King Jr Conquers Mercer Chiller Thriller

By Jim Balentine
(Mercer,Pa)
Under a beautiful blue sky with temperatures nearing 70° Michaels Mercer raceway opened it’s Historic 70th anniversary season with the annual running of the chiller thriller while a jam packed crowd took in the evening.
Rex King Jr picked up his fourth BRP modified tour chiller thriller in a row, Garrett krummert was victorious in the FASTRAK limited modifieds for the 11th time, also three first time winners in Dave Shagla jr pro stocks and first career wins for Logan McCandless 305 sprints and Carl Ealy mini stocks.
27 BRP big block modifieds came to do battle on the tricky 3/8 mile bent egg oval with much attrition during the heat races. all but two cars were able to start the feature that put Rex King Jr on the outside pole. after multiple restarts king jr. led the entire way but was hounded by Garrett Krummert for the entire race with Krummert showing his nose under king several times. king was able to hold off Krummert at the end of the 35 lap feature. The New York state contingent finished 3-5th with Justin Haers third, Chad Brachmann fourth and Erick Rudolph fifth up from the rear after an early tangle.
King Jr said “I’m very fortunate to have a race track that stays around for so many years. I couldn’t hear Krummert or see the scoreboard and I knew him and the New York guys were tough but we had just enough to be where we were tonight! I’m surrounded by great people let’s get back to the good stuff”
Second generation driver Logan McCandless who has only been racing for a few years in the 305 sprints put it all together and led flag to flag in the racesaver 305 sprint feature. Jeremy Kornbau hounded Logan the entire race but could not get around him and ended up in second place. Jake Gomola moved up 4 spots to finish 3rd, Steve Cousins 4th and Kyle Colwell 5th. Logan said “It feels great!!! I can’t thank everybody enough…car held up great and we put on a great show”
In the pro stock main event an exciting contest occurred when Jamie Duncan, who has never won at Mercer, took the early lead but then suffered a small fire under the car to bring out the red flag. he was able to restart at the tail. that put Jamie Barber into the lead who won last year’s little guy nationals but Barber got tangled up with a lap car in turn 4 putting him to the tail as well!!! That put second generation driver Dave Shagla jr in the lead and went on to win his first career Mercer feature. Jimmy Kennerknecht moved up 5 spots to finish 2nd and challenged Shagla in the remaining laps. Chris Withers was 3rd, Jamie Colwell 4th and Ray Gregory 5th.
Garrett Krummert redeemed himself after his 2nd place big block finish by dominating the FASTRAK modified feature leading flag to flag. Chas Wolbert and Brian Schaffer swapped 2nd and 3rd place back and forth and Wolbert went on to finish 2nd, Shaffer was 3rd, Justin Shea 4th and Jordan ehrenberg 5th.
The mighty Mercer mini stocks started with 27 cars that was whittled down to 10 running at the end. Carl Ealy and newcomer Greg Kiehl started on the front row with Kiehl taking control at the start but Ealy was not going away as multiple cautions kept bunching up the field. Ealy overtook Kiehl and took the lead. At halfway a caution came out and then on the restart both cars bumped and banged into turn one with Kiehl back in the lead. Ealy got the lead back as they were going into turn 3 and Kiehl broke on the white flag lap. Ealy went on to pick up his first career win in the shortened 10 lap affair. Jacob Wheeler was impressive coming from 21st place to 2nd, Leonard Baker Jr up six to 3rd, Mike Porterfield 4th and Trevn Schaffer up 17 positions to 5th.
The management of Michaels Mercer raceway would like to thank all the fans, drivers and crews for coming for a successful opening night! Mercer will stay dark until Saturday, April 24 when we will be back in action with our regular 4 divisions plus the 410 sprints.
For more information on Mercer please visit our Facebook page or our website at www.Michaelsmercerracewaydotcom. You can also contact the track at 724-662-1310 or on Facebook messenger.
BRP Big Block Modified tour feature

