Raceway 7 Will Begin 2015 Season This Friday May 1

by Jay Pees

Conneaut, OH (April 28, 2015): Northeast Ohio’s premier clay speedplant will swing open its gates for the 2015 racing season Friday afternoon with Chief Starter Roger Osburn dropping the first green flag of the season promptly at 7:30 PM.

All five classes of racers will return to the track this summer headed up by the Evergreen Lake Park Campground Crate Late Models, this year running under the CARS sanction for the first time ever. CARS rules, including tire rules, are all available at the track website, www.raceway7.com. The CARS Crate Late Models race twenty lap features after setting the starting lineup through heat races. Defending champion Kyle Zimmerman is expected to defend his title against the area’s best Crate Late Model talent, including past champions Max Blair, Dennis Lunger, and Chad Wright.

The Bonnell Collision Center E-Mods will be back with a spirited battle to replace Champion Gary Eicher, who retired at the end of last season after a highly successful career that saw championships at several local speedways. Former champions Joel Watson and Percy McDonald are expected to be at the top of the list of contenders with veterans Dan McDonald, Bill Taylor, and Chuck Steinle Jr working to obstruct any repeating champions. Young guns Josh McDonald, Steve Samuelson, and Ed Wilson are looking to etch their names in the record books as well. The Bonnell Collision Center E-Mods compete in heats and twenty-lap features.

Chris Withers romped to another Campbell’s Mini-Storage Street Stocks championship last summer and is ready to contend for a repeat this season. Former champion Ed Bolyard will be fighting every lap of the season to prevent that. Jimmy Kennerknecht was close to winning last summer but was never quite able to break into the Winner’s Circle. The likable young Erie native is expected to change that this season and will be in contention every week. Shane Applebee’s drove to Victory Lane the last week of the 2014 season and is always a threat anytime he takes a green flag. Others looking to unseat Withers at the top of the heap would include Eric Reinwald, Kenny Lamp, and Matt Lozowski. The Campbell’s Mini-Storage Street Stocks run fifteen-lap features after qualifying through heat races.

Raceway 7’s youngest champion, Josh Ferry, took the Bonnell Auto Sales Economods by storm last summer and will be back to ward off all pretenders to the throne this summer. With a brand new racer, Ferry will be ready to defend his title against contenders Rick Prosser, a former Street Stock and E-Mod champion from twenty years past, young Devin Henry, son of a former Steel Block Late Model champion who improved every week last summer, veteran Lee Patrick, and young charger Kyle Fellows, another driver showing steady improvement. The fields for the fifteen lap Bonnell Auto Sales Economod features are set through six-lap heat races.

The Specialty Products Mini Stocks championship for 2014 was the closest of all the divisions with Dale Fraschetti defeating 2012 champion Bud Sergeff by only seventeen points. Both will be back this season but will also have to defend against 2013 champion Brad Cole, winner of the final 2014 feature, rising stars Hoyt Mihalak, Jason Easler, and Dylan Goodman, the veteran Carlos Aponte, and a host of others. Twelve-lap features cap off the evening for he he Specialty Products Mini Stocks after six-lap qualifying heat events.

Weather permitting, gates open every Friday at 5:30 PM with pill draw cut off at 7 PM and racing at 7:30 PM. VIP suites are available for rental for $250 a night which includes eight general admissions passes. Admission is set for $10 for adults for regular events, kids 7-14 are $5. Children 6 and under are free. Pit passes are $25. For more information please visitwww.raceway7.com or call the track on race day after 12 noon at 440-594-2222.