McCandless Wins 1st Career 410 Sprint Feature
4 min read
By Jim Balentine
Mercer,Pa
8.21.21
As hot as it was outside Michaels Mercer Raceway was hot as well as four track champions were crowned as the winners weren’t determined until the last lap in 3 of the 4 features. Eric Gabany from Mercer with motor issues after last week completed one lap and secured his 1st career point title in the big block modifieds. Logan McCandless finished just high enough to win the Racesaver 305 sprint title by 4 points. Brian Schaffer with the feature win sewed up the FASTRAK modifieds as did Andy Thompson in the mini stock.
The 410 sprint feature had plenty of excitement as Landon Lalonde who picked up a 305 Sprint feature in 2017 lead the way in the feature event and was holding off the Mercer regulars until he clipped the inside guardrail in turn number one ending his night on the hook. Logan McCandless inherited the top spot and held off 18 time winner Jack Sodeman Jr for his 1st career 410 sprint win in his short career. “I didn’t think it could come this soon and when Landon hit the wall I was hoping I would stay away and I didn’t know where Jack (Sodeman) was but I ran my race and I figured he was coming but I didn’t know when he was so I kept racing my race.” Jack Sodeman Jr. finished 2nd, Darren Pifer 3rd, Mike Lutz jr 4th and Sterling Theiss 5th.
In the big block modifeds Brad Rapp won his 3rd career Mercer feature in a row finishing in 3rd place in the standings. Rapp would come from his 4th starting spot and held off 2nd place in points JR McGinley for the popular win. Eric Gabany is the 2021 track champion completing one lap with motor troubles to take the title. Brad said “we’ve been on a roll!!! the car is working good and we have good notes for the September race. We have a lot of BRP modified races coming up and we are getting faster and faster and I’m looking forward to these big money races.
Eric Gabany with the title win “I was just hoping we could make it one lap to secure the title and the right amount of cars showed up. This is awesome!! my family have been here for a long time I didn’t expect this!!”
Tommy Jasen did everything he could to win not only his 2nd career Racesaver 305 but the track championship. At the end he won the feature but lost the title by 4 points to McCandless. Jasen would take off from the pole and held off a daring last lap move from Jeremy Kornbau that brought out the yellow. Kornbau went to the pits and as the race restarted with a one lap shootout held off Jarrett Rosencrance to take his 2nd career win and 2nd of the season. “I have zero complaints!! it’s been an awesome year and I need to thank my crew. When I saw Kornbau coming under me I said Uh-oh but we did it.”
Division champ McCandless stated “I wanted to move forward but not wreck the car but if I had a place to pass I would have. This track championship is great to put on our racing resume.”
Brian Schaffer led from the pole in the FASTRAK modifieds going on to win his 3rd feature of the year and picked up his 2nd track championship in his young career after also winning in 2019. “We had some good racing this year and was competitive and it’s awesome to win in this 70th anniversary year!!”
Andy Thompson moved up 6 spots battling Randy Ealy and survived a near hit to the concrete wall to take his 3rd mini stock feature of 2021 and picked up his first track championship in his long career. “I love this class I love the competitors… these guys work hard for these cars and we put on a great show and these guys put their heart and soul into their cars..I have to thank Carl (Ealy) for letting me use his car to get me here tonight!”
305 Sprints feature
- 12G-Tommy Jasen[1]; 2. 25-Jarrett Rosencrance[2]; 3. 20M-Vivian Jones[6]; 4. 4J-Jacob Gamola[5]; 5. X7-Andy Cavanagh[3]; 6. 29-Logan McCandless[7]; 7. 56-Steve Cousins[8]; 8. 88-Greg Dobrosky[9]; 9. 27H-Kyle Colwell[11]; 10. 16-Jim Morris[10]; 11. 27K-Jeremy Kornbau[4]; 12. 4B-Walt TutaK Jr[12]
Big block modified feature
- 11R-Brad Rapp[4]; 2. 189-JR McGinley[3]; 3. 74-Kevin Green[2]; 4. 1X-Ryan riffe[1]; 5. 55-Scott Kay[6]; 6. 18X-eric gabany[5]; 7. (DNS) 56M-Jacob McElravy
Mini stock feature
- 5-Andy Thompson[7]; 2. 0R-Randy Ealy[5]; 3. 0-Carl Ealy[12]; 4. 19-Tyler Beeler[1]; 5. 54-Tim Callahan[3]; 6. 40C-Joe Campbell[9]; 7. 999-Adam Aley[4]; 8. 33-Brianna Parker[13]; 9. 68-MIke Shannon[10]; 10. 17M-charles mcclintock[17]; 11. 9-William Aley[6]; 12. 64-Summer Pitts[11]; 13. 16R-Jordan Reges[8]; 14. 22D-Chuck Davis[2]; 15. 325-Tom Swartz[15]; 16. 325Z-Zack Swartz[14]; 17. (DNS) 6-Mike Kelley
FASTRAK modified feature
- 41-Brian Schaffer[1]; 2. 14-Jeff Schaffer Jr[4]; 3. 717-Bill Adams[2]; 4. 7P-Caden Petry[3]; 5. 1G-Frank Guidace[12]; 6. 404-MIchael Kristyak[5]; 7. 71-Gage Priester[7]; 8. 01-Nathaniel Bale[9]; 9. 7-Scott Kay[6]; 10. 113-Don Cornelius[8]; 11. 25-Jolene Smith[10]; 12. 29A-Anthony Antus[11]
410 Sprint Feature
- 29-Logan McCandless[2]; 2. 23JR-Jack Sodeman Jr[3]; 3. 23-Darren Pifer[4]; 4. 86-Michael Lutz Jr[7]; 5. 1R-Sterling Theiss[6]; 6. 2L-Landon Lalonde[1]; 7. 32-Rod Jones[5
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