1. 65- Rex King Jr. 2. 29-Garrett Krummert 3. 3H-Justin Haers 4. 3B-Chad Brachmann 5. 25-Erick Rudolph 6. 65-Rex King Sr. 7. 61-Dave Murdick 8. 13-Rick Regalski 9. 4-Greg Martin 10. 6F-Kyle Fink 11. 18-Eric Gabany 12. 11R-Brad Rapp 13. 83T-Tom Glenn 14. 03-Mark Frankhouser 15. 25B-Steve Barr 16. 3K-Shawn Kosar 17. 58M-Marshall Hurd 18. 11J-James Sweetung 19. 32-Jim Rasey 20. 817-John Venuto 21. 7s-Paul Kot 22. 37MD-Jeremiah Shingledecker 23. 41Tony Pangrazio 24. 5-Brian Sadler 25. 00-Curt Bish Jr. 26. 64-Rodney Beltz 27. 47-Gale Ruth Sr. 28. 74-Kevin Green-DNS 29. 35-Steve Slater-DNS
   Heat winners 3H-Justin Haers, 29-Garrett Krummert, 61-Dave Murdick
   305 Sprints A Feature
2. 29-Logan McCandless[1]; 2. 27K-Jeremy Kornbau[3]; 3. 4J-Jacob Gamola[7]; 4. 56-Steve Cousins[2]; 5. 27H-Kyle Colwell[4]; 6. X7-Andy Cavanagh[5]; 7. 12G-Thomas Jasen Jr[11]; 8. 10-John Hartman[10]; 9. 47-Brett Brunkenhofer[6]; 10. 25-Jarrett Rosencrance[8]; 11. 11B-Don Blaney[12]; 12. 4G-Justin Kovack[9]; 13. 72-Mike Mathieson[13]
   Heat winners 29-logan mccandless, 56-Steve Cousins
   Mini stocks A feature
3. 0-Carl Ealy[1]; 2. 44-Jacob Wheeler[23]; 3. S0B-Leonard Baker Jr[9]; 4. 23MP-Michael Porterfield[4]; 5. 10S-trevn schaffer[22]; 6. 0R-Randy Ealy[5]; 7. 77-Braden Bice[14]; 8. 27-Patrick Lane[10]; 9. 64-Summer Pitts[17]; 10. 14M-Sean Murphy[20]; 11. 13K-Greg Kiehl[2]; 12. 223-Cameron Lambert[16]; 13. 36PACK-DJ MacRae[19]; 14. 26JR-Mike Tyler[15]; 15. 36M-Josh Holzwarth[7]; 16. 33-Brianna Parker[26]; 17. 83-Russell Boyle[11]; 18. 48-Jordan Wheeler[8]; 19. 88-Kyle Janase[6]; 20. 84-Tyler Kirk[18]; 21. 10X-Jonathan Mast[3]; 22. 999-Adam Aley[12]; 23. 54-Tim Callahan[28]; 24. 8BALLH-William Haylett[29]; 25. 47-Erik Johnson[24]; 26. 823-Hunter Johnson[25]; 27. C04-David Seibert[27]; 28. 84S-Brayden Seippel[13]; 29. 60-Dillon Thorne[21]
   Heat winners 0-Carl Ealy; 13K-Greg Kiehl 10X-Jonathan Mast
   FASTRAK Limited Modified A Feature
4. 10S-Garrett Krummert[1]; 2. C3-Chas Wolbert[4]; 3. 41-Brian Schaffer[2]; 4. 14S-Justin Shea[3]; 5. JD57-jordan ehrenberg[5]; 6. 5C-Ayden Cipriano[7]; 7. 24-Preston Cope[8]; 8. 63-Jessica Kriegisch[6]; 9. 7P-Caden Petry[11]; 10. 113-Don Cornelius[10]; 11. 571-Josh Errenburg[12]; 12. 55R-Clayton Deems[9]
   Heat winners
5. 10S-Garrett Krummert; 41-Brian Schaffer
   Pro Stocks A Feature
6. 6-Dave Shagla[3]; 2. 18K-Jim Kennerknecht[7]; 3. 21W-Chris Withers[5]; 4. 54J-Jamie Colwell[4]; 5. 82R-Ray Gregory[8]; 6. 1M-Gary Miller[13]; 7. 1776-Jamie Barber[2]; 8. 983-Zachary Gustafson[14]; 9. 54E-Tony Iarrapino[11]; 10. 71-Mike Anderson Sr[15]; 11. 72A-Mike Anderson[9]; 12. 20J-Jim Fosnaught[6]; 13. 97-Tony Bruno[10]; 14. 67J-Jamie Duncan[1]; 15. 11B-Tim Bish[12]
   Heat winners 67J-Jamie Duncan; 1776-Jamie Barber

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Kyle Jones

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