Lee Wins First Super Late Model Race At Mercer Since 2017

By Jim Balentine

(Mercer, Pa)

With warm weather and rain all around, Michaels Mercer raceway presented by Sunbelt rentals was able to complete its first show in the 74th anniversary season with the annual “chiller thriller” in front of a large crowd and large car count. John Lee was able to capture the $3000 to win super late model feature, Todd English won his first Mercer dirt 602 crate sportsman feature; Joey Zambotti picked up his first pro stock Mercer feature; Andy Thompson recorded his 21st career mini stock win; and Jeremy Kornbau and Jarrett Rosencrance won the special racesaver 305 Sprint dashes.

With the super late models, unable to have run a race at Mercer since 2017, Every driver was on an even playing field with a large number of former track champions and feature winners around the area in the pit area. 17 late models signed in to do battle for $3000 Tyler Dietz and youngster Brock Pinkerous would lead the field to green at the start of the 25 lapper. Dietz would take the lead and held off Pinkerous lap after lap. Behind the two a battle between Alex Feree, JR Gentry and John Lee would ensue keeping the fans on the edge of their seats. The 2 leaders would continue battling for the lead with slide jobs throughout the first half of the race. John Lee would get around both Gentry and Feree set his sights on the 2 leaders. Pinkerous would fade high in turn 4 allowing Lee to get around him for 2nd. Lee would then get around Deitz and go on to win the $3000 to win feature by over three seconds. Deitz would end up second , Feree would get around Pinkerous for third, and Gentry would end up 5th. Lee would say “I was wide open the whole way!! I never dreamt this would happen.. we were fighting a bad miss all night and it slicked off where you didn’t need a big motor.. we almost packed it up and call it a night… I love this track I wish you would run us every week!!! We tried to fix everything on it but we won so we may just leave everything alone on it.

With the limited number of race saver 305 sprints on hand a meeting was held to run one heat and two dashes. Former track champion, Jeremy Kornbau and Jarrett Rosencrance would pick up the dash wins.

The DIRT 602 sportsman division would have Logan Lockhart and Pat Lane on the front row of the field. Todd English from his 2nd row would battle Lockhart from the start and would overtake him on lap 2 while Lane would drop out. Brian Schaffer and Karston King would follow in 3rd and 4th. English would increase his lead over the field and would win the 6 minute feature by 2.9 seconds. Lockhart, Schaffer, King and Billy Adam’s would round out the top 5. A joyous English would say “Logan is fast and spent a lot of time in Florida racing ..we are teammates in the shop and thanks to Russ King for making this happen!! We rent the car and it’s a great thing. We have been messing around with this class for 2-3 years and this year we are taking it serology and trying to win as many features as we can.”

The 20 lap pro stock feature turn out to be a survival of the fittest as many cars were involved in wrecks and dropouts. Josh Sieppel and Chris Withers would lead the field to the green flag. But 2nd row starter Chris Schneider would get around both coming out of turn 2 to take the lead. Joey Zambotti would then get around Withers for 3rd before another yellow slowed the field. Schneider would again keep the lead but then Paul Davis would come up and run in 4th in the outside lane passing Withers. After more cautions Zambotti would get around Sieppel and run door to door with Schneider while Andrew Hammond would slide up into 4th past Davis and then drive around Sieppel for 3rd. Zambotti on a restart would take the lead while Schneider would hound him lap after lap but it was to no avail as Zambotti would hold off Schneider for the win while Davis would get around Hammond for 4th. Chase Lambert would be 5th. Zambotti would say “those late restart are killing me I kept seeing Schneider nose and it was a little scary. He’s the best in Stock cars I’ve seen .. hats off to him he’s a great dude on and off the track! when you can race someone that clean it’s great but you couldn’t take any chances with him right there.”

In the 15 lap mini stock feature Devin Haley would lead from the green with Carl Ealy 2nd, Andy Thompson 3rd with newcomer Matt Knight 4th. Both Ealy and Thompson would keep Haley within their sight but could not overtake him.

After a late caution bunched up the field again Haley and Ealy would tangle with 2 laps to go and kept going but Thompson would get around both of them to take his 21st win. Matt Knight would take 2nd, Haley hung on for 3rd,Chaz Smith 4th and Ealy 5th. Thompson would say, “ it wasn’t my race to win but I had a fast car but things happen… but I’ve had them taken away from me before so I will take it !! The class has come a long way and it’s great to be here.”

Super LM Feature 25 Laps

1. 5L-Jon Lee; 2. 00-Tyler Dietz; 3. 1C-Alex Ferree; 4. 555-Brock Pinkerous; 5. 14-JR Gentry; 6. 03-Doug Eck; 7. 13X-Ken Schaffer; 8. 81-Mike Miller; 9. 33-Josh Ferry; 10. 02-Ben Easler; 11. 9-Levi Yetter; 12. 225-Bud Watson; 13. 25BAD-Tyler Allison; 14. 14R-Clay Ruffo; 24-Tyler Wyant-DNS; 10R- Raven Fuller-DNS; 6-Matt Martin-DNS

Racesaver 305 Sprints:

Dash winners:

Jeremy Kornbau; Jarrett Rosencrance

602 Crate Sportsman

Feature

1. 7 11-Todd English; 2. 58-Logen Lockhart; 3. 41-Brian Schaffer; 4. 165K-Karston King; 5. 717-Bill Adams; 6. 7P-Caden Petry; 7. 10-Darin Gallagher; 8. 28J-Jacob Jordan; 9. 119-Joe Gibson; 10. 51R-Thomas Rogers; 11. 404-Gary R Smoker; 12. 12L-Patrick Lane; 13. (DNS) 113-Parker Cornelius

Pro stocks 18 Entries

Heat Winners: Josh Sieppel; Joey Zambotti

Feature

1. 948-Joey Zambotti III; 2. 55-Chris Schneider; 3. 3-Paul Davis; 4. 68-Andrew Hammond; 5. 22-Chase Lambert; 6. 84S-Josh Seippel; 7. 1M-Gary Miller; 8. 61M-Charlie McMillen; 9. 965-Andy Buckley; 10. 55C-Brandon Conner; 11. 21W-Chris Withers; 12. 25-Jason Fosnaught; 13. 8C-Russ Coyne; 14. 20J-Hayden Fosnaught; 15. (DNS) 11-David Airgood Jr; 16. (DNS) 1K-Cody Koteles; 17. (DNS) 19T-Troy Norman; 18. (DNS) 51-Brandon porter

Mini Stocks

Heat winners: Corey Bice; Andy Thompson; Tim Callahan

Feature1. 5-Andy Thompson; 2. 71-Matt Knight; 3. 02-Devin Haley; 4. 13S-Chaz Smith; 5. 0-Carl Ealy; 6. 22-Eddie Lombardo; 7. 8-Don Whiteside]; 8. 9R-Ben Aley; 9. 1-Ben Lehane; 10. 45-Andrew Thompson; 11. 38-Randy Ealy; 12. 63-Russell Boyle; 13. 29-Mike McCool; 14. 007-William Kephart; 15. 54-Tim Callahan; 16. 6-Mike Kelley; 17. 10S-Trevn Schaffer; 18. 842-Brayden Seippel; 19. 02X-Corey Bice; 20. 23-Brett Hanley; 21. 79-John McCraken; 22. 626-Benton Wriglesworth

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