Sprint Car and Street Stock titles are up for grabs at Lernerville
Two division titles have been claimed, and two more will be decided tonight at Lernerville Speedway.
Last week, Alex Ferree won his second consecutive Late Model championship and Brian Swartzlander won his second straight, and sixth overall, V-8 Modified title.
Tonight the Sprint Car and Street Stock titles will be decided. Two-time defending champion Kevin Schaeffer has a solid, but not insurmountable, lead over Rod George and Bob Felmlee. Felmlee was injured at Lernerville two weeks ago and missed two feature races. As a result, Felmlee's points lead was wiped out.
Schaeffer leads George by 26 points and Felmlee by 28 points. The Street Stock race is a bit closer. Bob Egley leads Wayne Carbo by 14 points and Jason Fosnaught by 21 points. The most points a driver can score each night is 40.
“You hate to points race, but you know we've been struggling with the white car so we brought out the new one to try and get it dialed in, see if we can be a little better,” Felmlee said just before heading to the track two weeks ago.
Felmlee almost accomplished that, but right after the heat race a fuel problem emerged and caused a fire and Felmlee received some burns. He may be back at the track tonight with a slim shot at his second track championship.
“I'd love to win another one, especially here at Lernerville,” Felmlee said. “I said on the way down that next year we are not points racing anywhere. We are going to do some traveling to some big shows. I just want to go out and race and have fun, not worry about if one thing happens and what that will do to us. I have nothing to prove at this point. I have won my share of races.”
Schaeffer is looking forward to the opportunity to defend his championships and possibly win another tonight.
“It would be pretty neat to win three in a row,” Schaeffer said. “Just like last year, we tried to come down here and run up front. If you run well and do that the points will take care of themselves. You just have to get your car ready like you do every other night and come out and hope that nothing bad happens. After that, you go home and get ready for the next week.”
In last week's feature race, Schaeffer lost his driveshaft, but George did not capitalize as needed and finished ninth.
If Egley wins the Street Stock championship, it will be his first title at Lernerville. Even so, Egley is taking a very calm approach to things, especially with how crazy and competitive the division has become.
“I think luck plays a lot in this, a lot more than people realize,” Egley said. “I really try not to think about it, and you just try not to overlook anything because anything can happen, and it already has.”
Carbo echoed Egley's thoughts, and added a few more.
“You just have to let it go and hope that you can move past it when things happen on the track,” Carbo said. “A couple weeks ago we lost a tire and got up there to the gate at the last second, and they didn't let us back out on the track. I guess it all depends who you are at times. But the car has been great lately. We just have to stay clear of trouble.”
Jason Fosnaught finished second last season, and he was hoping this was his year to win his first championship. However, a disqualification might be all that stands between him and the title.
“Honestly, I thought I would be in front right now,” Fosnaught said. “With the disqualification we had, I figured it out that I would have been ahead by about 20 points. That's where we wanted to be heading into the last couple weeks of the season. That one feature was crazy — I got a flat tire, and Wayne got a flat tire. Then I watched Bob (Egley) spin out with about three or four laps to go.
“We've been doing the same thing all year,” Fosnaught added. “I think, though, the past few weeks we kind of got frantic with what happened and that kind of screwed us up. This past week we got back to normal and are using the same checklist we have had all year and just not putting any pressure on ourselves.”
Ferree's title means that he has now matched his father, Ed, for Late Model titles at Lernerville. Ed Ferree won the championship in 1985-86.
“Last year I had great, amazing unbelievable luck,” Ferree said. “This year I can't say I have had bad luck, I had some little things happen. I can't say it was bad luck. Let's say it was just no luck at all. On the surface it has been different, but if you look at the finishes I have been in the top two or three each week. I just don't have as many victories as I did last year.
“I have had a couple nights where I had flats, or got wrecked. But that's racing and you just have to expect that.”
Last season, Ferree won nine features and had 17 top-five finishes at Lernerville. Counting tonight, there will have been 17 features this season, and entering tonight, Ferree has 12 top-five finishes. Ferree attributes that difference to the level of competition.
“The competition is so much better this year,” Ferree said. “I think last year I could always get up there. Now, just to get up into the top-five is hard, and once you get there you have no guarantee that you can get up front.
“Last year I was in second looking at first; this year I am in the top-five looking at the leaders. Last year, if I started on the front row by Lap 5 I was looking at the rear of the field. This year at Lap 10 I'm looking at them.”
Swartzlander's sixth title puts him into some pretty rare company. Only three other drivers have won six titles in one division. Bob Wearing Sr. won six in Late Models, Lou Blaney won six in Sprint Cars and Joe Kelley won six in Pure Stocks. John Flinner and Lynn Geisler have both won five Late Model championships.
“We had hoped to be here, that's our goal every year,” Swartzlander said. “So far we have only had one DNF, and the car has been really good. I think the biggest thing is to finish races. I think we have been pretty consistent with that. Some nights when you start 12th it is pretty hard to pass. I think the car has been good here and at other tracks, but there are some things you can't control.
“Right now that is what we work for all year,” Swartzlander added. “Maybe you try not to think about it but after the season you just say ‘Wow, we had a really good season'. We had a really big lead until that DNF so we had to stay out of trouble. Our goal right now is to just win races.”
