campground Crate Late Models feature on the pole with 2009 champion Dennis Lunger to his right. At green Lunger grabbed the lead with Wright, a four time winner this season, falling in line behind him. Fourth starting Khole Wanzer moved into third with defending champion Kyle Zimmerman fourth. Bob Pifer and Dave Lyon fought over fifth until Lyon slowed and headed pit-side at the halfway point. Zimmerman got by Wanzer at that point but Lunger and Wright were half a lap in front at that point. With five to go Lunger came to lapped traffic with Wright right behind. Half a lap behind were Zimmerman, Wanzer, Pifer, and Billy Henry. Heading into turn one with sixteen complete the lapped car of Chris Nicholson spun out in turn one, collecting Wright and eliminating Lunger’s huge lead. For the single file restart the top five were Lunger, Zimmerman, Wanzer, Henry, and Pifer. Lunger went on to the win, his first of the season at Raceway 7 with Zimmerman second, Wanzer third in an exemplary run, Henry fourth, and Pifer fifth.

The final event of the evening was the Specialty Products Mini Stocks feature with Mitch Stokes and Hoyt Mihalak on the front row. Stokes sailed into the lead at the drop of the green with Mihalak slowing to a stop on the back straight, slowing the event before the end of the first lap. On the restart Stokes again led with Carlos Aponte slowing to a stop in turn one and former champion Bud Sergeff pulling to the infield after caution had appeared. Sergeff rejoined the field before green was displayed. Again Stokes led the way with Sergeff second and Justin Boardman third at the end of one. Defending champion Dale Fraschetti was third at the end of two with points leader Brad Cole fifth. Sergeff got to the lead at the end of five laps with Fraschetti coming to second a lap later. At halfway the order was Sergeff, Fraschetti, Stokes, Cole, and Jason Easler. Sergeff went on to his first win of the season with Fraschetti second, then Stokes, Cole, and Easler.

Evergreen Lake Park Campground CARS Crate Late Models:

Heat 1: Chad Wright, Khole Wanzer, Dennis Lunger, Billy Henry, Chris Nicholson, Gary Winans, Breyton Santee

Heat 2: Dave Lyon, Kyle Zimmerman, Bryan Salisbury, Bob Pifer, Wendall Pinckney, Dave Airgood

Feature: Dennis Lunger, Kyle Zimmerman, Khole Wanzer, Billy Henry, Bob Pifer, Wendall Pinckney, Breyton Santee, Chad Wright, Bryan Salisbury, Darrell Bossard, Chris Nicholson, Dave Airgood, David Lyon

Bonnell Collision Center E-Mods:

Heat 1: Bill Taylor, Justin Carlson, Brent Rhebergen, Ken Zimmer, Percy McDonald, Alan Atkinson, Paul Schreckengost, Steve Samuelson

Heat 2: Dan McDonald, Joel Watson, Josh McDonald, Mike Potosky, Jesse Goild, Troy Johnson, Chuck Steinle

Feature: Justin Carlson, Chuck Steinle Jr, Brent Rhebergen, Percy McDonald, Troy Johnson, Ken Zimmer, Dan McDonald, Steve Samuelson, Alan Atkinson, Mike Potosky, Josh McDonald, Jesse Gould, Joel Watson, Bill Taylor, Paul Schreckengost

Campbell’s Mini-Storage Street Stocks:

Heat 1: Brandon Groters, Mark Frontera, Rob Bates, Fuzzy Fields, Randy Wyant, Rob Shook, Leigh Wheeler, Jesse Brock, Chris Hochschild

Heat 2: Shaun Hooks, Brian Rhed, Shaun Fawcett, Rusty Martz, Terry Wheeler, Bobby Heim, Mike Harmon, Bob Swartsmiller, Chris Withers

Heat 3: Chris Schneider, Joe Chamberlain, Jackson Humanic, Rusty Moore, Ed Bolyard, Tim Bish, Andy Buckley, Chris Haines, Dan McEwen

Feature: Rusty Martz, Jackson Humanic, Chris Schneider, Mark Frontera, Shaun Fawcett, Shaun Hooks, Tom Bish, Rob Shook, Chris Haines, Terry Wheeler, Chris Withers, Chris Hochschild, Randy Wyant, Bobby Heim, Jesse Brock, Ed Bolyard, Brian Rhed, Rusty Moore, Joe Chamberlain, Andy Buckley, Fuzzy Fields, Leigh Wheeler, Rob Bates, Brandon Groters, Mike Harmon (DNS), Bob Schwartzmiller (DNS), Dan McEwen (DNS)

Bonnell Auto Sales Economods:

Heat 1: Brad Blackshear, Chuck Steinle Sr, James Myers, Bob Bellinger, Josh Ferry (DNS)

Heat 2: Rick, Kyle Fellows, Devin Henry, Russ Kapalin, Eric Reinwald

Feature: Brad Blackshear, EricReinwald, Russ Kapalin, Rick Prosser, Kyle Fellows, Chuck Steinle Sr, Bob Bellinger, Devin Henry, Josh Ferry, James Myers

Specialty Products Mini Stocks:

Heat 1: Bud Sergeff, Jason Easler, Dale Fraschetti, Carlos Aponte, Brad Cole, Derrick Tuttle, Pat Drennan

Heat 2: Casey Harmon, Justin Boardman, Hoyt Mihalak, John Bulger, Scott Gill, Zoey Gill, Alex Forbes, Logan Keney

Feature: Bud Sergeff, Dale Fraschetti, Mitch Stokes, Brad Cole, Jason Easler, Casey Harmon, Scott Gill, Zoey Gill, John Bulger, Alex Forbes, Justin Boardman, Hoyt Mihalak, Carlos Aponte, Derrick Tuttle, Pat Drennan (DNS), Logan Keney (DNS)