Two championship races were decided last Friday night at Lernerville Speedway.
The other two -- Sprint Cars and Street Stocks -- will be decided this Friday.
Alex Ferree in Late Models and Brian Swartzlander in V-8 Modifieds clinched championships.
Neither clinched in spectacular fashion, but at this point of the season, finishing races is more important than anything else, especially when you're running for points.
Ferree claimed his second consecutive championship. His father, Ed, also won back-to-back Late Model titles (1985 and '86).
Swartzlander's championship is his sixth at Lernerville. That puts him in rare company.
Swartzlander is just the fourth driver to win six championships in one division. The others are Bob Wearing Sr. in Late Models, Lou Blaney in Sprint Cars and Joe Kelley in Pure Stocks -- now called Street Stocks. Wearing Sr. and Blaney each have won nine Lernerville championships.
Kelley probably would have won his seventh title this season, but he was suspended from the track in late July. The four-week suspension for a post-race incident negated his huge points lead. With one night of points racing remaining, Kelley is in sixth-place.
If Kelley had won the championship, he would have been the only driver to win seven Lernerville titles in one division.
Heading into this Friday, Kevin Schaeffer has a 26-point lead over Rod George in the Sprint Car division, and in Street Stocks, Bob Egley has a 14-point lead over Wayne Carbo and a 21-point lead over Jason Fosnaught.
Schaeffer's and Egley's leads aren't insurmountable. The most points a driver can earn in one night are 40.
BRP Modified Tour
After more than a two-year absence, the BRP Modified Tour returned to Mercer Raceway Park on Saturday, and Russell King picked up his first Tour victory of the season and second overall.
The King family has won four consecutive BRP Modified Tour races at Mercer. Russell's father, Rex, won the previous three races.
Brian Swartzlander's good luck from Friday didn't carry over to Saturday. Swartzlander, who entered the night leading the BRP Modified Tour, retired from the race on Lap 7.
Things weren't much better for others in the top five, either.
Kevin Bolland, who was second in points, and Joe Crawford, who was fourth in points, had trouble in their heat races and didn't start the B-Main.
Dave Murdick finished second behind King. Lonny Riggs was third, Kevin Hoffman was fourth and Tommy Kristyak was fifth.
The next race for the BRP Modified Tour is Aug. 31 at Eriez Speedway in Hamot.
Kelley wins at Motordrome
Gregory Kelley of Connellsville, a two-time Motordrome Speedway Truck Division champion, claimed his first Super Late Model feature win at the track.
Kelley grabbed the lead on Lap 8 and led the rest of the way in the 40-lap feature.
In other action Friday at Motordrome, Adam Kostelnik won his eighth Modified feature, Jonathan Hileman won his fourth Street Stock feature, Tracy Kellor won his first feature this year in Chargers and Ed Dinneen won in American Flyers.
There were two Super Compact features. Matt Sever and Eugene Zerfoss took checkered flags in those races.
Hawley, Holtgraver shine
Jimmy Hawley returned to Victory Lane on Friday at Lernerville, and Danny Holtgraver picked up his first career win at Sharon.
Hawley, one of the area's top Sprint Car drivers of the late 1990s and early 2000s, snagged his first Lernerville victory since 2002. Hawley won Lernerville titles in 1998 and '99 and in 2001.
Holtgraver, who just returned to the seat of his Sprint Car after a nasty wreck and neck injury early this season, won Saturday. That was Holtgraver's third race since the injury.
Hawley wasn't as lucky Saturday at Sharon.
There were two Sprint Car features, and in the first, Hawley was involved in a wreck on the start, and his night was finished.
