Lynn Geisler of Cranberry won his 106th Lernerville Speedway Late Model feature race Friday night, and it's a good bet that not many were by a slimmer margin. Geisler took the checkered flag just 0.145 of a second in front of Sammy Stile of Charleroi.
The race was marred by eight cautions, which prevented anyone from getting into much of a groove, including the leaders.
"Those double-file restarts are tough," said Geisler, a four-time Lernerville Late Model champion. "You have to try and read what the track is doing and what the other guy is doing. If the start goes in your favor, that is good, but you never know what will happen late in the race."
Behind Stile in third was Dutch Davies of Warren, John Britsky of Indiana in fourth and Gary Lyle of Hyde Park in fifth.
The eight cautions seemed to be a continuation of what happened during the three Late Model heats when the yellow flag was the color of choice.
In the feature, Geisler started third behind South Park's Jared Miley on the pole and Davies in second. Next to Geisler on the start was Matt Lux of Franklin. Geisler and Lux battled early in the race, but it was on a restart with 11 laps completed that Lux bobbled and lost his shot at the victory.
With the lead, Lux chose an outside start, but it Turn 2 he went off the track and lost eight spots. That put Stile in the second spot. Stile and Geisler would battle the rest of the race for the victory. Even though Lux finished sixth, he maintains his second position in the points race.
"Lynn got the jump on me on that start and then I just missed it going into turn two," Lux said. "The mud got heavier as the race went on, and if I didn't back it into the turns I wasn't any good. This is the best I have run here in over a month. We went back to square one with the setup."
After Geisler took the lead, he led the next five laps until Stile made a move on lap 17. The final caution of the night came on lap 24, when John Flinner, who was running in the top five, went out with a flat tire.
That meant Geisler had to make one more solid restart before he could put Late Model victory number 106 in the books. Geisler is second all-time in Late Model victories behind Bob Wearing Sr., who has 117.
"The starts always look good because you are up front, but with two laps to go, nobody is going to give an inch," Geisler said. "That is what those benchmarks are for. If I have to be behind Bob Wearing Sr. I don't mind at all because he earned every one of those."
With all of the trouble the leaders had holding serve on the restarts, it was Davies that seemed to be in the best position to win.
"Oh, I wanted to be on the front row, but I needed more green-flag laps," Davies said. "I had harder tires tonight and I got better as the race went on. It was tough to get into a rhythm, but anytime you get a top-five finish here, it's a good thing."
Alex Ferree of Saxonburg charged into the top five from his 21st position at the start, but he went out on lap 17 with a flat tire.
Stile won last week at Lernerville for his first victory at the track, and even though he was second yesterday, he was pleased overall.
"My car was good either on the top or the bottom on the restarts," Stile said. "On the last one I thought I could beat him to the cushion, but he got me there. I could have used some more green flag laps."
In the Sprint Car feature, Ed Lynch Jr. of Apollo won his fourth feature of the season and 81st of his career at Lernerville. Kittanning's Kevin Schaeffer was second, followed by Carl Bowser of Sarver in third and Ralph Spithaler of Evans City in fifth. Gary Rankin of Renfrew rounded out the top five.
The Pure Stock feature included a frightening crash on the front straight, when Jason Fosnaught bumped the wall, which sent him hurdling down the straight. Fosnaught exited his car under his own power and appeared to be fine.
The feature was won by Greg Beach of Chicora. It was Beach's first victory since May of last season. Bobby Lipinski of Dorseyville was second, Butch Lambert of Mars was third, Wayne Carbo of Saxonburg was fourth and Nick Reges of Butler rounded out the top five.
Kevin Bolland of New Brighton started 21st in the V-8 Modified feature and forced his way to the front to win his 35th career feature at Lernerville. J.R. McGinley of Fairmount City pressured Bolland but could not get close enough to execute a pass and finished second.
